Help with my SMALL studio design

Started by exit2studios on 1 October 2007. 2 replies.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 9496.

Okay, so I've lost my space after moving into the new house. Turns out, we saw a friend of a friend's house with the same floorplan and they've built out a small 9' x 11' (2.7m x 3.4m) room from a part of the attic area. I'm thinking this could work as a mixing space for me. I plan to use this room for mixing music, with an occasional acoustic guitar recording or vocal recording.. I don't normally mix too loud, so sound isolation isn't overly important. I would like to isolate the impact from the floor somewhat, but since it's the master bedroom below, I can't be in both at once, and my wife is on my schedule. The door opens up to our quite large game room, so I can use that space as a live room if I need the extra space. However, I don't intend to make any modifications into that room. There are some struggles beyond the small size as well. As you can see from the sketchup picture below, the ceilings are very slanted. This lack of symmetry will force me to put my desk along the long wall (?) which is not ideal. I've included the legendary Ikea Jerker desk for reference since that is what I have. Some info on the room: Step down into room. Highest point of ceiling is about 10' (3m) and extends for less than 2' (.5m) then drops to meet the lower wall which is about 4' (1.2m) tall. Questions: Is this worm even workable? I would like to do mixing with some vocal recording. I would also like to put all my guitars/amps and electronic drums in here. Would it be better to put the mixing desk on the short (i.e. height) wall so the incline is going up away from the speakers vs. the way I have it laid out in the diagram? I'll save the treatment questions for later, but wanted to get some feedback if I should even move forward. It will take some work and $ to even get the room. I'm pretty open on budget, but don't want to float floors (it's upstairs) etc. I also don't want to be too elaborate with the soundproofing, since I will have so little real estate to begin with. Thanks in advance for any and all help. I really want to get moving on this quickly if I decide it's a go. I can assure you this won't be one of those project that dies on the vine, if it's decided to be reasonable to move forward. ~lance
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Should I assume by the lack of response, that I am looking at a lost cause? I'm okay with that answer if that's what I'm facing. I would really like to know if there's any hope in a room this small. I have also considered adding a dormer, but that would add significantly to the cost of the project, and I'm not sure it would result in much bigger room. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Thanks
If at all possible you'll want to be facing the slanted ceiling, even if it puts your desk out toward the middle of the room. Think about how sound will reflect off that ceiling, you'll want to have a good strategy to deal with those reflections. If you are facing the slant, the sound will reflect up and over your head so they won't taint your image. If the slant is behind you, it will reflect the sound right to your head as you listen. Ideally the mix position should be 38% of the way back from either the front or the rear wall, though I'm not certain about how the slanted ceiling will affect the "38% rule". If you *must* go with the setup you have then you will want to get as much absorption on that slanted ceiling as you can to control those first reflections. Apart from that is the standard, get some form of bass treatment in there (like superchunks in the corners or whatever), and do your best to create a RFZ.