Bad low end response in my studio

[eniciss]

Hi, I’m new to this forum and hope it is the right place to discuss this. I have built and installed several DIY bass traps in my studio however the bass response is still quite bad (lack of bass which make my mixes sound too bassy/muddy). I therefore need your advice to suggest me how I could improve the bad bass response in my studio.

Studio Details:

• Home studio in one room of my apartment (LxWxH / 460x324x308 [cm] / 181x128x121 [inches] ) with concrete walls.
• Speakers placed towards the long side of the room.
• Listening position 175cm / 69 inches from the north wall.

Types of DIY panels used:

1. Rockwool Termarock 50: Mineral wool - 50 kg/m3 (LxWxH / 1000x625x120 [mm] / 40x24x4.7 [inches] )
2. Knauf TP440 (OC703 equivalent) : Fiberglass – 48kg/m3 ( LxWxH / 1250x600x100 [mm] / 49x23x3.9 [inches])

I placed those panels in the following way:

• 2 x OC703 Panels stacked vertically in North East Corner (currently free-standing, not attached to wall) – see “North East Corner.jpg”
• 2 x OC703 Panels stacked vertically in North West Corner (currently free-standing, not attached to wall) – see “North West Corner.jpg”
• 3 x Termarock 50 stacked horizontally in South East Corner behind library – see “South East Corner.jpg”
• 1 x Termarock 50 placed vertically on the north wall on the floor – see “North View.jpg”
• 1 x Termarock 50 in right mirror point on top of sofa – see “North East Corner.jpg”
• 1 x Termarock 50 in left mirror point – see “North West Corner.jpg”

I measured the resulting Frequency Response using Room EQ Wizard 5 which gave me the following graphs:

• "Overlay Freq Resp with and without treatment.jpg"
• "no treatment waterfall.jpg"
• "with treatment waterfall.jpg"

Thanks for your suggestions!

[ciro]

There´s nothing wrong with the panels, imo. treatment is doing what it should be - improved peaks,nulls and watefalls.

Think about
speakers position - they are almost in the center of (width) room.This is a bad point because puts it in a null , and it probably explains -at least in part - the lack below 90hz . Proximity of the boundaries should improve the low end.Separated stands, are a must. You need it to find the "golden" point (it includes moving back and forth also)

(I don´t know what to expect from non ported speakers behavior, if is you case - then, a sub would be the solution).
But I think repositioning will certainly "excite" the lows.

Same to mix position, try different points , 2 or 3" makes a difference in a room that size (altough for symetry you can´t avoit the width center .


Ciro

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by eniciss

I therefore need your advice to suggest me how I could improve the bad bass response in my studio.

This is very simple. You need more bass traps. The more traps you have, the closer you'll get to a flat response. I also agree with Ciro that you could try moving the speakers around a little to see what improvement that gives.

BTW, what speakers are you using? They seem to fall off below 100 Hz.

--Ethan

________________
The Acoustic Treatment Experts

[Glenn Kuras]

BTW, what speakers are you using? They seem to fall off below 100 Hz.

He must have some kind of low end switch in the back of the speakers. Even NS10s go lower then that!!

eniciss,
Check to see if you have a low end cut off switch on the back of your speakers. It should be set to flat.

[eniciss]

I am using a pair of Genelec 1030A and just double-checked that all dip switches are turned off (so no attenuation). Will try to move the speaker position and post my results.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by eniciss

I am using a pair of Genelec 1030A

According to the Genelec site those are flat (-2.5 dB) down to 55 Hz.

--Ethan

[eniciss]

Made a mistake on the original graphs explaining the reduction <100Hz; had the Low-Cut activated on my mic!

I now included the updated graphs where I did 3 tests:

1. Test 1: Close miking the woofer of the Genelec 1030A gave a response relatively flat down to 55Hz, as stated in their specs. (see "varying distance of speakers from north wall.jpg")
2. Test 2: Varied the distance (y in inches) between the speakers and the north wall. (see "Measurements Variables.jpg" and "varying distance of speakers from north wall.jpg"). Seems to me that the green line (y=40) is somewhat the most stable one.
3. Test 3: Varied the separation (x in inches) between the speakers. (see "varying separation between speakers x.jpg"). Best results seem to be given when the speakers are close together (x=27). However this will not be practical to mix as I will be very close to my computer screen and speakers.

What do you guys think of the results?

Thanks again for your help and expertise!

Nic

[eniciss]

Thanks for letting me know what you suggest based on the latest updated results.

[Ethan Winer]

As I said above:

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

This is very simple. You need more bass traps.

Not sure what else to add! Once you have more bass traps, the response will improve, and there will be less variation with distance / placement.

--Ethan

[Glenn Kuras]

Made a mistake on the original graphs explaining the reduction <100Hz; had the Low-Cut activated on my mic!

Kudos to you for admitting it!! thumbsup