Help request for a new control room...

Hello to everyone!! This forum is simply amazing!!!:) :yahoo: Here there's the edited version of my previous post! Sorry for the delay but there're so many things to do in these days before the building process:) eheh WHAT I'M DOING I'm building a little control room for my mixing works. So there's no need for a live room or something like that. I'm going to build it in my home near Milan and there's no particular problem for noises and sounds from outside (or inside of course). I have the empty space as shown in my sketchup file attached. I'd like to create a good mixing room with the chance also to obtain some good masters without call it a "professional mastering studio" of course. MONEY MONEY... My budget isn't quite defined but It's not very high at the moment. I hope to have more budget soon to improve finishing and gear. Unfortunately I cannot define it yet but if I have to tell you a range I could say that it's between 2000 and 4000 euros of materials. Of course I'm not considering the Air conditioning system nor the musical/audio instruments and gear. I mean only Rockwool, metal, boards and so on. WHAT'S I'M SEARCHING FOR Anyway I'd like to get a good acoustic plan to avoid mistakes and problems I won't be able to solve in the future. I saw so many pics where rooms have a very particular shape but I think I'm not able to design it alone! Could someone help me with this task? You have the skills and knowledge to help to spent my little money in the best way! :) THE ROOM These're its main features: Lenght: 5,50m Width: 4,04m Height: 2,72m The walls are made by very isolating bricks. Their thickness is about 20 cm + a sheet of a material similar to rockwool. It's polyesthere (I hope it's the right name of it in english, anyway it's very close to rockwool). Then there's the other room wall, as the first one it's 20cm thick and designed for loud sources. Actually the walls and the ceiling are "naked" and not soundproofed. I need a little soundproofing from outside but it's not the main problem. I'm searching for a nice acoustic inside it and of course, a nice aspect! ;) I made a Sketchup7 file to make it more clear!:) The entrance is on a shorter side, not exactly at the middlepoint but as you can see in the 3d model it could be considered as central. On the left side there's a glass door to go to another room of my place so it's a very reflective surface. Does someone can help me with this task? The floor will be covered by wood and there's no any particolar problem to apply bass traps, cornertraps and so on. I mean I have not to keep any particular free space to move, I'm quite free to realize slopings and so on! Thanks since now for every help you can give!

Welcome, please read - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3231

Welcome! Follow NativeLuv's advice, and check out that post, then carry on... Anyway:

Lenght: 5,50m Width: 4,04m Height: 2,72m

That's pretty close to Louden's third best ratio. Yours is Room Ratio: 1 : 1.48 : 2.02, and Louden's 3rd is 1 : 1.5 : 2.1. If you could make it 5.5(L), 3.95(W), 2.62(H) then you'd hit that room ration perfectly. Or keep it like it is: It's not a bad ratio. Design: Rough idea below. Just a very quickly sketched layout that may or may not be what you are lloking for. - Stuart -

Oh, sorry so much, I didn't read that topic! Thanks for the advice! Now I update my profile! For Soundman: Thanks a lot for your design! It's really interesting! It's a nice news that my room is near a good ratio for a control room, Probably I can resize the width to reach the right ratio...I'm not sure about the ceiling. Do you think I should slope it someway?

I added the location in my profile...or maybe I should add the location of the room in my first post? O_o Anyway Stuart your sketch is interesting but my only dubts are the following: -On the left side I have to cut the slope wall for the glass door while on the right side I can build a complete slope wall...isn't it better if I try to duplicate the very reflective response of the glass door also on the right side? Maybe with a straight gypsum board of 2m x 2m as the door? -At the entrance you build not a simple couple of cornertraps but you move them on from the door creating a short walk. Is there any precise reason or it's just an aesthetical reason? Or maybe it's due to reduce the lenght of the room to come nearer to the ideal ratio? Thanks again for ALL your help!!!

Is my first post ok now? :) I hope I wrote everything as the disclaimer asks^^

Yeah, you seem to be doing OK! :)

I'm not sure about the ceiling. Do you think I should slope it someway?

Sure. The general recommendation is to slope it up away from the speakers (lowest over the speakers, highest at the back wall) by 10 to 15 degrees, with the optimum at 12 degrees. Helps to control first reflections, flutter echo, etc. - Stuart -

Fewwwww^^ I was worried about my first post eheh:D Thanks a lot for your advice! So 12 degrees could be ok:) But now my question is: how much of my ceiling I have to slope at 12°? I mean, I have to slope just a little part or the whole ceiling?O_o

All of it if you can! If not, then at least the front section, right from the front wall (above the speakers) to a bit behind the mix position. - Stuart -

Ok! But why? I mean it's just to redirect the reflections away from the listening position or what?:) I read somewhere (I really don't remember right now...) an article about the differences for parallel walls, of course this is not the case of sloping ceilings and walls. I read that if my floor is soft, my ceiling should be reflective/hard and viceversa. Is this correct? So if my flooring is HDF, like wood, should I make a soft ceiling??

oldones78 wrote:

Ok! But why? I mean it's just to redirect the reflections away from the listening position or what?:)

Basically, yes. And it also helps to avoid flutter echo. But the basic idea behind splaying your walls and ceiling is to help get a "reflection free zone" around your mix position. Once sound gets past you, it is going to bounce off the walls, floor and ceiling anyway, creating the reverberant field that fills the room and dies away slowly (relatively!) as it continues to bounce around the room. But you want to get the direct sound from your monitors into your ears as cleanly as possible before that field comes back to your ears, at a much lower level and more diffusely. So the most important issue with wall and ceiling angles, is the part of the room in front of you. Behind is still important, yes, but front is much more important.

I read somewhere (I really don't remember right now...) an article about the differences for parallel walls, of course this is not the case of sloping ceilings and walls.

Building non-parallel walls is for a different problem: flutter echo. that's the kind of "ZZING" sound you hear if you stand between two hard, reflective surfaces and clap your hand sharply. The sound "flutters" back and forth between the walls, as they are parallel. If you splay them, it helps to reduce that. But you can also treat the walls with acoustic treatment to deal with that.

I read that if my floor is soft, my ceiling should be reflective/hard and viceversa. Is this correct?

Yep! Hard floor and soft ceiling is the usually recommendation on this forum, for several good reasons, among them the fact that as you walk around this planet throughout your life, your ears always remain at the exact same distance from the floor, no matter where you are, but the distance to the ceiling varies from just a few inches, to infinite. Your brain is very used to hearing floor reflections, not so much to ceiling reflections.

So if my flooring is HDF, like wood, should I make a soft ceiling??

Yup! Depending on what you want / need, and the acoustics of your room, you could do anything from just a simple cloud at your first reflection points all the way up to fully treating your ceiling with many inches of insulation. - Stuart -

Hello Stuart! Thanks a lot for your wise advices! I'll try to follow them as much as I can :) I cannot slope the entire ceiling because at the middle point (at both axis: width and lenght) there will be the air conditioner fan (ceiling mount). So I can slop just a little part of the ceiling! I tried to make a design for this room and I would like to have your judgement!:) Before to open that remember that I'm not a professional designer eheh^^ It's just an idea...As you can see in this project I didn't slope the ceiling by 12° but it's more sloped so maybe I could slope it just of 12° and make it a little bit more long. What do you think about that? Thanks again!!!!:)