Basement studio in Varna, Bulgaria, EU

Hello and greetings from Bulgaria, EU! A friend of mine recommended this forum to me, as a place with lots of useful information about building a quality audio studio. I read some of the posts and so far I found the answers to questions I haven’t even considered yet. I want to construct my studio monitor room to be able to give the best possible quality and I will be very grateful if you could offer me some ideas.. The main purpose of the studio is mastering songs and commercials. I do not expect the sound processing to be too loud, or at least not always. The studio is situated in a basement of my apartment. Brick walls, 2cm fiber and gypsum board 1.5cm On the opposite wall there is a window on the outside wall. Because of the thickness of the walls, there is a 120cm x25cm x 60cm gap, which is used for the window to be able to open properly. As you can see on the pictures, the roof has a gypsum roughness, where I think I should place a cloud. I`m thinking about moving the sofa and furniture out of the room, but the desk must stay, the question is where to put it exactly. The monitor audio (М-Audio BX5a) in my opinion should be placed on a PVC pipes filled with sand and a rubber stand. The door has a specific shape and I think I`m going to have to apply some wadding and coating. The floor is concrete, with a 5cm fiber, a pad and laminate. Now I`m looking for a rug to put in. I`ve got one 160cm x240cm x2cm and I hope for the time being it should be enough, so I can invest my money into the other necessary stuff. As a whole I`ve got around 250$ to do all this. And finally the main questions: - How should I place my desk and monitors (following the triangle rule, proportions behind and in front of the speakers)? - Where should I place the bass-traps and with what proportions? - What dimensions should the cloud on the ceiling? - Do I need a panel with a stand or should I mount them on the walls? - How thick should the wadding for the door be? I hope the provided information is sufficient and If you need to know something more I`ll answer you asap. Thank you for your time!

Hi Evo, and Welcome! :

And finally the main questions: - How should I place my desk and monitors (following the triangle rule, proportions behind and in front of the speakers)?

The desk and chair should be on the center line of the room, so that everything is symmetrical around your head: The speakers will have to go tight up against the front wall, on stands (very heavy, massive stands) so that the acoustic axis of the speakers is at a height of 1.2m above the floor. The left one should be about 91 cm from the left wall, and the right one should be the exact same distance cm from the right wall, so there will be about 118 cm between them. Then set up your chair 1.3m from the front wall, or rather so that your ears are 1.3m from the front wall. Now aim the speakers directly at your ears.

- Where should I place the bass-traps and with what proportions?

For a small room like that, you need BIG bass traps! Your budget is not high enough to make Superchunks, but is good enough to put corner absorbers in. So buy a panel of 4-inch (10cm) OC-703, cut it in half vertically so that you end with two pieces, each measuring 60cm wide by 2.4m long. Set those up vertically across the two rear corners, floor to ceiling, diagonally.

- What dimensions should the cloud on the ceiling?

As big as you can! Try to put up a complete panel of 4" OC-703 across the ceiling, above your desk.

- Do I need a panel with a stand or should I mount them on the walls?

If you can, put more panels on the walls. You need another panel of OC-703 for the center of the rear wall, from the floor up to the bottom of the window. Space that about 10cm away from the wall: Then you need two more panels on the side walls, at your first reflection points. Once again, you could cut a single panel in half (like you did for the bass traps), and put one piece on each side of the room, floor to ceiling, at the first reflection points. And you'll also need some more on the front wall, between the speakers and the front wall: You don't have much space there, due to the door and the window, but try to cover as much as you can there. Finally, I would get get one more panel of OC-703, and also cut that one vertically. Put one half on the back of the door, and the other half in the front right corner, diagonally, just like the rear corner. (So that cupboard will have to go). That should help a lot.

Now I`m looking for a rug to put in.

I would not do that. Rugs and carpets do not have good acoustic properties. They do the exact opposite of what you need for a small room. Just leave your floor as it is.

Thank you verry much :thu: All this sounds like great summer project. When I'm ready I will post the results.