Need advice for basement studio

Hi @all! Awesome forum and knowledge base... :D First a short introduction: I live near Cologne and do mostly computer based productions (techno, HipHop, Schlager,...) and my studio exists since 1998, first as hobby. Now I decided to have it as my second job. So I would like to share my small basement studio which is nice but very small and I am not sooo happy with it. I had to move my studio from a normal studio complex into my new home's cellar which is in the room where I did the control room just 1.90m of height. Okay... I am not the tallest so I can deal with that but the room itself is just 3.47m (width) and 3.27m (length). I have a wonderful studio rack in which I mounted my desk and all 19" gear which is about 2.05m width and 95.5cm in depth with the arm rest. I attached 2 pictures of the monentaneous situation. I will try to attach a sketchup pic as soon as I can make it possible. A recording booth for vocals and other small instruments will be implemented into another small room in the basement, so the room with my gear inside is just the control room. Thenk you very much and all the best, Mike :)

Hi again! Now the update... a sketchup file and 4 additional pics from today. Some info: Behind the black cloth on the rear are some rockwool piles (40mm). This damps quite good, works for me. The basstraps were also a good thing but I think I have to do more. Thanks a lot in advance... All the best, Mike

Hi again! The heights are okay for me with having some small rockwool (40mm) behind the black curtain in the back, the only thing I have problems with are the lower frequencies. How could I get them under control?? Or do I have to change the layout of the room completely?? Place the "console" near the wall to get some space in the middle,... Thanks in advance, Mike :)

No One??? :( Greetz, Mike

Aloha Mike, Sorry for the delay in responses. It's our nation's Independence Day weekend here in the US and a lot of us are celebrating with friends and family gatherings. Here's a couple of questions for you: Q: What is that brown rectangular object in your drawing? Q: Does your ceiling slope in any direction? Aloha 8)

Aloha Kendale! :D Hope you had a good celebration. The small brown object shall illustrate my Kurzweil K2500. :) The bigger one my rack as seen on the pictures. The ceiling is not really sloping, the difference from the door to the rear wall is about 1cm in height. Greetz, Mike

*bump* No one else??? :cry: Greetz, Mike

Is it sooooo hard to find another solution here?? *g* :D Greetz, Mike

Hey Mike, Are you renting, or can you build as much as you want? Do you have any acoustic measurement software? (Room Eq Wizard is a good free one) Without building.. most people recomend firing your speakers down the long dimension of your room, with listening position at 38% of the room lenght from the front wall (if you have the space) After that.. fill as much corner space as possible with bass traps and absorb at the reflection points. then consider building soffits for your speakers if you can build You might have to streamline your setup in that room to make room for serious room treatment :) Just some general things picked up from this forum. peace

Unfortunately I am renting, otherwise I had removed all the radiators stuff into this small room and took the other 5x5m room for the studio. *g* I was just wondering if this setup is the only one to have a chance to get the reflexions and bass under control. By the way... the 38% could be real at the moment for the speakers position.. have to mesure it. *G* Greetz, Mike

Hi Mike. Ohh, a basement :( not the ideal mixing enviroment, but what to do? Theoreticly you should experience a whole lot of room modes ecpecially in the high bas and low mid area!? Check out this calculator: http://www.mcsquared.com/metricmodes.htm My first thought was a helmholtz resonator ( tuned resonator/absorber ) but after calculations I see you need some kind of broad band solution. Maybe a slat resonator ( kind of a Helmholtz :) ) and / or a couple (as many you can squeeze in ) of panel resonatores on your walls. This kind of all concrete rooms are not easy to "tame" sound wise, but if you "fill her up" you could do some good. As you said; some rockwoll on the back wall did help some, but Im quite sure that youll need some resonators as well to tame the HiBass / LoMid. There are one down side with treating your walls though; as your ceiling is so low, you can not treat that and you might end up with some nasty flutter echoes if you treat all your walls but not the ceiling. It looks like you have room for quite big slat resonatores behind your desk, that could be a good place to start. Good luck HOOK

Aloha, Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Here's a couple of good places to start for ideas: SAE Website: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html (be sure to click on the acoustics, absorbers, construction tabs at left, and tabs that appear at the top of the pages) Wall Units - http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Recording Studio Design Forum Reference Area: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125 More Useful Links: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1168 If you care to check out a couple of recent threads using these absorbers, try here: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... ght=#15598 and here: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4091 Setting up the Mix Position Here are a few bits of information I’ve collected along the way… • Soffits angled 30 deg. in from a flat wall result in speaker baffles being perpendicular to the two legs of equilateral triangle comprised of two speaker centers and a point about 10" behind your head • 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 - • Monitors should NOT sit on the console but behind, 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. • Roughly 38% of total room length from the front wall • Equilateral triangle formed by left, right mix position • Monitor angles 60 degrees • Monitor height – woofer at ear level (avoid mid point of floor to ceiling measurement – either sit higher or lower if necessary) • Angled side absorption panels – left/right of mix position • Side walls 6-12 degrees • Ceiling 12 degree slope Hope this helps, Aloha 8)