John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello there,

It's my first post here but I've been around for couple of weeks now just reading and gaining knowledge from this great forum as well as other places and books I found here.
I'm planning to move my composers workshop to a dedicated room wich is rectangular and very small (2,59mH x 2,1mW x 2,9mL = 8ft 6in H x 6ft 10ft W x 9ft 6in L). All plastered concrete.
I decided to do some reading and designing before I'd do anything but of course I am full of doubts and unknowns.
Main four corners would be superchunk triangle based basstraps 60x40 (2ft x 1ft 4in) made of european substitute for OC703 and same treatment on ceiling. Giving me 8 out of 12 corners covered.
On first reflections I plan to install panel absorbers OC703 4ft x 3ft 8in x 3in deep +1in airgap behind (frame). As you can see it's all absorption. But I read that in a tiny rooms like this it's all about basstraping.
I attached my design pictures exported from Sketchup. And I have couple of questions:

1. On the back wall from wich I have 2,4m x 0,9m (8ft x 3ft) left - should I go with the Absosption or maybe Diffusion ? Or can I leave it reflective with some bookshelf, guitar hangs etc??

2. Do I need to install cloud on whats going to be left on ceilig 1,7m x 0,9m ( 5ft 8 in x 3ft)? And if so should it be BT or Difusers or maybe sth else like the mixture of two in example?

3. As room is tiny, in left bottom corner, behind basstrap I have air cavity and was planning to arrange some mic/cable storage there (basstrap would be on hinges with small wheels so it can act as door as well ), but maybe it would be better to fill it with rockwool??

4. Door and oposite wall - should I cover it with absorbers, difusors or leave untreated.

5. Do you think corner superchunks of that size are efficent enough or maybe I should go with let's say 5in panels with airgap. I decided to do super chunks as it wastes less space in my rathole and they are suposed to work better (wider q) .

6. I decided to wallmount my Event Opals as there's no room for them. They will be mounted on a face of superchunk (attached to concrete wall). They are big and i can't tatally soffit mount them because basstrap is to shallow. Is partly recessed mounting better than installin them on surface of basstrap?


The room will be used for composing/mixing, low SPLs and I want best freqency response/decay times I can make out of it, wich is obvious. So if any of you guys have any advice for me I would be very greatfull.

Please forgive my English. And yes I need 4 monitor pairs cause I love em all.

Any help would be appreciated.

Jurgen

Hi Jurgen. Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things!

I decided to do some reading and designing before I'd do anything but of course I am full of doubts and unknowns.

I'd suggest two books: "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.

On first reflections I plan to install panel absorbers OC703 4ft x 3ft 8in x 3in deep +1in airgap behind (frame). As you can see it's all absorption. But I read that in a tiny rooms like this it's all about basstraping

You still need absorption on your first reflection points. You suprechunk plan looks good for the bass-trapping point of view.

1. On the back wall from wich I have 2,4m x 0,9m (8ft x 3ft) left - should I go with the Absosption or maybe Diffusion ? Or can I leave it reflective with some bookshelf, guitar hangs etc??

The room is too small to be able to use most types of diffusion, so I would make that back wall absorptive.

2. Do I need to install cloud on whats going to be left on ceilig 1,7m x 0,9m

Probably only at the first reflection point up there, roughly over the desk. You might need some more further back, but I'd wait until you have the rest in place, then test the room to see if it does need that.

3. As room is tiny, in left bottom corner, behind basstrap I have air cavity and was planning to arrange some mic/cable storage there (basstrap would be on hinges with small wheels

That would be fine.

Door and oposite wall - should I cover it with absorbers, difusors or leave untreated.

Here too I would leave it for now, and wait until you have the rest in place, then test the room to see if it does need that.

5. Do you think corner superchunks of that size are efficent enough

They should work well, but if you can make them even bigger, they would work better.

6. I decided to wallmount my Event Opals as there's no room for them. They will be mounted on a face of superchunk (attached to concrete wall). They are big and i can't tatally soffit mount them because basstrap is to shallow. Is partly recessed mounting better than installin them on surface of basstrap?

I would just put them on stands, in front of the superchunks. That's not the ideal position, but it's the only one you have available. Make the stands very heavy (massive!).

And yes I need 4 monitor pairs cause I love em all.

I would strongly suggest that you re-think that! Those speakers are taking up a very large amount of space, which is pushing your chair too far back into the room, close to the worst possible location for your head: the middle of the room. You also show the speakers mounted on the desk, and on a shelf above the desk, but that's a really bad idea for many reasons. I would suggest that you just pick your best pair of speakers, and use those. Put the others in another room someplace, for checking your mix.


- Stuart -