Bass trap height

[Kirsti]

Hi there

We're working on getting our basement studio acoustically ready for recording, and are planning on spending this memorial weekend making bass traps (as per the you tube video here: YouTube - How to make a Bass Trap Acoustic Panel (Tutorial) )

We'll be using Owens Corning 703. Our ceiling height is about 7', and we were wondering if there would be any advantage to making the frames taller, cutting the panels to fit, and stacking them on top of eachother (perhaps with some glue), so that the resulting panel would cover more of the corner between floor and ceiling - say, 6' rather than 4'.

Has anyone tried this? Or got any feedback on the possible acoustic benefits versus the extra cost in materials and time?

Thanks
Kirsti

[TonyB]

I haven't done it exactly the way you did, but the more of the corner you cover with a bass trap the better.

I have a 10' ceiling, but had two 4' Corner Traps from GIK Acoustics, which left me with a 2 foot gap that I had to custom fill with OC703 and burlap.

Taming the low freqs in your room is the most critical in treating for reflections, nodes, etc. For bass traps, there usually isn't too much. So I would say take the extra time and material and cover the entire 7' corner as much as you can.

[brandondrury]

While corners are where this stuff builds up, it often comes down to % of coverage. The more low end reflections you can absorb, the better.

How did your bass traps turn out?

Brandon

[Kirsti]

They turned out great ... and seem to have made a real difference to the sound of the room. You can see pictures of the whole process here, if you're interested:

Studio Build Summer 09 - a set on Flickr

Now if the PC we ordered to get ProTools up and running would just show up .... but we're using our old Roland VS1680 to get things moving until it does.