Can you show us how to build a bass player trap

Man i thought it was gonna be a video on how to catch a wild bass player haha

Thanks for enlightening me. I always thought a bass trap would be a pizza and a beer in a cage and when the bass player enters the cage you can close it and when he realises he's trapped, you might have finished recording ...

Whenever making DIY sound treatment make damn sure the thing can't catch fire. I don't know if that particular brand of fiberglass is fire rated but keep that in mind. All it takes is one bass player and your studio is done for.

Will these also catch trout and other fishes...? also how do they stand up underwater...?

Another useful note for handling fibreglass dust! If you get too much on your skin, wash yourself with cold water instead of warm/hot water. This is because warm water will cause your pores to expand and the dust is at risk of becoming stuck further inside your skin. This isn't dangerous by any means, it just makes one bitch of an itch!

James Hetfield called. He says you're due onstage in 5 minutes.

Everything is more articulated and the cymbals and the hi-hat really shine. Great vid, Glen, I've always been feeling like a caveman when it comes to acoustics!

Very cool. Another thing I've found works well in certain applications is those heavy moving blankets. Not so much for bass, but I have two hanging on a clothesline behind my kit and they help keep the cymbal reflections in check (as well as hide my washer and dryer and make it look a little more like a studio and not a basement).

The A/B at the end says it ALL! Great & powerfully changing vid, Chief! It's a game changer in sure for a lot of DIY-ers! \m/

Wow, with the traps the bass drum really rang out in the mix, thanks for making this video because I would have never thought of this on my own because I'm a bass player

This is the best video you've made so far. Excellent job glenn

Rockwool has a slightly higher acoustic dampening factor than fiberglass, so I've used that in the past to good effect. Also the frame can be made from 2x4 wall studs instead of metal. Both of these are cheap and readily available in Home Depot or Lowe's.

Fucking hell, wasn't expecting that big of a change! Without the traps it sounded like you recorded with a built in mic of the camera.

After reading through the comments, I think you really need to do a video on how to trap an actual bass player. As a bassist myself, I can make some suggestions on what sort of bait would work. Boobs, for starters. They are known for their magical powers...

great idea with the metal frame. beats sawing, nailing and stapling. just completed a bass trap today and have at least 8 more planned... corners back and top and sides ... diffuses are going to be used as well for mids and highs. Room measurements using analysis software such as REW will tell you the truth about where your problems are and whether you've fixed the issue and how well.

Yesterday I've done an acoustic treatment job for a practice/recording room. Bass traps in all the 8 corners, foam at the other end of the room facing the drumset, 6 diffusors behind the drums and some foam on the cealing and at ear level around the drums for getting the first early reflections...the drummer couldn't believe how good the kit sounded, he said he could finally ear the kit and play much better, so it's not just for us techs also the musician will benefit from a good room ;)

Thanks Glenn. My plan was for timber frames, but this looks easier. I'd love to hear more about your resonator as well.

That's awesome. You built your traps similar to mine: 4" with metal frames. I used drywall bead which, while less strong, has the advantage of exposing more of the absorbing material. I used 8lb mineral wool. The idea with spacing, which you probably know but others might not is, by spacing the panel in 1-4x the multiple of your panel's thickness, you gain better low end absorption with a slight sacrifice in low mids. This has to measured on a case-by-case basis, though, because when I gapped my cloud too much I got a null. Also, adding FRK (foil, etc) you actually lose some mid-high absorption but gain more low end performance. Be sure not to use more than one layer of FRK (which should face the room) if using multiple sheets of insulation.

i've made these years ago. its great and as an added bonus you save on heating in the winter!!

Love this kind of videos. Just awesome for beginners in the studio building.

GUYS THIS IS SOOO FRIGGIN EASY!!! WAYYY EASIER THAN WOOD AND NAILS AND STAPLES. GOOD JOB BRO

Brilliant and very easy , thank you for being a straight shooter with your information.

Another demonstration that quality gear can't fix shitty drumming. Love your videos! They provide excellent advice without selling out!

Thanks, I designed some bass traps for me, but the way you built the frame could improve my project. Also, this is probably the first quiet-Glenn video haha.

I see other people have already commented that this is in fact a broadband absorber and not a bass trap so I won't belabor that point. Main thing I wanted to mention, as I have built a LOT of these things for my studio as well as for other people, is that you can also use a product that is made from compressed rock wool and get a very similar result. It looks about the same but is not yellow. It comes in 3" and 4" thicknesses. It is about half the price of the fiberglass. You have to get it at the building supply places too. The largest maker of it is Roxul. One other thing. I build mine with a wood frame so I've got something to staple to. I cover the panel first with a layer of 1/2" cotton batting. This acts like a filter to keep all those nasty fibers inside. Lots of good info on your channel. Love your videos. Keep it up!

Hi, Glenn. I’ve been watching your channel for some years, and I really admire your philosophy of recording acoustic sounds and making it sound great (hence, I’m commenting on the Bass Traps video). My question: could a video on super basic acoustic treatment be a possibility? Like, the basics of audio physics, or "You should do this to make your room acoustically accurate" kind of stuff] If you’ve already done this, I apologize for wasting your time. Thaank you so much from Japan. Keep it metal!🤘😈

Dude...wall studs and monkey hooks: YOU ARE A GENIUS! I've been scouring the internet and the walls of Home Depot trying to find something that requires minimal effort and is also cheap. This is perfect. Also I had never heard of monkey hooks before, I'm pretty sure you've changed my life in two different ways with this one video, so thank you sir!

Those drum skills will get you into 85% of the other punk bands we play with🤘

Watching this in 2020...your videos have come so far!

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing this stuff with us. Keep it up!

Thanks for this man. Extremely helpful. My studio is a small bedroom and I'm having a little trouble with my mixes.

No man ... I've been building houses and other things ,,, all my life and that's a genius design ... it's cheap ,,, quick and easy ... I've been looking at different builds and solutions to this problem for a while ,,, and you've covered all the important basics ,,, well done 👍👍👍 thanks man ...

Hey Glenn, great video. Big fan of your work, yes a lot of the knowledge is available elsewhere but having it put into one easily digestible video is incredibly useful. Any chance you'd consider making a video on placement of these traps and how that would affect sound for tracking? Cheers

Thank you! This is a great tutorial and I will definitely need this!

Hey Glenn I just wanted to add that you can get the fabric fairly cheap using old sheets from Grandma or thrift stores. You don’t have as much choice on patterns usually but the fabric stores are usually fairly expensive. Cool vid!

Learning from the best while I start my at home studio 👌🏽

Thank you man! I made a studio space out of a shipping container but the acoustics are....pretty bad. Seems like an easy weekend project to build these, Thanks again!!

Hey man! Thank you for your advices, it's really helpful!

Yeah boi best tutorial I have seen on building traps. Also you are better than some drummers ive seen live :(

Awesome info man. Rather a cleave with idea with using the aluminum studs as the frames. Thank for sharing.

nice, the sound is much sharper and tight ! great job :D

Awesome stuff! This will be my next project.

Just love that pause between snare and cymbals at 06:38

Huge difference, definitely worth the effort and money.

Awesome video! I would love to see more vids like this, it helps a lot our economy!

I also thought this was about capturing bass players in a secure location. This is like the advice we really need, but not the one we deserve!

Not only sounds great, It looks cool too !

Love your stuff man keep it coming

excellent vid... simple and easy... and pretty effective. through the mic / over youtube it was hard to hear any difference in the lower bass drum region - but the upper frequencies - and especially the cymbal decay... world of difference at the same volumn... literally night and day. I suspect one might need 12" traps for base it would seem. either way, excellent presentation. Thanks

Great information for me, thankyou Sir. 🙏🏻👍🏻

Roxul Safe N' Sound is also great if you can't find the stuff Glenn uses. It's not compressed, but it does a wonderful job of deadening sound. If you add a piece of styro insulation for rigidity and sandwich it between two half inch piece of Roxul, you'll have an amazing trap for the same price, maybe a bit cheaper. All of that is available at the big box stores if that's something you have to go with.

He looks so awkward playing drums, it's hysterical xD 😂

Great demonstration, thanks!

Damn! The end result was a world of difference and thats because I am listening on my laptops meh speakers right now. For sure am gonna look into making a few of these guys

New to your channel... I dig this a lot. I'm going to look for other DIY videos on your channel, and gratefully request more. Please and thank you. Cheers!

Thanks so much for the video and the great idea. As a rookie I cannot hear much of a difference but I think as I grow I will come to have more of and ear for that.

It really makes drum mixes easier. Thanks m8 :D

Very useful video. Thanks Glenn!

Yes! Finally! Thanks so much for this! :D

Who is this polite man and why is he not yelling at me? In all seriousness, I am building a garden office which I want to put a drum kit and my amps into so I've been double checking these videos (egg carton soundproofing being the other one). I am planning on soundproofing with rockwool in between the walls/frame floor and ceiling. Then acoustic plasterboard on top of this but I am not sure if I should go for a double layer of acoustic plasterboard or not. Feels like something I'd regret later down the line and I really don't want to disturb my neighbours. Anyway this was very helpful and informative and it's really cool to see how much you have progressed in your presenting style as when you're watching regularly (like I do) you don't notice it as much. Keep up the good work and praise Krom.

I love your vids Mate!! Can I make a request for a video on what guitars sound with and without these? Keep up the good work, appreciate the great info you give us!

You're a savior. I was going to blow most of my money to sound proof, but this is far better. THANK YOU!!!

Wow those really tighten up that kick drum. and for $40 really affordable, thanks for the great DIY tip man! :)

Nice work. I need to build some of these. Thanks much.

I recently had a chat with a mastering engineer from one of the big studios regarding the subject, he pointed out that priority is to avoid still standing waves. Absorbers like those DIY ones are fine but they aren't bass traps, in addition it's adviced with some sort of diffusers to break some waves and reflect them back into the room into different directions, you don't want to muffle it all, and real bass traps might not even be needed, depends a lot on the room size and layout. A tip for you guys who are building a DIY studio, you don't need measurement equipment to set everything in the right spots either, just talk loud against your walls and listen, the human voice is pretty efficient to figure out where to place traps, you can then add difusers in between and on the wall, shelf or what ever your studio monitors are facing behind your chair, equipment and other objects can also work as diffusers as long as they are soft enough. It is also adviced with at least some thick dense fabric at the ceiling above the mixing area too, hard surfaces that can bounce soundwaves parallel between eachother are always the worst.

Thanks Glenn, awesome info!

The rigid fiberglass is sold at HVAC distributors and is called ductboard. It is available in 1", 2" and 4" thickness (the 4" is generally special order.) It comes in 4' x 10' sheets. If you special order the thick stuff, you will have to buy the whole case of 3 or 4 sheets usually.

I love this video. Great idea and great advice. I'm wondering if you might do a video on Standing Waves and why acoustic treatment is needed in the first place, for all the noobs and amateurs? Rock on bro! \m/

Hey Glenn! First: Thanks for your great videos. Both hilarious and educational. I've been browsing around your videos for recording tips, what I haven't found yet is tips on recording without making too much or any noise. I'm thinking about starting to record my jam sessions. I play guitars and drums. Since I moved to my apartment I've been unable to use a guitar amp out of respect for my neighbors. I would therefore LOVE your take/opinion on what one can do to achieve a (nearly) silent studio. And I bet I'm not the only one. I'm assuming that you need a somewhat loud amp for some punch and to ensure that no other noise goes into the mic while recording. First solution that comes to my mind first using a Line6 POD or Fractal Axe for bass & guitar, a set of digital drums and vocal mic, all into a small mixer, like 8 channels or so, and computer software for recording, you´ve already shown us that in one of your videos. The idea is to use headphone or in ear monitors while recording, and studio monitors for editing the mix. So tips on the things above would be much appreciated. also: I'm from Stockholm, in my mid 20's with a decent job and decent pay but as I am kind of new to this I'd like to begin with affordable stuff before upgrading. Thank you for your time and videos!

I’d love to measure what frequency range these are affecting. I have a suspicion these alone are probably working more at high and midrange without a tuned mass to dampen. It’s possible the plasterboard behind them is acting as that mass and it’s possible the membrane foil is doing it but I don’t think it would. Anyway food for thought. Genius going with the steel stud stuff. Probably ends up much lighter than my wooden frames. Really good to see someone putting this content out there, thanks for that.

Thanks for the idea! I know these kind of videos may be a little less "profitable" than others in terms of viewers, but as it is more technical, are deeply appreciated by people building home studios, myself included. Cheers! PS: I have to ask, and sorry if you already mentioned in another video, what's the name of the SMG opening song? it's totally badass and would love to listen to it if it were a band's song instead of a specific "jingle".

I work for an Insulation company here in Arizona, duct lining insulation will work just as well. It is compressed like normal sound barrier insulation, down side is it comes in a big roll fairly easy to cut though. FSK lined batts will be a bit tougher to cut because of the foil. just my two cents.

Nice. I build some a while back using 1x4 lumber with a 1/4 inch plywood back and only one 2 inch fiberglass panel. The back panel was recessed one inch to give the space. Much heavier. I may redo mine with the metal studs. I have two six foot tall panels hinged together to for a singer and the screws have pulled out because of the weight. Metal studs would definitely improve the setup.

Awesome!!! Thank you Glenn!!

Hey, this is a cool vid! Thanks for posting!

Wicked cool vid, thanks guys

Amazing sound difference. And as far as your drumming is concerned, you are the bass player of drums! :-D When I first started playing bass, I was playing in the worship band at our church doing mostly Hllsongs type stuff. I wasn't very good yet, but being an ex-hi-fi salesman, I was a gearhead and used an Acme Low B2. The guitar player used a stack of two peavey 4x12's and a 200 watt head with digital effects. He would give us amazing tapes of his home shredding, but all he could do in front of a crowd was strum chords. Oh, and It was a constant point of contention between us that he had too much bass dialed into his sound. It was "friendly" but only because I was so new to the bass that I didn't have a lot of confidence in my position. But that changed over time. And the standing waves in the place caused the bass to be overwhelming where the mixer was located. Anyway, in rehearsal they constantly complained that my bass was too loud and yet I had a hard time hearing myself. So one day it came to a head. They complained. I turned down. They complained. I turned down some more. Finally, they complained, and I turned it OFF, but kept playing. They stopped the song and complained again. There was a very uncomfortable silence after I explained what I had done. It's affected my attitude toward guitarists ever since. I'm gunning for it. We each need our own space in the mix. But I'm gonna give those traps a try, both for my home system and the club at which we are regulars.

Can I use these as bass player traps?

Thanks. This really opened a new inexpensive solution

If you glue the two fiberglass sheets together with a small bead of construction adhesive it will create a small air gap which will improve the soundproofing. It is a small detail but makes a big difference.

great channel format, nice clean and simple easy trap method. i appreciate your vid and i would like to add a suggestion to make this design a bit sturdier... instead of back-angling the cuts where the stud folds, you should straight cut them (or back-cut them just enough to get them to fold over one another), and leave enough overlap between them to add a rivet to each corner as you did on the "top." this way, all 4 corners will be "locked" into one another, increasing the overall sturdiness of the frame at the mere cost of a few extra rivets. what do you think? in any case, thanks for the vid, great job.

Wow, impressive! cheers JB

Nice job, Glen!

Wow the difference is very obvious, thanks for sharing.

Awesome. This was the next thing I needed to figure out and I can't buy any more big ticket items for a while.

what's the difference with a basic panel taht's not labelled as a bass trap?

You've got a good start. For increased BASS trapping effectiveness, you'd do better to orient the foil side facing into the room. Remove the foil from the 2nd sheet, or buy non-FSK (unfaced) panels, and place it behind the faced sheet. Make sure the foil is facing into the room (away from the wall). You will notice some mid-hi reflection back into the room, sure, but the increased bass absorption is worth it. (For panels at first reflection points, use non-faced.) Place the trap diagonally across the corners, floor to ceiling (as you mentioned), and you can also suspend them horizontally at the same diagonal/spanning position, where the walls and ceiling meet. You mentioned a space of 1 or 2" behind wall panels, but a minimum of 4" is widely recommended. It's the equivalent of increasing the depth of the absorber. (roughly speaking). Some folks recommend using the heavier oc705 for traps/absorbers, but 4" of 703 and 705 are roughly the same. 2" of 703 will absorb more mids, 2" of 705 more low mids. All traps benefit from distance from the wall. For really economically and beefy bass traps, check out the concept nicknamed "superchunks" using the pink fluffy insulation. If you can give up the floor space, 9"-14" (thereabouts) of pink fluffy (non-compressed!) in some simple frames across front-rear walls, floor to ceiling, has a dramatic affect on low end - real low end, not just the basic low mids you can grab with panels - we're talking down in the notorious 60 hz range. Cubic ft-wise, it's very cost effective. Hit me up at SnellingAcoustics (dotcom) and I'll gladly share info.

use a few lengths of suspension strapping ( comes in a big roll ) and then use short self tapping screws to attach it length ways.. this stiffens up the edge. You can now hang them horizontally if you like for under $10 a box a strapping should do several. as will a box of short screws. OR if you have more metal studs you could just double the side you are going to hang it by. :) these are great traps, much needed in our new place with wood floors and rounded wall to celing transitions ( older style plaster arches. ) thanks Glen :)

That was so cool!

Nice one man!

Sold, awesome toot-orial! Tanks!

Wow great work thanks for the tip

If any of you guys don’t want to risk messing with the Insulation or is difficult to get it, layering bath towels is a great alternative. I build a vocal booth with traps made out of towels and it works really really well.

I'm obsessed with the added use of rubber on the back side. Sound would then travel through the Owens Corning 703, through the rubber (layered rubber of 1/2") adding mass. Sound would then bounce off the wall, and what remains would then travel back through the 1" rubber, and then through the Owens Corning 703. The key to knocking out low frequencies is the weight of the entire panel. 25Lb panels is good, but 75Lb panels is even better. The rubber mats possibly from rubber entry mats. If you can't get rubber entry mats? I do believe tires are shredded into small pieces and used for various things, so if you can get some of this shredded rubber, placing that into a cavity 4" thick, and MDF board on front and back would knock out low frequencies.

Nice Derek Hess poster and a very informative vid. Thanks

We need more videos of Glenn playing drums.

great advice. Ill be making my own with rockwool!

Great video, Glenn! Just wondering if the aluminium frame actually serves a purpose for the sound absorbation? Or are they just to keep the materials in place?

Thank you so much for this video. I've been working on my small studio, but I've not found any DYI videos on how to heat cool and Ventalate your vocal or drum rooms? Would you be able to offer some advice or do a video how to properly ventalate your studio without ruining the acoustic of the rooms?