Duck-fuser

[Manning]

So it's Monday, I have a head cold, and it's time to launch a truly random discussion.

The very-nearly-officially-open studio is called Laughing Duck.

As a goofy gift, a friend has bought us one thousand (1000) 4cm high rubber ducks.

The original idea was to use them to decorate the place. However a TRocker (who happened to be in the studio at the time) suggested we should "build a diffuser out of the ducks - a duck-fuser".

So would anyone care to give their professional assessment on the audio diffusion potential of a large volume of rubber ducks?

[Wiz]

The bill will be extremely high

you are quackers

dont let it get you down

thank you, thank you, try the veal.. here till thursday

[stosostu]

Are you going to be in-duck-ted into the hall of fame?

Hold them on the wall with duck-t tape

The studio entrance is a via-duck-t

Then again, a certain bass player would have loved it...........(Ducks for cover)

[Chris H]

Well stuff a duck!......... actually stuff a thousand ducks......then they will make a more effective duck fuser.

....the question remains.......stuff em with what?

.....possibly sand would be good for em, then glue them onto plywood panels and mount them on the wall, mount them on the ceiling....job done....stuffed duck fuser!

[Manning]

Gentlemen:

Muscovy go through this again? What kind of mental mallard-y are you suffering? Cease these fowl puns. If they don't stop I'll be s-peking to the head drake.

I've have been working on this duck-named business since 2011, and have since been shelled by every bad duck pun in the pond. In my a pinion I have almost been rouen-ed by these canards.

[Manning]

Well stuff a duck!......... actually stuff a thousand ducks......then they will make a more effective duck fuser.

....the question remains.......stuff em with what?

.....possibly sand would be good for em, then glue them onto plywood panels and mount them on the wall, mount them on the ceiling....job done....stuffed duck fuser!

That's a lot of work and a lot of sand, but it seems plausible.

But if they can do the job then the sheer silliness of it all appeals to me greatly.

[rick]

hmm somebody doesn't understand acoustics..

..oh wait ...its me


ok.. perfect use for them is totally a high freq. diffuser/ absorber !

get a air nail/ stapler gun .. and staple or nail them onto a plywood board
bend the board so you get an arc ( poly cylinder diffuser )

fix that to any wall that you suspect might need diffusion and wont make the artist fall over laughing while they perform

and i am sure it will work well .. better then if the rubber ducky were not attached .. for sure .

.. sand ...?

they are not big enough to have any effect on anything freq. where filling them with sand will make any difference
says by my idiot acoustic brain .



in fact i am pretty sure you could draw diagrams for the duckfuser and patent it and manufacture
and then sit back and watch NOBODY ever buy one off you ever
or steal your design ever !


but there is something about having the only one in the world isn't there ..?

do it .. build it

its nuts enough to have merit ..

[Text_Edifice]

Could you build a helmholtz resonator, encased by ducks and a perspex cylinder.

Wonder if might be useful / not detrimental in a mix cloud?

Could you could use them as lights with leds stuffed inside?

What about building a tabletop for your rack with a perspex top and fill it with ducks?

[DarkSky]

I don't believe it is the ducks that will be laughing about this!

Rick is right that sand won't make much difference to their properties as either absorbers or diffusers. But it would make them a fair bit more likely to fall off under their own weight and do some damage as they fall. Not the sort of "impact" you're hoping they'll make, I'm guessing.

But - attach them all to a duck baffle, and they'll make a colourful impression for sure!

[Chris H]

......... no need to stuff the duck's then!

[Manning]

I very much like the LED idea.

Making a curved diffuser is a good plan - I already have a wooden dome thing I was planning on turning into a ceiling diffuser.

A Heimholtz resonator is interesting too, although I've yet to do the acoustic analysis to determine what frequency to aim for.

[Wiz]

I very much like the LED idea.

Making a curved diffuser is a good plan - I already have a wooden dome thing I was planning on turning into a ceiling diffuser.

A Heimholtz resonator is interesting too, although I've yet to do the acoustic analysis to determine what frequency to aim for.

Sounds like it could be the ducks guts!

[DarkSky]

If you're putting then up as part of the ceiling cloud, presumably the ducks will be travelling (swimming) upside down? Very surreal!

[Manning]

If you're putting then up as part of the ceiling cloud, presumably the ducks will be travelling (swimming) upside down? Very surreal!

I think that once I've crossed the threshold of "I'm going to use rubber ducks for professional audio purposes", pretty much anything I do after that will be fairly surreal. I'm already looking for LEDs that I can mount inside them.

FWIW at last count (excluding the 1000 discussed above) we will have another 150 ducks in the place, including these guys. I particularly like how the bass player is bald.

[Text_Edifice]

You could half stuff one of those shotgun shells mics inside a duck and use them as room / intercom mics....

Also - could you build perspex panels filled with ducks and mount lights behind them?

If going the curved diffusor could do a similar trick with perspex sheeting in front and ducks glued in behind? Maybe mount lights in the cavity (way cool talking point for the roof / back wall) and / or use colored perforated perspex / use some laser cut mdf or similar so the ducks show through at certain intervals?

Going to stop offering silly ideas now.

[Manning]

Going to stop offering silly ideas now.

That's the only thing you've said so far that I haven't liked.

[stosostu]

You could half stuff one of those shotgun shells mics inside a duck

There's something decidedly wrong about stuffing a shotgun shell into a duck..............

[norm]

You could mount these ducks one at a time or arrange for a group of friends to attend and mount the lot in one extended session. From the OHS side of things you will need to consider the chemical makeup of the said ducks as burns or severe rash may be a problem, possibly some type of protection might need to be used. Also the speed at which you intend to mount the ducks could require the use of some type of lubricant.

[Ben M]

You could mount these ducks one at a time or arrange for a group of friends to attend and mount the lot in one extended session. From the OHS side of things you will need to consider the chemical makeup of the said ducks as burns or severe rash may be a problem, possibly some type of protection might need to be used. Also the speed at which you intend to mount the ducks could require the use of some type of lubricant.

you sound quite experienced at duck mounting Norm. All good points.

[tunetown]

Classic Manning. I wouldn't mind Peking at your ducks sometime.

[Manning]

Also the speed at which you intend to mount the ducks could require the use of some type of lubricant.

I think you just broke the internet.

[Thirteen]

Duck chandeliers.

[Wiz]

what about, you get each artist who records there, to sign a duck. And put them up on display, on shelfs or in a cabinet?

[graemeh]

Or how about a wall/ceiling mounted conveyer belt system whereby the glued-on ducks do laps of the studio at random intervals at random speeds determined by the various wavelengths and dynamic intensities of the music being produced at any given time.
A thousand-plus duck system could thus be a truly wondrous experience.... and revolutionary

[Manning]

what about, you get each artist who records there, to sign a duck. And put them up on display, on shelfs or in a cabinet?

We're doing that with the "upscale" rubber ducks (the ones that cost $1 each), not the cheapie ones.

[Wiz]

you need to get Pluck-a-duck to do the studio opening...


man, I miss that little dude, I used to laugh so much......

[Thirteen]

You could have them travelling across the front of the room on a conveyer belt so that when rappers come in they will have something to shoot at.

[Text_Edifice]

Stuff a transformer, jack and xlr.into a large duck and use as a DI?

[Manning]

Interesting... a mate of ours has been building a valve DI for us (his own design).

Unfortunately the DI is about a metre long, so finding a duck that fits might be challenge.

[tunetown]

so finding a duck that fits might be challenge.

There'll be one floating around somewhere.