Bass traps

Lango-Django

I'm thinking of setting up a little recording studio in my basement. My Man Cave is pretty echoey, so I did a little reading on the Intertoobz and it seems that what I need is to put up just enough acoustical panels to kill the echo, especially the bass echo.

Apparently this type of acoustical panels are called "bass traps" because the bass frequencies are the hardest to modulate... Stuff like carpeting and drapes will eat up most of the higher frequency echoes, but won't do much of anything against the lower frequency echoes. And from what I've read so far, special attention has to be paid to the corners of the room in order to avoid bass echoes that can cause a boomy or muddy sound.

So I just wondered if anybody here has some pearls of wisdom to share about this before I go out and buy or make some bass traps? what worked or didn't work for you?

thanks,

will

PS Forgot to say... several articles warned against totally deadening the sound in the room... so how do I know how much of this kind of stuff to buy/make?

Jon

Hey,

There are some good resources on the net for building bass traps/broadband absorbers etc, but I just came across this article, which is very interesting http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/recording-studio-construction-acoustics/why-your-bass-traps-dont-work/

As for how wet/dry a room should be, I've found that that depends a lot on the kind of music you're making. If you listen to the Integrale recordings, and compare them to some of the more "modern" remasters of Django, it's interesting to note how dry the Integrale ones are, and how much (albeit usually tasteful) reverb has been put on some of the others - EMI for instance. This would seem to imply, especially since the original recordings would have been around one microphone, allowing quite a bit of room sound in, that the rooms they used must have been quite dead - especially given the tendency of short, staccato sounds (like the Pompe) to really set a live room off.

You can go really crazy with room treatment - with expensive software for analysing room modes, frequencies etc in great detail. It's a profession in itself. I've been rehearsing and recording a bit lately in a room that's been subjected to a pretty DIY treatment (Rockwool type bass-trap insulation - with some particle board thrown in for good measure - in the corners, carpet on the floor), and it sounds great for manouche stuff. Maybe a bit dead for other stuff though, but sounds quite even to me in terms of frequency response.

I guess the thing about wettish rooms also, is that to get a really good wet room is rare - most residential rooms just suck, so drier is probably better, and less bad reverb means you can put something better on in the box.

Okay, now I'm going to try never to think about acoustics again (much too confusing!)

Good luck,

Jon