Questions about Bass Traps and Packing Blankets

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carsoste

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Hello:
I have some questions about using bass traps and packing blankets to help deaden the sound in a room that I'll be recording in in a house in which I'm staying right now. First, I ordered one bass trap in order to help deaden the sound,(Since, that was all that I could afford.) but because the bass trap was more expensive with the instructions for it, I was unable to obtain the instructions. So, does anyone know how to set up a bass trap and could you give me some instructions on how to do it? Or could you direct me to a site that shows me how to assemble a bass trap? I don't need to build one from my scratch I just need to set one up that is in pieces and needs to be put together and then placed on a wall. Secondly, the bass trap that I'm going to use is going to be placed on a wall in a room in a house that is going to be sold hopefully by the end of the year, so my question is if I put the bass trap on the wall, will it do any damage to the wall and can the bass trap be taken down without doing any damage to the wall or it, once the house is sold?
Thirdly, I was very well informed that a good way to deaden sound in a room is to place moving or packing blankets on the walls and ceiling. I have some packing blankets available to do this, but I'm not quite sure how to place them on the wall. I was told that I should hang them on there, but how exactly do I do that? Should I staple them to the wall or do something else? If someone has used packing or moving blankets in this way how did you place them on the wall? Could you give me some instructions on how to do that?
Finally, if I place packing blankets on my walls and ceiling, and there were will be no damage done to them, can I put a bass trap on the wall if there is a packing blanket on it? Will that cause any damage to the room, the wall, the bass trap, the packing blanket, or anything else?
Thank you.
I hope that someone can answer my questions.
carsoste
 
I'll be watching this thread, I'd like to know some of the answers, too.

As for attaching the blankets to the wall, get some cheap curtain rods, and the clip-on curtain rings- the ones that you squeeze and a pair of "teeth" open up. Put the rings on the upper edge of the blanket, screw the rod to the wall, and there you go- only 4 to 6 holes in the wall, and easy to remove everything.

Thanks for posting.
 
Packing blankets are a waste of time for anything but high end. 90% of the problematic frequencies in a room of typical construction will be LOW end.

ALWAYS take care of the LOW end FIRST. Without question, without exception, period.

Packing blankets, foam - You'll wind up in worse shape than you were in before.

http://www.massivemastering.com/blog/index_files/Basic_Room_Setup.php if you're bored...
 
Thanks

Hi:
Thanks for answering my questions regarding the packing blankets and how to place them on the wall. If anybody has any more suggestions then please share them.
Thanks again.
carsoste
 
A few thicknesses of moving blankets, while not equivalent to OC703 or Rockwool, will help attenuate highs and perhaps some mids. You'll do well to suspend them a few inches off the wall. Bass traps are traditionally put in corners first, but again, you'll need a lot of layers of moving blankets to achieve the same low end attenuation as dense insulation. I would strongly advise you to price out OC703 from a local industrial insulation supplier. It's normally used to insulate warehouses and airplane hangars, so keep in mind you'll be asking for a favor from a supplier accustomed to delivering hundreds of cases to a single job site.

I went this route and ended up getting 6 cases of 2'X4'X2" OC703 for about $400. At 10 sheets a case, that's less than $7 a sheet - far cheaper than wadding a bunch of moving blankets, and more effective.

I have two layers of this diagonally spanning my corners, with lots of loose scrap thrown behind, in the resulting void. These corner traps, along with Ethan Weiner style resonant bass traps and random OC703 sheets wrapped in fabric and mounted on the walls, offest by 2", result in a very nicely controlled room for around $1000. I'll put my room up against anyone using Auralex, Primeacoustic or the other prefab room treatment systems.
 
Who sold you a 'bass trap' that you need to put together that doesn't come with instruction for free?

There are many different kind of bass traps, you will have to be most specific about exactly what you have.
 
How bad is this room? What do you hear in the room that makes you want to treat it?
 
Todzilla said:
I went this route and ended up getting 6 cases of 2'X4'X2" OC703 for about $400. At 10 sheets a case, that's less than $7 a sheet - far cheaper than wadding a bunch of moving blankets, and more effective.
Click to expand...

Do you remember where you got that deal? It seems that most places that i've found it's more expensive than that. I ask because i intend to make an investment in some in the next month or two.

As for Carsoste's problem, i have dealt with companies that charged more to include PRINTED instructions, mainly because they had a free .pdf download available online. If they don't have instructions that you can download AND they're trying to charge you for printed instructions then my spidey sense tells me that you got hosed. Seriously go with rigid fiberglass and or mineral wool.
 
treating a room without analyzing it seems like jumping the gun a bit.
 
Analyzing a room without performing basic treatments first is jumping the gun (IMO/E). I wouldn't even bother shooting a room without a dozen broadband traps in it first - All it'd tell me is that the room is such a mess that I need a dozen broadband traps before I can see any sort of detail with what it still needs (and it usually needs another dozen traps).

I had 18 traps in here before I even hooked up the speakers. Then I added another three or four by ear before I shot the room and placed the following 8 (or so - I lose count)...

Shooting the room "naked" is like calling in a mechanic to give a tune-up to a car with no motor - It's pretty obvious that the thing isn't going anywhere. Put the basic parts in first - Then start tweaking things.
 
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Massive Master said:
Analyzing a room without performing basic treatments first is jumping the gun (IMO/E). I wouldn't even bother shooting a room without a dozen broadband traps in it first - All it'd tell me is that the room is such a mess that I need a dozen broadband traps before I can see any sort of detail with what it still needs (and it usually needs another dozen traps).

I had 18 traps in here before I even hooked up the speakers. Then I added another three or four by ear before I shot the room and placed the following 8 (or so - I lose count)...

Shooting the room "naked" is like calling in a mechanic to give a tune-up to a car with no motor - It's pretty obvious that the thing isn't going anywhere. Put the basic parts in first - Then start tweaking things.
Click to expand...

I agree. Start with the basics, the things you KNOW you're going to have to do anyway, then use your ears, then analyze and adjust.
 
tewfus said:
Do you remember where you got that deal? It seems that most places that i've found it's more expensive than that. I ask because i intend to make an investment in some in the next month or two.
Click to expand...

Yes, I bought this from North Brothers, in Raleigh, NC. The key is that nearly all suppliers of OC703 deal with large industrial construction firms (acoustic attenuation is not the intended purpose of this product). They're set up to deliver literally hundreds of cases to a job site (it's ceiling insulation for warehouses, airplane hangers, etc...). So, these suppliers really have no inclination to sell to us puny home studio folks. I sweet talked the guy, who apparently took pity on me. It also helped that, while I live in the sticks, I'm only a couple miles from North Carolina's two busiest Interstate hiways. As I sweet talked him, I offered that he could just throw 6 cases on a truck when it had a light load and headed my direction. He took my credit card number and within 10 days, I came home to find large carboard boxes scattered in my front yard. It hadn't rained or anything, so I was in good shape.

Advice on sweet-talking: I let my southern accent do its thing and emphasized my poor homeowner handyman angle more than my anarchist punk studio musician vibe.
 
Thanks for all your advice I'll definitely use it

Hi everybody:
I just want to say thank you for the great advice that each of you gave me regarding the bass traps and packing blankets. I will definitely take it into consideration and employ it. In answer to some of your questions, the place where I got the bass trap deal was a website that was something like www.astaacoustics.com
I found the arrangement to be pretty strange myself, but it was the only type of bass trap that I could afford. And, since I'm completely unhandy there is no way that I could be able to build them myself and anyone that I might be able to ask would probably want to be paid for doing so.
As far as the room goes, I've recorded demo versions of songs in it before with a different recording program(I'm presently using Pro Tools.) and I've found that there is a significant amount of background noise, distortion, and hiss on the recordings that I've made in there. This is especially prominent when recording a fingerpicked acoustic guitar part and results in trouble when tracking acoustic guitar parts in general, which is the majority of what I'm planning to record. The room itself would be considered a bed room under other circumstances. I have a couple of book cases in there in order to help block the sound waves, but I need something more effective. The bind that I'm in is that because the house I'm in is looking to be sold in the next few months, and I'm reluctant to put up on any bass traps or anything that would be placed in a permanent recording space for fear they could do some damage to the walls in the room and thus make it harder to sell the house. Things like bass traps may not cause any damage, but I'm skittish about taking any chances. That said, I'm pretty eager to record while I'm here and do not want to wait around and obviously want to make professional sounding, clean recordings if that's at all possible in my present situation.
I think that someone already answered this question in my previous post, but I'll ask it anyway. Are there any cheap items that one can buy that could serve the same purpose as a bass trap without doing any damage to the walls of a room?
Once again, thanks for all your answers and suggestions. Feel free to add more if you have them.
carsoste
 
I'll move this thread to the Studio Build forum where it belongs.

Thanks,
 
carsoste said:
I think that someone already answered this question in my previous post, but I'll ask it anyway. Are there any cheap items that one can buy that could serve the same purpose as a bass trap without doing any damage to the walls of a room?
Once again, thanks for all your answers and suggestions. Feel free to add more if you have them.
carsoste
Click to expand...
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If you have the space, you can stack rolls of regular old fiberglass insulation (don't unpack them from the roll) in corners for very effective, albeit slap-dash looking, bass traps.
 
carsoste said:
In answer to some of your questions, the place where I got the bass trap deal was a website that was something like www.astaacoustics.com
Click to expand...
You really don't know where you order the bass traps from? (that link doesn't go anywhere)

Seriously, if you can find the actual link, there is probably someone on this board that has the instructions or can just look at the traps and tell you what to do.

I found www.atsacoustics.com but they don't seem to sell anything that you have to put together. They sell ready made panels.

What instructions are you looking for? If these are the panels you bought, the only instructions you need are here http://www.atsacoustics.com/page--Acoustic-Panels-FAQs--faq.html
 
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