John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

New to RSDF. Wondering if the back two doors (behide the mixing desk) had slots cut in them and then the back of the doors were insulation could the adjacent rooms act as helmholtz resonators.

Preston

you mean using the rooms for space coupling or as large cavities for Helmholtz (slat) resonators? you should consider the impact on isolation as well as the resonances and reverberation introduced from the other rooms.

_________________
Glenn

Thanks Glenn.

I was think of using them as large cavities for Helmholtz (slat) resonators if it would work. My back two corners have doors, so corner bass traps will not work. I never thought about the reverberation be introduced.

Why not?

Many people here have the problem of doors in the corners where they need to put bass traps: There are ways of dealing with that. Doors do not prevent bass traps from working!

But you also say:

If those doors are at the "back" and "behind the desk", then you have your room set up incorrectly! They should be on the side of your CR, not the back.

In small control rooms, speakers should preferably fire down the long axis, not across the short axis. Your desk should either be facing the stairs (not ideal) or the wall marked 12'0" (better). If your desk is facing the wall marker 14'10", then it will be hard to set up your speaker geometry correctly, and even harder to get your mix position where it needs to be, away from the major modal issues in that room, and close to the theoretical ideal.

You could do that, but if you plan on using the full depth of those rooms as Helmholtz devices, then they are going to be tuned to very, very low frequencies, unless you have some rather curious dimensions for your slots. And as Glenn already said, if you cut slots in the door to your "amp room", then you destroy the isolation to that room: it won't be much use as an amp room any more!

Here's a totally off-the-wall thought: if that restroom is completely tiled, you might be able to use it as some sort of mini reverb chamber...


- Stuart -

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

Thanks Stuart,

I think I will change the placement of may speakers. I also forgot the other room was labeled Amp room (not sure about that yet). I was going to remodel the bath room when the studio construction was done so the tile reverb room maybe pretty cool.

-Preston

There are a number of different possibilities you have here.

Adjacent spaces can be used (quite effectively) to increase the volume of a room - without creating issues inside of the control room related to either resonance or reverberation if they are (both) taken into the equation during the design process - and - are properly treated for the intended purpose.

I would never consider using them to create a Helmholtz trap , but I would consider treating them and creating an absorber type bass trap out of the space.

I have done this very successfully in a number of studios I've designed.

It would be a useless move to make with am amp room - the loss in isolation would destroy it's intended use - but I have done it successfully when the intent for the room was for storage and/or a remote space intended to house noisy gear (such as computers) which would otherwise be (basically) wasted floor area.

The trick in these cases is to design the control room as if the wall in between did not exist (which acoustically when finished it won't) and then do the mode analysis based on the entire space.....

You can then dedicate that space (in addition to the gear) to utilize all of the wall/wall, wall ceiling/ wall floor intersections for the purpose of bass traps, can completely cover the remaining walls/ceilings with absorption to assure that reverberation is not an issue, and (instead of installing drywall on the face of the separating wall) you finish the inside of the studio with a combination of fabric and wood trims.

You could also utilize the wall itself to create rack space for gear (that you might not need directly adjacent to the desk) as well as for patch bays. But you want the majority of the wall space to be acoustically transparent.

The door could then be solid - and the room would still function for the purpose of a huge bass trap.

The bathrom (however) would be problematic - as you really should not install any of those types of finishes in that space..... they can tend to trap odors - which is not anything you want to get involved with.

The idea of using the bathroom as a small reverb chamber might have some benefit under certain circumstances - depending on how the room sounds when finished - however that leads to another level of isolation that would be desired between the bathroom and the control room to really function for that purpose.

Good luck,

Rod Gervais
GIK Acoustics
Director of Education
http://www.gikacoustics.com (USA)
http://www.gikacoustics.co.uk (Europe)
Tel.(US)1.888.986.2789
Tel.(UK)+44(0)20.7558.8976

_________________
Ignore the man behind the curtain........