Can plants act as sound diffusers ?

[bothu]

Can plants in my living room act as diffusers ?

Bo Thunér / Linköping / Sweden

 

[SSS]

Interesting question. Sure the plant will alter the sound. Perhaps it is a diffuser and absorber? How changes the sound when removing the plant?
Further, the window pane and the wall with the radiator will reflect sound. What is your intention or is the actual sound bad?

 

[Cote Dazur]

Interesting question, looking forward to see room measurements with and without plants.

 

[Prana Ferox]

I don't have enough room in my apartment for sufficient plants to act as diffusers so I pay someone in South America to grow them for me. It's a low-frequency resonance capture credit.

 

[julian_hughes]

Can plants in my living room act as diffusers ?

Why not simply ask them?

 

[JSmith]

The primary indication of the research was that plants work better in ‘acoustically live’ spaces, i.e. those that have minimal soft furnishings.

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Hmm... still unconvinced. I think the plant would need to be fairly thick and dense to have much of an effect.


JSmith

 

[julian_hughes]

How about instead of plants you try placing well trained animals at strategic points around the room? In a domestic setting these might range in size and density from a Shi Tzu through a large domestic cat to a Labrador Retriever. Maybe even an especially inert teenage human. For a semi enclosed outdoor sound system one might consider using carefully placed and muzzled cattle or llamas.

 

[DonH56]

As @JSmith noted, yes, they can provide absorption and diffusion (mainly at high enough frequencies that the leaves are at least a wavelength), but are generally rather poor at either.

 

[Dal1as]

Yes vegetation can diffuse/absorb sound. How much depends on the type and size.

Anyone who has been in a forest during the summer compared to the winter has experienced this.

 

[bothu]

Interesting question, looking forward to see room measurements with and without plants.

I have spend some time with REW and there is a small differens with and without the tree.
The reflection from the window is gone more or less.
But if there is any sonic different to me I cant say.

See measurements further down i this thread.

 

[Mart68]

. Maybe even an especially inert teenage human.

That's probably the most expensive tweak you can do.

 

[bothu]

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Hmm... still unconvinced. I think the plant would need to be fairly thick and dense to have much of an effect.


JSmith

Thank You for your serious answer !

I did some measurements With REW and there is small differences with and without the tree.
The window reflection is much smaller an it correspond to the peaks at 3,6 ms.
The baseline is also changed to more "noicelike" shape.

The distance from the mic at my listening position to speaker is 2,4 meters ( 7,8 ft).
The longer way for the sound is 3,6 meters so the 3,6 ms seems right.

Here without Tree:

Here with Tree:

Bo Thunér / Linköping / Sweden

 

[Mnyb]

Maybe a thicker curtain that could be pulled out while listen to cover more of the windows ?
This could work better than the plant , but I let the nice plant stay anyway.

 

[Mnyb]

Btw nice looking DIY speakers

 

[sarumbear]

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Hmm... still unconvinced. I think the plant would need to be fairly thick and dense to have much of an effect.


JSmith

The question was about absorption not diffusion. Meanwhile, none of those absorption values show any meaningful level of absorption.

 

[sarumbear]

Maybe a thicker curtain that could be pulled out while listen to cover more of the windows ?
This could work better than the plant , but I let the nice plant stay anyway.

Curtains don’t diffuse sound.

 

[Mart68]

I had a big jungle vine thing in one otherwise barren corner and when I got rid of that (it was taking over the room) I started noticing high frequencies bouncing out of the corner. Stuck a roll of loft insulation in the corner and that solved it. Not as pretty as a plant, but big plants are expensive.

The plant - or the big pot it was in - was clearly doing something.

 

[JSmith]

The question was about absorption not diffusion.

Can plants in my living room act as diffusers ?

Yet, whilst this may be true, anecdotal evidence suggests that more normally furnished rooms can still benefit from the absorbent and diffuse action of plants.

JSmith

 

[Thomas_A]

We should aim for permanentning those Christmas trees. My wife does not concur though.

 

[Dal1as]

The question was about absorption not diffusion. Meanwhile, none of those absorption values show any meaningful level of absorption.

Lol. This thread is hilarious. I can see a bunch of people going out and buying house plants after reading that article.

Point is vegetation, if thick and random enough, will act as both a diffuser and absorber. Just how sound works.

A lush hedge planted at 1st reflections would be noticable.

Take a look at the diffusers in the crazy anechoic chambers and then imagine looking into a side of a broadleaf thick tree/plant. You will get diffusion from the frontal leafs and absorption from the voids between the leaves.

Maybe stuffing theaters full of plants will become the new trend. If so I'm expecting a bunch of dead plants and a new forum on ASR. and AVS.