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[ibrc]

After reading this site I pretty much have all the info I need to get started.
However the things I ask here I have yet find insight on in my searching. I believe the answers I seek will come from the hands on opinion of some here. All I need is the direction so I can start building:) I have all the plans I need, all my sources lined up for everthing. This is the last step.

Feel free to tell me if I'm wrong on anything. I appreciate the honesty.

I am working with the basement of my condo. Concrete walls, 1/4" carpet throughout, unfinished other wise. The main purpose of this room will be mixing and recording of guitar (mostly direct) and vocals. Isolation is not an issue. It is very quiet here.

My first intuition is to just build a control room however, my wife and I plan on moving within the next 5 years. With that said I have switched gears to treating a certain area of the basement. Everything that I build I can take with me to the next home.

Right now I am set up in the lower left hand corner of the attached drawing. This is the "best" sounding, farthest away from every thing in the house.

My intentions include building a front wall, side treatments, and rear wall to similate a rfz type enviroment for mixing and a vocal booth. I plan on doing this similar to a free standing or gobo design. I got the idea from the "attack wall" I'm thinking of using a 3/4" mdf frames, 2 two 4 inches wide. 703 inside frame then wrapped in fabric.

I have some ideas about what I would like to build but I would like to see if they hold water acousticly:)


Say I take the traditional RFZ design and build it out of gobos or moveable walls minus the two side walls off of the front wall. Will this cause any problems?

I assume I should not go all the way to to the ceiling?

I am using TR8's. When I set up my listening distance should I shoot for a certain distance. 6 foot, 7, foot and so on.

Af far as the cieling should I hang a cloud angling from front to back.

Or should I do something else up there. I also Have some pergo flooring to living up the mix position if needed.

Should I treat any other areas in the basement. Basetraps in the corners, covering the walls? I will be going for somewhat of a heavy mix. If it will be benificial I will do it.

and last but not least. How should I lay it out. Stay in the middle of the room like my intuition says or try it out of the bottom left corner ?

If anyone has any answers for me you've made my day.

Thanks in advance.
Kev.

[Ethan Winer]

Kev,

> I'm thinking of using a 3/4" mdf frames, 2 two 4 inches wide. 703 inside frame then wrapped in fabric. <

Your panels will work better if you make them with an open frame having no rigid obstruction between the front and back sides. This helps them absorb to lower frequencies.

> build it out of gobos or moveable walls <

Yes, that's fine generally.

> I assume I should not go all the way to to the ceiling? <

You could but it's not necessary to cover more than the actual reflection points. Anything further will merely reduce the overall liveness of the room which you may or may not want.

> should I hang a cloud angling from front to back. <

Angling an absorbent cloud has little affect. Though where the gap between the panel and ceiling is larger the absorption may go a little lower in frequency.

> Should I treat any other areas in the basement. Basetraps in the corners, covering the walls? <

See the Acoustics FAQ, second in the list on my Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

--Ethan

[ibrc]

Thank you Ethan. I've actually spent quite a bit of time on your site. Watched the videos yesterday and downloaded the sound file for Sonar:)

My frames would be open on both sides. The 703 mounted on pads with fender washers.

As far as the cloud. I'm going to set up the room minus a cloud right now then see if I need to do something to the cieling. I assume it wouldn't be much having carpet on the floor.

Kev.

[ibrc]

Alright, I have constructed my Speaker Stands, and my Gobo's minus stuffing. I love the feeling when stuff starts to take shape..

The design I came up with consists of 8 2'x4' gobos. The front and rear wall have two gobos horizontal with a 6 inch gap between them. The monitors are freestanding but framed in a soffit type manner with a vertical gobo. The remaining two will be set up using the mirror method.

All gobos hang from the ceiling and have adjustable. I figure the most should be 6 feet.

My Nearfields(TR6) are two 2 feet off of front wall. The front wall is the bottom left hand corner of attached drawing in my first post. I assumed having the "rear wall venting to the rest of the basement would be ok.

My listening triangle is 7 feet hovever I have it set at 45 degrees. As I started mocking up the room this appeared to be the best way to work within the I-beam 10 feet off of the front wall. Plus I like the idea of spreading the speakers out a bit more.


Any comments on inital placement?


Like I said I have not stuffed the gobos yet.
I have questions about absorbant materials and what will work well with the room I am dealing with.


I would like an opinion on treating other parts of the room besides the gobos. I can build anything needed but I'm not building any dedicated walls. Isolation isn't really a factor.


If Treating the rest of my room is benificial I like the idea of hangers like my gobos. Actually the room is built in a little not so traditional sense of the word. I have some artsy fartsy moments some times but back to the topic. I thought about building bass traps (703) in the corners and hanging Batting (white fluffy) around the ceiling. This would not hang any lower than a foot or so. The batting will kind of simulate clouds.(like in the sky)

I know the key is broadband absortion, and leveling all freq equally. I also know I'm dealing with 3 concrete walls so bass will be a nightmare.

If the above works. What should I stuff the gobos with. Maybe too much absortion with 703?

Would adding a slotted panel for reflective tuning on one side of the gobos add to the room?
I grew up drag racing so I'm all about tuning and tweaking baby.


If I missed anything at all or if more info is needed ask away.

Thanks for any input.
Kevin

[Ethan Winer]

Kevin,

> I know the key is broadband absortion, and leveling all freq equally. I also know I'm dealing with 3 concrete walls so bass will be a nightmare. <

Right. You need serious amounts of absorption that works down to as low a frequency as possible. It also has to be placed correctly (in the corners), so don't expect much from gobos which I assume you'll have placed elsewhere around the room for isolation.

--Ethan

[ibrc]

That is what I figured.
The gobos are more for reflections in my listening triangle than absortion.

My bass trap plan copies the most generic I have seen. Straddling the corner at a 45 then filling with 703 from the floor to the ceiling. Since it's concrete I don't plan on adding slots.


Thank you Ethan.

[ibrc]

I have bass traps built in the corners. They run from the floor to the ceiling filled with 703.
I set up my monitors and played back some stuff I did in a studio last year. Sounds much better but I'm still pretty far off.

Considering I am using gobos for my mixing partition I have a couple different layout options.

One thing that bothers me is the I-beam.

Am I correct in saying I don't have to worry about it as long as I kill it?. By kill it I thought of covering it with poly batting. Any initial layout I can center in the room interfers with the I-beam.

Kev.

[Ethan Winer]

Kev,

> the I-beam ... Am I correct in saying I don't have to worry about it <

If it's not in the direct line of fire from the speakers, and it's not enormous, it's probably not hurting anything. If you want to cover it anyway that's fine too, but you'll do better with fiberglass than thin batting.

--Ethan