Gaming's Second Greatest Scam: GAMING FOAM.

[@ManleyReviews]

just note, this specific product is targeting KZbin\streaming content creation (simple vocal work) which is why I take such issue with it. as opposed to how this product performs in a professional studio environment targeting full spectrum sound attenuation.

[@imjohn8168]

30th

[@paulmdevenney]

even then - those foam panels you have will probably be outperformed by even cheaper rockwool panels or "corning fiberglas". Glen Fricker does a good video on creating bass traps. Either way "gamer foam" is peak gamer.

[@ManleyReviews]

@@paulmdevenney I got to meet glen like 5 years ago at NAMM he's such a cool dude.

[@WebMetlReese]

Can foam replace the pillows I've duct taped on the walls?

[@joshuawargo6446]

SUPER thanks for the video. My family constantly makes comments about noise and im always like...um hey...foam....they make it....and this will MAYBE actually make that happen finally unless i just get out of here sooner xD

[@BensWatchClub]

These foam pads are a complete rip off. For most KZbinrs sound blankets are more user-friendly and perform infinitely better for less money. Glad to see this overpriced junk finally being called out. Nice work 👍

[@ThylineTheGay]

very cheapest solution, get a bunch of clothes from an op-shop and hang them around your room

[@FlyboyHelosim]

For most people, the furnishings already in their room will suffice to even bother with ANY extra steps.

[@That_Puppet]

@@ThylineTheGay cheapest solution is used egg cartons, they do the job of these sound proofing foam pads much better, and honestly you can ask any local diner/restaurant to save their cartons for you

[@ThylineTheGay]

@@That_Puppet I doubt it, aren’t egg cartons really thin

[@That_Puppet]

@@ThylineTheGay yes but they have a large air gap behind them and the wall as well as creating a ton of geometry for sound to bounce around in and dissipate

[@ZybakTV]

My personal favorite is the Razer BattleLight. The description reads: The Razer BattleLight plugs into Razer’s Tarantula Keyboard’s BattleDock illuminating your Tarantula in a cool blue glow. Now you can take a full advantage of your Tarantula Keyboard’a gaming features in lowlight conditions giving you the unfair advantage over your adversaries.

[@rex9003]

i refuse to believe that exists even after searching it up to see it exists

[@lzr257]

"Illuminate your Razer Tarantula with the Razer BattleLight and give yourself the unfair advantage over your rivals in lowlight conditions." peak gaming performance right there

[@dustyoverstreet648]

Wow! I can't believe Razor finally figured out how to light a surface. The dark ages are over!

[@ingo98]

hey but atleast its only 20 bucks

[@white_mage]

sounds like razer doesn't know what a light bulb is

[@Vladi_AK47]

This channel is a hidden gem. I keep getting impressed with overall quality of video edit, script and personality. Fantastic job dude 👊

[@ManleyReviews]

My pleasure, and welcome aboard.

[@mrman5066]

What's even better, he reacts to like every comment. I made a comment earlier today on a 6 month old video and he still replied! Very committed. Much respecc

[@Ben.N]

same! can tell it's about to blow up.

[@wilsonandco-2890]

Yes

[@Chrispyy__]

It really is. I just found his channel 4 days ago and been watching everyday since.

[@amaurythewarrior]

what you call "flat" are acoustic panels made of rockwool and covered in fabric. more expensive, even if you DIY, but relatively easy to do SO MUCH MORE efficient, look nicer you can even print custom design, movie posters etc. and you can hang the foam on the wall using long pins. a bit hard to push them in, but it works.

[@ManleyReviews]

Yup, high quality flat panels are my personal favorite for actual function. Calling it by it's shape is a bit misleading, but was just used as a quick metaphor.

[@TriggerzConnors]

You can use egg rack for DIY sound proof.

[@amaurythewarrior]

@@TriggerzConnors i'm sorry this is factually incorrect. if you read on the topic you'll see it doesn't do anything useful for soundproofing or acoustic treatment in general. there's virtually no thickness, and the patterns repeats itself.

[@TriggerzConnors]

@@amaurythewarrior aight

[@Hamachingo]

If all you need is cut down on the nasty reverb when talking to a twitch stream, foam wedges will do the job just fine unless you have a really low and loud voice. Recording/editing music is where the broadband absorbers, diffusers and bass traps come in and really make a difference.

[@BirdmanDeuce26]

The microphone distance + rug/carpet + gain control is SO important, yet so overlooked by so many people. It's one of the reasons why some "bedroom recordings", even in older pre-HD days of KZbin, sounded so good despite being recorded with mediocre camera mics. All the soft cloth provided a natural "deadening" for sound reflections, and people got as close as they reasonably could to the camera because their sensor pattern was so small, further giving more clarity to the sound source.

[@dodo19923]

I vc with friends every day on discord/other apps and my setup is in the kitchen. Hard tile floors, a huge window next to me and the room is around 8m long, 3.5m wide and 2.5m high so a LOT of space to echo. Ended up buying a few carpets from ikea, threw them down on the floor to cover as much as i could and hung a wool blanket on a rail across the window so i can close it when i'm online. Going from sounding like i'm in a huge concert hall lol to just a tiny bit of echo (enough so my voice isn't dead flat) made a noticeable improvement the first time i spoke to someone, they thought i was in another room. Amazing what difference a bit of common sense makes to a setup.

[@Niro_sounds]

Sound dood here, if you can't get a good deal on sound foam, try just hanging curtains/blankets along the walls. You don't technically even need foam, you just need to diffuse reflections. Artwork will suffice in some cases.

[@lammyjammer6670]

I was about to mention this. People don't realize anything that disrupts the problem reflections will do the job. I have the 2 side walls lined with curtains, a cheap rug on the floor and a bit of foam (mostly for decorative purposes) behind my monitors (and some corner bass traps since my room isn't that big to tame some of the monitor low end) and it honestly does the trick.

[@pian-0g445]

@@lammyjammer6670 even adding furnitures help

[@pedrosilvaproductions]

True you don't need to focus much on properly treating a room either. But those cheap foams do nothing either tbh

[@FAB1150]

Yep, i don't have any foam in my room but it diffuses reflections really well as it's full of stuff that's hanging on the walls, a bed (which I guess it's foam), and a rug.

[@casedistorted]

Nice tip, thanks!

[@IanTheGreatYT]

The funny thing is, there are actually people out there that literally spent that much money on elgato foam 😐

[@ManleyReviews]

I mean if you've got the bank for it, go ahead! But for most of the struggling streamers out there I'd save your cash.

[@coffinsnail6930]

@@ManleyReviews but how much was paid to cover the walls in the foam in this video? because elgato foam is designed better and requires less then is used in that room.

[@Its_Soph_ie]

@@coffinsnail6930 at 8:15 he said it's about 150 for the entire room, so you'd have to get the same level of quality using only 9 panels from elgato to come out at the same price, which is literally impossible to accomplish do to the way sound functions

[@Wistbacka]

Linus tech tips even said they were a good deal. And I guess they were semi-true, but they were only comparing them to studio grade, pro foam. And question is if the elgato ones should be compared to the pro stuff or to more consumer stuff.

[@chrispham6599]

@@coffinsnail6930 I guarantee you it's less than what El Gato would ask you for

[@SirHojack]

My old man is a musician, has 3 of the 4 walls covered in the foam, the other wall is bay windows which he has blankets hung up over them. From his advice, hanging a blanket or two up can work in a pinch.

[@lammyjammer6670]

Acoustic blankets aren't too expensive. If you really want to go cheap you can even go for heavier moving blankets and they work just as well (the heavier the better they are at absorbing sound). You have buy a dozen for $40-$50 just about anywhere.

[@propheinx2250]

More content creators need to include a completion bar for their sponsored content ads. It feels so much less intrusive that way and I never realized how much I actually wanted it to be normal practice until now.

[@Jinni_SD]

I disagree with the concept of covering everything you can with foam. The result is a sound that is what can only be described as "too dead", or unnatural. It's a trap that it appears you, and many others fall into. You notice that in the pictures shown of the studios that they don't look like anechoic chambers. That's because natural reflections are desired to create a nice small room reverb, so it doesn't have to be added back in post. In an ideal scenario, acoustically treating a room should work to take out standing waves (specific frequencies that reflect disproportionately to the others) while allowing the others to move naturally.

[@zagrebzebra]

Being an ex audio technician by profession, I agree with this gentleman above.

[@Justowner]

@@zagrebzebra How might I do that, or is there some specific terms I can google to get started?

[@jaydensydes3478]

Dead rooms are common, and pretty good for VO and stuff, it's not a mixing room or a violin recording room. Is it possible the unnatural sound you're referring to is actually the low frequencies reverberating through the ineffective foam?

[@adamwhite1934]

I was about to say the same. Id also say, with most square rooms, bass is a nightmare, so some kind of bass trap is more useful than foam, which will mostly deal with high frequencies. In my experience anyway.

[@WebMetlReese]

I've always felt that if you can mess up the perfect square a bit is enough to get rid of the shillness, I tend to place soakers in certain hot spots on a specific wall and it seems to work rather well. Nothing is better than just having a good mic that's close to your mouth though tbf

[@danthewolf1997]

I am wary about cheaping out on foam due to fire risk. While I won’t be doing any pyrotechnics in my room, the video from the station night club fire still haunts me.

[@antlerman7644]

Very much agreed.

[@pedrosilvaproductions]

Make some cheap rockwool panels. Much better, you don't need to use as much material (no need to cover a wall completely) and it's fire proof

[@ScamboliReviews]

WHAT DID CAILLOU DO TO YOU

[@industrial_airconditioner]

He killed my father in hand to hand combat I will never forgive nor forget what he has done.....

[@ManleyReviews]

That’s between me and my therapist

[@imjohn8168]

HI SCAM

[@BakiX]

One of the most refreshing channels on this site. He speaks with vulgarity but also a sense of sincerity, and he does it all while remaining entertaining and making a damn high quality video to boot. I legitimately admire the work man, keep it up 👍

[@Juliett-A]

You don't need to cover the entire wall. Linus did a video and he showed that covering just a fraction of the space gets you massive results.

[@ETERNlTUS]

Still, covering the whole wall with less budget is the better option.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

I'm sure not many people would want to, or get away with, covering entire walls to begin with. Who wants a room in their house covered in dingy grey foam? I'm sure a landlord would have something to say, too.

[@richardmillhousenixon]

@iglu What if you can only buy in bulk?

[@richardmillhousenixon]

@@FlyboyHelosim Command strips leave little to no residue

[@richardmillhousenixon]

@iglu I'm not saying you should buy the gamer foam I'm saying buy command strips to mount the foam of your choice. I legit have a king sized cheap foam mattress topper that I attached to the wall for sound dampening because it was on sale for like 15 bucks

[@t6ku40]

Came here from Scamboli, and I don't regret a thing. Keep up the amazing content, I can imagine your channel blowing up soon enough!

[@ManleyReviews]

Oh heck yeah! Good timing, bout to release my biggest video yet tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by.

[@gusamon5847]

That was the most entertaining review wtf I just watched ten minutes of you just talking about foam

[@ManleyReviews]

Just wait until my paint drying video

[@nastybirdy]

Appreciate the foam breakdown and details, and good call on the command strips! Thinking of kitting out my home office as I'll need to record audio for my job so this has been an invaluable little guide. Cheers!

[@pauwel9380]

apholstery foam and rockwool work very well as replacements for the more high end panels, I took the foam from some thick couch cushions and stacked them in the corners and just that deadened the room a lot, you can also use cushy furniture like couches or lounge chairs to cover a large portion of your bare wall space, also find moving blankets to be good materials (I use one effectively like a rug) for covering things like doors

[@Shocked-]

This is a hidden gem of a channel. Good on you. Keep doing what your doing

[@MortalXperiment]

I actually learned alot here, you rock! Also, moving blankets are pretty amazing too (only really to be used as a small, SMALL room setup for vocals or acoustic, i hang mine from the ceiling dor my vocal booth hehe)

[@annekedebruyn7797]

I'd like to add a counterpoint in favor of Elgato from a recording studio owner perspective. A large part of the voice and problem areas in sound is more around the lower part. (300-500hz range.) The thin foam you have will only limit the upper mid to high frequency range. Especially people with square small rooms will notice this. Elgato has made layered multiple thickness of foam to reach the lower frequencies as well as high frequencies. While the price is still in Elgato style, it isn't really that unreasonable. The panels are designed to remove first and second reflections. NOT to plaster your entire room with them which is for most scenarios, bad for your sound unless you are doing it properly with the right material. HOWEVER, if you are willing to go DIY. For 200 dollars you can make acoustic panels that will be better than both the cheap foam and Elgato panels. Which is also still cheaper than Elgato's solution and looks arguably better/more professional too. Just get Rockwool and make a cheap wooden frame around it. Then nail a thin cloth sheet around it. (Or if you want to go really cheap, just wrap a sheet of cloth around the Rockwool.) Then experiment in your room what sounds best before you hang it. If you still have some high frequency reflections from windows, I just put cheap foam around it. Other then that, great video. Your content is fantastic!

[@plixplop]

A quick test to gauge how much reflection a piece of foam actually blocks: rub your fingertips together lightly a few inches from your ear, the rubbing noise is fairly high frequency. Now put the foam block in between your ear and your fingers. Cheap Amazon audio foam does NOTHING to block the sound passing through the foam because it's almost entirely air, which means it also won't do much to stop high frequency sound from passing through, hitting the wall, and echoing back out.

Covering your walls entirely works just fine if you just want a dead room, but if you want to strike a balance and make the room still sound natural, you're definitely going to want thicker panels than 2 inches. Totally agree.

[@samdavis1228]

@@plixplop Dude you do realise the foam doesnt just float in the air, they work with the wall.

[@SausageFingers420]

Yeah, but each layer on the Elgato panels is less than an inch thick. Just get some of that underfloor foam they sell at Home Depot and glue it between the cardboard and Auralex wedges. Boom, dual density for 2/3 the price!

[@AironExTv]

This is standard good advice for people recording in a room. In this case your voice is the emitter (for mixing it's the speakers) and the microphone is the recipient)for mixing your ears). You cover the first and secondary reflection points, since those mess up your sound the most. Lower frequencies are emitted in a radial pattern, like water wave from a stone thrown i to a pond. The higher the frequencies, the most directed they are. That's the reason you're covering a surface behind yourself talking in to the microphone, and not just the surface behind the microphone itself (bounce in the back of the mic or to other walls). There are accoustic foams. The graph displayed at 5:23 shows how some are useful and any product you cannot find such a graph for, stay away. With increased thickness you absorb lower frequencies. By the way, the reason for placing thick triangular absorbers in corners is that low frequency energy tends to collect well there, so it's a good way to get rid of what you don't want to end up in your microphone. Inspiring video. Thanks for sharing.

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Great Video! and yes, many Elgato's products are ridiculously overpriced, and more people need to be talking about it so they stop getting away with it

[@MrGermandeutsch]

Even tho I have some severe anxiety issues, this video gave me the motivation to start a youtube career. The sheer positive aura this man is emitting just feels so great!

[@ManleyReviews]

Literally had 700 subs a year and a half ago. Just make the videos you yourself would watch!

[@bolland83]

Another thing to consider, is don't over do it. Covering every single surface leads to a room that sounds dead, lifeless, and unnatural.

[@TorutheRedFox]

i mean you can add life in a controlled manner by adding an effect chain to the recording

[@jayjaybirdsnest]

Which is kinda how this video sounds haha (no offence to the creator, but i really don't like how the recording/voice sounds in this video)

[@TorutheRedFox]

@@jayjaybirdsnest how it sounds is also down to other factors such as how close you are to the microphone (the closer you are, the more low end you get)

[@wadimek116]

It won't sound dead if balanced on all frequencies is the same. It will sound dead only if you dampen certain frequency range more than others

[@Tarets]

Who the hell upvotes that? You don't sound treat your room to make it sound natural. You treat it to eliminate reverb and resonance, so that you can record in it.

[@pedroperobelli9542]

To be a bit technical here, some shapes absorbs more bass and others higher frequencies and so on. The room size or the sound source position also affects which and where frequencies reflects or dies. So, size, shapes, positioning, amount, even mic position in the room, all matters when there is a need to hear EXACTALY what is being played. And even If you look at professional studios you will noticed some aren't completely covered in foam. So, unless you want to work with music production or sound fx or other thing sound related that requires this absurd amount of precision, you can put some rugs, sofas, tables, shelves or even old mattresses in good positioning and get a pretty good acoustics for videos and streaming. Also, there are ways to calculate or speculate where you need to place things, and the internet is there, just search for room/acoustics treatment. Also I believe there are lists and pics with room sizes and where the sound reflects in it and even simulations that can help with that as well.

[@roninlviaquez]

Graeat video, but having parallel walls does not increase reflections, it only makes some reflections to add up in a especific frecuency. Think of a mirrored room, there is not going to be less reflections if you change the shape, what is going to hapen if you skew your room is that you will never have the “infinite hallway” effect

[@propheinx2250]

You ever wonder what it'd look like inside of a spherical mirror?

[@iurigrang]

They increase the damage to the sound, which is the important part. Concentrating all the energy in a few frequencies makes the reverb ugly af and longer, even if decibel wise it's about the same.

[@roninlviaquez]

@@propheinx2250 there is a VSauce video about it!

[@NullConflict]

You are mistaken. Parallel walls cause both resonance and reverberation. If you sing in a cathedral specific harmonic frequencies will be louder (resonance) and you'll also hear plenty of reverb (reflections).

[@roninlviaquez]

@@NullConflict parallel walls do not increase overall reflections. The shape of the room might increse resonance in some places, but yo cant do this without reducing resonance on other places, so the total resonance remanis the same. Reverb is caused by the material’s ability to absorb or reflect waves, so the shape of the room has very little to do with the amount of reverb

[@Oleg-oe1rc]

Thank you for making these videos. Basically the only three things that make sense to buy a "gaming" branded product is a GPU, monitor, and maybe a mouse. Everything else I use for gaming blows the "gaming" branded stuff out of the water in both performance to cost ratio and just raw perforance overall. Need a "gaming" keyboard, just get a good mechanical keyboard. Need a "gaming" headset, just get a good pair of headphones and a modmic or desk mic. And same for basically everything else you can think of.

[@spoookley]

also here’s another tip: if you don’t have enough foam/money to get foam, just absolutely fill every blank space in your recording studio with decorations, book shelves, blankets, furniture, etc. the goal is to diffuse the sound waves, and every little improvement is still an improvement. just make it a cozy environment and it’ll become a lot better for recording :)

[@pedrosilvaproductions]

This is very important. A lot of people don't realize that some of the best diffusers are, in fact, bookshelves and stuff like that. Also sofas and beds help

[@DrFyder]

How is that less expensive?

[@123Zhyar]

One of the best creators on this platform hands down! Binge-watching all your vids :)

[@ManleyReviews]

Wow, thanks!

[@plixplop]

Here's a tip to use foam panels efficiently if you can't afford to cover entire walls with them or don't want your room to look like a dedicated recording studio: You will need a hand mirror and an assistant. Sit at your desk with the microphone positioned as it will be in use. Then your assistant puts the mirror flat onto the wall, and moves it around until you can see the microphone reflected in the mirror. You can rotate your head to see the mirror, just try to keep your head in the same place. This point on the wall where you see the microphone reflection is where the majority of sound will bounce from your mouth, off the wall, to the microphone (sound bounces off walls at the same angle that light is reflected from a mirror, at least accurately enough for our purposes). Manley explains that you should place foam panels exactly in front, behind and to your left and right - this is a good general rule, but the mirror technique will help you find exactly where the most troublesome echo points are. Edit: OH, and if you use a mic for voice chat and play your sound through speakers for gaming or video conferencing etc - do this same trick, but use it to find the reflection angles between your speakers and your microphone (put your head where each speaker sits to see the reflection points in your assistant's mirror, and note where you can see the mic reflected).

[@freakyninjaman3]

Great video! I had no idea that studio foam was so cheap, but this seems pretty accessible.

[@ManleyReviews]

Thanks! Yeah trying to spread the word

[@nullx8]

holy cow, i didn't even know Elgato makes those ... i plastered my walls and ceiling with square egg-trays .. looks cosy and works like a charm, total cost: 22 Bucks (including the glue) :P

[@SausageFingers420]

You're putting a lot of faith in your wiring my dude. Those things are flammable as fuuuuuuck.

[@MrMoon-hy6pn]

@@SausageFingers420 I hope electrical fires from crappy wiring/outlets isn't a huge concern for you. I would be more worried about carpets or literally anything else.

[@CrazyGamerDude17]

2 things to help without changing your room, get a mic with a foam cover, get a noise compression app such as RTX voice

[@norjia]

Foam panels generally are meant to disperse sound. Not absorb it. That's what bass traps do or actual noise isolation panels. (I built a full vocal booth for voice over purposes and had to dive onto the topic out of necessity) So when it comes to the thin foam the thickness is pretty much.. ignorable, what matters is how well it disperses the sound. Unless you wanna build a vocal booth at which point... Just grab a bunch of sound insulation foam and build a bass trap around your desk lol. That's gonna keep the neighbours from hearing you rage a during a match. (Just keep in mind that it's gonna get extremely warm in there very quickly especially if you also have your computer in there)

[@sonebeats]

Acoustic foam panels are primarily absorption. Diffusers are what is used to scatter sound waves rather than absorb them, they have a different application tho. But yea the most common bass traps are absorption, like acoustic foam panels. Often they are the same material, just thicker and usually positioned in a way to better target lower frequencies. Thats without going into the other types of bass trap tho. Because thin acoustic foam panels only really absorb in the mid-high freqs. But for speech that isnt too much of an issue. Generally for this type of absorption, the thicker the panel the the lower the frequencies it can tame. Theres other factors too though. Acoustic foam and bass traps are porous, so even 100% coverage isnt going to stop the sound travelling through the wall. At least not the extent of someone expecting soundproofing. Soundproofing to keep the neighbours happy is a different beast, sound insulation within walls is the best bet there, and good sealing of any holes and gaps

[@norjia]

@@sonebeats i went the extra mile and used rockwool for my vocal booth. Sure it makes the mic sound just a tad flatter but i just EQ that back in as needed and it genuinely is just like a dead chamber when you enter it.

[@wadimek116]

Those panels are absorbers not diffusers your wrong. Foam is absorber not diffuser

[@norjia]

@@wadimek116 no, Not always. If you have a thin panel it's gonna act as diffusers. Sound absorptions need thick and dense material like rockwool, aka sound insulation material. Or those big foam panels with a felt layer and a 5CM dense foam layer. Your 1cm porous foam Panels with those triangles on top is diffusion material those triangles or waves are there to bounce the sound in between them until it loses it's energy* the elgato panels, i can see as more of a absorber material due to how dense they are. Tho absorbers are always gonna be more expensive compared to diffusers. Unless you're gonna make your own using rockwool, i built a whole insulated vocal booth using that stuff and only covered the rockwool in the walls in a layer of fabric so it looked nice. Worked like a charm and flat out killed reverberations

[@Walter-_-_White]

Aight how tf don’t you have over 1M subs I thought you did due to your awesome quality. You’re doing something right keep it up!

[@HexJK]

Egg Crate foam panels are also used in many forms of packaging, so you can often find them pretty cheap in bulk (when sold as packaging, as opposed to soundproofing). Unfortunately, it's actually kind of rare to find it sold as packaging anymore because now everyone is paying top dollar to coat their walls in packaging materials lmao.

[@johnybloom5575]

Thats not the same

[@pedrosilvaproductions]

Egg crates don't do anything, that's a myth. They have no mass to absorb sound

[@meroog_shorts]

as someone who has a quite "busy" room (lots of stuff in here) and carpet, it really isnt a major issue, for most people, studio foam isn't gonna make a huge difference unless you have hard floors and a very minimal room

[@JeremyGreysmark]

The problem with cheap foam is that is burns very quickly because it hasn't been treated. I would only use certified products, otherwise it might void your home insurance if they ever find out that you plastered and entire room with combustible materials.

[@LimitedSkill1]

Was going to say the same, the cheap stuff can put spread a fire extremely fast.

[@Perc1000]

this wasnt even a video about the gaming foam it was just a foam tutorial liked and subscribed

[@preston2472]

ur such a good creator bro keep it up ur channel doesn't NEARLY have enough subs

[@ManleyReviews]

Working on it!

[@pauldrobles]

This isn't the foam video I thought I wanted but this is the foam video I needed

[@zarigata]

youtube algorithims at the best..... a friend saw your channel BY LUCK, and brought to me... KEEP THE HELL OF A GOOD WORK KOMRAD... loved all the videos....

[@ComdrStew]

Like someone taking $21 memory foam, shredding it, making a pillow out of it, and selling it for $99? Oh yeah the $21 memory foam can make four pillows.

[@cunningdingus7781]

That's actually really handy I always thought that stuff was thousands of dollars.

[@ManleyReviews]

The good stuff can be. pro PRO audio is a different league but for anything that's not getting Grammies it's fine.

[@xxxjaded776_5]

with the elgato wave foam it still is hehe

[@Omar.Mohammed1]

For the first time I saw a video for you.. You are a very honest man, and you advise with integrity. Actually I remembered someone who has a channel named Soundproof guide, You both are trustworthy and deserve all the support. Thank you ❤

[@mazie7340]

I’m always surprised how big the room really is

[@ManleyReviews]

It's a bit of an optical illusion. It's about 13x12 feet and like 10 feet high the camera's zoom makes it appear much different.

[@liveen]

i was ready to lecture you, seeing this title, but nope, im 2min into it and you're hitting every point so far

[@jordanwobig1037]

Liam you are a KZbin legend already.

[@ManleyReviews]

Ok Peter McKinnon. lmao thanks J man.

[@TheCupRamen]

2 years late, but if you're just doing edited content no face or anything, you can legit take a blanket and throw it over you and your monitor and have the same effect

[@henryhargraves4184]

I came here to learn about a gaming scam and I left with an in depth guide about how to soundproof my room. Something I always wondered about, Nice. What do you do if you have a window in front of you?

[@hello7937]

you can hang blankets in front of the window

[@BowlingballBagBob]

I'm glad this guy is not super biased on sound foam and is giving actual advice

[@ManleyReviews]

I'm just saying what I wish I could have heard back in the day.

[@alicesan8662]

Imagine having more then 4 walls in your room, couldn’t be me

[@ManleyReviews]

you living in the FOURTH DIMENSION :SHOCKED:

[@toddmoore9841]

I've done this for conference rooms. You can spend 10 grand on microphone arrays, but it will still sound like crap if the room is a bare cube with all hard surfaces. Drop ceilings help a lot. The reason for thicker foam is to trap longer wave lengths. Performance drops off rapidly for wavelengths greater than 2x the foam's thickness. But, you can improve low frequency absorption by putting some space behind the foam, like nail up some furring strips and mount the foam on the strips.

[@DavidVarela2000]

The foam you use on your room is pretty much a scam as well. You should use propper isolating material like roockwool panels. It might even be cheaper than foam if you go DIY

[@sucyshi]

Idk audio, but I do hydroponics and rockwool is a health hazard that I'd never want on my walls

[@DavidVarela2000]

@@sucyshi you put the rockwool in a wood frame and cover it with fabric so it wont be a health hazard

[@ManleyReviews]

for what I paid for it back in 2013 i'm still very happy with it.

[@GhostMW184]

My type of inappropriate but necessary KZbinr right here. Lol W

[@xxxjaded776_5]

i've head of these. Like 100 bucks for 6 panels is too little for too much

[@TheMeanJoeGreen]

This channel is bound to blow up any day

[@reinaldomartinez13]

Aight so of course youtube would recommend me this video after I bought a set of 2 of these. Now i'm not some kind of elgato fanboy nor did I even know they were advertising as gaming foam which is absolutely stupid, but I wanted to clarify a couple points/mistakes you made for anyone that isn't coming from a gaming perspective. The reason I bought these isn't because I'm a gaming youtuber, but rather I'm coming from a music/audio perspective. Something you mentioned is the price per panel and said that more is better for the money, while that is true if you're cutting corners, for someone who needs cleaner audio from across the spectrum, you need higher quality foam panels, especially for the lower end, which is why those 48 for $50 ones aren't going to cut it since they foam is such low quality, yeah you can cover more surface area, and makes more sense if you have a large room, but if you have a smaller room like me, surface area becomes less of an issue. Everything you said about mics are true. So if anyone's buying foam for music purposes, you're going to need higher quality foam, cheap stuff aint gonna cut it, but creating your panels are definitely and option thought i didn't do it myself because of time constraints.

[@mudassirfarooqui6338]

Man you got such a huge community in the time I was off, props to ya

[@john_john_john]

Just beware of how flammable the foam you're getting is. If you're not careful or buy the ultra cheapo AliExpress stuff, you might be turning your room into a giant match.

[@PURCELLYOUTUBE]

fun fact: foam panels actually suck too. what we use in studios is thick rockwool insulation

[@isurf239]

dropping so much knowledge thank you !!

[@loops4000]

why were u the only one that did not get like Sadge

[@ManleyReviews]

whoopsies

[@desertsurvival8235]

I only just found this Channel about 10 minutes ago, and I am impressed at the editing and the amount of work that goes into making these videos. Subbed.

[@PWNHUB]

0:44 Linus already went over the Elgato foam and turns out for high end production it's worth the money. Also, a majority of streaming people use condensers which cause a lot of echo catching. 2:14 no everything you just said was horribly inaccurate, nothing at all was correct. Sound travels in waves, waves hitting a hard surface tend to bounce, and waves hitting a rough surface do not tend to reflect causing echo. This is however being very broad about it, as they do still reflect but not nearly as much and only a portion of the wave form. This is why carpet is a great idea for studios.

[@ronnelmarckestrella2811]

FINALLY. Been waiting for this for a long time

[@joshroth4685]

The sequel we didn’t even know that we needed 🙌

[@ManleyReviews]

Ayyy what's good josh.

[@joshroth4685]

It’s all good👌

[@Q_YZH]

I like my looovely Astro A10, Clear microphone, high quality, no echo, no annoying sound, with very good headphones, integrated audio equipment 😂

[@ManleyReviews]

Way to go!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Pro tip from someone with a decently treated home recording studio... get or build some actual acoustic panels that use insulation and are 4+" thick. Foam in general, especially 2" or 1" thicknesses, are really just attenuating high frequencies and you need a TON of it to be effective. A couple legitimate bass traps and a few acoustic panels will take up much less wall space and have a more uniform frequency coverage compared to covering every square foot of your walls and ceiling with foam. Actual rockwool or fiberglass insulation is much more effective per inch of thickness in absorbing sound than foam. The thickness matters because the lower the frequency, the longer the sound wave in physical space. A 500 Hz sound wave is about 2 feet long, but its really the quarter wavelength of the wave that matters due to where the highest amplitude of the wave sits which brings this down to 6". Since a wave has to travel into and out of an acoustic panel your 4" panel is effectively 8" thick to the wave, which makes it very effective at absorbing that 500 Hz wave. Its incredibly complicated to treat the sub range in a room since waves in that frequency range can be the entire length of your room, so special tools exist to combat those. Bass traps can help since the diagonal distance is much thicker and the waves will bounce in corners, and for many people that will do just fine in a home recording scenario. This is especially true if what you're recording is the human voice, just throw a hi-pass filter on the audio and remove everything in the sub range. To treat a room with professional acoustic panels can easily be $1k-$2k, but if you build them yourself you can get away with $300-$500 in material cost and only a few hours of time. Granted for the average video creator you probably don't care about uniform frequency coverage, and acoustic panels do cost more, but for those of you that DO care and don't want to coverage your entire walls they are the better option.

[@hufnaaratnaaf]

I like the fact that when you explain to us about the foam, the V-Sauce music is playing in the background :D Was actually expecting Michael to pop :D

[@fabiopauli420]

2:19 Physically speaking what happens is that most of the waves get bounced against each other cancling each other out- Thats why they have a pyramid shape because that way when the soundwave hits on the two seperate sides the fly into each other and practically die due to opposing forces of roughly the same strenght

[@EdwinDPZ]

This is the only channel I can find saying anything negative about these panels. Literally everyone else that's tested them has nothing but good things to say about them

[@aragorn1780]

Buy a 20-40 dollar foam bed topper, cut it into squares, cover up the wall, boom done XD

[@journeyburney]

2:53 that PT reference was subtle lmao good job

[@chintan3957]

You got me at the Homeless part

[@justinTime077]

Also yes, I don’t know why I’m only just finding you, but you rock man.

[@maxdishaw]

Great video! And really appreciate how you touched on microphone positioning also. As someone who’s been working in audio for 20 years it’s astonishing to me how many top level KZbinrs I have no fucking clue how to use their microphone and are like 4 feet away from while also using a pop filter… I hope this videos helps a lot of people. You made some really valuable points.

[@morsumbra9692]

As a audio engineer, some of the best albums ever recorded have been in Bathrooms for reverb, and in literal BLANKET FORTS for deadened sound. A dude has a youtube where he records the same vocals in three different spots like a church, outside. And a closet. All of em sound about the same with the blanket fort. You barely need foam as opposed to towels much less fancy foam for fancy specific purpose. All this to say can't wait for Beck or Rick Rubin to record an album in the 16th chapel but in a blanket fort of Persian rugs or something.

[@jaydensydes3478]

This is good for getting rid of the intense garbage but I would strongly recommend upgrading to fibre glass style panels to avoid that low-tone resonance that foam rooms always have. That way you can cover less space and get better results. I identified it within your own room as well. Pricier, but worth it. Love the style and content. Zero misinformation. Earned a sub.

[@kellyloveless9919]

Audio engineers with actual owens corning 703 panels: "should we tell him?"

[@ManleyReviews]

A classic, but doesnt got the wavy studio look OPTICS BRO

[@taylorwalker7282]

How are you not more popular? Seriously man your quality of content is above most with half a mil subs or better. Great work.

[@ManleyReviews]

Gotta make vids like you've already made it! Thank you.

[@isaacengelhardt1934]

1. Big fan of your videos and this is yet another well done one for me. 2. The Mario Kart music gives me a sense of preparation for something, but not in the way studio foam prepares me for mixing, in case you like random opinions from the internet.

[@Kuziminski]

KZbin randomly suggested this to me, and I feel you on the paint ruiner. If I may offer some experience on the various ways I got the 3M mounting tape off my walls to you and/or others passing by this comment. This was used on acrylic paint, which is the most common nowadays in at least the USA. 1: Acetone, aka nail polish. Nope. That will also break down acrylic paint in addition to the glue, and probably quicker. (It even says don't use on acrylic nails) 2: Isopropyl Alcohol, both 70% and 91%. Less breaking down of the acrylic paint, but still not close enough to nill to avoid damage with the scraping afterwards. 3: Steam cleaner. My best results and what I used on the rest after the failed attempts. You can get cheaper ones (or possibly even rent from some supermarkets) that are small and hand portable. Just make sure it has an attachment to scrub, or at least have a finer nozzle. It broke down the glue and allowed it to be scrapped off with very little damage. If impatient, the only in difference is having it be the absolute brightest white in that spot because of aging over time.

[@LazyBunnyKiera]

Some people go overkill on their foam and don't have any postprocessing going on, so their audio sounds flat and is sometimes physically painful to listen to. A little bit of reverb is a good thing. Gotta make it so it sounds like the person being recorded is in the same room as you. And not inside your ear canal. Though it might just be me as i have tinnitus.

[@Sarge92]

the really disgusting part is the shape if you wanted to cover that wall you'd need at least 1-2 extra packs just for making cut downs to go on edges and corners

[@muatafalol]

As ab audio engineer i can say having curtains and a rug aswell as you said, using a cardioid mic & staying up close while recording is gonna be plenty to have decent audio for speech recordings. Foam isn't even a necessity

[@Jonathan_Wick]

the Elgato panels aren’t designed that well. A friend got them, quite a few, so we set them up and measured them, against two rooms. One being a DIY Amazon 2” foam panel treated room, and the other being my control room, which is completely treated floors, walls, ceiling decoupled, and absorption. We did these tests in each room. The amount of panels that $200 would get, setup in a best case scenario, measuring the benefits of a microphone recording, and then studio monitor playback benefits. We then covered the room in as much of both as we had. It was an expensive day… and repeated those two tests. The room was about 10feet wide, by 12 feet deep. A ceiling height of 8ft. The Elgato panels help, with vocal range yes, but with a decent dynamic microphone, the Elgato panels do not sound noticeably better than the Amazon foam, as for the same price, the Amazon foam provides better coverage, and allows more reflection points to be covered. Their use case seems very niche, for a specific type of room size and mic combo, for them to have any noticeable benefit. Then we did studio monitor tests, again very negligible difference, and both the Elgato panels and Amazon panels suffer the same, having trouble controlling lower midrange, while decently diffusing high frequency sound. The monitors were a pair of Focal Shape65s. The Elgato panels did better at deadening the lower midranges, but still struggled. Albeit again, the more points of reflection covered by the Amazon foam, vs the Elgato foam, far outweighs any benefit that the Elgato panels give, if limited by budget. Against my control room, both faired horribly, the walls are 6-18in thick depending on the area, to help absorb lower midrange, and low end. The monitors are ATC SCM110ASLs. The ONLY reason we measured against the control room is, we did an entire wall at one point for about $600, after finding some excellent sales on Rockwool insulation. So with a DIY spirit, you could absolutely make panels that control a much wider frequency range than the Elgatos, for much cheaper, and provide actual absorption. Or just stick to the 2in thick Amazon foam, as IMO Elgato panels will not provide an improvement worthy of their price. If you want to spend more, spend it on true acoustic Panels and not little dots for your wall. You will notice a massive benefit. If you want to spend a lot more, decouple your walls from your floor, float the floor (correctly), decouple your studio monitors from the walls, and cover every wall in absorption of differing thickness after taking measurements of your monitors. I say that, as everything comes down to the budget you have. Your money is much more wisely spent on covering a greater amount of reflection points. If you have the money to do everything with the Elgato panels, they could provide some benefit yes, but at the point where you’re spending that much, just get actual panels. When I’m back from holiday, I will update this comment with the specific measurements we took in our testing. And maybe make an article somewhere better explaining everything :)

[@milo-kz1pi]

ain’t reading allat but we up 💯💯

[@artspectrum2421]

Holy Shit! Just noticed the lack of views! Glad i found this gem of a channel.

[@bvco0611BR]

I never expected to spend my time watching a video about foam but man, your content is simply amazing

[@ManleyReviews]

i never expected to make a video about it either lmao.

[@whosplayingyou29]

another piece of friendly advice to add to the stack would be that the depth of your foam actually changes the range of sounds it absorbs. all are good, but 2 inch will probably be ideal for most voices. 4 inch is more effective at absorbing lower more bassy tones, really necessary for a bass drum, not so much for a human mouth.

[@starrybook]

i freaking love your energy.

[@alexanderchippel]

In the early 2000's my dad was in a band and would record music that is tiny apartment above my grandfather's print shop, and I distinctly remember us going to Wal-Mart and buying those cheap foam pads that put on top of a mattress address stapling them to the wall and those not only worked, but they're still up on wall.

[@yogeshhingorani982]

Your videos are always entertaining. Keep up the good work

[@dooshahn]

5:03 that THPS3 goal sound felt so good!

[@F14Mavrick]

Brah you nailed it when you said youtube and twitch streaming quality.

[@willworkforfood7028]

A nerdy explanation of how foam works. Sound waves squeeze tiny air pockets in the foam and push the air inside them into other tiny air pockets. The friction created by this generates the heat. The zig zag shape is there to help scatter the noise a bit better, to ensure whatever noise that does gets reflected scatters out a bit, kind of optional IMO. If you want to go even cheaper than acoustic pads, similar sound deadening performance can be achieved by thick carpet, thick curtains or most spongy foam. If you want to go really fancy you can use stuff called baffle panels or Helmholtz resonator slats that operate on different principles and work better for lower frequencies. Not having walls also will prevent reflections from walls for obvious reasons. However that leads to problems with noise from the outside and wind. That said you don't need to pad out all the walls, the reverberations can hand around for a good second or two in really reverb conditions. Even padding a proportion of the entire room makes a difference.

[@aldershot8008]

Ironically most musicians and studio techs would recommend AGIENST filling an entire room with foam.

[@ManleyReviews]

not if you're trying to make a dead room or isolation booth.

[@FearTheTurle21]

I only found this channel the other day and love it. I have no reason to care about foam, I'm not a KZbinr or streamer and have no plans to be. But this was fascinating and hooked me the whole time lol. Love the channel, love all the videos.

[@ManleyReviews]

Hell yeah, thanks for peeping man, I'll be droppin a vid soon I know it's been a few.

[@TheMrCheddar]

best thing I've used as an at home music producer, Poly-Fil. glue it to some poster board and mount it where you want, did this too my ceiling and killed damn near all sound without any wall treatment

[@s3vva]

Came for the gaming foam roast, stayed for the studio setup advice