Old school soft-board acoustic tiles

[paspallum]

Hey
I'm new to the Forum - so Hi everyone!

I'm 3/4's of the way through converting a double garage into my new studio

I was at a timber recycle yard last week and saw a huge pile of those 'soft-board' tiles that we used to have in school class-rooms in the1970's - and you see them in 1950's pics of Sun Studio's and 60's pics of Abbey Rd (usually with the Beatles in the foreground)
They are made of wood particles - they are very soft so I'd say they are made from sawdust
very spongy in fact - not at all rigid like MDF or particle board - and as you see they have holes (non uniformly) all over the surface

I can get these for 40 cents each

Anyone know if they have ANY acoustic propertys at all that would relate to a recording or mix room? They actually look pretty cool

Or could they be cut up and stacked to make bass traps?

Heres a link to the pic of one I scored as a sample - http://img138.imageshack.us/i/softboard1smll.jpg/

Paspallum

[graemeh]

Wood fibre tiles have definite acoustic uses.

You should be able to get their absorption coefficients if you google them - if not I've got some info I could scan if you'd like...

You're probably better off using Tontine or such though - the tiles would be a pain to mount in usable lots, being so small, but they are cheap, so if you got the time and energy they could work fine.

[paspallum]

Graeme
thanks so much for your answer
I googled ' wood acoutic tiles absorption coefficients '
a lot of info there
I'm a guitar player who's been recording for 25 years - and maths is not my strong card
I don't understand any of the technical jargon or how it applies to the tiles I can get

I'm actually thinking of using them as diffusers... and to be honset as a visual cue as well - a studio has to look good too and they add a nice vibe

They are 60cm X 30cm - so id only need 12 tiles to make a 3.6m x 0.6m panel

If I made 4 such panels it'd need 50 odd tiles.... which would cost me less than $20 for the tiles

Hey BTW - I saw the link to your Redwood studios....Nice....... VERY nice !

Thanks
Paspallum

[Kurt]

Those tiles in front of a couple of inches of insulation would be good I'd imagine. Mid-range absorption without making your room totally dead sounding.

I always thought they were "cane-board" made from sugarcane pulp.

[Drumstruck]

Be cautious - a lot of those old school ceiling tiles had asbestos in them - various buildings at my school were quarantined during their removal in the 70s..... (it's unlikely but asbestos is not stuff to stuff around with)

[DarkSky]

Assuming the boards are made from Caneite (the Australian name for composite board or "softboard" made from sugar cane pulp), they should be safe and free from asbestos. IIRC, there's some good info about it over at the John Sayers forum.

FWIW, there have been plenty of recording studios that have used caneite in their room treatment. We have a number of panels here that incorporate them either as the baseboard in traps or as lining inside Helmholz resonators. In the past, I've also used them (in frames) as suspended ceiling panels. Very useful.

[paspallum]

Actually
I had considered they might possibly have some asbestos content
This is a reputable demolition yard - you'd think they wouldn't even want asbestos on the premises

but you never know
hey thanks for the opinions

paspallum

[Hookemeister]

Hi Paul

If these are Caneite tiles I'd snap them up. Based on your info that works out to roughly $2.20 a square metre. That's pretty good value. You could make some broadband panel absorbers with them or just use them for general absorption.

Greg Hooke