I bet I have drawn it 30 different ways to get it to flow right.
Great! So now you only have another 50 or 60 ways left to try...
Seriously, you are definitely going about this the RIGHT way: Many people don't do that, and they end up with mediocre rooms. Try every single option you can think of, to make certain you didn't miss any possibilities, then take a closer look at the best 3 and tweak them some more, until one stands out above the others. That's the approach I often use for designing studios.
I did contact Focal and ask about them being soffit mounted, and their reply was "it should be fine and they have seen plenty of them in soffits". So one question down.
Great! One more decision out of the way, and that's a good decision. soffit-mounting is probably the single most important thing you can do to improve the overall acoustics of the room, and get it sounding as good as it can.
When I use the room modes calculator,( My dimensions are 16ftx12x7.9), am I trying to tweak the numbers and get the best curve shape and then apply that dimension to my build OR do I set my dimensions(the planned room) and it(the calculator) tells me the frequencies I need to try and tame leading me to the amount and type of treatment?
First take a look at the three BBC Critical tests. If you fail on any of those, then try again. Once those are all saying "pass", then compare your actual room ratio to the "closest match", and see where you are. If you are coming in close to one of the top 10, then you are doing OK. If you are in the top 5, the go buy a lottery ticket, before your lucky streak runs out...
Finally, as a last check, look at the Bonello plot and make sure there are no major "knees" in the curve. tiny dips are OK, as long as you are meeting all the other criteria.
That's all you need to be worried about. There is NO NEED AT ALL to try tweaking your dimensions down to tiny fractions of an inch, in order to get your ratio "perfect". There is no such thing as a perfect ratio, so you can never get there. As long as you are far away form the bad ratios and close to a good one, you are fine.
Here's another calculator that shows you your ratio as compared to the "Bolt Area". Bolt is the name of a scientist who did a lot of theoretical work on room acoustics, and that shaded area is what he came up with as containing the best ratios. If your ratio falls inside that area, then you are done:
http://amroc.andymel.eu/
2nd question is a newbie question...If I build a rectangle room, and then I add my soffits, bass trapping and other diffusion/clouds etc, is my room size the same size figuratively speaking? Or does it change as you add the false walls and absorption/diffusion etc?
Bass trapping does not change the room dimensions, but soffits do. Soffits are hard, solid, rigid, massive surfaces at the front end of the room, and they become the new front wall, so take all your measurements to those.
Since soffits are angled, you can no longer use those typical ratio calculators, as they only apply to rectangular rooms. As soon as you angle a wall, or change the number of walls, then they are no longer accurate. You can still get a rough idea of how the room will behave by using the average dimensions, but it won't be accurate. But that's OK! You'll have to measure the room response in any case, once it is completed, because reality doesn't always match prediction: It is far better to measure how the room is ACTUALLY responding and design treatment for that, rather than to just hope that it worked out he way theory said...
The reason I ask that is, when I punch in my numbers for my room size and it gives me my info and I start building the absorption, will it affect it a lot or is that where the room analyzing comes into play?
Absorption does not change the hard boundary surfaces of the room, which is what modal response and room ratios are all about. Low frequency waves go right through the absorption, hit the wall, and come back again, so it is the wall location that matters, not the front surface of the absorber.
(That said, the front surface of the absorber is what you use for calculations involving absorption! Just to confuse you...
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Would it benefit me if I just paid someone to design it instead of wasting my afternoons trying to learn the programs, cause I really need to be mixing after I get off work.
That is always an option, of course, and there are a couple of us here on the forum who offer that service. Or you can learn how to do it yourself, and save money!
Realistically, it takes about three to six months or so to learn the basics of acoustics well enough that you can design your own place successfully, then another three to six months to actually design it. After that, you can start building. So if you need to start building before May 2015, then it might be an idea to hire someone to design it for you. A good designer can probably have it done inside a couple of months, maximum (unless you have unusual requirements). But if you have the time to learn and do it yourself, then that's great! You'll have a really good understanding of how your studio actually works acoustically if you do that, which is always good to know when you are mixing.
So those are your choices: save money and spend the time to do it your self, or save time and spend the money to have someone do it for you...
If you want to learn yourself, then I'd suggest these two books to get you started: "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by F. Alton Everest (that's sort of the Bible for acoustics), and "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros", by Rod Gervais. They are both available on Amazon.com., and many other places.
The experts seem to be a little busy this week but there is a very good answer to this question in this thread:
Thanks for posting that, Marco! an excellent find... I had forgotten that I even wrote that!
- Stuart -
as the saying goes: "Pics, or it didn't happen!"