The Superchunk Bass Trap

[mojobone]

Ronan Chris Murphy mentioned the Superchunk bass trap on Monday's Taxi TV, and as important as room acoustic treatment is, I thought I might post this handy-dandy DIY how-to article with pictures, diagrams, spectrograms and waterfall plots showing exactly how easy to build and how helpful they can be-though sadly, no audio is included. The article is clearly aimed at the home theater crowd, and it doesn't include much about proper nearfield monitor positioning, [see next post] but such treatments are even more important for your critical monitoring situation and this tutorial is remarkably free of technical jargon, so here ye be: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/esanta ... ustic.html

[mojobone]

And here's a quick recap on how to position those nearfield monitors:


Drawn from this excellent overview: http://www.crossfadr.com/2013/04/22/a-c ... placement/

[Paulie]

It's really hard for me to grasp the concept of putting the front of the desk facing the center of the room. If I had a pure studio room I could do that, but I think I;m like many folks here that are using an extra bedroom or space in a different room to stack gear and speakers. I may just give this a try though.

[mojobone]

Obviously, not everybody is gonna have an ideal situation, but an understanding of basic acoustic principles and standard treatment practices...probably can't hurt.

[HowlingUlf]

Since it's only me here at the moment, you never know you know, I do whatever I want.
I use about half of the living room for music and the rest is ... livingroom haha!
It kind of half big but not really big enough and its footprint is not square which is nice.
I have lots of space behind me with soft sofas almost acting as bass traps and a bookshelf covering the back wall like a make-do acoustic diffuser.
As it happens I had six large cardboard boxes filled with "moving residue!" so I stacked them up as two 3-box stacks and placed them on the long walls.
On the front I have some large foam material and a blanket to keep it looking a little civilized and to keep the foam in place.
That way they take the early reflections from the speakers and man, what a difference compared to the concrete walls haha!
I know it doesn't sound very scientific and it isn't but I also know what it used to sound like and the difference is staggering!
Other than that I sit in a triangle as described and it's a workable situation.
That doesn't mean I don't have plans ...

Here is a link to a youtube channel talking about acoustics for anyone interested.
Dennis who do the talking is a little skeptical about a lot of the "products" out there, and he can explain why, it seems?

[lesmac]

The good thing about the super chunks is that you use a lighter insulation which is cheaper than the 48 and 96kg3 material in the "Ethan Winer type" traps.
There is no scientific reason why bales of insulation left in their plastic wraps and stacked vertically in the corners won't work. The trouble is....they take up space.

A good thing to do whether or not you are going to purchase/make/install any traps is find out what your room is doing. If like me you can't get your head around room eq wizard, just play some sine sweeps and from your mixing position, note the frequency areas where it gets loud and quiet. That is your room constructively or destructively altering the source material.
Download a frequency analyser app to your phone and play some pink noise and see what it reads at your listening position.

The number one tip is in the small rooms most of us mix in don't believe the low end when you crank up your monitors.

There, I just had to get that off my chest. I think I'm a bit jaded from the research I did when I built my little studio.

Les

[mojobone]

Here is a link to a youtube channel talking about acoustics for anyone interested.
Dennis who do the talking is a little skeptical about a lot of the "products" out there, and he can explain why, it seems?

Yeah, 'superchunk' is based on a theory that size is as good as mass when trapping bass, which is kinda iffy, but I expect they can be helpful at the frequencies that tend to mask bass and kick fundamentals; it's easy to get hung up on measurements and numbers and maybe forget to listen to what happens to the music. (still, we measure, because that's the difference between a 'sound guy' and an engineer)

I don't recommend flying blind when it comes to spending money on room treatments; it's really inexpensive these days to shoot your room, you just have to invest in a little gear and a lot of self-education, unless you'd rather pay to have it done, and if you take manufacturer's claims at face value, the sky's the limit, as far as what you could end up paying; the 'audiophile/audiophool home theater market is loaded with sketchy claims. http://bit.ly/1WlzIb7

There's a lot to know about room acoustics, but self education pays even bigger dividends if you're going to be mixing in the room you've treated, because the better you know your room, the better decisions you can make, not only about how to spend your money but about how to mix and master.

[HowlingUlf]

AND ... acoustics is more counter intuitive than intuitive. If you try to guess ... don't!

[jazzstan]