Jim's Home Studio CR

Hi guys, My name is Jim. I've been reading the forum for a while now and think it might be time to ask for this boards expertise. I record bands freelance while I have a part-time 'day-job' to pay the bills, but in the next year or so I'd like to focus on switching that around. Currently, I record drums at another studio(day rental), then bring the project back to my home studio for all the overdubs. The Project: I am interested in constructing a more acoustically accurate/professional-looking control room. I hope I'm am not leaving out any info highlighted in the "Before You Post" thread? Dimensions: My room is 11' 4"(l) X 10' 4"(w) and 8' 2"(h). Typical plaster walls & ceiling. Hardwood floor. It is in my house on the 2nd floor. I'm not worried about keeping the sound "in" as much as I am concerned with making it an accurate room for mixing music. I'd also like the room to "look" more like a somewhat professional CR and not just 'a room in some guys house'. I'm thinking: soffits/angled walls/small couch in the back, as illustrated in this common plan http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/download/file.php?id=5788. Here is a rough floor-plan/diagram of my room. http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5306/jimscontrolroomeh3.th.jpg My Ideas: If I made the wall at the top of the diagram the "front wall", i'd likely remove that closet completely and build the right soffit into that corner. The other two doors would need to stay (one for entry/exit and the other to access the front porch), however I'd be willing to remove/build-over the windows. I'd then need to find an alternative way to incorporate an AC unit. I currently mount a small AC in one of the windows which breathes out into the porch (with the porch windows open to the outdoors during the warmer season.) To gain some more space & symmetry in this space, I'm also thinking about "squaring" the bottom right corner out into the hallway. I'd have to move the livingroom doorway over about 3 feet - so the stairs/hallways would lead straight up into it. One other obstacle is the radiator towards the back of the room. It doesnt work (hasn't in the 3 years I've lived here). I use a small space heater during the colder months. This construction may be a good excuse to move the location of the pipe that comes through the floor in the spot (and finally get it fixed) or remove it altogether and find a different source for heat. I'm also thinking that I could move the entry & porch doors a foot or so towards the front of the room, to give the couch area a little more room - free from swinging doors. I have attached a couple rough Sketchup! captures. Inital questions: - Is this room too small for angled walls to be beneficial? - Because the room is small, would it be the best to make it a 'dead' room? - Can you think of any better ideas/configurations for this space? Or find any problems with my ideas? Budget: It depends on what my options are. I am willing to put money into this build, I'm just not sure where to begin or what I can/should do with the space. I hope you will help me with some advice/ideas. Thanks! -Jim

Hi Jim, and welcome. To me, your basic plan looks reasonable, although it seems that you are trying to combine soffits with bass traps where your speakers are. I'm not sure how that will work, acoustically, but I have my doubts. Maybe one of the experts can comment on that. How about if you post your SketchUp file somewhere that we can download it, to get a better idea of what you are planning? - Stuart -

Hi Stuart! Thanks for taking the time to respond. Those soffits do look like bass traps in my sketchup drawing, but I intend to build them correctly/traditionally. I have Rod's book on the way, and there's a lot of great soffit info in this forum too. My skp is a rough mock-up (basically, the best i can do right now. I'm still learning my way around the program). My angled walls would have studs of course, but those aren't shown in my Sketchup either - I need to figure out how to build layers and better define the materials being used. I tried to post this skp file initially, but it's weighing in at 19MB! It's hosted here now.