John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hello there,

I've been working with audio for about 8 years now, but it was only in the last month that I've been trying to get myself familiar with acoustics. Or at least, acoustic treatment. Basically, I'm renting a new house and the natural acoustics of the rooms are so distracting that I've started to learn out of necessity; I knew what standing waves sounded like before I knew what they were called.

I have a budget of about $300 for this project. I just bought 2 bundles of Roxul RHT 80, at 2" thickness, so I plan to build broadband absorbers and bass-traps. I am of course open to suggestion if this doesn't seem like the right way to go.

My goal is to tame the most distracting flaws in the environment. I'd like to mix (and track), in a place that doesn't wear on my ears too much. Right now it's actually not enjoyable to listen to music in that room.

I do have 2 rooms to choose from. Both are hardwood. I've read on here that I should always go for the bigger one, but I thought I'd leave it as an option. Plus, there are two things going for the small room: first, it's not basement level, so street noise is reduced. Second, it has a nice view and a taller ceiling. The larger one has a 20cm recess on half of the 10'6 wall.

I'd mostly like advice about placement ideas. Or possibly creating something else, but it seems like the broadband absorbers and bass-traps are the way to go. If one room seems obviously better than the other I would like to know that too. For the rectangular room I have seen placement ideas already on this forum, so it's mostly the odd-shaped room that I'm not sure about. Noise getting out is not a concern, but I would like to reduce traffic noise a little.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Links to sketchup files:
http://www.bensimaginaryband.com/uploads/room1_1.skp
http://www.bensimaginaryband.com/uploads/room2_1.skp

i would go with the smaller room rectangular room as it will be easier to treat. the odd shaped room will be tough because of the angled door behind you and the closet indent.

_________________
Glenn

Hey, thanks for the reply. I do have a question about treatment placement in the rectangle room. Because of where the door is and that it opens into the room, what would you recommend I do with the back wall? I don't mind placing something in front of the closet there. That doesn't need to open. But I was worried about symmetry, or would this not be too much of an issue since it's behind me?

you're going to a hang an absorber on the door as if its a wall and put treatments up overhead where possible to provide as much bass absorption as possible.

_________________
Glenn

Alright. I'm not sure I understand about hanging the absorber on the door though. Unless you mean the closet door, then I get it. Or, if you're suggesting to not angle the absorber on the door and the opposite wall as well, then I can picture that too.

Additional to what Glenn already said:

Can you take the doors off that closet? If so, another possibility is to use it as a nice big deep bass trap in your rear end! Just fill it with mineral wool or fiberglass insulation. You could make a frame to hang in front of it, covered with cloth, to hide the "ugly" factor, and do another frame next to that one, on the rear wall where the door opens, with more absorption behind it.

You don't need to worry too much about symmetry in the rear of the room: Symmetry is critical in the front half, but no so important in the rear half, and especially if you have loads of absorption back there.

- Stuart -

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

not sure about the big bass trap in the rear end
(actually closets are good for added lots more trapping if you don't need the storage)

in the smaller room, you could have the angled absorbers etc, but since the door needs to function, unless you are building something to angle the absorber when you close it and flatten it when you open it (think safety first) then a flat one will do.

_________________
Glenn