Found a cheap curtain hack at Goodwill that fixed my echo problem

I was at a Goodwill in Phoenix last weekend looking for blankets to hang on my walls. My bedroom studio sounded like a tin can with all the hard surfaces bouncing sound around. Spotted three heavy velvet curtains for $8 each and figured why not try them. Double layered them over a cheap rod in the corner behind my mic and it killed about 70% of the slapback I was getting. Way cheaper than those foam panels and honestly looks better too. Anyone else had luck with thrift store finds for acoustic treatment?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_anderson1mo ago

Nah, I'm gonna be real with you, velvet curtains over a rod aren't really killing low frequencies the way you think. That slapback you're hearing gone is probably just high end getting soaked up, but those boomy lows are still bouncing around behind the fabric. I tried the same thing with some heavy moving blankets from Goodwill a few years back and realized my bass traps were doing way more work than the curtains ever did. The curtains just made the room deader in a narrow spot behind the mic, but if you move a foot to the side everything still rings out like crazy. For $24 it's not a total waste, but don't fool yourself into thinking this is acoustic treatment, it's more like a room divider that happens to look nice.

terryr461mo ago

Grabbed some cheap moving blankets from Harbor Freight and hung them a few inches off the wall. Same deal as you said, it killed the echo in that one spot but didn't do squat for the low end rumble. Did you ever try doubling them up or leaving an air gap behind?