keep the closet/trash the closet

Okay, I left Singapore (and my studio there). That's okay - I got some stuff recorded and I learned some stuff, especially about room treatment. But now I've got a new room, and new problems to solve. First off, the room sucks - 10 ' by 14 ' by 7'. That's right - 7'. Ouch. Anyway, in one corner of the room, there's a DIY built closet that I can remove easily if I want to make the room completely rectangular. The closet's about 3' by 8'. Should I leave it where it is, or knock it down? Does the irregularity created by the closet help break up standing waves? I need all the help I can get in a space only 7' high. Concrete floor, drywall on all the other surfaces with concrete behind two of those surfaces. Until I get bass traps built, I'm going to treat everything but the floor with heavy duty fibreglass (which I brought from Singapore, by the way - I figured it was so useful and I'd put so much work into assembling it, there was no way I was leaving it behind lol.)

"Left Singapore..." In the interest of helping out: may I ask, where are you now located? Please edit your profile to include your location. This is very important, because this is a worldwide resource, and as such, material costs and availability vary widely. For example, masonry is cheaper than gypsum in some parts of the globe, whereas it's the exact opposite in other regions. Thanks

I'm in Canada now. But I'm curious about why you ask, because my question was only about the acoustics of the situation I'm dealing with at this point, and not construction work. Acoustics are international, right? lol

he asked because it's rule of the forum Paul. :D Steve, Aaron and myself are sick of answering someone's rave only to be told - but we can't get timber here in Greenland! Doesn't really matter if you keep or rid yourself of the cupboard IMO. It's how you treat what's left that really matters. I'd put most of that insulation on the ceiling. so how's Canada? - definitely a wee bit cooler ;) cheers john

Hey, John. Sorry - didn't know it was protocol to ask that question lol. Yeah, Canada's way cooler than Singapore. I'm hugely unemployed right now, which has one big advantage compared to all the major disadvantages (which is that I can work on my studio). I trashed the closet today. It adds a lot to the space in the room. I'd love to be able to jackhammer out another two feet down in the room, but the house is built on a rock, and I'd probably have to start blasting at some point, so that's out. Yeah, I'm going to cover the front and back walls, corners and ceiling with the fibreglass I brought with me from Singapore. I've got loads of the stuff. The longrange plan is to build some bass traps, but the short-term 'solution' is the fibreglass. Question time: do plywood deflectors do anything to defeat standing waves in a situation like this, or do the lower frequencies just move right through and independent of anything as thin as plywood?

Paul - I'd build angled slots to get rid of those nasty low mids you room will be full of. they'll also stop the room from becoming flat and dead in the high end. Australia is screaming for teachers here Paul - they've just upped the pay so a first year teacher gets $50K going on up to $75K cheers john

Angled slots? Can you link me to a thread that talks about them? I don't recognize that term. Teaching in Oz? I'd love to, but I'm a TEFL teacher, not a 'teach your kids in school 9 to 5' teacher. That's about the same that Canadian teachers get paid too, I think. Overworked, but not underpaid, I'd say. The days are getting darker and colder. I'm starting to think fondly of Singapore. All is forgiven, lol.

You can try here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Aloha 8)

or here for a later version http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4025 cheers john

Clicktrack's van? lol My room's not big enough to get Clictrack's van in. Nice van, though lol.

Okay, after reading the first link quickly, I realize that the second link has *pictures* of angled slots. (And I thought they were just attractive wall decoration at first...) But... 'completely sealed to be airtight' and 'the only access to the outer air is via the gaps between the slats'... so it's not airtight, right? It's a tight box with slots all over the front, right? A long time ago, I saw some plans for DIY bass traps, and as I recall, they *were* completely airtight. Something about the vibration being converted to heat, and that was what did the absorbing. Do these angled slots work on a different principle, then? What kind of insulation? Fiberglass again? When you change the size of the gaps, should you alternate 1/4" and 1/2" regularly, or should you create a random pattern? For the side wall absorbers, if you built them deeper, they'd absorb lower frequencies, right? How effective are these things compared to my present approach (stiff 2" sheets of fiberglass on the front walls, back walls, angled across corners, and a cloud suspended over the listener's head? Sorry to be such a pain in the butt with all these questions, but I think I'm gonna roll with this idea.

Paul - the mistake a lot of people make is that they add fibreglass to their room, and sure, it sounds deader but it's only working from the low mids up - 300 - 500 hz up. It tapers off below that. The room is still live in the low end and totally dead in the high end.. The slots absorb the area from 120hz - 500hz (low mids) yet they reflect/diffuse the mid and high frequencies and stop the room from sounding lifeless, plus being angled they break up the parallel walls. cheers john

Okay, I've got that. It's easy to understand how they diffuse the sound - the irregularity of the construction breaks up standing waves. But how do they absorb the frequencies from 120-500 Hz?

I keep taking more and more drywall down in preparation for the new stuff going up. If this continues, there's gonna be an issue lol. On the page with the instructions for construction of the diffuser/absorber, there's a link in the text to a special calculation or formula for calcuations, but it didn't work for me. Does it work, or is it this dumb library computer I'm using?

Uh... what's MDF? Medium density fibreboard? Multiple distributed feet? Many dumb fanatics?