Small control room treatment advice
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 1:31 am
I recently soundproof'ed a 36 cubic meter room to be used as an experimental control room. I develop DSP and I'm also in the process of producing an electronic music album. So, this room ideally needs to help with my sound designing and mixing.
Currently, the room has no treatment.
Side walls and the front wall are brick, ceiling and floor concrete, and the back has a 2-leaf dual wall (drywall, 4 inches of rockwool, air gap, 4" rockwool, dry wall). There were two windows which were sealed using the same insulation and drywall at the front and on one side. Extremely satisfied with the sound-proofing part which was a much needed aspect of this project due to the noise in the environment.
*Please see the attached image for a summary of dimensions. Notice that the equilateral triangle between speakers and the listening position is slightly behind the listening position, contrary to what is shown in the sketch.
Room dimensions (all in meters):
W = 3.24
L = 3.94
H = 2.83
Volume = 36.13 m3
I followed Soundman2020's REW guide to get the results in the link below (exactly in the format he recommended).
Dropbox Link
Equipment and measurements:
The room is mostly empty (just the speakers, a large electric piano, small table with computer screen). However, it has two 6” ventilation pipes running on the left wall and on the ceiling near the back, and collectively there’s around 5 meters of large pipe running by the walls.
Speakers: Genelec 8050Bs; no subwoofer
Mic: Personus PRM1
No EQ added in the speakers.
Speaker position: I followed Genelec’s own guide to place these monitors in the room. They are 1m from the side walls, 0.5 meter from the front wall and creates a 1.07 meter equilateral triangle with the listening position which is at a little over 1/3 of the room length. Tweeters are 1.2 meters from the floor. Ideally, I prefer these speakers to be a bit further away from the listening position, but due to the room dimensions and all factors considered, this is the best placement I found for them so far.
Mic position/listening position: 1.47 from the front wall; 1.62 from side walls; height is 1.085 from the floor. Since the tweeters are slightly higher, the speaker is angled down a little.
I’m not sure if a detailed treatment can be drawn for this room at this time before adding some basic treatment first. But, this is what I’m planning to do:
1. Fill the 4 corners with rock wool and seal with drywall. Side length of the isosceles right triangle is to be decided.
2. Two early reflection absorbers on the sides, 4” 50kg/m3 rock wool
3. Horizontal absorber on the front wall, i.e. in front of the listening position, same thickness and density as above
4. Add a 1m long diffuser on the back wall (after another test)
Finding material in my location is a bit difficult. So, if you have ideas for certain membranes, please provide some alternatives too (maybe less effective). At the moment, I’m mainly concerned with the corner traps, in terms of how large they should be (I'm thinking of 12" depth from the middle point to the corner, so it takes about 1.5 feet of wall from the corners).
Ideally, I would like to avoid unsealed rock wool because this stuff easily affects me. So, diffusers are preferred. Since they can be made with wood, it also helps with avoiding the hassle of finding and shipping materials to my location. I also like the idea of the room sounding larger.
Thank you for your advice.
Currently, the room has no treatment.
Side walls and the front wall are brick, ceiling and floor concrete, and the back has a 2-leaf dual wall (drywall, 4 inches of rockwool, air gap, 4" rockwool, dry wall). There were two windows which were sealed using the same insulation and drywall at the front and on one side. Extremely satisfied with the sound-proofing part which was a much needed aspect of this project due to the noise in the environment.
*Please see the attached image for a summary of dimensions. Notice that the equilateral triangle between speakers and the listening position is slightly behind the listening position, contrary to what is shown in the sketch.
Room dimensions (all in meters):
W = 3.24
L = 3.94
H = 2.83
Volume = 36.13 m3
I followed Soundman2020's REW guide to get the results in the link below (exactly in the format he recommended).
Dropbox Link
Equipment and measurements:
The room is mostly empty (just the speakers, a large electric piano, small table with computer screen). However, it has two 6” ventilation pipes running on the left wall and on the ceiling near the back, and collectively there’s around 5 meters of large pipe running by the walls.
Speakers: Genelec 8050Bs; no subwoofer
Mic: Personus PRM1
No EQ added in the speakers.
Speaker position: I followed Genelec’s own guide to place these monitors in the room. They are 1m from the side walls, 0.5 meter from the front wall and creates a 1.07 meter equilateral triangle with the listening position which is at a little over 1/3 of the room length. Tweeters are 1.2 meters from the floor. Ideally, I prefer these speakers to be a bit further away from the listening position, but due to the room dimensions and all factors considered, this is the best placement I found for them so far.
Mic position/listening position: 1.47 from the front wall; 1.62 from side walls; height is 1.085 from the floor. Since the tweeters are slightly higher, the speaker is angled down a little.
I’m not sure if a detailed treatment can be drawn for this room at this time before adding some basic treatment first. But, this is what I’m planning to do:
1. Fill the 4 corners with rock wool and seal with drywall. Side length of the isosceles right triangle is to be decided.
2. Two early reflection absorbers on the sides, 4” 50kg/m3 rock wool
3. Horizontal absorber on the front wall, i.e. in front of the listening position, same thickness and density as above
4. Add a 1m long diffuser on the back wall (after another test)
Finding material in my location is a bit difficult. So, if you have ideas for certain membranes, please provide some alternatives too (maybe less effective). At the moment, I’m mainly concerned with the corner traps, in terms of how large they should be (I'm thinking of 12" depth from the middle point to the corner, so it takes about 1.5 feet of wall from the corners).
Ideally, I would like to avoid unsealed rock wool because this stuff easily affects me. So, diffusers are preferred. Since they can be made with wood, it also helps with avoiding the hassle of finding and shipping materials to my location. I also like the idea of the room sounding larger.
Thank you for your advice.