DIY cylindrical bass traps...

I've heard of similar things but with a trtash can. Never have heard the results though. I think it's a little off but then again I could be wrong
 
rtzstudios.. to be honest I don't know. It looks interesting and the guy seems to know what he's doing. I'm just not up on these tube things but it appears he is.
I'd give it a go
cheers
John
 
Those look good...

I can see how alinging troubl walls with those could be very benificial to the sound of a room. They wouldn't only absorb bass, but I can see them absorbing a rang of broadband frequencies. It's really a good idea if you ask me, and I may even try some of them. You could move them around easily, put them wherever you want to taylor the sound of your room, and they're inexpensive. Make up 15 of them and you'd be set. I can't wait to start doing this like this when I get my studio done! Hopefully it won't be 9 more months of buiding for me...
Is everyone still checking the site? http://www.greysfiles.com/Studio/Index.htm When I'm done with construction I'll still continue to put up photos of the painting, foam installation, and recording. And you might even see some of these tubes around :)

Later,
-Brian
 
I've emailed the guy who has the DIY page and asked him to come and expain how they work. I gave him the link to this page. Here's hoping
cheers
john
 
This guy also has some other DIY projects if you hit the "back to DIY" link at the bottom of his page. He doesn't really go into depth on how to make the other stuff though. :(
 
Thanks for the link rtzstudios! That does seem like a nice project, very easy too, I think I will make a few at some point. I don't really get leaving the paper on one side, it dosen't seem like it would be so reflective or effective at being reflective. I know where I'd like to put a line of them in my room actually!

-jhe
 
And I wonder if it would be benificial to fill them with something, to at least give them some more weight. Would it also do anything to increase or decrease the sound absorption?

-jhe
 
I'm pretty sure that if you filled the tubes with something it would increase it's absorption. The same way that bass traps for corners are thick peices of foam, they stop more of the low end frequencies. If I made these tubes I'd definately fill them with SOMETHING... not sure what yet though.

Later,
-Brian
 
I believe filling the tubes would be counterproductive.
As quoted from the above article...(note hollow tube)

"The Tube Trap is a fabric covered porous cylinder (comprised of 1" thick compressed fiberglass) that, when sealed acts as a pressure zone device. Sound pressure building up around the outside of the hollow tube creates a pressure differential between the pressure inside and outside the tube. In an effort to eliminate this differential, the sound wave responsible for the pressure zone attempts to pressurize the hollow core of the tube. In order to do so, it must travel through the tube's resistive fiberglass which, in turn, dissipates the wave's energy as heat."

And to answer James, I think you leave the paper on one side of the tube to act as a midrange/treble diffusor. I think that would give you greater control in tuning your space.
 
DIY Bass Traps

Hi guys, Jon here. Thanks for the interest in the DIY.

I have a review of the "real" product, the Acoustic Sciences Tube Trap, from an
old publication I wrote for, here:
http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/tubetrap.htm
More independent reviews are probably on their site, tubetrap.com, I'm sure. But
these are low production and very expensive. This DIY uses the same tube
membrane but lacks the finely finished end caps.
Rest assured of this:
You will not believe how "deep into the mix" you will now hear when proper bass
management is accomplished. The operative word here is articulation.
Please look further into my site for some line drawings that ASC has provided of
different room and small studio setups that should get you going.
And also don't forget RPG Diffusors. (Not sure of the status of the web site,
has been a long while.) One should actually have a balanced approach to room
treatment. A strategic blend of absorption and diffusion will yield startling
results.

To answer some of the posts:
To Wallycleaver-The trash can idea would actually be on the order of a resonant absorber. Whatever frequency that the can resonates at would be absorbed a little bit. But even purpose built resonators are not as efficient as the tubes in absorption. And they are also VERY narrow bandwidth unless made VERY large.
To Brian Grey- Lining whole walls with these is a mistake every newbie to these makes. Keep one thing in mind as you treat a room, use the proper tools for the job. These tubes are bass absorbers, so they should be used in the pressure buildup sones in the room. Start at the corners. Midrange and treble energy is more easily dealt with using a variety of flat panels and such. (Although, with this DIY, it is now very affordable to treat the first and cross correlated speaker/wall reflection points! :) )
To James HE- Your gonna be asorry if you don't leave half the paper on! Been there, done that. When adding these traps to a room, just with the amont of fabric introduced it is very easy to have the room over damped in the highs. The paper really does reflect quite a bit, you WILL hear a difference.
Also, more toward youse guys end of things, (Hey, I'm just a tweaky audiophile!!!), these are wonderfull for remote gobos and vocal booths (UGHHHHHH). IE, you can "tune" the amount of reflection!!!!! (Are light bulbs going on over anyones head at this point?)
To James HE again- In regards to filling them with something.You are THIIIIIS close buddy! What ASC markets as a Super Trap has another, smaller in diameter tube inside for a bit more efficiancy. But remember, I wanted this DIY to be simple enough for everybody to make.
When you guys have a spare minute or two, please stop by and have a look see at the rest of the site!
http://ic.net/~jtgale/
 
er, furthermore...

Keep in mind that recording and playback environments should be treated very differently.
While the recording environment should be kept rid of any obvious resonances and slap echoes, it is generally a much more "live" acoustic than what is needed for playback. I feel the engineer should keep the room signature in the recording, you know, real intrument in a real space.
In playback, while we still need a very neutral room, a great deal of the sonic signature of this room should be eliminated. While this control is easy to do int the mids and highs, it gets expensive and intrusive to use bass traps. This is why most audiophile rooms I venture into have un-even room treatment. (IF they use anything at all! All this kilobuck equipment in the room and the biggest part of the system is ignored....the room! It's like driving an F1 car on a dirt road....) This un-even treatment can sometimes sound worse to a trained ear than none at all.
If you read the review, the best part of bass treatment is not in the bass at all, but the newfound articulation in the mids and highs. This is because the bass resonance just rooooollling around the room MASKS the delicate stuff.
I promise you, it really is quite ear opening.
If I remember correctly, a minimum starting point would be 10% of room volume. But I can still remember my first time with these. My dealer had to almost beg for me to try these things out, but I was extrememly doubtful. Well, I was using a small bedroom at the time for a dedicated playback room and I just put two 10" (good down to about 50hz), traps in the front corners. WOW! Drumes had much more transient impact, plucked strings had a much improved delineation, I could go on....

Anyway, hope all this helps the cause...

Jon
 
Thanks for that Jon - you are now a registered member of HR so I hope we see you around more often ;)
cheers
John
 
Re: er, furthermore...

Good first post. My first post I screwed up majorly and it got deleted when I hit "submit reply." I was crushed. :)
 
Thanks

I may know a few graphics programs well but I'm not what one would call computer literate in the hardware sense. Not to mention certain internet conventions. But I felt this was important enough to warrant a reply so I went through the hoops. Nice set-up you guys have here.
Off topic I know but please bring me up to speed here:
What is the average age here?
Is this end of the group weighted more towards home/desktop studios or full blown remote studios? Or a mix of all?
Is anyone doing any purist, no compressors, limiters, equalizers, etc, type of recording?
(Let me know if I should have started another thread!)

Jon
 
Room renderings

Okay, I just got back from the Greystudio site and noticed a few of you have posted photos of your studios. I think I failed to mention that I have some rather cool 3D renderings of my room on my site under the Gallery button.
This is strictly playback mind you but tweaked out very well.

Jon
 
Re: Thanks

I'd say there's a mix of home studios and professional studios. Definately more home studios though. Every once in a while we'll get someone in here from a high-end, big buck studio, but not too often.
The average age? I 've never taken a large enough sample to give you an acurrate average, but I'll tell you I'm 22. Don't let numbers deceive you here though, keep in mind the people who come to this site are from ALL around the world, so we are kind of the "best of the best" of our age groups. For example, I don't know too many 22 year olds who own their own home and are building a recording studio in the basement. Actually, I had the home when I was 21.

How do you like my studio site Jon? John Sayers is doing the web mastering and I own it, good deal :) Did you check out my studio? Greys Studio. You can also check out my band's site (We're not much of a band right now) at http://www.greysfiles.com. Listen to the songs in the songs section. We recorded them almost 2 years ago in my parents' basement, very crude.

Later,
-Brian
 
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