John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hey!
I have found the resources here to be a huge help setting up a project studio in my detached garage. Thank you all so much!
I have ended up building one small room for recording amplifiers, and a larger room that I use for monitoring and recording drums. The dimensions were basically dictated by the garage itself, so I am sure that I'm battling some room modes, but for the most part it sounds nice.

I don't currently have any acoustic panels behind or above my computer or monitors- what would be the best option here?

I do have bass traps in the corners of my monitoring/drum room, and 3 large traps on the long wall behind me when I'm at the computer. I am planning on ordering some speaker stands for my monitors, and pulling a bit further from the wall.

I have extremely thin carpet on the floor.

Right now, the room sound for drum recording is really bright, but it is nice and lively. I would love to figure out how to tame some of the harshness of the room, without making it completely dead.

How could I best approach treat my monitoring spot so that I can better hear what's going on with my tracks on playback, but also retain a little bit of the liveliness of the room for drum tracking? Is that impossible?

My space is 23.75' x 13.75'. I have my computer on the long wall. The ceiling slants from 9' to 7.5'.

Right now, my monitors are about 30" up off the ground, and the space behind my monitors I'm thinking I should treat is about 80".

I'm attaching some pictures here-

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

Here are a few shots of the large room I am hoping to figure out- including my computer station. I generally set up drums on the back wall in front of where I am storing the really big amps/cabs.

I think I need to put some cloud-type absorbers above my computer, and some absorbers behind my monitors. I believe I also need to invest in some proper speaker stands, and pull everything away from the wall a bit into the center of the room.

Welcome!

First off, sadly it is nearly impossible to have a killer listening environment AND a killer live room all in the same space. The only real option is to build variable acoustic panels. Do a search on the forum and I'm sure you'll find some examples.

Without a SketchUp drawing of the room, it's hard to see how everything fits, but it looks like your speakers are shooting down the short length of the room which isn't preferred for listening. However, you're in a pickle because of your ceiling angle. Having said that, you probably made the right choice to situate yourself there as a balanced stereo image is critical.

- You're right to put your speakers on stands. Except you shouldn't bring your speakers further out into the room. Only you and your desk. Aim to try and be at around 38% the length of your room. Put 4" of insulation on the wall behind your speakers and put the speakers right up to it.
- Take REW measurements (there's a step by step instruction on the forum). From there you can determine what you need to do.
- You have MANY more corners in which you can place bass traps. Make sure they're actual super chunk bass traps. Your tri-corners are very important so don't leave space in your traps above or below!
- The wall behind your mix position (the wall your speakers are firing at) should be as thick as you can afford space-wise worth of insulation. That will help with SO much.
- Regarding a cloud, you really have to check your REW measurements but you will prob need one!
- That's all control room prep though. It could totally screw up your live room goals.

How about you take some measurements and post your data for members to check out. Firstly, get your speakers on stands and have your mix position where should. From there, I'm sure you'll be able to get it sorted

Greg

HI there "mntrp", and Welcome!

I don't currently have any acoustic panels behind or above my computer or monitors- what would be the best option here?

Well, first of all, before doing anything else, you need to get the speakers off the desk and onto stands behind the desk! That current stup is not doing you any favors at all, and in fact is badly messing up the sound you hear at the mix position.

Once you have done that, you'll need to move the desk away from the wall such that your chair is about 1/3 of the depth of the room away from the front wall. A little more than 1/3rd, actually, but not much

Then push your speakers (on their stands, which must be very heavy, massive, and rigid) tight up against the front wall, except for a gap of 4". Put a 4" thick panel of Owens Corning OC-703 in that gap.

I do have bass traps in the corners of my monitoring/drum room,

Yes you do, but they aren't very big. I would suggest replacing those with much bigger ones: proper "Superchunk" style bass traps.

I am planning on ordering some speaker stands for my monitors, and pulling a bit further from the wall.

Yes! definitely! As I mentioned above, get very heavy stands: hollow steel ones if you can, then fill them with dry sand, for extra mass. And yes, you do need to pull your desk and chair back into the room, but not the speakers.

I have extremely thin carpet on the floor.

Remove it! It's not helping, and in fact is likely harming.

Right now, the room sound for drum recording is really bright, but it is nice and lively. I would love to figure out how to tame some of the harshness of the room, without making it completely dead.

Is this a control room, or a live room? It cannot be both at once. You can either treat it to be great for drums, or correct for mixing, but that is very, very different treatment. You could make variable treatment devices that can be moved in some way to modify the room acoustics (slide, open, close, flip, turn, rotate, etc.). That would allow you to do both, but that's not so easy to design and implement.

How could I best approach treat my monitoring spot so that I can better hear what's going on with my tracks on playback, but also retain a little bit of the liveliness of the room for drum tracking? Is that impossible?

Yes: it is impossible. Or rather, it is impossible with fixed acoustic treatment: but it CAN be achieved with variable acoustic treatment devices.

My space is 23.75' x 13.75'. I have my computer on the long wall.

In a large space like that, that's OK. Normally it is better to have the speakers firing down the longest axis, not the shortest axis, but with nearly 14 feet, that's borderline. Probably OK However, if you COULD rotate the orientation by 90°, to have the speakers on the short wall firing down the 24' length, that would be better.

The ceiling slants from 9' to 7.5'.

Which way does it slope? Side to side? Front to back?

Right now, my monitors are about 30" up off the ground,

Too low. The correct height is to have the ACOUSTIC AXIS at about 47" above the floor, or maybe a bit higher. Note that I said "acoustic axis"! Not the top or bottom of the speaker, nor the woofer or tweeter. Check the manual for your speaker to find out where the acoustic axis is...

Here's the instructions that Greg mentioned for doing the acoustic testing of your room: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =3&t=21122 .

- Stuart -