QA

Question: What Do Bass Traps Do

A bass trap is a low frequency sound absorber used to reduce the effects of standing waves in a room. They are usually placed in corners or along wall joints where low frequency energy tends to build up.

Does bass trap make a difference?

Bass traps absolutely improve the sound of music, whether regular stereo or the music in a movie sound track. In most rooms the improvement comes across as more bass, with less change in bass amount and quality at different locations around the room.

Why do you need bass traps?

Bass traps do not just absorb the low-end frequencies in your room. They also help to better define the low frequencies making them easier to control and recognize. This in turn helps you to achieve better results in your recordings.

Do bass traps really help?

Since bass traps are placed at the corners of a room where most low frequency buildup and echoes occur, they definitely provide an improvement than having nothing at all.

Do bass traps increase bass?

Bass traps reduce the strength of reflections that create these nulls, raising the volume at those frequencies. So adding bass traps to a room usually gives the perception of more bass, not less.

How do bass traps affect sound?

Bass traps are acoustic energy absorbers which are designed to damp low frequency sound energy with the goal of attaining a flatter low frequency (LF) room response by reducing LF resonances in rooms. Like all acoustically absorptive devices, they function by turning sound energy into heat through friction.

Do bass traps help with soundproofing?

Bass traps help with soundproofing if the objective is to block excess low-frequency sounds, which are the hardest to tame. Bass traps are designed to make the sound in a room smoother and make a real acoustic difference in terms of numbers, measurements, music production, and sound mixing.

Do bass traps have to be floor to ceiling?

Location of Bass Traps It is important to note that it is not necessary to have floor-to-ceiling bass traps along the corners, you may only place two in each corner or decide to only treat two corners, in which case the two closest to the speakers should be treated.

How do you know if you need bass traps?

A rule of thumb is that the smaller the room the more bass trapping is required. Reflections that cause standing waves are stronger as the walls get closer and so greater coverage is needed in most cases. One area that many people I’ve seen neglect to treat is the ceiling to wall corners in their room.

Does my room need a bass trap?

The general answer for the average user – who isn’t Abbey Road: No. Bass Traps can be needed for sure and if you have an infinite budget to have someone who REALLY knows how to treat a room then go for it. But in the real world, it is easy to do more damage than good by making a room tha sound weird.

Should I put bass traps behind my speakers?

Bass traps absorb low frequency pressure to lessen the amount of bass energy reflecting in the room. The best locations to place bass traps would be from floor to ceiling in the front left and right corners, behind the monitors and wall-ceiling tri-corners.

How much of a difference do bass traps make?

Helmholtz Resonator Bass Traps A bad room node can drop a frequency over 20 decibels—the difference between a shout and a quiet conversation! A Helmholtz resonator trap can dissipate much of the sonic energy that would otherwise cause problems.

How thick should a bass trap be?

A bass trap should be atleast 4″ thick with the most effective traps being as thick as 8″! – Refrain from adding extra insulation behind your bass trap panel, open air is actually better.

Can you have too much bass traps?

“You can’t have too many bass traps! “ But you’ve probably also heard stories off people putting way too much absorption in their room and it ending up sounding over-damped, or even “dead“.

How much bass trap do I need?

We suggest 1.5 x KYE King Kong Bass Trap per m² of floor space in order to turn it into a very high end mixing and mastering control room. That also equates to the maximum that can be achieved with optimised velocity absorption before introducing the next step in treatment, which would be pressure based traps.

Are Windows bass traps?

Actually, a window like that actually passes bass pretty well. It’s not going to pass it all but it’s better than a drywall wall. A bass absorber or 2 in front of it will only help the effect and (in the case of a broadband treatment), help negate the harsh upper mid and high frequency reflections.

How do bass traps stop the bass build up in corners?

When people talk about bass traps, they generally mean broad band absorbers built around porous insulation material like mineral wool or fiberglass. This type of absorber works by turning the movement of air particles into heat through friction.

How big do bass traps need to be?

As a rule of thumb, your bass trap thickness should be no less than 4 inches. But the thicker it is, the more sound waves it can absorb. So, it’s best to make them up to 8 inches thick if you’re looking for maximum effectiveness. For a DIY panel, start with the minimum thickness, and cover all the corners.