What I’ve been trying to do over the past few months is to learn how I can maximize my investment in guitar and recording equipment. Since I “retired” from live playing about 15 years ago, I’ve always wanted to have a music area that sounded good, and as I’ve gotten older, I’d like to make that dream happen. My gear is fine for a home player, and now I’d like to have a room that doesn’t make my good gear sound bad (I’m “good” enough at that). Since learning about this forum, I’ve done research here, and went ahead and built several porous absorbers. Still, when I measured my room’s resonances recently, I found several peaks and valleys that both confuse and frustrate me. Even in my small space, I can tell that the stuff discussed here works, and what I’m looking for right now is guidance as I learn how I can make my room even more enjoyable.
I have no issues with trying to isolate the sounds I create, unless they’re going to make my room sound worse, then I’d want to deal with it. I live far enough from my neighbors to never have to worry about noise violations or tomatoes. My monitors are set to 85dB for mixing, and I play guitar much louder than that. When I play bass, my room’s resonances are very noticeable.
My house is a “typical” split-level ranch. My music area is downstairs, in what was once considered a basement. The downstairs room is finished with ½” drywall, 2x4 studs, surrounded by concrete blocks and earth, except for the laundry room and attached garage. Berber-style carpeting runs throughout the downstairs living space. My music area’s right wall is next to the garage, the rear wall borders the laundry room, and my left wall borders the staircase leading upstairs. I share the entire room with my wife and kids: my wife has a home office here, and my kids have a weightlifting system here as well. The attached diagram should help clarify my descriptions.
After several starts and stops, I’m now trying to be more systematic in my preparation and construction. My hope is to figure out what I need to know about room modes, RT60, absorption, and diffusion so I can more accurately place my treatments. I don’t have much space, so I’d rather use only what I need. My budget is frugal: I’d rather buy once and cry once than go cheap and be sorry about it later. My time is valuable, too, so I’d rather measure twice and cut once. Still, I want to learn about this subject, which is why I don’t (and probably couldn’t afford to) hire someone to do this for me. I’d have a hard time justifying a decision to spend over $2,000 on DIY treatments, so I suppose that indicates my budget.
What I’ve done this evening is combine a couple of my previous posts here, so my questions might be easier to understand, given the context provide above.
- 1. My immediate question is: "Did I graph my room correctly in the ‘Modes Plot C’ .gif file?" I'm unsure if I should have swapped the WIDTH and LENGTH charts. The room I'm measuring is 169.5" (L) x 99" (W) x 92" (H). It's the room in the upper-right corner of my floor plan.
2. Before I move into determining RT60 and absorption, I need to determine if I should measure only my music area, and omit everything else, or if I should consider the effects of the larger area. Put another way, should I "give weight" to the rooms adjacent to my "music area," where I record (e.g., electric guitar, bass, and vocals) and mix. My 169.5" (L) x 99" (W) x 92" (H) music area is a portion of a larger room. The Music Area's left wall opens up the last 52" (from floor to ceiling) and connects with a larger "multi-purpose" area of 262.5" (L) x 135.5" (W) x 92" (H). I've made measurements using Ethan Winer's testing procedure from my DAW and monitors. One set of measurements were taken from my mix position, and the other set of measurements were taken from the larger, Multi Area. Both measurements were taken when my monitors played the tones at 85dB. These measurements are shown in the “Music Area Resonance Chart” and “Multi-Area Resonance Chart.”
Nick