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Friend said to ditch my foam panels for rockwool. He was right. | Spare Room Studio - Hub Chatter

Friend said to ditch my foam panels for rockwool. He was right.

Bought those cheap Auralex knockoffs off Amazon. $60 for a pack of 12. Room sounded dead but still boomy on low end. My buddy runs a local studio in Austin. Told me to pull them down and try rockwool panels instead. Made six 4 inch thick panels for $80 total. Bass traps work way better now. No more muddy low end on my podcast recordings. Anyone else make the switch from foam to mineral wool and notice a real difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan_webb2mo ago

Rockwool is the real deal for sure. Foam just doesn't have the density to handle low end the way you need it to. Those cheap panels are basically mattress toppers, they do nothing for bass. Once you go to 4 inches of mineral wool you can actually hear the difference in your room. It's one of those things where you kick yourself for not doing it from the start.

simonl862mo ago

Wait, are you telling me my egg crate foam panels aren't doing anything? Because I totally fell for that "studio grade" marketing when I first got into this. I thought I was being smart by going cheap and covering my whole wall with that stuff. But honestly, you're probably right. I've been fighting my mixes for months and couldn't figure out why the low end always sounded so muddy. Might have to finally bite the bullet and swap it out for some Rockwool.

spencer6642mo ago

Yeah I read this whole breakdown on Gearslutz a while back where some acoustic engineer explained why foam is basically useless for anything below like 500hz. Something about the air gap and the material density not being enough to actually absorb the longer wavelengths. The dude said you'd need foam like 2 feet thick to do what 4 inches of rockwool does. That stuck with me. So when I redid my home studio I skipped foam entirely and went straight for the mineral wool. My low end cleanup was NIGHT AND DAY different, especially in the 80-150hz range where everything was just a bloated mess before. Your buddy definitely steered you right.