Newbie seeking advice on acoustics

RichR · Post by **RichR** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:16 pm

Hey peoplez!
I found this site at Ethan's forum and think that it's a really great one. If I knew before that I could get so much design advice I would have a much better studio. Unfortunately, I already started and built the main separations and now I need some advice on how to deal with the acoustics. I'm attaching a roughly made layout of what I've done.

The walls are all concrete ones.
I'm thinking that the best thing to do is to built finishing walls as wood panel bass traps with different plywood thicknesses and vertically inclined outward. Behind the speakers however, the wall would have to be inclined inward and the ceiling downward from the front to the back.
I truly would like not to do these things because my space is already limited and it's much more work for me. I'm kind of looking for an easier but practical way out of all this work. But if it's what I should do then I'll do it.

Any feedback will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

RichR · Post by **RichR** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 11:12 am

Anything?.....at all!?

I'm supposed to restart with construction on Sunday and would like to detail my plan before we begin.

Am I on the right track with my acoustical ideas? Is vertical inclination of the walls too much for rooms that small?

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:03 pm

RichR - as you haven't added any treatment I'd swing the console around and face the boiler/office wall. This will alow the speakers to fire down the long dimension of the room. I'd then deaden the bottom wall as much as possible.

cheers
john

RichR · Post by **RichR** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:42 am

Hi John,
There are two problems with doing that:

First, the door of the office would be blocked, and if I would try to leave enough space in front of the console for it, the distance advantage would be voided.

Second, the room is already shaped this way with concrete walls. It's impossible for me at this time to rebuild them.

As I said before, if I knew I could get so much great advice with the design of the studio, it would turn out much better. That's why I'm trying to make it work the best that I can now.

Thanks for your input.
Any other ideas with the setup I have?

RichR · Post by **RichR** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 6:15 am

Here is what I was thinking:

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 3:35 pm

Rich, once again sorry for blowing up at you over on RO - I'm usually pretty mellow, I must have finally reached my limit what with all the crap that's hit the fan around here lately -

Anyway, I'll try to help where I can - Barefoot's the moderator here, but he's been really pushing trying to "roll out" his new speaker company, and is probably at least twice as stressed as I was earlier -

You confused me with your ceiling slope descriptions - both ways you worded it still left me wondering if it's to be high in front of the room and low behind the mix position, or otherwise. If you're going for RFZ, the ceiling should be low in front of the mix position, rising to the rear.

If you can, I'd make those front corners bigger and angled inward by 30 degrees, so you can have the option of flush mounting your speakers at a later date (much cleaner sound field that way)

The rear of your CR is too close for anything but heavy absorption - any room smaller than about 20-25 feet across should be absorbed - greater minds than mine agree with this...

Tilting the frames of your front wall inward at the top will help the RFZ, and you can use the space behind the paneling for bass hangers, which your concrete "bunker" will need bunches of (bass trapping, that is) - rigid walls don't flex and absorb low end like paneled walls do, so all that energy is still rattling around. Variously tuned Ethan Winer type bass traps should be around the entire perimeter of your ceilings where possible to kill some of the bass.

Speaking of concrete, is that the only "leaf" your walls have, just the concrete? Here are some variations on what you could do with the walls to improve sound isolation, and possibly a bit of bass trapping built in -

Gotta go for now, still on extra shifts at work... Steve

RichR · Post by **RichR** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 4:44 am

Steve,
Your input was very helpful to me in deciding how to go about building my walls.
Hope everything works out for you at work so you can come back and continue to shed some light on us.

Thanks.

RichR · Post by **RichR** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 12:23 pm

Hello all,
Here are the changes I've made. Is it closer to a working acoustical plan?
Since I can't test before I build the walls, which thicknesses of plywood do you think I should use to get the best absorbtion on the widest range of bass frequencies?

Some feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:24 pm

Rich, now that the site's back up can you answer my questions (previous post) about which way your ceiling slope is? A side view drawing would work best. I'll try to get back tomorrow afternoon for a bit, I'm doing 12-hour graveyard shifts trying to rebuild after the fire... Steve

Eric Best · Post by **Eric Best** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:53 pm

Hey Steve,

This is kind of looking like a Newell shaped control room, do you think he could do the same kind of membrane/hanger configuration on the back wall, or is the 2 feet of space it would take up too precious?

RichR · Post by **RichR** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:31 am

Steve,
Here is my best try of a quick illustration of the front wall. Hope that helps a little.

Eric,
Maybe Steve will be able to comment on the membrane configuration cause I have no idea what it is about.

Thanks.

Post by **John Sayers** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 10:04 am

Rich - your plan is missleading in your scale - the console isn't that big.

This is how I'd do it. You still have access to the office and the window allows sight to the studio. If you could shut off the upstairs door and access upstairs some other way it would be even better.

BTW the desk, doors and couch etc are to scale.

cheers
john