We’ve discussed in other articles the decision to be made on whether you should pay up for that thousand dollar mic right out the gate or the pack of sound dampening foam for a couple hundred. So in this article, we’ll offer you a considerably more affordable option that can more confidently be included in your starting budget.
But you may ask why it is that you should even bother with the effort of handcrafting your own sound panels rather than buying a pack off the internet. Well the simple answer is that you certainly can find a reliable brand and purchase a more than useful set without a single drop of sweat.
The question, however, is whether you want to spend the money on a large brand. If you have the budget and dedication to do so, then go right ahead. If, on the other hand, you want to start out with something less damaging to your wallet, the cheaper options might trick you with their low prices, disappointing you when they don’t work as well as you had hoped.
Deciding instead to make the panels yourself provides you with an affordable and effective option to improve your sound quality without having to bury yourself in spare blankets.
When converting your garage or spare closet into a real recording booth, a fantastic way to sound treat the space is to fill it with sound panels of your own making. In this article, we’ll list the components we used and the steps we took in order to construct these home-made sound panels.
(OOA: Could include in intro or outro reasons why making your own panels is beneficial. Fill out word count)
Components
- (insulation)
- (cloth)
- (hooks)
- (glue)
- (polyurethane)
- (wall mounts)
Both the list above and the steps taken below are based on our own construction of said panels. Should your space require it, feel free to change up the measurements and specific brands as needed.
Steps
Hardening the Edges
(pic of 1st step)
For this first step, you’re going to want to take some time hardening the edges of the insulation foam by coating them in a layer of polyurethane. Make sure that these edges and corners receive a thick coating so that the foam will be able to withstand the next steps. You certainly don’t want the bulk of your panel falling apart during the construction.
This step is overall fairly simple and shouldn’t take you more than an afternoon depending on how many panels you’re using to fill your space and whether or not you have a helping hand.
Once you’ve completed coating all of the edges and corners, leave the panels somewhere to dry for about 24 hours. After this, the edges should be sturdy enough to wrap the fabric over.
Cutting the Fabric
(pic of 2nd step)
For this step, you’re gonna need to break out your tape measurer. For the sake of efficiency, you can go ahead and start on this step while the polyurethane is still drying on your insulation.
Take out your fabric and measure a section large enough to wrap around the edges of your insulation. For our purposes, we cut sections of cloth (OOA: get dimensions of cloth sections).
Once you’ve got your sections of cloth cut out, we’ll wait until your insulation is nice and dry before moving on.
Gluing the Fabric
(pic of 3rd step)
Once you’ve got your fabric cut and your insulation edges coated and dried, you can finally move on to wrapping the fabric around the insulation and gluing it in place.
For this, we used a combination of spray glue and liquid fabric glue (OOA: could insert specific brands and provide affiliate links?). Whichever glue works best for your purposes, you’ll want to put a generous amount on each edge of the insulation and press the fabric down as flat as possible. Then, hold down the fabric for a few seconds to a minute to make sure it stays in place.
During this wrapping stage, you may need to cut pieces of the fabric away from the corners in order to make it fit more securely.
Do this for each edge on each insulation panel and allow them to sit and dry for another 24 hours. After this, you may want to go back and apply another helping of glue to the corners of the fabric just to make sure that they don’t come undone.
Once all of the glue is dry, well done, your handmade panels are complete and ready to be hung into the walls of your recording space.
Hanging the Panels
(pic of 4th step)
This last step is pretty simple. All it really takes is putting the wall mounts in the right position on your walls, drilling them in, and pressing the backs of the panels on.
It should be noted that if you have enough panels to cover every inch of wall and ceiling, then go right ahead. If you don’t have the budget for that many panels, however, then it is actually best to spread them out as evenly as possible throughout the space. It’s ok to leave gaps between the panels and this way is actually better for the sound than if you were to jam all the panels onto one spot and have massive sections of exposed wall.
So when it comes to how to arrange the panels, that’s pretty much up to the dealer’s choice. Go with whatever arrangement you want! On our end, we put up the panels as level as possible, screwed in the mounts, and slid them right on, perfectly secure.
(take and insert pic of hanging panels)
Congratulations! You’ve successfully constructed and arranged your very own sound panels.
In this article, you’ve been given a great list of products from some wonderful providers. With those ingredients, we should you the process we followed on how to turn that insulation foam and fabric into some quality sound panels and we’ve shown you how to put those panels up in your very own recording space.
With all of those steps, you should be more than capable of creating your own private recording space from the comfort of your home. You’re well on your way to becoming the superior voiceover artist you want to be!