Slat walls - I know what they do but where do I put them?

JohnGardner · Post by **JohnGardner** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:16 pm

Guys,

Here's a basic floorplan of my live room.

The Walls are 703, cloth covered, inside out style
The Floor is varnished MDF board.
The Ceiling is normal old wallboard

I see alot of studios on this site that have timber slat walls in there live rooms. I like the look but I have no idea where to start in terms of actually making them and choosing where they go.

What I want to know is for a room like mine what walls do I put them on?

I am trying to get a nice even sounding room (not to bright, not to dead) for a real range of instruments from voice to drums.

Also how far apart do I place the slats?, what frequencys am I trying to trap in a live room? - bit lost with this part of a slat wall system as well!!

Thanks

JG

Thanks for your help.

JohnG

JohnGardner · Post by **JohnGardner** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:49 am

:?: :?:

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:05 am

John, sorry; apparently I'm the only one "in the barrel", and my barrel's been fulla "crocs" lately...

For that room I'd put a slat across the upper left corner, maybe 16" deep at the left end tapering to zero on the right side, covering about half that top wall. I'd center the frequency at around 300 hZ, this covers drums pretty well (300 hZ is typical modal frequency of a kick drum shell, 22" or 24" vary slightly) - this will also pull out some of the boxiness of the room so will help vox as well.

IF you build a frame across the corner, place 3 or 4" (75-100mm) mineral wool in the frames, cover with cloth then all you need are slats across the front to complete a slat absorber.

For a 16" deep absorber, tapering down to nada, you'd want dimensions as follow -

slat thickness, 19mm (3/4")
slat width, 150mm (6")
slot width, 25mm (1")

With the slots that wide, it will also give a fair amount of diffusion at several feet; but you might get some iffy high frequency mic responses up close due to specular reflections off the slat edges, so I'd watch putting overhead mics up too close.

You'll also want broadband corner absorbers across as many of the corners as you can do... Steve

JohnGardner · Post by **JohnGardner** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:55 am

Hi Steve,

Is this what you mean?

Slat absorber top left corner

Corner absorbers top right bottom left and right.

Thanks

JohnG

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:26 am

Yup; you may also find that you want a shallow slat absorber across the bottom (on the pic) wall as well, to combat flutter; also, what's your ceiling and floor made of? Steve

If your rooms is already covered with 703, doesn't it sound too dead already? If so, then at least one wall with slats would help a bit.

JohnGardner · Post by **JohnGardner** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:35 am

Hi Steve,
Floor is (will be) particle board with a clear laquer finish.
Ceiling at this stage is just plasterboard although I was going to put up some 703 boards wrapped in cloth in certain strategic places.
I think I will start with the bass traps and one slat wall like in the drawing and see how it sounds
Thanks again
JohnG

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:47 am

Good plan; calculations are all fine, but it's 'way too easy to forget (or never know) half the things that SHOULD enter into the picture, and over-do. I'm a firm believer in incremental treatments whenever possible, being basically lazy and cheap. Why do/spend when you can NOT and still have it sound good?