Placement of bass traps in odd shaped room

[mixedbitch]

Hi all,

My studio is in an attic above a garage, so the walls are at strange angles (think a trapezoid on top of a rectangle as a cross section of the room).

My question, is, am I better off placing rigid fiber traps in the traditional way (ie, right on the floor/ceiling at an angle against the wall), or diagonally spanning between the knee wall and the canted wall?

I can see advantages in both. The first way, I'm trapping the sharper corners. The second way, I'm changing the air gap density behind the trap, which should be able to more effectively treat multiple low frequencies.

[Ethan Winer]

All corners are viable. If you want to find which corners will benefit most, follow the instructions in this short article:

Pink noise aids placing bass traps

--Ethan

[Glenn Kuras]

Just to add to Ethan's advice. Most people start by treating the wall to wall corners in the front of the room. If for no other reason it can help with SBIR at times.
What is SBIR?

[mixedbitch]

Hi again Ethan and Glenn,

I think I've read so many of your articles that I think my head is going to explode from too much acoustic theory

I have been testing with pink noise, I think I have most of the control room tuned (and it took less foam than I thought, mucking around with speaker placement was more helpful).

I also used a sine wave generator which tracked down a problem which treatment would never have solved. Apparently a cover from one of the mic-pres wasn't screwed down tightly, causing it to vibrate at 70 hz.

I'm curious, though, Ethan maintains that front walls don't really need to be treated, and Glenn maintains they do. I put bass traps on the corners of the behind the speakers, and while it makes a slight difference, it's subtle.

[Glenn Kuras]

I'm curious, though, Ethan maintains that front walls don't really need to be treated, and Glenn maintains they do. I put bass traps on the corners of the behind the speakers, and while it makes a slight difference, it's subtle.

It depends on where the speaker ends up. I have seen room that do need it and others that don't. So we are both right.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by mixedbitch

Ethan maintains that front walls don't really need to be treated, and Glenn maintains they do.

The center portion of the front wall usually doesn't benefit much from the thin absorbers many people use there. But corner bass traps are critical in the front, and absorption flat on the main part of that wall also helps the bass range if it's very thick.

--Ethan