Heavy Curtains over windows?

[Todzilla]

So, my studio is 16' X 23' X 14' (Cathedral Ceilings). It's made out of stucco'ed cynderblock with voids filled with sand. It sounded wonderfully horrible before I treated it.

I've put up a bunch of DIY Ethan Weiner bass traps alternating with OC703 offset from the walls a few inches. Corners have diagonal double thicknesses of OC703, with scraps from the projects thrown into the resulting corner voids. Sounds pretty darn good, from my limited experience.

I have two large windows. Not ideal for acoustics, but afford a beautiful view of nature. I want flexibility, so I've designed and made sets of curtains for each window. They're essentially moving blankets with fabric sewn to them for aesthetics. Not as nice as the OC703 panels or bass traps, but at least something for the highs.

Your thoughts on how this should work?

 

[DonnyThompson]

You'll probably get some upper frequency attenuation with the curtains; though I can't say how much or how little. I could give a guess and say that they might alleviate some upper frequency flutter echo by a few db - maybe up past 1k... They won't really do much of anything for low end issues, as bass trapping involves mass and thickness...
As an aside, I think it's good to be able to get natural light into a creative space; I think we've probably all experienced studios that were very isolative, being sewn up and working in environments like that - while acoustically beneficial, can start to wear you down if you're in that environment for longer periods of time. Fresh air is another important thing to have, too.
I've seen people grow frustrated and antsy when natural light and fresh air are scarce.
The only thing you can do is to record and mix for awhile with the curtains in place, and just see how things work out. Not very scientific, i know, but sometimes you hedge your bets the best way that you can, try to follow certain principles, but ultimately, you just have to test things to hear the results.

 

[Todzilla]

Thanks man. my walls have about 40% bass traps and 30% OC703 panels, so I'm hoping the curtains will help a bit, and that the bass traps are already serving their purpose.

The curtains are very heavy, have lots of folds and hang a good five inches off the glass, so I'm hoping they'll help a bit, even if they are inferior to OC703, which wouldn't lend itself to an efficient window solution. Plus, I love the convertability of pulling curtains open or shut.

 

[pcrecord]

As an aside, I think it's good to be able to get natural light into a creative space;

In front of my mixing position, I have a window to my recording room and I see my drums.. does that count ??

 

[DonnyThompson]

Depends on what the drummer looks like. Lol.
Maybe You need to get more girl drummers in there. That always proves to be a nicer view than your typical studio Wayne and Garth guys! .