Ethan
Thanks for your great articles. I have quoted you in the Cakewalk forum
regarding bass traps and gave you credit as well as included a link to your
site.
I have a bass trap question as I am attempting to tame a room. I have been a
carpenter by trade and want to do this with shop built fixtures. I
understand that you sell traps and do not want to abuse your good advice
since I at this time am not buying anything, but I have 2 questions that
perhaps you'd clarify.

Background
Basement studio 13.3 feet wide, 14.3 feet deep, 8' 3" ceiling, near fields
symetrically placed in center of 13.3'wall, no subwoofer. Block wall behind
monitors covered in 2" 703 frk with 2" auralex over that. Side walls drapes
over 1" unfaced 703 in mix area and 1.5" wood over studs filled with
fiberglass in rest of room (built room before I knew enough) concrete floor
with carpet and pad. Ceiling double drywall uncoupled from insulated joists
above.

Question 1
After measuring with your tones and radio shack meter, adding one large
panel trap over mix area changed 18 db node disparity to 7-9 db disparity.
Worst freq is 120-129. Next worst is just below that. The wierd thing is
that the corners behind the monitors are not at all loud or "nodey" the
loudest place is along the ceiling, stil very hot for front third of room.
rear corners not bad either, but a few feet out from the rear wacorners its
hot in a tight zone. Is that probably because of cancellation in
corners? -point is should I still put traps in the front corners or put
traps just where it is loud. If I put traps on ceiling then I cant dampen
ceiling for high ceiling effect like you also suggest.

Question 2
I'd like to cover the plywood face of a couple of the soon to built traps w
something like cloth or jute for diffusing. What can I use that won't dampen
the 1/4 " panel??

Thanks so much
Larry Kane

Hi Larry,

Thanks for moving this to the public forum.


Both. If you have any untreated corners I'd aim there first.

Where you hear (or measure) the most bass depends on a lot of factors, especially which specific frequency. You didn't say if you used the weighted noise file from the RealTraps site or music. The problem with music is it contains only frequencies related to the key of the tune, and the frequencies keep changing with each note the bass player plays.


In a room that size I generally advise against wood panel traps anyway. Four inch thick rigid fiberglass is perfect because it absorbs bass and also mids and highs.


Cloth is not a diffusor, but most cloth is not thick enough to have much affect on a wood panel trap. Again, if you haven't built those traps I'd rethink the strategy, and use rigid fiberglass type traps as explained in the Forum FAQ.

--Ethan