Making Acoustic Panels
After a long time of delaying, I’ve finally built my own sound panels. Let’s talk about why you might need a sound panel, different materials, and ways to save some money by making these yourself.
It’s taken me a long time to finally make my own sound panels and this has been for a wide range of reasons but the main 2 have been costs and getting stuck in the research phase of sourcing safe insulation that wouldn’t cause any health concerns.
First of all, there is nothing economical about sound panels and they are definitely a luxury item to have but depending on your needs might be something you definitely want to add to your studio. I wanted panels just to clean up some of the reflections in my studio to get cleaner recordings of vocals and live instrumentation. I also do a lot of talking head videos and while it’s not super difficult with today’s technology to remove room noise, it’s also nice to front some of that work with proper acoustics and less audio processing.
Soundproofing vs Sound Absorption
An important note of the distinction between sound absorption and sound proofing.
Sound absorption is intended to reduce reflection of sound waves off of surfaces whereas sound proofing is completing sealing off a space from any external sound leaking which helps not only keep outside noise out but also keeps your noise in which can reduce nuisances to your neighbors.
Adding sound absorption to a room can definitely reduce the amount of sound that leaves the room but it’s not the same thing as fully sound proofing.
You can in theory have a metal box which on the outside is fully soundproof but on the inside is solid metal walls which absorb no sound and cause massive reflection.
This article is only about sound absorption.
I’m not in a very large room and it’s also carpeted and has a futon and pretty thick curtains all around so there isn’t any egregious reflection issues in the first place however if you find yourself to be in a larger space with a lot of hard surfaces then you will find that the sound reverberates much more significantly so adding in some sound absorption to reduce those reflections will be essential, especially if you want to do accurate mixing work on your monitors.
Now let’s quickly cover one of the most technical considerations of sound absorption which is NRC.
NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient)
An important metric to sound absorption is the NRC rating which stands for Noise Reduction Coefficient. This rating measures how much noise is absorbed by your acoustic material. If something is rated a 0 then it has no sound absorption and will reflect all sound that hits it, an example would be a hard smooth surface such as marble. The higher the rating the better with the goal of hitting 1 which is full sound absorption.
Every surface material can actually be measured:
Drywall can be around 0.15
Thick carpet can be up to 0.4
Cheap foam panels can range from 0.3-0.6
And most acoustic panels are a 0.95 to 1
Even those cheap little foam panels can have excruciatingly mediocre ratings but these are about the worst bang for your buck when it comes to NRC ratings.
The overall rating is an average of its ratings across a full audio spectrum which shows how a material is rated for low, mid, and highs frequencies.
Every type of sound insulation should have a way to look up its NRC rating which is an excellent way to determine the best form of insulation for your needs and budget. When looking up NRCs for your basic acoustic panel, you’ll find they all pretty much perform very well in the mids and highs but really struggle to absorb lowend. This is where a bass trap comes into play which uses a much denser and thicker material and are often placed in the corners of the room to complement your wall panels.
Acoustic Panel Materials
Deciding on your panel material comes down to a few considerations but the 2 I focused most on were budget and safety.
Probably the 2 most popular sound absorbing materials are mineral wool and fiberglass. My gripe with these materials is they can shed fibers which are really harmful to your respiratory system if they break free and are inhaled and can also cause skin irritation. You can completely wrap these materials with fabric when assembling your panels to keep everything contained but this just adds more to the cost and also requires safety equipment when handling.
I will say that fiberglass and mineral wool are applauded for their extreme fire-resistance but honestly if there is a fire in my studio then something else has gone catastrophically wrong! Perhaps though if you plan on putting lights around your panels this might be something you want to consider.
I instead opted for ATS Recycled Cotton 2” Batts because not only were they one of the most affordable solutions but they’re also safe to handle and have as good an NRC rating as their more hazardous counterparts. The panels available to you might change depending on your country. I’d find whatever is near you that fits best in your budget. If you can buy locally then you’ll save loads in shipping costs.
Construction
Once you’ve decided on your material it’s time to make a frame. This might be the most intimidating part for a lot of people but with just a basic tool set it’s actually really easy. At the minimum all you need is
Drill with bits
Mitre box with saw (though a chop saw is also really useful here)
Staple gun
Fabric Scissors
When it comes to constructing your panel there tons of ways to go about it. I opted for a basic wood frame which I constructed out of some scrap cedar I had in the shop.
The cedar I had was actually fencing cedar left over from a fence I helped build with my uncle last summer which is really rough on both sides and not the best quality but it was free to me so that’s what I used. When you choose your wood material make sure to choose a wood that has some good hardness as this will add rigidity to your frame. Also ensure the wood is smooth (unlike mine) because this will help keep your fabric from tearing over time. And when buying your wood look down the wood to check to ensure it’s straight. Lots of wood has bows in it.
My corner joints are about as rudimentary as it gets where I just pre-drilled some holes in the top and bottom cross beams and screwed those into the top and bottom of my vertical beams. Make sure you pre-drill these holes and drill your screws in slowly or else your wood might split and be ruined. When I did all my drilling I used some 90° grips to keep everything as straight and tight as possible.
This type of joint won’t provide substantial structural support, especially with such thin wood so from here I added in some brackets splitting my frame into thirds which I used to mount a cross bar. These bars not only adds more strength to the structure but the brackets used are also adjustable so that if my frame is a bit too wide and not holding the insulation tight then I can pull the sides in to make sure the insulation fits snug and in place.
These bars also help to keep the insulation from falling out of the back of the panel.
This cross bar also has another piece of scrap wood attached to the back and this will give me spacing off the wall. Panels will absorb more sound if they’re spaced off the wall because sound can get trapped behind it so this extra piece of wood just gives me a 2” gap off the wall
From here I slid in my insulation and moved into the upholstery phase.
Upholstery
The fabric I chose was bought from a local fabric store. When buying your fabric you don’t want to buy anything that is too tightly knit because this will prevent sound from traveling through it and will just reflect off which is what we’re trying to prevent.
There’s a huge number of companies that specialize in selling acoustic fabric but I bought something local because I live in a more rural area and try to support local business whenever I can. I also liked that I could handle the fabric and see how loose the knit was and better see the color whereas online it was really hard to identify both those things.
Stapling the fabric was probably the trickiest part for me because I’ve never upholstered anything before but I got the hang of it really quick and I’m sure you will too.
I placed my panel on a clean spot on the ground with the material underneath. I then started stapling at the top center and worked my way to the sides, then down, then from the bottom center out. The whole time I was making sure to pull the fabric tight to remove wrinkles as I stapled down.
The trickiest part is the corners and the best way to manage that will sort of depend on how much extra fabric there is and where you're stapling. The way I folded my top corner was a bit different than the bottom but after playing with it for a bit I’m satisfied with the result.
The last phase is hanging.
Hanging your panels
You can hang these in all sorts of ways but my preferred method of hanging anything has always been picture hanging wire. It’s really easy to work with and forgiving because you can level it really easily on your wall and you can hang them on pretty much any kind of hardware such as a hook or screw.
You can also add rubber grips to the back of the panel to help it hold onto the wall easier and stay level.
Keep in mind the weight of your panels before using wire though. Picture wire has very strict weight limitations but I made my panel out of really light weight materials so it can handle it no problem.
When hanging things it’s ideal to find a stud to drill into then screw into that to get the most support, but if you’re trying to evenly space your panels then this most likely won’t be possible all the time. If you can’t use a stud, I use these drywall anchors which don’t require any drilling and can hold quite a bit of weight.
I put a large washer on my screws which make it easier to hook onto the screw and also keep the wire from sliding off. You can also use hooks obviously but I already had the screws and the washers were much cheaper than hooks.
Tip for getting all your panels to hang at the same height:
Decide what the gap you want between your ceiling and the top of your panel is.
For each panel, hold your wire tight (as though it’s hanging by the wire) and measure the distance from the top of the wire to the top of the panel. (This number will always be a little different for each panel because your wire will probably not be exact on all panels)
Then add this to your gap number and that’s how far down from your ceiling you should drill your hole.
I also numbered all of my panels on the back so I know where they all go when I put them back on the wall.
And with that you have a finished and mounted panel!
Is it worth it to make your own sound panels?
If it seems too daunting to make your own panels there are plenty of places to buy your own. If you go out and buy these materials you’ll find this process only saves about 25% of cost vs buying a panel on the market.
But I’m balling on a budget and had most of my materials already so it was an easy sell. Plus I got to choose all of my materials this way including, most importantly, the insulation.
It took me about two days to complete these panels but if your time is really precious to you and you have some extra disposable income then maybe you’ll find it more worth your time to buy premade panels.
I always like to make my own stuff wherever possible because A) I have all the tools and a shop and B) if I know how they went together I can easily take them apart to fix them or make more without having to worry about my particular panel and color being out of stock from the company I bought from.
I hope you found this content useful!
If you made it this far you must have so please subscribe to my mailing list for more tips in the future and I will catch you all later!