Angled glass on rear wall...

[post78]

After spending hours designing and editing a reflection free control room that works for my shell building, I've come to the conclusion (in one version of the design) that to best utilize the space it would be better to angle the room in such a way that half of the studio live-room is on the other side of the back CR wall.
I'd like to have a view of the full studio, which means putting glass on the back wall instead of diffusers. This means I need to get creative with angles to keep reflections under control.

I've ray-traced the room (over and over and over again ) and have found an angle that keeps first and second reflections away from the engineer. I checked third reflections in a few places and haven't found a problem yet, but I'm not terribly concerned about them so I stopped.

The concern is simply that I haven't seen this type of angle in images or forum searches and I'm wondering why.
I understand that this would create strange imaging at the rear seating position, but most diffusers tend to do that anyway.

Below is an image of the layout. There is currently no treatment, trapping or otherwise, in this image. It's purpose for now is to simply show the angle on the rear wall.

The circle is head position, the speakers are shown soffit mounted, and the rectangles are a mixing desk and small sofa.
The lines were for speaker angling purposes - I simply forgot to remove them.

Creekside RFZ angled back.jpg

I'd love to hear feedback from the pros as to why I don't see this type of angle on the rear wall. I'd like to avoid the camera/monitor route to keep things more personal.

Thanks!

[post78]

Hate to "bump" a thread. I am genuinely curious about this.

Thanks.

[Soundman2020]

The concern is simply that I haven't seen this type of angle in images or forum searches and I'm wondering why.

Perhaps because you are wasting a lot of space unnecessarily by cutting off the rear parts of the room like that? You really don't need to ray trace much behind the mix position, which is where most 2nd an 3rd reflections go, and you can absorb those (or perhaps diffuse them, if the room is big enough). So it would be better to leave the rear end of the room as rectangular, so that you can get your bass traps and rear wall absorption in place.

that to best utilize the space it would be better to angle the room in such a way that half of the studio live-room is on the other side of the back CR wall.

Then would it not be better to turn the CR around, facing that way, so you can have direct sight lines from the mix position in to the live room, without needing to flip your chair around backwards every time you want to see what's happening on the live room?

I'd like to have a view of the full studio, which means putting glass on the back wall instead of diffusers

To be honest, I think you'd very seldom actually use that glass to look into the live room, since it would mean turning completely around from the console to do so. That's just not good workflow. So you'd be building something that wouldn't be used much, if any...

- Stuart -

[zepdude]

I was in an LEDE studio with a similar shape on the rear wall but it was more of a complex wood diffuser that than the glass you're using. It created an amazing listening space but narrow listening field.

I also had a control room with a window in back. The advantages were that it made me realize I didn't need to be staring at the musicians the entire time they were playing/singing and some of them appreciated not being stared at while they performed. You'll find you turn around to talk to them between takes only. It stinks for clients as there's not much for them to look at and they're not sure when you're looking through them to talk to the musicians whether they should turn their heads and look too or just stare back at you.

I'm sympathetic as I hate the glass in front of me sonically. It smears the image and makes the music shrill. In traditional rooms with a console, the couch in front and the glass a good distance from the mix position it doesn't seem as bad, but in most of the project studio designs where you're in the front 1/3rd of the room that glass really impacts the sound. I usually throw a gobo in front of it.