Help tuning my room

From the graphs below you can see I have very large dips at 400hz, 1Khz, and various high frequencies soo I started thinking about some possible solutions and wanted to get input as to what I should do. 1)Remove ceiling cloud (could it possibly be the cause of mid dips?) 2) Lower speakers so they are not center distance from floor to ceiling 3) Add difussion to points around mix position 4) Move desk closer or farther away from wall (It is at 38% of room now) 5) Remove auralex wedge from first reflection points and replace with bass traps (Could they be causing the dips?) 6) Add more auralex wedges around room??? I really would like to get some experts opinions before I do anything..cough..Knightfly..cough..Ethan Thanks, Terry

First attempt at REW.

If that really is your room response, then it's not too bad overall, but there are some curious dips in the mids and highs. I don't know what they might be. There are also some general peaks at bot the low and high end. The roll-off below 100 Hz. is probably just the response of your speakers. What speakers are you using? Also, do you have a graphic equalizer in the final output signal chain, between the output of your DAW and the speakers? What else do you have in that chain? - Stuart -

Thanks for the intrest, have you used this program before? I have Adam A7's and they are placed on mopeds. I'm going to run some more test tonight, I think I may have the calibration stuff figured out so i'll post some more graphs. I dont have a very good PC sound card and my 002R wont work with REW so the tests are still a little off. I may go pick up a new card tonight and give that a try. Thanks -T

Measuring a room, acoustically, isn't the easiest job; reading them plots needs some study. How to adjust your room accordingly is another matter. Let's start with the beginning. To get a "baseline" (the starting point of your acoustical adventure) of the room, remove EVERYING from the room except for the speaker and the measuring mic. Do the test(s) and save the plots. You need to do more than just 1 test, take a few snapshots and overlay them to get a average of the plots. Then you need to dress your room with absorbing materials like basstraps, broadband panels and alike. But before you do any construction; read this forum and follow all the links. Pay attention to Ethan's site as well. (you'll find it while reading the acoustics section for example). Use the equipment you have OR you're gonna end-up with. So, if yer going to spend some money on a descent soundcart, do it prior to the baseline test. Same goes for speaker (that is: if you were planning on buying new speakers anyway) Thaz all, folks. Read and learn. happy reading :)

Ok I spent all last night taking measurements, moving stuff around, and added the rest of my rockwool...and let me say I'm pretty bummed right now. First off let me give you some info on my room its 11.5' x 20.5' with 7.5' ceiling. My speakers (Adam A7's) are firing in the length of the room and they are a little over 3' apart with my listening position forming an equilateral triangle exactly 38% the distance of the room as stated by Ethan Winer from realtraps website (how to setup a room). I have four 2'x6' bass traps in each corner, two 6'x4' ceiling clouds (one in back of room, one in front), four 2'x4' bass traps stradleing the area were the walls meet the ceiling, two 2'X4' bass traps one to the right and one left of my desk, two 2'x4' bass traps one to my left and one right which are all filled with 4" of rockwool each. First reflection points are covered with Aurelex wedges. Here are some pics.

more pics: Here are the results of Room Eq wizard: All test were done using a radio shack SPL calibrated to 75db C weighted left speakerright speaker Stereo Ethans test tones from Realtraps.com 20hz-300hz(low freqs)

Then I ran the REW through my 002 and got these dont know how valid they would be but here they are anyways:

So here are my plans, Im going to build another ceiling cloud and place that in the center space and run some more tests. I'm also going to drop my speakers down 1 1/2" and see if that may help because they are very close to being in the center from the floor to ceiling. I have some serious concerns with the mid and high frequency readout of these test and am wondering what I can do. Could the Radio shack SPL have skewed these results? I read that it is not very good for high freq's. I have the first reflection points taken care of but other than that I'm not sure what to treat cause there are bass traps everywere and i'm out of room...and money! :cry: If any body can give me some tips I would greatly appreciate it because if the options above dont work I'm probably going to pickup IK mults ARC system...... :cen:

Moved my screens back and changed my mic position forward and back a no real change yet. I thought that there may be some reflections coming from the computer screens and desk but no such luck. Could the desk be causing all the mid and high freq dips? Guess Ill have to start taking the cloud down next. monitors back 6". Mic up 1ft.

Could the desk be causing all the mid and high freq dips?

Quite possible. It does look a bit like comb filtering. What are those acoustic panels made of? How did you build them? - Stuart -

4" Rock wool, Muslin fabric, wood frames.

4" Rock wool, Muslin fabric, wood frames.

That should work OK. I just noticed in your photos that your speakers are sitting ON your desk. That might be an issue! The best place is to put them on really massive decoupled stands just behind the desk, rather than on the desk itself, to avoid both resonance issues in the desk, and also to reduce comb filtering from the desk surface itslef. Do you have some kind of decoupling treatment underneath those speakers? In those photos it looks like there might be something, but it's hard to see what. - Stuart -

Yes I have them on auralex mopads, I'll try putting them off the desk and run some test. I dont have any stands so I'll have to come up with something may take a while. I have some milk crates, think that would work for now? Thanks for your help, -T

I set them up higher on more foam and the results were the same, I will still try getting them off the desk next...will report later -T

I set them up higher on more foam and the results were the same, I will still try getting them off the desk next

Yeah, it's the position o the speakers over the desk itself, more than the coupling, that I'd suspect here. The idea is to get them o stands, a bit away from the desk. I don't know if it will make a lot of difference, but it might make a bit of difference. - Stuart -

I'm going to check out some computer desks this week and hopefully be building some speakers stands soon as well. Here are the ones im looking at building now http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/stubby_e.html I plan on moving my old desk out and taking some measurements of just the speakers in mix position, maybe this will give me an idea as to whets causing the problems.