New member, curious about slatted desk top.

[Rich_S]

Hi, everybody. This is my first post after joining the forum on Glenn Frickker's recommendation, after viewing many of his videos. I'm a recording hobbyist, going on 50 years as a guitar player, did a lot of live sound back in the olden times ('70s and '80s.) I always meant to build myself a modest home studio, and now that we've raised four kids and gotten them mostly out of the house, I'm finally getting around to it. Or, will soon get around to it, since we're downsizing and moving into a new house in September 2021.

In the meantime, I've been watching a lot of random videos and today I saw something I've never seen before. In the Adam Audio video linked below, they have what appears to be a slatted control desk. They don't talk about it, other than mentioning in the "speaker placement" section (starting around 12:15) that reflections off the desk often cause dips in the response. I assume the desk of slats is intended to combat this problem, but I'm surprised that I've never seen it done before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uq7CJE_gW0

An added bonus is, it would discourage the cats from walking across your keyboard while you're working.

I did a Google search for "slatted studio desk" and came up with nothing. Has anybody seen this done before, and are there any recommended design guidelines? The desk in the video seems to have evenly-spaced slats, in contrast with the varied width and spacing of the slats on the traps in the front corners of the room. Is it simply open slats with empty space beneath, or is there some sort of absorption built into the underside of the desk top?

I'm just curious, and would be interested to hear anybody experience with the concept. Beyond that, I'll going to start gathering a sound level meter and measurement mic, in preparation for starting my design thread sometime in the fall.

[DanDan]

Welcome here. Desk Reflections can be quite strong due to the short distances involved. Horrendously destructive at HF. This is a tiny desk, from a kids school in fact, just big enough for computer keyboard and trackpad.
The improved response was caused by angling it about 8 degrees/ or so. Subsequently I added a doubled thick fluffy towel. Black, looks great.
On a client job I specified a slatted work surface to enable a bass trap underneath. Bound to be helpful IMO The iOS SLM apps and software from Studiosixdigital and Faber are excellent. As is this fully featured integrating SLM from the US Gov. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/app.html

Desk Combover 2.jpg

[gullfo]

it depends on what you need the desk to do. a small drafting table with a keyboard drawer may meet your needs for computer keyboard and mouse, a control surface, and a slide out music keyboard. desk angled to say 10°. then a large absorber placed in front (and to top edge) of the desk between the speakers (on stands) and the desk. rack gear on a low angled floor rack on the side, underneath, or behind as desired.