Low ceiling room in a room - do I angle the ceiling?

I need some advice! I am building a tracking room inside an existing space that is 25' X 25' with 9.5' ceiling height. Should I splay or angle the ceiling in the room? I'm trying to use appropriate ratios for the walls 1:1.6:2.33 (14.5'X21') and will splay them as well (1' for every 10') but am wondering if I'm doing wrong by losing the volume of the room by angling the ceiling. If angled, it would be around 8' at the lowest point (considering around a 14' width). Do I angle at the same ratio as the walls? (1' for every 10') OR...should I just leave the ceiling flat and hang clouds (allowing more volume and larger wall size)? thanks for any help! mike

Within what you have told us, I would leave the ceiling flat, but make it very absorptive. Something like 6" of around 3 pcf fiberglass or mineral wool. Which I would use would be dependent on prices in the area. What else are you planning to do within the space? Splaying walls can be done without loosing floor area if other rooms are designed with that concept. Also splays do not have to be constant. You can stagger them like a sawtooth or fresnel lens. Staggering; Andre

Thanks Andre- Are you recommending not angling the ceiling because of the loss of volume or because the room will get too low at around 8'? Anyone else have thoughts on this? peace, mike

BuilderMusic wrote:

Thanks Andre- Are you recommending not angling the ceiling because of the loss of volume or because the room will get too low at around 8'?

All of what I wrote about the ceiling is related. An 8 or 9' ceiling in and of itself is not of much use in a tracking room. The reflections are too early to be desirable on tracks, unless of course you WANT the sound of a rom with that height ceiling. That can be achieved with reflective curfaces on a wall, gobo, etc. The angling of the ceiling would not provide any added value basically. In case it wasn't clear, I mean that the 6" of material would be below the inner sound isolation layer of the ceiling. 6" provides flat absorption down to around 80-100 Hz. Thinking about ir as I write this, I wouls go with 8" of material. Flat absorption definitely down to below 80 Hz in diffuse field. This would cover the low end spectrum of almost all common instruments, except for bass, bass drum, piano. Keep asking. Good studios building is 90% desgin and 10% construction! Flat; Andre

An 8 or 9' ceiling in and of itself is not of much use in a tracking room. The reflections are too early to be desirable on tracks, unless of course you WANT the sound of a rom with that height ceiling.

Thanks again Andre- I understand the 8 - 9' ceiling is undesireable because of the quick reflections. I guess that's what I was hoping to eliminate by angling the ceiling. Avoiding the ugly early reflections. Will the angled ceiling not do this? I'm building a new ceiling either way, room within a room and because of the existing stucture can't get beyond the 9.5' height even if built flat. So it's NOT a matter of building a new ceiling OR treating the old one. I'm building a new one regardless. As I type all this, I think I'm realizing what you're saying. I'm not only trying to avoid the flutter echoes between the ceiling and the floor, I'm trying to get rid of all those EARLY reflections (from the ceiling), therefore try to absorb as much as possible. If I'm doing that, why not make the ceiling as high as it can be all over, because with all that absorption, I will eliminate any flutter between ceiling and floor. Am I getting it? thanks for all the help, mike

I understand the 8 - 9' ceiling is undesireable because of the quick reflections. I guess that's what I was hoping to eliminate by angling the ceiling. Avoiding the ugly early reflections. Will the angled ceiling not do this?

Angling the ceiling will recude the slap echo from repeated reflections between the ceiling and floor. It will not reduce the echoes. They will just be slightly redirected at higher frequencies, and not affected at all at lower ones. I didn't quote the rest of your post. You got the idea. Think of it this way. Look at commercial studios with ceilings of 16' plus. Even there the ceiling is treated with absobent material. On a slight tangent, the NARAS production recommendations for 5.1 mixing recommend at least a 11' ceiling for the mixing room! Here is a link to the document if interested. http://www.naras.org/pe_wing/5_1_Rec.pdf Absorbently; Andre