Very cheap/basic homemade bass trap??

[Maverick87]

Hey all. I know this Im gonna get a lot of, why did you save this for last? Honestly I didnt know any better, but me and a friend of mine are in a rap/hip hop duo and have put money into a new mic, preamp, laptop, monitors, however... for some reason I seemed to think Id be able to make some super cheap bass traps for next to nothing, totally underestimating the cost.

I understand that the less Im willing/able to spend, the less effective my acoustic treatment will be. For what its worth, we already have ProSoundFoam set up. The room we record in is pretty small, sorry I dont have exact measurements because we do it at his place not mine, I can get exact numbers later. Whats worse is that we hung sound proof blankets to pretty much separate the tracking room from where I mix. I need some help figuring out something last minute, cheap, and at least decently effective as far as catching low frequencies.

Since the room is small, should we take down the soundproof blankets and create more open space in the room? Or will that create problems with feedback due to the monitors and the mic being close to each other. We have leftover ProSoundFoam, which is irrelevant with low frequencies, I know. The foam should at least tame some high frequencies so I just need a way to reduce and avoid problems with low frequencies.

I know you're supposed to be as specific as possible and calculate everything carefully, and Im slapping myself for not thinking this out earlier, but are there any basic, really cheap methods I can use to create some sort of bass traps?? I thought I read that you can buy fiberglass or Owens Corning and keep it wrapped or wrap it in something and it will help. I dont have the materials or much money into making frames, and unless theyre crucial to the absorbing, I dont need them. I dont need anything to look nice at all, since Im only engineering our own music and dont need others to feel comfortable about how it looks, it can be brutally ugly and cheap as long as it helps :P

I know Im gonna get flamed for this thread but Im desparate at this point, any advice will help more than you know. Lookin forward to responses

[Glenn Kuras]

I know you're supposed to be as specific as possible and calculate everything carefully, and Im slapping myself for not thinking this out earlier, but are there any basic, really cheap methods I can use to create some sort of bass traps?? I thought I read that you can buy fiberglass or Owens Corning and keep it wrapped or wrap it in something and it will help.

Yes the loose fiberglass in bags (if thick enough) will work. Just keep them in the bag and stack in corners.

Those "sound proof blankets" are just packing blankets. They are only eating up the higher frequencies in the room which will make it even more muddy sounding.

[darkbuddha]

Super chunk style bass traps are easy and fairly cheap to build and fairly effective. I built a couple using Owens Corning R30 pink fluffy insulation ($12.50 for a 25 ft 15x9" roll), 1x2s ($0.85 each), some 1/4" plywood ($5), and some fabric ($15). Assuming you have 8' ceilings, you'd need ten 9" pieces of insulation per wall-wall corner, so one roll of insulation should be enough if you cut the triangles to 15x15x21" (that's 10.7" deep!). Then you'd need three 1x2s (+$2.55) to make the corner frame, plywood base and top plates (+$1.50), another three 1x2s (+$2.55) to make the face frame, the fabric (+$3.50) to cover it, and some hardware (+$2 for screws, corner brackets, staples). That's $15.25 per corner... $61 to treat all four wall-wall corners floor to ceiling. That's pretty cheap in my book.

[Maverick87]

darkbuddha would you mind explaining to me step by step how you went about doing that? Im not too good with DIY stuff and you got me very curious to your idea.

[ck23dw]

A "bass trap" made with pink stuff is just... a trap

[Maverick87]

And thanks for the input Glenn, should I be looking for 4 inch minimum? Or is that too thin if Im not building framed panels?

[darkbuddha]

Originally Posted by Maverick87

darkbuddha would you mind explaining to me step by step how you went about doing that? Im not too good with DIY stuff and you got me very curious to your idea.

Here's the quick version....

1. Cut the base and top plates into triangles having 15x15" legs (21" hypotenuse).
2. Attach one 1x2 (96" tall) at each corner of a base plate and a top plate.
3. Attach the frame to the corner of the room (probably by screwing through the 1x2s into the wall).
4. Cut the insulation into 15x15" squares. Then cut those squares diagonally from corner to corner (creating 15x15x21" triangles).
5. Stack the insulation into the frame... do not compress them. You should probably use eleven 9" tall triangles to actually completely fill the frame, but you might be able to get away with 10.
6. Make the face frame from 1x2s with 96" tall sides and the top and bottom and middle cross pieces to fit inbetween the side pieces so that the frame is 21.5" wide.
7. Cover the frame with fabric by either gluing or stapling it to the frame.
8. Use glue, tape, or double sided velcro strips to attach the face frame to the front of the corner frame.
9. All done.

There are a couple threads in this form about building super chunks, so just do a search for "super chunk".

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by Maverick87

And thanks for the input Glenn, should I be looking for 4 inch minimum? Or is that too thin if Im not building framed panels?

4 inch minimum is using rigid fiberglass.