Project information

Title : Building bass and cloud traps for my studio

Date : 12/09/2022 - 05/10/2022

Description : I built my own bass and cloud traps for my bedroom studio to improve the acoustics for recording and music production

Problem : My bedroom studio had no form of acoustic treatment which led to vocal recordings capturing low-end reverberation

Overview

I needed to improve my bedroom studio's frequency response, I learned that the low-end frequency response of a room is often the part of the spectrum that is a problem in bedroom studios because it is more costly and difficult to treat, it also requires materials with more depth and density than standard acoustic foam - particularly for bass frequencies.

Normal acoustic foam is great and audibly makes a huge difference to recording quality, especially in a room with lots of natural reverb, using acoustic foam often produces quite a noticeable result however it only works well across mid to upper frequencies, this leaves the reverberations in lower frequency regions to continue to reverberate, they are less obviously noticeable to the average listener than then higher frequencies and when listened to in a recording they give the effect of it sounding like the vocal is in a 'room', this is un-ironically because the reverb is portraying the acoustic signature of that specific room, this is unwanted in most professional recordings.

The benefits of having these traps are, the ability to have more low end in your vocals without it bringing in unwanted reverb and less blurring of sounds due to reverb, which can help when mixing and mastering. They also make the room feel cozy 😊🔥🛖.

I made the frames out of cheap pine wood and used fabrics purchased at Spotlight to wrap around, I used upholstery material to give it some padding and also provide a layer against the insulation itself.

You will notice in my images that I have placed acoustic foam on the bass trap itself, this is because despite it blocking low end frequencies the large flat surface and the wrap material combined actually had a mild reflective effect on the high frequencies, applying the foam helped fix that however if I were to ever build these again I would consider whether I could solve it without doing that.

A large support beam was designed and made that uses my existing set up to support the acoustic trap, I got some help making this from a good friend of mine Jason who helped me find where to buy the metal parts and also helped in welding and painting. (thanks Jason!)

The cloud trap was made with a wooden frame, the insulation material was cut and placed and then it was carefully wrapped with upholstery foam and again with an outer material, afterwards the wrap material and wrap was pinned with metal strips, well-spaced screws and washers to help grip and sandwich it to the frame.

I was a little unsure about how structurally-well the set up would be so I set it up in my garage with a ladder, some ropes and my existing shelf for support and carried out some tests to see how it would fare. There was a little bit of flex in the unit overall but structurally it was fit for purpose.

At the time of writing this it has been a few years since finishing this project, the cloud trap has been solid and stood up well, it provides a nice feel to my sanctuary space and has helped my recordings improve, I don't record as much as I was but I still appreciate the traps.