tuning my room?

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threestatedrive

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I've finally compiled all of my studio equipment into our spare bedroom and have built my little humble project studio.
I've noticed (obviously) that my room needs tuning and treatment.
I've searched the web, download the modecalc.exe and tried to figure out what to do to 'fix' or at the least help my room.
I can't figure it out. I'm not sure where to put absorbers, diffusors, helmholtz resonators or bass traps, and i'm really not sure how to figure out which frequencies i have problems with, and how to build any treatments.
The room mode calculator leaves me a bit baffled. Can someone please give me some assistance?
my room is 8'8" wide, 14'4" long and 9' tall. There's a window on the short wall (which incidentally is where my work desk is) and a window on one of the long walls (if you're facing the short wall, the right hand wall has the window). The floors are hardwood.
I rent, so there's now way for me to do anything major to the room.
But I'd love to know how to interpret the results of the mode calculator, which frequencies I should affect, and how to do it.
My budget is almost nil so purchasing turnkey absorbers etc is out.
thanks in advance
 
hey, i'm in the same situation. I'm putting my project studio into my sister's/brother-in-law's house because there is no room where i live. i can't make any permanent alterations to the room since its not my house.

ok, first to your mode calculations then i'll tell you what i'm doing to my own room. I'm not close to being an expert on this stuff. in fact i'm only just learning now. I have the physics and material science background but i'm just now learning about acoustics. i've spent a lot of time (should've been working) reading ethan's articles and anyone elses i could find.

well, your room is going to create standing waves at 39, 63 and 65 Hz. These are all really low frequencies and would require very large helmholtz resonators to tame them. The good part is that they will probably be tamed quite a bit if your walls are already finished with drywall. So, it will probably be easier to deal with the second standing waves (the octave above). now you have 79, 126, 130 Hz. any deep membrane bass trap should handle these low frequencies. If you can make 2 different membrane traps it would probably help even out the frequencies. your third and fourth octaves of frequencies can be handled by putting some covered Owens Corning 703 in the corners of the room. you can also build small tube traps.

my room is 9'10 x 10'10 and 9'3 high. so, i'm in much of the same situation as you.

here is how my plans are developing. i've build two bass traps by sealing the ends of sonotube (concrete forms) and stuffing them with insulation. I used a quarter wave pipe calculation to find how long my tubes should be. One of my mode frequencies is 53Hz. Since this is quite low and would require a 65" trap i decided to control the octave above that (106Hz) by using a 32.5" tube trap. As long as i'm not misinformed, the insulation on the interior of the pipe will lower the Q value of the trap and widen the affected bandwidth. I included hardwood tops and feet on these tube traps so they can double as my monitor stands. I'm also building (4) 2'x4' membrane traps [2 deep and 2 thinner ones]. I used 3/4" MDF for the backs and 1x2 frames with 1/8" membranes for the thinner traps. I'm gonna use 1x4 frames with 1/4" membranes for the deep traps. My plan is to hang the 2 thinner traps in the ceiling corners above my mixing desk and behind me in the same position. i plan on putting the deep traps on stands so they can be moved into and out of corners (its a small room and i want to be able to utilize space). I'm also gonna use some OC 703 for corner traps.

i'm still trying to learn the relationship between the size of a membrane trap and its affected frequencies. If anyone can help me out with this i would be grateful. Is the frequency related to the height and width of the membrane (like a quarter wave pipe) or just the depth of the panel? I know my panels will work but i just want to know exactly how the affected frequencies are determined so i can change my design if necessary.
 
i've build two bass traps by sealing the ends of sonotube (concrete forms) and stuffing them with insulation.
Click to expand...
:eek:

Excuse me. Have you ever seen a "real" tube trap? How does sound waves ENTER this tube, so it can be "absorbed"? By what principle are you basing this "absorption" on? This is a new one on me. Usually, a TUBE TRAP, is a "tube" formed by wire mesh, that holds a resistive absorbant material in place. The ends are simply to fasten the wire mesh to. How can a tube like this be "sealed", as the sound waves must "enter" the "interstices" of the resistive material in order to absorb? Have you any idea what the bandwidth and absorption coefficient of such a device is?
From my understanding, any tube that is used in such a manner as you describe, is a "test tube" to generate standing waves to test the "absorbsion"
of different materials, and uses a mic, and a wave generating device within the tube. I forget the name of such a tube, but maybe I'm not familiar with your application. Please enlighten me. :)
The only way I can see how this would work, is if you "flatten" the tube like a pancake, and the ends now become large panels...Voila! membrane absorbers! :D
fitZ
 
yeah, sorry bout that. i'm just learning and sometimes forget my physics. the tube walls are thin enough that they will allow lower frequencies to go through them. they're really just monitor stands but they will work to some extent as a trap. i'm gonna have other traps also so i'm not relying on these for everything. my primary trap is just gonna be the 703 in the corners. i'm just building the panel traps to see how they work and so i can learn about them.
 
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