Parallel vs non parallel walls

Hi guys I am wondering about what non parallel walls does to the sound of the room. A cost vs result type thing. Lets say we were building a new room, and we could build it so none of the walls/ceiling were parallel, or we could build it that they were. Is it more expensive to build non parallel? Does it have an effect on the amount of bass trapping required....? Given that you have to apply acoustic treatment to either room, is it more cost effective to just treat a parallel room, rather than build non parallel. If you had two rooms, the same size, one parallel , one not, what would you expect the sound differences to be? Lets assume for the sake of the discussion, that we are only talking about worrying about the sound within the room, not concerned with sound leaking out to annoy neighbours...8^) thanks Wiz

It depends on a lot of things, and like you said, the decision to use one or the other boils down to which one will be more cost effective. Given that both ideas will work, anyway. If one of them just won't serve your needs, that'll end the discussion right there. Parallel walls with reflective surfaces give rise to flutter echoes. These are bad- bad enough to make building angled walls worth it in a lot of cases. And yes, you can treat the rooms with absorption and diffusors to solve that problem, but having a non-parallel room will make placement of windows and doors much easier on you. It's kinda tough to apply diffusors to a window- and if the door has glass in it for visibility (John's designs often use sliding glass, patio-style doors) you come into the same trouble. Taking the walls out of parallel solves this problem. It also helps with the modal response of the room, but only slightly. Not enough to save you too much treatment. The other advantage non-parallel walls have is with treatment for more live-ness... if you're making the room live, you'll have to take extra steps to make reflective surfaces non-parallel. Reflective diffusion will work here, but most of the really effective types are costly. With non-parallel walls, you can use wood slats right against the wall and not worry about flutter echoes. (BTW if you have a need for diffusion, chances are a non-parallel wall won't help or hurt you...) Like I said, sometimes rooms just work out better when the corners are square. They're certainly easier to build, and there's simple ways to eliminate flutter echoes without making the room dead. Sometimes non-parallel walls will make a layout work that would never happen with square corners. Hope this helps. Kase www.minemusic.net

Hi Kase thanks for the reply... its interesting, as generally when you read up info on building recording studios, its just a given to not have parallel walls. I plan on with in the next couple of years, building out the front of my existing house, big enough to contain a control room, and tracking room. So I am curious as to which way to go, financially and soncially speaking. thanks for the tips. Wiz