Small Studio / Practice Place

Hello everyone! This is my first post here so I'd like to introduce myself before my question: My Name's Frank, I'm a 26 year old drummer from Switzerland. I've been playing since 15 years, 12 of them with my Band. The recording bug bit me some 5 years ago and I've been recording bands from my hometown since then. I love recording almost as much as playing drums and have invested quite a bit in my gear over the year. I have now come to a point where I'm happy with everything I have so far, except the room. My mixes often turn out a little on the dull side, so I've taken measurements in my room to get to the root of the problem. The mixes always sound good to me in the room, but they don't translate to the real world. Here is first a frequency response taken at my mix position: The room is 7.7m in lenght, I suspect that the slight peak at 88hz after the big dip is a room mode of the lenght (44,67hz for 7.7m). What I can't find out is where this big dip comes from. 78hz equals a wavelength of 4.41m. I thought it might be the ceiling/floor mode, but the ceiling is 2.45m in height which equals 140.4hz. Is this close enough to be induced by the ceiling/floor mode? I have tried moving the speakers from and to the wall but the 78hz stays. Monitors are Focal Solos. The room is heavily treated with 2" fiberglass, pretty much everywhere. I didn't do that, it was already in there. I plan on taking about half of it down to make the space more alive. Here is a picture of the room and a layout made in sketchup. I forgot to mark my listening position on the sketch. It's facing the middle of the left wall, about 2.10m from the wall. Info on loudness: We are very loud when we practise and record. It's not a problem, we don't have neighbors. My goals: I would like to have a good response so that I can trust my mixes. The low end response is a real problem. Also, I would like to make the whole place more "alive" for recording- it's way to dead in there. Maybe some kind of LEDE design would be suitable? My budget: 3000$ for material maximum. Our singer is a carpenter, so this will help I'm sure :D I appreciate every help I can get to make my room sound better, thanks a lot in advance! Hopefully I didn't forget anything or offend forum guidelines, which I read carefully. Thanks and a nice weekend to everyone! Frank

Hi Frank. Welcome! A few quick things that I noticed: 1) You don't seem to have very much bass trapping in that room. Bass trapping is very important, and your graph also seems to show that you don't have anywhere near enough of it. 2" of absorption on all the walls isn't bass trapping. That will just make the room sound dull. 2) Your room is not symmetrical. It must be symmetrical at least from the front wall back to the mix position. 3) Dimensions and geometry are important. You don't seem to have a good layout for your room. 4) I wouldn't be too worried about your 78 Hz mode concerns: your room has such an odd shape that pretty much anything could be going on! In fact, your 0-1-1 tangential mode is at 78.4 Hz, theoretically, for the central part of the room, but that is meaningless anyway, since your room isn't rectangular so tangential and oblique modes are probably all over the place, and pretty much unpredictable. You have far bigger problems that need fixing, than a worrisome mode at 78 Hz.

"Maybe some kind of LEDE design would be suitable?"

LEDE is no longer the fad. The currently philosphy around here is that RFZ (Reflection Free Zone) design is the best way to do it. You could base your new layout on that. I'd start by re-arranging your room to get good symmetry at the front end, good dimensions, good geometry, install large bass traps in as many of the 12 corners as you can, and remove some of the absorption on the walls. Or even better, leave it in place and build slot walls over it. Then, when all that is done, measure the room again and see what still needs to be done. - Stuart -

Hi Stuart! Thanks a lot for your response! Re Symmetry at the listening position: I face the left wall when I'm mixing and sit around 2m from the left wall. So until I'm 2.95m into the room, it's the same distance to the walls left and right to me. Unless I'm facing the bottom left corner, this is the only spot that is symmetrical. I agree with the basstraps, I will have to have lots of them! If I want to combine a corner trap with a slot wall (like here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm), should I fill up the whole cavity with insulation? I could imagine that the slots would lose some effectiveness because there's less air behind them. I came up with this sketch: It covers all possible wall/wall corners (ceiling not included yet) with bass traps. The two long walls are covered with slot walls to absorb lo/mid and to make the sound in the room more alive (we're recording in the same room). Brown is bass traps, red is slot walls, the circle is mix position: Does this look reasonable or should I just go out and find another room? :? I would really like to stay in that room if possible. First it's almost impossible to find something where we can be as loud as we want, second it's a 2min walk from my home 8) There are 2 more rooms attached to this big one, both rectangular. They're completely untreated and sound more like echo chambers than anything I'd like to mix in. I'd rather stay in that big room, as we won't be able to put windows between the rooms (walls are 1.5 feet thick). Thanks a lot, Frank