Help with new studio design

Hi, First I will like to say thanks for putting up this site. There's a lot of useful and amazing information that for people like me (only can afford the DIY projects) it has been a God send. So here is my situation. I'm designing a new studio in some kind of garage I have in the basement of my house. Walls A, F, E and D (make reference to the drawing) are under ground and are built with 8" poured concrete. Walls B and C will be build with concrete blocks. For my musical needs I will like to have a really good control room where I can do really good mixes. Based on the space I have I will like to have a small ISO booth since all the recording I'll do will be 1 - 3 singers, acoustic guitars, congas, and some other instruments that fits in that little space. I have tried to fit the design that is in saecollege web site into my space. I used the same angles for walls. I will like you guys to take a look at the place where I put the bass traps, slot resonators and the general design and give me your opinions and suggestions. I'll really appreciate it. As additional data the ceiling height is 8’9”. I also have a couple of questions, what will be a good treatment for the ceiling? If angle it is an option, then I think I can do that. How do I know which frequencies to cover with the resonator? How to tune it? Thanks, Elvin (soft_piano)

Nice design Elvin - here's what I would suggest. cheers john

Hi, John thanks a lot for taking some of your time to help me with the design. I really appreciate it. I have a lot of questions but I will start with the following: 1. How do I build the bass traps? The space in the drawing that is designated for bass traps might not be big enough to fit hangers there. Do you have a better idea for the hangers? Or, should I use let's say 703 fiberglass and make it about 16 inches thick so in theory it can absorb down to let's say 40-55Hz? (I'm assuming this numbers based on the absorption coefficients for the different thickness of the 703 fiberglass) 2. For which frequencies should I tune the slot resonator? Should I just make it absorb let's say from 200Hz - 600Hz? 3. Is there's a way to know how to balance the amount of treatment to put in the room? How much bass trap, high frequency absorbers, etc? Sorry if some of these questions are redundant or something like that. I'm absorbing a lot of information with this thing of the design and I'm trying to put everything together. Once again, I really appreciate your time helping me with this. Thanks, Elvin (soft_piano)

Yes - use lottsa 703 in the rear wall - there's no room for hangers - yes make the slots cover the low mids. The top slot is deeper so make it the lower end of the mids and the bottom resonator the higher low mids. Go with what I drew and if you need additional treatment you can always put it in the ceiling. The slots are bright to the high end, so are the soffits - the rear wall is your only heavy absorption. The room won't sound dull. cheers john

Hi John and all the readers of this forum, Once again, thanks a lot for the help. I appreciate it. I'm making some drawings on SketchUp to post it in a few days. In it you'll see how I applied the changes to the design you suggested. In that drawing I made a model for a control surface (I tried it to be similar to my FW-1884 in size and shape), so you or anyone that see the file can use it. I also have one question, what would be the sound that I could expect from this room. Here in Puerto Rico people use to say that home studio is equal to medium grade sound, and I want to be the exception to that saying. I will like to know in terms of design how close or how far I am from a professional design. I know that I have to take into account all the other stuff about equipment, instruments, arranges, performances and all the other stuff. I’m trying to focus in my music style just to get all the right things I need to get a professional sound but as I say before, I still need to know what to expect from this design. If there is something else I can improve, then I’ll try to do it. I will evaluate any other suggestion to see if my budget allows me to do them. Thanks a lot for your time. Elvin

Well, the biggest problem with your room, in my opinion is that with the length and width being almost the same value you may have some mode buildup to contend with. Bass trapping will go a long way towards mitigating the problem, however a pro desgin done from the ground up would likely have golden ratio type proportions (I forget the numbers but they're in Everest and probably all over the 'net) to minimize the requirement for treatment. Also, ideally, from an early reflections standpoint you'd prefer to see a distance of around 10-12 feet from your listening position to the rear wall, and would like to have your listening position at around 1/3rd the length of the room. However these things are again best left to a 'from the ground up' construction. The design looks pretty cool to me. I'm curious why the rear wall will be dead as opposed to the front though....is this the new trend in control room design? Is this something that works better for small rooms? Sounds kindof like a Moulton room, but with elements of RFZ. At any rate, good luck with it! Kris