John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello everybody,

My name is James, i'm from Poland. I think the time has come to make my bedroom studio more friendly for me. I've been thinking of posting my topic here for about a year and finally i do it (i also follow this forum for about a year).

MY TARGET: I'm not recording any instrument or vocals, only mixing in daw and do not have big budget, i don't want to do too much treatment, i'm want only standard treatment with DIY bass traps etc.

First i started with removing unnecessary things from my room as extra wardrobes, stools etc.
My problem is where to place bass panels and/or acoustic foams.

Dimensions: (sorry that i don't post it in inch system, because i'm not sure if i recalculate it properly, so i will keep it in meters)
Length: 4,38 m
Width: 3,68 m
Height: 2,70 m

I have carpet where i placed table, computer and stand-ins for my monitor. I need to keep my bed in room and one (biggest) wardrobe. Anything else what You see on photos i can throw out. At the back wall i have double window (0,45 m width, 1,40 m height). Windows are almost in center of the wall.
I'm living on the ground floor if it matters. The floor is made of plates.

Budget for treatment: 300 $ (I do not exclude adding extra 100 $ if it's needed)

1. I own Yamaha's HS80M. Is 8 inch woofer too big for my room? Do You recommend selling them and buying 5 inch from higher shelf (for example Adams)?
3. Should my ears be on the height level exactly between the woofer and twitter?

Thanks for help! I am waiting with patience for answer cheers

Hi James, and Welcome!!!

I'm not sure how I missed your post for so long, but sorry about that!

My problem is where to place bass panels and/or acoustic foams.

The best place for bass traps is in the room corners. Normally people think only of the four vertical corners, and those are good, but rooms also have horizontal corners... there are 12 corners in a rectangular room... All of them are good candidates for bass trapping.

I'm working not so loud, 40-50 db max, but i can go max for 80 db.

40 dB is practically inaudible. If you measured that with a sound level meter, then it needs calibrating! Most people mix at around 60 - 80 dB, and occasionally hit 100 for short periods, to check details. The "standard" calibration level for studios is 85 dB.

Dimensions: (sorry that i don't post it in inch system, because i'm not sure if i recalculate it properly, so i will keep it in meters)

Metric is fine! No problem.

I have carpet where i placed table, computer and stand-ins for my monitor.

Carpet is not a good idea for studios. The floor should be hard and reflective. can you take that carpet out? If not, then put something over it, such as large sheet of plywood.

1. I own Yamaha's HS80M. Is 8 inch woofer too big for my room? Do You recommend selling them and buying 5 inch from higher shelf (for example Adams)?

HS80M is a good speaker! No need to change that. It is fine for your room, too.

Placement and treatment:
Put each speaker about 28% of the room width away from the side walls. Your room is 3.68m wide, so the speakers will go 103cm from the side walls (that means the MIDDLE of the front panel of the speaker will be at 103cm from the side wall, and they will be about 162 cm apart, also measured at the middle of the front panel). The room is small, so they will have to go right up against the front wall, just leaving a 10cm gap for the absorption panels to fit in. The speakers must rest on very heavy, massive stands built so that the final height of the acoustic axis is 1.2 m above the floor (note: ACOUSTIC AXIS! Not the top or bottom of the speaker box, not the tweeter, not the woofer: it is the acoustic axes we are talking about. Ask your manufacturer where that is on your speakers.). Angle the speakers inward at about 30°: Set up your chair so that your ears will be about 170cm from the front wall. If you do all that correctly, then the acoustic axes should be aiming at your ears (not your eyes), and will intersect about 15cm behind your head. Now put thick absorption panels between each speaker and the front wall, about 90cm wide, using at least 10cm thickness of medium density insulation (30 kg/m3 if you use fiberglass, or 50 kg/m3 if you use mineral wool). Put two more panels made the same way on the side walls, such that the center of each panel is about 1m from the front wall. Cover the entire rear wall with at least 15 cm of insulation, except for the corners where your superchunk bass traps should be. Build a hard-backed cloud with at least 10cm of the same insulation, and at least 16mm plywood (better: 19mm) on top. The cloud should measure 240 cm wide by 120cm deep. Hang that over the front of the room, centered at about 1 m from the front wall, and tilted at an angle of at least 12°. Use chains to hang it, so you can adjust the angle and height later. Put plastic on that, to prevent the insulation fibers from filtering down all over you and your equipment.

That's the "standard" setup for a room with your dimensions. After you have that set up, then try moving things around a little to see if you can improve on it: move the speakers a bit further apart and a bit closer together, angle them slightly different, move your chair forwards and backwards a few cm, etc. and see if it sounds better with any of those arrangements.

Also download the free REW software, and use that to test your room, then post the resulting MDAT file here. Do two tests: one before you install the treatment, and another one after, so you can see what has changed and what still needs to be done. For each test, do one measurement with just the left speaker on, one with just the right speaker, and one with both. And make sure that the mic is in the exact same place in the room for both tests. Accurate to within a few mm.

3. Should my ears be on the height level exactly between the woofer and twitter?

Your ears should be wherever they normally are when you sit comfortably at your DAW. For most people, that turns out to be about 1.2m above the floor, which is why the speakers are set up the same way: acoustic axis 1.2m above the floor.


- Stuart -