My new studio space!

Hi Guys, What a wonderful site and resource, I'm so glad I stumbled across you guys! I can tell from other posts how knowledgable and helpful you are and I appreciate all of your help in advance. I'm going to stick by the rules on this one as much as I can and give you all the information you would require from me. Overview: I have acquired a room with a 'live room/booth' to use as a studio. I can't actually make any structural changes to the room, so I'm stuck with what the current layout is in terms of walls, doors and windows. I have produced to the best of my ability a sketchup model of the room, which is done to scale based on the actual measurements of the room. I apologise in advance for anything I may have omitted in terms of the model itself, I have never used a design program like it before and just knew how to do the very basic functions. In essence, I would really like to know the likely pitfalls of my studio setup in terms of sound. I will mainly be producing and mixing in the control room, so am looking for as accurate a sound in there as poss, flat response and good representation of the lower frequencies. With regards to the live room, I will mainly be working with solo vocalists, but would like the scope for recording multiple vocals as well as instruments such as drums, percussion and guitar amps too, and would like to know how to best capture these sounds without it sounding too boxy. The only current acoustic treatment in the room is the eggshell type foam panels on the ceiling and parts of the side walls. How Loud Are You: I don't have a sound level meter, but I can tell you I don't mix very loud at all because I don;t want to destroy my ears or pee off my neighbours. I have a home studio and live in concrete terraced houses and never once have my neighbours complained of noise, and they're the types that would! If it really helps, I will try and grab one (we don't have a radio shack in the UK) from somewhere and let you know. Current Construction: The outer shell of the room is brick (indicated in sketchup) and all other walls (In white) are plaster board with no insulation inside of them. Unfortunately I have no scope to change these, as it part of a building and the landlord won't allow it. The actual building itself is a listed building, which means I can't even install double glazed windows!!! The ceiling in the live room/booth is also plasterboard, as it was previously lowered. The control room has laminate flooring (just the regular everyday bog standard fit yourself type thing) and the live room/booth has very thin carpet on the floor. There is scope to change these if need be. There is no visible framing. There are currently 2 standard doors that allow access to the live room and the windows are single glass panels with metal frame work. The space itself is on the second floor of a building, with an office separated by a 5ft wide corridor. There are no other neighbouring rooms as the building is detached and the space is in the corner of the building. Budget:I have about a £500 budget at a push, obviously coming in lower than that would be ideal. Questions: As I am likely to build all acoustic panels/bass traps myself, I would firstly like to know where these panels should be placed. As you will see, there is a window immediately to the right of the desk where the main workspace will go. There is scope to put a panel behind this to absorb those reflections from the back of the monitors, however, I am unsure of what to do for bass traps in the back corners and other early reflections. Further to this, where else should panels and traps go, considering the nature of the space and also the fact that there will be a sofa on the back wall (opposite to the workstation). I have a few ideas, but your expertise would be hugely appreciated and favoured. I am unsure of how to mount my speakers. I currently have the workstation fitted (as for instance a kitchen worktop would be). Should I elevate them on any particular type of stand, or mount them to the wall? As you will see, the left corner behind the workstation has a recess, which makes wall mounting slightly difficult. In the control room, we have a laminate floor, should we keep this, or switch to carpet, or use a mixture of both? The live room/ booth is currently carpeted, do you think this needs to be changed and introduce laminate/hardwood floor? (considering there are foam acoustic panels on the ceiling) Considering the instruments I would like to record, would you suggest bass traps are necessary for the live room? What other treatments, if any, would you suggest for the live room/ booth? I was thinking of having thick curtains to be able to completely deaden the room if need be, would you recommend this? Also, I would need advice on the best way to create a seal on all the doors in the studio? I would like to thank you in advance for your input. Please accept my apologies if I have in any way not provided enough info for you, just ask and I will try to the best of my abilities to rectify the situation. Kind regards VC

Hi Vc! WELCOME! Wow! It's great to have a new comer who read the rules, did their homework, and posted carefully. That doesn't happen too often. Great first post! :yahoo: Regarding your space: I'm assuming that the live room is the part with the brick wall and arched windows, while the booth is the enclosed room on the left, and that all of it already exists. Correct? If so, then your room orientation should be facing that bench thing and the recess thing, next to the "sticking-out" thing. Is that a closet? fireplace? What is it? Whatever it is, it's going to be a problem... The bad news is that your room dimensions are are very nearly multiples of each other (203 cm wide, 414cm long), but you say that you can't change that. The other bad news is that "sticking out" thing that destroys your room symmetry. If you cannot remove it, then you'll have to fill in the recess next to it somehow, so that your front wall extends all the way across the room evenly. Without that you cannot get symmetry, and of course without symmetry you cannot get an accurate stereo image with good balance, so your mixes will never translate well. That would be my first priority: Even out the front wall. Also, is your ceiling really 3 meters high? That's unusual, but good.

I don't have a sound level meter,

Not life-and-death, but useful. You can get them used on e-bay for maybe 30 euros and up. You don't HAVE to have one, but they are useful.

The control room has laminate flooring (just the regular everyday bog standard fit yourself type thing) and the live room/booth has very thin carpet on the floor.

Those are probably fine to start with, and you don't have much budget, so you can most likely just leave them as-is.

I would firstly like to know where these panels should be placed.

Standard initial treatment is as follows: - Bass traps in as many corners as you can do. A normal room has 12 corners. In your case it looks like the only corners available to you are the wall/ceiling corners, but you have high ceilings so there should be lots of good space up there for you to do that. - Absorption behind the speakers, on the front wall, to help deal with early reflections and comb filtering. - Thick absorption on all first reflection points, usually meaning both side walls and a cloud on the ceiling. - Thick absorption on the rear wall.

I am unsure of how to mount my speakers. I currently have the workstation fitted (as for instance a kitchen worktop would be). Should I elevate them on any particular type of stand, or mount them to the wall?

Standard recommended speaker geometry is to have them mounted such that the acoustic axes are at your ear height when seated at the desk, which means they should be 1.2m above the floor (note! that's the ACOUTIC AXIS that is 1.2 m above the floor, and NOT the top or bottom of the speaker. Big difference, in some cases). The speakers should be set apart about 1.5m to 2.5m from each other, and angled such that the acoustic axes meet about 20 cm behind the middle of your head at an angle of 60°: In other words, the speakers are perfectly aligned with and aimed at your ears. Your head and the speakers should be roughly at the corners of an equilateral triangle. Meaning that your head is about the same distance away from each speaker as the speakers are away from each other. Your head should also be at roughly 38% of the distance form the front wall to the back wall. Ideally the speakers should be soffit mounted (flush mounted). Second choices: The speakers should be at least 2m away from all walls. Third choice: the speakers should be right up against the front wall, with as little gap as possible. You don't have the budget for #1, and the room is too small for #2, so you will have to go with #3. Do not attach the speakers to the walls! Bad idea. That will couple them to the wall. Instead, put them on really heavy, massive stands (many people get large hollow metal stands and fill them with sand or concrete). The speakers should be decoupled from the stands.

As you will see, the left corner behind the workstation has a recess, which makes wall mounting slightly difficult.

Yup. That will have to be fixed, as I mentioned. You cannot work like that.

In the control room, we have a laminate floor, should we keep this, or switch to carpet, or use a mixture of both?

Laminate is excellent! Do not use carpet. Gneral rule is "hard floor, soft ceiling".

The live room/ booth is currently carpeted, do you think this needs to be changed and introduce laminate/hardwood floor? (considering there are foam acoustic panels on the ceiling)

If your budget will extend that for, then yes, go for it! But if not, then you can live with it for now, and do something else later. One cheap but ugly option might be to just lay a thick sheet of MDF, plywood or OSB on top of the carpet.

but would like the scope for recording multiple vocals as well as instruments such as drums, percussion and guitar amps too,

Drums? :shock: That room isn't very big, and drums are VERY loud. You probably can do it (and you do have high ceilings, which is great for micing drums well), but you might need to extend your budget a bit. And warn your neighbors....

Considering the instruments I would like to record, would you suggest bass traps are necessary for the live room? What other treatments, if any, would you suggest for the live room/ booth?

Checkerboard absorption. Thick. Meaning that wherever you have a hard surface on one side, but a large thick soft absorber (4" or even 6" of 703) right across on the opposite wall: So put a panel of 703 in the middle of the wall across from the window, then put 703 panels on the wall around the window itself (above, below, both sides). Put a panel of 703 right opposite the door, and more panels on the wall around the door itself. I would probably try to do bass trapping in at least two corners, if you are going to be doing drums in there. Ideal would be angled slot walls, but you don't have the budget. That would be my approach. Others might have different ideas. - Stuart -

"the speakers should be right up against the front wall, with as little gap as possible." Say what? I like your three options, but they are only options that apply to specific footprints, and there are always other options. Wes Lachots' 38% guide is something we all agree is a good starting place (thanks for that Wes), the typical 12/14 foot deep bedroom, which is where many are attempting to establish a mix environment, will establish 7 1/4" and 8 5/8" respectively(using an equilateral triangle) as the distance from the wall the monitors will be. As the room gets deeper the distance does the same. And then there are backside ported monitors to consider.

Thanks so much for your help so far guys, awesome advice. Right, as far as the recess goes, there's not a lot I can do about that, but I was thinking if I put absorption all the way up that wall (the front wall), do u think that would be sufficient? A cloud on the ceiling is not a problem for me to implement, and thick absorption on the rear wall is no problem either. The side walls near the front of the room may be problematic, as we have a window right next to the workstation, however, I was thinking if I angled the absoprtion in and set my monitors right up against it, would that be advisable? I'm still unsure of how to mount my speakers, as I can't implement a stand into the equation. I know to mount them at listening height but, would a shelf like one on the ready made workstations work for me? Maybe decouple them with a bit of foam or those little triangle feet type numbers? Please advise. Thanks again, I really do appreciate the help!

any option to re-arrange the room?

Wow, great work on sketchup! I'm afraid that would be impossible also. I can't make any structural changes to the room. I can't even get planning permission to change the windows!

ok... then just even out the front wall, put the speakers on stands in front the desk, close to the front wall. absorbers in first reflection points, a cloud over the desk. maybe heavy drapes for the windows when needed.

Thanks man, that's great. Will follow your advice as best as possible!