Mornats Posted July 13, 2013 Author Share Posted July 13, 2013 I'm seriously thinking about buying this (it comes as a set of two) instead of making my own bass trap. I'm pathetically hopeless at any sort of DIY... [url="http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/music-store-absorber-set-corner-anthracit--200614"]http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/music-store-absorber-set-corner-anthracit--200614[/url] Any thoughts on this being a false economy? It's so cheap it can't really be all that good can it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 You would need an awful lot of those and they wouldn't do the job as well as Rockwool bass traps because they are tiny in comparison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 Simplest bass trap you can buy is a big tube of fluffy insulation Leave the insulation in the plastic tube and put it in the corner Put another one on top Repeat for all the corners in the room Bot pretty but quick and portable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 Neat little site here - Home Studio Trainer. [url="http://www.homestudiotrainer.com/yourroom.htm"]http://www.homestudiotrainer.com/yourroom.htm[/url] Garry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 Low and low mid room nodes are the biggedt and hardest to fix issue in a small room. That studiotrainer site doesn't make any attempt to try and correct or mitigate those issues.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1373788503' post='2141503'] [size=4]That studio trainer site doesn't make any attempt to try and correct or mitigate those issues....[/size] [/quote] It was just a link for some tips, or something that might come in useful to some folks, or just to browse around. [url="http://www.homestudiotrainer.com/"]http://www.homestudiotrainer.com/[/url] But hey ho..... Garry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted July 14, 2013 Author Share Posted July 14, 2013 So a couple of these in each corner would do the job? [url="http://www.builders-express.co.uk/product_25387_Rockwool+Roll+Insulation.aspx?gclid=CO6PjqbnrrgCFdPItAodwTwAvw"]http://www.builders-express.co.uk/product_25387_Rockwool+Roll+Insulation.aspx?gclid=CO6PjqbnrrgCFdPItAodwTwAvw[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 They will definitely help to deal with issues in the low mid and upper bass. You will hear the difference everywhere in the room They wont be as good as more 'engineered' solutions and they won't look as nice. Leave them in the plastic packaging and stack then floor to ceiling A broomstick right down the middle can help them stay together.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 Can you build this stuff in? would plasterboarding/skimming over the stuff negate its effectiveness? I realise that Higher frequencies will bounce of hard surfaces but I was underthe impression that lower frequencies were more penetrative thus might get the treatment even if the stuff was hidden . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Savage Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 [quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1373812950' post='2141843'] Can you build this stuff in? would plasterboarding/skimming over the stuff negate its effectiveness? I realise that Higher frequencies will bounce of hard surfaces but I was underthe impression that lower frequencies were more penetrative thus might get the treatment even if the stuff was hidden . [/quote] Well, I'd imagine that the wrapping around those tubes of Rockwool isn't acoustically transparent, so probably; however if you start building in extra sheets of plasterboard you run the risk of introducing extra resonances in the room as the plasterboard vibrates in sympathy with the low-end. It's relatively easy to build custom frames that you can just stuff with Rockwool and cover with fabric (hessian seems to work well) - hardest part I found was cutting the Rockwool to size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 I was thinking more along designing the stuff into the build rather than as a bolt on. betweeen ceiling /floor joists etc and angling corners off , with my room the treatment has to look part of the room , rolls of fibreglass in the room corners just won't wash with SWMBO . I have a bit more faced internal brickwork to do first and am hoping that some of the randomness of the finish may help disperse some of the reflections Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 You cant cover them with anything not acoustically transparent. 'Proper' bass traps and absorption in corners and soffits and suspended off the walls are typically framed and covered in a nice material that is acoustically transparent. The plastic will reflect frequencies over a KHz or so but thats not so bad since a couple of 2" thick absorbets elsewhere can reign that in. Or a nice bit of soft furnishing in a standard room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 (edited) If you want an idea of how far you can take a home studio room, this thread off gearslutz is just about the most pimped out looking home room I think I've seen, and yet its [b][i]all[/i][/b] about the audio:- [url="http://www.gearslutz.com/board/photo-diaries-recording-studio-construction-projects/630763-my-new-boise-idaho-home-studio-build.html"]http://www.gearslutz...udio-build.html[/url] So no you can get the lady of the house well and truly involved in choosing a super cool look and feel for your studio room! BTW the wood slats are there to reflect some top/mid pack into the room in a diffuse way, other wise all that absorption just leaves you with a very dead room, and that is rubbish to work in! Edited July 15, 2013 by 51m0n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 That room looks [and should sound fantastic]. He also Composer some very stunning, melodic and moving music. Very talented person. Garry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 Thing is, if you are a full time composer/mmixer/jingle creator of whatever it amy be, having a room in the house that is that focised in intent and that cool to be in is only ever going to help yuou make better work. If like the rest of us its a hobby that you take pretty seriously, then you can at least see that you can make a better job of it than just some tubes of rockwool in the corners Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted July 16, 2013 Author Share Posted July 16, 2013 I'm not sure if anyone else is reading this and thinking the same thing, so I'll ask the question anyway. So, I'm still looking at my new desk placement and thinking hey, that's quite a change to my room, maybe I'll get used to it. Now I'm looking at buying (sorry, no DIY for me) big bass traps to fit in the corners. Bye-bye living room, hello recording room. Now that's quite a big change. I know it's needed to get good results and yeah, I live on my own for now but these are big changes to make to the most important room in your house. How many of us are thinking, sod it, that's too much? I'm sure some people are getting put off a little and I'm sure more of us just won't get away with even moving a desk around. So the question, partly for my benefit and partly for anyone else thinking the same and also partly playing devil's advocate is this: What's the minimum we can do to mix with any sort of decent results that doesn't involve rebuilding a whole room around it? I mean, I play bass in a band but I haven't got a fully kitted out rehearsal room and a PA system where my kitchen used to be. I've heard recordings from people who have a similar, if not worse monitoring set up than me and their tracks sounds way better than mine. My fear is that I'll spend a lot of money reshaping my living room so that it's purpose as a living room is secondary and that my mixes might still sound muddy and crap. So, just to reiterate, I'm largely playing devil's advocate by asking the above, but I'm hesitating big time to make big changes to my rented living room too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted July 16, 2013 Author Share Posted July 16, 2013 Obviously I'm not knocking any of the advice that anyone, particularly 51m0n, is giving! I just do think that big changes to rooms may put a lot of people off from getting a good mixing environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 You don't need to do anything. If you know your monitors and room inside out from a critiCal listening perspective and have several other spaces and systems to cross reference your mix on that you can also say hand on heart you know inside out as critical listening spaces. What you are doing is beginning to give yourself a chance to get a higher average of your mixes right first time since you are giving yourself a better chance at hearing accurately. Which is the best you can hope to do for a few pounds in a front room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted July 16, 2013 Author Share Posted July 16, 2013 Cool, so I guess that listening to good songs, that I think sound well produced and are typical of the sound I'm aiming for, on my headphones and monitors is a good thing (I've just started to do this critically). So once I get used to what that's showing me I can start to aim for that with my mixes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Savage Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 I'm lucky enough that in living on my own my recording setup IS my home entertainment setup, so the speakers I listen to far and away more often than any others are my monitors. I rent my flat so haven't been able to do much in terms of room treatment, but from getting to know my system inside-out I tend to be able to get decent mixes relatively easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 [quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1374007238' post='2144238'] Cool, so I guess that listening to good songs, that I think sound well produced and are typical of the sound I'm aiming for, on my headphones and monitors is a good thing (I've just started to do this critically). So once I get used to what that's showing me I can start to aim for that with my mixes. [/quote] There is no other way. If we put you in a tip top studio mix room with awesome monitors there is every chance that your first couple or three mixes would get better and better as youstarted to be able to make the most of the facility, since you wouldnt be used to hearing that much accurate information about your mix. And no room, however expensive is a perfect room for everyone! The only way to get your head around your set up is to listen to everthing on it, good anbd bad. it is not unusual to find some music you like on a hifi sounds awful in the first instance on monitors. Is that a bad mix, or are your hifi speakers too flattering? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 [quote name='Ian Savage' timestamp='1374054462' post='2144647'] I'm lucky enough that in living on my own my recording setup IS my home entertainment setup, so the speakers I listen to far and away more often than any others are my monitors. I rent my flat so haven't been able to do much in terms of room treatment, but from getting to know my system inside-out I tend to be able to get decent mixes relatively easily. [/quote] You can always DIY some gobos and use them around your space; since they are free standing they can be positioned across corners as bass traps and just off walls as broadband absorption, and if you are tracking you can use them to mask the room from the thing you are recording.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Savage Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1374059683' post='2144753'] You can always DIY some gobos and use them around your space; since they are free standing they can be positioned across corners as bass traps and just off walls as broadband absorption, and if you are tracking you can use them to mask the room from the thing you are recording.... [/quote] I do have a couple of free-standing absorbers which I built in my dad's garage, just never got around to putting them up. Need to run a frequency response analysis of my room at some stage actually, it sounds fairly even to my ears but it'd be nice to know if the science backs me up (and maybe give me a tuned absorber project to have a go at over the summer...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 Sounds like a great plan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted July 17, 2013 Author Share Posted July 17, 2013 How thick would a basstrap have to be in the corner? Or, in other words, if I were to badger a mate into making some for me, what size should I be aiming for? If they can be portable, I can see them being much more practical. Also, I'll take a pic of one corner of my room which isn't actually a corner, it goes back into a cubbyhole... I wonder if I'd need a basstrap here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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