Ok, building my home studio from scratch - help appreciated!

Ok, so I do not need any air gap at all and can just stuff each slot with insulation then adding fabric and slats with different heights and space between them? I just never saw that before. Regarding the corner trap, you do not happen to have a drawing of a combined corner trap/soffit mount solution? I am looking to mount active monitors. Thanks for helping!

John made some excellent drawings of an flush-mounted active monitor corner thingy....

yeah, I have seen the ones he did for SAE, but I am thinking about the possibility to combine superchunk-approach with soffit mounting...would there be a way to do that, you think?

sure! Just replace the hangers with wool like your would in a superchunk construction. Remember to ventilate if you monitors are active. I'm currently in the design stage of a similar set-up. When the design is finished, I'll post a pic or two. Tho, remember to have some descent absorption behind the monitors as well!

Great! looking forward to your design!

Ok, am into the questions related to acoustics but since I have the construction ongoing I guess it's ok to post questions here? So, I am building the room within the room "inside out", thus having the framing facing inwards. I made it this way in order to save space and be able to use the framing for absorbing purposes. I want to do these as broadband slot resonators. In addition to that, I want to suffit mount my Behringer B3031A monitors AND have corner traps there. Questions: 1) Tripplechecking that it is ok to fill slot resonators with insulation, covering that in fabric and adding wood slats with different gaps between on top. There will be no air gaps behind or in front (insulation will be pressed against gypsum and slats) and I am looking for a broadband absorber here. Is this ok to do (If I understood you right, RO, it should be) 2) The corners...is it possible to combine a superchunk corner trapping method with soffit mounting? Is it ok to construct the soffits as part of the inner framing (ie just add framing in order to hold the monitors shelf and then use the back of the inner leaf (gypsum) as back of the soffit mount? Or do I need to construct the separately? Also, will the width be enough? 3) How, if possible, would you construct this soffit with superchunks at the bottom? Attached are very poorly sketched design (I am terrible at sketchup) of the current framing and my vision of soffit mounting just to give you and idea of what I am after. Please, if anyone has got something to add here, do not hesitate to post as I am going to continue studio work later next week! Best, Patrik

In general, it looks okay. I'd expand the baffle downwards you can add slats at the bottom in front of the wool, just like your side resonators. Make it look consistent, atleast. Add wool behind the monitors as much as possible (oh, you have inside-out walls. perfect) it's 90degr. set-up. will do the job. Might consider a 60degr position, it'll strech the cornertraps a bit more too. It can be one structure. It's, imho, a standard soffit construction. John uses hangers at the bottom, but a complete fill will do as well. your SU skills ain't that bad ;)

Thanks for fast reply, Ro! Ok, so superchunks filling should be fine? Any idea about how to make sure not to overheat the baffle (using active monitors)? if I am really, really nice...would you mind explaing in detail how you would have constructed the corners (with superchunks)? :lol:

John has, somewhere, excellent drawings of a "general" flush-mounted monitor construction. Even for active monitors. (as the Behringer B3031A are). It needs ventilation on the back. (no, you don't heat up the baffle itself :) ) The amp in the monitor radiates heat, if you don't take care of it you'll destroy the amp. You need to get rid of the heat. It's all in John's drawings. Add it to the corner together with whatever low-end absorption you will use (hangers, chunks, whatever you want) By the way, I'd advise to either not flush mount them and use stands OR buy a descent pair of monitors. I'm not saying those Behringer B3031A are bad but I can imagen, bare with me, you will want to "upgrade" in the near future to new monitors. Once you got them "old" once buildin the wall, you're gonna have to reconstruct the whole darn flush-mounting corner device just to fit them "new" monitors. UNLESS you're sure ye gonna sick with them Behringer B3031A for a long period of time (which I doubt) Putting mons on a (heavy) stand ain't bad at all. And save you a lot of trouble... pick your style. :) It's what I do most of the time... not into flush-mounting that much (see for above reasons)

Thanks again, Ro. I understand your concern about the Behringers but these monitors actually seems to work pretty good. It is the newly upgraded version with kevlar membrans and a producer colleague actually switched to these from Dynaudio BM6s and he is kicking out mixes just as good! I am thinking of using the variable shelf design, though (think it was barefoot or knightfly who posted about it) so I can change quite easily in the future. So, I think soffit mounting will be the path, but I still have some concerns about the design. I figure that you refer to John's old SAE design (attached) and I cannot seem to understand all of it. It calls for new questions: 1) Is there really no rigid/solid surface at the bottom front (just fabric)? 2) How would I make sure to circulate the air if using superchunks? 3) How is the framing actually set up, is there a 3d model easily accessible/understood? 4) If soffit mounting I will need to have bigger corners at the front, but I aim to have smaller at the back of the room. Will that be an issue? Thanks for helping, appreciate it a lot!

Lowlife - if you study the drawing you will notice that there is a 5/8" plywood backing to the lower insulation that goes down to 1ft from the floor. That continues the baffle down. The design was not intended to use superchunks but hangers.

Hi John, Thanks a lot for taking a look at this thread again! Yes, I understand that it is designed for hangers, but since I have not really understood how to construct or use hangers I was figuring that a combined soffit mounting with superchunks would be the easiest solution for me. Would you recommend me not to try superchunks in this context? Great info about the plywood that extends lower than I thought...sorry for not noticing that. Best, Patrik

Ok, trying to just present an idea and a lot of questions for you. I have attached an edit to your original design and was wondering about a lot of things: 1) COULD it be ok to use superchunks the way presented instead of hangers? And just having it not filling it all the way out to the front? 2) How to mount that lowhanging plywood to the studs? 3) I feel a bit akward about this question but I do not really understand the drawing at all places...please see my issues in the pic 4) Would the dimensions play a role here? I am thinking about the width of the soffit, the height of it (using your proportions would not suit my corner since the bit above the speaker would be a lot more than you sho in your drawing)? 5) Do you have any drawing that shows this in 3d or from a top view...I m not getting my head round the setup, I'm afraid. Again, thanks for helping...this forum is a goldmine! /patrik

patrik - you are making a simple situation complex - a common mistake in acoustics. if you could read typical building plan it would help.

Ok, I'll try reading up on that. Thanks for replying.

here's a typical studio front with angled speakers as per that plan and here's what you see get the idea? That front now works here:

John, I understand the basic concept of building an "infinite" construction and I assume that the bigger the better. That is actually the reason I asked about if it is possible at all to construct the corner traps/soffits isolated to each corner and not combined through a middle section. I also "get" the principal framing, but IMO these could be interpreted in different ways. Also, the front bit seems easier to understand but the back a bit harder (for me that is). The fear of creating the soffits wrongly certainly is quite strong with me (and by browsing this forum, obviously a whole lot of people). I have fairly small CR (335 cm * 423 cm and 235 cm high) with the walls are built inside out. I made it this way to save space because I knew I had to treat the surface acoustically anyway and using the walls as slot resonators seemed like a good solution. This said, I need to make sure not to intrude much more on space and that is what I think about when designing the soffits. SO, I was asking stuff in my previous posts and thought I actually could go ahead with the plan, but you have got me thinking about actually leaving the soffit mounting for the future. It just seems quite hard to grasp all details when you (me) don't have infinite time to spend on this forum or with the studio. The upside seems a bit too small considering the downside of making a mess of it all. /Patrik

John Sayers wrote:

here's a typical studio front with angled speakers as per that plan

Not preserved: soffit_1.jpg

and here's what you see

Not preserved: soffit_2.jpg

get the idea? That front now works here:

External image, not preserved — original: http://johnlsayers.com/Pages/Images/silencio/5.jpg

I am doing a similar angled "upper wall soffit design" with my room. With a couple of small changes. I am mounting the surround sound speakers at 45" Height so that portion of the soffit will be flat. The upper portion will be angled housing the midfields. John , aside from the air seepage around either set of speakers when the others are in use, do you foresee any issues with that plan.? I'd prefer to soffit mount all my front cabinets and only used the mixing desk bridge for the Yammie NS-50's (5" 2 way active)

I don't see any problems with that Bryan. - I've got a pair of those Yamaha NS-50s - they are great aren't they.

Ok, I have had a few minutes more to look at the design and your small studio SKP. I think I get it quite ok now but have a few (hopefully more relevant) questions: 1) In your soffit design for active monitors you leave an air gap in order to circulate air but does not the rigid insulation mounted just below the shelf block that air passage. Or is that letting through enough air? 2) In that same design you have a hard plywood surface behind that air gap I mentioned and a cavity that I suspect should just be filled loosely with insulation. I'm curious, is that plywood box needed or could it just be an insulation surface there (I have that in my inside out wall)? 3) The space left and right to the monitor box - should that be filled with insulation too (cannot see that you have done that in your SKP)? 4) I know you have used plywood almost throughout the design but would MDF work just as good (seems a bit heavier and sturdier to me)? 5) Is there no decoupling from the inner and outer frames regarding the shelf that the monitor box is placed upon? Is it enough then to just have it (the monitor) not touching the front plywood? 6) Would it be ok to add fabric and then slats on top of the plywood front (cosmetics only) or would that in some way affect the baffle? Again, thanks for helping me out and forcing me to dig deeper into the knowledge of soffit mounting! :) /Patrik

Adding 1 more important question to last post: If my monitors have rubber feet below them, should I remover these when soffit mounting?

If the rubber feet actually decouple it from the frame then; no.

But wouldn't it affect the tight fitting drastically?

Ah, now there's a dilemma. I'd say; no. But then again, if these feet are to decouple then, prolly, yes.. So define "airtight" (where, why, what) When mounting them speakers flush, the purpose is to extend the baffle. So the existing monitor front needs to be flush, airtight connected to the extension. That means you can't really rely on a decoupled monitor, theoretically. Boxing the speaker in, does it has to be tight all around? Should the monitor be decoupled from the whole structure? (remember, I'm not an expert on soffit mounting. Sure John could give you a good answer)

I'd remove them lowlife. You want the speaker to be a tight fit and they would impede that factor.