Will this design work in a room with severe bass problems?

Started by The Studio RI on 23 July 2008. 7 replies.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 11006.

Hello from Rhode Island! My current control room is small... 9'wx13'dx7'h and I'm having some severe bass problems everwhere on the spectrum, but mostly from 125-300. I've done a lot of research, and gotten many opinions and I think I've come up with a design that will work and be pretty cool to look at, too. I've got about $1000 budget to work with and, by my estimation, I'll need about 78 sheets of 2" OC703. What i really need to know is... WILL THIS DESIGN WORK AT ALL??? My plan is essentially several fabric covered 1'x1'x6" squares of 703, "floating" 4" off of the wall, taking up as much usable space as possible around the mix position. Not pictured is the ceiling, which would be a 4'x6'x"8" box of 703 on an angle above the mix position, covered in fabric, with 4 recessed lighting fixtures inside. the front and back corners would have a wedge of 703 (12 2" sheets put together and cut diagonally) from ceiling, to about 1' from the floor (except the cubby hole where the reel is, which would accomodate a 2' wedge from the ceiling). The floor is wood on top of plywood, 2" off a concrete floor (sadly, no filler between the joists). The front and left wall are sheetrock over soundboard, about 6" from concrete (some insulation between the studs), and the right wall is sheetrock over soundboard with insulation leading into the next room (living room). The back wall is sheetrock leading into the other rooms (door to bathroom, and studio beyond the glass). The ceiling is a drop ceiling with acoustical tile and some insulation above that. If there is a better way to do this, of course, I'm all ears! Speaking of ears, I do like the "dead" sound of a room since I have a slight case of tinnitus, It seems to help me mix better. I also like to hear some "air" moving which I believe the gaps in the squares off the wall would provide. The studio pics show the current state of the control room. The racks will be shortened to about 3' tall. Any help would be fantastic!
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Here are two more pics.
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Well, I guess I didn't follow some kind of arbitrary rule because it's been over a week and no responses. It would be nice to know which one since I thought I followed everything to the letter, but then again, I'm not going to play these games with people. A simple "hey this sucks" or "yeah, this could work" would have been apprecated.
Yeah, it should work to some degree. I would lose the sonex stuff as you are tilting your room response a bit to the dark and boomy side. The thick 703 will cut down on bass. Make your ceiling cloud as large as possible. How bout the upper corners where the walls meet the ceiling??? Great place for a corner bass trap. Small rooms need a great deal of bass trapping to work well for mixing. -ashley
ashley, thanks for the response! I did some room tone tests and the results were really bad. My entire low end looks like a drained lakebed! The high end has so much comb filtering, I could compete with Supercuts. I thought my hearing was just going! I'm glad it's not. lol. I've actually decided to go with some GIK products since they are movable and I can tweak the room as desired, or change the placement easily if I decide to change the gear layout. the new design will have two 2'x4'x4" traps on either side of the mix position, two more on the front wall, each corner from floor to ceiling, and one 6" in the back of the room. I'm going to move my foam bass traps to where the wall meets the ceiling on the front wall and back wall. I'll also have an 4'x6'x8" trap above the mix position. The sonex will stay on the two doors and some ceiling panels only (not enough to really make a huge difference). Thanks again! -Ben
hhmmm, You would be absorbing so much top end that pshyco-acoustically it would sound like the bass was huge. It looks like such a mess! Is it easy to remove all foam and run another freq test in the bare room. Then start adding what is needed-test again- add some more treatment- test again. You might find you use half of what you got in there now. Try slat resonators= lose the bass, keep the sparkle Lil
yep, and trapping that isn't all broken up in pieces in the corners would help, I believe.