Calculating the Mode Ratio for Unusual Shape Isolation Booth

Hello, . Please help me. I am building a small isolation booth in my flat and am a little puzzled with regards to choosing the dimensions of the room as the room I have designed has 5 walls. For rooms with more than 4 walls, how do you calculate the ratio dimensions in order to get a more balanced mode distribution/recording environment? . As for the size, I only have a limited area of approximately 350cm (W) x 287cm (L) x 241cm (H) to build the isolation booth which also includes the space needed for sound proofing. I live in Jersey, Channel Islands, where real estate is costly and hard come by. I plan to fit as much sound proofing as possible as I live in a crappy flat in Jerseys capital, surrounded by many other flats filled with lots of very noisy annoying neighbors. . . I understand that the size of my room is too small for pro recording (poor acoustics), however, as I am still keen to build an isolation booth that can be used for practice / demo recording, and maybe even mixing (a bad environment is better than no environment), please could someone help. . Please note that I do not intend to use monitors in the small control room as I want to limit problems with the neighbors. . Mixing can be done in a seperate studio. Thanks for any help. Cheers.

I can't help you with your question.. but what software is that?? It looks almost REAL

No worries regarding no answer. I guess I will have to search for the answer in a book or two. . As for the software, the software I am using is called Archicad 12. I am presently using a trial version as it costs quiet a lot. (I wouldn't be able to afford it). I found the software a lot easier than most the cheap ones, and the quality is really good. The software is mainly used by architechs to draw 2d plans and 3d visualizations. I am just touching in on the basics of this program, so my studio design isn't 100% acurate with regards to building construction, however, I am a bit arty and technical so was able to pick up the basics in a couple of days by fiddling and reading the built in manual. I imagine you could even export your models into a pro 3d app like maya or something if you were a 3d pro. Alternatively, I imagine you can also import 3d models as well. Which would be cool. If interested, give it a shot. It will cost you £0 for 30 days. And I guess if you are a pro studio designer. then spending the cash will be worth it. Anyway, good luck. Archicad 12. posting.php?mode=reply&f=1&t=13450# P.S. I thought Sketchup was really cool too and am pretty blown away by many of the interactive 3d diagrams that i have seen on this site, I just didn't naturally drop into using it and knew that it would take a more concentrated effort to get the hang of, so i decided to go for archicad instead. I guess i will have another go at sketchup as soon as my archicad 12 trail finishes. Its that or reinstall windows on my mac so that i can download another 30 day trial of archicad 12. :-) bit naughty, however, i'm too poor to be sued. :-)

Looks promising thanks for the tip

the advantage of Sketchup is it's free :)

Maybe I can "borrow" it :roll:

you know, there's oodles of good 3D rendering apps out there which can have a SU file as input. But rendering takes time and effort which only results in shiny bling-bling pix... I'm actually very happy with standard SU output :)

the app mentioned above took about 10 min to render the pic above, The basic pic's that it renders are pretty instand. Perhaps a few secs. Not big fan either of waiting for apps to render. quiet like looking at decent pics though. As there are some awesome out of this world 3d artists out there.

how do you calculate the ratio dimensions in order to get a more balanced mode distribution/recording environment?

No worries regarding no answer. I guess I will have to search for the answer in a book or two.

I'm afraid you won't find your answer in any books, as there is no general solution for 'strange looking' rooms. In order to study the ideal mode distribution of your (any) enclosure, you will need to be able to know the space's resonant frequencies. For rectangular enclosures, this is baby math. For non-rectangular enclosures, there is no analytic formula you can use, and you'd need to find a unique numerical solution to the wave equation. If you can refine your question and provide a sketchup drawing of that room, I can calculate for you the spatial pressure distribution for any frequency you'd like and the frequency response at mic position. Best regards, Jon.