Poorly designed control room needs help

Hi, first let me say this is an amazing reasource that has provided me with a wealth of knowledge, and secondly, when I say "poorly designed" control room, I mean, "no design". I constructed my home / basement studio a few years back to record my own material - it was based on the layout of a few other local studios - that was the extent of any 'acoustic' design that went into it. Well things change and somehow this became my fulltime job; the terribly uneven response of this room hurts more every day. The mixes I've done at my 'editing workstation' (bedroom upstairs) turn out 100x better than anything I mix in the control room. Hopefully, SOMETHING can be done to this room - despite all the info on these forums I can't figure out a way to address the problem (80% of which I believe is around the 150hz and 300hz area) because of the whacky design. Ok, let me give a description of this subpar drawing here (I know it's only 640 wide, but autocad insisted it was that or 800 pixels wide). The rectangles on the bottom and bottom-right edge are doors, neither of them swing into the control room. The rectangle on the top-right edge is a window. The blue rectangle the monitors are sitting on is a desk w/ rack spaces, facing a window into the tracking room. The Electrical Cabinet and "GTR amp shelf" are built into the room and cannot be moved, there is a door on the electrical cabinet, the "amp shelf" is open faced. The red-dash lines offset from the left and top sides labeled "8" drop" is an 8" drop in the ceiling from the wall until the red line that covers a heat pipe running the perimiter of the basement. Under these sections the height of the room is 76", in all other areas, the height is 84". There are currently 12" foam 'bass traps' in the corners where the sofa meets the electrical cabinet & amp shelf as well as both corners of the right side wall - they do almost nothing. Think that about wraps up that, I can provide any other info right away I left out. Being I'll be in this space for only another year (new build then!) I'd like to keep cost down, I've got $500 set aside to do some treatments, though I wouldn't mind spending less, this is my 'job' now and if it takes more than that to get something useable, so be it. Rearranging the room is possible to, if the desk doesn't fit somewhere else, I can build a new one... I could swap the desk with the sofa if need be, or perhaps it would be better to have the desk face the bottom wall so as to get the speakers away from a boundary? I'm saying that: having the desk face the window into the tracking room, etc is the least of my concerns, I need to be able to mix down here, so I'll take ANY suggestions! Please tell me there is help! Thanks! -Ryan

Aloha and welcome to the forum Ryan!

things change and somehow this became my fulltime job; the terribly uneven response of this room hurts more every day.

I hear you there. I struggled with mine for 5 years until I found this site and made the changes. A few things I would suggest: - You may be sitting in a peak. The width of your room has a 166Hz peak at about 2 1/2 ' from the wall your desk is on, and an overlap of 161Hz & 242Hz about 3 feet from the wall. It is quite possible that being set up on this wall will place your mix position at a point where all of these frequencies are building up. I would try setting up your layout lengthwise. Depending on what is in your electrical cabinet (that might cause some interference), you could try positioning your mix position (ears) approximately 38% (a little over 3') from the front wall, placing your monitors on stands behind the desk, sofa 2' or so from the rear of room. I would then place bass traps in corners where possible, side absorbers on either side of the mix position, rear absorbers behind the sofa and then see where you are from there. Here's a link for the bass trap, side absorber units that might be helpful: http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm and one for general info on acoustics, absorption and lots of other good stuff: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html (click on tabs on left and at top of pages.) If you care to, you might check out these two links as they cover a similar space needing treatment as yours: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... ght=#15644 and http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4091 Also, is it possible for you to post photos of room, please? Thanks! :wink: Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Thanks for the quick reply! I caught some of your upgrade thread a while back, good stuff - those side absorbers look GREAT. I've got a handfull of questions - I'll post them (and a few pics of this room) soon as I've got a minute to soak up everything else in the other thread. Thanks much! -Ryan

Aloha Ryan, Cool. Looking forward to the pics! Aloha 8)

Alright, I read-up on your project up until you begun the "cloud" (AWESOME craftsmanship BTW), and here have a few questions to start out... you suggested I rotate my mix position to face the front wall; the window and electrical cabinet will prevent me from installing any sort of permanent corner trap - will the foam corner traps be of any use here? Also, the room widens to the left (just after the electrical cabinet) and the window into the tracking room would now be on my right side. Is this going to cause all sorts of weird balance problems? I really dig the portable side-absorbers you made, I s'pose this could be an option for the window? Thing is here, there's a good deal of "stuff" that lines the walls of the room (racks, keyboard, etc) are these traps going to be effective if they're only 4'x4'x8" and placed on the upper half of the sidewalls? Assuming I rotate and face the top wall, there is only enough room at the rear corners (bottom wall) for the foam-stuff bass traps as well. Also, the doorway on the bottom wall isn't actually a door, there is a very short hall (4' or so) until the door - is this going to impact any acoustical decision? This is all may be hard to follow, so, here are the pics of the room. I swear it's really not that messy, we're in the middle of a long session and there's lots happening :D

sooo, any suggestions / takers on those questions? am I doomed and there is no way of improving this room? :(

Aloha Ryan, Thanks for posting the pics. Is it possible to relocate the guitar amp shelf to the wall under window? If so, then how's this layout? - mix position about 38% from front wall (roughly 7'9".) - front & rear absorbers are movable - front corner absorbers go from floor to ceiling if possible. Corner, side, front & rear absorber units: http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Great info on acoustics and treatment (click on acoustics, absorbers & construction in left column, and then all tabs at top of pages) http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Quick question... so I've seen plans on the forum for the corner broadband traps (helmholtz / slat) that show both the 703 backed away from the slats&cloth and plans where it's pushed up against it - which is correct? I know the further from the corner the better the LF absorbtion, but at the same time, that in a 'panel' resonator the insulation cannot touch the panel. Thanks! -Ryan

One question, where is the door to get into the room?