John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello,

I'm finally at the point where the extension on our house has a room I can use as a music room, I wouldn't call it a studio yet. I still have the second door to fit and inner leaf windows. There are certain things like window position and door position that were dictated by the rest of the house layout and the fact I need to make this room useful to someone else as a normal room if we ever need to sell the house.
As a result you will see I have a window in a less than ideal position, to the right of my proposed mix position, from reading around and experience I'll need to have some hanging treatment to catch reflections here. I'll also have thick floor to ceiling curtains.
I'm getting to a stage where I want to look at using REW to start treating the room the best I can. Would you be able to help me work out the best position for my nearfield monitors and mix seating position from the floorplan provided?
Sorry I've tried to use Sketchup and for some reason it just confuses the hell out of me, I hope I've provided enough measurements on my drawing to account for it not being to scale? I'm assuming that once I have the correct placement for my nearfields and seating position so I can set up the measurement mic I would be best to have everything in the room that's going to be in there? There will be a sofa and amps etc. From my understanding all these items will affect the acoustic characteristics of the room? I understand that I don't want to be in the room while the test runs though.

In someways the other end, where the door is might have been a better end to put the mix position but I had to put the AC plenum cupboard (this is a wood cupboard built around an wall mounted AC unit) where it is to access the outside. Anyway it's done now and can't be changed so I have to make the best of what I have. I'm just trying to achieve the best I can with the room I have.

If there is an option to have the monitors tight up to the wall I'd like to go with that to maximise the space in the rest of the room for musicians, I also use this room to rehearse with my band. I have some large Adam P22A monitors that I do need to sit a reasonable distance from though.

Thanks for any advice.

I'm assuming that once I have the correct placement for my nearfields and seating position so I can set up the measurement mic ...

Something like this, as a rough estimate:
That's about as good as you can reasonably get, for such a long thin room.

I would be best to have everything in the room that's going to be in there?

No. It would be best to have NOTHING in there, except your speakers and the mic, so you can get a valid base-line measurement of the empty room. That will show up the true colors of the room, in all their ugly detail, revealing the major issues that need to be dealt with first.

Here's how to set up, calibrate, and run your first tests: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =3&t=21122

From my understanding all these items will affect the acoustic characteristics of the room?

Yes they will, which is why you do NOT want them in the room for the baseline tests! They might hide or modify or change some of the acoustic issues.

If you want, feel free to put them all in after you do the baseline test, so you can see what effect they might be having, but them take them out again when you start the treatment, so you can properly test each round of treatment, to check that is behaving as expected.

I understand that I don't want to be in the room while the test runs though.

Right .

If there is an option to have the monitors tight up to the wall

That's what I did for the above layout. It's the best option for this room, since it isn't really big enough to have the speakers far enough away from the wall and still have a good layout for the mix position.

I have some large Adam P22A monitors that I do need to sit a reasonable distance from though.

Why? The manual does not specify a minimum distance as far as I can see, and they are supposedly "nearfield" monitors (whatever that might mean! don't get me started.... , so why do you think you'd need a larger than typical distance for them? What distance did you have in mind, as being the "minimum" for those? How did you arrive at that distance?



- Stuart -

Hi Stuart,

Very kind of you to take the time to generate the diagrams for me.

I’ve measured out the positions you’ve shown for the speakers and listening position.
The one potential issue I can see is that I have a desk in front of me, once the studio is setup.
On this desk I have my DAW keyboard and mouse but also the computer monitor so I can see what I’m mixing/editing. With the near field monitors in these positions the back of the computer monitor will block a fair bit of the sound waves as they travel from the speakers to the listener. Can I adjust the listening position to be closer to the wall without compromising things too much? Even on a first listen I can hear some bass issues, things sound pretty boomy and muddy in the Low end. I’m still waiting on the carpenter to get the internal windows made, until these are done there’s no point in doing any REW analysis. I’ll get back when I’m at this stage.

Thanks again

On this desk I have my DAW keyboard and mouse but also the computer monitor so I can see what I’m mixing/editing. With the near field monitors in these positions the back of the computer monitor will block a fair bit of the sound waves as they travel from the speakers to the listener

Unless your monitor is very large, or not centered, then there should not be a problem. It's best to have the monitor as low as possible anyway, preferably starting at desk level. There's rarely a problem with the screen blocking the tweeters, unless, as I mentioned above, you have a very large monitor, or you have it off-center.

What size is your monitor?

Even on a first listen I can hear some bass issues, things sound pretty boomy and muddy in the Low end.

Right. The room is empty and untreated. That's exactly how it will sound!

- Stuart -