D.I.Y. sound panels and studio hacks

Inexpensive D.I.Y. sound panels for home studios

Looking for acoustic ideas for your home studio? YouTube has plenty of D.I.Y. videos for controlling sound and adding absorption.

If you're running a business (especially a restaurant), you need to buy professional, fire-rated sound control panels that conform to local codes. You might also need to speak with an acoustics expert. But for home projects, you might need only a quick hack for a small room.

These four videos show a range of materials. Notice that I didn't include any that use fiberglass batts because you don't want those tiny glass fibers coming through the fabric.

This video from DIY Perks shows how you can repurpose some old towels into a sound-absorbing panel.:

And this guy from JT Guitar leaves no stone unturned as he details everything you need to build sturdy wood-framed panels with insulation in them, including the shopping trip, the tools you need, the measurements (special bonus: metric), exactly where to put the screws in the wood frame, and how to hang your finished masterpieces.

If you're into woodworking or you have nice shop tools like Wood U Make It, you could follow these guidelines to make your wood-framed panels. He used rock wool insulation for sound absorption.

And finally, the crew from Cinecom (who make video tutorials on how to make great videos) used rock wool, which they adhered to a thin, hard backing, then covered with fabric. They attach the panels to the walls with velcro and then do sound tests before and after with different types of microphones so you can hear the difference.

Again, if you need panels for commercial purposes, I recommend buying professional fire-rated panels like those from Audimute. But for people making music, podcasts, or videos from a spare room on a budget, some of these ideas might work for you.