John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Thoughts on this idea?

The idea is to add bass traps without losing valuable space in a basement studio. These would be built at the bottom part of the wall when the outer leaf at this point is underground (meaning the space between leaves is not important...or so I think?).

This is an example of 1 trap in-between a 24" OC frame, but I'm thinking of adding lots of em.. My inner leaf wall will be angled so at one end, I could make these a couple feet deep!

Tom,

> The idea is to add bass traps without losing valuable space in a basement studio. <

It's an impossible dream. You can certainly focus on those places (corners) where traps are most effective to get the most benefit from each trap. But in the end you have so many square feet of reflecting surface area, and you need to treat some proportion of that surface with absorption. And for bass traps, thicker is better. There are wood panel traps which take up less space:

www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html

But it sounds like your room is so small that you can't afford to give up much space. Wood panels may be more appropriate in larger spaces.

There are also wall-ceiling corners, and those are usually out of the way.

--Ethan

I should have mentioned that these would be in addition to corner traps in all ceiling to floor corners and traps at first reflection points. On the ceiling above drums, and on the ceiling above mix position. One room studio.

The room will be approx. 18.5' X 9.5' X 7.5', the long walls will be angled at 7.5 degrees making the shorter walls (width) on one end 7 feet, and 15 feet on the other end. (18.5'X9.5'X7.5' to calculate the cubic footage of the room which is about 1318 cubic feet).

The idea for these is to add additional bass traps that are out of the way and have a reflective outer surface so that the room doesn't become too dead..

First reflection points on the walls could also be done the same way which would allow them to be deeper (say one foot) without coming into the room.

Tom, if any portion of your basement wall is above ground the only way you'd NOT lose isolation is if you put just as much mass between the bass trap part of the wall and the upper part of the wall as you have anywhere else - think "weakest link" here... Steve

knightfly wrote:Tom, if any portion of your basement wall is above ground the only way you'd NOT lose isolation is if you put just as much mass between the bass trap part of the wall and the upper part of the wall as you have anywhere else - think "weakest link" here... Steve

Thanks Steve, that's what I was planning. The only thing that would change would be the amount of airspace in-between leaves. But this decrease in airspace would only be where the outer leaf is well under ground.

Should work pretty well; just keep in mind (I think you already did) that bass is BIG, and you'll need quite a few of these to hear much difference... Steve

For my first reflection points, I won't use anything that is reflective over the bass traps.

However, I was thinking for adding additional bass traps in the wall, flush with the wall, 1 foot (maybe less) deep into the wall. I was thinking in order to hide them, would it be possible to use a printed picture on canvas maybe to hide the traps? Instead of fabric? Would this make them appropriately reflective without making the bass trap useless?

So it would appear like a few canvas pictures on the wall, but it would just be hiding 2'X4' X 1' (or whatever) bass traps.