Basement Design

I am new here and amazed how great the forum is. Looking to get some help on laying out my basement. I am new to setup but have been trying to absorb as much info as I can. Basic details are Floor = carpet but may get upgraded soon. Walls = 2x4 from concert block with wallpapered wood panels - should I be concerned about this as i would imagine drywall would have less reflection. ceiling = drop tiles - 7'2" height to drop ceiling, 8'2" to sub floor above. I am looking at setting up 2 areas in the main room which is around 22'9" L x 12'2" W. 1. Desk with pc and monitors (KRK V4 right now). 2. Second listening area with chair and floor jbl 4410 monitors. Hopefully the image attaches which is a quick sketch of what I was originally thinking. Place the JBL monitors on the North wall, bottom of the image. Original placement 2' from north wall and place 6' apart. Seating would be 8' or so from north wall and 6' from the monitors. From here I could move to find best placement but this is what i was thinking for a starting point. For the desk setup, I was looking at the wall by the stairs. Placement would be around 1' off the wall with the stairs. I will also have a book shelf that I need to put into the room that is 5' L x 1'D x 5' H. I was looking at adding it midway down the east wall? Not sure if this will cause any issues or not. The other way I thought about setting this up was to put the JBL monitors further apart and placing the desk with the krk v4 between them. The room that connects on the other side of the stairs on the south end (top of picture) I was looking to setup my cabinet to record electric guitar in this space. I mic with a sm57 against the grill so was hoping the space would work. For acoustic I record upstairs in another room and do not do vocals or drums so that space would only be for electric. After I get the intial layout will look into best places to put treatments for the room. My questions were 1. There is a 2' x 2' x 4' H half wall in the north east corner that is a surround of the water meter. Will this impact the acoustics in a negative way. I figured if I place the monitors 2' from the wall the half wall in the corner would be behind the monitors. 2. On west wall there is a door 16' down the wall. 3. For the desk with monitors, if I place in the center of the room in regards to width half the desk would be in the opening between the 2 rooms and half would back to the wall. Does this cause any issues. Also, the door on the west wall would be 6' 3" away. 4. Wondering based on the info if I am on the right track or if I should be looking to arrange items differently and if I have any major issues that need addressed. Thanks in advance for any input.

Hi. Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things! :) - Stuart -

Stuart, thanks for the link with the instructions. Tried to restructure my post around.

Hi again. Sorry about the looong delay in responding, but things are pretty crazy right now... Anyway, "netter late than never", as the saying goes... Some quick comments:

Floor = carpet but may get upgraded soon.

Carpet is not useful, acoustically. In fact, it does the exact opposite of what most small rooms need: it absorbs highs very well, mids, to a certain extent (but randomly), and does not affect lows at all. Most small rooms need stacks of low frequency absorption, a bit of contoured mid absorption, and practically nothing in the highs. So lose the carpet, and get a a good solid, hard, reflective floor in there instead.

Walls = 2x4 from concert block with wallpapered wood panels

If I'm understanding that right, then you are saying that you have a concrete block wall on the outside, then 2x4s directly attached to that wall, with wood paneling on the 2x4s (what type of wood? how thick? photos?), and then wallpaper over that? That is probably OK acoustically, as a room surface, but there might be issues with the isolation, and also with the cavity: Any time you place a hard, heavy surface over a cavity, you create a resonant system. That can be good, if it is designed properly and tuned correctly, but the chances of that happening by pure luck are pretty darn slim! So that needs to be investigated further.

ceiling = drop tiles - 7'2" height to drop ceiling, 8'2" to sub floor above.

That ceiling is no use acoustically, and is also wasting a lot of height! I would take that out and re-do the ceiling properly, oth for isolation and also for treatment.

I am looking at setting up 2 areas in the main room which is around 22'9" L x 12'2" W. 1. Desk with pc and monitors (KRK V4 right now). 2. Second listening area with chair and floor jbl 4410 monitors.

Are you saying that you intend to create two separate listening areas in the same physical space, with one set of speakers at the front and a second unmatched set further back? That's probably not a good idea at all, for many reasons. It would be far better to just use one set of good speakers up front, properly installed, and with the room treated correctly, to cover both areas properly. The way you describe it, you plan to have speakers playing the same music facing each other from different ends of the room. Sorry, but there's no way that can work. The sound fields from both speakers will be interfering with each other, and neither listening position will be usable. There will be no soundstage, no stereo imaging, no spatial cues, wild comb filtering, phasing issues, very complex muddled modal issues, and the final result will be that your mixes will not translate at all. You will not be able to hear the sound clearly: it will sound like mud, and be useless as a mixing environment. You cannot have two speakers playing the same sound into the same space from different points and expect to have a usable, clean, detailed sound field. I would also suggest turning your room around so that the desk is up against the far wall, in order that you can get proper symmetry. Symmetry is critical to a control room,and the only place you can get it at present, is at the bottom end of your drawing.

The other way I thought about setting this up was to put the JBL monitors further apart and placing the desk with the krk v4 between them.

There is a more or less standard method for setting up speakers in a studio, in terms of heights, angles, positions, etc. I would follow that. The specs from ITU, EBU, AES, Dobly and others are all pretty much identical in that respect. It makes sense to listen to the experts for speaker setup.

After I get the intial layout will look into best places to put treatments for the room.

Layout and treatment go together. There's also a pretty much standard set of treatment that your room will need, regardless of anything else, so you should probably start with that. After that is in place, then you can measure the room response with the REW software, and see what else needs doing to improve it further.

1. There is a 2' x 2' x 4' H half wall in the north east corner that is a surround of the water meter. Will this impact the acoustics in a negative way. I figured if I place the monitors 2' from the wall the half wall in the corner would be behind the monitors.

Yes it will impact the acoustics, because it upsets the room symmetry. As I mentioned before, it is critical that your room is symmetrical (left-right), such that the left half is a mirror image o the right half. So I would just build a complete wall across that end of the room to make it totally flat, plum and square, then use that as the "front" of the room.

3. For the desk with monitors, if I place in the center of the room in regards to width half the desk would be in the opening between the 2 rooms and half would back to the wall. Does this cause any issues. Also, the door on the west wall would be 6' 3" away.

Theoretically, the listening position should be at roughly 38% of the room depth (distance from front wall to back wall), and 1.2m above the floor. The speakers should be arranged according to ITE/EBU/etc. specs, with 60° intercept a few inches behind your head, and suitably located with respect to walls, or better yet, flush mounted ("soffit mounted"). Then the desk goes in the suitable position resulting from the above. Hope that helps! - Stuart -