Basement Studio design help welcomed :)

Hi there, First off, wow, what an awesome information resource you have here! Wish I had known about this place years ago! Right, will try not to make this too long winded, but as my wife points out, that would be an exception... Ok, I am a composer with my own studio gear, working in a less than ideal, very small space which is causing me to have mixing problems (and resulting in lots of mixing revisions from clients) due to horrible bass nulls. I do however have an option open to me, and that is to move into the basement here. Now, after lugging all my gear down there, placing basic treatment in the manner in which I have learned from my old room, it became clear that I had made a step up in available space to work, and several steps down in terms of room sound. Lots of bass! (to be expected) As I hope it is clear from the sketches to follow, Its a less than ideal situation. In addition to the frequency response problems, I am also having stereo imaging problems, which I assume are to do with the symmetry at the "front" of the room. The problems I see are that the recessed door and window (plus the window grate I didnt know how to add in the 3d program) are likely the culprits for the stereo image problems. From what I can tell the walls and ceiling are concrete with textured render on them and the floor is wood panel over concrete. The archway to the back left is open (no door) and at a later time I may consider using this as a vocal booth. The panels in the photo's are rock wool slabs (packaging says 100kg/m3) mounted on a hardwood frame and covered in cloth (burlap doesn't exist here so its basically bedding sheets materiel). They vary from 2.5cm of rockwool to 7.5cm depth. Now, the door to the left is the main entrance to the studio (and exit to bathroom) so needs to be in usable. The window on the right is the only source of natural light. I realise that probably the easiest solution to the imaging problem would be to simply put the speakers at the other end of the room, but I would really like to get it working this way around as without the light from the window, it feels like a dungeon. Not the most inspiring work environment! Im no carpenter, but on the basis that "everything fits with a big enough hammer" I can make things given enough time (or brute force). As far as budget, I think somewhere around 500 to 1000 euros would be the target. Hope I have covered everything needed and look forward to reading some creative solutions! Tim

for now i would build a "doorway plug" to fit into the arch and close it. then i'd face my desk into that end with proper bass trapping on the vertical and wall-ceiling corners, plus several clouds across the ceiling. light coming in the window shouldn't be a problem and you could just use shear curtains to knock of the very high frequency which might bounce off it. the doorway plug could be 4x layers of 1200mmx2400mm 5/8" drywall screwed to the wall in several places and caulk to enable you to seal around it. maybe back it (inside archway) with some cloth covered pink insulation to dampen it. later you can replace it with a door when you need to make it a vocal booth. the plywood is there to hold the shape, the drywall adds the necessary mass.

Thank you for the reply Gullfo! Do you think trying to face it the way I have it currently is a bit of a lost cause? If we think one step further along the line to the inclusion of the vocal booth, how would the door work exactly? What I mean is, from your sketch it appears the super chunk corner traps are on both the left and right side, which makes sense, but would they not be in the way of any opening for a doorway? Also Im curious about the density of the absorption panels. I have seen the figure of 48kg/m3, I assume because it corresponds to the density of the most frequently used fibreglass for this application. Is there a disadvantage with using the 100kg/m3 rockwool panels that I have access to? Again, thanks! Tim

when you get to the next step, you'll have to re-arrange your treatments to accommodate the door. yes, facing the current direction is problematic.

I think what Im trying to say is that it would seem a shame to build the room only to have to completely rethink it. Here's what I mean: Out of 100cm by 60cm panels, makes sense that Id get most out of the materiel by chopping it half width ways and then each half diagonally again to have triangles with the minimum edge being 50cm. The archway is 1.18m wide so that leaves around 68cm for a doorway, likely less by the time I have built a frame for the corner traps. Thanks again! Tim

if you don't want to restructure the corner later, use 100mm thick absorbers on the wall and the door-plug and one spanning across the corner. later you'll just remove the one spanning the corner and have the wall and door hanging absorbers still in place.

Do you mean something like this? In this kind of situations would there not be stereo image problems? If I were to match the other side instead of the super corner trap, would that be effective enough for the freq, absorption in the room?

correct. you can balance the absorption.

Right, been busy building corner traps! One thing I was wondering about the ceiling panels. My head is pretty close to being in the center between floor and ceiling, What kind of hanging should I try for the cloud? Leave x amount of space? Are 2.5cm panels going to cut it for the cloud? Thanks! Tim

you could do that with those but they're going to mostly impact your midrange so use smaller ones 2'x2' in a checkerboard pattern to leave some life and make the ceiling diffusive.

Ok, getting there! Front end is making a big difference, although theres only a board covering the archway till I can find a guy to put a door in for me. A few questions: 1) The bottom corner traps are 200mm thick 100kg/m3 rockwool, is that overkill? 2) Is the purpose of the Wallplug/door thickness just for insulation from outside or does it serve a secondary purpose, such as not turning the "vocal booth" into a resonating chamber or something? 3) I have seen designs around here with indented sections on the back walls. Is there any benefit of doing such a thing here? 4) is there a place here for the typical "grey foam" panels here, such as at the front wall? or should I go for all broadband? 5) next step should be the back wall, cloud or the ceiling wall corners? Thanks! Tim

Hey Tim, has there been any noticeable improvement from the changes you have made?

the insulation on the door dampens it so you reduce resonances and flatten the response of them (since you'll always have some level of them). i'd stick with the broadband approach, skip the foam. the 100kg/m3 is probably a bit much density but you could leave it in place while you do some audio measurements of the space...

xSpace wrote:

Hey Tim, has there been any noticeable improvement from the changes you have made?

Definitely an improvement although there is still quite a hump in the low mids so Its not in a state where I can mix in it yet.

gullfo wrote:

the insulation on the door dampens it so you reduce resonances and flatten the response of them (since you'll always have some level of them). i'd stick with the broadband approach, skip the foam. the 100kg/m3 is probably a bit much density but you could leave it in place while you do some audio measurements of the space...

Yah, I'll get the measurement mic out again. Unfortunately, the 100kg/m3 stuff is all I have easy access to. Its definitely working, I think the question really is if when all the traps are up, will it be enough! Thanks for the replies! Tim

the overhead clouds will definitely be a next step. several small clouds hung down from the ceiling should help.