Help with Basement Build in Iowa

Hello All, I am starting a small basement studio build and I need some advice. I am starting on the control room and will continue to the recording space later. The recording space is in an adjacent room. Overview: I just moved into this house. My last house had a small studio consisting of a bedroom and a loft. Overall I was happy with the sound, but I am trying to do better this time around. Here is what I am trying to improve: 1. My last studio was too dead sounding (especially the control room). I had super chunks galore, which helped control the bass, but killed way to much of the high end. 2. The control room seemed to close in on me. I had wall to ceiling super chucks across most of the surfaces, floor to ceiling super chunks in the corners and a cloud over my head. Again great for sound, but it really wasn't the most inviting feeling. 3. Very small sweet spot. This was definitely a one person operation. Put two people at the desk and the sound sucked. Maybe I can improve on this. Here is what I would like to achieve (this list may grow as I get deeper into this): 1. Reuse as much of my old studio's acoustic materials as possible. I have most of the Roxul and 703 from my last studio. I also have the clouds and hanging absorbers I built. I don't necessarily need to reuse them in the same way. I can strip them for parts if needed. 2. Pleasant sounding rooms. I know this sounds vague (and it is) but I will attribute this to the too dead sound I had before. I've been in other studios and the rooms just sounded right. I don't know how to quantify that. Controlled and natural sounding. 3. Leave the window in the room fully or at least partially uncovered. I really like natural light. My last room was a cave. Before I go on, let me state that isolation is not something I am needing or wanting to get into right now. I actually have a 2500 sq ft building on my property that will eventually become my "real" studio. This basement studio will get me going until I have the time and funds to start that massive project. It could be years before I am in there. Therefore, isolating between rooms is not something I want to do. Also, building isolation to the outside is not necessary as I have tested sound levels at the property line with both full volume monitors and someone playing drums, and the sound is barely audible. My meter reads down to 50db and using A weighting, it didn't move the needle. Good enough for this build. My fiancé can handle the noise inside the house. I have already gotten her approval. I attached a Sketchup drawing of the room. Ceiling: It has a drop ceiling with an OSB subfloor and engineered I beams above it. I have been doing lots of reading on treating this kind of ceiling and I think I have a plan. Basically, stuff the cavity with as much R38 as I can, then make new tiles and ditch the existing tiles. I built a sample tile and it looks very good. It's a 1x2 frame with fabric across the face and 2 inches of 703 in the frame. It fits into the existing drop ceiling grid frame. Floor: I'm in the basement. Existing flooring is carpet over the cement pad. I plan to remove the carpet and install bamboo flooring. I know that leaving the cement floor and finishing it would be the best thing to do acoustically, but this is the midwest USA, and that floor would be an icecube in the winter. Walls: All interior walls are 3/8" drywall. This is where I need help. I am very interested in the Slat wall design (for acoustic and aesthetic reasons). I would like to build some treatments as shown in the following link. http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm However, before I do, I would like to figure out if these are the best option for my room based on the REW measurements and recommendations from others here. Monitor Location: My plan at this point is to build massive monitor stands (I have Genelec 8050As). I am interested in the soffit mount option, but I am trying to control cost, and that options seems more pricey than the stand option. I will most likely leave soffit mounting alone until I build out the "real" studio. Still interested in looking into it though. I am trying to attach the MDATs for my room measurements, but can't seem to get them small enough to post here. Still working on that. EDIT: Here are the Dropbox Links for the measurement files: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/340 ... peaker.zip https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/340 ... peaker.zip https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/340 ... peaker.zip Here are the measurement conditions: Carpet is still installed. Monitors are on my desk. Drop ceiling tiles have been removed. No acoustic treatment is installed. Mic is CAD M179 in omni, flat response, no pad. I realize this isn't the best mic for this, but it's what I have for now. Microphone is placed at 38% of the room length (toward the front) and 47.25 inches off the floor. The backs of the monitors are 14" from the front wall (wall to closest surface of the monitor) Monitors are 45.5" apart (acoustic axis) Monitors are 48" away from the mic (measured from the face of the monitor along the acoustic axis). I couldn't spread my monitors any further apart on the desk, and I wanted to leave the mic at the 38% position. Here are the questions I have: 1. Does my plan for the ceiling sound ok? 2. Based off of the drawing of the room and the REW measurements, is the Slat wall design the way to go? I realize I will need to fine tune the slats and slots. 3. Should the front wall and back wall be 100% absorptive? I'm hoping to stay around $2,000 for the control room, but can spend more if needed. Thanks for reading. Looking forward to an interesting conversation. Mike