Do I need bass traps behind the amps?

5

5stringer

New member
Hello all! My band practice room / tracking room is in my basement. The back line (drums and amps) go all the way across the back wall. Do I need bass traps behind the gear?

I have a drop ceiling, low pile carpet, and paneling. The room is 13' wide, 23' long, 8' tall. The gear is along the 13' wall aiming lengthwise across the basement.
 
Yes, and no. In a live room, sometimes the sound you get from the acoustics of a room is a good thing. The answer I should give is 'try it and see if it helps'. It may not.
 
jimmys69 said:
Yes, and no. In a live room, sometimes the sound you get from the acoustics of a room is a good thing. The answer I should give is 'try it and see if it helps'. It may not.[/QUOTE

The problem I'm having is this room has become very dark and boomy. We hung some heavy velour drapes behind the band to cover up the paneling and take some of the loudness and tame the reflections. But now it seems the room is dead in the upper frequencies. I bought some OC703 and made (12) 2"x2'x8' acoustic panels and hung these around the room and it made the situation worse. Thanks to the knowledgable folks on this forum, I now realize that 2" panels will suck even more highs from the room - leaving more bass to contend with. Well...I'm now taking the 2" panels I made and doubling the insulation so now I have (6) 4"x2'x4' panels. My question is this - should I hang these on the "listening" side of the jam room (front side of the P.A. where I set up the Zoom H4N recorder) or do I hang these on the band side of the room (behind the PA where the band gear is)? I will eventually get more of these but for now, I only have 6 and want to maximize their effectiveness. Also, will these help brighten the room back up by absorbing some of the boominess?
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Yeah, I would place those in the listening area. Not much good IME to place treatments behind your amps. Though treating the whole room is best, it is where you listen that is the most important.

More important is the removal of the things that make the room dead. 6 panels should not be the cause of 'deadness' in a room that size. You want the room to have a sound. Jut not the annoying reflective kind. Experiment with placement man. :)
 
jimmys69 said:
Yeah, I would place those in the listening area. Not much good IME to place treatments behind your amps. Though treating the whole room is best, it is where you listen that is the most important.

More important is the removal of the things that make the room dead. 6 panels should not be the cause of 'deadness' in a room that size. You want the room to have a sound. Jut not the annoying reflective kind. Experiment with placement man. :)
Click to expand...

Ok - thanks for the response. I was told the reason the room became dead was the heavy backdrop coupled with (12) 2" sound absorbers. The 2" are responsible for absorbing higher frequencies and doing nothing for bass frequencies. My hope is that by removing the (12) 2" panels and converting them into (6) 4" panels, that these will help absorb the dominant bass frequencies, thus allowing the higher frequencies to be more prevalent. Am I wrong in my optimism? LOL
 
Yeah, those absorbers could be killing the live feel of the room. What are they made of?

You really just need to experiment. It really isn't possible to have to many bass traps in corners. It is really easy to suck the life out of a room with absorbers/blankets/curtains that only stop high frequency reflections. Been there. Not good.
 
jimmys69 said:
Yeah, those absorbers could be killing the live feel of the room. What are they made of?

You really just need to experiment. It really isn't possible to have to many bass traps in corners. It is really easy to suck the life out of a room with absorbers/blankets/curtains that only stop high frequency reflections. Been there. Not good.
Click to expand...

The panels are made from Owens Corning 703. I bought 12 of these from ATS Acoustics and made my own. I did not use these in the corners, just all the way around the room. I am in the process of taking these apart and doubling the insulation and recovering them so they are 4" thick. I won't be able to hang them in the corners yet until I get hardware to do so. Right now I am hanging them across from the band gear on every other stud and under my bar. Here's a pic

100_5485.JPG

There's 3 on the left wall, 1 under the bar, and 2 on the right wall. Unfortunately, I can't do much with corners because they are too small - the right side of the pic is where the stairs are (by the light switch) so there isn't a corner there either.
 
jimmys69 said:
Man, you are the most tidy band I think I have ever seen! :)
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Is that a reality check? ;) :D

Hey...I just got done vacuuming and tidying up my studio. I have some people coming over tomorrow to do some music. :)

I generally like to keep it clean/neat. Sometimes during a couple of days of tracking, there will be cables, stands, etc all over the place, but I always straighten it out afterwords. It's just a lot easier to work that way, and it's almost a necessity with a smaller space and gear crammed into every bit of the room.
 
Funny, I just cleaned mine yesterday for the first time in a couple of months. like 18 cables I had to roll up. I need to wash my duster and change the vacuum bag. lol
 
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