How to Make High Performance Sound Absorption Panels for $5

In this video I explore the possibility of making DIY sound absorption panels on a budget, later comparing them to much more expensive acoustic foam. The results are pretty amazing!
There have been many comments pointing out that my test only measures transmission and not reflection, so is essentially unsuitable for my initial testing goal. While this is partly true, testing reflection is pretty difficult to do in a home environment, and the only way to do it that I can think of would be to spend a long time in the middle of a field with a powerful speaker and mic rig, which is really beyond the scope of what I was prepared to do for the video.
My tests are not rendered pointless however - it would do no good to have only measured reflection, as the thinnest lightest material would have won (like foam), as nothing would have bounced back. Reflection and transmission need to be tested together to measure how much sound passes through, and how much sound is reflected back - this should give an indication of how much sound is absorbed by a given material.
Regardless, only testing the transmission doesn't affect the outcome of the project at all, as any sound waves reflected by the panels themselves would have theoretically bounced off the wall anyway - again this is why reflection wasn't tested, as it doesn't matter so much for a panel setup (though would matter very much for a vocal booth).
Open to hear any thoughts about it though! Keep up the great discussion. :)

[@FUNDUDE-iw1uq]

It’s 1/26/23, and I’m watching this while this video is years old. Just moved into my first apartment and noticed a lot of echoing. Was about to buy some sound panels until I came across this. Saved me money and gave me the opportunity to make a memory while I make some of these with my girlfriend. Not many people may read this, but a great DIY idea for all.

[@Theunknownman52]

Let hos Knows if it works or not

[@codysnecktattoo3340]

Congratulations, I hope you're enjoying your new home! (And that the panels are working)

[@sebaitor]

Did they work?

[@aspringephemeral]

Aww that is the sweetest. I appreciate you coming to share the cute memory too! I also think this will be a really worthwhile day for me, and I can do it w my kid.

[@JeffDelMusic]

Hey there, I know its been a few years since you've posted this, but I just wanted to throw in that the testing you are doing for the sound panels are for sound isolation, not for sound absorption. If you look for professional sound isolation materials they tend to be very dense (which is why the towels worked very well, they were more dense than the foam you were using). The result is that you can have a drum tracking in one room, and barely hear it in the mixing room. This is different from sound absorption because those foam panels do a very good job at minimizing reflections. They take the sound and bounce it off in different directions, but not back at where the sound came from. To test this, it might be worth figuring out how to set up the microphone behind the speaker (so it doesn't pickup the speaker itself) with the speaker pointed at the material you are testing. At the end of the day, the towels worked really well for the job so no harm done. Just thought I'd offer my thoughts on why the test showed a different result. Cheers!

[@MikeWarner75]

I’m no expert on this (but I am an engineer) and I straight away thought this.

[@chrishernandez2490]

Same here dude. I was like "shouldn't he be testing for sound reflection somehow? And not the ability to cover up sound? "

[@tomba8992]

Yep, unfortunately, his test setup is completely wrong. In his test, a simple board would have won. And the foam has no effect at all in his test, because it only works in conjunction with a rigid surface. That is what it is made for. The way he used the foam is more comparable to a windshield for microphones.

[@haalandfilms1695]

you just saved me a lot of work, I was considering doing this. However the results of the towels are still very impressive!

[@LumpyJones1]

@@MikeWarner75 I thought about this option... what if a guy made theses panels to fit inside the wall between the studs? Your thoughts?

[@SWV1787]

“There is nothing in the universe so massively useful as a towel.”

[@java5017]

Don't forget to bring a towel!

[@308KingsRoad]

most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. 💁🏿‍♀️

[@LazyLightning91]

Thanks for all the fish!

[@brad9529]

You're a towel

[@brad9529]

@@makeitthrough_ Mommmmm that man call me a towel!

[@gperson1967]

The piles of dirty laundry around my room now have their own special reason for existing. Acoustics.

[@deepzone31]

Will your mom buy you a nice DAW if you clean up your room?

[@_Common_Logic_]

Funny, but also effective (for real)l... Trying to get house-guests to buy into it might be an issue though. ;-)

[@johnykparkjohn]

genius !

[@utubewillyman]

Works for dirty underwear too.

[@yaboyjonez9476]

Houuyyyaaaa 😂

[@morganmok4024]

hey guys audio engineer here. Towels and sponge will only kill off high frequencies, leaving a honkiness and rumbling from like 1000hz and below. For a little more money (or free if you have it lying around) use housing insulation (rockwool). Also to make it work better, make an air gap between the panel and the wall! An inch of air gap has the same effect as an extra inch of panel thickness!

[@chrissmith7259]

That's physics for you. You understand that sound is a wave.

[@pwnwin]

@@chrissmith7259 well, you know... AND PARTICLES... but you’re most certainly right.

[@jimnasium452]

@@pwnwin You're thinking of light, not sound.

[@pwnwin]

@@jimnasium452 oh shit i was. Funny how hard I be trippin sometimes.

[@normally6785]

the graphs show a significant reduction at 500hz with 3 towels, though.

[@ProfessorOzone]

I do a lot of this kind of testing at RF frequencies and it would be easy to poke all kinds of holes in his testing methodology, but personally, i think he did a great job here. In fact, he actually DID do a reflection test when he hung them on the wall an listened. The bottom line is, he found a low cost method to improve the sound and the results speak for themselves. He's not trying to open a testing facility. He's just trying to find an inexpensive, easy way to improve his sound quality and I think he achieved that very nicely.

[@sandrahammond5566]

How will this work on the low frequencies? (As in the repetition on oscillating fans ?) Very hard to deal with..! All night, every night for 2 yrs! Help!

[@chaddonal4331]

@@sandrahammond5566 His testing only went down to 500 Hz. Foam and 1-2" of towels (i.e. dense cotton) will greatly improve reducing slap-back and flutter echoes. But they'll have very little impact below 250 Hz and almost none below 125. To affect lower frequencies, you need mass, depth, and quantity. Think of minimum 4" thick, better 6-8" thick, and best: go for 12" thick. The thicker, and the higher quantity - the lower your impact will be. With 4" inches at Left and Right first reflection points and ceiling above, you can start to make a significant difference. Then put 8-12" behind your speakers (pulled away from the front wall as much as possible, and absolutely out of the corners!) and in your front wall corners, and you'll have strong improvement. Do some mic testing. If you find (as is common) that low frequency energy is collecting near your walls, and particularly in corners, add 4-12" at these locations (i.e. vertical front and rear corners of room). You can leave an air gap and performance will improve (i.e. 4" with a 4" air gap might perform more like 6" of treatment). Have fun!

[@indolering]

Exactly, his test is crap because it doesn't reflect real-world sources of noise.

[@rigocornejo6003]

@@indolering I mean I made 4 panel for my home teather just for test and see if my surround sound will perform better, guess what it sounds absolutely better so I made 6 more for corners and sitting area. and remerber we are not professionals try to sell something it is just to perform better than average

[@shamanbeartwo3819]

@@sandrahammond5566 To deal with low frequencies requires bass traps and typically those are made from something a lot denser than the panels put on walls to deal with mids and highs. I just see this towel idea as a great option to rockwool panels.

[@mygraphicprocess365]

This is why people in eastern Europe hanged carpets on the walls. We just wanted to have a quality sound tv room.

[@robertt9342]

Tapestry has an additional purpose in modern society.

[@kezzbeats]

i was so blinded in these years.....

[@tvm2209]

hahaha Touché

[@tempeleng]

haha I've always thought it weird to see those massive red carpet but it turns out your grandparents are geniuses. do the younger generation still do it and does it make the house more dusty?

[@mygraphicprocess365]

@@tempeleng You'll hardly find these in Poland nowadays. Just on the floors.

[@swilhelm3180]

You've got such a pragmatic, analytical mind! Now you should address how to soundproof a room as much as possible. So one could play loud music in it without disturbing others or how one could make it so we can't hear our neighbors. Everyone has noisy neighbors sometimes. Especially early in the morning!

[@fineaqua5429]

You're wrong. He made acoustic panel in diy way. An acoustic panel is used to reduce the echo effect. Remember, it is not soundproofing. If you want to avoid noisy neighborhood, you should look into soundproofing rather than acoustic panels. Mass loaded vinyl is the solution for your problem.

[@KC-bi9jw]

exactly, this isn't sound-proofing, this is sound-absorption. 2 very different things. What you're describing is a complete structural overhaul.

[@DIYPerks]

[important info regarding the testing] Thanks for the comments everyone! Some pretty interesting discussion going on and it's all very friendly - thanks for that, KZbin can be hostile sometimes so it's great to have such a warm audience. Now, there have been many comments pointing out that my test only measures *transmission* and not *reflection*, so is essentially unsuitable for my initial testing goal. While this is partly true, testing reflection is pretty difficult to do in a home environment, and the only way to do it that I can think of would be to spend a long time in the middle of a field with a powerful speaker and mic rig, which is really beyond the scope of what I was prepared to do for the video. My tests are not rendered pointless however - it would do no good to have only measured reflection, as the thinnest lightest material would have won (like foam), as nothing would have bounced back. Reflection and transmission need to be tested together to measure how much sound passes through, and how much sound is reflected back - this should give an indication of how much sound is absorbed by a given material. Regardless, only testing the transmission doesn't affect the outcome of the project at all, as any sound waves reflected by the panels themselves would have theoretically bounced off the wall anyway - again this is why reflection wasn't tested, as it doesn't matter so much for a panel setup (though would matter very much for a vocal booth). Open to hear any thoughts about it though! Keep up the great discussion. :) Matt

[@nielshermans761]

Hey Matt, How would this compare to rockwool type absorbers you see all around?

[@Edsdrafts]

Hi Matt. I think the test was a good idea and well done. Studios will invest tens of thousands (and some hundreds of thousands) into professional grade sound insulation regardless what towel you throw at them. But for home user and KZbinr on budget this is great. Thanks a lot for sharing and keep up the good work. This is by far the easiest and most effective DIY project I have seen.

[@mathiaskjeldgaardpetersen5926]

Love the video but please can you put in a warning. I had to literally throw my headphones off at the testing part it hurt my ears so bad. People will react differently ofc. but a little warning wouldn't hurt.

[@LevisL95]

Following the same logic, I also think that the test should be pretty accurate. Of course if you would test something like sheet metal the same way, it would appear excellent since the sound would reflect from it and not get to the mic. But with the tested materials it shouldn't matter at all.

[@NochSoEinKaddiFan]

I think there is a significant difference between testing sound passing through a material and sound bouncing off of it. The results may change when microphone and speaker are boht on the same side or the material like they will be in the final application. But that is just an assumption ;)

[@drzoidberg7819]

You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel.

[@BuckBowen]

I'm dying!

[@GoddessAngelinaj]

excellent

[@BirdFinder100]

Not bad.

XD oh my! that got me the moment i came to the comments!! damn!

[@OzventureTime]

this makes so much more sense now! :O

[@The_Bearded_Lady]

I love this. I have never done testing, but I have always just hung up blankets and fabric on the walls when I lived in an apartment and had shared walls. It drastically cut down on noise transfer (and in places that weren't properly insulated- temperature transfer). And again, they can be found at the second-hand shops for relatively cheap and if you don't like the look of them you can just hang a prettier fabric on the top/outside and it works great. Might not look the coolest, but it is cheap and easy and can be done in multiple different ways from nailing blankets on the wall to layers of them to frames and on and on. This is also how I do curtains lol. But you can achieve trashy to classy with just a bit more money and/or effort. Thanks for sharing this with us and doing the fancy testing piece so people believe you lol ;) Cheers Edit: Also, wanted to say that you can easily still put shelving over top if you make less layering in places you need things to be flush to the wall (or you can even cut out holes- I try to just cut 3 sided holes in the smiley face direction so if I take the shelf down I can let the flap fall back down and mostly not look too bad).

[@ayushvasurudragour427]

While he was drilling that frame his neighbors were searching for an effective soundproof DIY on youtube

[@natscat4752]

😂

[@Rideologist]

Towel sales went up 23.9% when this video was released.

[@keifmalone4149]

Nice one.

[@noisepuppet]

I used Bounty

[@terrywilliams4145]

lol

[@lyteyearz5810]

I know right lmao

[@Bartenderhqcommunity]

Surely 42%...

[@joel9909]

Watched at least 15 of these videos on this subject and this by far outshines them, Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@opalproductionsLLC]

After 2hrs of searching online, this was by far the BEST! Thank you

[@MarkOfArgyll]

“A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

[@WhisperwindASMR]

This was exactly what I thought!!

[@aking3624]

I hate umbrella's..I always carry a towel!! 😃

[@kykk3365]

Funny as it is, it's also very true. It's the first thing I pack when I go backpacking, no matter where I go or for how long. Thank you, Mr Adams.

[@scottiedunnavan3834]

@@aking3624 whaaaaat a psycho

[@marijns]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jV6vcn-DoKuFatU . I stick to Towelies

[@HardwareCanucks]

Incredible! Exactly what i need for my space :) Thanks Matt!

[@DIYPerks]

Great to hear! Feel free to tweet me a pic of what you come up with if it's successful :)

[@chrizzy56]

Yee Hi Dmitri, such a coincidence

[@sienz982]

good morning starlord

[@12P14D22C]

would love to see it in a video. The more impressions the better. I will make a few myself and hope it turns out great.

[@neiltrigger]

I love the scientific approach. It’s exactly what I need for recording my audiobooks. I just wish the lawyers would hurry up with the purchase of my house so I can get started. ;-)

[@mfkhometheater7742]

Definitely interesting. A better way to test however would be to use a sweep tone and a time windowed measurement so that you can place the test material on a hard acoustically reflective surface on the ground and measure the impact of the material on reflections. You're measuring how much sound transfers through the material, not how much is reflected back. This may or may not be a good indication of how well it reduces reflections in a room. It's a better indicator of how well it might avoid complaints from neighbors. From your test we know it's good at sound containment, we don't know for certain that it's good at absorption. With a time windowed measurement both the loudspeaker and the microphone are mounted in the air above the test area. The loudspeaker directs sound down at the floor where it reflects back up to the microphone. Sound also travels a direct path from the loudspeaker to the microphone but this sound is time windowed out of the measurement data. The sweep tone starts and the software waits enough time for the sound to reach the floor and bounce back to the microphone. Prior to that time the direct sound hitting the microphone is ignored. Once the initial reflected sound arrives at the microphone the software filters out and ignores every frequency but the start frequency of the sweep. This filter window sweeps with the sweep tone so that only the frequency just arriving from the floor reflection is included in the data. The sound arriving along the direct path from loudspeaker to microphone is ignored. First take a measurement of the reflection off the hard acoustically reflective floor surface. This is stored as your reference. Next you place the various test materials on the floor and overlay each materials data with the reference data. The difference tells you how many dB down the reflection is across frequency. Instead of just a few discrete frequencies with no scaling, you get a nice frequency response graph indicating exactly how effective the material is at absorbing sound as a function of frequency. I think the towels probably actually do work pretty well, possibly better than the acoustic foam you tested. It's just that this test isn't a true valid way of proving it.

[@CaptainThisShip]

Really now

[@ocdsound1256]

correct. His test only measured the transfer loss from one side to the other. For example, a sheet of plywood would have dominated these tests...allowing perhaps the least amount of sound to pass through...lol, but would do nothing to change the reverb time of the room. Its important when considering acoustic material to evaluate based on the measured change in reverb time when installed. Most acoustically significant material has published data in this regard. His before/after room sound evaluation gives perhaps a good indication. It would have been meaningful to test the equivalent surface area of the acoustic foam in the same room, which most likely would have had a tremendous impact as well.

[@MSH3423]

Your content is always well researched and well made !!! Thank you!

[@TarbyRocks]

Accidentally had this muted and was in turn extremely impressed with how well the panels worked for a moment

[@HalleyOBrienMedia]

I appreciate your humor.

[@keifmalone4149]

MMCU Made Me Crack Up!

[@Knee-Lew]

I could barely hear through the subtitles with my phone muted

[@tarnpirlane6792]

Played Tarby played 👏

[@SocksWithSandals]

I wonder how many MK Ultra assassins were triggered into action by that tone sequence.

[@Dyonysus777]

And how many dogs thought it was the dinner bell and ate the neighbours pet?

[@rigoguillen1295]

Hahahahah

[@thiirtyseventeen]

The 2.3k people who unliked the video

[@alexanderream1384]

I now remember my mission

[@alexanderream1384]

lol

[@KelleytinaVW]

Was reading apartment reviews about thin walls and need a soundproofing idea besides thick curtains for the windows and carpet for the floors, I needed something for the walls. This is amazing and will give me a fun diy craft to do while settling in

[@salan3780]

@Laura Brown not as good as a bath towel!

[@mandymandy7225]

@Pablo Slalom this is what I would like to know. My party wall is dry wall only and neighbours are inconsiderate with noise! I have some underlay so may staple it to some battens and bang it through the wall!

[@moonrise3251]

Seriously innovative and relatable! Excellent job. Thank you!

[@DavidHager1]

There's a lot of misunderstand going on in the comments. Given foam materials, the walls of the room you're in reflect the sound, not the foam. This is why he's testing the permeability of the materials, the sound needs to get to the wall and bounce off to create echo. Materials can reflect sound which would make this test obsolete, but I'd be willing to bet these types of materials sound reflection is arbitrary. Like I said, The foam does not significantly reflect sound itself, if you built a room out of foam or towels there would be no echo, because these materials don't reflect sound enough to create one. So we're not testing how much the materials do or don't reflect sound, we're testing how much they let sound pass through, because we know these materials won't reflect sound to a significant degree.

[@DIYPerks]

That's true. It would have been good to have tested both sound transmission AND reflection though - I tested sound transmission because it's quite easy to do. Not sure how I'd go about testing reflection, and none of the critics have mentioned how I could do that. Had I found a way to test reflection, and then only tested reflection, it would have been a pretty pointless test as the thinnest lightest material would have won (like foam), as nothing would have bounced back. I guess the two need to be done together to measure how much sound passes through, and how much sound is reflected back - that should give an indication of how well sound is absorbed by a given material.

[@NickArtman]

Great job on your videos! Really enjoy them :) I work with some really sharp acoustic engineers and I am asking them about this very idea which is quite interesting. I would think (this is just a thought) that one could create a sound in a small enclosed space (thinking a 8' plywood box). Then after a second or so turn the sound off but leave the mic on and measure the remaining sound. Then compare those results to different materials

[@terraomastar]

This is true, but ultimately it doesn't matter. If you have awesome absorption, no reflection will occur. The sound would have to make it through the towel dampening frame, hit the wall, then make it *back* through the frame again. Doubtful tbh that it could ever do that unless it was extremely loud.

[@bakntime2]

You are correct, in a way, but also consider this: A concrete wall does a magnificent job of blocking the *transmission* of sound (you can barely hear what's going on in the other room when the walls are concrete) but they are absolutely terrible at damping the reflection of sound (standing in a concrete room, the reflections/reverb would be hideous). In other words, blocking the transmission of sound is not the same as blocking the reflection of sound (a good sound transmission blocker isn't necessarily a good sound reflection damper). In the case of this video, towels are fairly good because they act as both blockers of transmission as well as dampers of reflections (sound doesn't reflect easily off the surface of a towel), but the testing he does is virtually pointless from a scientific point of view. He's simply not testing the material in an applicable setting. Again, for his testing, he could have put a concrete barrier between the microphone and the speaker, and it would have shown magnificent sound blocking behavior, but putting concrete on the walls would only make the reverb in the room much worse.

[@DavidHager1]

Cave Johnson Because we already know that the materials don't reflect sound what you're saying doesn't apply. The reason your example of using concrete works against his method is because concrete reflects sound, if we use materials that don't reflect sound in the first place, there's no need for designing a test that accounts for the variable of sound reflection.

[@bragastraat2288]

I've always wondered why I become soundproof coming out of the shower...

[@KAMAKAMUSIC]

Gold 😂😂😂

[@adradri1127]

😂😂😂😂

[@MarioSantoso]

Out of the many interesting comments, this one made me laugh instantly!

[@pdiaz2270]

Bahahaha

[@almazonly]

Lol)))) good one!!!!!!!!

[@justanothernoobe]

THAT. IS. NUTS! Loving your content. I usually don't have the time to make some of the projects that you do but definitely doing these for my own filming / recording studio 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@yamajasty2717]

You're a marvelous person for supplying that information. Blessings

[@theonlyari]

Ironing towels in the garden... how very British :)

[@DIYPerks]

Especially with a cup of tea :)

[@myselfremade]

I think its a fair assesment, but it is important to note that when coating the walls of a studio, you are trying to reduce REFLECTION, not TRANSMISSION, of sound waves. Some materials that transmit sound quite readily, don't reflect very much (like foam ((especially with those angular bumps like acoustic foam))) There is a reason anacoeic chambers aren't made of towels.

[@myselfremade]

The correct way to measure reverb is to point a microphone and a speaker at the panel (side by side) and send out a short burst of sound. You can calculate how short the burst should be by using the speed of sound and the distance. Just make sure the sound duration is shorter than the distance (in sound*Seconds) You are effectively building a SONAR. So you send your ping, and see the intensity of reflections. You get a bonus here of being able to compare it to the original sound volume, so you can actually calculate exactly how much % was reflected. All the rest that wasn't reflected, was either absorbed or transmitted.

[@matthewarmour9105]

haha. reducing reflection means it just passes through to the um, wall it's tacked to. and then reflected BACK. hence TRANSMISSION is key. not many people can afford an anechoic chamber wall. lol

[@xenomorphunk4875]

theonlyari

[@tokiomitohsaka7770]

“A towel, The KZbinr's Guide to the Internet says, is about the most massively useful thing a KZbinr can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold and unforgiving comment section; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Vidcon, inhaling the heady vapors of glory; you can sleep under it beneath the stars because you have spent all your money on a fancy camera; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow DSL speeds as you contemplate switching to a different ISP; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Algorithm of to avoid demonstrations (such a mind-boggingly stupid algorithm, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and you can hang it on the wall for sound absorption, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

[@DiogocsOliveira]

As soon as I saw the towel, I came looking for this comment. Thank you for the Douglas Adams reference. ^_^

[@germanvaz7526]

@@DiogocsOliveira he surely knows where his towel is

[@andrebartels1690]

I couldn't have written it any better. Great!

[@TheJpwzrd]

Hahah

[@orngjce223]

[standing ovation]

[@miraclewalkerproductions]

Thank you very much for this! It's incredibly helpful, especially for people who (like me) are just starting out. All the very best from Toronto Canada

[@jaybestnz]

From. what I've been reading there are several elements to improving sound in a room. First is a sound barrier from say a neighbour, and that is somewhat what you are doing placing a mic behind the barriers. People who sell the acoustic foam explain that the whole way it works is that it should be attached to a hard panel (the harder and thicker the better).I used plywood or MDF. The sponge absorbs my voice and the wood gives a hard surface that echoed but keeps my studio quiet. Then there are reflective baffles which are generally a hard surface of all random angles. This diffuses the echo by bouncing it around the room but mainly away from the voice. By being a very hard surfactace it also blocks the noise too. Your experiment and idea to use towels is awesome and my next build I will be using this for sure. I do think adding a back panel could help neighbor noise also.

[@JeanFrancoisDesrosiers]

Been juggling with ideas to build DIY panels on the cheap. Yours are the best: easy, cheap, performant, and looking not too shabby.

[@petermenningen338]

the reason they hung Tapestries in castles and churches in the middle ages

[@003SOK]

you kinda just blew my mind. practical and beautiful.

[@yolandarobertson6202]

Unfortunately, the use of tapestries in the Middle Ages was a lot more practical, since they were necessary on the walls and sometimes doorways in winter months for insulation and proper heating. They were aesthetically pleasing because no one wants to look at some plain rags on the wall. Tapestries told stories, usually they had depictions of biblical events, or hunting scenes and so on and since they were so portable (unlike the heavy large paintings of the time) they were rolled up and carried around with people also as a status symbol. But it is nice that someone’s mind was blown, hope that facts have mended it.

[@_midnight3057]

This blew my mind

[@scotttovey]

@Don Mega I knew a man some years ago that went to Africa on a missionary trip for a week. Before he left, his wife loaded the food up with garlic. While he was in Africa, he sweated the garlic out of his body which it annoyed his human companions. It was apparently even more annoying to the local vampires. He was the only one the mosquitoes left alone.

[@asmrnishi5227]

Wow I didn't know that!

[@OliverKuiz]

Well that is my week sorted! Thank you for this!!! I can't wait to get started

[@awinpaech]

👏👏... You are awesome. Thank you for your content. There is so much I've learned from your projects. I'm excited to see what comes next. Great job!

[@dexterousx92]

*The simplicity of this testing and project is pure genius. I appreciate your contribution to youtube. Keep up the good work and thanks for the ideas* DexterousX

[@bobbyshaftoe45]

Having scoured the youtubes, I always end up back on this video as the gold standard DIY sound damping project. Well done.

[@ErikOosterwal]

Blankets work very well too, especially the quilted ones used by shipping/moving companies. You can get shipping blankets at places like Harbor Freight. Another source for cheap blankets, besides your local thrift shop as mentioned in the video, is military surplus stores. The military surplus blankets won't be quilted. When doing interviews in large rooms or shooting video demonstrations in a kitchen, cover as much of the hard floors as you can with the blankets. You can pile them up below and near the mic as well as behind chairs where the interview is happening to cut down on reflections. Keep the camera pointed towards the subjects and your audience will never see the mountains of blankets hidden in the room.

[@lilliangarza4954]

This was exactly what I was looking for. Great video! Thank you so much!

[@elixorvideos]

This might be the greatest budget sound dampening video I've ever seen

[@masterdriveroftoyotazupr4164]

Firefighter: "the fire is till being investigated, but dude had artwork of Towels everywhere."

[@DannyKellyOfficial]

😅😅😅😅😅

[@leonardorojas1781]

Haha

[@RaphaelLoopro]

can also be handled by spraying the towels with a special spray ;)

[@hanelyp1]

Borax performs well as a fire retardant. It's just not washable. Also serves to repel pests that might want to nest in the towels.

[@lottavernix]

The poor man, no one could hear his screams.

[@Gurchen]

Matt I must say that your channel is one of my favourite channels on KZbin, they are always extremely well made and I can really tell that you are putting A LOT of work into them. They are often within reach for us lazy DIY:ers as well and I might actually do this one! Thanks for an awesome tutorial!

[@DIYPerks]

Thank you! :)

[@rahmanrazzo3337]

seriously the videos are very well organized and informative, thanks diy perks

[@TAM-mj9lb]

This is a brilliant test that goes to show that the tighter weave of cotton has much better sound absorption than the expensive sound acoustic foam that you find even in high-end studio baffles. Absolutely ingenious trial and error testing with good equipment. I will incorporate this excellent method in my new ambient electronic studio. Thank you very much!!!

[@powerWithinUs4055]

Many things to love here, thank you for the ideas. The test itself is thought provoking. Thing most impressive ...try stuff. Don't think DIY is not good or better than what you might buy, Wood floors are here to stay. We have to make changes to compensate for echoey sounds that are just plain unpleasant. Do stuff as you go along. Used a birch plywood application for a bedroom wall which had had cheap installation. The drywall had been started at the ceiling. Last piece was at the floor, like a six -inch width drywall strip for the odd end. Whatja do that for? If numbered, it would be start at the top, # 1, next is #3, floor is #2. To make odd size at the floor makes for vibration and noise transmission. Using the odd width in the middle of the new wall, makes finishing and sanding easier, its waist high, easier to work with. Stagger studs, green tape, double drywall, putty around outlet boxes. Lots of things work, but first you have to implement. So far, we've done nothing. Try, and share your results. Some here have wondered, why not use towels in studs. Do not. Rots over time, would be inviting to rodents, spread a fire. Insulation made from blue denim sounded good....users say it settles. You had ceiling to floor...it settles by a third. When you build or repair, do it yourself or pay others.....think. If you put in hardwood floor, don't short -change....go all the way to avoid any gaps that would channel sound or critters. Use a flashlight. If you see light, it's a gap. Fill it. Love this vid, have forwarded to others. Little changes are helpful. Stash components for wall hangers Ilittle by little. Get old beach towels from friends. Make them some as you do yours. Use art store canvas stretchers....long ones are $3 each, need four, No cutting, the corners push together, no tools. Staple gun fabric or colored sheets. Do them assembly line to share with friends. Advantage to wall hangings is, you can move them around to try in different places. Going up a staircase is a must because it breaks sound transmission.

[@tonytfuntek3262]

I believe the properties of professional acoustical tiles include them to be nonflammable. This is something to consider.

[@JoshuaJBouw]

Nothing a stinky can of nonflammable spray can't solve.

[@CharlieForbes524]

You could soak them in flame retardent before construction.

[@MrErickGee]

muffinluveruuu lmao! thanks

[@duthies]

If you ever doubt the importance of this - search youtube for the great white disaster - and see how fast non flame-retardant soundproofing burns and spreads!

[@tonytfuntek3262]

My point exactly.... I remember that disaster like it happened yesterday.

[@ExperimentarEnCasa]

As usual, absolutely awesome video!! Thank you for sharing such a nice idea with us. Best regards from a Spanish sub :D

[@ZonaALG]

Experimentar En Casa Baia baia

[@CrisFuentes]

❤️❤️

[@bf7592]

Very nice visual representation. I wish more people would include that in their sound tests just to make the comparisons visually easier.

[@HowIDoThingsDIY]

Very interesting. I used a different method in my home theater but It's cool to see the comparisons. Thanks.

[@robmartin5414]

Hit the dollar stores they have canvas art panels so your one step up just fill the back with towels and your done

[@HungrysitesRu]

it can be more sound reflective so less sound gets inside and trapped

[@trusso11783]

What sizes do they have? I would think that 2’ X4’ would be an average size. Do they have anything that big?

[@robmartin5414]

@@trusso11783 depends on the store near you I’ve boughten 24/36 canvass for painting project

[@AprilSnow3121]

yes I was wondering the same thing as I watched this........

[@natscat4752]

Ooh I like this. And then you can paint them 😊 👩‍🎨

[@-Buckarooz]

I'm going to make some of these to stop all the echos in my bakery shop, I'll get some prints on them to reflect what I sale instead of the walls reflecting voices. Thanks so much for the idea

[@DIYPerks]

Sounds like a good use case!

[@stevengockij5841]

Don't forget that these panels will be insulative as well. I don't think I'd put them in a bakery, too hot.

[@-Buckarooz]

Valid point, but its for a bakery shop, the bakery is behind it. But others may have to think about the insulation aspect which could be a benefit or hindrance depending on the individual situation.

[@stevengockij5841]

Guess I made a bit of an assumption that the panels were going somewhere hot, oops! I agree that these panels (with prints of baked goods) would look excellent in the store part of your bakery.

[@TRWnan]

Maybe attach the towels with snaps so they can be laundered?

[@denislyons]

Great video. Super informative and super friendly. Thanks Matt!

[@laurabrown5445]

Acoustic Foams are used for Echo & Acoustic Curtains are used for Soundproofing SoundProof-Curtains.me

[@chrispy7008]

This one is so helpful. Something that saves money while actually being practical. Thank you!

[@AdamRainStopper]

Ok, I really hope people read my comment, and take precautions. I'm not saying you CAN'T use this method, just be mindful of the risks and take steps to minimize them. 1) Fire hazard. These can be hung on walls, but do *NOT* put them in a spot where there are outlets that are going to be used. Keep all electrical wiring away. Keep any and all sources of heat away, don't put them over heating vents or radiators, and obviously, no open flame. 2) Moisture. If your studio or office or youtube-video-making-hole-in-the-wall is not humidity-controlled, well, it should be, for the sake of all the equipment. This could be as easy as getting a meter and finding out that it just happens to stay at around 30-38% ambient humidity all the time, so you don't NEED to get any additional equipment. It *COULD* be more complicated, if the humidity gets high, you need a dehumidifier (you can obviously turn it off while you're recording) in that room. High humidity in a room with a bunch of towels hanging on the walls can be a huge problem, leading to the growth of mildew and mold, even deadly black mold spores that will go airborne the moment you turn on a fan or do anything that shakes the towel-panels around a bit. There IS a better option, but you can't quite do it for 5 bucks a panel. Do exactly what he did with the wood frame, but then put in some rigid fiberglass insulation (Owens-Corning 707 or 705 or 703, or Roxul if you have a bit more to spend). The white towel on the outside is an acceptable covering, although in won't be necessary, and you could cover it cheaper with basically any dense fabric (ask about the fabric's resistance to fire and moisture) from the fabric store. You obviously need to cover BOTH front and back of these panels, so you aren't getting dust from the insulation in the air. Use hot glue around the edges to make a decent seal, and if you are using speaker-cloth or a similar stretchy nylon or rayon type fabric, maybe wrap two layers to contain the insulation well. This will raise the price of your acoustic treatment to around 20 bucks a panel (4' x 2' panels), but it will also do a far better job inhibiting the reverberation and comb-filtering of the really low frequencies, which are the ones that are most problematic for recording audio, and also LISTENING to audio, if you are editing, mixing, mastering a musical track for your video, or if you came to this video because music is what you do and why you need acoustic treatment in the first place. Good luck everyone. Feel free to ask me any questions, if you don't get an answer within a day, it means I didn't get a notification, so just post it on my channel.

[@SpirosAbatis]

Well put

[@bonicon1]

I'm trying to reduce outside noise from coming in a 5X6 window. I have big pieces of styrofoam packing panels, 1-2 inch thick. If I cover these with towels or blankets, can I hang them in the windows? Tx.

[@moviemaker2011z]

what about doing the towel on the outside but putting foam in the middle? cut the foam to size and add hot glue or even cold clue in between around the edges? saves time on cutting a sewing towels and would probably work just as much albeit probably just a bit less. the towels work so great because of the fibers on it which act like sound catching fibers to help reduce the noise, all you would need is the outer towel to slow down the sound and the foam can do the rest with like said maybe slightly less successful results but still effective enough right?

[@francisgeorge7639]

Give them a soak in boric acid dissolved in water. Dry off and they'll be resistant to mould. Boric acid is a common ant killer powder.

[@francisgeorge7639]

Boric acid also a fire retardent.

[@reiko6269]

RIP people who have their PC volume high and with headphones

[@MuhammadMazharUlHassan]

😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@jakevejerano3256]

The comment I've been looking for

[@nickeon2]

I THINK I GOT BRAINWASHED

[@onefractalfield6818]

Me

[@Xoranium]

😂😂😂😛😛😛😜😜😜

[@rjennings0142]

Dude! SWEET! This is ingenious!!! Why didn't I think of this or come across this until NOW.. I wasn't even looking. Good jobbb!

[@bernardofourcade]

But you are not testing how much is reflecting that is actually the point you started with ( preventing sound waves from bouncing from the walls). If you kept trying other materials and as for example use a panel of drywall you will have the lowest level at the microphone and you would have arrived to the conclusion that drywall panel has more absorption. You would have covered your walls with more drywall panels and end up in the same situation. :) You need to measure absorption by means of how that affect r3flections.

[@JThompson_VI]

Very clever touch with the drywall joke, and a good point. Thanks

[@Yotrymp]

True. He arrived at the correct results for the wrong reasons.

[@ChrischoBoardgaming]

A guy who's man enough to do his own ironing and sewing? Liked and subscribed.

[@anthonyfletcher8053]

You’re an idiot. Men do more ironing than women. This ain’t the 50s anymore smh www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8633967/Survey-finds-52-cent-British-men-claim-ironing-home.html

[@brownieluvsYT]

@@anthonyfletcher8053 Not every guy is the same, so stfu

[@roflmows]

@@anthonyfletcher8053 it was just a joke, man x.x

[@anthonyfletcher8053]

@@brownieluvsYT wow.. i apologize.. the school system has truly failed you if you dont know how averages work..

[@anthonyfletcher8053]

@@roflmows Im aware of this, still a stupid joke.

[@andrewlankford9634]

Why aren't you testing for reflection instead of transmission?

[@youthmanrecords965]

Andrew Lankford that would make the most sense. But this will show you bleed through and that translates to absorption in a diff way.

[@witrywaza7289]

From the real-life test in the video we can see that the towel works pretty well but I do agree with Andrew the test is for isolation not absorption. According to this test a triple insulated glazing window would show even better performances as there is vaccum between the layer, which should give near perfect acoustic isolation. However the absorption of such a window should be as terrible as any window since the surface is almost perfectly flat, therefore reflecting sound nicely. Still the DIY panels look good, are cheap and seems to do the job. Plus if you want to combine your home studio with a sauna, you already have the towels.

[@paulsorensen8489]

Yes he measured transmission not reflection. In his use case he is trying to reduce the sound reflections from the wall. Drywall is very dense and a good sound reflector. If you reduce the transmission through the panel, the sound won't reach the walls to be reflected back into the room. The preferred material for commercial and DIY panels is Roxoul fiberglass batts which is very dense. It's also used inside walls to soundproof studios. Without doing testing, I would guess 6 layers of towels would approach the density of Roxoul. Certainly closer than the other materials he tested. As a bonus, not only reduces wall reflection, but helps sound proof walls too. Less transmission from the other side of the wall. Too much density like MDF board and it becomes reflective. Softer materials like Roxoul and towels also tend to absorb sound because the porous material diffuses the sound internally. Basically converting sound energy into heat. This is why furniture like couches and mattresses help the acoustics of a room. A bare wall tends to reflect sound back onto the same path it came from. The echo is caused by the longer path and slight delay to the microphone. Convoluted foam panels commonly used to reduce reflections, works more by diffusing the sound rather than absorbing it. Sound still reaches the walls, but is reflected back in many different directions. Sound bounces around the room and cancels itself out. Less sound reflects directly back to microphone for less echo effect.

[@philliptoone]

I was going to ask the same question. But you already did.

[@neilkio4397]

@@philliptoone me too

[@rayrissel5951]

First time here. This Is a great idea, very well presented! Thank you. I’ll be checking out your other videos...

[@kengoodman7719]

Awesome work! Another benefit from using towels is you can drape your towels over an amp/mic setup, for example. Just need to make sure your mic placement is not moved as a result.

[@BayslickOfficial]

So I tried doing this and I have a few remarks and stuff I did different. First off all I would first cut the towels to size, attach them to the frame and all the way at the end, attach the main white towel with the stapler. This way, you can cover the rough edges that you cut in the red towel as seen at 6:00. It also makes sure that you can position and stretch your towels inside and check for sewing mistakes. Most importantly, you can make everything perfect untill adding the front towel of the panel. This is important because, depending on your towel thickness, you'll see it looking at the panel from the side. In this case, the red towel would be very visible from the side.

[@attilathechump9458]

I have a professional Whisper Room in my home studio (the real deal, not the home cooked variety), and the best solution I found for blocking air conditioning noise from the outside was a couple of air mattresses. Yes, just plain $10 air mattresses. Two are on the side facing the air conditioner, one at an oblique angle to baffle noise from reaching my door. On the other side, another one wedged between the booth and the interior room wall provides even more isolation from the cement apartment. On the inside, I block noise from the ventilation system with a layer of garage floor foam. Total cost: about $70. And the noise floor inside dropped from about -46dB to lower than -72dB. So low I don't even need to use the noise gate in my pre-amp anymore, which prevents those frustrating "chops" at the starts of words. I'm thinking of adding these panels to the wall in the room to kill noise even further. Brilliant video.

[@TheWindGinProject]

Thanks so much. I live in an apartment and really need a sound dampening booth because I attempt / experiment / play different types of flutes and a bit of guitar. I play at the lowest possible volume now which is so low I can barely hear myself. I think this technique may be helping me improve in certain areas but I can't hear myself enough to really know. Do you think I would dampen enough sound that my neighbors would not hear if I use air mattresses for the walls and roof on a small booth? I could add towel panels inside as well. I still plan on playing at an extremely low volume and only from 5pm to 8pm. I could either make the "Air Booth" in a spare bathroom or bedroom. I'm not sure if my neighbors ever hear me but they probably did a little until I started using the super low volume technique. I'm on the first floor. Thanks again!

[@nipambarman3221]

Hey man Thank you so much for these kinda experiments . This is so great 🙏 Now m ready to make some

[@roollout4131]

" Don't forget to bring a towel." - Towlie

[@johnmichaelrichards]

42 of them. And a pot of tea.

[@DoctorFu]

"No, Towlie; we don't wanna get high."

[@atilab99draws58]

the neighbours must've thought you were contacting the aliens

[@Aloewells]

@Christi Edison yeah, that's what curtains in Home r used for.

[@ParaLightWorX]

Thanks for that great test! Greetings from Germany :)

[@standardheat-fs8159]

@@laurabrown1474 Stop advertising this bullshit with 20 accounts all over these videos

[@finixHD]

schon komisch das son tuch besser is als was teures

[@deadchannel3864]

I think the reason that the towels work so much better than foam is that they are somewhat loose where the foam is rigid. Materials that can move will translate the energy in sound vibrations into silent tiny movements. Rigid materials can't do this, so more is sound energy can pass through. Great video BTW!

[@bonobo9904]

Great research work! Thank you very much! Revolutionary approach!

[@CiaraCarruthers]

"Well done, towel". That was adorable. Excellent video, thank you!

[@justinransburg5560]

When recording "Don't forget to bring a towel."

[@MrAlanj23]

"When you get out of the water you need to dry off right away to avoid catchin' a cold. That's why Towelie says, "Don't forget to bring a towel."

[@TrickArrow]

"That's the theme to funky town"

[@pbrsteve5974]

The noise will get just a little high.

[@KnowGoodHuman]

I have no idea what's going on.

[@MrHurrikane13]

Justin Ransburg favorite internet comment ever

[@frostyhillasmr752]

Very helpful video, and I love the idea of recycling old materials. Thank you!

[@NiharsNook]

Nicely Done Sir! Enjoyed the video. Thanks Matt.

[@Niklasbrock]

I had a very strong "metallic" reverb in my room. I took 5 towels, folded them once and hung them up around the room. Obviously a temporary solution, but it took me 5 minutes and now my room has no obvious reverb. Towels are super good at absorption, thank you for the tip!

[@thatonegayfurry4177]

ik ya said temporary and ya probably fucked them off by now but what i did is use flags instead of a towl for the face of the frame looks really good they also use the flag thing at work to kill noise

[@knarffrank]

Finally! a youtuber with valuable content, not just creating a video for the content.

[@aricmacbsb]

Amazing!! Congratulations and thanks for the tip!!

[@kevykev9957]

Ooohhh. My Garsh !!! I’ve watched a million videos for this kind of info and didn’t learn as much combined as I learned in this video! I’ve loved so many of your videos just for fun. I made an (edit oops) hdmi monitor out of an old laptop. I attempted to make an led strip (and failed miserably). But this will change everything in my theater room. I’ve been afraid to commit to any sort of sound reflection material and now I’m going to strategically hang up towels to know the most efficient amount and locations for the sound dampening materials I will need. If you’re looking for video material, this theater room/sound manipulation stuff is my vote!! You sir.? Are the king.!*

[@schlapcity2774]

Just watched this 4 years later, and it’s amazing to see how the quality was always amazing!

[@richardbrown1189]

A very comprehensive and interesting test. The only drawback I can see from your analysis is that in the garden you are testing how effective the materials are at preventing sound being transmitted whereas inside you are using them to prevent sound being reflected. You could well come up with a structure which was a great sound insulator (the first case) but was still very bad at preventing reflected sound (the second case). Just something to think about!

[@YorkReacts]

You Sir have cracked the code for the best budget acoustic paneling great stuff! Towels !!!

[@212025510]

Your approach to building stuff is very scientific. I think you've proven your design actually works, unlike most projects like this on youtube.

[@mariosebastiani3214]

Hi! Environmental acoustic technician here; the foam panel is known to have very poor performance. A variable density polyester mat fares much better... almost as good as yours, which is truly impressive. The added benefit of the towels is mass, which can be kind of an hindrance but also greatly absorbs pressure waves. Great job!

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

Oh finally a more honest acoustic technician lmao

[@glenesis]

Excellent testing. Thanks Matt! The towels work better because sound gets trapped in airspace. Towels provide excellent diffusion. I've never seen them deployed to quite this scale, nor tested against pro foam tiles, so thanks so very much for this. I'm a recording engineer and this info is solid gold. Cheers mate!

[@glenesis]

@DethFiesta Yes. Thanks for clarifying. I was trying to explain exactly that. They're sound-insulators.

[@carlosenafricasud]

glenesis i get a lot of noise from the outside traffic. Can I apply into my windows?

[@fins59]

"Sound gets trapped in airspace" !!! ROFL Stop it you're pinging my BS meter.

[@mickbanner]

@@fins59 actually. Layers of air can help with decoupling - where the sound wave goes from a wave into a vibration and back into a wave.

[@fins59]

@@mickbanner Quote "where the sound wave goes from a wave into a vibration and back into a wave" Are you a comedian?

[@jtwrally]

what an incredibly useful and informative video. Thanks

[@AllisoNVG5]

AHHHHHH THIS IS AMAZING!!! Thank you thank you thank you for this great finding!!!!

[@filipgrujic6738]

u are talking about sound improvement,maybe u should start with making your mic sound the same on the left and right channel

[@oursavior9883]

You should learn how to construct a basic sentence.

[@anosjanantonyjoseph4470]

+Filip get a life you ugly Egg

[@drkastenbrot]

tru dat

[@EricLefebvrePhotography]

Stereo mic mixed down to mono or duplicated to the other channel would be much better and takes 2 seconds to do and considering the topic is how to get better sound, I don't think that the comment was particularly wrong. This would be like someone doing a video on lighting and having a terribly under exposed image. :)

[@BillyandBoby]

+Eric Lefebvre a better analogy would be having an image that's slightly red shifted on a video about exposure.

[@Oblivion776]

"We're going to use a long piece of wood, cutting it down into shorter pieces." Yep, that's about what I understand out of every woodworking video on KZbin.

[@The_DC_Kid]

@Duribethin What; glue them all together just to cut them down again? Now you be talkin' all DAFT.

[@BrekRND]

I prefer short peices of wood, and a board streacher..... now where did I leave it

[@smithy1578]

We are going to start out with small pieces of wood and cutting them bigger

[@The_DC_Kid]

@Duribethin I think they call my method "the Army way".

[@aienbalosaienbalos4186]

My method is to start with a fat wallet and slim it down until the panels are installed on my wall.

[@wingatuimusic3903]

Interesting results! Would have been nice to have acoustic rock wool (batts) included as that is a common cheap/DIY alternative also. Thanks for taking the time to perform and share this experiment :)

[@denyel_]

man you remind me of a Sim @ 1:21 Thank you so much for this video so helpful, no filler, great testing.. wish all how to videos were this good!

[@ilovegurusahib]

Reading the comments below I am laughing and flabbergasted at the same time. Seems they haven't watched the whole video. The end part clearly shows the difference in the sound quality of the voice and room. He is not making his rooms sound proof he is just using the towels to reduce bouncing sounds of the walls. Come on you all appreciate his brilliant effort.

[@yudhasetyadi6319]

Ikr

[@raulcarrasco6598]

Would you suggest his findings can be used to keep sounds from exiting a room? I snore and I need to keep the noise in my room - it currently transfers through my thin drywall - thanks in advance for your help.

[@youngdraco5073]

CDaniel J80 he got his towels free An most men have hand tools laying around Everyone I know have a shed full of tools it’s also much cheaper than acoustic panels that don’t perform all to well. Sound isolation is based on the wall you need a air space in between with 2 layers of sound sealer it would require destroying the thin wall and putting up a new one that cancels out any excess noise from in and out the room. It’s how a studio is usually made acoustic is just for looks it’s also very flammable so are towels but it’s all about the better isolation and there’s many ways to make acoustic yes it’s going to cost money just like everything else in this world but it’s the only way to prevent sound from entering and exiting.

[@flaviottyd]

There is a notable difference in sound quality. However, the testing method leaves something to be desired - he tests the sound going through the materials, rather than bouncing off it, which the end result panel is used for. Reverb does get reduced, but not as much as it could have been if a more relevent testing method had been used. Foam works better for reducing reverb, while towels are better (according to this test) for blocking sound. These are two different things.

[@AerophlixMedia]

thus sound proofing since thats the goal is to stop the vibration of sound and since its sound waves I think it worked as hoped! I decided last winter to build a sound proof room in my garage since its really long I had 2x4s up and insulation then fabric covering the insulation it was pretty quiet then I put on drywall and no longer absorbing the sound as much the vibration going up the drywall is what caused that so again he is correct in putting this together just saved me 90 plus dollars I would have spent on sound proofing panels going to pick them up tomorrow yes thank you sir for showing us a great way to save money

[@henningpfeiffer6496]

This is a great idea and video. Especially if you're looking for a budget solution. But there is one thing about the testing done here, everbody should be aware of. You're measuring the sound traveling _through_ your absorbers - instead of its reflection. The walls of your room would be even more excelling at this test, yet there's a need to treat them. Actually, a perferct isolation will keep all the energy inside the room. The idea of absorption is to change this acoustic energy into heat. Let's use light as an analogy: if you'd use a similar testing method, a mirror would seem to be an excellent light absorber. While instead it is a great isolator, but doesn't change a lot of the light into another kind of energy. Maybe these absorption panels will still perform better than foam. I don't know. But you will have to do a comparison, when both of them are hung up in your room. EDIT: I found this to be a lengthy version of Jun Ji's commentary...

[@saralynnzanini5118]

Who would have known that a video made 6 years ago would help me, an almowt 47 year old, starting on a dream of mine!!! Thank you so much for this !!! We al have to start somewhere!!

[@stanncat4344]

Thanks for making this! Will save me a lot of money down the line when I finally have a better space

[@wizzelhoart]

I think a smart idea would be to stuff towels behind canvas paintings hanging on the wall

[@KennyFubaralo]

i think that might actually work pretty well indeed

[@wizzelhoart]

@@KennyFubaralo that would be the easiest instead of all the work building frames. but I wonder if the canvas won't allow the sound waves to enter

[@nicolasbarrows]

@@KennyFubaralo The problem with this is that the paint tends to reflect sound and the canvas is usual not porous enough to let sound through, so the towels will have minimal to no effect. You would basically just be hanging paintings, which would be pretty, but not great for sound absorption

[@sandrogioselli3261]

Nicolas Barrows you can have a towel customization service anyway.. it’s unusual not too expensive however and recreates a canvas if you wish a drawing

[@nicolasbarrows]

@@sandrogioselli3261 not a bad solution!

[@vigothecarpathian1]

Yet more proof that Ford Prefect was absolutely right about towels.

[@Culbret]

Sas that hoopy, Ford Prefect, there’s a frood who really knows towel is

[@justinspiredfallout]

I'd give you a like but you already have 42

[@whssy]

@@Culbret Deep. And Blue.

[@Jordan-rb28]

Glad you did the testing, great video

[@Thecarnivorejournals]

Thank you for the experiments! Awesome use reusing old towels! Brilliant!

[@yep-that-happened]

Thanks for the video. I was literally just about to spend $100 on foam panels for my home studio. I will definitely be trying this first.

[@alexanderbluhm8841]

DON'T DO IT LIKE HIM! THIS WILL MAKE YOUR ROOM EVEN WORSE! IT IS NOT ABSORBING THE LOW FREQUENCIES WHICH YOU WANT TO CONTROLL IN YOUR MIX. HE JUST ABSORBING THE THE HIGHER FREQUENCIES. THIS WILL UNBALANCE YOUR ROOM EVEN MORE!

[@ScruffMcDuff45]

@@alexanderbluhm8841 why not just use studio headphones?

[@paulotheman8734]

this is bad for a real room acooustic treatment, but a success for towel sales.

[@andrebartels1690]

This is a really great idea, well done! You can easily improve on the performance of your sound absorption panels even more, when you bring those wonderful reverb-killers away from the walls and into the room. The physical reason for this is, that the air molecules (which transfer sound via vibration) don't move as much in close distance to the wall as they do in mid-air. And we're talking about 0,5m of distance to the wall (or two medium freedom-units, as you will). The reflecting surface stops their velocity to virtually zero, whilst they travel unhindered in-between.

[@TomTom-bc8ez]

How far from wall? 2 meters? 6ft 6in.

[@andrebartels1690]

@@TomTom-bc8ez 0,5 meters or two feet. This is a very subjective measure. Find out for yourself what you like best.

[@NeoFrontierTechnologies]

Very neat. Worth the watch. You deserve your advertising revenue unlike some other youtube channels.

[@thecustodianpenguin]

finally I found a video that provide genuine Information that really help