Advice on absorption/diffusion for studio

Hello, This is a room in the basement of my house :cry: , it's not ideal by any means but has worked well so far. Now I want to get the room as good as possible in regards to acoustics for monitoring and recording. It's only the one room and this will be my control room and tracking room, with tracking at the other end of the room from the desk area is. It has low ceilings but for the next few years this is all I have to work with so I want to make the most of it. I don't need to worry about sound getting out or in, just to sound good inside the room. The room is 23'4" long, 10'10" wide, 6',10" high. The house was built in the 40s and the walls are lats and mortar. A sketch up of the studio is attached, it's to scale and there is a fireplace and an air duct you will see in there. The corner pieces are where I figured I would start with bass traps, 6" thick rigid fiberglass, 6' x 2' and would sit on the floor with some feet to balance them. The floor is a pergo wood style floor and I plan on leaving it bare to be reflective. The ceiling I was thinking of covering in 2" framed rigid fiberglass and cover most of the ceiling, maybe leaving a 1" gap from the ceiling. Any thoughts you might have I would appreciate greatly. My budget could be up to $2000, or that is least as much as I would like to spend. If you need any other information let me know. Thanks, Jason

The only thing I could say for certain is you have to find a way to get more ceiling height. Thanks Jason

Yeah, for sure. xSpace is right. You need more height. Any chance of taking the floor out, to see what's underneath? Maybe you can dig? 6'10" is really low for a ceiling.

Thanks for the comments! The floor is solid concrete with at least one gas line in there somewhere. We might be selling this house in a few years and I don't think I want to dig into that concrete and possibly screw up the foundation of the house. So I am stuck with the height unfortunately. Edit: Removed the last design so not to be confusing. Thanks, Jason

jasonwagner wrote:

Here is a possible design I could do using the a 2x4 frame, flush mounting the speakers and breaking up most of the parallel surfaces. I could mix between wooden slats or absorbent material and fill the cavities with fiberglass. For the ceiling I think my only option would be to cover it with 2" fiberglass with small gap between the ceiling.

Jason, What do you base your design notions on? Granted they are portions of a good acoustical environment but you still have that low ceiling. You mention in part, things that are suggested here regularly, but not always in the space dimensions you suggest. Is it a dead room sound you are going for? It is surely what you will get. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but you should know what it is that you are about to get yourself into.

Hey Xspace, Please ignore that last picture that plan wasn't really based on any specific design, I am really new to room acoustics. A dead room is not my goal but if that is what it will take to make it sound as good as it can then that's cool. I just need a place to keep recording folks and improving my skills, this is the only room I am going to have for a while. Browsing around some more I found this design http://johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Based on that design I applied it to the my room and attached a pic and a sketchup file. I am planning on making the wall and corner pieces with the wood slat facing. As well as the fabric faced bass traps at the to long ends of the room. For the ceiling I was reading on Ethan Winer's acoustics page that for a low ceiling your best bet is to cover it with 2" fiberglass with a gap between the ceiling. Thanks, Jason

Jason, I haven't followed or considered your design, I am reading your words. It is a habit of mine :) "For the ceiling I was reading on Ethan Winer's acoustics page that for a low ceiling your best bet is to cover it with 2" fiberglass with a gap between the ceiling." Essentially you want to remove the hard boundary(the ceiling), this is achieved with the 2" rigid fiberglass. The gap allows the absorption to go to a lower frequency...and pushing frequencies down is your goal. But, it is not the complete truth in what you are trying to establish in such a low profile room. There are things happening above the ceiling that can help to A: make it taller and B: make it just as or more absorptive. It is a process and it depends on how much you want to get out of it. I came here a few years ago and haven't finished my personal space yet!!! But what I have is solid, correct and above reproach :)