Room too small?

Hi all First of all, I live in Belgium, just so you know it. I would like to make my room my homestudio. The only thing I play is the guitar (electric and acoustic) and nothing else. Maybe keyboard in the future. I don't play very loud, just a little louder than when i'm talking. The problem is that my room is quite small. My recording setup contains my acoustic guitar, my electric guitar, amp (70(w) x 25(l) x 50(h)cm), a 13" macbook, and some smaller recording stuff. Isolation isn't really needed I think because I don't play at 2 am or something and as I already said, I don't play very loud. My budget.... I don't really have a budget. I looked alot on the internet and read a lot of different prices, from 300$ to 30000$... Let's it's not like 100$ or something. :) I'm willing to put some money in it. The room dimensions are a bit weird, it's not a rectangle or something. (2,95m - 4,45m - 4,17m - 4,09m) Sketchup file is attached. Sorry for the mistakes in the sketchup file, this is the first time I work with it, I included all needed measurements I think. Thanks in advance, Glenn

Room to small? Yes I can't seem to open your SKP, but I'm un-sure of your question? Does the room sound bad on your previous recordings and you want to add some treatments to the room? Or do you just want it to look groovy for your mates. Maybe start with a search on this forum on small rooms. lil

I can't seem to open your SKP,

Hey Lilith. I've been having the same problems, and tried clicking on the "Check for update" button, but it kept on telling me I was up to date... Until I checked the Google site manually! You'll probably find that you are a couple of versions behind, just like I did. I downloaded the REAL latest version, and no I can open this file. - Stuart -

Glenn, your room sure is a strange shape! From the ceiling shape, I guess it must be in an attic or something like that? I get the general idea, but it would help if you could work on the SketchUp skill a bit, and include your furniture and other things in there too. Such as where is your desk, where are your speakers, what else is in the room, etc. - Stuart -

Yeah, I downloaded it today so it's the latest version. Till now, I have been recording from the line out of my amp to my audio interface but I'm going to order a mic very soon and since I didn't do anything acoustic to my room, I think it will sound bad. I just want to know the possibilities.

I just saw your second post, sorry. What do you mean, my skills? I just wanted to give you the shape of the room. I'll try to make a better one tomorrow. And the furniture can be changed. I can make the desk myself or buy a new one and the monitors are going to be the normal size. At the moment I don't have racks. The only things that are needed are a desk, amp, 2 guitars and a macbook. Tomorrow I will make a more detailed sketchup including the furniture.

bubbless wrote:

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Actually it has built in splayed walls...this will come in helpful due to the size being square at the start. You may want to set your desk(looking at the sketchup picture) to the right hand side. The sloped downward side. This can take advantage of the built in wall and ceiling splays. Good luck

bubbless wrote:

What do you mean, my skills?

Just things like precision and accuracy. Like keeping all of the lines that define the doorway in the same geometric plane as the wall, so you can actually create surface for the wall and see the doorway in it, instead of behind it. But I know that SketchUp seems pretty hard when you first start using it: it took me several days to understand the concepts. It's not easy!

And the furniture can be changed. The only things that are needed are a desk, amp, 2 guitars and a macbook.

Ahhh, OK! So it is JUST a control room? For some reason I thought that it was also a bedroom. My bad! sorry.

I can make the desk myself or buy a new one and the monitors are going to be the normal size.

What do you mean by "normal size"? I can think of really small near-field monitors, and really large studio monitors. There is a pretty wide range of sizes.

Tomorrow I will make a more detailed sketchup including the furniture.

Great! OK, so to summarize:You do not need any isolation at all, since you are quiet and don't bother anyone. All that you need is acoustic treatment to make your room into a good practice / recording / mixing space for acoustic and electric guitar only, no other instruments. The room is for this purpose only, nothing else. The room has no windows and only one door. Is that about right? Assuming the above is correct, it is going to be hard to use that space well, due to the slope of the ceiling. You have to get more than a meter away form the front wall before you have enough height to be useful. Even at 1.37 m your ceiling height only just reaches 2 m. So basically, there isn't much that you can do in the first meter or so of the room (starting from the front wall, moving towards the back wall). You can't even fit in small speakers at normal listening height until you are about 1 m into the room (allowing a few inches for minimal treatment on the ceiling/wall behind the speakers. The walls are not plumb or parallel, or even perpendicular to each other or to the floor, in places, so it's really hard to even find the center lines of the room, in order to place anything! Are you sure all those measurements and angles are correct? If so, then you sure do have some strange shape walls, that lean over at one end and are vertical at the other! One good thing about: You won't have any problems with flutter echo! :) I think the room it might be workable. I'd suggest the standard approach for acoustic treatment: bass trapping in the rear corners, live floor, absorbent ceiling (or at least a cloud over your head), and deep absorption at first reflection points. You have lots of space for bass trapping in the unusable area in the first meter or so of the room, but I'm not really sure how you should treat that steeply angled ceiling. My guess would be absorption, but it's just a wild guess! Then once you have the basics in place, I'd measure the room, and see what additional treatment you might need. Anyway, if you can check all those dimensions and shapes and angles accurately, and post a new SketchUp, then maybe someone can try to figure out a workable layout for you. - Stuart -

Thanks for your reply! I'm not at the house right now, so I can't work on it. I've made a better sketchup but it's difficult since I can't find a tool to change the degrees of the corners. And because the room is't a rectangle, it's difficult. I think it's more accurate now. The size of the floor and the corners are very precise and the other walls and the ceiling too. I think the monitors are going to be around 10(w) x 10(l) x 15(h) inches. And about the bed, you were right. :lol: Would it be a problem or is it still possible? Btw, the board doesn't accept skb files, but my sketchup file is an skb file. Maybe because of the newer version? I can't even attach it as a .txt or without extension.

It will accept it- maybe it's to large a file?