Acoustic foam treatment

[black sugar]

Evildonkeymaster, who's been MIA on the board for a little while now, hipped me to the MoPads, and he uses an Auralex foam square diffuser behind each monitor. Total DIY style. Gotta try that for sure.

Yeah, glass desk = presence. Not a spectacular choice! I always overshoot the low end in compensating for it, even though I should really know better by now. D'oh.

 

[Ermz]

Well me and Nebulous picked up a pair of Mopad knock-offs today (same shit, half the price). I'm trying mine out at the moment. It's slightly reduced my bass problem as well as improved the imaging a heap. I think I'm getting a more accurate response. Cheers guys.

 

[James Murphy]

It's possible that your speakers are coupling with your desk and exaggerating some low resonant frequency. You might be able to solve some of that by putting the speakers on stands/neoprene.

Bass traps are supposed to prevent what you're describing by eliminating standing waves when placed in corner areas.

you got the first part right for sure, but bass traps will really only help standing waves if you have them arrayed all around rhe walls of your room and not just in the corners. but they aren't ideal for that purpose really... the best way to prevent standing waves in your room is to have it built with non-parallel walls. but, since most of us are working with existing "square" spaces the best that can be done is to place some diffusors and low-mid to high frequency absorbers in strategic places throughout your room. this is because standing waves are largely the result of reflection... reflected waves joining with "incident" waves.

one good trick is to place an absorber/diffusor at a line-of-sight position from each of your monitors.

bass traps do exactly what they are named, they "trap" bass frequencies. standing waves are not intrinsically "bass" in nature"

just please, please... don't hang any of those god-awful egg carton thingies in your room.. uggghhhh .

 

[Ermz]

haha, sides from being ugly, they aren't rigid enough to diffuse any sound. I think the best way to eliminate standing waves is to use the Rayleigh equation and actually know which problem frequencies you are dealing with. You can then get bass traps which target those specifics. The mid-highs aren't such a problem as simple diffusors or foam can generally take care of them.

 

[James Murphy]

haha, sides from being ugly, they aren't rigid enough to diffuse any sound. I think the best way to eliminate standing waves is to use the Rayleigh equation and actually know which problem frequencies you are dealing with. You can then get bass traps which target those specifics. The mid-highs aren't such a problem as simple diffusors or foam can generally take care of them.

c'mon.. let's see you do the rayleigh equation right now, right here, do it!! bust it out, c'mon man.. do it.. we wanna see.. lol. what Moondexter is trying to say is that if you have shitloads of money for an acoustician to come in and design your room for you (or if you happen to be studying to be one yourself ) then bust out your wallet and Rayleigh it up. but i suspect most of you are looking for more practical, budget solutions.

hey moony, don't forget to shell out the skins for the latest, AES/EBU approved, revised version of that Acoustics textbook.. it has all the latest equations for calculating the effects of temperature and humidity on high frequency transmission.

i made that last part up... but i got ya thinkin' for a sec there, didn't i?

 

[Ermz]

Well hey, just some helpful tips for any folks who might be hopin' to start their own studio someday, haha.

One thing I'm a bit puzzled on atm though... I always figured loading up 4 bass traps in the corners of a room with all sorts of foam and shit would help reduce standing waves a bit. I know that the whole 'fake wall' thing works alot better, but I didn't think it was necessary to reduce standing waves. I also thought the standard wall foam stuff didn't do shit to bass frequencies...

Oh and just coz James is such a sweetie...

Frez(Hz)=(343/2)*√((p^2/l^2)+(q^2/h^2)+(r^2/w^2))

Where p q and r are all manner of assorted room modes that I have no concept of at all, haha. The internet is your friend in this matter, however.

 

[Nebulous]

lmao. ah Erm, you got totaly ripped!!
James is right, even the Rayleigh equation isnt much help in an existing room for bass freq's, remember how large the wavelengths are??

Daniel\m/

 

[Ermz]

Just one question guys.. with the speaker pads, is it a good idea to seperate the two and leave a little air gap below the speakers or just tighten everything up and use them as a bed for the speakers to sit on?

 

[James Murphy]

Just one question guys.. with the speaker pads, is it a good idea to seperate the two and leave a little air gap below the speakers or just tighten everything up and use them as a bed for the speakers to sit on?

well, unless you have some levitating speakers i think you're fine to do it like me... just set them on the foam pads.

 

[Ermz]

sweet, thankee sir.james

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

Actually I've been meaning to ask... do speaker pads help reduce standing waves? There is a certain freq. that just THUMPS in this room. It totally obliterates the consistency of listening.

Turn the bass boost off!

j/k

*ducks*