How To Create Acoustic Diffusers

By Author: Kevin Richard
Total Articles: 241
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There are different types of acoustic treatment which all have their own areas where they flourish. Sound absorption or absorbers simply does that. Generally spongy and soft, these acoustic gems are the most popular type of acoustic treatment.
You have possibly seen the wedges, pyramids or something similar in studios sporadically positioned or lining the walls in random spots across the room. Sound energy hits the material and the thousands of small air pockets that the material is made to remove the energy.
Absorption is excellent in removing high frequencies. It will take some of the low end away but as the physical sound waves are bigger in the lower end, and they have a tendency to pass through.
Bass Trapping 
Another instance is hearing a nightclub from the outside. This implies that most of the low end of the audio coming out the speakers in the studio has a wavelength that is bigger than most rooms. The generally creates an accumulation of low energy at the walls and the corners of the rooms known as standing waves. The treatment used to deal with these bass traps and frequencies. ...
... They generally comprise of corner pieces placed in the corners of the room. The idea is for the bass frequencies to pass through them and get trapped in the corner pieces before they return in the room.
Diffusion
This brings to the last main variation of the acoustic treatment known as acoustic diffusers. Sound works like light in different ways. If you put a flashlight at a mirror, the light beam gets reflected back at the angle of the incidence. Acoustic treatment is the way of preventing the sound bouncing off the different surfaces of the room. What exactly the diffuser does is clutters up these reflections so they don’t reflect back into the room.
Reflection points are the positions in a mix room that the audio from the speakers hits the nearest ceiling and wall noise. The initial reflections are known as earl reflections and it is in the best interest of the engineer to kill these reflections.
There are two ways of approach in diffusion; either use a tender surface, or a surface with an assortment of angles. Soft surfaces like fabric and foam won’t deflect sound, but they will go some way towards absorbing the sound itself.     
When we talk about surfaces with multiple angles, think about the egg box reference. The goal is to splinter the reflections into as many directions possible. To do this, you will require a surface that can reflect as many directions as possible. This is why so many acoustic diffusers in professional environments resemble some type of trendy contemporary art. They can be quite complex! Most the acoustic treatment gear on the market will fit into one of these categories.