Count Bassy Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I have a practice room built into the back of our garage which generally works really well. The room has 3 brick walls, one staggered stud wall with double plaster board & Green-Glue, concrete ceiling and a carpeted concrete floor. Shape wise it's pretty much like a single garage (slightly smaller) This is pretty effective at stopping noise getting out, and everything sounds pretty good if we've got the whole band in there, but if in there on my own or just with my wife the bass sounds boomy/boxy, and playing with the EQ doesn't seem to help much. All I've done in terms of sound control inside the room is to have a few bits of left over carpets hanging on the wall (which seems to work reasonably well for vocals and guitar), and a 600 x 1200 slab of rockwool stood in a corner. I know you can get proper foam bass traps to go in, but these are quite expensive, so: Does anybody have any idea how many (as yet unspecified) 'bass traps' might be needed to make serious improvement. Has anyone made their own bass traps, and how cheap & effective were they? Perhaps I should pay 3 or 4 unemployed people to come in and just stand around! Many thanks in advance. Clive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weststarx Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I remember reading somewhere about sound proofing, for Guitars its generally easy, but the low frequency of a bass however travels through walls considerably more - Which is why you only really hear the bass player when you go to the toilet at a gig. (I had to tell my girlfriend to go do this once becuase she didnt know what I was actually playing ) I would just try and add as much thickness to those walls as possible or turn down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmaxblues Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Gramma pad helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassy Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 [quote name='Weststarx' timestamp='1396531734' post='2414729'] I remember reading somewhere about sound proofing, for Guitars its generally easy, but the low frequency of a bass however travels through walls considerably more - Which is why you only really hear the bass player when you go to the toilet at a gig. (I had to tell my girlfriend to go do this once becuase she didnt know what I was actually playing ) I would just try and add as much thickness to those walls as possible or turn down. [/quote] Noise getting out of the room is not a problem - its pretty good at that. Its the boominess inside that I need to sort out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassy Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 [quote name='vmaxblues' timestamp='1396532244' post='2414738'] Gramma pad helps [/quote] Strangely enough I have one of these (the great Gramma) on the way, but I bought that more with wooden floors/stages in mind. Will this help with room boom even if its sat on carpet on top of a concrete (ground) floor? If so then great!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Might sound daft (and my memory may be messing with me here) but I seem to remember reading a studio SOS in the SOS mag where a sofa propped up on its end in a corner acted as a pretty effective bass trap... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I don't think a gramma pad will help. Someone posted some ace plans for making your own bass traps in the recording forum. I think it might have been 5imon. There are lots of plans around, but as far as I know you just get the densest rockwool you can afford, and as much of it as you can, chuck it in a corner and cover it with some fabric A sofa or a matress would probably soak up some bass too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmaxblues Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 All I can say is that one of rehearsal spaces is small and acoustically appalling, just for an experiment I used the gramma pad and it dramatically reduced the boom, maybe there is an odd quirk in the room, but it definately worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOD2 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 The placement of the speaker cab can have an effect on this. Avoid placing the speaker cab right back against a wall or in a corner as both of these positions can give a "bass boost" under certain conditions (called "bass coupling"). Lifting the speaker cab off the floor (by putting something between cab and floor) may also help. [url="http://www.fender.com/news/controlling-sonic-boom/"]http://www.fender.com/news/controlling-sonic-boom/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnyboy Rotten Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 You could try buying an old mattress and sawing it almost in half and standing it in the corner. Might want to fabreze and throughly vacuum it first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weststarx Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 [quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1396532688' post='2414749'] Noise getting out of the room is not a problem - its pretty good at that. Its the boominess inside that I need to sort out. [/quote] Ah I see, my apologies... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 (edited) Unless a mattress is of the old-fashioned horsehair or feather type it will like as not prove useless. A modern sprung mattress is 99% air between wire loops; having recently cut one up (don't ask) I can confirm it is about as useful as egg-boxes. Acoustically enhancing the room is the only way forward but it does not have to be massively expensive. Acoustic materials come at range of prices and a trip round the home recording forums will help identify the cheaper brands and some minimum requirements. If nothing else, I have enjoyed a marginal improvement by rolling heavy removers' blankets and placing them on the floor in each corner of the room as rudimentary bass traps. Ideally, one would also sort the ceiling corners and the wall / ceiling join. Edited April 3, 2014 by skankdelvar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael J Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 My mattress is an eight inch thick slab of foam. I have heard, and can well believe but have not tried, that rolls of loft insulation work well as bass traps. You get the big rolls and, leaving them in their wrapping, you just stand them up on end in the corners of the room. They act as thick broadband absorbers, significantly reducing bass resonances, and also the curved face provides dispersion of high frequencies - another plus. If possible stack one on top of another until you reach the ceiling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 [quote name='Michael J' timestamp='1396545288' post='2414964'] My mattress is an eight inch thick slab of foam. [/quote] That might do the trick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassy Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 [quote name='Weststarx' timestamp='1396537012' post='2414827'] Ah I see, my apologies... [/quote] No need to apologise - thanks for taking the time to respond! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 [quote name='BOD2' timestamp='1396533839' post='2414778'] The placement of the speaker cab can have an effect on this. Avoid placing the speaker cab right back against a wall or in a corner as both of these positions can give a "bass boost" under certain conditions (called "bass coupling"). Lifting the speaker cab off the floor (by putting something between cab and floor) may also help. [url="http://www.fender.com/news/controlling-sonic-boom/"]http://www.fender.co...ing-sonic-boom/[/url] [/quote] This. Experiment by lifting the cab from the floor: a bit, a bit more, a lot more... and see what it does to the sound. Similarly with placement relative to walls... It's amazing how much bass can be affected by speaker placement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 I wonder how a square of thick ply, with 4 screws driven through it to act as spikes, would work as a way to decouple a bass cab from the floor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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