John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi I am fighting with a very small control room and I'm trying to decide how to acoustically treat it and not lose too much space. The room is 9'-10" by 11' and the ceiling are 8' high. I enclosed a floorplan image below (I hope I enclosed it correctly). Right now I have nothing up and I have problems with too much room reflections and I have problems hearing the bass at my mixing position.

I was going to purchase 4 or more of Ethan's Mini traps but I realize that they will take up too much space (4" thick and spaced off of the walls). Also I only have 2 corners that those traps could fit in. Instead of that, I am considering adding Auralex bass traps on the back wall between the wall and the ceiling and also on the front wall between the wall and ceiling. I'm only considering these because they are about about 12" thick and I only have 12.5" between the top of the door frame and the ceiling. I am going to install fabric over the top of them because they are so ugly. I want them to look like they are part of the wall and not just a pice of foam stuck on the wall.

I am also considering putting 703 panels, aobut 1"-2"off the walls, with fabric over the top of them on some of the other walls for mid/high reflections.

Am I on the right path? My budget is not huge and I don't want acoustic treatments to take up too much space, or look too ugly.

Thanks for your help.
B.

BC,

> I was going to purchase 4 or more of Ethan's Mini traps but I realize that they will take up too much space (4" thick and spaced off of the walls). Also I only have 2 corners that those traps could fit in. <

For low frequencies we always recommend putting MiniTraps in corners, rather than spaced off the wall. Besides the regular wall-wall corners, most rooms have a lot of available space in the ceiling corners.

Although there are smaller absorbers available, they don't absorb as much. The more surface area you cover, the better the results. I wish there were a way we could invent a small device that would absorb low frequencies as well as MiniTraps, but it's just not possible.

--Ethan

Make use of the ceiling and where the walls meet the ceiling.

Where the wall meets the ceiling is where I would like to approach the bass trapping. On the wall in front of my mixing desk I could use 2 MiniTraps and on the back wall I only have enough space (because of the 2 french doors) to use Auralex LENRD Bass traps (because I only have 12" of space above the door frame). Will using LENRD traps on the back wall be enough help if I use the MiniTraps on the front wall?

Ethan, I have a question for you. If I use your MiniTraps on the wall in front of my mixing desk and span it across where the ceiling meets the wall will I still need to add 703 panels below them for the mid/high absorbtion or will your MiniTraps absorb bass and the mid/high frequencies?

BC,

> I only have 12" of space above the door frame <

You can still put a MiniTrap there. It doesn't have to be at exactly a 45 degree angle. At 45 degrees a MiniTrap extends about 19 inches in each direction. But you can put it at a lesser angle - more parallel to the ceiling - and it will still work much better than a foam corner.

> If I use your MiniTraps on the wall in front of my mixing desk and span it across where the ceiling meets the wall will I still need to add 703 panels below them for the mid/high absorbtion or will your MiniTraps absorb bass and the mid/high frequencies? <

MiniTraps also absorb mid and high frequencies, and you can see the curve of absorption versus frequency on that page of our web site. Unless your loudspeakers are pointed at the front wall instead of away from it MiniTraps at the top of the front wall will do a great job of tightening up the low end and the mids and highs.

--Ethan