John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

heres a drawing of my basement studio "live room"

<img src="http://www.farewelltoarms-pr.com/mainspace_layout.jpg">

its currently finished but i am remodeling the entire basement so it will be gutted. these are roughly the dimensions of the concrete slab, the wall frames will be built from scratch. the ceilings are 9ft and i plan on leaving the beams "exposed" and filling in between with a combination of sheetrock and fiberglass [rigid and 3 1/2 soft compressed to 2"]

i would like this room to be as lively as possible.

i know that the dimensions of the room arent the greatest in regards to room modes, but i have a lot of gear and i really like having the extra space. i was planning on fixing any mode issues with around 15-20 "ethan w." styled bass traps. is this a bad idea?

now in regards to diffusion, should i angle some of the walls to avoid standing waves or its not worth it for the size room i have. and would i be better off with diffusion wall treatment? is there a different between having angled walls to avoid standing waves compared to straight walls with diffusion?

any advice would be appreciated. thanks

Hi telefunkin, thats a pretty big space you got there. Just to clairify, you are only going to have one big room?? I guess it depends on if you're going to record or not.

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

These are some of Johns plans, if you think you may want more than one room.

But to answer your question, if your going to be building in there anyways, you should just go ahead and build the angles on the walls.

SpaceBoy

no, there is a control room on the lower end. its just not in the drawing because i have that pretty much worked out.

there isnt much debate, i want this space to be 1 large room. im just tring to figure out how to treat it / angle the walls.

Hows this look.


Ron

some of those angles wont work for me because of how certain things are layed out in my basement. i should have included a more detailed drawing.

i guess im looking for info how to come up with angles. what are recommended angles for walls? and if anyone can answer my previous questions that would be great.

telefunken wrote: i would like this room to be as lively as possible.

now in regards to diffusion, should i angle some of the walls to avoid standing waves or its not worth it for the size room i have. and would i be better off with diffusion wall treatment? is there a different between having angled walls to avoid standing waves compared to straight walls with diffusion?

any advice would be appreciated. thanks

In the above picture I posted, I was using John's 12 degree rule. He states that you need a minimum of 12 degrees <or 6 per side> between to parallel walls to stop flutter echo.

So you want the room to be a lively as possible?? all the room??

whynot have one end live and the other dead. Take the top region and add diffuse and reflective surfaces but make the bottom area dead for close vocal sounds etc.

cheers
john

ive considered doing that but right now im trying to figure out if i should angle my walls or not since im going to be constructing them soon, one way or another.

i would prefer not to and deal with the standing waves via diffusion, but is this a bad idea?

I'd divide the room into two areas like this - I'd use slots or panel absorbers in the live area so the surfaces are reflective to the highs but absorbs the low mids. The dead area I'd use hangers and heavy 703 to give a short decay time for close up sounds like vocals etc.

cheers
john