John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I was hoping to get some help making the best decision regarding where to place things in my project studio. i've attached sketchup files for the rooms.

I just moved, and in this house I've got two rooms to choose from. But both are a little weirdly shaped. i would like to be able to track bands, one instrument at a time if necessary, and spend a lot of time mixing.

neighbors aren't really a problem. playing guitar in the basement i recorded the sound level at ~100db. there aren't a lot of extraneous noises leaking in either. no traffic noise or anything.

the basement is a tile floor and block walls. the ceiling is exposed joists.
the other room is a wood floor and normal sheet rock walls.

my current plan is to use the basement for tracking, but i'm concerned that it's too asymmetrical.
and i planned to use the other room for mixing and listening, but again i'm concerned that the shape of it is too odd.

in the basement i planned to hang a cloud over the drums, and stand some absorbing panels around the drums while recording to cut down on the energy that will reflect around the room. i also planned on bass trapping the tri-corners.

my budget is around $500, but i can do more over time.

does this seem like the best plan for my situation? thanks in advance for any insight you can give me.

oh i forgot to mention, not listed in the sketch for the bedroom there is a door immediately to the right of the door shown that is a closet.

also, when walking into the room, the walls to the left and straight ahead are outside walls, with the one in front having a window. the wall to the right is an inside wall with a rather large crawlspace behind it. i only mention it because i wonder if the cavity there is useful at all for absorbing low frequencies.

i've started moving forward setting up to mix in the upstairs room.
i built some superchunks with roxul safe'n'sound cut into triangles.
i plan on building units for the second half of the wall to the ceiling as well when i get a chance.

here are waterfall plots taken with REW before and after.

here's an image version of the sketchup file i attached to the first post in case it's more convenient...

thanks in advance for any help or insight

Hi "cbhris", and welcome!

here are waterfall plots taken with REW before and after.

There certainly seems to be an improvement there; the modes at aprox. 160 Hz and 380 Hz have shorter decay times and lower amplitudes. But the rooms obviously still needs a lot more bass trapping, and other treatment too.

Also, it would help to see the actual MDAT file from REW, as there are many, many ways of looking at it, to better understand what is going on in the room.

my current plan is to use the basement for tracking, but i'm concerned that it's too asymmetrical.

For tracking, asymmetrical is GOOD! It's only the control room where symmetry is needed, but a tracking room can be pretty much any shape you want it to be. So don't worry about that.

and i planned to use the other room for mixing and listening, but again i'm concerned that the shape of it is too odd.

It is unusual, but if you look around the forum you'll find that other people have similar shaped rooms, and were able to make the usable with good layout and good treatment.

You seem to be on the right track in general.

- Stuart -

Thanks for the reply!

I've been trying to upload the mdat files, but the upload keeps timing out.
I'll keep trying. Thanks for the help.