Dahnielson's "studio" apartment

Hi everybody, here's the planned floor plan for my home/bedroom studio. I'm living in a rented single room apartment that leave me no choice in terms of what room to use, since neither the kitchen nor the bathroom is ideal for making music. Still, I feel this is somewhat the room from hell, acoustically speaking... It's almost square (4396x4480mm), the only thing it almost got going for it is the ceiling height (2490mm) not making it a cube. The room lack symmetry and is hard to layout without erecting false walls and such. Another constraint is the fact I'm supposed to use the room as an office and sleeping area in addition to a music studio. Furniture: On the floor plan you will see my current furniture and its placement in the "rear" living area (from the studio point of view). I figured that if I put all my bookshelf (almost reaching the ceiling) against the back wall it would at least help to absorb low frequencies due to its mass (in addition to being out of the way). Recording: We primarily record "over the wire": samplers, synths, electric guitar and bas via amp+cabinet emulators. Only vocals and acoustic guitar will be recorded live in the room. So the treatment is primarily for monitoring. But I'm planning on building a temporary "booth" using my regular panels while recording vocals and possibly building some dedicated free standing panels for that purpose later on. Equipment: Most of my equipment will be rack mounted in a desk I'm currently building (10U of easy access to modules and processors). The monitors (ESI nEar05) will be placed on rigid stands I intend to build (whose top will be made out of a slab of gardening stone). Next to the desk is a Roland HP-piano and a JX-10. Doors: The room has two doorways, the one to the right leads to my balcony, while the other (currently sans door) leads to a small hall. Walls: The front wall and the upper half of the left wall are single gypsum board on studs. The back, right and lower left wall are brick and mortar (me thinks, it's hard and at least the house facade is brick and mortar). I've got a big window with drapes on the right wall. All the walls are covered with wallpaper. Floor: Vinyl carpet on concrete (I think?) Ceiling: Painted concrete (I think?) Treatment: Planned acoustic panels are colored green on the floor plan, solid green being hung vertically against the wall and hatched green being hung angled from the ceiling. The big problem is treatment of the doorway that end up almost in the middle of the early reflections zone. I'm planning on building 2x4' panel absorbers using 3" of Roxul (RW40/RHF80/AFB) or similar isolation hung 3" from the wall. Not showed in the plan, but I'm thinking of mounting triangular pieces of isolation to all corners of the ceiling. Questions: * Vertical placement of monitors: According to my measurements my ears are 1300mm above the floor when sitting in the listening position, is that too equal in distance from floor and ceiling? Mounting the monitors straight would make the stands 1130mm high and the woofer center ~1225mm above the floor. Or should I make the stands slightly higher and tilt the monitors downwards? * Doorway: How to treat the doorway? To keep the symmetry at least half the doorway should be treated just like the right side wall. One idea is to build a simple frame to mount the panel on so it can be hung on the door hinges still in place (I've still got the old door stored in the cellar that I can plunder remaining hinges from). Or can I just hang a heavy drape to cover the doorway and hope that it will absorb similarly (due to the hall acting as cavity behind it) as the panels on the right wall? * I guess my planned treatment will take care of the reflection free zone? * What else can I do? Especially in terms of my spatial constraints? Other topics related to this studio: * Roxul: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8955 * Panels: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8959

I think I will make the stands 1300mm high (just like my ear height) and tilt them slightly downwards to avoid the null at 1245mm. The woofer will then be at ~1395mm, is that enough or should I make the stand even higher?

Maybe I should also put a panel behind each monitor (they're ported)? I would also like to put panels across the corners of the room, but the doorway in the front and my bookshelves in the rear makes it impossible to make the treatment symmetric...

I'm currently trying to get rid of the extra free standing bookcase (with binders, magazine collectors and stuff) against the left wall. One additional question regarding symmetry is how to treat the window? If I hang heavy drapes, a type of absorber my music dealer sells usually hung against walls on live gig or in rehearsals room (there's no absorptions data on it yet simply because no one had asked for it until I showed up :P -- there will be some published at the end of the summer), both in front of the window and against the parallel wall will that take care of the symmetry in that part of the room? Ok, I'm not trying to overthink this or try to make the room into something it can never be. Obviously this room is a case of "do the best of the current situation".

Obviously this room is a case of "do the best of the current situation".

I was wondering if the position of the speakers and listener could be placed a little more distance from the wall... on small rooms I prefer to have the speakers not so closed to the walls, but this is something you may check for yourself

I applied the 38% rule (it is actually jotted down on the floor plan, but too small to be readable when rendered 700px wide :x ), of course I can still move the monitors along the magenta axis for small adjustments. If I move further back I will end up in the middle of the room in a null. Also the layout for the functions of rest of the room is a constraint on how far I can extend the CR-area. I once tried to figure out what the best distance from a wall would be for monitors. I found one article on Genelec's site that more or less stated in summary "not to close but not too far". :o

You can place yourself behind the middle of the room and the speakers at 30-40 % of the room and see how it goes.. just try it, if you don't like it place them where they are now. Although I see you don't have much space there. I'm just afraid your speakers near the wall will result in an "extra" low frequency power even if you are in the ideal position. I know some people like placing speakers near the walls in a small room but I think I'm not one of them lol !