Cheap Bass Traps for Home Studio - DIY

[Omega Arts]

I've tried covering bass ports on Genelecs with no real success. So I kept working on position and direction and it took care of alot of problems. I'm shooting monitor alignment with a laser and find they move slightly over time.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

[gravyface]

Have you done any before/after measuring? I hate to say it, but everything I've read says that what you've been trying doesn't actually work (mattress "bass traps", book shelf "diffusor", etc.).

[ciperlone]

What do you mean, it doesn't work?

Cheers

[Bobecca]

Originally Posted by ciperlone

What do you mean, it doesn't work?

Cheers

Like the man says......

Do some measurements and please do before and after. This is the only way to make sure if it improves or not. I don't believe that "bass trap mattres" will work under 100 Hz anyway where the biggest issue is.

[ciperlone]

Originally Posted by Bobecca

Like the man says......

Do some measurements and please do before and after. This is the only way to make sure if it improves or not. I don't believe that "bass trap mattres" will work under 100 Hz anyway where the biggest issue is.

This home acoustic treatment worked very well for the uncontrolled reflections in the room. I don't know were did you get the "bass trap mattres", the matresses are mainly correcting the exceed of reflections.

I've done some listening measurements, but I didn't record them.

What do you advise to control the sound energy bellow 100 Hz?

[ciperlone]

Originally Posted by gravyface

...mattress "bass traps"...

Bobecca, gravyface wrote that. I didn't.

And yes, book shelves can be nice diffusers.

Of course this is not exactly the same as expensive audio treatment. But, considering the price, it does work very well.

Have you guyz tried it?

[stevenkelby]

It's easy to measure that bass traps are effective or not but diffusion is much harder. In my experience book shelves etc. are not effective diffusers compared to a correctly designed QRD for example, they diffuse a very narrow and random frequency range.

Ethan explains a bit here:

All About Diffusion - YouTube

Below 100Hz I use 6" OC703 panels with a 6" air gap but big corner traps would probably be even better.

I think the best is to measure properly, then get some scopus traps centered on the frequency you need. Or make something similar if you have the skill and patience to learn how.

[explorer]

Ciperlone. I think you can get much better results for cheap by building your own bass traps using fibreglass/rockwool. It will also look better. There is a lot of info about this on the forum.

[gravyface]

Originally Posted by ciperlone

This home acoustic treatment worked very well for the uncontrolled reflections in the room. I don't know were did you get the "bass trap mattres", the matresses are mainly correcting the exceed of reflections.

I've done some listening measurements, but I didn't record them.

What do you advise to control the sound energy bellow 100 Hz?

The title of your post is "cheap bass traps". Since the one picture shows the mattresses in (well near) the corner, I was assuming this was your "cheap bass trap"... or was the "bass trap" the part where you stuck rags in your bass ports on the monitors

[Bobecca]

Originally Posted by ciperlone

What do you advise to control the sound energy bellow 100 Hz?

Like you wrote, gravyface said it. That was the point.

For the advice, measure the room and check where the resonances are and attack it with proper tuned helmotz or pressure based absorbers. It's simple as that. I personally prefer Helmoltz and pressure based absorber if needed.

To use broadband as an absorber below 100 Hz is ineffective. To take 1/4 wavelength at 100 Hz it is needed about 0,86 meters of fiberglass.

I don't believe in bookshelfs as an diffusor as well.

So again, to measure before and after is what matters in the end to be able to see any improvement or not.

[Bobecca]

Originally Posted by stevenkelby

Below 100Hz I use 6" OC703 panels with a 6" air gap but big corner traps would probably be even better.

Would be intresting to see before and after measurements of yours. Is there any??

[stevenkelby]

Originally Posted by Bobecca

Would be intresting to see before and after measurements of yours. Is there any??

I agree it would be great to see measurements but I don't have any yet. I have a ECM8000 ordered though and will do tests when I can

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by stevenkelby

Below 100Hz I use 6" OC703 panels with a 6" air gap but big corner traps would probably be even better.

I think the best is to measure properly, then get some scopus traps centered on the frequency you need. Or make something similar if you have the skill and patience to learn how.

The Scopus Traps are definitely cool and we use them in designs all day long, but for his budget and size of room I would recommend starting with something more on the lines of broadband bass trapping, like these. He can always add in something tuned though.
Broadband Bass Traps - GIK Acoustics

The following is a test we did and posted earlier in the year using both.

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

Bryan (our lead room designer) asked me to do a more realistic test (cost and room) that most of our customers would encounter. Basically a mix of broad band and Tuned so I did a quick test yesterday.

Empty room


Broad band (GIK 244) floor to ceiling in wall to wall corners (8) and 1 behind each monitor (2). I also put 2 242s on the floor as most people would have a desk or maybe a throw rug. Just want to take that into account.



As you can see it did clean up quite a bit but still has that ringing at 35hz. As everyone knows 40hz is not a easy task to deal with and 35hz is all that much harder!

The following is the Broad band with 8 2'x2' (so like having 4 2'x4') T40s Scopus Traps on the back wall.



Pretty much kicked the ringing to what you would want to see.

Here is the frequency response of all. Note with tuned it actually helped at 70hz, but we would only advertise this to around 60hz.



Here is the RT30 just to show the room is not over absorbed on the upper frequencies which we would treat from there.

I agree it would be great to see measurements but I don't have any yet. I have a ECM8000 ordered though and will do tests when I can

This video can help you with the set up of program and running your tests.
Room EQ Wizard Tutorial - GIK Acoustics

[stevenkelby]

Thanks for all the graphs, info and link Glenn, will help me a lot