John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi,

can anyone advise on what would be the optimum listening position within this room please? I need to ascertain where to place my ceiling cloud and mixing console, but any advice on room treatment would also be very useful.

The room on the left in the plan will be the control room.

FWIW, the ceiling cloud will measure 240cm x 240cm. My mixing console is 225cm wide x 100cm deep.

Best regards,
Steve

In any rectangular room, the theoretical point that shows the least modal response issues is at 38% of the distance between the front wall and the back wall. The theoretical best location for speakers in that room is at about 28% of the room width, and right up against the front wall, angled inwards at about 30°, and set on massive, heavy, rigid stands (not on the desk or console), such that the acoustic axis of each speaker is 1.2m above the floor. Standard treatment for that room would be thick absorption (4" of OC-703) on the first reflection points, superchunks bass traps in the vertical corners and probably some of the horizontal corners too, and thick absorption across the entire rear wall (6" of OC-703): Once all of that is in place, run a test with the free REW acoustic analysis package and post the resulting MDAT file here, so we can download it and analyze it, to see what needs doing next. Actually do a REW test of the room BEFORE you put any treatment in it: with just the speakers and desk in place, so serve as the baseline data set, then do another test AFTER you have the treatment in place.

- Stuart -

That's great, thanks Stuart.

When you refer to the front wall, - which wall is that on the plan?

I'll run some tests asap, - once I have proper access to the new building (which could be anything between two and four weeks).

Many thanks,
Steve

When you refer to the front wall, - which wall is that on the plan?

Whichever one you choose! It should be one of the short walls, not one of the long walls: Generally, the speakers should be facing down the long axis of the room, not across it, so there is as much distance as possible between your head and the rear wall.

I'll run some tests asap, - once I have proper access to the new building (which could be anything between two and four weeks).

Some photos of the room would help us understand it better, so take your camera along the day you get access!

- Stuart -

Hi,
here are some some photo's....

It may be useful to mention that I will be filling the window (picture below) with mass, then covered with plywood,. Secondary glazing will be placed within a new frame, but only exposing the top arch of the window, so the bulk of the current window will be covered up.

Hi,
We are still not quite there with the lease on this building, but a concern has arisen that the side-walls are different in construction. One side has plasterboard with insulation while the other has no insulation behind the plasterboard and is set apart from the wall, -this is because the wall backs up on to earth and behind the plasterboard, there is a membrane to prevent damp entering the room. The shelving that runs along two walls, contains a channel for carrying moisture, caught behind the membrane to the outside. So plenty of scope for boxes and walls to resonate on one side!! Any ideas how best to mitigate this problem will be very welcome!