Room Calculator — Standing Waves & Reverb Time

Standing waves and reverb time for your practice space or studio — from one set of dimensions. See what to treat first.

Room dimensions

Not sure of the size? Tap a close starting point, then nudge the numbers:

Length (ft)

Width (ft)

Height (ft)

No tape measure? Heel-to-toe steps across a wall ≈ 1 ft each. Or count ceiling tiles — usually 1×1 or 2×2 ft.

What to do with this

Standing waves cause peaks and nulls. At a room mode frequency, bass builds up (peak) at the walls and cancels (null) at the center. Move your listening spot or amp and the bass response changes dramatically.
Bass traps target low modes. Corner bass traps (where three surfaces meet) are the most efficient treatment — they hit multiple axes at once. Floor-to-ceiling traps in all four corners are the gold standard.
Bad ratio = coincident modes. Rooms where L, W, and H share common multiples stack modes at the same frequencies, making treatment harder. A good ratio spreads modes more evenly.

Surface materials

Adjust materials to match your room. Area auto-fills from the dimensions above — edit if you have partial coverage.

Absorption coefficients are mid-frequency averages (500Hz–1kHz). Real rooms vary — use this as a starting estimate.

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0s0.5s1s1.5s2s+

Target RT60 by use

Practice / tracking room: 0.3–0.5s — tight and controlled, hear your playing without wash.
Live room: 0.5–0.8s — some life, good for drums and amps with natural bloom.
Home studio / mixing: 0.2–0.4s — dead enough to trust your monitors.
Full-band rehearsal: 0.4–0.6s — too live and everything smears into mud.
Danger zone: >1.0s for any music use — bass stacks and your playing sounds worse than it is.