Studio Size vs Ratios

[synthc]

Hi Everyone,

I just bought a cafe/community center and I'm setting up a music studio in the community center. It's a pretty huge space at about 1000 sqft and it has vaulted ceilings, so there's a lot of potential to make a great control room out of it - and I should specify, I only need a control room, no recording rooms or anything else.

It has vaulted ceilings and is not perfectly rectangular due to the entryway, stairwell, and counters taking up some space in the room, but the average dimensions are about 36.5' long; 28' wide; and 10.5' high. The ceiling is 11'10" at its highest point in the center and 8'11" at its lowest where it meets the front and rear walls. A sketch of the room as well as some pictures are attached (excuse the mess, I'm still in the process of moving in):

Floor plan.jpg

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First off, I'll explain how I'll be using the room. I'm a hobby producer and I make trance, synthwave, and the occasional attempt at hardstyle. I'm also a game developer and I'm looking to make my first real studio space with which to produce the soundtrack for one of my games. My primary goal with this room is mix translation - I'm tired of the trial and error approach to mixing and would like a room that produces mixes that sound right everywhere the first time.

My equipment is a pair of Adam S2A's, a pair of Behringer Truth 3031A's, and an Auzentech Prelude sound card (I've yet to find an external DAC that beats the Prelude in terms of headroom and noise). I also plan to get a studio subwoofer at some point. The other speakers are for home theater and are turned off while doing music. I mix loud, but there is enough distance from the neighbors that I don't need to worry about soundproofing.

I plan to treat the room with Owen's Corning 703 (and some 705 that I happen to have) bass traps wrapped in kite fabric and a large skyline diffuser made of plywood and 2x2's on the back wall. I'll be using Sonarworks Reference 4 to do the EQ once I'm done treating the room.

Now on to my questions. The problem with this room is that the ratios are way off. The ceiling would need to be 16' tall for this room to be inside the bolt area. My primary question is: how much do ratios matter in a room of this size? Is it big enough that it won't be much of an issue, or should I build some walls to make it into a smaller room with better ratios? I'd rather not split up the room as that's a lot of work and it's really nice having such a huge studio space; but I'll do it if it will result in a major increase in room neutrality, and by extension, mix translation.

My second question is: should I keep the carpet? It's very thin wool carpet (probably 1/4"), but it does noticeably deaden the room, and I'm worried that once I get all of my treatment in there it's going to be too dead. The carpet is thin and rigid enough that I'm sure I could put some hardwood flooring right on top of it. My plan right now is to see how it sounds once it's treated, but it'll just be that much more work moving everything out once all the bass traps and the diffuser are in there.

Finally, I'd like some advice on how to treat the room. I plan to do 8' tall 8" deep bass traps in the front corners of the room (behind my monitors) and a big skyline diffuser along the back wall. For now I plan to build an 8' tall barrier out of plywood to cover up the nook at the back of the room (see floor plan) and create more uniform reflections on the back wall. It can't be a regular wall because it needs gaps on the top and bottom since my air intake is back there - making it out of plywood also allows me to make the entire thing into a giant diffuser later on if I want to. I'll probably make part of this wall out of 8" thick OC 703 near the back left corner to create a big bass trap back there. I will probably also put some bass traps along the left wall, but treating the right wall and the rear right corner won't really be possible due to the counters and doors. Are there any concerns with the plywood barrier creating a resonator box back there? Also, I've read that diffusers are better for smaller rooms. Would it be better to make that wall out of OC 703 instead?

I have my workstation set up using the 38% rule (38% of the room length from the front of the room), which conveniently also happens to be the point at which the entryway terminates and the room gets wider (see floor plan). This also seems like the perfect position because the highest point in the ceiling is directly behind my monitors, after which the ceiling slopes down towards the back wall. I would still probably hang some 2" thick ceiling clouds made of OC 703 from the ceiling around the first reflection point.

Any advice is welcome, thanks.

[MrBluesman]

Hey, I'm new here and planning on building my studio as well. I'm no expert in studio design but maybe my thoughts on this can help.

Being a big room as this is much better, big rooms are quite difficult to get in certain places and most times are quite expensive, so you have a good start there.

I don't know how much the ratios matter for a room this size, but in case they do, it is much easier to make a smaller room within that room with better ratios than being stuck with a small room with bad ratios.

There is a guy on youtube called Jon Sine, he built his studio within a big room and made a smaller room with acoustic treatment.

You can as well look for floor plans of other studios with similar size control rooms and this could give you some ideas on how to fit a control room there.

My studio won't be as big but this is what I'm doing as far as research to make the best out of what I have.

Hope this helps.

[John Sayers]

Hi synthc. Love the big room.

Try moving your workstation to in front of the fireplace so all the kitchen diffusion is behind you and see how that feels.

cheers
john
.

[synthc]

Hi synthc. Love the big room.

Try moving your workstation to in front of the fireplace so all the kitchen diffusion is behind you and see how that feels.

cheers
john
.

Hi John. It's been a long time since I posted this thread and I've since moved on setting up my studio (with help from the Gearslutz forum). I am curious though; would the counters and buffet really act as diffusion? Sure it would diffuse some sound, but would it do so in a useful way? Also, would it be worth setting up my monitors along the room's shorter dimension?

I'm currently set up in the orientation shown in the pictures with superchunks in the three corners that don't have doors in them; a ceiling cloud; some early reflection treatment; and wall bass trapping. I'm currently in the process of designing proper diffusers for the back wall.

[DanDan]

How about a 'tent' consisting of frame containing absorbent.