Live Room

Hi everyone! I've been slowly converting any available rooms in my house (within reason) into studio space. The main studio (control room - 7 x 8m) has been built in a existing double garage and have since built a vocal booth (3 x 2m) in the adjacent room which was once a wine cellar. My latest endeavour has been converting my old bedroom (opposite to the control room) into a live room more suitable for recording piano, guitars and live drums. The main goal for this room is to have a more live vibe to it (as apposed to the vocal booth and control room which are both fairly dead) as well as having that slight isolation between the control room and the live room. Isolation isn't my main concern (neighbours live a fair distance away), though the amount of isolation between the untreated double brick walls is still enough to avoid my ears bleeding when I'm recording drums in the live room while monitoring in the control room - up until now I have been tracking drums in the control room, which sucks! The live room measures 3.02m W, 5.2m L, 2.42m H (9.91' W, 17.06' L, 7.94' H). I have included a floor plan with all the measurements + construction that has taken place so far. This can be found as an linked picture (Live Room Floor-plan (low res) - hard to see) as well as a compressed RAR file (attached below) which contains the hi res picture as well as the original AutoCAD file. NOTE: All measurements in the floor plans are in millimetres (mm) - I apologise to imperial users who will have to convert. How I've treated this room so far: I find acoustics to be a continuous learning experience and if I was to treat this room today, I may go about it in different way. Though, at the time this seemed to be the most logical design for this room. 1. Bass Traps - Built and mounted 9 traps (600mm W) following Ethan Winer's - "Build a Better Bass Trap" guide (plans attached). This includes 4 x Mid/High Traps (broadband absorbers), 3 x High-Bass Traps (membrane panel traps) and 2 x Deep-Bass Traps (membrane panel traps). These have been placed vertically (from floor to ceiling), where each type of bass trap alternates with the other type and with fibreglass panels - simply place a fibreglass absorber between each trap (1st. Mid/High, 2nd. High-Bass, 3rd. Mid/High, 4th. Deep-Bass...etc.) Notice I've also planed the positioning so that the Deep-Bass trap (the trap with the lowest range) is mounted flat near the corners - this makes sense since the corners of a room are the best place to treat bass frequencies - Check out http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html for details! NOTE: The low-bass trap is effective at frequencies between about 80 Hz. and 160 Hz., and the high-bass trap absorbs frequencies between 150 Hz. and 300 Hz. See below picture - Front-Left + BTPlans 2. Clouds - Built 3 clouds, which hang 50mm (2") from the ceiling (improves low end absorption), with a 1200mm x 2400mm pine frame supporting 50mm (2") rigid fibreglass covered with cloth. These have helped eliminate floor to ceiling flutter echoes, which has made the room sound as if the ceiling were much higher. See below picture - Clouds 3. Ceiling Cavity - To obtain further low-end absorption + isolation - I've installed rigid fibreglass bats in the ceiling cavity. Another plus about this room is that the actual roof isn't parallel to the ceiling. The roof angles up length ways from 0.80m at the back of the room, to 1.2m in the centre and then angles back down to meet flush with the front wall (front of the room). I figure this could only help when it comes to standing waves. 4. Windows - Since isolation in term of outside noise entering the room (eg. birds + insect noises) is a priority over noise levels outside. I've filled the windows with 50mm (2") rigid fibreglass, which will be covered with cloth. I was considering making up some kind of box to go over the windows in order to seal them off, or possibly layers of gyprock (plasterboard) on either side. Though may train of thought now is that - having a unsealed window opening with rigid fibreglass covering it, is almost acting like the best possible broadband absorber (especially for the low end) since it's not limited by it's depth. This is because of the infinite space after the opening - which wouldn't be the case if it was sealed. I'm assuming the low end will pass straight though the window, while the higher frequencies will be absorbed. Therefore, minimizing flutter echoes between walls, as well as rattling of the windows. At the same time just having the rigid fibreglass over the windows seems to be enough isolation from outside noise for my needs. See below picture - Front 5. Floor Boards - Pulled up the old carpet and installed solid Jarrah floorboards. The reflective floor has given a nice sense of ambience when recording acoustic instruments. This deemed most important since there will be an upright piano placed at the front of the room + polished boards look awesome! 6. Face Brick - When I built and mounted the Bass Traps/Absorbers, I intentionally left a 280mm gap between each baffle. My reason for this was that I thought that by leaving gaps where face brick shows I would be keeping the room nice and bright sounding as apposed to killing all the high end with absorption. Unfortunately, because the walls are parallel and only 3.02m apart, I was only getting the slap back effect (ping pong) instead of room tone. I am still swapping up between ideas to avoid the slap back while keeping the room bright and live. So far, I have filled the gaps with 25mm (1") rigid fibreglass, which seems to be a workable option, though I can't decide on what to cover the fibreglass with. See below picture - Front-Left Questions: I have designed and built everything so far to the best of my knowledge and it's not far from complete. Though, I have recently been swapping up a few different ideas (in terms of acoustic treatment), which I can't seem to decide on in order to finish the room. I've listed my questions below, but open to any suggestions! Any info would be much appreciated! 1. Front Wall Over the course of this project I have been considering a few different options for the front wall. Whatever the outcome is, it would make sense if the treatment: 1. Minimized the ping pong (slap back) effect between the front and back wall (diffusion?) 2. Treated the low-end build up in the two front corners 3. Maintained a live (bright) sound in the room - not to much high-end absorption Thanks for everyone's time, much appreciated!

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Josh The answers to a lot of your questions (and more!) can be found in the "stickies" sections of the Design as well as Construction forums. Be sure to check out "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros" (Paperback) by Rod Gervais http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5670 as well. Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Cheers Kendale! I found that by the time I had finished writing up the post + a little more research - I had pretty much answered my own questions :). I guess I just had to jot everything down to clear my head - and it seems to work. Man, there’s so much good info on this forum - though just when you think you understand something, someone turns around and states the opposite. From what I've gathered, I'm best off just treating the room from a broadband state of mind where a mix of lots of different treatments/techniques will hopefully end up covering as many frequencies ranges as possible. I also found the most helpful posts/topics to be the *oldest* in this forum - so for newies - try searching in Descending post time. I have started building again with fairly clear idea of where I'm going now - in saying that, feel free to leave any further suggestions. Issues I'm still swapping up ideas on are... - What would be best to break up flutter echoes between the two (long) parallel walls between Ethan's panel traps, while still maintaining the high end. Things I might try... - Covering the 25mm rigid fibreglass (mounted on the face brick) in thin plastic, then fabric. - Covering the 25mm rigid fibreglass (mounted on the face brick) with fabric then possibly some kind of bamboo/fern or straw. - Some kind of deflector (curved) plywood panels, lined with rigid fibreglass in between Ethan's panel traps. Can you think of anything else that would be effective for this room? Cheers, Josh

Aloha,

Can you think of anything else that would be effective for this room?

Perhaps some angled slot resonators? Aloha 8)