John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hi all, first of all thanks for this forum! It's a great place with lots of valuable information.

Here's the situation:

I just moved to my new house where I want to convert one of the rooms into my new mixing room. I am planning on building my own (bass) traps and panels and am looking for advise on how I can create the most flat sound in this room (what sort of treatment, placement etc). The sizes are far from ideal, but it is the only room I can use.

Here are the facts:

dimensions: 3,56m x 3,49m x 2,37m (LxWxH)
There is a door on the long wall which is 35 cm from the back wall (see floor plan). This wooden door is 2,01m in height and 82,5 cm in width.

The room is situated on the corner of the house which has no connections to other houses. Looking at the floor plan the upper wall connects to the hallway, the right wall with big window is free, the bottom wall is connected to the outside wall, the left wall is connected to the bedroom.

The right wall has 3 big windows (see the 3d view). The big window is 1,70m in height, 2,53m in length and is 65 cm from the floor
The small window is 0,59x1,16m and 69 cm from the floor.

Materials:
the ceiling is made from plasterboard, above that is the wooden construction of the house
the floor has laminate
the walls are made of concrete
the window-frames are made of wood, so is the door

I would like to face the window when sitting behind the desk.

The questions

In general I would like to get a full plan on how to optimize the room using panels and other kinds of room treatment.
More specific;
- what sort of treatment do I need to optimize the room?
- where do I place the traps and panels? As far as I know I would have to place bass traps in each corner and some traps on the sides and back wall for the first reflections (maybe also the ceiling?). Any more specific information on this would be great.
- What would be the ideal position for the monitors (height, how far apart and how far from the walls)
- What would be the ideal mix position

I prefer to keep the costs around €1000,- but I can go higher if necessary.


Thanks in advance!

- Paul

Hi Paul, and Welcome to the forum!

It is nearly square, yes, so that is a problem. Theoretically, you will have double-overlapping modes at 49 Hz, 87 Hz, 97 Hz, 109 Hz, 122 Hz, etc, and so on, all the way up the spectrum. Those will be problems.

That is possible, but you will have to cover a lot of that glass with acoustic absorption.

Basically, just absorption. The room is way too small to be able to use most types of diffuser.

You will need large "superchunk" style in as many corners as possible, at least the four vertical ones, and maybe also some of the horizontal ones. You will also need absorption at your first reflection points (walls and ceiling), between the speakers and the window, and on the rear wall. That's the minimum. You might also need more than that, but that's the sort of "standard" way of starting out.

"Standard" speaker height is 1.2m above the floor. (That refers to the acoustic axis of the speaker, not the top or bottom of the cabinet.) In your case, the speakers should be about 1.1 m away from the side walls, and therefore about 1.3 m apart from each other. The mix position will then be about 1.5m from the front wall (the window). (That's the position of your ears, not your nose!). The speakers will need to be angled inwards by about 30°, so that they are aimed directly at your ears. The speakers must be supported on heavy, massive stands, never on the desk or on the meter bridge of your console. The speakers should be right up against the front wall, with just a 10cm panel of acoustic absorption between them and the glass. Use something like OC-703 for that. Also put a large panel of OC-703 on the side walls at the first reflection points, and hang another panel from the ceiling, as a ceiling cloud, which should be angled if possible (lower at the front, higher at the rear). Then cover the entire rear wall with at least 10cm of OC-703, spaced 15 to 20 cm away from the wall.

That's the basic layout. After you have that in place, run an analysis with REW to see what else needs to be done. Actually, run an analysis with REW before you do anything in that room (empty room), so you have a baseline for comparing all future readings.

That should get you started!


- Stuart -

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I want this studio to amaze people. "That'll do" doesn't amaze people.