John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hey Guys.

My name is Christian and Im a producer, mixer and filmscore composer from Norway.

I am soon to be treating my new mixing room and I would really appreciate some tips from you guys. Ive read allot on the forum and other sources and while I feel I`m learning, I also understand more and more what a vast subject acoustics is.

I am renting my room so rebuilding, putting up new walls etc. is not an option.
I also share the room with a company working with color grading for film. Therefore, the big projector screen needs to be where it is and visible. Also, the Grading desk and sofas cannot be moved.

My thought on how to treat the room would be Bass Traps (superchunks) in all four corners, (the front wall corners doesn’t leave much space for deep traps but maybe an angeled solution could work. Diffusers on all first reflection spots, a ceiling with absorbing panels over mixing position(probably needs to be glued to the ceiling itself because it will be in the way of the projector if I lower it).

The room is:

8.795 meters long
4.415 meters Wide
2.770 meters High

(Sorry for the metric)

Front Wall - Painted Concrete with projector screen
Left Wall - Painted Light Cardboard Wall
Right Wall - Painted Concrete wall with three windows
Rear Wall - Painted Concrete


In the back of the room there are two higher plateus, plateu 1 is 20cm higher than main floor, plateu 2 is 86cm higher than main floor. (All included in the sketchup drawings).

The right wall has 3 windows: 1.88m high, 1m wide and 31cm deep. The windows has heavy folded drapes I can use when mixing.

A ventilation tube comes in at the rear wall, runs through the whole studio and turns left along my front wall. This tube will prevent me from running a bass trap floor – ceiling on the left side. On the right wall the distance between windows and ceiling is 61 cm.
Maybe a good space to mount panels.


Both side walls have 6 mounted lamps in approximately ear hight. Right wall lamps is not included in the drawing because I am new to sketchup and I simply couldn’t do it without messing everything else up.

My budgett is in the DIY range. I want to spend as little as possible and do the work myself, (with help from my carpenter brother). Getting it done for less than 2000$ would be good, although the results is absolutely the most important thing here and I have money to expand the budgett some if it will make a noticable difference. Also, all installation that will be possible to bring along the day I move is a good thing.

I am working on ATC scm50 mid field monitors so getting the room to work good is important. I will also be tracking vocals in the room.

What do you guys think? I hope the room has potensial of being a good mixing-room.

I have gotten hold of FuzzMeasure and can make measurements of the room.

Thanks for a great forum and so much great reading.

Pictures and Sketchup drawings attached. The pictures came out pretty dark. Not much light in the room so far.

Cheers,
Christian.

it looks like you have enough space to put in the super chunks in the corners - remember wall-ceiling corners can also be used. since you have to keep things flat, using 4" (100mm) thick absorbers placed in first reflection points and over the desk. scattered around the room as well. one option is to have the cloud hang below the projector so its unobstructed - assuming that meets your height needs.

gullfo wrote:it looks like you have enough space to put in the super chunks in the corners - remember wall-ceiling corners can also be used. since you have to keep things flat, using 4" (100mm) thick absorbers placed in first reflection points and over the desk. scattered around the room as well. one option is to have the cloud hang below the projector so its unobstructed - assuming that meets your height needs.

Hi!

Thank you very much for answering. When building the superchunks, can I just build a frame, fill it with isolation and place it in the corner or does it have to be mounted firmly to the walls? Would be great to build something I can bring with me later.
I see some people NOT building them all the way up to the ceiling. Is there a reason for that? I assume the more isolation you put in the more effective it will be?

Are there any specific dimensions the superchunks should be, or would you just build them as wide as the corner allows?

What about my back wall, would it make a difference if I put up some sort of diffusers there or is it so far back from my mixing position it won´t matter much?

"using 4" (100mm) thick absorbers"
Is there any specific material I should go for?

So many questions.. Thank you for helping out

Best,
Christian.

Super chunks are typically based on 2'x4' (600mm x 1200mm) rigid insulation cut so you have a 2' x 2' edges on the triangle which fits into the corner. The wood strips will hold it plus the tacked on cloth. You could remove them later if you keep the strips attached with screws instead of nails and glue. The insulation is typically 4" (100mm) thick @ 48kg/m3 (3lb/ft3).

Thank you very much Glenn!

I will start building over christmas and report back.

Thank you.

Best,
Christian.