First Home Studio - Planning

[Redping]

Hi from Australia!

I have recently bought my first home and I am now in the process of designing my first home studio. I have purchased the go-to book everyone here recommends and I am slowly making my way through it:



Here are photos of my room. It is a solid brick home, and the room is 4.3m x 3.7m and carpeted. There is a large window at the front wall and a large wardrobe to the right of the listening position.

The photos are from entering the door, going clockwise around the room to the door again:


















My goal is to build some DIY acoustic panels for the first reflection points + 4 bigger ones for bass traps in the corners. However, 2 of these bass traps are going to have to be mobile (I was just going to attach a handle to them) since they will need to go across a doorway/warddrobe (more on the warddrobe later!)

The type of insulation I have available to me at my local hardware store is this (the blue one is apparently for sound insulation, will this work?



(I am not a CAD/graphic design person so apologies for the lack of diagrams or detailed measurements. I can try to dive into using Sketch up and making a basic version of the room if you guys believe that will make a big difference)

See below REW measurement from the listening position with an Behringer ECM8000. Not an expert with it so please let me know if you need measurements with the speakers elsewhere, the mic elsewhere, etc.



Questions I can't find the answer to on google

- I am leaving some space behind the desk right now, although its not being used for anything practical. This is so I can lean back and be in the 38% (or at least past 30%) from the front wall sweet spot. Is this necessary ? Can I just move all the way up to the window once I have treatment up? Or should I always be trying to avoid having the speakers close to the front wall?

- What do I do about the huge warddrobe? do I put acoustic treatment on the doors? Do I take off the doors? In which case do I do anything about the "frame" of the warddrobe that will remain? Do I just treat that like an extra corner in the room? The warddrobe right now is storage (which I need badly) as well as keeping clothes in. But that could be changed if that is going to greatly affect the room.

- The window - is it an issue? Do I need to cover it in thick absorptive materials?

- Desk reflections – are they really a big deal? I need to get another desk anyway (that corner desk is terrible) but i'm hoping to do that later.

- the ceiling – is adding acoustic treatment here really necessary? Or can I get away with just the walls?

- ear height is hard to achieve. I am a short person and with my monitors on stands with isolation pads they’re too high up (see pictures – is it just me or are these isolation pads ridiculously large?)

- can I hang paintings and posters and such? Or are they going to be reflective?

Thanks for all your help in advance. I am going to take everyones advice on speaker placement etc and do more REW tests. Then I will build the acoustic panels. Then I will come back here and make another post laying out my final plans for your perusal.

This community is really something – once this is all done and I know how much money I have left over (if any!!) I will definitely be donating.

[Redping]

Bump?

Bit dissapointed in the lack of any replies!

[Gregwor]

Bump?

Bit dissapointed in the lack of any replies!

Please read the forum rules and fully fill out your profile. Please don't be disappointed. No one is paid to answer questions on here. It's a self help forum where people such as myself enjoy helping people out when we have the time in our busy lives. Realistically, unless you have a super weird room or circumstances, chances are 99.9% of your questions can be answered by reading random threads on the forum, using the search feature, or reading the book you purchased.

The type of insulation I have available to me at my local hardware store is this (the blue one is apparently for sound insulation, will this work?

Your picture isn't large/clear enough to read what the insulation is. Also, it depends on how you plan to build your bass traps. If you're planning a panel style design, you should use a different insulation than if you're doing a super chunk or a combination of both designs. Or you could build a hanger style bass trap. Or maybe you're using a tuned device. Note that R values mean nothing when it comes to acoustics performance.

Questions I can't find the answer to on google

These answers are on the forum, not google.

- I am leaving some space behind the desk right now, although its not being used for anything practical. This is so I can lean back and be in the 38% (or at least past 30%) from the front wall sweet spot. Is this necessary ? Can I just move all the way up to the window once I have treatment up? Or should I always be trying to avoid having the speakers close to the front wall?

Your speakers should be right up against the wall to help with SBIR. Your ears should be around 38% as that has been found to provide the best acoustic response.

- What do I do about the huge warddrobe? do I put acoustic treatment on the doors? Do I take off the doors? In which case do I do anything about the "frame" of the warddrobe that will remain? Do I just treat that like an extra corner in the room? The warddrobe right now is storage (which I need badly) as well as keeping clothes in. But that could be changed if that is going to greatly affect the room.

It depends on the type of room you are designing. A live room? A control room? A multipurpose room? I'm guessing you're at least wanting to mix in the room, but if it's JUST a mixing room, what style of control room are you building? If you want this to be a good mixing room you need your room to be perfectly symmetrical for the front half of your room so depending on all of these things, your closet could be changed or used in a variety of ways. I'm guessing you aren't worried about sound coming in or getting out of your room? If you were needing isolation, I would probably use that area for HVAC silencer boxes. Furthermore, it appears that the doors of the closet might be where you need some first reflection absorption.

- The window - is it an issue? Do I need to cover it in thick absorptive materials?

That might kill the high frequency time domain too much. You certainly might benefit from putting panels of insulation behind your speakers to help with SBIR so I'm not sure how you'd mount them on the glass. The natural light is nice though.

- Desk reflections – are they really a big deal? I need to get another desk anyway (that corner desk is terrible) but i'm hoping to do that later.

Yes they are.

- the ceiling – is adding acoustic treatment here really necessary? Or can I get away with just the walls?

Ceiling reflections are no different than those from walls, desks, etc. I feel they're necessary but this is up to you to decide for your project. You could probably leave the cloud until the end of your build and your measurements would show you any ceiling reflections in an impulse response.

- ear height is hard to achieve. I am a short person and with my monitors on stands with isolation pads they’re too high up (see pictures – is it just me or are these isolation pads ridiculously large?)

I only ever use isolation pads to help me get the speakers acoustic axis closer to ear height. Acoustically I don't think they do much if anything to improve the sound you hear.

- can I hang paintings and posters and such? Or are they going to be reflective?

They aren't going to hurt anything as long as you're not covering up your acoustic treatment devices.

once this is all done and I know how much money I have left over (if any!!) I will definitely be donating.

Please do! John pays out of his own pocket to provide this awesome forum for everyone. He sure is awesome!

Greg

[Redping]

Thanks a lot for answering all my questions Greg! I realise you guys aren't paid so I appreciate you answering my questions here.

Here is a clearer photo of the material I am looking at getting. It's a little unclear what the density is of it based on the information given here. But I believe this is the right stuff. Let me know if you see any issues with it.

[Gregwor]

Please fully fill out your profile as per the forum rules.

You'd need to go to the insulation manufacturer's website and try to find the absorption coefficients for their products. From there, you will choose the one with the best low frequency absorption.

Greg