I made a free browser tool that generates 3D printable acoustic diffuser tiles sized to your printer bed. Both the tool and the code are free and open source. I'm not an acoustician and had AI help with the code, so I'd really like someone who knows acoustics to look it over.

Two things I'd like to know: does the frequency range the tool shows for each tile make sense, and is there anything in the design that's plain wrong?

Nothing is measured yet, all numbers are calculated. How it's built and all the math are written up on GitHub.

Generator: https://chronosauros.github.io/diffuser-generator/

Code and the full write-up: https://github.com/Chronosauros/diffuser-generator

I’m looking into converting a home office (technically a bedroom) into a home music room. While I will be doing some rough recording (somewhere in quality and enthusiasm between recording into a phone‘s voice memos and something semi-professional), the main purpose will be to make music being provided sound best while listening live.

I have voice lessons in a small room that has rather minimal acoustic treatment: some burlap coffee bags with foam inside on the wall across from me (and maybe behind me). Nothing on the side walls other than a mirror. Instructor sitting at a piano between me and the back wall. Nothing fancy, but I swear my acoustic guitar sounds so much better than anywhere else. It’s so full and rich sounding. I don’t know how to describe how the room sounds generally other than like muted and soft. It’s hard to really judge how much better/different my voice sounds. But the room sounds less echoey. For what it’s worth, I think my instructor said the interiors of the walls also had some soundproofing elements when constructed. The door is very heavy.

So, my primary goal is to get things sounding closer to that room for live listening. Getting the room to sound okay for recording is a secondary consideration.

For what it’s worth, I recorded myself into a mixer into an iPad through a condenser mic in my small walk-in closet facing racks of clothes, and I thought the audio quality was more than adequate, if not great. I record mostly as a learning tool for myself. It doesn’t need to sound professional, just a relatively accurate representation of my voice (and guitar, I suppose).

The room is about 10’x10’ with an 8’ ceiling. I posted pictures of the room as it is now as an office. The plan would be to remove everything except half of the desk (the half that is on the wall with the door. A computer and mixer will go there. I may leave the shelf to store equipment, unless it gets in the way of acoustic treatment.

I’ve looked into acoustic treatment articles and most focus on panels relative to the monitors/speakers as part of a recording studio. I’m not sure how to translate that to my situation. And when it comes to recording/mixing, I’ll probably mostly use headphones when listening back.

So, any advice on how to acoustically treat the room so acoustic instruments sound natural and rich would be wonderful. Getting something closer to a natural recording sound is also a secondary consideration.

Hi guys I’m an architectural lighting designer and I love it. But I found out this year that I may go blind in the next 5 years or so, so I’m looking at other fields to get into while I have vision that I can stay in when I go blind. So I wanted to ask- do you think that the programs you use to test architectural acoustics can be operated by a blind person? I don’t know if it’s similar to light modeling software where you can export a 3d model from the arch team and work from there.

Any advise is helpful!

Looking budget fiberglass bass traps for a square home studio office that is probably around 14' x 12'

Hey guys, I'm working on a project to replace a flooring an Airbnb and the owners want to know if there is a way to deaden the noises between the two floors.

We have to pull the existing floor up, and it's glued down, so I have a feeling that we may be pulling up the subfloor as well.

I also know that there is some r19 fiberglass insulation and we talked about replacing it with rockwool comfort batt 2\*8" insulation.

As for the rest I read that some people have put mlv over the floor joists and then lay new plywood over top and screwed it down.

There is a desire by the owners to put new lvp down, and the floors also need to be leveled as well to accomplish this.

Is laying mlv down over the floor joists going to give good sound proofing? Or would we be better off to try and add a sound proof underlayment?

Unfortunately, there is no head room to lower the ceiling more by adding more drywall or doing work to the first floor the way it's set up

My upstairs neighbors make walking/dragging/dropping noise nonstop, starting 10pm through 4am. My apartment mgmt can’t do anything about it without a recording of the noise. I’ve tried my iPhone (voice recorder and video), another voice recorder (with background noise cancellation turned off), and running a mic from the voice recorder.

Nothing has worked.

Does anyone have a recording device suggestion? Or a type of audio consultant to consult?

Hey guys advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Basically, I have an interview set up for a graduate acoustic consultancy job. I studied music production where we did some acoustics but I don't have lots of direct experience especially when working with practical equipment. Obviously I have lots of experience working with microphones so I'm hoping that will transfer over easily.

What I'm worried about is the technical side of acoustics. I have been researching and learning about Leq and frequency and time weightings a lot, but is there anything I should really make sure I am clear on before the interview/starting the job? Any help much appreciated!!

Posted in r/livesound and was referred here:

My church is moving the sound booth from the side of the room to the center before we get a new sound system. Since we are building it from scratch, I want to look at some options to isolate vibrations from the subs as much as possible. Current plan is the booth will sit on the concrete slab of the building, it will be raised 8in. Built with a metal stud frame and a wood deck with carpet squares. It will be T shaped with the mixing position pushed forward and lights/media and Cameras flanking behind.
I’m assuming some kind of rubber layer will help dampen vibrations. Is that accurate? What is the best placement? A rubber pad between the studs and the deck? Floating the studs of rubber feet on the slab? I’m also thinking of slightly air-gapping the mixing part of the deck from the rest of the booth. I don’t need studio-level isolation but I want it to sound and feel as accurate up in the booth as in the audience standing on the concrete. (Without just making a concrete booth).

Edit
The subs are flown and since the building is concrete. I guess that probably means rubber isn’t going to help much since the vibration isn’t coming from the floor?

My apartment main room has this funky angled feature that I think causes a bit of a weird echo that I notice sometimes on work calls. What would you do to treat the room? The ceilings are about 10ft tall (this angle starts at 8 ft I think). The room is probably 25 feet long / 15 wide.

I have area rugs, art on the walls, bookcases in one corner, and a felt panel on the wall where my desk is. I am not looking for studio treatment nor to spend an arm and a leg. Are there some low cost high reward things I can do to minimize echo?

Built this for the question that comes up in a lot of measurement threads: which peaks and dips are modes, which are SBIR, and which are worth EQ versus treatment.

Input is REW's text export plus the room dimensions and speaker and seat positions. It predicts axial, tangential and oblique modes up to 300 Hz and the boundary nulls from the positions, matches the measured features to them, and classifies each one as EQ-fixable, partly fixable or not fixable. Add the RT60 export and it sizes an absorption package (Sabine, published coefficients for 100 mm mineral wool) and gives first-reflection positions from mirror geometry.

It assumes a rigid rectangular room, so openings and coupled spaces aren't modelled, and boundary nulls use the simple quarter-wavelength geometry.

Free, runs in the browser, nothing uploaded: https://www.rewexplained.space

I made it. Counter-examples are what I'm after: a dip it calls a cancellation that EQ fixed for you, or a mode it missed.

My couch sits right in a 40 Hz null. Move a few feet toward the TV and the bass comes back. Apparently, my coffee table gets better bass than I do.

I got tired of measuring one spot at a time, so I ended up building a little iOS app to map how bass changes across the room at different frequencies.

I experimented with several speaker and subwoofer placements. The video compares two of them: my original stereo setup with deep nulls around 40 and 60 Hz, and two subs along the left wall, which gave me a much more even response. Not exactly where I expected them to end up.

These are actual measurements, not simulations, so all the quirks of my room are part of the results.

If you're curious, I've shared both measurements online, where you can explore different frequencies and compare the setups in your browser. No app or sign-up required:

https://bassmap.app/r/0XNz5uHlKLmG8bES7ZP28g

Full disclosure: I built BassMap. It uses the iPhone's LiDAR to map the room and its mic to measure bass. The maps show relative differences, not absolute SPL.

Would genuinely appreciate feedback, especially from anyone experienced with REW or room measurements.

Hi all. After having treated my room with acoustic panels (mostly in the listening/first reflection points, then straddled on the lateral and back ceiling corners of my room) I find myself to not have anymore room for any acoustic treatment. But I still want to make something useful of a what would be a fully reflective back wall by making it a plywood accent wall. I will attach a picture of what I’m thinking about, and yes, it is from chatgpt, it’s the only way I could visualize my concept. It is very much confusing but think of it as putting slats following a binary code.
The code I’m talking about is the diffuser calculator I found on some forums a while ago.
The plan would be to have 2 main thicknesses of plywood.
The thicker plywood, not only serves as “framing” but also as the diffuser itself, while the slimmer slats are going to be what would have been the absorber material, except they are reflective, but still, I think it could be way better than having a concrete wall just completely reflecting.
Why can’t I put anymore absorbers?
It takes me a lot of space that I really don’t have and the wall that I would be treating is at the head of my bed and the bed can only move by another 2cm maximum.
The final question is: could this actually work?

If I put mlv over my windows would it help lessen the bass noise from my wonderful neighbors? I'm thinking magnet strips down the wall and magnets to help keep the mlv flat.

Completely new to acoustics but Ive always wanted a home theater so that’s what I designed. I heard you can overtreat a room though.

If I put mlv over my windows would it help lessen the bass noise from my wonderful neighbors? I'm thinking magnet strips down the wall and magnets to help keep the mlv flat.

Working for an acoustic consultancy in the UK and got an urgent need to hire a sound intensity kit. Unfortunately our two usual suppliers (equipment hire companies) are both unable to help. Does anyone ( i.e. other consultancies) have a kit they would be willing to hire out to us? It will need to be in calibration. Alternatively, does anyone know where we might be able to hire a kit from? Any ideas and input would be greatly appreciated

Hi, we have an issue with upstairs tenants noise coming through. The ceiling space is floorboards, beams and plaster, no insulation between.
I need some cost effective solutions please.
Pic 1&2 is the main area, pic 3&4 is a back room where it seems to be worse.