Sound waves are all around us, bouncing off of hard surfaces and causing echoes and reverberation. This can be a problem in spaces like recording studios, theatres, and concert halls, where clear sound is essential.
Acoustic diffusers are designed to help reduce unwanted sound reflections, creating a more balanced audio environment. While that sounds great, commercial diffusers can be expensive and difficult to install.
Thankfully, it is relatively easy to build your own and in this guide, we’ll show you how to construct a simple acoustic diffuser panel using everyday materials. Let’s get started.
What is Sound Diffuser?
A sound diffuser is a surface that deflects sound waves in multiple directions after hitting it. It is one of the natural ways of eliminating unnecessary loud sounds from reaching your room.
Most of these surfaces are highly adopted in offices, studios, and even houses. Many people are embracing them simply because they do not want to feel a devoid sound life. A well-built sound diffuser has a capability of comb filtering and addressing different frequency spectrum from a shallow range to a high range.
Furthermore, the sound diffuser in a room absorb loud sound, treat echoes, and also scatters resonance. The main intention is to bring a healthy life in the place, especially while relaxing and you live in a noisy neighborhood.
The diffuser can be mounted on walls near speakers and also on the ceiling. Moreover, these equipment are excellent in improving the quality of sound and also control resonance concerns.
How Do Sound Diffuser Work?
The design of a sound diffuser is fantastic, and it works in a way that is beyond your imagination. However, the diffuser tends to scatter soundwaves at an angle of 180 degrees.
The spacing of a diffuser is created in a way that they can scatter soundwaves well depending on the heights, depths, and widths. Well, or tower depths and heights define a quarter wavelength while the widths provide half a wavelength.
The sound diffuser uses these mathematical terms to control the vertical and horizontal dimensions to scatter soundwaves. The process of controlling changes the impact of the soundwaves into an enjoyable listening experience since it tempers with timing, direction, and intensity.
If you fail to control these dimensions of the well or tower correctly, then expect to experience annoying listening experience in the long run.
When designing a sound diffuser at home, ensure the wells have an excellent combination of horizontal and vertical orientation patterns.
The pattern orientation will enable it to produce harmonic sound and even make the room to sound bigger. Therefore, sound diffuser work on the principle of diffusion.
Types of Acoustic Diffuser
Skyline and Quadratic are among the main types of acoustic diffuser. They perform their tasks based on the principle of sound diffusion. One of the acoustic diffusers uses troughs while the other one uses towers. Quadratic residual diffuser tends to take minimal space, and they are lighter than skyline diffuser.
Quadratic Residual Sound Diffuser
The diffuser has wells that are set in patterns to calculate the depths and widths. The orientation is what gives them the ability to diffuse sound waves evenly.
Skyline Sound Diffuser
It has solid square-cut blocks set in a pattern that help to calculate length and also scatter soundwaves evenly. The orientation of the models is what gives it an odd appearance.
How to Make a DIY Sound Diffuser
There are plenty of materials that you will need to make a DIY sound diffuser at home. However, most of these materials are quite affordable and simple to setup Some of the common materials needed are:
- wood glue
- saw
- spray adhesive
- black gauze
- hammer
- staple gun
- scissors
- electric screwdriver
- picture frame hanger
- speaker cloth,
- six 2-inch mineral wool boards, and one 3/4-inch fiberglass board.
Let’s now find out how to make a homemade sound diffuser with these items. Use the procedures listed below and get started.
- Place the thin MDF board above a bass trap.
- Put a leftover wood at the mid of the MDF board. Ensure it is placed at the top of the bass trap.
- Use the staple to attach the wood. The panel of the wood in the middle will serve as the acme of the sound diffuser. The resulting shape of the sound diffuser will be convex.
- Nail the board after placing it on the bass trap using a staple gun.
- Cover the bass trap using the speaker cloth.
- Decide on which part of the room to place the sound diffuser after nailing a hook at the back of the panel.
- Use a picture frame hanger to fit it on the wall. It will only work once you have placed a hook at the back of the sound diffuser panel.
Conclusion
The sound diffuser is an excellent instrument for enhancing the sounding of your room. The DIY sound diffuser is suitable for those people starting with a home-based studio.
The diffuser will help you hear the difference in your recording in the long run. However, you still have the option of buying a good one that will fit your room.
In case you have a low budget, then you should consider a DIY one since it is highly affordable. I hope the article will help you make an excellent DIY sound diffuser at home.
