acoustic treatment

Hello, I need some help choosing acoustical treaatment for my soon to be built studio. I am not sure if it is possible to predict what is needed before the studio is finished? I will most likely have to order some materials from the States. Which could take some time...so i am hoping to start early so that i am ready when the studio is ready. I will attach some layouts for you guys. All floors are poured cement..smooth finnish. Was thinking of covering floors with imitation wood flooring? I belive some type of rigid fiber glass is available here. Thanks once again!! John

This is not what you are asking about, but from looking at the layout of your room I had the same thing sometime back. If you are going to have a lot of people coming in to record you may want to add a entrance in the main room to the outside. People are going to be dragging there stuff through your control room and it is going to damage your stuff and the walls. That is one thing I never thought about with my own place and I wish I had before hand. All my doors and walls got scratched up and the outside dirt was always on the floor. Just my two cents, Glenn

right on Glen, I know..it makes sence. I went back and forth on this.. little more money for a high quallity secure door ( live in a rural area..2nd world country...and there is some thievery here once in awhile). For the most part this studio is for my own music...of coarse Icould very well be that other musicians may want to try it out. Also was going to make the mixing desk thats facing the inside studio window with rollers...so that I can scoot it back towards the other side to make a direct path to through the room. I still may consider it now that its metioned. take care, John

John - what if you were to do something like this - it reverses your rooms and gives you a proper drum booth with two side booths yet retains a better shaped and sized control room. cheers john

Hey John, I like it...but..... The deal is that my friend has fronted the cash to build this and He is more interested in a rehearshal room. So I have to sacrifice and make do with the small Control Room and larger TrackingRoom/rehearshal Room for a 3 piece rock band. I would just like to make the best out of the allocated spaces do to the compermise. Thanks, John

John, it would have been better NOT to have the ceiling/wall corners coffered like that from an acoustic standpoint, but it's done - the thing that will help acoustics the most in that room is to absorb as many corners as possible, including wall/ceiling ones. Where the angled corners are between ceiling and walls, you can still space 4" absorbent 4" away from these and more absorbent placed diagonally across vertical corners - again, 4" thick stuff preferably 3 feet across the front, much less and it won't do as well. Your parallel walls will want more patches semi-randomly spaced to help kill flutter, same with the ceiling. All these will also work better if spaced a few inches away from the surface. For recording (and better sound) I would consider putting a slat resonator tuned to center of around 300 hZ in place of the guitar/bass storage rack; that rack (and anything ELSE that buzzes or resonates) should NOT be in the room when recording. Placing a speaker in the room and running a sweep tone from your computer will help you locate any potential buzz or resonance problems... Steve

If you don't have any other easy way of doing it you can download sweep tones and other useful stuff from the genelec site. http://www.genelec.com/support/testsignal.php

Steve, The 13 x 15 ft. room will be breaking ground next week. The coffered ceiling thing does not have to happen Althought the materials for the job have been paid for. Is it possible to use the materials instead for creating angles where the ceiling and walls meet and for the corners? The material is metal studs, 1/2 sheetrock. For the 4" asorbent...is this something like rigid fiberglass 703. 705? Also The DROP Ceilings (Galvinized 4" x 4" steel beams-metal studs-6" insulation-2 1/2 sheets of sheetrock) in all the rooms can be Angled from about 8' on one side to 9'2" on the othe side. Will that help in keeping the floor and ceiling non parallel? or is what matters the poured cement cieling above the Angled drop cieling? alright you guys! thanks again!!! John

another sketch, JC

Getting closer; if that second pic is the control room, the ceiling should be sloped the opposite way. for the live room, it would be correct if the drums stay where they were. where you're showing the "angled instead of coffered" triangles, those should just be 3 or 4" thick rigid fiberglass; 703 is best, if you can get both you would see a bit better results by putting a SECOND layer of 705 BEHIND the 703; you don't want too high density at the surface or you'll get less absorption at anything but perpendicular incidence. Where the guitar rack was, I'd do an ANGLED slot absorber - flush with the door on the left side of the drawing, tapered down to zero on the right. Takes up less floor space and gives a slightly wider response curve (more even absorption). For all possible corners, you don't want HARD surfaces but instead just diagonal insulation batts, with whatever cloth you like for covers. The extra DEPTH of air space in the corner BEHIND the absorbent is what makes this work so well - the varying depth widens out the absorption of the corner for a much more even response, and since all room modes have their end points in corners, this is a logical place for broadband absorption... Steve

cool! so.... 1.control room- ceiling lower at mixing desk sloping up toward the back? 2. Can I use the metal studing to attach the 703/705 to the corners vertically and for the angled wall to ceiling? 2a. if not is there a link or a description that I can use to know how to place it? 3. If I can get 705....what thickness do you recomend when I put it behind the 3 or 4 inch 703? 4. For the corners... diagonal insulation batts -703 as well? 5. First put all 703 /705 in trash bags...then cloth? 6. What can I do with the small Iso room that I would like to use for vocals and Cabs? 7. Slat Resonator or Slot Absorber? is there a difference? THANKS!!!!!!!!!!! John

If you want max control and relative ease, find some 703 or 705, cut it into 8 triangles per 2x4 piece, and stack it up in the corner. Staple cloth over it and trim out with your preference. Easy to do - VERY effective.

Hey Steve, I am back... Questions... 1. CR angled cieling.....cieling is lower at the desk? 2. Live room angled cieling...cieling is lower above the drums and higher toward the studio window? Thanks, John

1 - yes. 2 - probably NOT - the higher the ceiling over your drums, the less phasing problems you may encounter with overhead mics being too close to the ceiling. Also, if you intend a drum riser this would make my comment even MORE true... Steve

Hi everyone, Been a while. My studio is almost there and I am beging the Acoustical treatment starting with the tracking room. I will upload some pics soon! 1. Anyways I am starting with the 3 corners in the tracking room using 4" of 2'x4' rockwool stacked horizontally up the corners. Can i first place the panels in plastic garbage bags than cover with speaker material or will this defeat the purpose of these corner absorbers by reflecting to much HF back into the tracking room? 2. Also planned on hanging 2'x4'x2" pannels from the ceiling above the Drums. Same question... Can i first place the panels in plastic garbage bags than cover with speaker material? Thanks!!!!! John :)

Plastic (thin, like garbage bags) should be fine in both places. It'll be brighter than without, cloth cover will reduce that a bit... Steve

Alright Thanks!!! 1.can I do the same on the various absorbtion panneling I hang up on parrellel wall? or should some be without plastic? 2. Regarding the 3 corners asorbers.....4" of 2x4 stacked horizontally or 6" of 2x4 stacked vertically? Thanks again! John

I hope I am not being rude...I do not mean to as I know you guys are busy and i appreciate all the help. Today was planning on putting up the corner absorbers but before I do, would like to know whether I should go 6 inches thick and stack vertical...2'x8'x6" or 4 inches thick ..stack horizontal 4'x8'x4". I am a little limited on supply and between the two options there is a difference of using 6 2" thick pannels or 8 per corner. Thanks!! John

John, check your other thread... Steve