Sound studio and bass traps?
category: offtopic [glöplog]
So, I have rearranged a bit (3 kids need each their room) and a very small room (2,0m x1,7m) is my studio now - I know, it's SMALL :)
Room consist of stone floor, brick walls, and a wooden door in each end + wooden ceiling.
I need to deal with low freq. resonance, and I have been doing some study on google about bass traps, but before I do anything, I wanna hear if anyone here has some experience/advices trapping bass freq.?
My thoughts so far:
I'm thinking about putting one small bass trap (2cm Rockwool + 2cm air to the wall) right behind each monitor.
And the wall behind me, can almost be covered as one big basstrap (2cm Rcokwoll + 2cm air to the wall)
Would this be sufficient?
Room consist of stone floor, brick walls, and a wooden door in each end + wooden ceiling.
I need to deal with low freq. resonance, and I have been doing some study on google about bass traps, but before I do anything, I wanna hear if anyone here has some experience/advices trapping bass freq.?
My thoughts so far:
I'm thinking about putting one small bass trap (2cm Rockwool + 2cm air to the wall) right behind each monitor.
And the wall behind me, can almost be covered as one big basstrap (2cm Rcokwoll + 2cm air to the wall)
Would this be sufficient?
you can probably modify an old shopping trolley or a cage to catch bass:
Awesome! :)
My room:
No. Or I mean you can try but uhm.
Do you already have some 2cm rockwool or why not something much thicker? Density plays into the matter too. Some kinda small 2cm+2cm box just sounds like a joke, sorry. I don't really understand your back wall "bass trap" either really.
Here's what I suggest you try first based on personal experience... if you don't know exactly what kind of trap you're putting and where maybe try a different approach. What I'd do is put a thick carpet on the floor, and some really thick drapes (velvet or something) to cover the walls.
Do you already have some 2cm rockwool or why not something much thicker? Density plays into the matter too. Some kinda small 2cm+2cm box just sounds like a joke, sorry. I don't really understand your back wall "bass trap" either really.
Here's what I suggest you try first based on personal experience... if you don't know exactly what kind of trap you're putting and where maybe try a different approach. What I'd do is put a thick carpet on the floor, and some really thick drapes (velvet or something) to cover the walls.
It's about preventing the bass from escaping the room (hence trap) and not about preventing internal ressonance.
I meant like 2cm thick + 2 cm air thick to the wall - the height and width will ofcourse be like 30cm *30 cm behind the monitors or something like that.
But the wavelength of the sound you wanna trap is like 3 meters? And the rockwool so thin it won't damp it much either?
b.b.: So what would you recommend?
It's a pretty challenging space. But like I said first I'd see if some thick fabrics around the room would make it acceptable, especially as that's something you'll probably be able to try out without actually buying anything.
b.b.: yes it's very challenging and I think I will try out some blankets, but 2-4cm Rockwool should dampen a hell of a lot more that blankets, right?
Damping would be better in general yes, but drapes and so on can have folds where the waves can bounce around though. "Acoustic panels" which are kinda like a compromise between the two would be better but are expensive.
A bookshelf full of books is also a common home studio "acoustic element" that can be considered.
Use headphones and consider doing your final mix somewhere else.
b.b.: I'll try it out. Thanks for your advices.
trc_wm: that's not an option - I really hate using headphones :)
Hm! If you want to effectively control bass response, you will need a LOT more space than a few centimeters. From experience I know that you most likely have to live with the room you happen to work in, and it's particulary difficult if this room happens to be small. I'd recommend experimenting with listening position, speaker positioning and subwoofer positioning. This can make all the difference. Check with playing back sine sweeps and choose the best compromise. Also, do not kill the room placing absorbers everywhere (like rockwool, basotect, whatever). Find a good mixture of flat wall, diffusors and absorbers instead. No matter what you come up with, you'll have to get used to the room. Listen to music you like in there, ompare with other listening environments regularly and your brain will compensate for lots of inaccuracies automatically over time. Have fun!
Ah, and your speakers should not be placed directly at the wall. There should be a little space in between. I recently built a studio which turned out quite good, feel free to drop me a mail if you want to dive deeper into the topic.
It's about preventing the bass from escaping the room (hence trap) and not about preventing internal ressonance. <-- only got it now. that is not what a bass trap does. see wikipedia. if i get it right, you want to _isolate_ your room (from the environment). forget it, the energy has to go somewhere.
using quality (open) headphones and dampening the room (makes a difference with open headphones) might help, anyway :)
jco: thanks. I will try to move stuff around a test with some sines.
I know it's not the best thing to have the speakers so close to the wall, but again, this is just what I have to deal with and seek out its optimum :)
And you are absolutely right about the small room issues and sitting this close to the speakers. Moving around just a tiny bit in the chair makes a noticeable difference!
I have put some rolled up carpets in two corners, which actually helped a lot! So, probably some more of those and something directly behind the speakers would be enough to make this OKish.
I know it's not the best thing to have the speakers so close to the wall, but again, this is just what I have to deal with and seek out its optimum :)
And you are absolutely right about the small room issues and sitting this close to the speakers. Moving around just a tiny bit in the chair makes a noticeable difference!
I have put some rolled up carpets in two corners, which actually helped a lot! So, probably some more of those and something directly behind the speakers would be enough to make this OKish.
jco: about the trap thing bstrr wrote - it is joke :) - I guess you get the joke if you are Danish. We have this thing about fucking up the english language in a very danish way ;)
I do want to get rid of the resonance :)
I do want to get rid of the resonance :)
also.. get really good headphones with accurate bass down to sub freqs..
Get some carpet in there!
Wow. World's first walk-in-studio :-D