Help with my room?

Well, I've been looking around this forum and the site quite a bit. This is my second post...my first being just a "congrats" to someone else on a great looking build project. So...I guess this would be my first real post. I've just recently moved into a new house and acquired an entire room to myself for recording! I'm going to attach pictures that should explain everything pretty well. I'm just seeking advice on how I should treat the room and any other suggestions. I don't have a budget per se because I don't even really know what I should be doing. If I knew, I could sure start saving. The room is on the second floor of the house. It is the room directly over the garage. The window looks out to our street. I don't know much about walls, but I think they're pretty standard. Picture 1 This is the shot from above the room noting all of the measurements. The dash line is where the sloped ceiling ends and a flat portion begins. I have noted the approximate width of this flat portion. Picture 2 This is my best attempt at measurements looking into the room. The 135 degree measurement is actually only approximate. One measurement that I have left off is the total height of the room up to the flat portion of the ceiling. That is 8' 6". Picture 3 This picture just shows where all the larger things are currently placed in the room. The desk is about 6" from the wall. I wanted to leave some room to be able to get back there if I needed to. Picture 4 & 5 These are pretty self explanitory. I wanted to include these so everyone would have a good visual and mental representation of what I was dealing with. While my drawings aren't to scale, these should help put them in perspective a little more. Thanks in advance! Edit: Sorry about the small horizontal scroll! I kept the pictures under the size noted in the "before you post, read this"..?

What are the limitations for what you can / cannot or are willing /unwilling to do??? like itmes afixed to your walls/celings, etc....

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new home! (I'm assuming you bought it...?) What do you intend to record? With everything from live death metal bands to glass harpers, your isolation requirements leave a lot to the imagination. ;-) Also, regarding isolation -- are you concerned about noise escaping your room, or are you concerned about noise invading your room from the outside world or rest of the house? Or both? :roll: I'm assuming your garage is finished, or at least has a finished ceiling. This is pretty standard nowadays when garages are attached and even moreso when there's living space over the garage. If so, you basically have a two leaf floor right now, and they're both probably pretty wimpy. Unfortunately, you're going to run into some weight limitations -- floating a floor is probably not an option. In fact, beefing up your existing floor and/or ceiling may also be a problem... :roll: But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tell us about your iso needs. Very neat room... I don't know how challenging its shape may be for you on this project, but I've always liked rooms shaped like that. It reminds me of a place I lived in as a teen for a year -- somehow I got lucky and my bedroom was a lot like that -- only bigger! 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

giles117 wrote:

What are the limitations for what you can / cannot or are willing /unwilling to do??? like itmes afixed to your walls/celings, etc....

Sorry, I should have stated that. I'm comfortable with whatever as long as it's not too intrusive. In other words, I'd like to be able to tear it down when I finally decide to sell the house. I don't know what options that leaves me.

sharward wrote:

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new home! (I'm assuming you bought it...?) What do you intend to record? With everything from live death metal bands to glass harpers, your isolation requirements leave a lot to the imagination. ;-)

Thanks! Yes, I bought it. I wanted the other house we looked at with the extra land so I could build a studio. We comprimised and got this one. I intend to record just plain rock music. Not death metal. Right now, I don't track any live drums. They're all done using BFD. But, that's not to say that I wouldn't mind doing such a thing in the future. That being said, let's not put the cart in front of the horse. :lol:

sharward wrote:

Also, regarding isolation -- are you concerned about noise escaping your room, or are you concerned about noise invading your room from the outside world or rest of the house? Or both? :roll:

To be honest, I haven't given that much thought. I'm more concerned about sound getting into the room, sound getting out, and then sound from other parts of the house....in that order. However, even now, it's not really a problem. My house stays pretty quiet and I don't get too loud up there. Even with a drum set, I don't believe it would be too loud outside. In the rest of the house, maybe! haha!!!

sharward wrote:

I'm assuming your garage is finished, or at least has a finished ceiling. This is pretty standard nowadays when garages are attached and even moreso when there's living space over the garage. If so, you basically have a two leaf floor right now, and they're both probably pretty wimpy. Unfortunately, you're going to run into some weight limitations -- floating a floor is probably not an option. In fact, beefing up your existing floor and/or ceiling may also be a problem... :roll: But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tell us about your iso needs.

I apologize for not really knowing all of the answers definitivley. It does concern me how weak my floor actually is or might be. I guess I'm really just looking to tune the room I suppose. And this is my shortcoming in not saying this in the first place. My understanding of this type of thing is limited, even considering all the research I've done. In the long term, I might have some outside bands come in and record. But mainly, it's just me and my band...and maybe some friends.

Initially I'd do some real trap designed placements. will trap bass and still reflect highs so your room wont end up dead. Along the lower portion (the vertical wall) I'd run some absorption. in the area where you are mixing perhaps some clouds as well.

You should investigate the noise ordinances that apply to your area. My city just doubled the fine for repeat noise offenders, from $500 to $1,000 per incident. For that reason you may have no choice but to reorder your isolation priorities.

giles117 wrote:

Initially I'd do some real trap designed placements. will trap bass and still reflect highs so your room wont end up dead. Along the lower portion (the vertical wall) I'd run some absorption. in the area where you are mixing perhaps some clouds as well.

What do you mean by "clouds"? Would you put any traps behind the speakers at the mixing position? I was thinking that would be the first place to start. Then I assumed there would be some absorption along the vertical portion of the walls. Should I just use the rigid fiberglass for all this stuff?

Do a search for clouds or ceiling clods. basically it is a square or round or what other geometric shape you want of cloth covered insulation haging from the ceiling to trap reflections headed that way. Traps behind the speakers is adefinite to absorb that bass energy and keep it from smearing your image..... Also semi rigid fibrglass or 2" or 4" semi rigid AFB (cloth covered) AFB is 1/3 the cost of fibreglass.

What would be my best bet for a location for recording vocals? In the middle of the room? Should I convert a closet into a booth?

Walk the room speaking loudly, find the spot in the room where you get a null (no reverb/reflections, etc...) and that is where you cut vocals. ** or the least amount of reverb/reflection. If you want grab an inexpensive foam gobo solution (like Auralex's "the wall") and place it around that null spot.

Wouldn't the closet be the best for this anyway? After some treatment, of course. Would just some foam suffice?

Not always, you could run into a room that is closed sounding, wtc.. Not saying dont try it becasue you might get what YOU are looking for... But in general it is usually the worse place to go due to the average cloet size of 5x5 (older homes)

Okay, I found some fiberglass at Home Depot. I was in there so I figured I'd go ahead and check on it. It said "fissured" on it or something like that but it gave acoustical as one of its uses. The number on it was something like 420 E or 430 E. Will this stuff work or should I stay away from it? One side was yellow (the fiber) and the other side was white...looks almost like ceiling tiles. Forgive my stupidity on this stuff....

Stupidity can be easily overcome by [erusing the threads in depth. Ther is very specific information relating to the various insulation types that will work well in your studio.... If you can get the specs on the insul (ceiling tile) you found at home depot, that is a good place to start.