Rockwool bass traps make my room have MORE bass

[T800]

I built bass traps out of RHT60 and also other ones with RHT80... 6 inches thick, and used guilford panel fabric. Put them in the corners. But while getting a bit tighter, the bass in the room has actually increased and there is even more of that thump and a heavier bass presence from about 75hz-100hz. Are these bass traps doing their job? It seems to be a bit tighter sounding, but there is heavier bass in ther room than if the bass traps were not there. Because I thought bass was supposed to be absorbed and therefore diminished instead of augmented - since i thought they call these bass absorbers. But these things are resonating 75-100 hz.

And some acoustics guy told me I should use owens corning 705. Am I using the wrong boards? I also asked him about 703 but he says thats going to do that too and to only use 705 or 707.

 

[Capt Hair]

do you have the actual readings so we can see?

are you talking about the frames of the traps resonating? There may be little you can do about that except get them off the actual wall, hang them.

Controlling those low frequencies can be pretty difficult do you have floor to ceiling traps? If not, super chunks may be the way to go, it's arguably in many cases more efficient.

There's really nothing wrong with rockwool, roxul, what ever. They're all good for absorption, especially at 6in thick. What other treatment have you done? Do you have a pic of the room we can see?

 

[RAMI]

Maybe you were sitting in a null and now you can actually hear the bass properly. It's possible that you were adding too much bass to your mixes since you were sitting in a null, and now you're hearing the true results of your trying to compensate.

Just an un-educated guess.

 

[Massive Master]

Yep -- Happens all the time. The low end hasn't increased - It's just now, you can actually hear it.

Keep in mind that they're not absorbing "the bass" - They're absorbing the reflected bass. The more you absorb, the more you're actually hearing what the speakers are doing.

That said -- You may have taken away some mud only to reveal that you need more trapping. That happens all the time too. It took 18 (2'x4'x4") traps in here before I even cracked a smile. Then another half-dozen before I was feeling like I really accomplished anything. Then a few more just so I could feel like an over-achiever for a few minutes.

 

[guitarded2]

Maybe you were sitting in a null and now you can actually hear the bass properly. It's possible that you were adding too much bass to your mixes since you were sitting in a null, and now you're hearing the true results of your trying to compensate.

Just an un-educated guess.

^^^ yep i thought the same thing the first time i walked into a studio and the mix room seemed to have more bass than the tracking room(s)

 

[JimmyS1969]

In layman's terms (the only ones I understand) bass traps are helping control frequencies that cancel each other out when they meet each other in parts of your room. Bass traps (more accurately 'absorbers') inhibit to a degree, the sound from re-entering the ideal sections of your room. Put your head in a corner, it has a boomy effect on the low end. Just like an out of phase mic cancels out frequencies, your room is creating problems enhancing, and cancelling out frequencies.

This is where research, trial and error, a bit of luck, a bunch of testing, and a lot more trial and error can give you desired results.

The first step is to take care of the obvious problem areas. Corners and first reflecting points if in a 'control room'. From there, no advice or opinion can direct you unless you perform tests on the room. And no room is ever going to be perfect anyway. It all comes down to how you translate your mixes on everyone elves systems.

I am going to leave 'elves' as it seems to make more sense to me.

Merry friggen X-mas! lol!