Hi all.
I'm new to this forum, but it seems like the most legit in town. I'm turning an old 1930's garage into a studio space. It has a peaked ceiling which is great, but being a one-car garage, it's fairly narrow. It's already been dry-walled and made into an indoor space by previous owners, but here's what I'm planning to do: At the top of the walls, run a 2 by so that when we put up OSB or something for the walls, they angle outward as they get higher. This is like old barns that had this kind of angle to the walls for rain shed purposes. My idea is that with the opposite walls angled like this, the standing waves in this long narrow space might be improved, or maybe even eliminated. I see lots of info about walls angled laterally, but not about vertically, which is what I'm doing. Anybody have any reason to believe this is a bad idea?
Thanks!
Elliott
Barn-style angled walls
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elliottnjames
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Soundman2020
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Re: Barn-style angled walls
Hi Elliott, and welcome! 
There are three types of room mode: axial, tangential, and oblique. Axial modes occur between two opposite surfaces, tangential between four surfaces, and obliques between all six. If you angle one surface enough then the axial modes that were associated with it just become oblique modes, but nothing else changes.
The reason you see angled walls in studios is not related to modes. It is usually related to flutter echo, which is something entirely different. Yo can indeed get rid of flutter echo by angling your walls, provided that the total difference in angle is greater than 12°. But that normally means that you lose space inside the room, so it's not a good solution. There are much better ways of dealing with flutter that do not involve angling entire walls, and take up a lot less space.
The other reason you see angled walls is for studios based on the RFZ principle, or one of its variations (CID, NER, etc).
But wall angles do not eliminate modes.
- Stuart -
Not really. Room modes (which are the standing waves you are talking about) are a fact of life, due ONLY to the fact of having walls around the room. To get rid of standing waves, you have to use a bulldozer: take down the walls! There is nothing else you can do to eliminate them. They are there because the walls are there 8and the ceiling, and the floor. By angling the walls, all you do is move them to a different frequency, and perhaps change their type.My idea is that with the opposite walls angled like this, the standing waves in this long narrow space might be improved, or maybe even eliminated.
There are three types of room mode: axial, tangential, and oblique. Axial modes occur between two opposite surfaces, tangential between four surfaces, and obliques between all six. If you angle one surface enough then the axial modes that were associated with it just become oblique modes, but nothing else changes.
It's not a bad idea: it just won't accomplish anything.I see lots of info about walls angled laterally, but not about vertically, which is what I'm doing. Anybody have any reason to believe this is a bad idea?
The reason you see angled walls in studios is not related to modes. It is usually related to flutter echo, which is something entirely different. Yo can indeed get rid of flutter echo by angling your walls, provided that the total difference in angle is greater than 12°. But that normally means that you lose space inside the room, so it's not a good solution. There are much better ways of dealing with flutter that do not involve angling entire walls, and take up a lot less space.
The other reason you see angled walls is for studios based on the RFZ principle, or one of its variations (CID, NER, etc).
But wall angles do not eliminate modes.
- Stuart -