low ceiling treatment

Greetings all, I am currently building a small studio with very low 7.5' ceilings and am not sure of the best acoustical treatment. It almost seems like a good idea to deaden the entire ceiling and remove it from the acoustical equation. Also, is there any reason why corrugated vinyl panel, like the ones used for greenhouse roofs, would not make good diffusers?

Thanks for looking, Joe

yes, 'coz they aren't good diffusers.

I think if you understand how diffusion really works then you will understand why those are not going to work. Take a read here http://www.gikacoustics.com/education_diffusion.html Glenn

Thanks Glen, I see what you mean (kinda). No diffusion would be better than improper diffusion. What do you think about the ole' bowed plywood on the rear wall? Is that worth anything? That's more deflection than diffusion. Thanks, Joe

It's real diffusion - in the physical dimensions. It's even actually smoother than a QRD and has no effective top limit like most QRDs. However, a poly does not effectively shift things in the time domain the way a QRD does - nor does it provide any inherent absorbtion from in-well cancellations. Bryan

bpape wrote:

However, a poly does not effectively...

Right Bryan, and a typical poly doesn't avoid comb filtering either which is one of the main problems in small rooms. --Ethan