Designing a new controll room, need inputs on plan! :)

Hi, This is my first post ever on this forum, but as many others, i have been stalking and reading as much as i can for a long period. And i have to say, pardon my french, i don't use English that much in my regular life, just bear with me! :shock: The band that i play in, have a rehearsal space that we have used for a couple of years now, but have never thought so much about the acoustics before. Now that we try to do a bit more recording and mixing we found out that the room we us today, dont work... So we have do to something about it. Before we came along, we had just a large room with an opening to something we call the lounge, every wall is thick concrete. We than made a hallway separating both the live room and mixing room as wel as the entrance to the bathroom. Well, the other rooms isn't that important now, its the mixing room that we are going to focus on. The back wall and left side wall are med of concrete, the others walls (Front and right) are made from drywall. There are to doors and one opening in the mixing room: Door on the left wall is a emergency door for the owner of the place. Not very much in use, but have to be in reach! Door on the right is just the main door to the mixingroom Opening on the backwall is just the way in to the lounge. The room height is only 2,36m! I'm not (even though i'v want to) going to soffit mount the monitors. Why? Well, two reasons: 1) we dont have the time and money. 2) The manufacturer didn't think it was a good idea... (KRK VXT6 - nearfield) But i was thinking about placing them on heavy stands. As you can see from my plan, i'm planing to make a kind of soffit box, but from about the top of the monitor and down to the floor it just going to be fabric covering the insulation. And from the top of my monitor and up, just cover the insulation with a solid panel.. Kind of taking the monitor out of the soffit mount and placing it in front. Question: 1) Is this ok, or should it just be fabric and now solid panel? 2) Do i have do box it in, or could i just make a frame and cover it up? The boxes on the side of the listening position, is also a idea from this forum. With the 12 degrees and slots at the front. Question: 2) Do i have do box it in, or could i just make a frame and cover it up? In the back i'v planed to just make som boxes in the corner and fill them with insulation and have a cloth front. But would this have much effect? And how thick do they have to be? The box in the back that covers the entrance to the lounge, i'm thinking to put some hinges on it. So we can use it as a "door". One problem that we have, is some heating pipes that goes threw the mixing room, from the hallway to the other sides of the emergency door. they go long the ceiling, and are about 30cm from the back wall... I'l try to find a picture of it (or just take some new ones) I haven't measured the rooms acoustics, because i'm waiting for the gear to do so, but before i do, i'm hoping for some insights! All replies are welcomed, and if theres more information you need to answer me, let me know and i get the information as soon as i can!

Hi there "andbakken", and Welcome! :)

And i have to say, pardon my french, i don't use English that much in my regular life, just bear with me!

That's fine! My French is waaay worse than your English, which is pretty good!

The manufacturer didn't think it was a good idea... (KRK VXT6 - nearfield)

That's strange: it is not rear ported, and it does have the necessary bass roll off control for half-space, which is exactly what you need for soffit mounting. The manual also does not mention anything about not soffit mounting them... so I'm not sure why they would say that, when the speaker is ideal for soffit mounting.

but from about the top of the monitor and down to the floor it just going to be fabric covering the insulation. And from the top of my monitor and up, just cover the insulation with a solid panel.

I don't think that would be a good idea. You would have a partial soffit like that, since the surface above would certain act as an infinite baffle, while the surface below would not, and you would still have all the usual artifacts from speakers that are not soffited: SBIR, edge diffraction, power imbalance, etc. Also, the speaker does not have a variable bass roll-off control, which is what you would need for that situation. It only has an on-off switch for half-space, which obviously gives the 6dB reduction that is needed for full soffit mounting, but you will only need 3 or 4 dB, since you are only doing half a soffit, so you'd only need to remove some of the baffle step response correction, not all of it. I also suspect that your half-soffit would "steer" the sound, or affect it differently above and below, which is not what you want to do, really. So I would suggest that you either complete the soffit by extending the front panel down to the bottom of the speaker (which is what you show in your image anyway, but not what you explained), or forget the soffit completely, and just mount your speakers on stands. It's usually not a good idea to mix two different design concepts, unless you fully understand what you are doing, and can compensate for the side effects.

The boxes on the side of the listening position, is also a idea from this forum. With the 12 degrees and slots at the front. 2) Do i have do box it in, or could i just make a frame and cover it up?

It has to be a sealed box. Those are slot resonators, which is another form of the Helmholtz resonator, so there has to be a sealed cavity behind the slats.

In the back i'v planed to just make som boxes in the corner and fill them with insulation and have a cloth front. But would this have much effect? And how thick do they have to be?

I would suggest that you consider "Superchunk" bass traps for your rear corners. They are the best way of doing that in a small room.

All replies are welcomed, and if theres more information you need to answer me, let me know and i get the information as soon as i can!

IT would be good to have some photos of the room, to help us understand what you are dealing with. - Stuart -

Hi Stuart, thank you for the feedback. I'll try to take some pictures so it's easer to see what I'm talking about. I haven't had the time to draw my ideas, that's why I had to use some of the picture closes to what I'm really trying to achieve. Making some drawing later, with the correction you have and give you a better understanding! - Anders

Hi! Things take time.. But better late than never! This is how our monitorroom looks like today: Here you can see how the pipes that i talked about! Think i have a "solution" to this, but i havent come around to draw it up.. Coming back soon with the new drwaings and ideas.. But if anyone have some input, bring it on! :) Andy

Here is my design ideas for the front- and side walls. Haven't thought so much about the back wall yet, but it's coming soon. (yes i know i'v said that before) :D Hope you like the plan! The desk is just there for size, have plans for that as well. The front corner traps will be super-chunck. I wil not box it in, just cover the insulation with some kind of fabric. So dont be fooled by the sketch... Andy

So you scrapped the soffit-mount idea? - Stuart -

Yes, were making it simple. Actualy the monitores are being placed on stands integrated with the desk. I know its not the optimal. But time, money and skills sets ous Back.. But any thougs about the rest of the design? Is this roing to have some effect.. Andy

Yes, were making it simple. Actualy the monitores are being placed on stands integrated with the desk.

Do yourself a BIG favor, and get the monitors off the desk! Put them on stands just behind the desk, but never on the desk itself, or on anything that is attached to the desk. There are several reasons for that. - Stuart -