Much needed help with control room

Norm J. · Post by **Norm J.** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 10:34 am

Hi everyone. I have been checking this site out for a few weeks, and find everyone very informed and informative. Thanks for the lost sleep reading the many questions and answers. I have a problem I hope someone may be able to help with. My present basement studio which measures 20’X22 has a drum room, main studio and control room. I have been in this space for 9 years. Previous to this I had a smaller space. Now, after reading and seeing the beautiful designs that John has come up with, I can only lament not having this resource back 9 years ago.
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My studio is not built correctly based on what I have seen here. Here is my present problem. My contol room has a large low bass boost in the back right corner (where the client sofa is) . Of course this presents big problems with clients needing to here what is really happening. I am planning to redo the control room to fix some ergonomic problems and to try and fix this bass problem. I cannot completely rebuild the space. I have too many clients and no time to shut down for an extended period. I am hoping that I may be able to solve some problems with bass traps and absorbers. The main problem is that the room is not built correctly to start with.
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At the front wall there is a window into the drum room (where the speakers and console are located). At the left is a window into the studio. At the right is a slider to the outside. Behind the slider is a window. The walls are not angled and there are a lot of reflective surfaces. Now, I don’t seem to have a problem with reflections at the mix position and I have compensated for the bass issues so my mixes are fine ( I’ve been in this space a while so I’m used to it).

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Short of blowing the whole place up, does anyone have some suggestions as to what to do? I should mention that my initial thoughts include building a wall on the back left and install corner bass traps. I hope my poorly done diagram is readable.

Norm J. · Post by **Norm J.** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 10:48 am

Hopefully the layout will appear.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 10:52 am

Norm, you musta forgot to post the diagram, wanna try again?

Meantime, you mentioned basement but gave no ceiling height; is it a typically low ceilinged space?

If you have any room at all, this might be a good application for some portable treatments; like maybe a couple of soft/hard sided gobo's for alongside the mix table during mixing (when you don't need to see thru the glass) and if possible, move the couch to center rear and trap both rear corners with heavy diagonal broadband absorption -

floors - carpet, tile, wood, ?? Ceiling, ditto??

When you re-post, if you could include a few digital pix it would help get a better feel -

Merry Christmas, BTW... Steve

Norm J. · Post by **Norm J.** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 12:15 pm

knightfly wrote:Norm, you musta forgot to post the diagram, wanna try again?

Meantime, you mentioned basement but gave no ceiling height; is it a typically low ceilinged space?

If you have any room at all, this might be a good application for some portable treatments; like maybe a couple of soft/hard sided gobo's for alongside the mix table during mixing (when you don't need to see thru the glass) and if possible, move the couch to center rear and trap both rear corners with heavy diagonal broadband absorption -

floors - carpet, tile, wood, ?? Ceiling, ditto??

When you re-post, if you could include a few digital pix it would help get a better feel -

Merry Christmas, BTW... Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the quick reply and Merry Christmas to you. I will attach some quick pictures I just took of the control room for you. On top of the other problems in the space the ceiling is odd. There is a heating air line that goes the length of the space. The ceiling height is only 6'9" under the ducts and 7'6" on the other half. The floor under the mix area is laminated wood on concrete and the back area has carpeting under the sofa.

The equipment layout in the pictures will be changed. I have purchased an Argosy console and will be getting rid of the tall rack cabinet on the right.

Hope this information is helpfull and thanks for all your input.

Norman

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:03 am

Norman, there are quite a few things I can see that you may want to change, some might even help the "boom"

I'll have to get into this sometime tomorrow nite, I'm off to my last 12-hour night shift in a couple so couldn't do it justice for now.
Are those Genelecs or Behringers (no insult intended, just that the Behringers are obvious Genny knockoffs and the pic isn't high res enough to tell) - got some suggestions for that part too, but gotta go for now... Steve

Norm J. · Post by **Norm J.** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 12:23 pm

Hi Steve,

Any help would be appreciated. The monitors are Genelec 1031s and NS10s.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:43 am

Just a "quickie", gotta get some sleep before I drop -

http://www.genelec.com/support/faq/faq21.php

This info doesn't just apply to Genelecs, the physics is the same for ANY speaker -

Can you afford to lose a foot of space at the rear of your CR and center the couch more? Steve

Jon Best · Post by **Jon Best** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:50 am

First thing that occurs to me is to lay some 6 1/2" loose fiberglass batts on top of your drop ceiling, which will increase their effectiveness as low/low-mid absorbers. It's there already, might as well use it.

What's that space behind the right arm of the couch? some sort of little nook? It looks like it might be just a narrow space- if so, it'd be a prime candidate to hang some loose fiberglass in there, line it with the same, and put a permanent face across it made of fabric covered fiberglass.

That and as many panel traps as you can stand/build/afford around the walls.

Norm J. · Post by **Norm J.** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:20 am

knightfly wrote:Just a "quickie", gotta get some sleep before I drop -

http://www.genelec.com/support/faq/faq21.php

This info doesn't just apply to Genelecs, the physics is the same for ANY speaker -

Can you afford to lose a foot of space at the rear of your CR and center the couch more? Steve

Hi Steve,

Of course the space is very tight but I am willing to lose some space to make it work better. I am going away for 2 days (hopefully there is inernet access where I am going), so I may not respond immediately.

Norm J. · Post by **Norm J.** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:23 am

Jon Best wrote:First thing that occurs to me is to lay some 6 1/2" loose fiberglass batts on top of your drop ceiling, which will increase their effectiveness as low/low-mid absorbers. It's there already, might as well use it.

What's that space behind the right arm of the couch? some sort of little nook? It looks like it might be just a narrow space- if so, it'd be a prime candidate to hang some loose fiberglass in there, line it with the same, and put a permanent face across it made of fabric covered fiberglass.

That and as many panel traps as you can stand/build/afford around the walls.

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the reply. The one correct thing I did was put loose fiberglass above the suspended ceiling. The space to the right of the back control room wall is a 4'12" by 6' space that I was hoping to convert into a small vocal booth.

Norm J. · Post by **Norm J.** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 4:38 am

I have planned about 5 days down time for the studio in 1 1/2 weeks. I will start the process of changing the setup. At this point, it seems I need to start with the following.

1. Build John's bass traps for the back corners on either side of the sofa.

2. Build John's absorber for the back wall

3. Try to find the space to mount the speakers on stands (verticallly)

This would be a start I think. I have an Argosy console comming next week. The tall rack on the right side will go. The Argosy will take up more space but allow some rack gear to be closer at hand. How much space behing it would be necessary to place monitor stands? This is going to be tight.

Norman