New Studio.. Live room acoustical placement questions

[hipstew]

I have been in the process of building my first recording studio.. I wish I would have came across your forum earlier.. I have found a great wealth of knowledge that has helped me in the past month. Although, some of the information has uncovered a few of my design mistakes.. Too late now.

The studio is a 1100 sq ft building with a large live room, a small control room, and a fully sound proof bathroom I am planning on using as another isolation room. The construction is done as far as the soundproofing goes.. I have full carpet in the live room but I am thinking of taking half of it out and adding a wood floor for a brighter sound.

I am working on treating my live room at the time and then on to the control room..... The live room measures 25' x 16' x 12'-6" ceiling height.. I have built 4 bass traps in all corners that are sealed with 1 layer of 1/2 drywall and 703 insulation behind. The angles of these bass traps are all different due to door placement. I have also built (see photos) (10) 2' x 8' sound absorption panels.. (6) are attached to the walls and the other (4) are attached to the 45 degree portion of the ceiling. (see photo).

After doing reseach on this forum, I am finding it makes sense to deaden the ceiling as much as possible. My thoughts were to build (4) more absorption clouds measuring 2' x 8' x 2" thick. (2) of them would be hung 18" from the ceiling at a 45 degree angle in both corners of the ceiling (running widthwise).. The other (2) would be hung 18" from the ceiling, centered between the (2) walls (running widthwise).

Questions regarding ceiling absorption:
Should I have a hard backing on the clouds or let the insulation breath between the ceiling and top of cloud?
Does a 45 degree cloud make sense on the (2) clouds running width wise? My theory behind this is to try and control the flutter echo at the ends of the room.

I am also planning on buiding a diffuser on (1) of the back 16' wall.. The type of diffuser is yet to be determined. Any recommendations?

Right now I am just trying to deaden the room enough to practice with my band. The 10 absorption panels I have built so far have helped, but the room is still very boomy. After building (4) clouds, I will then run frequency tests to further dial in the room..




Comments and suggestion would be much appreciated!!!


Cordially,

Jeff Simonson
Hip Stew Studios

[Soundman2020]

I have built 4 bass traps in all corners that are sealed with 1 layer of 1/2 drywall and 703 insulation

I'm just trying to understand here: You put a layer of 1/2" drywall over the 703? In other words, the drywall faces the room, and the 703 is sandwiched behind it? Is that the way you built them?

I don't see those bass traps in the photos that you posted: Where are they? Are they the angled things across the vertical corners?

The 10 absorption panels I have built so far have helped, but the room is still very boomy

It looks like you don't have very much bass trapping in that room at all.

In any event, please read the stickies at the top of the front page of the forum.

- Stuart -

[hipstew]

Stuart -

Thank you for your quick response.

If you notice in the photos, all the corners of the room, you will see angled drywall.. It is 1 piece of half inch drywall.. Behind that is the 703 insulation along with am air space.. So.. to answer your question.. yes, that is the way they are built. The bass traps are pretty shallow. Some might be at 12" deep.. Due to the door placement, we did not have much option.. Any suggestions?

I also have a flutter echo problem that seems to build up in the horizontal seam between the end walls and the ceiling.. My idea to control that flutter echo is to hang(2) 2' x 8' x 2" clouds at a 45 degree angle on each end of the room, suspended from wire. On another note.. I did answer my own question in regards to hard backing or no backing for the clouds. I will be hard backing all clouds to avoid flutter echo between the floor and ceiling making sure that all clouds I do hang are at an angle.

Do you have any advise on how low I should hang these clouds from the ceiling? I have plenty of ceiling height.

Do you also have any advise on what type of diffuser I would want to put up on the one end wall?

I will also check the sticky at the top of the forum to make sure I fully comply with the rules

Thanks again for your quick response.

Jeff

[Soundman2020]

If you notice in the photos, all the corners of the room, you will see angled drywall.. It is 1 piece of half inch drywall.. Behind that is the 703 insulation along with am air space.. So.. to answer your question.. yes, that is the way they are built. The bass traps are pretty shallow. Some might be at 12" deep.. Due to the door placement, we did not have much option. Any suggestions?

Well, you probably aren't going to like what I'm telling you her, but you don't have any bass traps! Covering them over with drywall renders them pretty useless at any but the very lowest of frequencies, and probably makes them act more like panel traps, tuned to the resonant frequency of the drywall!

I'm not surprised that your room sounds "boomy"!

Bass traps should be deep insulation (703 is fine, but lots of it), and if you don't like the "ugly", then you can cover it with acoustic cloth, but not with drywall.

Like this:

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... unk#p94292

http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=535

http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.p ... =534#p3969

Make them wide, and make them deep, and make them tall, but don't cover them with drywall! At best, if they are pulling too much high end out of the room, then cover the absorption with thin plastic, to help reflect back some of the highs, but drywall is wayyyyy overboard.

I'd start by taking off the drywall, exposing the insulation to the room. Cover it with cloth or something. Also, make it deeper and wider if you can, and do more corners: there are twelve corners in a normal room, and even more in yours...

- Stuart -

[hipstew]

Stewart... That is not the worst news.. It should be a good day project.. I can get away with 24" x 24" in 2 of the corners. The ones by the 2 doors are going to be shallow.

As far as my cloud idea in the (2) corners running horizontally at a 45 degree angle along the end walls... Would they act as a base trap? Would you recommend keeping them hard backed or soft backed? What about thickness of insulation?

I will get these bass traps done in the (4) corners and see how it sounds. I will also send you a few photos.

Thanks again

~J