John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

My first post. Have been searching the forum, but I haven't found answers that address this issue.

Situation: Private facility, rural - no neighbors (no noise issues), to be used for music recording. Already under construction, but might be able to revise designs if necessary.

I am working on a design for a fairly large studio. We arrived at a design that makes fairly good use of space and has good sight lines, however in searching your forum, I am finding that we might have some problems with the wall angles in the control room. The side walls are at a 12 degree angle, but they are splayed inward, where I noticed that almost all designs here are splayed outward. Approx overall dimensions are 22' in length, 16' wide at the front wall, 15' wide at the back wall, and 22' wide at the widest (near the listening position). Height is undetermined, but we have 19' to work with.

I've attached a pdf.

Is this a huge mistake? If we choose to continue with this design, what kinds of problems can we expect and are they workable?

Thanks for your input.

The reason most control room side walls are splayed the way they are is so that the reflections are aimed toward the back of the room.

In your design, the reflections will be aimed toward the mix position, which will smear your stereo imaging.

If it's not too late, I highly recommend revising your design.

Thanks for the reply.

I have limitations as to how much I can move the walls, but they are more in the back of the room than the front.

Would it work to straighten the walls on the front half of the room so that they are 6 degrees splayed OUT and leave the back half as is? I would lose some control room space, but it might be a worthwhile trade-off.

Would diffusers on the back half help?

I can use the entire back wall for bass trapping if need be.

Why not just flip the room upside down, leafve the walls the way they are, and put the speakers and console where the back of the room is

Would be nice, but the front opens out to a large tracking room with windows. They don't want to lose sight lines.

if you're stuck with the walls as-is you can probably add some absorbers on the side walls at the key reflection points - including ceiling - to reduce the higher frequencies. something like 2" 703 type absorbers about 2" off the walls will help. the other option is all some additional treatment walls to better reflect. getting the front soffit angles corrected and adding slat resonators may work.