accoustic treatment (esp. flooring) for my project studio

[MattyC]

Hi!
awsum forums! wish I'd found them earlier!

anyway, down to business,
Have built a small project studio: 4mx2m mixing room, 2mx2m recording booth.
Have attached a Google sketchup file of which shows where I intend to put accoustic treatment.
Was wondering, givin the amount of treatment I'm using, would I be better to use a carpet or corktile floor for the mixing room?
Also any advice on the proposed placement of the accoustic treatment would be much appreciated!!

Cheers!
Matt

[lilith_envy]

g'day,
I love dunedin, nice beer!
Never put permenant carpet in a studio, cause then you have no options, Wood or cork is great then have some carpet rugs at hands if you require less top end or a more lounge roomy sound.

Also you really need to move your mix position centre. So the distance from the walls to your ears is equal. At less during mix down.

Have you seen the post regarding "clouds"?
Whats your ceiling height?
How does the room sound now?
What are you recording?

[kendale]

Aloha and welcome to the forum,

Kia Ora!

Was wondering, givin the amount of treatment I'm using, would I be better to use a carpet or corktile floor for the mixing room?

Is a hardwood flooring an option for you?

Also any advice on the proposed placement of the accoustic treatment would be much appreciated!!

Due to width of your room, perhaps a set of John's Side Wall Absorbers on either side of your mix position http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm
and perhaps some absorption on the control room front wall & vocal booth door (control room side)

Setting up the Mix Position
Here are a few bits of information I’ve collected along the way…
• Monitors should NOT sit on the console but behind, placed on heavy decoupled stands - console placement causes early reflection problems in most cases, unless the console is slanted down in front a LOT.
• Distance to wall behind speakers will change response drastically - there is a wall bounce calculator on the Acoustics forum that's fun to play with (needs Excel)
• Moving either speakers or your head by as little as an inch or two can sometimes make drastic changes in response, due to modal peaks and dips.
• Left/right room symmetry (at least within a foot or two of ear height) is important for good stereo imaging.
• Roughly 38% of total room length from the front wall to begin with, adjusting as necessary to avoid peaks & nulls.
• Equilateral triangle formed by left, right mix position
• Monitor angles 60 degrees (30 degrees each speaker)
• Angled side absorption panels – left/right of mix position
• Side walls 6-12 degrees

[John Sayers]

Hi Matt - Dunedin was my hometown I started out working for DNTV2.

Cork is great for flooring as it wears well and is soft to walk on. Also things don't always break if dropped on cork.

The rear window in your control rrom is a worry mate - you must block it off and add heavy insulation to the rear wall.

Any chance of altering the front wall of the control room ??

cheers
john

[MattyC]

Hey thanx for the feedback guys!
sounds like the floor problems solved anyway, cork tiles it is. (hardwood prob be too expensive)
as to the other questions..

Lilith_envy

Also you really need to move your mix position centre. So the distance from the walls to your ears is equal. At less during mix down.

was thinking of putting the desk there so as to be able to get to the door of the recording booth.
As it is in the diagram, mixing position is 38% away from the left wall, thort it myt work there, (mix position is 38% of the way down the room)

Have you seen the post regarding "clouds"?

nope. Could u link to it?

Whats your ceiling height?

2.25m

How does the room sound now?

Well atm both rooms are bare,
recording booth feels a little boomy, theres no modal ringing cos of non-parrallel walls and ceiling but still think theres some serious peaks and nulls going on + too many early reflections
Mixing room just sound like ur average rectangular unfurnished room, boomy and ringy

What are you recording?

Mainly accoustic music (violin, mandolin, guitar, world percussion, vocals). I'm making sure my gear setup is very portable and intend to do alot of location recording as the recording both is rather limited.

Kendale

Due to width of your room, perhaps a set of John's Side Wall Absorbers on either side of your mix position

interesting, are they some kinda resonator base trap? they are quite bulky tho. the room is only 2.15m wide, so that would leave a 1.75m width.

and perhaps some absorption on the control room front wall & vocal booth door (control room side)

could be done, just some rigid fibreglass?

the main limitations I have with the mix position is that, you have to be able to get past into the recording booth, and that the door opens into the mixing room, I think in the sketchup diagram the door is hitting the desk atm anyways. so makes things a little awkward.

John
An ex dunedinte eh, sweet as!

The rear window in your control rrom is a worry mate - you must block it off and add heavy insulation to the rear wall.

was kinda hoping I could get away with a thick curtain, was thinking (atm anyway) of puting a heatpump/airexchange unit in one half, as in the diagram, and puting in onother layer of glass in the other. would still like to have a window, but, a quality mixing environment is probably more important.

Any chance of altering the front wall of the control room ??

in what way? the structure is pretty much built as per the diagram. the idea of more construction is not to appealing tho ay! what is wrong with it?
also John, would you recommend those side absorbers for the side of the mix position? do they act as base traps as well as deflecting highs/mids?

Cheers
Matt

[MattyC]

oh one other thing I should mention, this studio is in my perants house, so its not too permanent, intend to use it for creating my bands first album, but may move outa town in the next couple of years, so don't want to spend to much more money on contruction materials (already spent about 2-3grand. prob another. prob another $500bux NZ max.
(already have 14 1200x900mm 2" 36kg/m2 panels of rigid fibreglass, which cost about $300NZ) only stuff I could find in NZ ay, if anyone knows of anyother suppliers... wil prob need more rigid fibreglass anyway, will need about 10 of those panels for the ceiling.