Design help with basement project studio

Greetings! I’m a recent member to the list and have been trying to educate myself as much as possible before submitting a request for help. I’ve read Everest’s studio and acoustics books and have a reasonable grasp of the terms and concepts. I’m looking for advice on how to best treat the control room and adjacent studio space of my basement project Studio in Ohio. Music recorded will include drums and electric guitars, but also acoustic music including guitars, mandolin and upright bass, Jazz trios, etc. I’m hoping to achieve a bright / balanced acoustic space without over-doing the absorption. I have a well equipped wood shop in the other half of the basement, so building bass traps, broad band slot resonators, DIY 2x2 QRD type diffusors, DIY tube traps etc. is within my skill level. I have a local supplier for industrial fiberglass products like mineral wool and OCF 705. After a day a grief and error, I finally figured out Sketchup and have included a pretty accurate layout of my space. The doors are both 32” filled steel exterior doors with standard outdoor weatherstrip gaskets. The window is roughly 34” x 56” and is made from 2 panes – one 3/8” thick and the other ¼” thick, angled somewhat to prevent coupling. My ceiling heights are low due to ducts, gas and water lines that I had to frame over/around. I saw a post by Ethan that suggested low ceilings are best made totally absorptive to create the illusion that the ceiling is taller. I would be willing to cover the entire ceiling with a tile grid and use 2” or 4” of 2x4 mineral “tiles” if that is your suggestion. Or possibly create clouds over the mix position and drum position in the live room. Mix in a portion of tiles with pegboard facing? QRDs on the ceiling in the live room? The wall dividing the two spaces is just 2x4s with ½” drywall on each side and bat insulation. I had no room (or budget) to create an airlock with two doors so I assumed the doors would be the weak link and there was little benefit to creating really heavy walls. I did use 5/8” board on the common outside wall between the studio area and the rest of the basement. I covered every ceiling joist surface with glued-on ½” thick carpet pad strips before I screwed the drywall to the ceiling to hopefully act a resonant damper. At this time, I have not cut any HVAC ducts into the studio. I’m hoping the cool basement will be Ok in the summer and use electric heat when needed in the winter. This may change if the lack of fresh air becomes a problem. I’ve included a Skecthup drawing. I did not clutter it with dimensions or notes, but would be happy to send another drawing with any additional info that would help. I started to include of a couple of my proposed treatment plans for the control room, with more detail below, but am unsure of the best way to approach the studio portion of the project. My construction progress to date is complete as shown on the drawing and as noted below. I would truly appreciate any advice you might have before moving forward. I have access to a friend with a TEF20 who can take accurate RT60 measurements for me. If you can recommend the logical starting point for treatment, I could complete that, take measurements and build the remaining treatments based on real data. Control Room Dimensions: 16’-6” x 10’-9” x 7’-6” Wood laminate floor over concrete ½” drywall on ceiling, dividing wall with window and rear wall 6” bat insulation in all ceiling joists – ½” carpet pad glued to every joist on ceiling beneath drywall. 3 ½” bat insulation in framed walls Two Poured concrete walls South and East, formed to look like brick – front (monitors) wall and right side wall. Basement window framed in with ¾” plywood 33” x 7” high x 12” deep w/hinged bottom to allow opening windows if necessary – all joints caulked and filled with 6” bat insulation All door and wall joints and electrical outlets thoroughly caulked My assumed model is the small control room design shown on the home page link with absorbers on the front and rear walls and corner/slat absorbers in the front corners. I am considering building a ceiling tile grid cloud from the monitor wall 6’ back and using 2x4 fabric covered mineral wool for tiles. I would angle the grid to mount 8” below the ceiling on the monitor wall and slope it to 4” deep. I could build up 4” to 6” of cloud thickness in the grid, or am I OK just using a single layer 2” thick tiles with the spacing varying from 8” to 4” for the ceiling cloud? Do I really need to cover most of the ceiling or would a 4’x6’x4” thick cloud between the monitors and mix positsion work well enough? I would build the corner slat absorbers from the floor to the cloud ceiling tiles The box shown on the side brick wall is actually the water meter, but it is an obstacle to mounting wall units back to the mix position. I thought I could build the corner absorbers to be 2’x3’ to take advantage of the space that I have. Does the side window at mix position require treatment on the opposite concrete wall? I am showing 8” thick absorbers on the front and rear wall. Because of the door location, I thought I’d put a 2” thick 2x4 on each side for symmetry. Suggestions? I intend to build monitor stands and will be able to move the speakers fore and aft to find best location. (I have a pair of old Fostex RM1000 12” woofer with a concentric ribber tweeter that I’ve used for years) I’m also going to invest in smaller pair of powered monitors, I am using a Yamaha AW2400 with Waves card as my recorder. Studio: Dimensions: 16’-6” x 13’-8” x 7’-8” Soffits around ducts are 10” deep and dimensioned accurately on the drawing. 24”x65”x6” box adjacent to duct is a ¾” plywood box concealing more furnace ducting. Wood laminate floor over concrete ½” drywall on ceiling, walls with window and rear wall 6” bat insulation in all ceiling joists – ½” carpet pad glued to every joist on ceiling beneath drywall. 3 ½” bat insulation in framed side and rear walls Two Poured concrete walls, formed to look like brick Basement window framed in with ¾” plywood 33” x 8” high x 12” deep w/hinged bottom to allow opening window if necessary – all joints caulked and filled with 6” bat insulation All door and wall joints and electrical outlets thoroughly caulked The gray box in the corner of the east wall is the electrical panel. The big ugly boxes on the studio ceiling are soffits to conceal all the air conditioning ducts built from 2x4 studs, ½” drywall and insulation where possible. The wood “beam” is ¾” sealed plywood box built around a steel support beam that spans the entire basement The roughly 2’x 12’ x 10” deep hollow area on the ceiling between the duct soffit and the wood beam is going to serve as a wire chase (the pipe that runs from the AC unit in the furnace to the heat exchanger outside was installed there also, so I had to work around the space.) There is 10” of depth to the ceiling here – so I could build some bass trap modules to fit up in there if you think it would be beneficial. Notes: I thought about a grid ceiling 6-8” deep on the west half of the studio. This could be a cloud over the drummer and would conceal the ugly plywood box on the ceiling. I’d like to keep a little more ceiling height on the east half to make less closter phobic. I’ve considered everything: wall slot absorbers, polys, Super Chunks, DYI QRDs, Bass traps etc. Its kind of a lousy space to work with, I’m hoping you suggestions might save me a lot of trial and error. Thanks in advance of any advice you can offer!! Don

you could contemplate turning your CR sideways to face the window and then treat the new "back" wall heavily. put the entry into the live room in a soffit to match the one you have drawn. you'll definitely want fresh air. plan for it now. the planning for treatments sounds like a good start - work up broadband trapping across corners and main reflection points. break up the floor-ceiling reflections with some 2" absorbers scattered on the ceiling. here's an example of a wide control room.

I never considered turning the control room sideways. It seems like most recommendations are to always have the monitors centered on the long axis of the room and to keep symetry from side to side. I tried to get the Bolts ratios as close as possible for the control room considering the low ceiling height. I know the depth of my room is not long enough to consider a true live end-dead end with diffusion on the back wall, so perhaps room the orientation doesn't matter if I'm trapping everything on the back wall? I knew going in that my space was going to limit what I could acheive acoustically. Is the short rear wall a better compromise in your estimation? My window in not centered on the wall, not a great concern? Would the soffits need to be rigid drywall contruction with treatments added over the top, or could the soffits be a broadband aborsber with a door cut into the left side? Is a suspended ceiling cloud over the mix position good? (Don't let me start another member spat over fill vs. the amount of space! I did read through the entire response - a little over my head, but I appreciated the purpose of the post as a means to clairify a disagreement. As a home studio guy, I was just trying to save a couple hundred dollars in materials if the additional fill thickness only yielded marginal benefit.) Your suggestion for the studio ceiling is random 2x4 panels? I could do variety of depths using sealed boxes if you think that will work better that a grid with panels droped in. Beyond corner slat absorbers, is there anything you recommend to the open wall spaces in the studio? Thank you for taking the time to offer you suggestions. I put a fair amount of time into preparing the drawings and quesitons because I truly value the information I've gotten from the site. Respectfully, Don