Rolled up carpets as bass traps?

  • Thread starter Thread starter swayofpendulums
  • Start date Start date
S

swayofpendulums

New member
So I have two large area rugs in my basement that I would like to roll up and remove in order to have a hard floor for my studio area. This got me thinking about if whether or not the rolled up area rugs, stuck vertically in the two front corners of the room where my mixing desk is would work at all as bass traps.

Has anyone done anything like this before? Results, if any?

thanks,

Joe
 
At all? Sure, they'll do something. What? No idea how deep they'd reach or how efficient they'd be.

It's better than a bare corner but not as good as a real dedicated absorber.

Bryan
 
what are the rugs made out of? I was in India and got delirious (literally) and went shopping and bought some really nice silk rugs that are very dense -- if I wasn't so dizzy-sick, I don't think I would have bought them, because they weren't cheap (bass traps would have been cheaper). I've been using them in various ways and they help some.
 
Results, if any?
Click to expand...
Thats the whole point of using TESTED materials. You know what you are getting. Common absorption materials manufacturers have their products tested in a special lab, whereby ABSORPTION COEFFICIENTS are determined by frequency bands.

Sure, the rugs will do something..but the question is ...how do you know? The only real way to confirm their performance, is to test your room before and after. Otherwise, its pure conjecture.
 
I set up an isolation booth for guitar amps when I'm recording drums (and they can't play to click tracks by themselves). The "booth" has 3 cement walls and a cement floor, so it's really echoey and boomy in the small empty room. I lined all the corners with suitcases stuffed with whatever I could find, and threw an area rug on the ground. I should post a picture, I'm sure it would be a joke to real audio engineers.

The results? It's not as boomy now, less echos, but it still could be better.

If you don't have anything else in your corners, throw the rugs in them and see if you like the results.
 
Is it one of these?
Click to expand...
No. That is only an SPL meter. You need to MEASURE the room for its RESPONSE, using a calibrated mic and specialized software such as this..

http://www.etfacoustic.com/
This is usefull as well.
http://www.realtraps.com/test-cd.htm
However, to extrapolate usefull information from what it tells you can be difficult , even for experts. For small rooms(typical Home studios), the best bet is simple and correctly applied absorption. This means using products that have been tested in a lab and have recieved certification for their ABSORPTION COEFFICIENTS RATINGS.

Read these and you might get a clue.:D
http://forum.studiotips.com/viewforum.php?f=8&sid=8c2de3bbe7772efaf751ef3df75b9f79
http://www.realtraps.com/info.htm

However, there is more to this than simple room treatment to improve your recordings. Monitor placement and quality, engineering position and geometry, mic quality and placement technique and many other factors need to be addressed.
fitZ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top