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I read and hear a lot about 'bass traps'. Any of you knowledgeable people would like to explain what they are, what they do and if you are wanting to trap bass, what is it you are trying to prevent it from doing? Escaping or reflecting?
And I suppose I should ask, what happens to the bass when there are no traps to trap it?

MS

Comments

musicproducer Mon, 05/09/2011 - 13:51

I have a couple home-made bass traps in my studio. I have a funky shape to my room, so my aim with sound treatment was just to get it sounding reasonably accurate; usually the guys that mix here can take mixes home and let me know if there is an issue in my freq. spectrum on various mixes.

To make my own I just bought compressed fiberglass (2" thick sheets) and for the bass traps combined 3 of them so I have a 6" thick trap. I wrapped mine in tan burlap and placed them in wood frames various places in my studio.

Probably a little thicker than 6" would be good for the extreme low end, but these seem to do the job for me.

You'll find that the lower the frequency, the thicker that treatment material needs to be, because the waveforms increase in size the lower they are. So 2" treatment will help you with piccolo and flute reflections, but bass instruments will be relatively unaffected.