Treatment options for a small control room

A little about myself: My name is Justin. I live in Fargo, North Dakota. By day I am a sales engineer for a local technology company. I design and spec A/V installations for schools, churches, etc. as well as sound and light systems for touring groups. By night I record and produce local musicians as a hobby. I primarily record pop/rock groups as well as solo singer/songwriters. The compensation I receive relegates my studio to "hobby status," but I am fine with that. It lets me pick and choose who I would like to work with. I have a Bachelor's degree in audio production, but that hardly makes me a professional. About my project: I previously lived in a large (800 sq.ft) one room studio above a garage. I was able to utilize the whole space as a control/tracking room. I have now gotten married (yeah!) and moved into a downtown loft. It is 1000 sq.ft which is great, but the space for my control room has now been relegated to a much smaller space. I have some ideas for treating the space, but all of them require compromises with a space this small. The room: the room is 6'8" wide, the walls (L+R) are 6'10" long and the ceiling is 10'2" high. The "hallway" behind the space is 5'6" wide. The layout is rather unusual. It is intended for 3 room-mates and is laid out like 3 cubicles. It's great for my wife and I because it's BIG. It is a basement corner unit, with offices above us and only one neighbor. This means that after 6pm I only need to worry about disturbing my neighbor, who is a musician and friend of mine. My current setup: I have 3 - 4'x6' broadband gobos that are 4" thick and stuffed with Owens R19 insulation. I use these to cover each wall and one behind me. I also have 7 - 15" sqaure panels that are filled with more R19. I use these on the back of my desk behind my monitors. Using gobos for the the sides and rear gives me the option to pull them out into the living room for tracking vocals, etc.. I track drums, guitars, etc. elsewhere, so my apartment would only be for mixing as well as tracking vocals and quiet instruments. Currently I'm debating 3 different approaches to treating the room, all with their benefits and drawbacks. All the dimensions in the sketchup should be spot-on accurate. Freefield: The first is a "freefield" setup which would not be drastically different from what I have now, but with considerably more treatments. Basically, I would just add more bass traps and absorption, and a little diffusion, until I completely kill the room. It would look something like this, maybe with more bass trapping along the ceiling corners. There would also be a diffusion cloud above the mix position. The tube traps would be built according to the John Risch DIY recipe. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/files/freefield_757.skp 60 degree soffit: This would require building a soffit for the front wall. 60 degrees offers the least consumption of floor space, but has more problems with early reflections from the side walls. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/files/soffit_mount_60_191.skp 90 degree soffit: This design consumes more floor space and has a smaller sweet spot, but helps to avoid more reflections from the side walls. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/files/soffit_mount_90_162.skp Monitors: I intend to buy new monitors once I've decided what course of action to take with the room. That way I can find monitors that work with my room, and not the other way around. Construction: Whatever I decide to do, all the construction must be done off site. I must be able to prebuild the pieces off site, move them, and assemble them in my apartment. Budget: I am not shy to DIY. I have no intention of buying commercial treatments, so suggestions should be within the scope of DIY. Budget for materials could exceed $500 if necessary, but $500 should be adequate for virtually anything in a room this small. Questions: 1. Which approach would be the most effective, why, and how would you improve on that approach? 2. Is soffit mounting even a viable option for a space this small? 3. What should I put behind the mix position: absorption (currently using a broadband gobo), diffusion (probably the 2d type), or leave it open into the hallway and closet. Thank you in advance for your time. This forum has been an excellent learning tool and I appreciate your willingness to help strangers like myself.

bumpity bump.

i would go with the free field since the width of the space is very limited. that said, the nice high ceilings offer nice options for trapping and treatment to preserve as much floor space as possible. the gobo and/or diffuser works for me. one advantage of the "leave it open" option is bass trapping - the sound leaving your space can be a benefit - just make sure that anything that comes back is reduced to an appropriate level for your mix position.

Thanks Glenn! I took your advice and went with the freefield setup. I cranked out a bunch of treatments this weekend: four 2'x6' corner traps, one 2'x3' corner trap, and one 4'x3' cloud. Now i've covered nearly every corner and about 80% of the walls. All I have to say is WOW. By just using a signal generator and sweeping the room before and after, I can tell the room modes were brought way down. I can actually tell what's going on down low. Before treatments, some of the modes resonated so much it went from a comfortable level to nearly painful within just a few Hz (I know, very scientific). I have some JBL LSR4328P's on the way. Once I have them I'll see what's going on way down there. My current monitors give up the ghost at about 65hz.