Room Modes

[Composer14464]

Hello. I'm new to the forum. I'm a composer and I've been in the business of scoring for about 10 years. I'm looking to improve my studio acoustics.

Basically, I've noticed that I have a very loud resonance caused by a room mode (I believe) around the lowest Ab on the piano. I then have another at the Ab an octave above. I would think that the Eb above that would also be a problem, and I do notice a little bump in volume and ringing, but not as much as the 2 A-flats. My room is about 30' 4" deep, 22' 2" wide with a 12-13 foot ceiling (it's a tray ceiling). I'm seated about a 3rd of the way from the front wall.

So, my question is, what is the best approach. My budget is pretty big for this (up to $5,000 I'd say, or more if that's what it will take); I'm willing to do anything to mitigate the ringing that happens on those notes.

Currently, I have some "bass traps" in the 4 corners of my room from floor to ceiling. They are the foam corner style traps. I've done some research on what would be best, and I'm very interested in the Helmholtz bass traps. It seems like that might be a good option as I could "tune" the traps to capture my 2 problem notes. But I'm wondering, would that make a significant difference? When I'm listening in my room and I play that low A-flat, the things that strikes me about the sound isn't necessarily the volume of it, it's the way that it rings. It almost sounds like 2 sound waves are smashing together and creating a very strange sounding oscillation. So, would simply reducing the volume of that sound make it sound any better? Or would I still hear that strange ringing and oscillation, but just at a lower level?

It seems to me that the best solution might be to actually change your "room modes" depending on the key of the piece of music that you're writing. Has anyone experimented with movable solutions so that you can actually "tune" your room and get it to ring on a fundamental that isn't an important part of the piece you're writing? For me, I love to write in D-flat, and I tend to write in 19th century orchestral idioms. So, Having A-flat be a problem note in my room is...a problem...since A-flat is the dominant in my favorite key.

As for how loud I am, I'm not very loud at all. My typical workflow is to compose and orchestrate on paper at my piano (which is in a separate music room). When I'm ready to record, I go into my studio and play my notation into Logic Pro. While I'm doing this, I keep my volume very low since I'm just entering my parts. Then, towards the end, I'll turn it up and listen for the mix that I'll send to my client. I picked up a Sound Level Meter as recommended in the forum instructions, and I typically listen at 70-80 dB during this phase.

As for construction, the room has drywall and something between low and medium pile carpeting. There is a 12 foot wide and 3 foot deep alcove in the back corner of the room (The alcove is to my right when I'm facing forward in my seated position). In that space I have a bookshelf, a marimba, and some guitar amps stored.

Also, I most likely will be moving to a new studio within 12 to 24 months. I'm planning to make it a home studio in a large out building of some kind off the house. I'd really like to do that studio "right" from the ground up and have it designed by a professional. In a perfect situation, how large of a control room would you want?

Thank you all for any guidance you can offer!


Additional Information:

I wanted to add a little more info about my room that I thought might help. I have 2 inch Auralex foam on the front wall, side walls to the left and right of my ears, and on the back wall. 5 2x2 on the front wall, 4 2x2 on each side wall, and 32 sq. ft. on the back wall. As I mentioned, I also have bass traps in all of the corners of the room. I also have 3 2x2 panels behind the marimba, and 3 2x2 panels on the wall opposite the marimba. I use Yamaha hs50 monitors and the hs10 subwoofer. The studio is located on the 2nd floor above a 3 car garage.

[andymel]

Hi,

the things that strikes me about the sound isn't necessarily the volume of it, it's the way that it rings

Maybe thats a beat (when you play the Ab and you have a strong/long lasting mode some Hz below or above that fequency).

Lets try something:
As you have specific notes that bother you, chances are good it gets better when you move the sub in the right direction.
Maybe http://amroc.andymel.eu/ can help to investigate. Enter your room dimensions and mark the modes that bother you the most. In the 3D view you see areas where the marked mode should be loudest. Is your subwoofer in such an colored area? If yes, try to move it out of the blue/red zones and see if it gets better.

Let me know if you've been successful and if the calculator helped !