DIY Bass Tube Traps

[ElektricEyez]

http://www.teresaudio.com/haven/traps/traps.html

Anyone ever try building there own? I'm having trouble with my vocal booth and I'm trying to dial in the acoustics right. Mostly getting that hollow bassy sound.

I've tried putting those foam bass traps and I thougth it helped, but apparantly not enough.

Was thinking about trying the tube bass traps next, everything I have read about them seems to give really good reviews.

 

[Katau]

My guess, by their shape, is that they also diffuse? I also wonder if placing them in only the corners will be benificial.

 

[ElektricEyez]

From everything I've read, they are supposed to be fantastic. Now I found some other ones that uses Concrete form tubes filled with sand. I wonder which ones would be "better".

Here's another link to check out...

http://www.diy-home-theater-design.com/bass-trap-build.html

 

[AStacy2]

They look fucking retarded though.

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, I gotta +1 that one, I'm sorry to say - I assume they'd have to be exposed (rather than hidden behind something) to work

 

[ElektricEyez]

They look fucking retarded though.

I'm pretty sure when a band gives you their demo and it sounds good, your gonna ask them how pretty their studio looked because it sounds so good... Your gear is only as good as your acoustics.

I've actually seen something similar installed in a professional studio, but they were only half cylinders built into the walls. There wasn't any studio foam and the room sounded incredible.

Here's a link with a lot of really good information regarding acoustics.

http://www.asc-hifi.com/articles.htm


Anyone else have any "good" advice regarding acoustics, and not just negative opinions? Right now I'm mostly concerned with getting the vocal booth sounding right.

 

[Radd]

They look fucking retarded though.

If they were made up to look like Roman/Greek columns, I think that would be cool.

Or even more intricate:

 

[ryanojohn]

agreed that WOULD be cool

 

[ElektricEyez]

Well, he should have used at least a better color fabric, I do admit. Like a dark blue or burgundy would have looked better, even black. I think the motiffs would be nice, but I don't see how you could do it and still get some good acoustical properties from them.

 

[AStacy2]

I was just saying that they looked fucking stupid to me, ElektricEyez. Thanks for letting me know that my gear is only as good as my acoustics though, I never would of known unless you told me.

 

[ElektricEyez]

I was just saying that they looked fucking stupid to me, ElektricEyez. Thanks for letting me know that my gear is only as good as my acoustics though, I never would of known unless you told me.

Look dude, I never once asked how anyone thought they looked, I asked if they ever tuned a room using bass traps, more specifically DIY Bass traps. You're right, the way he made his, with the white fabric does look lame, I don't care about how his looks, that wasn't the point, there is a plethora of fabric you can get and make them look however you want.

I'm having problems with my room, I have a killer mic, but the room is having acoustical issues - more specifically with bass frequencies and I am looking for the best way to tame them. I asked for advice on that - which is why I said your gear is only as good as your acoustics.

Not trying to start crap, but I asked for advice on the acoustics, NOT aesthetics.

 

[Nebulous]

I've heard of people getting good results with DIY bass traps, even when they were only in the corners. It's been recommended to me by afew people.

 

[dreamcatcher]

Corners first, I say.

 

[AStacy2]

Wow ElectrikEyez, you took my comment waaay to personally, this is a forum...sometimes you might get opinion that you don't ask for, I didn't think I'd piss you off though. Simmer down. I've had to tune about 6 mixing rooms. The foam bass traps from Auralex really aren't that great. They don't work good in corners, for that I think the best bet is some OC703. I've used the foam Auralex to treat the middle of the sides of the room towards the floor and it worked okay, espicially since it's easy to just put it there. I've never used the tube traps though. If you use your room for mainly vocals (I'm guessing because you said "mic") maybe you could also try and build booth and try to make it as dead as possible, if you have a closet or something it might be really easy/cheap instead of treating an entire room.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

These look like they are designed for diffusion not absorbsion. Therefore I think they would serve better directly behind you desk or placed strategically around a drumset or singer for diffusion not absorbsion. Every bass trap DIY I have seen has utilized absorbtion material like auralex (meh) to OC703.

I don't know about anyone else but this is not something I would stick in the corner of my room.

 

[ElektricEyez]

Taming acoustics is a science all within itself. The problem I'm having is I think that I'm getting is comb filtering. The dimensions of the vocal booth are 4 Ft wide, 7 ft long, and 8 ft tall. I've tried those Auralex bass traps (well the ebay version, but same thing, big triangular foam blocks that go into the corners). The weird thing is that it's only obvious with certain singers. I thought the bass traps took care of it, but apparently not. Just came back from the insulation retailer, and I'm gonna try these bass traps. The walls are 1 1/2 inches thick of compressed fiberglass. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Small Rooms are a pain to tame!

If you listen to the last band I did you can hear that hollow sound coming from the vox that I'm talking about. By the way, it's a male and female vocalist during the first half of the song, then it's just the mail vocalist, the filtering effect is pretty strong on both of them though.
http://www.myspace.com/deathofagod1