REALTRAPS Wood Panel Bass Traps

Sep 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Jon Chappell

           

Many musicians misguidedly spend thousands of dollars on esoteric electronic equipment to make up for the sonic deficiencies of their studio, when the problems may in fact lie in the acoustical properties of the room. For the musician or recordist looking to tackle sound problems at the source, RealTraps manufactures a line of acoustically engineered bass-trap panels ($479 to $599 each) that provide efficient bass-frequency absorption and tame the most common problem-frequencies plaguing personal studios.

Setting the Trap

RealTraps panels can reduce standing-wave problems in any studio and are much more efficient for low-frequency absorption than foam or tubular solutions.

RealTraps are flat panels that have an exposed wooden surface. The attractive birch veneer on the front of each has a thin coating of polyurethane that protects it from dings but preserves the natural, unfinished look. The panels' sides are white pine, and the backs, which face the wall, are made of compressed fiberboard. The front surface is designed to vibrate sympathetically at low frequencies, and rigid fiberglass sealed within the frame dampens the panel's vibrations. The front panel reflects midrange frequencies from about 500 Hz upward.

The panels come in a variety of sizes; my review units were 7.5 feet tall and 2 feet wide and ranged from 2.5 to 5.5 inches thick. RealTraps classifies the panels as Sub-Bass, Low-Bass, and High-Bass. Each size features a different center frequency — 60 Hz, 90 Hz, or 180 Hz — with a gradual rolloff slope that makes the panels effective over a range of frequencies.

The panels have angled fronts, which helps reflect mid- and high-frequency waves away from the original sound source (such as your monitor speakers). Experimenting with the different panel sizes and adjusting their angles allowed me to change the acoustic properties of the room to fit my needs.

Despite their solid construction, I could move and mount the panels easily by myself. Each panel has beveled mounting bars attached to its back that allow you to quickly install it on any wall. Simply mount the corresponding bar on the wall using drywall anchors or woodscrews set into the wall studs, then slide the panel into place. (RealTraps also makes MiniTraps, a smaller and less expensive set of panels that hang on the wall like pictures and provide midrange as well as bass absorption.)

Riding Herd on the Low End

I have a typical home studio — a 10-by-12-foot room with hard parallel walls that is a veritable breeding ground for standing waves. Before I installed RealTraps, I noticed drastic differences in the loudness of bass frequencies depending on where I was in the room. For example, a 100 Hz sine wave could be twice as loud in one spot and several times softer in another.

When I installed the RealTraps on the walls in front of and to the side of my Mackie HR824 close-field monitors, I immediately noticed a difference in how bass frequencies behaved in the room. The panels improved the room's frequency response by reducing the standing-wave artifacts, and they took up a mere five inches of floor space from the back and side walls. Although the panels work by absorbing bass and reducing direct reflections, the net effect is a truer picture of the bass throughout the room, which has helped me for mixing and tracking.

The Trap Family

Although I've attempted several DIY solutions for bass management, such as 2-by-4-foot framing with foam or fiberglass fill, the results were always less than satisfactory. Similarly, store-bought foam panels and tubes have been only marginally successful in my room.

However, the RealTraps panels were very effective, making my room's low-end response more consistent and predictable. Thanks to their efficiency, RealTraps panels require less wall space than foam solutions. And they looked a whole lot better, too.

Overall EM Rating (1 through 5): 4.5

RealTraps; tel. (866) 732-5872 or (860) 210-1870; e-mail sales@realtraps.com; Web www.realtraps.com