First Home Studio - Planning
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 8:15 pm
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.
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.