I will be getting a rig in there to do a REW test as soon as I can get the room dust free, and look forward to your help decoding the results!
Set it up with the configuration being as close as possible to the way it will actually be once every last piece is finished. Speakers at the exact location, height, and angle, mic set up exactly where your mix position will be, in the middle of your future head. Then mark and measure those positions with great accuracy, so you can always get everything back to the same point. That's the only way to ensure that you can validly compare data later, after you start installing treatment. Particularly the mic: it is very important that you always get it back to that exact same spot for all future measurements, so measure carefully to points that wont be covered up and inaccessible later!
Then calibrate REW carefully, following the instructions and using a good quality hand-held sound level meter to do the calibration. (not an iPhone app, nor a cheap Chinese "toy" meter!)
as soon as I have paid of some construction costs my next big upgrade will be monitors. So I'd rather not create custom soffits for my currrent Mackie's when I know an upgrade is imminent.
You don't have to custom fit them! You can have a soffit that allows for easy replacement of the speakers at any time in the future.
Take a look at this thread:
www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20471
When I originally designed that room three years ago, the customer warned me that he would probably change his speakers later, but he didn't know what he would get. So I designed the soffits with slide-in "trays" that hold the monitor, and I made the tray bigger than the largest monitor he might want to use. Fast forward to early this year: he had to change his monitors as one of the old ones was getting "crackly". So he got the new monitors, which are very different from the old ones, slid out the old tray+monitor assembly, slid in the new ones, and we re-tuned the room to take care of the differences in response. Simple!
I am currently eyeing up the Focal Twins, which is understand aren't ideal for soffit mount?
You mean the 6Be model? No problem. They are front ported, and have the necessary rear panel controls for rolling off the low end. They can be soffit mounted. In fact, I've changed my views over the years: I use to think that most speakers could not be soffit mounted, with only some being suitable. Now I know better: pretty much any speaker can be soffit mounted, unless it has drivers on the sides, top or back, or has a very strange physical shape that would be too hard to fit into a baffle. Most speakers can be soffit mounted: In that room that I linked above, for example, the speakers are Eve SC-407's, which are in fact rear ported! Conventional wisdom says you can't soffit mount a rear-ported speaker. I spoke to the chief engineer at Eve (a very helpful guy), and he said there would be no problem doing that, and gave me some tips on things I should take into account. That speaker is also normally meant to be used horizontally, but I felt it would work better vertically in that room. We discussed that too, and he agreed. So I broke all the rules with that mount (with the manufacturers blessing), and it works fantastically, even though it is rear ported and mounted vertically.
So long story short: Design your soffits with removable trays for your speakers, and mount your mackies in there now, then your Focal Twins later when you get them (or any other speaker that you might decide to get in the meant time...)
my clouds are nearly complete (pics soon)
B...B...B...But you can't mount them yet! You first have to run REW on the empty room!
Priorities....
I initially planned to use 18mm OSB, but the sheer weight of the stuff is scaring me, seen as these things will be above my head!
So wear a crash helmet while you mix! Sheesh! What's the problem???
Don't worry: just kidding...
Would 9mm OSB be suitable, or is that not massive enough to break any waves?
Correct.... there's also the issue of flexibility: 9mm OSB is fairly flexible, and might have strange resonances...
To mount your cloud, use chains, not wire or rope, and use proper rigging hardware to hang them: no S-hooks, for example: only links that lock. Use eye-bolts (not hooks) screwed into the joists, and use enough of them to spread the weight safely. All your hardware should be rated for ten times the weight of the cloud, for safety. So if for example your cloud weighs 30 kg, your hardware should be able to support 300 kg. Use at least six chains at different points on the cloud.
Another point: you might not need to cover the entire cloud back with thick OSB. In that same room above, part of the cloud is hard-backed and part is not. You can see that it is in several sections, all hung independently, and there are two different angles involved there. You might want to do something similar, and split your cloud into two or more smaller sections, with hard backing only on the ones that need it. It also means that each individual section is lighter in weight, so it won't crack your skull so seriously if it falls!
(Just kidding, again - I have a weird sens of humor... )
Thanks again Stuart, you are truly an Acoustic Buddha!
I don't think I've ever been called a "buddha" before! That's a first!
And I'm still not all that much of an expert anyway. Acoustics is one of those things where the more you learn, you realize the more there is that you don't know! It's like one of those nightmares where you are running for the door to escape the monster, but the more you run, the further away the door recedes...
- Stuart -