What Is A Bass Trap? Why Are They Important?

Introduction

The question we all have asked at one point or another, what is the purpose of a Bass Trap? Bass Traps are designed to reduce reverberation (echo) and standing low frequency waves in various spaces such as recording studios, listening rooms, or even home theaters. In these spaces, it is important for the room to not color the sound of a recorded track. Bass Traps are made from either foam or fiberglass and can be purchased as natural, or fabric wrapped for lots of color options. Bass Traps can easily be glued or mechanically fastened to corners in your room.

What Is A Bass Trap?

Bass traps are an acoustic treatment that helps reduce/control low end frequency problems in a room so that build up can be reduced and controlled. They are designed to help treat a room where the sound is “boomy” or there is a lot of bass build up. This “boomy” effect happens when the corners of a room. For example, where a wall meets a wall or a wall meets a ceiling. These corners are typically more solidly built up and thus reflect these low frequencies and create standing waves. The standing waves are where the distance between diagonal corners is the frequency at half, quarter length, etc. Another way to look at this is a lot like when you are cleaning house. When you are cleaning house where do you find dust bunnies? You will typically find them in the corners of a room. In much the same way, bass will also build up in corners as well.

Why Are Bass Traps Important?

The reason bass traps are important, when you are mixing down a track and/or listening to your favorite music, you want to hear it the way the music was originally intended, true to the instruments recorded. If your room has low frequency issues your music could sound boomy or your mixes, while sounding good in your space may not sound good in other environments, headphones, or earbuds. Conversely, in a listening room or home theater you want consistent sound across the spectrum and not one low frequency that whenever it occurs gets louder than the rest of the sound.