John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello

i am trying to smoothen out the response of my room a bit. i have made a frequency/intensity plot of what i hear at my sitting posisition using a sine sweep.

http://www.ourlair.demon.co.uk/mp3/untitled2.bmp

as you can see there is a huge dip at 257hz

and here is the layout of my room

http://www.ourlair.demon.co.uk/mp3/studio.bmp

i was hoping to put in some bass traps but i don't seem to have any room. where can i put them?

my monitors are actually away from the corners by several inches but in the plan they are masked by my huge cabinet speakers which i use as a reference. i have about 3 feet of empty space below my speakers down to the floor. could i put bass traps here?

my bay window is actually a bit bigger in proportion on the plan.it starts about 2feet from the floor. could i utilise this space?

my cupboard is very big and heavy containing several 1/2 inch plywood drawes full up with tools, magazines and junk. im am sure this acts as a bass trap so i don't really want to move it. not that i can. i think it weight about half a ton fully loaded. but i will do if it is really necessary.

my studio is surrounded by double layer brick, a wooden floor above a 6inch cavity. a plasterboard ceiling suspended from wooden trusts.

are there any otherimprovements i could make? i have heard that putting bass trap between the ceiling and wall help. how effective is this? and how do i know how much bass trapping do i need?

You are dealing with phase cancellation in your mids for one and the bass is in accurate.

Check out the main site and look at the wall units

pagehttp://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm

The sidewall slat resonators will help break up those parallel walls and absorb/smooth out your midrange.

These are portable treatments. I assume you are not trying to do anything permanent.

Bryan Giles

right im starting to understand this now.

shouldi match the bass traps and resonators so that they just absorb at the problem frequecnies?

ideally the absorbers should run the full height of my room. how effective are they if they are only half the height? half as effective? what sort of improvements am i looking at? a smooth frequecny response? +/- 3db?

do they work better against the walls then the ceiling?

thanx giles. that site was very useful

You want each item to absorb/smooth the range of frequecies it is design to treat.

You don't want a narrow band filter type of trap/resonator, that will conversely be jsut as detrimental.

Keep in mind that the place of these is primarialy at your ear level, of course there will be reduced effectiveness at half height like freq's phase cancelling in the areas that still have opposing parallel walls, but I figure 6' high and you will still be ok for improved listening area, if you have to make a compromise.

basically you are stopping/reducing greatly the standing waves in your mix position eliminating/greatly reducing phase cancellation. which in turn will give you a more open sounding listening area. Which will show it self in your mixes.

Food for thought, do your monitors face walls or ceilings?

That does not negate ceiling treatment.

Bryan Giles