Attic Conversion Treatment SOS

Hi, I'm Ed, from Scotland. New here although for the past few weeks I have been a daily visitor to the site in an effort to learn about acoustics and room treatment, so thanks for all the help I've had so far from reading and in advance for any help and advice you may be able to give. I've read the instructions for posting and I'll try my very best to provide all the relevant information I have. Ok, here goes.......I converted my attic about a year or so ago with a view to having a studio at home. It's a 1930's terraced house of good solid construction (sandstone and brick) and basically I've had a staircase put in on one side of the attic and this leads to the attic itself (separate room). Construction wise I've had to double joist the floors which have then been covered, underlayed and carpeted. The walls on either side are double gyproc'd (rocksheet or sheetrock??? I think for some) to create a fire barrier as per regulations here. The back and front walls (up and over) are single sheet gyproc and it is insulated behind the gyproc with Kingspan, a rigid insulation. There is no soundproofing at the moment and I don't expect there will be. Noise is not really an issue here as the house is fairly well constructed and I don't really expect to be mixing or tracking at ridiculous volumes, so my questions are really to do with room treatment to get the best from my room and equipment. I plan to use this mainly as a control room although I have a Roland TD20 setup in one corner and I'll no doubt record my bass and keys here too. Everything else (guitars and vocals mainly) will be set up in a spare bedroom downstairs with a stagebox running up to the attic. At the moment the room doesn't sound terrible.....at least to my ears. I think it is definitely a bit "lively" and I do seem to get a little bit of a boost around 70hz (C sharp almost 2 octaves below middle C). That apart it seems quite even throughout the room. Although it's not great and there are definitely reflections, there is nowhere in the room that sounds noticeably (again, to me) better or worse than anywhere else and it does seem quite focussed at the mixing position given it's lack of treatment. I'm sure, with the right treatment, I'll regret saying that, but, relatively speaking, I don't hear things as terrible in there, just lacking the kind of focus and crispness that I would expect from a decdent room with decent equipment. I've attempted some Sketchups and I'll include a couple of actual pictures so that you get some idea of the layout I have at the moment. Although the furniture is perhaps not to scale, the actual room dimensions are correct on the Sketchups. Room measurements are as follows. Width: 17' 5" at widest (into recess where drums are), and a shade under 12' where it has been walled off to accommodate the staircase Depth: 18' 6" Height at highest: 7' 5" The ceiling itself (at the full 7' 5") is only 5' 9" wide before sloping to meet walls. Recess is 5' 5" by 7' 4" Walls from floor to bottom of sloping ceiling: 3' 1" I already have the studio set up and am doing some work here although pretty much everything so far has been mixed elsewhere. I've spent a fair amount of money to get what I consider to be a pretty good quality setup and would really like my mixes to travel well. I don't know if the equipment aspect is particularly pertinent to things but I'll list that at the bottom of the post just in case. I haven't done any room measurements yet (mainly because I'll need to sit down and learn how to do this), but I plan to do this soon. I have also been reading up quite a bit on sound absorption panel construction, superchunks and bass traps etc and feel confident I can make these. So..... 1. Any ideas you have about the type and placement of absorption would be very helpful. 2. If you have advice about type and placement of absorption, I'd be grateful of advice on the dimensions of these where possible. 3. Should I be bass trapping all of these corners........there is a ton of them in here with the sloping nature of the attic? Think the sloping ceiling may be difficult to treat. If it has to be done, your knowhow will no doubt be invaluable. 4. The ceiling at its highets also has two rows of recessed halogen lights (6 in all, two rows of three) making it awkward to get a cloud up there. Maybe I can put a cloud (or two) on the sloping ceilings if need be? 5. The spare room I plan to track in downstairs is a spare bedroom. Can I get away with constructing something along the lines of two fairly large broadband absorbers placed behind the vocalist and a reflection filter at the mic? Or perhaps 4 broadband absorbers to more or less box the player/singer in? 6. Novice that I am, no doubt I will have missed some fairly rudimentary questions I should be asking, but am not. Feel more than free to put me right with this if you have the time and inclination. By the way, the square objects above the couch are meant to represent Velux windows. My Sketchup skills are...............sketchy at best. Thanks again for taking the time to read. Any help or advice you can give will be very much appreciated. Oh, almost forgot. I'd like to do this for under £1000 (exchange rate, vs material costs I'm guessing would make that roughly about $1000 or maybe a little more), if possible, although I'd throw a bit more at it for the right result. Hope I haven't missed anything important out. Ed. Gear: MacPro running Logic 9 and Wavelab 7. Apogee AD16x for inputs Apogee Rosetta 200 for outs (mixing in the box) UA Twin Finity UA Solo 610 Focusrite Octopre Presonus Monitor Station Behringer B-Control Dynaudio BM5A's

welcome! nicely detailed post! you might consider putting the desk under the skylights - this makes the left-right symmetry a bit better for the desk and it opens up the space with the drums to be something where musicians can all be in one spot. then run your guitars amps, Leslies, etc downstairs via your stage wiring. useful approach for re-amping as well. then in the corners - slats or superchunks. in each window, suspend a 100mm thick absorber in the opening which leaves around 100-150mm gap all around it so you get light but also absorption there. on the peak - consider some spaced absorbers (100mm thick) hung down as 50mm. on the sloped wall opposite your desk, scatter 100mm absorbers (like a spaced out checkerboard) to break that up. in the corners by the drums - slats or superchunks. on the side walls by the desk - 100mm absorbers at first reflection points and perhaps on the door and opposite wall.

Hi Glenn, Thanks for the reply and your good advice. I feel a bit more confident building superchunks rather than slats for now......I'll read up more on the slats thing just so that I really feel like I know how they work (I get the principle, but the specifics are still not as clear in my head as I'd like) and how to build them properly before deciding. Would you say there is much advantage in going for one as opposed to the other? I thought I would build the superchunks or slats so that they could just sit in the corners and not be permanent attachments to the walls. Since the roof starts low and slopes towards the peak, it seems like I have two choices of design, which I've very crudely drawn in SketchUp. Can you comment, please, on which design is better when you've had a look at the attached jpegs? As far as your comments on first reflection points and the possibility of absorption on the door and opposite wall, should I be aiming to make these panels roughly the size of an average door (or as big as can practically fit the space)? Easy enough to do I think.....just not clear in my head if this is what you mean or if they should be smaller. I've noticed in some of the designs here that these panels can be quite large and I'm guessing sometimes bigger is indeed better. Very happy to change the room around on your advice. I did think however that it may be possible to keep the layout the same if I could do something like create 2 big gobo type structures made of double sheet gyproc and shaped like the aperture to the space the drums sit in, thereby allowing me to attach absorption to them and retain symetry with the opposite wall and follow your advice about first reflection points and your other suggestions to treat the room.. Does this idea have legs or serve to highlight how much of a novice I am with regard to room treatment? Thanks again and best regards, Ed.

#1 would be the better choice. if you want, you can make a simple frame with a few screws into the wall (or more complex using some plywood to make a shell to fit the insulation into) put the rigid insulation in the front, pink insulation in back, cover with plastic and cloth. when it comes time to move, some plastic leaf (garbage) bags to pack up the insulation, remove the frame and putty the few screw holes.

Hi Glenn, Going with your plan for the attic over the next few weeks. I'll build frames to house the first reflection point absorption and the door and opposite wall absorbers, as well as the superchunks for the corners. For the windows, ceiling and checkerboard back wall I think I'll go with a more basic design without the frame to save on weight. When I get moving with this I'll post some pics. Thanks again, I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your knowledge and expertise. Best Regards, Ed.

Hi Glenn, just got a little confused with your reply about the superchunks and putting rigid insulation at the front and pink at the back. I had intended to build pretty much all my absorption in the style of Simon Ostheim viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15305 These just look like they are well made and pretty easy to emulate, with the appropriate adjustments to size for my requirements. I notice though, that Simon has built his superchunks using rigid insulation only, cut into triangles and covered with plastic to reflect some of the higher frequencies. If his design is good, I'd like to follow it pretty much to the letter. They seem to me to be a good quality, no nonsense build that I could achieve in my own room. 1. Is his design good and can I go with it? 2. I've found the UK equivalent to OC 703 and OC 705. Can I build both my broadband absorbers for the walls and my Superchunks using the 703 equivalent or should I be using 705 equivalent for the Superchunks?

the design is good and you can go with it. it is a proven design with a lot of success. use the 703 equiv. just presenting an option where you could reduce some cost if you need to spread the rigid insulation around more and also, the lighter insulation can improve the LF absorption of the trap.

Thanks Glenn. Just going to price some of my OC 703 equivalent and make a start on this today. Really, really appreciate your help and advice. If you're ever in Scotland, the beers are on me.