I was not expecting Dirac ART to make such a massive improvement in my system.

Bellow are measurements of Dirac Off, Bass Control and ART using REW and Umik-1.

Frequency response:

https://preview.redd.it/1n8l88fe6dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5bb322c678ae15da17cb4063722013940c787502

RT60:

https://preview.redd.it/f4g1bn0n6dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=acf7d246087c4ab3e818faf348e79ab7d67e3d22

Dirac Off:

https://preview.redd.it/vybzp7ru3dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db90c0c64a17468a709fab6e54c608339c482704

https://preview.redd.it/x661c53w3dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2bd78cadf73ed0f5c9136f07b97002120515452e

Without any correction the Frequency response is all over the place with high decay times. The bass sound boomy and fatiguing.

Dirac Bass Control

https://preview.redd.it/30or32j44dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e97b746f4a5992ef9b187ae672e961fb837f3db4

https://preview.redd.it/0fkkhxs54dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc1c09e9a3cc7b51d4c3ce1530a1d5bf4c5709f2

With Dirac Bass Control the frequency response is highly improved especially bellow the 80Hz crossover point.

The dip around 100Hz is actually a combination of a room mode and front speakers boundary interference.

The decay is long making the bass sound muddy.

Dirac ART

https://preview.redd.it/d4jwf30d5dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b131316b8b74c75851505ee699a2e67d823f949

https://preview.redd.it/hf7kweed5dbh1.jpg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce71988c5e82d9ba8b76a55312c879dc2b800a31

Dirac ART gives the best frequency response.

The decay is shorten considerably and makes the bass feel thigh and punchy.

Setup:

AV receiver:

• Denon x3800h

Speakers (5.3.0):

• Front: Monitor Audio Bronze 50 7g
• Center: Monitor Audio Bronze Center 7g
• Surrounds: Monitor Audio Bronze 50 7g
• Subwoofer1: Monitor Audio Vestra W10 (Sealed)
• Subwoofer2: Klipsch R-100SW (Ported)
• Subwoofer3: Klipsch R-100SW (Ported)

Room:

• dimensions: 4.89 x 3.61 x 2.68 (length x width x height)
• this is a small room with the speakers firing down the width of the room
• on the back wall i have a curtain covering the windows and a door which leads to a balcony
• on the right of the room there is a set of stairs leading into the attic
• on the front right is the door which leads to a hallway
• the room has a two person couch, a foot rest that doubles as a coffee table, a tv console with a wall mounted tv, a rug, a desk with a gaming pc on the left wall and a small bookshelf under the stairs on the right.

Placement:

• LRC are on the front wall,
  • the center is on the mid point of the wall
  • the left an right speakers are place at ~1/3 of the wall
  • the right speaker is right next to the door opening
• Surrounds are in the back left and right corners
• Subwoofer1: is is placed on the front wall at 1/4 from the left
• Subwoofer2: is placed on the right wall at 1/3 from the back
• Subwoofer3: is placed in the back right corner

Personal Notes:

• The biggest improvement is to the kick drum. It feels impactful and quick.
• Because the decay time is low, the bass needs a lot of extra boost. I am using a Harman +8db house curve to compensate for it. I also enjoy listening to bass heavy music.
• The tactile response is improved. I think this is the result a low decay time combined with the bass boost of the house curve.
• Bass is not fatiguing anymore.

No AI was used to create this post.

So I'm having that kind of small room in which both my speakers sit directly in corners. I could pull them out a little bit, but figured that in regards to SBIR it's handier this way. Now I wanna do some DIY treatment to the room and I'm wondering if i can manage to put some treats in the corners right behind the speakers.

Since the speakers are currently pretty much touching the corners, i'm asking myself whether i should pull them away and stuff the corners, or keep them at their current position and build treatment around them so that the speakers would be more or less flush with the absorbers.

In both scenarios the treatment would be at the same position and thickness, only for the second option i would cut out a hole for the speakers instead of pulling them out of the corner.

Do you guys see any advantages, disadvantages or simply stupidity worth mentioning? My guts tell me that pulling them away is only worth it if the treatment is thick enough to fully counter the issues i'd get with increased SBIR for doing so, but cutting a hole in the absorber leaves me with less absorbing material in total, which can also be an argument.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Hi all,

I’m after some advice on reducing the amount of sound escaping from a small closet that I want to use as a conga practice space.

Room context
I am in a townhouse with an adjoining wall on one side.
The closet doesn’t share a wall with my neighbour. Instead, the wall across the hallway from the bedroom that the closet is in is the adjoining wall. So the closet is on the far side. Because of that, I’m not chasing perfect soundproofing. I’d just like to knock the volume down enough to be a considerate neighbour. I have never heard any sound (voices, music etc) coming from my neighbour so I think the adjoining wall is pretty solid, just hear the occasional banging etc if they are doing stuff around the house.

The closet is big enough for me to sit with my congas with a little extra space. So while I can add a bit of mass if needed, I don’t have unlimited space to work with.

The goal
I know the difference between sound treatment and soundproofing, and I’m not too concerned about how the room sounds inside. My goal is simply to reduce the amount of sound escaping so I can practise at normal times without feeling like I’m disturbing everyone.

Given that, what would you recommend? I’m not expecting complete isolation, just the biggest reduction I can reasonably achieve

I know it’s not gonna be totally soundproof but any way to minimise the noise.

First off we live in the end house of a row of houses. The drums aren’t gonna be next to our neighbours adjoining wall. I’m considering building up a small stage (like a little step up) and filling it with some kind of soundproofing materials -which materials would work best? And then surrounding the wall behind it with some more sound proofing materials. Honestly it’s probably the banging that’s going to be an issue has anyone gotten around this?

Side question- anyone that does have electric drums upstairs how has that worked out? What’s your set up? Have there been any issues?

[Update: Thanks for the feedback! Rather than risk the primer drying out and cracking open, I chiseled a few dozen open and filled with wood putty. Took a lot less time than I thought it would.]

I have an outer wall:

7/8" stucco | 2x4 + batts | 3/4 sheathing | 2x4 + batts | fabric

The 3/4 sheathing (existing garage interior) has seen random #8 screws from mounting things and some #10 and #9 construction screws.

Are the screw holes going to be a leak problem? I already primed the sheathing, so I can't see all of the holes now. Stupid mistake.

There will be an inner room with its own insulation and sheathing. Hoping that might mitigate any small problems from the holes I can't find.

I have maybe a layman's knowledge of acoustics, so I humbly offer this question:

I see multiple posts about road noise / outside noise coming through windows. Couldn't a person put a microphone on the glass and then amplify the inverted signal to cancel much of the noise, similar to the way noise cancelling headphones work?

How effective would this be?

There's not many entry level (i,.e. none) meters that can measure LCpeak. The larson davis meters can but my word are they expensive.

Okay so I’m very aware that “soundproofing” is a broad term - what I guess I am really looking for is the best way to sound insulate/stop sound transferring OUT of my space?

I have just signed the lease on a small commercial space that is in the ground floor of an apartment building to run my singing lesson business out of.
My biggest issue re: “soundproofing” is that 2 of the 4 “walls” are glass!!

The space is roughly 10m L x 3.6m W x 2.5m H - the windows/glass panes are about 1250mm x 2450mm inside aluminium frames (depth of the frames is roughly 105mm)

I need to figure out the best (and cheap enough) way to mitigate sound transferring out of my space into the common areas/hallway (there is barely any foot traffic and almost all surrounding spaces on the level are empty.. but rather be safe than have my landlord on my ass)

My original thought was to purchase 6mm acrylic sheets and mount them on the aluminium frame to create an air gap (with acoustic sealing of course) and then most likely by some thick curtains to put over the windows to dampen the sound even further, but this starts climbing up in price quite quickly…

The alternative I had come up with (which I have no idea would even work like I’m thinking) is to purchase acoustic wood slat panels and attach them in place of the acrylic. Would this work at all/the same in terms of creating an air gap and also absorbing some of the sound?

This obviously needs to be a temporary fix (and cannot be a full structural reset like I know it actually requires) as obviously I am just leasing and when/if I have to move out of the space it all needs to be able to come down.

Any opinions on this would be welcome, I’ve sent myself insane reading a million forums and trying to figure this out for myself, so just a direct answer to my specific scenario would be much appreciated.

I’ll be designing and building a music studio in my backyard and I got to thinking. Instead of pouring a flat boring old foundation, would it be a cool idea to add a couple 1’ deep pits formed into the foundation for the purpose of making bass traps?

It would be easy to make, then fill will rockwool, add joists put perforated plywood on top and throw a rug over it. In floor bass traps?

Hi everyone,

I've finally taken my first ever REW measurements and would really appreciate some feedback before I start moving speakers, changing treatment, or applying any EQ.

I'm completely new to REW and room measurements, so there's a good chance I've done something incorrectly. If you notice any mistakes in my measurement procedure or settings, please don't hesitate to point them out—I'm here to learn.

Room

• Width: 3.5 m
• Length: 4.7 m
• Height: 3.0 m
• Listening distance: 1.6 m
• Monitors: Yamaha HS7

Acoustic treatment

• 40 cm soffit-style bass traps in all four corners
• 15 cm rockwool panels on all walls with approximately a 5 cm air gap
• Three 15 cm ceiling clouds

The Yamahas are currently positioned about 25 cm from the front wall, almost touching the acoustic panels behind them, which are approximately 20 cm thick.

Files

Room photos:
https://imgur.com/a/qcVxgbh

REW screenshots (1/12 octave smoothing):
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/4cf54l12qfqpyg89f6q65/ACcWk36LngwZW_zT-Co6OHU?rlkey=oi7njihjhomysmlpco4vsmtjl&st=ls9129mv&dl=0

Full REW measurement (.mdat):
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kxmj1u986hs95g5s4onte/test_measure_updated_1.mdat?rlkey=ucyznomoh4qysw7vuz2zi0qoz&st=i29qo3m5&dl=0

I've included screenshots for a quick overview, but also uploaded the full MDAT in case anyone wants to inspect the measurements in more detail.

Measurement notes

• This is my first time ever using REW.
• The MDAT contains two measurements for each position, labelled "one" and "two."
• The only difference between them is the soundcard calibration (.cal) file I used. I wasn't sure which calibration file was correct, so I measured using both.
• If I handled the soundcard calibration incorrectly, I'd really appreciate someone explaining the proper approach.
• All measurements were taken one speaker at a time unless otherwise noted.
• I used a 512k sweep length with 4 sweeps/iterations, which resulted in roughly 43 seconds of sweep time per measurement.
• I don't have any "before treatment" measurements since this is the first time I've measured the room at all.

The main reason I'm doing these measurements is that I'm planning to upgrade my monitors to the Neumann KH310, preferably the MK2 version if it does indeed arrive later this year. There have been persistent rumors that it will include built-in DSP and room correction.

My understanding is that the sealed-box KH310s are generally more forgiving when placed close to the front wall, so the plan is to position them in essentially the same location as the Yamahas. With the larger speakers, however, I'll likely increase my listening distance to around 1.8–1.9 m.

The goal of these measurements is to understand whether my room is already in a good place for that upgrade, or whether I should spend more time improving the acoustics first. I'd really appreciate feedback on both the room itself and whether my measurements and REW setup look correct. Any suggestions on what you'd improve first would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot to anyone willing to take the time to look through everything. I'm looking forward to learning from your feedback!

ALL SPL

Left Speaker RT60 Decay

Right Speaker RT60 Decay

Left Speaker Spectogram

Right Speaker Spectogram

Left Speaker Waterfall

Right Speaker Waterfall