DIY Broadband Absorbers with Bought Tuned Bass Traps?
DIY Broadband Absorbers with Bought Tuned Bass Traps?
I would post over at John Sayers but you need to fulfil criteria in order to do so when all I really want to ask is a quick question. I also know all the faces here and I’ve read all the threads in the past on acoustic treatment too.
Given how easy it is to build broadband absorbers I’m wondering if its a decent idea to get a carpenter or someone with the tools and space to knock out a large number of frames for me to fill as broadband absorbers. Forget fannying around with different depths, just going with something like 6” and use the same size for side-walls, ceiling (for RFZ), all four corners (floor to ceiling), behind the monitors on the front wall and on the rear wall. The length of the panels could be half the height of the room, so that two panels would be sufficient in the corners - width; I don’t know what would be a good number but I suspect it doesn’t matter too much other than if its too big then the panels in the corner will have greater than preferred space between it and the walls.
Now I know that under 100hz absorbers are going to do very little at controlling frequency response, and I know that if you stuff your room with absorbers you run the risk of over-dampening the high and mid frequencies, effectively ‘killing’ the liveliness of your room, but I’m looking for the most straightforward solution for now. I figure that mass producing broadband absorbers would get my room in the ballpark and then I can assess from there.
At this point if I need to handle particular frequencies below 100hz, I can either buy or DIY tuned bass traps. Btw, does anyone have any idea how hard it is to make and tune bass traps? In theory it’s just maths, but I read threads of people having mixed results and it makes me nervous.
One thing I don’t fully understand yet is how to the time-domain response of a room is handled/treated when there is a problem. That could be a fatal oversight of my suggested plan…
Does it make sense to make a lot of broadband absorbers to cover all the usual places or is it just a waste of time? I figure if I really had to find a better solution for the corners of my room (tuned bass traps or thicker absorbers) I could always just give away some of the broadband panels to friends who would gladly take them off my hands. Since making the panels is pretty cheap, and if they’re all the same size to keep things simple, then I could look at these panels as ‘disposable’.
Given how easy it is to build broadband absorbers I’m wondering if its a decent idea to get a carpenter or someone with the tools and space to knock out a large number of frames for me to fill as broadband absorbers. Forget fannying around with different depths, just going with something like 6” and use the same size for side-walls, ceiling (for RFZ), all four corners (floor to ceiling), behind the monitors on the front wall and on the rear wall. The length of the panels could be half the height of the room, so that two panels would be sufficient in the corners - width; I don’t know what would be a good number but I suspect it doesn’t matter too much other than if its too big then the panels in the corner will have greater than preferred space between it and the walls.
Now I know that under 100hz absorbers are going to do very little at controlling frequency response, and I know that if you stuff your room with absorbers you run the risk of over-dampening the high and mid frequencies, effectively ‘killing’ the liveliness of your room, but I’m looking for the most straightforward solution for now. I figure that mass producing broadband absorbers would get my room in the ballpark and then I can assess from there.
At this point if I need to handle particular frequencies below 100hz, I can either buy or DIY tuned bass traps. Btw, does anyone have any idea how hard it is to make and tune bass traps? In theory it’s just maths, but I read threads of people having mixed results and it makes me nervous.
One thing I don’t fully understand yet is how to the time-domain response of a room is handled/treated when there is a problem. That could be a fatal oversight of my suggested plan…
Does it make sense to make a lot of broadband absorbers to cover all the usual places or is it just a waste of time? I figure if I really had to find a better solution for the corners of my room (tuned bass traps or thicker absorbers) I could always just give away some of the broadband panels to friends who would gladly take them off my hands. Since making the panels is pretty cheap, and if they’re all the same size to keep things simple, then I could look at these panels as ‘disposable’.
Re: DIY Broadband Absorbers with Bought Tuned Bass Traps?
Check out limp membrane traps thread on gearslutz. Not great for smoothing freqzency response but really good for dealing with decay times / room modes. The effort is really small. You probably wont get a perfect studio but a sound that is so much better and really worth spending the time investigating how to do it.
Re: DIY Broadband Absorbers with Bought Tuned Bass Traps?
I suppose you did measurements of your room
Re: DIY Broadband Absorbers with Bought Tuned Bass Traps?
It depends on your room dimensions and the amount of airborne energy you're dealing with. I'm currently in the midst of taming the same issue here. To tame the amount of bass energy you need a lot of mass. Due to my stupid room measures, I've got +8db around between 32-45hz and further nodes in similar amounts on top of that. The measures to take would easily exceed my bank account. Afaik the optimum solution would be layers of diaphragmatic panels using active carbon.
A cheaper and subpar solution for me right now are matrasses, mounted with a bit of space from the walls. So the energy can travel through them twice. They seem to impact the clarity of the low-end so far, dispensing a bit of the excess energy. Bitumen mats, like the one you put on the roof, directly behind the matress is also said to further improve the amount of energy transformation.
This YouTube channel helped me a lot to get a better understanding of the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMwTOXBCH8o
A cheaper and subpar solution for me right now are matrasses, mounted with a bit of space from the walls. So the energy can travel through them twice. They seem to impact the clarity of the low-end so far, dispensing a bit of the excess energy. Bitumen mats, like the one you put on the roof, directly behind the matress is also said to further improve the amount of energy transformation.
This YouTube channel helped me a lot to get a better understanding of the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMwTOXBCH8o
Re: DIY Broadband Absorbers with Bought Tuned Bass Traps?
That's a nice video and channel.rktic wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 12:12 pmThis YouTube channel helped me a lot to get a better understanding of the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMwTOXBCH8o
I've read about limp membrane traps - they seem decent, but my question still remains as to whether or not its worth it to make them yourself.
It's tricky. I haven't actually measured my room yet because I'll be moving soon (looking for a room with decent dimensions). I will probably order the Sonarworks bundle and use their measurement mic. Part of my OP was wondering whether one can treat your room with absorber panels without measuring your room - that isn't to say measuring your room isn't important, but to say that regardless of your room modes you still need to create a reflection free zone. Like step 1: deal with reflections; step 2: measure your room and find the problematic frequencies; step 3: buy or make traps that target the specific frequencies and decay times of your room.
I was looking at some of the acoustic treatment packs that companies like GIK sell, but from what I've read, I'm not sure its wise to buy bass traps without knowing if they're the right type for your room. And then after seeing how straightforward it is to make absorber panels I thought maybe its better to make them myself and proceed as I just mentioned above.
I could be totally wrong though! I'm trying to learn as much as I can before blowing any money. Thanks for your replies.