Acoustic Treatment of a Jam Space/Light Studio

As a summer project, I'm lightly renovating my basement jam space. The basic jist of it includes gutting it (the so-70's wall panelling), putting laminate flooring down, and making it a nice acoustic sounding room. I have never had any intentions of sound proofing. I know the drastic measures that would have to be taken in order to do this, as well as the amount of money. And no, I'm not a guy who thinks acoustic foam is the answer. My main goal is to make a great sounding jam space for my band which practices there twice a week. My secondary goal is to create a space where mixing/mastering can be done in a suitable acoustic enviroment. With this in mind, I should find some way to orient traps and resonators to meet these needs. Since my space is limited, and keeping to the 'light' build stamp I put on this, I don't want to construct any walls, and I would like to keep the gear in the same room as I'm jamming to make it more convenient for headphone mixes and the like. I realize the monitor placement is very important, but space is also limited. I think it would be wise to have my desk and monitor stands on wheels and roll them out for when I'm mixing and mastering for optimal monitor goodness, and push them back in when I need the extra room. I pulled a fair bit of pine shelfing off the walls and I thought I could put it to good use by making the slats for bass traps, resonators, etc. It's mostly 1x10 so I would need to rip it all down to something more managable. I'm a tad bit confused to where I should and shouldn't have the slats, so correct me if I'm wrong in my illustration below. It's an L shaped room which can't be good, but like I said, 'light' build. So basically I want your opinion on where I'm going to put acoustic treatment. The side resonators don't go all the way to the floor or ceiling. This is because of a large amount of electrical outlets in the room. So I would build just above them. Also, I was thinking, what do you think about having the laminate flooring going diagonal, from the top left to the bottom right? Since it's an L shaped room, I think it would look pretty sharp. This is a light build. Why? Well, it's my mom's house, and I'm not obviously staying there forever. So I'm not going to throw a lot of money into it. But I can be resourceful and achieve a great sounding room for little money. The room is all plastered and primed and ready to put the wall units up, and i've only spent about $70 so far. $50 was for a wallpaper steamer that would of been half the price if I wasn't two hours late bringing it back. $10 for a bucket of plaster and the rest for the primer. I have the wood for the slats, I just need to stain them and poly them, and they're good to go, I just need to buy the insulation for the wall units and the laminate. The ceiling in the room is about 7' - 8". So tell me what you think and I appreciate the help.

A solution of absorption and diffusion should be used in a rehearsal room. Most important surface is the ceiling. I also recommend placing diffusion in the walls as well as the ceiling to create a nicer acoustical environment. But first you need to place the correct amount of absorption in the room. If you're happy with the sound decay you already have try to place some diffusion in the room to spread the sound more evenly.

andrebrito wrote:

If you're happy with the sound decay you already have try to place some diffusion in the room to spread the sound more evenly.

Just to be clear, I don't have the wall units built yet, so no, I am not happy with the amount of decay in the room.

Here are some actual picture of the basement

I drew up a sketchup of it to inspire someone to respond. It's been over a week, so... I lost the slats because I think it woud be too much high end reflection as it was. It's a little hard to dipict, but in the drawing above, it's facing north, looking at the front absorber, with the left and right aborbers and a cloud on top. I can't get the wall colour right so you're just going to have to cope.

I cannot make heads nor tails of what this orange and green thing is...even with a description. It's like something out of a Tim Burton film.

Haha, Like I said, I can't get the colours right in sketchup. From one angle, I get the colours I want; a pale yellow/green and a darker rust, but as soon as I go inside the sketchup, the colour changes again. These two colours are a part of three in a colour wheel, called tertiary colours. I have started making the acoustic panels. These are going to be built in so I can't mave them once they're in place. I'm still waiting to hear on the design? Here is a better sketchup angle. The thing in the centre is a cloud.