sound perception

Proper bass trapping doesn't make a room too dead. If someone's sticking foam up all over the place, that's one thing. But PROPER material, you cannot over trap a room. If it sounds too dead, it ain't because of bass traps. It might be because of using foam or other wrong materials. But there's no such thing as too much bass trapping.

Did I mention that you can't have too much bass trapping? :D
 
OK...I guess we can separate *bass* from "broadband" trapping...though real low-end-only trapping isn't what most people put up when they make their own out of fiberglass or roxul.
Walk into one of those "Whisper Rooms"...THAT is fucking D-E-A-D...bordering on anechoic. If you get to that point, maybe it's time to pull some traps. :D
 
Well yeah, to be clear, I'm talking about proper bass trapping.

But, even then, 99% of "bad" trapping is due to using the wrong materials, as opposed to using too much of the right material. So, I do think that even broadband is hard to over-do, but I was really talking about bass traps.
 
OK...but even with pure bass traps, while there is a certain amount that you would need to get a given room decent....mmmmm...I can't see then at that point just layering the room with yet MORE bass traps.
That's what I was getting at....there's a point of diminishing returns even if all the extra traps don't technically "hurt" the room.
 
It's almost impossible to have too much bass trapping. Just take a look around at all the corners in your studio, including floor/wall, floor/ceiling, etc....Once you have every corner covered, then you might start worrying about too much trapping. But I bet 99.9% of home recordists don't have too much bass trapping. I'd say the majority have "wrong" bass trapping, but not "too much" bass trapping.
 
RAMI said:
I bet 99.9% of home recordists don't have too much bass trapping. I'd say the majority have "wrong" bass trapping, but not "too much" bass trapping.
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I would agree....I never said most have too much. I only said that I've seen some where the studios looked like a Traps R Us warehouse.

I dunno....to me, the aesthetics are equally important, and while I do have a decent amount of treatment, it's not covering every wall/corner/ceiling.
 
I did this kinda unique approach to treatment...
First off I have my room virtually split, so one half is all my guitar amps, keys, drums...and the other is my mix area/racks/console.
At the mix area I completely covered the front wall and the nearer side wall with treatment. The idea was to add depth, by eliminating the reflections. The on my back wall I have some trapping and some diffusion, and above the mix a cloud of trapping and diffusion.

On the other side of the room I only put up minimal treatment to kill off any flutter echo, and I covered two of the walls with T-11 wood...and the ceiling has some basic acoustic tile. Of course, that area also has carpeting, where my mix side is mostly wood floor.

So it's not trap-heavy, but it works well, and it's not dead. :)
 
miroslav said:
that area also has carpeting, where my mix side is mostly wood floor.
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See that's exactly what I want to do. My room is a little dead for tracking, but good for mixing. But the reason it's a little dead is because of the wall-to-wall carpeting, not because of the 28 bass traps I have.
 
miroslav said:
That's random diffusion treatment taken to the "ton of money" level. :D
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Ya...after pricing ONE case of Owens Corning 703 I can only guess at what that cost.

More than I got. :)

I'll buy 30 sheets of 703 and try to place them well on the drywall. I'll also be making some good bass traps with 703 and bat insulation behind. I expect that will work well. Then I'll probably hang something decorative and not too absorbent on the walls and ceiling....to cover the drywall, the 703 panels, and conduit. This room looks and sounds like crap now.
 
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Stu;
It doesn't deaden, it diffuses. It's made with 2x2s (10mmx10mm) or some such. I am doing that on the back wall behind me to keep some life in the room without allowing direct reflection to kill the sound...left the 703 off the back wall for that reason. When I get the diffusion done, I'll move the gobos out and sell 'em.
That picture does look a LOT extreme!
 
RAMI said:
See that's exactly what I want to do. My room is a little dead for tracking, but good for mixing. But the reason it's a little dead is because of the wall-to-wall carpeting, not because of the 28 bass traps I have.
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Do what I did if you are not ready for a full hardwood floor.
Take a utility knife and cut a nice 8'x8' or 10'x10' or 12'x12 (I don't know how much room you have to work with) chunk of your carpet out. I mean, right in the middle, where you want some wood floor.
Then drop a piece of 1/4" ply, and to that glue some cheaper parquet 1' squares or whatever you want...and then add some floor to carpet transition trim all the way around.

I did that at my mix position mainly 'cuz I wanted to roll my chair easy from mixer to racks. I think I did a 8'x8' or maybe it's 8'x10'....and the perimeter is still carpet.
the reason for the 1/4" ply is because I didn't want to glue the wood tiles to the cement floor, as I always had in the back o my head a plan to pull that up one day and go all-hardwood.
It took me one afternoon to do that. You can apply some silicone adhesive between the ply and the base flooring, as that will scrape up easy enough...unlike the more permanent adhesive used for the wood flooring.
 
miroslav said:
Do what I did if you are not ready for a full hardwood floor.
Take a utility knife and cut a nice 8'x8' or 10'x10' or 12'x12 (I don't know how much room you have to work with) chunk of your carpet out. I mean, right in the middle, where you want some wood floor.
Then drop a piece of 1/4" ply, and to that glue some cheaper parquet 1' squares or whatever you want...and then add some floor to carpet transition trim all the way around.
Click to expand...
You know, you just gave me a potentially great idea. I have boxes of 12"X12" ceramic tiles. Nice tan color, so they don't look too bathroom-y. I wonder if dropping them instead of wood would be cool. Shit, now I've got something else to obsess over. :eek:
 
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