Bass trap with barrier mat

by **CS70** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:29 pm

I love the bass trap that Hugh and Paul described in this SOS article

I was in my 30s back then, Nelly Furtado was hot in the charts and I was blissfully unaware of what bass traps were. Good times.

The trap sounds still very sound to me (see what I did there!), but having to make it now, would there be any design improvements that the Dynamic Duo would have come with?

by **Hugh Robjohns** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:09 am

There are many ways of building that kind of trap, some rather easier than others, but the concept remains sound and the barrier-mat certainly does improve the trap's effectiveness. In fact, I'm just about to install a trio of corner bass traps with barrier-mats in my own studio...

Just make sure that the mat hangs freely without touching anything in front or behind, or to the sides or at the bottom... but make sure the gaps around its edges are as small as you can make them -- a few millimetres at most.

H

by **CS70** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:20 am

Hugh Robjohns wrote:There are many ways of building that kind of trap, some rather easier than others, but the concept remains sound and the barrier-mat certainly does improve the trap's effectiveness. In fact, I'm just about to install a trio of corner bass traps with barrier-mats in my own studio...

Just make sure that the mat hangs freely without touching anything in front or behind, or to the sides or at the bottom... but make sure the gaps around its edges are as small as you can make them -- a few millimetres at most.

H

Excellent, thanks for the tip. Great stuff when a contribution from 13 years ago is still valid!

by **Hugh Robjohns** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:43 am

Physics rarely changes.... :-)

by **CS70** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:30 pm

True that, but materials do... I'm on the lookout for some felt carpet which doesn't smell like wet dogs! :D

by **DanDan** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 7:55 pm

The BBC ended up using simple hardboard.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1992-10.pdf
DD

by **Hugh Robjohns** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:27 pm

DanDan wrote:The BBC ended up using simple hardboard.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1992-10.pdf
DD

They did, but only because the R&D boffins were focused on building a dedicated standard-sized modular bass ansorber... And as the report explains, a loaded vinyl membrane didn't work well when fixed as the front of a standard-sized modular absorber panel. Hardboard proved to be a better option in that specific form of construction.

In other forms of construction, a large, free-hanging limp-mass membrane is a very effective solution.

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Bass trap with barrier mat