sound deflectors

[dobro]

Same old problem - parallel walls.

I want to build some deflectors to put against the walls that'll break up the 90 degree patterns of reflection in the room. If you've got a link to a useful page that talks about this, that'd be great, but if not, here's what I'm wondering about.

* Different thicknesses of wood can handle different frequencies, right? I've got some 5/8" plywood right now. Is that overkill? It'd be easier working with lighter stuff.

* Is there any particular angle for the deflectors?

* Should the angle of the deflectors be different from each other?

* Is there any position in a rectangular room that's better to have them?

You know, the more I get into this, the more important the room becomes.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Your talking about Diffusors. If you do a search here and on Google there's a bunch of different types.

Are you sure that's what you need? The problems with parallel walls are usually ring echoes caused in the corners and standing waves caused by the same frequncies slapping back and cancelling eachother out. Often a combination of absorption and diffusion is used.

You would want to use the heaviest materials possible. The more dense the material the lower the frequencies they can absorb or reflect. Most small rooms need the low end treatment more then the high end treatment so the more you can treat the low end the better.

 

[dobro]

Tex, thanks for that response. Yeah, I've put diffusors and absorbers in place, and there's more to come (the fibreglass goes up really soon). But here's where my question's coming from.

I recently moved house, and set up one room in the new place as a studio. I've done pretty much with it what I did with the old place in terms of diffusion and absorption, and this week experimented with mic positions and directions to find the best sound and did some tracking. The results: the sound (acoustic guitar) in the new place is nowhere near as sweet as the sound in the old place.

The new place: rectangular, with high ceilings.

The old place: rectangular, but with a long, sloping ceiling. At the high end, there was a 'window' that opened into a hallway and another room. I never sealed this off, cuz I thought it would do more for the sound.

Comparing the new place to the old place, I'm thinking that it was the irregularity of the old place (sloping ceiling, plus sound able to move through that 'window' at one end of the room) that gave it the sound it had. So, "How do I make the new place more 'irregular'?" I wondered. Well, get the sound bouncing off the walls in non-parallel ways, I thought. No?