by Studio Support Gnome » Sun Jun 15, 2014 5:03 pm
Work involved….
finishing all the outstanding panels,
making 4 double sided diffusion/absorption Gobos, (from scratch with MDF and timber facings on the reflective side…. not just buying in skylines and gluing them on…. )
building a cloud , with lighting, and getting it hung centrally and flat in a room which makes such things "difficult"
fitting all the new panels,
correctly repositioning and re-fitting some of the old panels,
cutting and fitting mineral wool in-filling behind corner traps to make "super chunk" style devices….
and delivering a heap of advice and guidance for future progress in using the room…..
My only really sniffy complaints about the whole project are the choice of "cost effective" coarse hessian / sack cloth as a covering material (except the cloud, for which i donated enough Cara of suitable colour to do a proper job) .and some of the misinterpreted application of misinformation about paper facings and positioning…. the internet has a lot to answer for sometimes…. ss
Acoustically it works fine, but it is FUGLY , i mean, seriously, seriously horrid, proper nasty, …… and it's not fire rated….. it is also much MUCH harder to work with to achieve my usual high standards of fit and finish on panels……
it tears easily, it does not stretch a lot in 2 dimensions, is much harder to tension, it punctures easily on sharp corners…. and it frays easily…. so staple fixings need to be frequent and hammered home to be sure….
and…. it's not THAT much cheaper ….. especially when you realise, that for a single 1240x640x150 panel, you have to use about 1.6metres of hessian for a "front & sides only" covering…. and only 950mm of Cara,
the difference is due to the fabric roll width….. Cara comes in a 1.7m wide roll, so can accommodate the entire panel length across the width of the fabric….. the Sackcloth is only about a metre or so wide…. so you must use the length of the panel, along the length of the fabric….
Total time to complete…. 4 days . + 1 day travel (to be fair, it's nigh on 300 miles each way )
to keep costs down , Stayed with "helmut" and family , charming hosts, and very glad i could bring this project to completion and allow the man to get on and actually make music in it instead of stressing about how the hell he'd get it finished….
Now available for consultations and audio engineering jobs . Also guitar tech work , and “rent-a-shredder” sessions . Oxfordshire based but can and will travel . Email maxtech.audio@me.com