Skyline made of Lego blocks

[jrubbernek]

Hi guys I just made a skyline diffuser from Lego blocks, I'm wondering what you guys think? is it worth it? and how effective would this be?....I mean it's a hell of a lot easier to make than making it with wood...it cost me around 18 dolars to make...and the best part is that it is super light weight!! probably 5 kilos max!!

here's a picture of it...

[fabricaudio]

Hahaha, that looks cool!

Did you use some specs of just random? I am worried about the density of the bricks, and their size.


Nikolas

[Glenn Kuras]

lol lol. You could rename your studio "play land studios"

[Askin]

Fantastic, that looks really great! Now you or your clients can bring kids to the studio. They won't be bored anymore....

[Nordenstam]

Haha! It's funtastic!

[thenoiseflower]

yay. Now make 15 more.

[Blind]

Come on Acoustics-Guys... leave some information here... not just a lol :D

Looks like a plan imo

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by jrubbernek

Hi guys I just made a skyline diffuser from Lego blocks, I'm wondering what you guys think? is it worth it? and how effective would this be?....I mean it's a hell of a lot easier to make than making it with wood...it cost me around 18 dolars to make...and the best part is that it is super light weight!! probably 5 kilos max!!

here's a picture of it...

Hmmmm...I can't really think of a reason it wouldn't work...what kind of program did you use to establish the pattern? Were you pretty precise in the build or is this just kind of a guess? Diffusers are a little bit more complex than just a random patter...usually you'll want to use a calculator to help you determine the design.

Frank

[Nordenstam]

I'll bite:

Bigger towers: can't remember the size of duplo (or whatever that is) but I think you'd want to make sure it's closer to 2 inch than the 1 inch I remember them to be. But I might be wrong. Too small vells makes for exaggerated viscous losses around all those boundaries.

Fill gaps between pieces with silicone, paint or similar. The sound will rush into the gaps, skewing the math from ideal and creating more viscous losses.

Get square pieces instead of the angled ones.

As mentioned: Make sure the math is right. See this post for calculator and instructions.

Enjoy your playtime!

[woodfoot]

I'm not qualified to tell you whether it will work or not but I think its a great idea.

Really interested to see if it does work.

[andrebrito]

If it works with wood and EPS sure it works with Lego blocks ,, great idea by the way !

[666666]

Neat idea! What's cool about this, in theory, you could easily experiment with different patterns.

The downside... at least the little Legos I remember as a kid... they are not very dense... thus they should reflect upper frequencies, but not do much with mids and lower-end. But such a small and generally shallow pattern would only help to diffuse upper freqs anyway, so perhaps you could just consider this an upper frequency diffusor only.

My first thought was to try to fill the Lego blocks with a dense material (I remember they are hollow), but then you'll have trouble sticking the blocks together. Though, if you have a diffusor pattern that you are happy with, you COULD potentially fill each block with some sort of dense filler / epoxy etc WHILE assembling the diffusor, the filler will essentially glue the blocks together and fill them at the same time. The upside, you have more density, the downside, you can never again take the blocks apart.

jrubbernek, what are the dimensions of your Lego diffusor (as pictured)? Just curious how big a diffusor one can make for a mere $18. If the diffusor you are showing is at least 12" X 12", that's a great deal for $18. Probably better than some of those lightweight plastic pseudo diffusors you see advertised now and then for way more than $18 a piece.

If you are really going to use this, I think I'd fill the Lego blocks with some type of dense filler material... certainly the top layer of blocks anyway, though the more, the better. Theoretically, it should then reflect a greater range of frequencies. Though maybe you only want it to reflect the upper stuff anyway. Would be neat to know the cut-off here, what freqs are reflected / diffused, and what freqs just pass right through and are not effected.

Lego should get in on this. They could offer diffusor kits, sell a huge box of all black Lego blocks with some instruction sheets showing a few different "proven" diffusor patterns. The user could then experiment and try variations of the proven patterns, etc. They could even make special blocks used for the top layer of the diffusors, blocks that would have a nice finished surface so that it wouldn't look like a big Lego diffusor, but would look like a nice finished pro diffusor. And these blocks could even have greater density. And they could mark it up and still probably be cheaper than a lot of the diffusor kits that are out there now.

[666666]

If you have any extra Lego blocks left over after making diffusors, here's something you can try....

[piotr]

... or if you are into classical:



p.

[tsvisser]

just imagine what you could do with Lincoln Logs.

[Weasel9992]

Seriously. I think this was a brilliant idea. I'd love to hear how this ends up working under real world working conditions.

Frank

[jrubbernek]

I made this LEGO skyline based on a calculator I found online, I forgot what it's called???,I found the link somewhere in gearslutz... You can also download the software for free..DAMN I forgot what it's called...there is also a calculator for QRDs and other stuff on that website..

As far as density, I think it is pretty dense...just wish there were larger sized blocks, so I could make the Big ones...

Maybe someone can give input on a skyline pattern I can use? or is this the only pattern around? I'd love to make the one with Quadratic sequence, they just look cooler and probably work better, I like the fact that these guys are super light...and cheap and hell of alot easier to make......

hey guys thanks for the kind replies..
let's start digging our toy boxes stashed in the attic and collect our LEGO blocks and recycle....

[jrubbernek]

Originally Posted by 666666

Neat idea! What's cool about this, in theory, you could easily experiment with different patterns.

The downside... at least the little Legos I remember as a kid... they are not very dense... thus they should reflect upper frequencies, but not do much with mids and lower-end. But such a small and generally shallow pattern would only help to diffuse upper freqs anyway, so perhaps you could just consider this an upper frequency diffusor only.

My first thought was to try to fill the Lego blocks with a dense material (I remember they are hollow), but then you'll have trouble sticking the blocks together. Though, if you have a diffusor pattern that you are happy with, you COULD potentially fill each block with some sort of dense filler / epoxy etc WHILE assembling the diffusor, the filler will essentially glue the blocks together and fill them at the same time. The upside, you have more density, the downside, you can never again take the blocks apart.

jrubbernek, what are the dimensions of your Lego diffusor (as pictured)? Just curious how big a diffusor one can make for a mere $18. If the diffusor you are showing is at least 12" X 12", that's a great deal for $18. Probably better than some of those lightweight plastic pseudo diffusors you see advertised now and then for way more than $18 a piece.

If you are really going to use this, I think I'd fill the Lego blocks with some type of dense filler material... certainly the top layer of blocks anyway, though the more, the better. Theoretically, it should then reflect a greater range of frequencies. Though maybe you only want it to reflect the upper stuff anyway. Would be neat to know the cut-off here, what freqs are reflected / diffused, and what freqs just pass right through and are not effected.

Lego should get in on this. They could offer diffusor kits, sell a huge box of all black Lego blocks with some instruction sheets showing a few different "proven" diffusor patterns. The user could then experiment and try variations of the proven patterns, etc. They could even make special blocks used for the top layer of the diffusors, blocks that would have a nice finished surface so that it wouldn't look like a big Lego diffusor, but would look like a nice finished pro diffusor. And these blocks could even have greater density. And they could mark it up and still probably be cheaper than a lot of the diffusor kits that are out there now.

I don't know the dimension in inches but it's around 36cm x 36cm....so around 14" x 14"?

[jrubbernek]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

lol lol. You could rename your studio "play land studios"

I don't have a name for the studio yet, i'm still in the middle of building and treating it. but that sounds like a great idea.

[C Walldorf]

Had a friend that designed some things on this and he said they turned out great....

LEGO Digital Designer : Virtual Building Software

Comes with a customized box and instructions. The perfect gift.

[jrubbernek]

Originally Posted by 666666

Neat idea! What's cool about this, in theory, you could easily experiment with different patterns.

The downside... at least the little Legos I remember as a kid... they are not very dense... thus they should reflect upper frequencies, but not do much with mids and lower-end. But such a small and generally shallow pattern would only help to diffuse upper freqs anyway, so perhaps you could just consider this an upper frequency diffusor only.

My first thought was to try to fill the Lego blocks with a dense material (I remember they are hollow), but then you'll have trouble sticking the blocks together. Though, if you have a diffusor pattern that you are happy with, you COULD potentially fill each block with some sort of dense filler / epoxy etc WHILE assembling the diffusor, the filler will essentially glue the blocks together and fill them at the same time. The upside, you have more density, the downside, you can never again take the blocks apart.

jrubbernek, what are the dimensions of your Lego diffusor (as pictured)? Just curious how big a diffusor one can make for a mere $18. If the diffusor you are showing is at least 12" X 12", that's a great deal for $18. Probably better than some of those lightweight plastic pseudo diffusors you see advertised now and then for way more than $18 a piece.

If you are really going to use this, I think I'd fill the Lego blocks with some type of dense filler material... certainly the top layer of blocks anyway, though the more, the better. Theoretically, it should then reflect a greater range of frequencies. Though maybe you only want it to reflect the upper stuff anyway. Would be neat to know the cut-off here, what freqs are reflected / diffused, and what freqs just pass right through and are not effected.

Lego should get in on this. They could offer diffusor kits, sell a huge box of all black Lego blocks with some instruction sheets showing a few different "proven" diffusor patterns. The user could then experiment and try variations of the proven patterns, etc. They could even make special blocks used for the top layer of the diffusors, blocks that would have a nice finished surface so that it wouldn't look like a big Lego diffusor, but would look like a nice finished pro diffusor. And these blocks could even have greater density. And they could mark it up and still probably be cheaper than a lot of the diffusor kits that are out there now.

I'll definately fill them up with epoxy next time I make the next one. see how it turns...the problem is I don't know how to test the effectivity of diffusers in general. Is there any way to test them?

[jrubbernek]

I really don't see why LEGOs won't work as diffusers, I mean they're hard surface, and I'd say they're pretty dense....but I guess we could always fill em up with something. OR maybe LEGO will come out with denser blocks designed especially for people who want to make diffusers...

make a few more of these, and hang it on the wall...I'd say they would look fantastic.

I wished they sold a box of LEGO block with just one color here..so I'm just gonna spray paint my Lego skyline white....so it just fits my studio theme.

[jrubbernek]

Originally Posted by fabricaudio

Hahaha, that looks cool!

Did you use some specs of just random? I am worried about the density of the bricks, and their size.


Nikolas

the size of each bricks are quite decent...around 3cm x 3 cm x 3 cm, the maximum depth was around 15-17cm

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by jrubbernek

I'll definately fill them up with epoxy next time I make the next one. see how it turns...the problem is I don't know how to test the effectivity of diffusers in general. Is there any way to test them?

Test the room with and without. With enough of these things you should notice a difference somewhere in the mid/high range.

Too bad you can't package these things and sell 'em. You'd make a killing. Maybe you should give Lego a call and license them...

Frank

[The MPCist]

Originally Posted by Weasel9992

Maybe you should give Lego a call and license them...

Frank

That's a good idea actually. Using legos couldn't be worse than using RPG's styrofoam ones...

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by The MPCist

That's a good idea actually. Using legos couldn't be worse than using RPG's styrofoam ones...

Only thing is...and anyone with kids knows this...man, Legos are *expensive*. Can you imagine what a kit like this would cost? I'd be willing to bet you'd sell a bunch of 'em though.

Frank

[fabricaudio]

This will do

Pick A Brick | LEGO Shop

and this

Lego dimensions:Â*the measurements

Nikolas

[fabricaudio]

I did a quick calculation. In order to create the bbc diffusor

PME Records QRD Diffusor Construction



It needed about 5292 6x2 bricks (0.15£ each) so it costs about 800£ for one diffusor


More research needed!!!!

Nikolas

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by jrubbernek

...it cost me around 18 dolars to make...

I believe you Nikolas, but $18 is a long ways from 800GBP.

Frank

[fabricaudio]

Duplo bricks are bigger than lego, but in the online shop you cannot pick as many as you want i think, it only sold in buckets with all sort of element (windows, wheels, figures)


The lego would be nicer because you can make a bulk order with exactly what is needed.


I am working on a lego project at the moment but not for the acoustics. when i will have a clear idea i will post photos in my studio construction thread


Nikolas