Can an extremely small space work for tracking and mixing?

[Jeff Mosier]

I live in a 1 bedroom basement apartment in NYC. That right there should give you and idea of how small. The room I have to work with is 6ft X 6Ft. My desk is set up in there with all of my gear in it. I'm pretty satisfied with my mixes so far, but I'm wondering If a room this size can be acoustically treated? Also, what would be a great way to isolate a space in say my kitchen for vox? Any help would be great! Thanks,

Jeff

[John Sayers]

yes - you can definitely improve the acoustic of the room with some treatment.

Have you read the info here??

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

cheers
john

[MANDOLIN]

Depending on the amount of changes you can make to the room there is a lot you can do. If you can it would help alot to cover the walls with a foam like the one here:
http://www.illbruck-akustik-und-design. ... besysteme/

A foam like this will make the room much more acousticly challanged, and your neighbors will complain alot less. If you draw out an inscale drawing of the space you have to work with I'm sure someone would be glad to take a look at it and make further suggestions.

-Mando

[Jeff Mosier]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've just started really getting into this stuff. I love a lot of the mixes I've done, but now that I'm starting to put more money into this I don't want to cut corners. Granted I don't have millions, but I can afford to make some changes. Here is a small diagram of the room. The main object is my desk and the other part is where my rack is sitting. The room is 6 Ft by 6Ft. Quit small I know. The highs seem to very very bad when I take my mixes to other stereos to play it. The Low's tend to be a little bad as well.

[DDev]

Small spaces are pretty difficult to treat in the conventional manner. What I found that seems to work fairly well for my 8x8 space is to apply as much absorptive material on all surfaces as possible (I used a combination of Auralex wedgies and rigid fiberglass (OC703 or equivalent)). I also installed a corner bass trap. My mixes translate pretty well. At least the room is not as brittle in the high end as it used to be, which made it painful to mix.

Depending on where you live, you might find sources for materials in the "construction" forum that Knightfly is constantly updating.

Darryl.....

[John Sayers]

Jeff - just make sure you don't just deaden the highs. Covering with foam would do just that - you must take out some low-mids as well.

Your ceiling is a wall also and can be treated.

cheers
john

[Jeff Mosier]

So John, do you suggest I cover the walls and Ceiling with foam and traps in the corners? Thanks again everyone for your feedback.

[John Sayers]

Not at all - what I'm saying is that if you only use foam you will end up with a room that has all the highs tamed but the low end will not be affected as foam doesn't absorb low end.

If you build slot resonators they will absorb the low mids BUT will reflect/diffuse the high end so the highs will balance out against the low mids. It's all about balanced absorption.

For example look at Ethan's panels - they absorb the highs AND the lows. They are balanced.

cheers
john

[Jon Best]

I have an approach I think works pretty well for tiny rooms- first, cover all the walls in alternating high bass and low bass panel traps- Ethan's two types. Put in a hard floor. Now cover up to 50-70% of the walls in 703 or equivalent, hanging a little off the trap faces, but leave some gaps in between them. Make sure you've got 703 across the corners as well. Deaden the ceiling, again with 703, spaced off the ceiling if possible. Now, get a couple diffusors- either buy them, or just build polys. First, hang one over the mix position, angled so it's lower in the front, and with enough angle that you're not getting any bounce off of it from the speakers. Then put a couple diffusors (instead of the hanging 703) on the side walls, behind the mix position. Use light colors and interesting lighting to make it not feel like a refrigerator box- one idea might be lighting *behind* the hanging 703 panels.

That should give you a pretty damn tight room without being so dead you can't stand to be in it. The hard floor and diffusion will give you a little bit of life, but there's enough control in there that it shouldn't get too muddy. It also shouldn't cost more than a couple hundred bucks (unless you buy the diffusors) and a couple of weekends.

I also wouldn't bother getting monitors that went much below 60hz or so- you're kind of asking for it. Use headphones to make sure the bottom is smooth.

Jon

[Jon Best]

Oh, and the vocal thing in the kitchen- that's easy

Three boom mic stands set up with booms parallel to the floor, like a 'T'. big quilts/blankets over each one. Make a triangle around the singer. Record. Put away. Unless you have some absurd amount of exterior noise, you will never hear the difference between that and a $2000 vocal booth, I'd be willing to bet.