With this post I hope to get some advice on my tiny home studio. I started this build way back in 2008, but I ended up moving to a new country and left it unfinished. Now I’ve been back for a while and would like to give this project the love it deserves.
I will go straight to the point: I use this room for music mixing and voiceover editing. I’m not concerned with soundproofing, as I have no neighbours to worry about, but rather I’d like to get it to sound as good as it can without going all out on budget because in a few years’ time the room will be tore down. Talking of budget: €400/500 is what I’m willing to invest and I will do all the labour myself.
Here’s a SketchUp drawing of the room with current treatment + photos below
Click here to download the drawing
ROOM ANATOMY:
Length: 2.57m
Width: 2.18m
Height: 3.05m
All parallel surfaces
Volume 17.09m3
Surface area: 40.18m2
Front wall: 10cm single layer gypsum partition with metal frame, with no absorption in the cavities, hard concrete pillar on the right-hand side corner.
LHS wall: 20 cm hard brick wall plastered with a cast iron radiator at the back corner.
RHS wall: 19cm single layer gypsum partition with double metal frame, double layer of absorption and 2cm air gap in the middle. There’s a wooden door opens towards the outside.
Back wall: 20cm hard brick wall plastered. There’s a wooden door that goes to a toilet and it needs to be accessible.
Floor: Tiled + a double layer of 2mm polyethylene foam pad and laminate flooring on top.
Ceiling: hard concrete plastered.
EXISTING TREATMENT:
For the existing treatment I used the same product everywhere, including in the right-hand side wall. This material is:
ISOVER fiberglass PAR 0.6m roll panel
Density: 13Kg/m3
Thickness: 45mm
Gas resistivity flow: 7kPa s/m2
Backing: fiberglass foil on one side
Front wall:
Corners below speakers: 70% filled with fiberglass, 30% air and a layer of cotton cloth on the front.
Wall between the speakers: the depth of this cavity is 18cm, but only filled with a double layer (9cm) of 60cm wide fiberglass hanging from a wire at the top of the wooden frame. One layer of cotton cloth on the front.
False Ceiling:
Made of a slanted wooden frame, one half of it only has one layer of cotton cloth. The back part has 6mm chipboard panelling that can be removed. The white board in the middle is made out of laminate flooring leftovers and hosts the lighting.
Above the false ceiling there are 6 hangers of varying height, equally spaced (about 35-40cm spacing between each hanger), made out of heavy 18mm melamine chipboard panels with a couple of layers of fiberglass all around and wrapped in cotton cloth. Here they are: Side walls: only two freestanding self-made panels 90x8.5x202cm constructed as follow:
• Quite heavy and tightly woven cloth.
• One layer of 2mm polyethylene foam pad (same used for the flooring, most likely closed cell).
• Three layers of absorption materials slightly compressed to make them fit in the box.
• One layer of 4mm plywood as backing.
Back wall:
Nothing apart from one freestanding panel like the ones above, placed upright and centred along the wall.
SPEAKERS AND MEASUREMENTS:
My main speakers are a pair of Neumann KH120A (52Hz to 21KHz), no subwoofer. Speakers are placed on the front corner shelves as it seems to be the place with the most even low-end response. I have tried moving them forward into the room, but they sounded worse, (measurements confirmed that too).
Currently the main speakers are spaced 135cm apart and my listening position is at the same distance from the speakers. Listening levels vary from roughly 60 to 95dBspl, but mostly 70-75dBspl.
I took a set of measurements following the invaluable tutorial by Soundman2020. (unfortunately, the only SLM at my disposal for calibration was a radioshack one and I also had to lower the level of the speakers to about 77dBspl as the L+R sweep clipped the input. Please forgive me Sir).
Link to REW measurements ISSUES:
Although the stereo image is fairly broad, I feel localization of elements is somewhat blurred, it may be the low end masking the upper range, in fact there’s too much of it, as well as being uneven and messy. The area between 400Hz - 900Hz is often a struggle and I can’t quite understand what the issue is there as sometimes I end up with too much of it, other times the opposite.
ACTION PLAN:
After much reading around in the forum I put together a list of treatments from which we could start a conversation.
One thing where I still have some confusion on is what density and thickness of absorption would work best in the different areas. And here is where I could do with some help, especially if someone here knows what’s available here in Italy.
What I can get from my local dealer is:
5cm Rockwool acoustic 225 Plus panel 70Kg/m3
They also have some lower density alternatives at 40Kg/m3, but they couldn’t tell me the name of the product.
Anyhow, here’s what I would do to the room:
• Back wall:
I believe the most critical area to treat is the back wall, so I’d like to leave it for last and focus on everything else first. Once all the other treatment will be placed, I will take measurements and decide what to do with the back wall then.
One thing I would do right away is placing a cubic chunky bass trap in the back-left corner above the radiator. Dimensions: 38x38x100h cm • Ceiling:
I’m not convinced all that space above the false ceiling is used to its maximum potential as I believe the way I built those hangers and the spacing between them is not making them effective at all.
Since this is the largest area where I could put bass trapping in, I would start by building a chunky bass trap all along the top back corner with the following dimensions: 50x50x218cm (for the whole width of the room).
Then I could put in new hangers properly built and properly spaced as described in this tread.
Would you put treatment on the walls and ceiling above the false ceiling or only one layer laid on the false ceiling is enough?
Another thing that came to mind is a slot resonator, what are your thoughts on this? Doable? • Side Walls:
I’m thinking to build two shorter (not floor to ceiling) but larger acoustic panels to replace the ones I’m using now. Dimensions:
RHS 100x120cm (LxH)
LHS 140x120cm (LxH)
• Entrance door on the RHS wall:
Absorption panel attached to the door. Dimensions: 70x194cm (LxH)
Here the depth of the panel could be up to 25cm if needed.
• Front wall:
In the area between the speakers, I will replace the fiberglass with larger panels of rockwool. (Here the usable depth is 18cm).
I will add absorption behind and all around the speakers.
The shelves above the speakers are currently used as bookshelves and I really like that, so I will leave the books there, but add a layer of absorption on the walls.
Regarding the bass traps in the lower corners, what do you think of the type and amount of fiberglass that’s in them? Well, I think there’s a lot of information here and thank you if you got this far. I will welcome all your thoughts, suggestions and also insults for such a long post
I thank everyone who will chime in with constructive comments!
Cheers,
Antonio
