News | Let’s Build a Rehearsal Room

I remember the first day my band had our first rehearsal in this space. It felt like a dream come true. We had no idea how to improve our sound, but honestly, we didn't really care. We were 16, and we were convinced the world was about to hear from us (yeah, right).

Ashes of Eternity was formed almost 20 years ago—wow! To mark the occasion, you'll find some recorded demo songs in the video below, along with some unfinished work that will be completed someday (mostly unmastered demo riffs).

To make the space more suitable for music and reflection, I had to invest in some foam and panels. The biggest issue was the ceiling—it's high and has these concrete beams where the sound gets trapped. Initially, I considered lowering the ceiling with gypsum plasterboards, but then I came up with the idea of hanging audio panels instead. It worked out great!

• Anthill PRO Acoustic Panels 12xSLIM (104x64x7cm) and 4x Regular models (104x64x12cm)

A friend of mine advised me to be careful when soundproofing the room, particularly when installing foam and other materials. If the panels are too dense or uniformly distributed, you can end up "killing" only a narrow range of frequencies, which can make the sound feel off. That was definitely not what I wanted. So, I decided to buy four panels that are 12 cm thick and twelve that are 7 cm thick. The Anthill PRO series fit the specifications perfectly. To avoid any unwanted acoustic effects, I chose to hang the thicker 12 cm panels in the corners, allowing them to hang a bit lower, while the slimmer panels were hung a bit higher.

Hanging these panels was no easy task. I used four size 8 wall plugs/anchors, a chain, hook-shaped screws that go into the anchors, and some screw-in hooks mounted on the panels themselves. The chain allowed me to adjust the distance by either shortening the chain or tightening the top hook screw.

For the acoustic foam, I used 7 cm thick panels (regular 60x60x7 cm foam) and spaced them out on the walls instead of covering the entire surface, to avoid the issues mentioned earlier. I'm still missing some bass traps, which I'll likely add later, but I wanted to hear how everything sounds first.

With all that in mind, it took me three weeks to prepare the room. The windows were a big problem, as they were letting out a lot of sound. To keep the sound contained, I removed the side windows and replaced them with Ytong blocks. Although I’m not very experienced in construction, I’ve learned the basics, which really helped with this project. However, blocking the windows created an air supply issue, as the only ventilation was through an old door on the other side of the room (which I plan to eventually replace with a wall and a single window).

For ventilation, I needed a soundproof solution that could circulate air in and out of the room. I ended up installing the Twinfresh Easy Vent system. This device is incredible—it doesn’t let any sound escape through the vent, which I realized after testing it with some loud music.

• https://euro-pil.hr/proizvod/tf-easy/

The electrical wiring and lighting in the room were also outdated, so I decided to redo everything from scratch. (Just a tip—don't try this yourself; make sure to consult a professional!) Luckily, I have a router in the room above this one, and I ran some Ethernet cables from my main switch, so I can connect directly via cable. Neat!

As for the sound system, I have a few amps, but the real star of the setup is the Behringer X Air X12, paired with two LD ICOA 12" A BT active monitors. This setup handles the backing tracks and everything else I need, especially since I’m continuing my growling singing career. Oh yeah, and for the wireless sound playback directly from any device connected to the same network - WiiM (WiiM Mini). This device is good good, I just connect to the network and send sound via this device, and the device has AUX out which I'm connecting in the Behringer mixer, which then goes out to my ICOA active monitors.

Without further ado, let me present the full video of the process.

The music is copyrighted by me and Ashes of Eternity. I hope you enjoy it. Cheers!

• Ashes Of Eternity YT Channel