John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello to all! This is my first post but I've been reading for a while now. Great forum!!

I have a problem that I need help with. My control room is a converted walk-in closet with dementions of 5'x5'x8' (LxWxH). I have been working in this room for over a year with great results but as my knowledge of accustics and mixing increases, I now find my setup lacking.

I'm using Behringer Truths(8" models and soon to be replaced) with a 10" 250 watt sub. The truth's are about 4' apart and the sub sits under the desk. The major problems that I've come to realize is one, my sound stage is not solid and two, my bass response is not reliable.

My sound stage becomes more solid when the sub is off but the sub is need since I'm doing Hip Hop/R&B. I have a pair of Foam bass traps in the corners facing the monitors and I have some home made diffusers on the side walls. The floor is carpeted and I have foam on the wall behind the monitors.

I want to replace the Truth's but I now know that accustics are more important. My mixes translate well to other environments but I have to work extremely hard to get them that way. Is there anything different accustically I can do to get a better response from a room this size?

Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!!

Forget the monitors, you need a new room.....

First of all, it's too small, second it's a square floorplan (i.e. axial mode buildup). The lowest frequency for which you have modal support is 70 Hz. I've attached a mode chart for your perusal (upper chart)...I've also included the chart for the room I'm building (lower chart) (still in design phase).

Ideally what you want is equal spacing between the modes (represented by the lines on the graph). Of course equal spacing is pretty much impossible so the best you can hope for is to not have them all clumped together, and to not have too many holes. In my room, the hole around 50 Hz is the biggest one.

Basically, in a small room you're not left with many options since there will only be a few modes below 300 Hz. In a small square room the the problem is worsened since the axial modes from the front and sides are the same frequency and will add (like your mode at 112 Hz).

My best advice is to use headphones...get a good set (Grado's, or Senheisser 600's) and keep the sub on so you can feel the bass, but use the headphones for critical decision making in the low mid frequencies. I used to mix in an 8X8X8 cube....I know what it's like, very fatiguing.

Sorry to be so negative sounding....good luck!

Kris

Thank you for the reply. I tried the headphones but that's not my cup of tea. I ran my own tests and your graphs supported my results.

I guess I just have to deal with it until we move it out of the house because that's the only place available.

The size of the room has everything to do with the imaginging problems as well, right?

The size of the room has everything to do with the imaginging problems as well, right?

Maybe not everything to do with it, but a lot.....in a room as small as yours, there will be lots of early reflections (any echo that hits your ears within 20ms on the direct sound). Assuming that sound travels about 1 foot per milisecond (not a bad assumption). And assuming that you sit in the middle of the room, this means that the first, and strongest reflection (from your back wall) hits you at 2.5 ms after the direct sound does. This will cause comb filtering and imaging issues.

Probably the best bet for a space as small as yours would be to make it as dead as you can....use the thickest treatments you can get away with though. Nothing turns a room into mud and mush faster than thin absorber treatment.

Cheers,

Kris