Hi guys! new small studio in Costa Rica

Hey guys, I`m new registered user here but I´ve been reading around for sometime to inform myself, glad to meet you all!!!. So now I´ll have a new space were I can put my stuff, it´s a little one but I want to tune it up as best as I can. First thing, I would like it to be something movable, like what Kendale did on his, cause the space is at my family´s house so I can´t permanently change it. I want it to be a room where I can use as a control-recording room, not for drums of course cause I don`t have enough equipment or space hehe. So I wondered if you guys could give me some ideas, here´s my sketchup plan and some pictures of the place. BTW measuring is in cm, cause I`m not used to the royal stuff

Aloha and welcome to the forum, valgaer :D Glad to see you getting started on your project. Say, any chance you could trim off the white areas or resize your pix down to about 600 pixels wide, please? This will eliminate us having to scroll back and forth in order to read your thread. (It's also part of the forum guidelines.) Thanks! :wink: A couple questions, if I may: - How high is your ceiling? - What is the area highlighted in green? Aloha 8)

Done!, sorry about that, I guess my pc monitor resolution was set to high! hehe Thanks for answering kendale and for the welcome! That area is sort of a storage room, very little, can´t fit a person in there, is the area below some stairs My ceiling is 2.17 m

I messed up a measure, the front of the room is 240cm not 200cm :S

valgaer, is that natural light coming in on the right or recessed lighting?? also - could you post the .skp file. cheers john

Thank you John!, yeah it´s natural light, I can´t block it though or seal it to lessen the noise, I think is something I´ll have to live with, anyway almost everything I record I do it direct so it´s a problem but not huge. Here´s the file!, actually I`ve orked more on it than the rendering I posted before

Maybe you could try something like this?? cheers john

WOW :shock: looks great John!, but there are a couple of things I have to consider. First, I cannot cover the long concrete wall, and there´s the keyboards I have to fit in.... :? Also I don´t really need isolation in the control room from the rest of the place, but I do need it in the vocal booth So I made this option with all my stuff in, I know it is not perfect soundwise, but maybe you can figure out a better way.....what do you think? Thanks a lot really!!!! Edit....the sketchup file is too large :S

Yup - I like that - so long as the right angled wall goes past the listening position. cheers john

Great!!! :D :D So a couple of question 1. The frame of the door has to be a diffusor or can be absortion? 2. I have like ten 60cm x 120cm sheets of Auralex like absortion foam that I had from my previous place, can I usa that for something or at least some parts of it or should I go completely rockwool? Thanks!!!

ten 60cm x 120cm sheets of Auralex like absortion foam

auralex like?? Not all foams are the same. Standard packing foam won't do the trick - you need either proper auralex foam or 703 type insulation. cheers john

Well yeah it´s proper foam, 2 inches thick, this one: http://www.sonoflex.com/prod.htm , on the product list on the right choose "Fonac-Eco" but not from Auralex, that´s what I meant :D This is the absotrion rate table of that particular foam, mine is 50mm, so the blue line it is Thanks!!!

Ok, so we have figured the design. So John, should I do the front corner panels like cloth panels or your corner absorvers? Thank you very very much John!!!!! :D

Anyone please? :( , I know you guys have very busy schedules, just need a few more things to have this going, don´t want to push you though Thank you for any kind of help you can give me!!!!

Build the front panels as inside out, so the drywall/plywood goes on the back, you stand them up and join them, then put that 75mm rockwool in the gaps between the studs and cover with cloth. cheers john

Thank you very much John! I`m thinking about sofit my monitors, they will be very tight for the space I have, so is it better to build corner absorvers or should I use the same design as the front panels you just told me about? does they cover the lower frequencies as well?

So is it like this then?:

Aloha valgaer, Here's a couple of thoughts: - extend the side wall slots to past the mix position - add rear corner absorber to right side rear corner - extend rear side wall absorbers to meet rear corner absorbers As far as setting up your monitor situation, here's a few bits of info I've collected from this forum: - Monitors placed on heavy decoupled stands - console placement causes early reflection problems in most cases, unless the console is slanted down in front a LOT. - Distance to wall behind speakers will change response drastically - there is a wall bounce calculator on the Acoustics forum that's fun to play with (needs Excel) - Moving either speakers or your head by as little as an inch or two can sometimes make drastic changes in response, due to modal peaks and dips. - Left/right room symmetry (at least within a foot or two of ear height) is important for good stereo imaging. - Equilateral triangle formed by left, right mix position - Monitor angles 60 degrees (30 degrees each) - Monitor height – woofer at ear level (avoid mid point of floor to ceiling measurement: either sit higher or lower if necessary) Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Thank you very much Kendale!!! My main concern are the panels that are behind the speakers, the ones angled, what kind of bass trap do they have to be?, searching the forum I`ve come across with some designs, the ones that John has on this site as corner panels and the ones for sofit the monitors. Which one of them are best for my studio layout? Thank you!

Aloha valgaer,

My main concern are the panels that are behind the speakers, the ones angled, what kind of bass trap do they have to be?, searching the forum I`ve come across with some designs, the ones that John has on this site as corner panels and the ones for sofit the monitors. Which one of them are best for my studio layout?

That depends. Here's a couple of things (of perhaps several) to consider: - What's your preferance - soffit or not? - Depending on how much room you have to work with, how wide can you make those panels while still maintaining a 30 degree angle? The baffle extension (the face of the soffit) should be as large as you can make it, up to about 45" in each direction from the woofer in a system with a LF cutoff of around 45 hZ - There's a formula based on LF cutoff that ensures full 2 pi response for the woofer if the baffle is at least the size obtained in the formula's solution. Perhaps a search would prove fruitful for you. In my case, there were several compromises along the way, but all in all, the improvements to the sound of the studio are alot better than what I had prior. As only a personal opinion, after working for five years without soffiting my speakers, the difference it makes soffited is quite amazing. If you care to check out the threads try here: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... ght=#15598 and here: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4091 Aloha 8)

Oh Great!!! thanks Kendale! Well, I`ve done the measurments for the space I have available, so the corner thing must be like this. I don´t know if the space I have from the back of the speaker to the back of the cabinet is enough.... :( What do you think? Thanks!!!

Aloha, Looks good! :wink: Now all you have to do is decide on how you are going to support the speaker in the soffit/corner trap. Here's a couple of designs I've found along the way. Aloha 8)

Aloha, Here's a few pics of some of the forum member's designs and approaches. http://www.johnlsayers.com/Studio/Mainp ... ctions.htm Aloha 8)

Aloha, And a few more :wink: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=839 Aloha 8)

Aloha! Kendale Thank you very much!!!, now I can start with the whole thing!!! excelent!! :D I think I`ll go with the shelf design so I can have those hangers for the lower frequencies on the bottom. Any more suggestions before moving this to the construction section? :D