REW measurements - any advice appreciated

[tremayne]

Hi all,

I've recently moved and the only room I have to use for my studio is in my basement. It is fairly large compared to my last room, 13ft by 20ft, except for the bar area on the right side which is about another 5ft by 10ft, plus a counter in between, and a fireplace on the left side. From floor to ceiling it is about 7 1/2ft except in the middle it comes down about 10 inches for five feet, which goes across the ceiling where the ductwork is.

All walls and ceiling are drywall except in the bar area which has cupboards and small area of tiles.

I have a Primacoustics London 12 room kit, plus 2 Primacoustics Maxtrap corner basstraps and 2 Primacoustics Stratus Ceiling Clouds. I've laid the panels roughly where I want to put them (except the ceiling clouds I am planning to put above my listening position).

Right now I have 2 KRK Rokit 8's set up for the measurements. I put the mic in my normal listening position, on a 60 degree angle for the measurements, which are all about 5ft apart in a triangle. Speakers are roughly 2ft from the back wall. I used the Behringer ECM 8000 (I know it says not to use it but I bought it before I came across this forum).

Here's a link to my REW measurements and pictures of the room are below: https://www.dropbox.com/s/icgzjhe015b8a ... .mdat?dl=0

So before I start putting up the panels, I wanted to get some feedback in interpreting the REW measurements and see if anyone has any suggestions on what I can do to improve the room.

Thanks!

[gullfo]

some of the challenge of course will be the asymmetrical room configuration. you have a solid wall on one side, and an open space on the other, then you have the duct soffits which are only covering part of the room to a certain level, and then to another level on the other side. to me - facing the fireplace would provide the better symmetry but then its blocked for other use
my suggestion is place tall panels (maybe gobos?) and align that with the listening position to increase the balance on the alcove side, then add clouds on the ceiling to mask off the soffit differences where possible. and then some absorbers on stands behind you. and see where that leads.

[DanDan]

Distance between the Speakers and the Front Wall is bound to cause a strong SBIR null. Very often we measure better response with the speakers kissing the FW. http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room-set ... placement/
This may need a tweak to put the ball firmly in the net. e.g. if there is excess LF due to the boundary shelving boost, I would try blocking the reflex ports and or Eq. http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room-set ... placement/

[tremayne]

Hi Gulfo and DanDan, thanks for the info. I went through all the info on the Arqen page, thanks for that. A lot of useful info especially about the SBIR nulls I didn't know about. I moved my speakers close to the wall and did some prelim measurements and it looks like I have some nulls at around 95hz and 200hz. I still haven't put my treatment up completely yet (just laid up against the walls for now). So will continue to experiment with positioning after it's all up.

I have formulated a plan which I used the GIK room simulator, link to it here: https://gikacoustics.roomle.com/t/plann ... 0&shared=1

So this shows where I want to put up my panels on the walls, corner bass traps and 2 cloud panels above my listening position. Thing that I really don't know how to deal with is the alcove where the bar is. Is the panelling I put in enough on the right side or should I need more? Do I need paneling inside this area like I have in the simulator?

I also don't know what to put in the back of the room. More bass traps / diffusion?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[gullfo]

i put up some kind of solid barrier between your space and the alcove. a partition of 2x2 with 1/2" ply and R11 insulation inside. make 2 4'w x 8'h. use some corner brackets to secure to the ceiling and floor (we're not build a permanent structure just something dense enough to balance the space). then hang your reflection side absorption on those panels.