Making DIY Acoustic Panels for my home studio

I was looking to create soundproofing and acoustic absorption in a room at my place for recording purpose.

After much research in Jan 2021, the budget for only the acoustic absorption panels and acoustic foam together came to around 1-2 lakhs.

Instead of spending, I built it.

1/ Went to the nearest timber depot, got quote for the lightweight pinewood. 1m and 0.5m length and 2 inch thickness, 3 inch height.

Got the timber for about 5400 rupees.

Bought timber required for 18 1m x 0.5m panel, and 12 0.5m x 0.5m panel.

2/ Started working on it. Simple hammer, nail to connect the pieces.

3/ Bought 50kg/m3 density ROCKWOOL.

This Rockwool is the absorption/insulation material. It’s generally used in construction for thermal insulation and in studios for acoustic absorption and sound proofing.

One bag of 14 x 1mx0.5m rockwool slabs cost 1000 rupees. Bought two.

4/ Once the frames were ready, got a staple gun to use with wood, for putting together the cloth material with the rockwool packing.

5/ The material in the front and back should be a breathable cloth. Reason being, the sound from the source has to hit the panel, take some time to pass through the rockwool and get trapped.

Wasn’t particular about cloth, so got cotton cloth material at 30-40 rupees per meter.

6/ The next step was stitching one side of all panels with the cloth using the staple gun.

7/ Rockwool is basically made using find ground material obtained from rocks, basalt, etc., melted and woven into fibre.

So, it will irritate your skin/eyes to the point of unbelievable itching. You shouldn’t breath in rockwool material.

So - goggles, mask, gloves.

8/ Once the rockwool is placed, packed, the other side is stitched with cloth too, using staple gun.

Did that and started pushing out panels.

9/ Finished first batch of 15 1m x 0.5m panels today.

These 15 panels, on average, would cost above 60k rupees if bought from reputed brands.

10/ These 15 panels cost me about 6000 rupees.

18- 1mx0.5m panels and 12 0.5x0.5m panels together cost me 10k.

If I were to buy, it would have cost over 1.5 lakhs.

So, I’d say a worthy DIY.