Live Room Treatment

As my project winds down, I am getting to the stage where I really need to investigate the acoustic treatment in my live room. I have the control room pretty well under control now, although it was a long, tedious process. I thought I would start a thread over here in the acoustics forum to solicit some advice for my live room. Here are some Sketch-Up renderings showing the basic layout of the studio. The live room is the yellow room with the two rugs on the floor and the drum kit. In the sketches, I have placed a bunch of corner traps, and an assorted collection of wall traps. What is not showing is that I also plan to have a large ceiling cloud over the drum position. The room will be used for tracking drums, and acoustic instruments such as acoustic guitars. Anything that is amplified will be close-miked in my iso room. Everything else will be going direct. Vocals will also be tracked in this room, but I have a bunch of portable gobos that I tend to use to surround the vocalist with to make a sort of makeshift vocal booth. The drums will be close-miked although the OH mics will be picking up some room ambiance obviously. I am hoping that the ceiling cloud over the drums will help keep some of the ceiling reflections to a minimum. I got some advise from someone that I trust a lot that my design has no diffusion, only absorption, and that I need to design some diffusion into my plan. Problems: 1) Money!!! (surprised???) As I draw near to the end of the project, I am running very short on funds. I have a boatload of rigid fiberglass, so that is not a problem. Also, the wood pieces used for frames and fabric covering is also already budgeted for. 2) I have no knowledge of diffusion, or how to decide on how many, what type, and placement information. 3) I am concerned that some of the designs and advise I get are targeted towards more professional studios. This is a home-based project studio with a limited budget. 4) My DIY skills are not up to the level of some of you guys! The thought of making one of those skyline diffusers are not something I look forward to making!!! Anyway, I will stop there for now. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I appreciate any advice that can be offered. Thanks!!!

there's a few thoughts on this - one is that the absorption placed (small and scattered) results in a diffusive space. another is that numeric diffusers preserve more energy in the room. lastly, scattering devices like a polycylindrical (poly) will add "diffusion" and some trapping. you could build some nice polys fairly easily and inexpensively. Terry and Scott on studiotips have a number of good design ideas floating around, and there are some photos of rooms being treated with small polys - walls and ceiling. i recently posted a drawing on 2xX lumber "diffuser" you could place over the corner superchunk absorbers. maybe start simple - some well placed absorption. then add the hard types like poly and numeric diffusers.

Thanks Glenn! That's a great help! Do you have a link to the "diffuser" over the corner trap drawing that you posted? I will check out the poly designs that are over at ST. Thanks again!

I would move the mix spot to face the short wall and start by sitting back 38% of that room length. Glenn

myfipie wrote:

I would move the mix spot to face the short wall and start by sitting back 38% of that room length. Glenn

Thanks Glenn. This post was about the live room however, and not the control room! The control room is basically "finished" at this point. The control room has to be oriented in the direction it is in due to a ceiling asymmetry. I would love to re-orient it, but it is better off in the direction it is in. I have crossed this bridge about 100 times at this point, believe me!!! I am sitting at the 38% point however. Here are a couple of pics of the ceiling "issue" in the control room. The first picture is pretty old however, and the rear corner traps now go from floor-to-ceiling with the sconces removed, and a few other changes here and there.