Hello all! We have constructed a room that is 16.75 inches long and 8.91 inches wide at end a and 11.91 inches wide at End b. The primary goal of the room was sound isolation and it is built in the third bay of my garage by professional contractor. It is a room in a room construction isolated from the outside walls it has two layers of 5/8 sheet drywall on the inside caulked...green glue in between... 4 inch mineral wool in the walls and one layer 5/8 drywall on the outside. It has a double door construction that is sealed airtight, the room is completely airtight. The room will have a Panasonic mini split 12,000 BTU that I've already purchased and will be installed by professional HVAC guy.
You can see by the pictures that I originally created a bunch of traps (2 inches and 4 inches thick) that I put all around the room. The room really sounded good before I put them up but it was a lifeless after I installed the absorption panels,
As you can see in the pictures the front room was constructed using slots and 2 inch 703 with an 1" air gap and the corners were constructed with (2) 2 inch 703 panels (4 inch spacing in between.) There are 3 4'X8' clouds on the ceiling with 4" of 703 (2 2" panels.
I'm planning on doing the back wall the same way...is this a good idea? I tested the room with the front finished and I stacked the problem in absorption panels on the back wall and I was amazed at how good it sounded. It seemed that the high-end with natural there was no low mid build up our boxing us but there still is some bass problems and the boominess.
Does anybody have advice about what I should do. My main goal in this room is for it to sound natural as possible. This is a control room/tracking room all in one with the front being where the mixing desk and Monitoring will be. There will be a small drum kit in the back corner and the middle of the room is where I would track vocals and in the right back corner will be where my guitar amps will be. Do I really need absorption panels on the side walls since they are splayed?
Advice Needed with Treatment
Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 19626.
Hi "ricfoxx", and Welcome! :)
That's a really small room! :shock: Almost big enough to slide a very small dog into, but pretty tiny if you hope to work in there yourself! I think maybe you meant "feet" not "inches"? :) You also forgot to give us the third dimension, which is necessary for calculating the acoustic response.room that is 16.75 inches long and 8.91 inches wide at end a and 11.91 inches wide at End b
That sounds suspiciously like a three-leaf system: Maybe even four leaf... Are you saying that you already had the original garage there, with it's own original stud walls having drywall on them already, then you built this room inside that, by making a new stud frame and putting 1 layer of drywall on the outside plus two on the inside? Is that how you built it?It is a room in a room construction isolated from the outside walls it has two layers of 5/8 sheet drywall on the inside caulked...green glue in between... 4 inch mineral wool in the walls and one layer 5/8 drywall on the outside.
That might care of the cooling, but how are you going to handle the ventilation? I don't see any silencer boxes, ducting or registers in the room. Are they on the ceiling, and not visible in the photos? What air flow rate and air flow velocity are you using?The room will have a Panasonic mini split 12,000 BTU that I've already purchased and will be installed by professional HVAC guy.
What is the purpose of this room? Is it a control room, a live room, a drum booth, an isolation booth, a rehearsal space, or something else?The room really sounded good before I put them up but it was a lifeless after I installed the absorption panels,
What frequency range did you tune that slot wall for? Judging from the size of the slats, the large gaps between them, and the narrow depth of the cavity, it is tuned pretty high: Why did the room need so much tuned absorption at high frequencies? It's a lot easier to do that with simple absorption, rather than with a tuned slot wall. But typically rooms of that size do not need ANY high frequency absorption: they normally have too much of hat already! So I'm intrigued about why the slot wall is tuned so high.As you can see in the pictures the front room was constructed using slots
That would depend on what the room is going to be used for, but very likely it would not be a good idea. You say it is already dead, but you are planning on adding more high-frequency absorption and mid range reflection: I can't see that as being a good idea in a room that size. If this is a control room, then the rear wall treatment depends on the design concept you are following. If this is an RFZ room, then the rear wall should be highly absorptive across the entire spectrum. Hangers are your best bet for that.I'm planning on doing the back wall the same way...is this a good idea?
Great! Please post some of the test graphs here, and also post the actual MDAT file some place where we can download it and analyze it for you. Dropbox is a good place for that (MDAT files are too big to be uploaded directly to the forum). Based on that, we can see what the problems are with the room and suggest how it can be treated to fix them.I tested the room with the front finished
I'm not sure I understand that sentence, but it there never will be low-mid build-up in a room such as that: The build-up will be in the lows, under about 200 Hz, and will be close to the walls, but especially concentrated in the corners. For that, you need very large bass traps, such as the Superchunk style.It seemed that the high-end with natural there was no low mid build up our boxing us but there still is some bass problems and the boominess.
Once we see the REW data from the test you did, then we can understand how the room is behaving right now, and what treatment it needs in order to fix the problems.Does anybody have advice about what I should do. My main goal in this room is for it to sound natural as possible.
OK, so that answers the question about what the purpose of the room is! :) So it's a single room studio, and from what you say, you plan to place your speakers up against that tuned slot wall that you already built? that would be a really bad idea. Slot walls should not go at the front of the room: they should be at the sides. Since they are tuned, they are absorbing some range of frequencies, and this coloring the sound coming form the speakers. They are also reflecting other ranges of frequencies, thus coloring the sound in other ways, and at yet other frequencies, they are causing diffusion, which is never a good idea at the front of the room. So I'd suggest that you should take down the slot walls at the front of the room, plan the layout carefully following the normal guidelines and process for designing a control room, and re-build it the correct way. The angled slot things across the front corners could probably be converted into soffits for your speakers (which would be the best single thing you could do for the entire room, if you truly want natural sounding acoustics in your room). But that would depend on the angle, the depth, and the make and model of speakers you are using. The angle looks way too steep for that, but they can probably be modified.This is a control room/tracking room all in one with the front being where the mixing desk and Monitoring will be.
What is the splay angle? It needs to be at least 12° to have any effect on flutter echo, and much larger if you are trying to create an RFZ type design. If the splay angle is less than 12° then its not doing anything at all for you, except making it harder to predict the modal response of the room. If one of the walls is splayed, then the simple calculators and spreadsheets cannot be used to predict the modal resonant frequencies, since those only work for rectangular rooms: It becomes immensely more complex to predict the outcome for non-parallel non-rectangular rooms. The math gets to be pretty heavy... So yes, you will likely still need some form of treatment at some locations on the side walls, bit it's hard to say at this point what type of treatment will be needed, or at what locations it will be needed. - Stuart -Do I really need absorption panels on the side walls since they are splayed?
Thank you for taking the time!!! I really feel like an idiot here but I need help to make this room better. I wish I knew of this website and did things differently but it is what it is :D. The main purpose when building was sound isolation as I have two babies in diapers and the only time I have to spend in the room would be at night. I think that is where the room succeeded as I can play the drums in the room and it is not audible in the house. You can also barely hear the drums right outside on the exterior wall. With that being said, I would really love to be able to have a mix position at one end and to be able to record vocals, a guitar amp and a small drum kit at the other end. So the room... 8 feet 11 inches wide in front and 11 feet 11 inches in the back. 16 feet 9 inches long and 7 feet 9 inches high. It is built in the 3rd bay of my Garage Isolated from the Pre existing studded drywall walls of the garage. On the front, Right side (looking at small end of room) and back of the room has two layers of 5/8 drywall on inside only with mineral wool in 24 inch framing. Then there is approximately 4 inches of open space and then R19 hung on the interior walls of garage. The left side of the room (the side with the door) has 2 sheets of 5/8 drywall on interior of studio and 1 sheet of 5/8 drywall on the exterior of that wall. Also, The small end of the build has a metal garage door in front of it instead of studs and drywall. The air...This is something I have not a clue about. I was under the impression that the mini-split handled that. So I would need to create a separate ventilation system??? What else would I need to do to accomplish this? When I said the room sounded good when I put the slots up I meant it sounded nice to sing in...nothing scientific. Ive actually never took a scientific measurement, just swept a sine wave and heard the volumes increase or decrease. I think because the room is not properly vented I heard some weird phasing happening in some non ported monitors that I had. Probably need to get the air ventilation sorted out before I properly test it. Im sorry as Im a bit overwhelmed by this. A contractor started the room and had a hard time finishing it and then I became ill for 4 months and Im just now getting back to 100%. Your time and help is much appreciated...RicHi "ricfoxx", and Welcome! :)That's a really small room! :shock: Almost big enough to slide a very small dog into, but pretty tiny if you hope to work in there yourself! I think maybe you meant "feet" not "inches"? :) You also forgot to give us the third dimension, which is necessary for calculating the acoustic response.room that is 16.75 inches long and 8.91 inches wide at end a and 11.91 inches wide at End bThat sounds suspiciously like a three-leaf system: Maybe even four leaf... Are you saying that you already had the original garage there, with it's own original stud walls having drywall on them already, then you built this room inside that, by making a new stud frame and putting 1 layer of drywall on the outside plus two on the inside? Is that how you built it?It is a room in a room construction isolated from the outside walls it has two layers of 5/8 sheet drywall on the inside caulked...green glue in between... 4 inch mineral wool in the walls and one layer 5/8 drywall on the outside.That might care of the cooling, but how are you going to handle the ventilation? I don't see any silencer boxes, ducting or registers in the room. Are they on the ceiling, and not visible in the photos? What air flow rate and air flow velocity are you using?The room will have a Panasonic mini split 12,000 BTU that I've already purchased and will be installed by professional HVAC guy.What is the purpose of this room? Is it a control room, a live room, a drum booth, an isolation booth, a rehearsal space, or something else?The room really sounded good before I put them up but it was a lifeless after I installed the absorption panels,What frequency range did you tune that slot wall for? Judging from the size of the slats, the large gaps between them, and the narrow depth of the cavity, it is tuned pretty high: Why did the room need so much tuned absorption at high frequencies? It's a lot easier to do that with simple absorption, rather than with a tuned slot wall. But typically rooms of that size do not need ANY high frequency absorption: they normally have too much of hat already! So I'm intrigued about why the slot wall is tuned so high.As you can see in the pictures the front room was constructed using slotsThat would depend on what the room is going to be used for, but very likely it would not be a good idea. You say it is already dead, but you are planning on adding more high-frequency absorption and mid range reflection: I can't see that as being a good idea in a room that size. If this is a control room, then the rear wall treatment depends on the design concept you are following. If this is an RFZ room, then the rear wall should be highly absorptive across the entire spectrum. Hangers are your best bet for that.I'm planning on doing the back wall the same way...is this a good idea?Great! Please post some of the test graphs here, and also post the actual MDAT file some place where we can download it and analyze it for you. Dropbox is a good place for that (MDAT files are too big to be uploaded directly to the forum). Based on that, we can see what the problems are with the room and suggest how it can be treated to fix them.I tested the room with the front finishedI'm not sure I understand that sentence, but it there never will be low-mid build-up in a room such as that: The build-up will be in the lows, under about 200 Hz, and will be close to the walls, but especially concentrated in the corners. For that, you need very large bass traps, such as the Superchunk style.It seemed that the high-end with natural there was no low mid build up our boxing us but there still is some bass problems and the boominess.Once we see the REW data from the test you did, then we can understand how the room is behaving right now, and what treatment it needs in order to fix the problems.Does anybody have advice about what I should do. My main goal in this room is for it to sound natural as possible.OK, so that answers the question about what the purpose of the room is! :) So it's a single room studio, and from what you say, you plan to place your speakers up against that tuned slot wall that you already built? that would be a really bad idea. Slot walls should not go at the front of the room: they should be at the sides. Since they are tuned, they are absorbing some range of frequencies, and this coloring the sound coming form the speakers. They are also reflecting other ranges of frequencies, thus coloring the sound in other ways, and at yet other frequencies, they are causing diffusion, which is never a good idea at the front of the room. So I'd suggest that you should take down the slot walls at the front of the room, plan the layout carefully following the normal guidelines and process for designing a control room, and re-build it the correct way. The angled slot things across the front corners could probably be converted into soffits for your speakers (which would be the best single thing you could do for the entire room, if you truly want natural sounding acoustics in your room). But that would depend on the angle, the depth, and the make and model of speakers you are using. The angle looks way too steep for that, but they can probably be modified.This is a control room/tracking room all in one with the front being where the mixing desk and Monitoring will be.What is the splay angle? It needs to be at least 12° to have any effect on flutter echo, and much larger if you are trying to create an RFZ type design. If the splay angle is less than 12° then its not doing anything at all for you, except making it harder to predict the modal response of the room. If one of the walls is splayed, then the simple calculators and spreadsheets cannot be used to predict the modal resonant frequencies, since those only work for rectangular rooms: It becomes immensely more complex to predict the outcome for non-parallel non-rectangular rooms. The math gets to be pretty heavy... So yes, you will likely still need some form of treatment at some locations on the side walls, bit it's hard to say at this point what type of treatment will be needed, or at what locations it will be needed. - Stuart -Do I really need absorption panels on the side walls since they are splayed?
Ahhh! OK, when you said you tested your room, I thought you meant with the REW acoustic analysis software, which is a really great way of doing it. And its FREE! :) You can download it from the Home Theater Shack website for nothing (you have to register there, but that's also free). So install REW on your computer (the instructions are fairly easy to follow), then run the test three times with the speakers set up where they will be for the final completed room, and the mic located where your head will be. Run one test with just the left speaker on, one with just the right, and one with both. Then save the "mdat" file with all the data in it, and upload it to a place like Dropbox, then post the link here. I'll download it and take a look, then we can figure out what is wrong with your room, and what to do about it. REW will reveal the truth about all aspects of the acoustic response of your room.When I said the room sounded good when I put the slots up I meant it sounded nice to sing in...nothing scientific. Ive actually never took a scientific measurement, just swept a sine wave and heard the volumes increase or decrease.
That's good, but if the original garage wall already had things on both sides of the studs (eg, siding over OSB on the outside, and drywall on the inside), then that's a 3-leaf wall, so it won't isolate as well as it would have if it were a 2-leaf wall.On the front, Right side (looking at small end of room) and back of the room has two layers of 5/8 drywall on inside only with mineral wool in 24 inch framing. Then there is approximately 4 inches of open space and then R19 hung on the interior walls of garage.
That wall is probably your weakest link, in terms of isolation, since the drywall panels on the outside and the inside are coupled through the studs: sounds will make the drywall on one side vibrate, then the studs transmit that to the drywall on the other side, which also vibrates and acts like a speaker. You could improve the isolation on that wall relatively easily, if you wanted to, by carefully taking off the drywall on the outside, installing either resilient channel, or RSIC clips plus hat channel, then putting the drywall back on again. A lot of work, but it could potentially increase the isolation substantially. But you are the only person who can decide if it is worthwhile or not. If you already have enough isolation for your needs and to comply with legal requirements, then you don't need to do that.The left side of the room (the side with the door) has 2 sheets of 5/8 drywall on interior of studio and 1 sheet of 5/8 drywall on the exterior of that wall.
Another potential weak point. How much isolation are you getting? Is it enough? Do you meet the legal requirements for your area, about noise pollution? It would be good to get a sound level meter and actually measure how much isolation you are getting.Also, The small end of the build has a metal garage door in front of it instead of studs and drywall.
There are a couple of specialized models of mini-split that do provide a very small amount of fresh air, but the vast majority of mini-split units do not. What you need in addition to that, is basically some ducting and a fan (quiet!). There's some calculations you need to do to figure out what size fan and how big the duct needs to be, based on something called "room changes per hour". Just like it sounds, that means you need to move enough air to replace the entire volume of your room several times per hour. Usually around 6 to 10 times per hour is about right. So you figure that out, to tell you how many cubic feet per minute of air you need to move. Then you do some more math, to figure out what size duct you need for that and still keep the air moving slowly enough that it doesn't make any noise, just from moving through the ducts. But you also need to make "silencer boxes", sometimes also called "baffle boxes", which allow the air to get through, but not the sound. The design of the box depends on the air flow rate, the air flow speed, the duct size, and how much isolation you need. They are normally pretty big, so they are often installed inside the wall cavity, or in the ceiling space. In your case, you already built all of that, so you will have to put them either inside the room, or outside, in the rest of the garage. It's not as hard as it sounds to do this, and you certainly do need ventilation! Your room is sealed air-tight, so you do need to pump fresh air in there, and remove the stale air. If not, then it can get very unpleasant in there after a while, especially if there are several people in there.This is something I have not a clue about. I was under the impression that the mini-split handled that. So I would need to create a separate ventilation system??? What else would I need to do to accomplish this?
The room ventilation won't change the way your speakers sound. The room itself will, though. The room "loads" the speakers acoustically to a certain extent, and the location of the speakers in the room also affects how they sound. So does the location of the listening position. That's why it is important to plan all of that in advance, to minimize the interaction of the speakers with the room, and have them at the best location, while the listening is also at the optimum location.I think because the room is not properly vented I heard some weird phasing happening
Join the club! :) Studio design is a BIG subject, and it takes many months to learn how to do it right, and understand all of the implications from doing things one way or another way. There are books that can help you: I'd suggest two books: "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by F. Alton Everest (that's sort of the Bible for acoustics), and "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros", by Rod Gervais. Those are both very well written, and easy to understand for the first-time studio builder.Im sorry as Im a bit overwhelmed by this.
Wow! Sorry to hear that: But the good news is that you did say "100%"! :) - Stuart -then I became ill for 4 months and Im just now getting back to 100%.
The isolation is really really good...I can test it with the SPL meter for an exact figure but at what level on the inside should the spl meter read? I can say that I can barely hear someone playing the drums in the garage and the drums are not audible outside the house or in the interior of the house...at least one goal was achieved!
So I downloaded the REW software and I am reading the manual now. My SPL meter does not have a audio input for calibration purposes so I will have to pick up a new one from radio shack. Is that necessary? I do have a calibration mic :)
Im having my Mini split installed and the contractor is venting and installing fan and I will build the baffle to minimize noise...fresh air is a must!!!
I will take some measurements and share a dropbox link.
Great! It sounds like you are OK with your isolation then. So now you have to be extra careful with building the silencer! It's not just "any old box". Here are some examples:
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viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1929&start=74
viewtopic.php?t=8425&start=2
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viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9761&start=0
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11485&start=98
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11508&start=157
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viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18202&start=16
The box has to be built to the correct dimensions for YOUR airflow in YOUR room. There are rules and guidelines for doing this, but it has to be calculated, if you want it to work right.
Think of it this way: you have managed to build a pretty good sound isolation system for your room, that is sealed totally air tight, and has several layers of mass, nicely arranged to provide optimal isolation. And now you are going to chop two huge holes in it, each the size of an atlas! :shock: :!: :roll: Obviously, that destroys the isolation, completely. So now you have to design (not guess) the details of how to plug those holes up again, such that air can still get through, but sound cannot. The trick is accomplished partly with something called "impedance mismatch", where you are using the acoustics of the interface between the duct and the box itself, to kill the noise. But to do that, you have to know the cross sectional area of the duct, and to get the cross sectional area of the duct right, you have to know the flow rate (how many cubic feet per minute) that your room will need, and the flow velocity (how many feet per second) you need it to flow at.
Although your HVAC guy will probably recognize these terms, there's a problem here: if he has never done a system for a RECORDING STUDIO before, he will know know what is required! And he will get it wrong. Not because he is a lousy HVAC guy, but just because doing HVAC for a studio is very different from doing it or a house, office, shop, school, or anything else. It has to be quiet. Very quiet. The flow velocity MUST be kept under 300 fps, and preferably even slower. The registers are not the normal cheap "Home Depot" type registers, but rather special low-noise registers which are specially designed to have a large percentage of open area and very smooth flow paths. The entire duct system must be lined with 1" duct liner (not mineral wool, not fiberglass: only proper duct liner), to absorb noise moving along the duct, the baffles in the silencer box must be laid out correctly to provide the proper cross sectional area at each point, the boxes themselves must be built of the right materials and right thickness, and must be mounted correctly, with resilient mounts and sleeves where needed, the flow must be straight for the last several inches going into and out of the room, to prevent turbulence, etc., etc., etc.
It's a bit more complex than just chopping a hole in the wall, putting a box on it, hooking up a duct and fan! :) So first of all ask your HVAC guy if he has ever designed and installed a system for a recording studio, and if he says yes, then ask for the reference details, and talk to the person he did it for. If possible, go see how he did it, and listen to it in operation. On the other hand, if he says "no", he hasn't ever done a studio before, then you better stop him from doing anything more until you have all the calculations in place, and the design worked out completely. If there is one sure way of trashing a good isolation shell around a studio, it is by messing up the HVAC design / installation. For example, the two copper pipes, plastic drain pipe, and cable that join the two parts of your mini-split, cannot just be installed in the normal way that it would be done in a house. That normal way is just to cut a hole on the inner drywall, and a hole right behind it on the outer drywall, then feed the pipes and cables straight through. That is totally wrong for a studio, since it creates a direct flanking path from the inner-leaf to the outer leaf, and also puts two holes directly opposite each other. Major weak point for isolation. Instead, the hole on the inner-leaf and outer-leaf cannot line up with each other; they have to be offset by several feet, and the bundle of pipes must be "looped" between them, ideally in a complete circle (like one turn of a spring) between them (large diameter). (the plastic drain pipe must go straight across, of course: that cannot be looped, but the copper pipes must be looped). That way, you are creating a resilient connection instead of a hard connection, so there will be very little transmission of sound from one side to the other. The holes also must be carefully sealed with acoustic caulk, not drywall mud! If your HVAC guy doesn't know to do that, then that's a red flag.Im having my Mini split installed and the contractor is venting and installing fan and I will build the baffle to minimize noise
No, you don't need that. The way you calibrate REW is to play the REW test sounds in your room at a level of 85 dB as seen on your meter ("C" weighted, slow response), then use the calibration tool inside REW to tell REW that the level really is 85 dB. So you'll just hold the meter in your hand and turn up the volume until it hits 85, then adjust the REW calibration to also say 85, and you are done. After that, DO NOT change any levels anywhere: not on your DAW, or your speakers, or your mic pre-amp, or your interface, or anywhere else. Calibration is just that: you are calibrating the system to a known reference point, then never changing it again. All future REW tests must be done with the exact same settings on everything.My SPL meter does not have a audio input for calibration purposes so I will have to pick up a new one from radio shack. Is that necessary?
To test your isolation, play music at about 100 dB inside the room, then measure it outside, with the doors closed. The difference between the two is how much isolation you are getting. Do both readings with the meter set to "C" weighting and "Slow" response. - Stuart -I can test it with the SPL meter for an exact figure but at what level on the inside should the spl meter read?
Ok so I simply just calibrate based on 85db. So I did that and when running tests it seems that there is feedback with the mic...how does one deal with the loopback???No, you don't need that. The way you calibrate REW is to play the REW test sounds in your room at a level of 85 dB as seen on your meter ("C" weighted, slow response), then use the calibration tool inside REW to tell REW that the level really is 85 dB. So you'll just hold the meter in your hand and turn up the volume until it hits 85, then adjust the REW calibration to also say 85, and you are done. After that, DO NOT change any levels anywhere: not on your DAW, or your speakers, or your mic pre-amp, or your interface, or anywhere else. Calibration is just that: you are calibrating the system to a known reference point, then never changing it again. All future REW tests must be done with the exact same settings on everything.My SPL meter does not have a audio input for calibration purposes so I will have to pick up a new one from radio shack. Is that necessary?To test your isolation, play music at about 100 dB inside the room, then measure it outside, with the doors closed. The difference between the two is how much isolation you are getting. Do both readings with the meter set to "C" weighting and "Slow" response. - Stuart -I can test it with the SPL meter for an exact figure but at what level on the inside should the spl meter read?
Disregard...I think I figured it out.Ok so I simply just calibrate based on 85db. So I did that and when running tests it seems that there is feedback with the mic...how does one deal with the loopback???No, you don't need that. The way you calibrate REW is to play the REW test sounds in your room at a level of 85 dB as seen on your meter ("C" weighted, slow response), then use the calibration tool inside REW to tell REW that the level really is 85 dB. So you'll just hold the meter in your hand and turn up the volume until it hits 85, then adjust the REW calibration to also say 85, and you are done. After that, DO NOT change any levels anywhere: not on your DAW, or your speakers, or your mic pre-amp, or your interface, or anywhere else. Calibration is just that: you are calibrating the system to a known reference point, then never changing it again. All future REW tests must be done with the exact same settings on everything.My SPL meter does not have a audio input for calibration purposes so I will have to pick up a new one from radio shack. Is that necessary?To test your isolation, play music at about 100 dB inside the room, then measure it outside, with the doors closed. The difference between the two is how much isolation you are getting. Do both readings with the meter set to "C" weighting and "Slow" response. - Stuart -I can test it with the SPL meter for an exact figure but at what level on the inside should the spl meter read?
HVAC is suppose to be done tomorrow. Im putting super chunks in corners and going to run the REW test. Hope to have them up by the end of the week...Thanks again for the help!!!
Ok...HVAC is done and turned out to be more of a pain than I thought it would be but we now have breathable quiet air without losing a bunch of sound :D
You said the best thing I could do for my room is to soffit mount my speakers right??? I have Focal Alpha 80's and need some advice on how to achieve this. I put 24" superchunks from ceiling to floor in the back of the room (both corners) and was going to do the front the same way but If it truly is the best thing I can do for my room (soffit mount,) then I would like to do so. Where should I start????
P.S. I took all those slots down and ready to do this right with some good advice :yahoo:
Right! Soffits do several things at once to greatly improve the interaction of the speaker with the room, and also the way the speaker itself works. It eliminates SBIR artifacts from the front wall, greatly reduces them from the side walls and ceiling, eliminates the power imbalance issue, eliminates edge diffraction, reduces comb filtering and other phasing issues, and overall just does a whole bunch of good things.You said the best thing I could do for my room is to soffit mount my speakers right??
Great! Those are front-ported, so they can indeed be soffit mounted. There's a bit of a challenge from the slightly curved side walls of the cabinet itself, but not a big deal. That can be dealt with. If you search the forum for the term "soffit mount" and also "flush mount", you'll find numerous references on how it should be done, with many examples of how other people have done it. Based on that, you can then design your soffits, using the SketchUp program to do it (its free!), then post your design here so we can take a look at it, and offer suggestions on how to improve it.I have Focal Alpha 80's and need some advice on how to achieve this.
Excellent! That's a really good start. - Stuart -P.S. I took all those slots down and ready to do this right with some good advice