Gap or No Gap for Soffit Bass Traps?

mrfye17

New member
Hi People,

Besides 6" Panels for side walls, back wall and ceiling, I'm also building Soffit Bass Traps (Roxul Safe'n'Sound) for the 4 Corners (Floor to Ceiling) as well as Front/Rear and Side Wall/Ceiling Corners for my Home Studio.

The 4 Main Corners are good (17" x 17" x 48")...2 in each corner 1 stacked on top of the other

My challenges are with the Side Wall Ceiling Corners.

On 1 side I have a window and the other side an in-built closet, Both with a frame approx. 1/2" thick and 13 1/2" from the Ceiling.

My questions are:

1) Do I make 17" x 17" Soffits and leave a gap to clear the frames or do I make
them 13 1/2" x 17" and have them against the wall?

2) In general, what are the Pros/Cons for leaving small gaps behind any of these
Bass Traps (ie; Absorption effectiveness as well as Air circulation and any
other possible concerns)?

P.s. Traps are not been built as permanent into walls. Will probably use Angle Brackets to Install.


Thank you to all in advance for your advice and Input,

mrfye17
 
From my experience and learning from people that design studios for a living, a gap behind is almost always better with dense absorption materials. As opposed to the 'super chunk' thing when working with low end frequencies. And as I understand loose pink stuff in a open space filled can actually perform better. But the issue is how to hold it in place. So we use more rigid (dense) products to make installation easier.

I can only guess that works with all materials, but I am not sure about the Safe'n'Sound specifically.

It has been quite a while since I have communicated with JH Brandt about room treatment. I went with variations of what he suggested and they work for me. You can always email him and see if he responds. He was always awesome at giving me advice.

My drum room 12" ceiling joists have 4" Roxul 80 supported at bottom edge/covered with cloth. So that is about 8" of gap between the Roxul and floor above. 6 4"x2'x4' panels on side walls staggered. Long end of room has some regular office panels suspended to stop reflections. It works very well. But that is a live room.

Control room has ceiling joists filled with pink fluffy stuff covered in cloth. Back corners full height 4" Roxul 80 2' wide panels straddling corners. No treatment other than those traps on wall behind desk though I am 3' from that wall with front firing ported monitors. The rest of the control room (13'x27'x8') has 10 2'x4'x4" Roxul 80 panels along the walls basically up against the wall. I also added one of those same panels directly above my mix position as there is a return air duct there that the pink stuff couldn't be used. It is suspended 2" below the cloth covered ceiling joists.

This is what works well for me. Every room is different and I by no means claim to know what will work best for your space. Try it and see...
 
Thanks Jimmys69, I too will only have the corners covered behind the desk - my speakers are front ported and am sitting around 5ft from the wall.
Apparently, there's no point in having absorption on the face of the front wall unless it's super thick. (Back wall is a different story)

For your ceiling cloud, do you think that the 1 panel you have is enough or would you like to cover more ceiling area above your mix position if you could?
 
Front wall (meaning behind monitors) is not a big issue from my research. Unless you are right against it. So I think you are good there. Works for me.

The ceiling cloud I just added because I had one already built before my foundation caved in and had to switch sides for the desk. And there is a HVAC duct right above, so I couldn't stuff it with the pink stuff at that point.

Mixed a couple of records before hanging it. It did make quite a difference after adding.

If you don't have ability to open up your ceiling, then I would definitely go with a 2" minimum cloud above your listening position. 4" likely better. Same with side reflection points.

Do the mirror thing. If you can see your monitors in a mirror from your listening position, that is where you want some high end absorption at the very least. Some use foam for that. I gave up on spending money on foam shit a long time ago. Actually just gave someone some Auralex corner wedges just to get them out of my way.
 
Foam is a waste of time...Auralex is just overpriced crap!

For the ceiling I'm going to be using 3 or 4 24" x 48" x 6" deep panels and each side wall will have Two 24" x 48"x 6" panels.
The rear wall three 24" x 48" x 6" panels and floor to ceiling and wall ceiling corners soffit style bass traps 17" x 17" x 48"....

Hopefully this should improve Sound substantially.
 
Foam is a waste of time...Auralex is just overpriced crap!

For the ceiling I'm going to be using 3 or 4 24" x 48" x 6" deep panels and each side wall will have Two 24" x 48"x 6" panels.
The rear wall three 24" x 48" x 6" panels and floor to ceiling and wall ceiling corners soffit style bass traps 17" x 17" x 48"....

Hopefully this should improve Sound substantially.

Nice! :)
 
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