Basement--what to do?

[Brian Middleton]

Hi everybody,

Yet another basement project studio owner in need of advice....

I've attached a JPEG of the studio, which uses an open, one-room plan. The bottom of the picture is the control room area, with the mix position facing the bottom wall. The irregular gray stuff lining the left edge represents the stone foundation of the house, which is very rough; all the other walls are sheetrock. The 7' ceiling is also sheetrock, with loose fiberglass stuffed into the joist cavities and a layer of soft fiberboard (Celotex, I think?) behind the sheetrock. The floor is cement, mostly covered with large area rugs.

The room doesn't sound all that bad...I think the stone foundation may give me some diffusion? I don't hear any flutter echoes; it comes out pretty clean on the clap test. Overall it's on the dead side, but not stone dead.

Listening to commercial music, the overall impression is an overemphasis in the heart of the midrange, say in the two octaves from 750-3K. It's a little higher than "boxy," a little lower than "harsh," more like "overheated." The high end seems a little truncated, and I sometimes find that my mixes have too much energy crowded into the 10-13K range, which is probably me fighting to bring some air out.

I have some problems with bass definition, and my mixes tend to come out boomy outside the room, so I'm pretty sure I would benefit from some bass trapping. One problem I have as far as placing bass traps is that door in the lower right corner. It's a sort of trapdoor, not a full-sized door, built to allow access to the back of a rack cabinet that stands in the corner. The rack is being dismantled (I'm using more plug-ins and fewer outboard processors these days), but I might want to keep an opening there for egress/safety reasons, since the mix position is pretty far from the only other door (upper right). Is it possible to install a trap that can be swung out of the way in an emergency?

The other issue I'm concerned about is that concave bay-window wall to the left of the mix area. Does this need any special attention? Obviously it makes the mix area asymmetrical, but I don't know how serious a problem that is.

Any advice about directions to go with this space? Would a few bass traps take care of things? Should I do anything to the ceiling around the mix area? How about the front wall? Right now there's nothing in particular there, just a few open shelves holding stuff that could be easily moved. Should I have some absorbers here?

Many, many thanks for any & all advice...

[Ethan Winer]

Brian,

> an open, one-room plan <

I favor that for project studios because it's better to have one room that's large enough to get a good low end response, rather than two rooms each to small to sound good. In your case it works out well, because that avoids having a wall right behind the mix position.

> Is it possible to install a trap that can be swung out of the way in an emergency? <

Yes, but you probably don't have to bother. Just put bass traps in all the other corners where you can.

> concave bay-window wall to the left of the mix area <

If you put absorption on both sides that will reduce the effect of a lack of symmetry.

> Would a few bass traps take care of things? <

No, but a dozen or more will.

> Should I do anything to the ceiling around the mix area? <

Yes, add absorption to stop the first reflections.

--Ethan