Help with setting up sound panels...

[BoneDigger]

Okay, here is the layout of the room and some pics.





I am thinking of placing acoustic panels at the numbered areas and on the ceiling above the recording area. Do you think that's a good set up, or do you recommend something different? I was also going to add traps to the four corners.

With an L shaped desk, I have the monitors out of the corners. But, if you see any huge issues here, point them out. The room is 16ft wide and 25ft long. Ceilings are 8ft. Vinyl plank flooring and standard sheetrock.

I don't expect professional quality but want to do what I can with what I have.

Todd

Sent from a cell phone. Sorry for any typos.

[BoneDigger]

Sent from a cell phone. Sorry for any typos.

[Glennwillow]

Hi Todd,

The room looks nice! Good for you.

I never did much with acoustic treatment in my studio, except for not putting speakers in the corners and not locating my listening area in the corner. I did put some inexpensive rugs on the walls to absorb sound and I put a carpet on the floor, and those things helped greatly. Bass traps in the corners don't sound like a bad idea for your room because it will be live with the hard floors and walls. And the ceiling height being a multipile of the room width will emphasize certain frequencies in the room. But I am certainly no expert on room treatment for sound, but I did okay in my old studio without spending a lot of money on acoustic treatment. But all my mic placement was close, so for recording, the room treatment was not that important. For listening, well, every room is going to affect what you hear.

Are you using the computer for recording? If so, you might consider rotating the L-shaped desk about 90° so that the desk area is open to the room with the desks against the wall. That's what I did, and getting access to the keyboard and desk was a lot easier for me. However, locating the monitor speakers against the wall will color the monitored sound a little. I bought stands for my monitor speakers and located them on either side of the desk, away from the wall and that helped minimize coloration. There is nothing wrong with your current arrangement, either. There are dozens of ways to set things up; sometimes you just have to try something and see how it works.

It looks like it's going to be a very nice work area for you! Congratulations!

- Glenn

[BoneDigger]

Thanks Glenn!

Sent from a cell phone. Sorry for any typos.

[rick-slo]

Couch against the wall. Back of desk against the wall. Panels (say 2' X 4' X 4") near the corners of the room at least centered vertically, probably better a little higher towards the ceiling. That's eight panels. A few more wouldn't hurt other places along the walls or even hung from the ceiling. Some people setup a more live (less panels) end of the room to get a bit more variety in recording sound choices.

[Fran Guidry]

We're working on several things here I think. Reduce bass nodes and "small room sound" when recording, minimize coloration and improve consistency in monitoring.

Reduce bass nodes by trapping bass energy. Straddling _all_ corners maximizes the effect, this includes wall to wall, wall to ceiling, and a wall to floor corners. So look for opportunities to do that.

Reduce small room sound by reducing early reflections. The ceiling is often the first offender so try to cover 50% or so with panels. Space panels off the surface for a little free enhancement of bass trapping. Keep at least two panels free standing so you can experiment with arranging them around the recording area.

Minimize coloration by damping first reflection points - this is kind of an automatic suggestion, but keep it in mind and look at your speaker placement. Having them on a desk in front of you means you have an undamped first reflection point nearly parallel to the direct path, a worst case situation. I think speakers benefit a lot from space around them, because they interact with nearby surfaces and corners. Your speaker manufacturer probably has a placement guide, and it probably suggests that speakers should be about 1/3 of the way into the room, at least that has been common in my experience.

A strong alternate path for the monitoring audio also reduces consistency, because it leads to big changes in sound with small movements of your head.

My suggestions probably entail more panels than you plan to install. In that case my priorities would be ceiling over recording area, two free standing panels, then start on corners.

Fran

[runamuck]

Isolate your monitors from the desk.

[Halcyon/Tinker]

Google Ethan Winer for a lot of good room acoustic info...

[MikeBmusic]

You're not going to be able to mix well with the current configuration of your monitors/room. Symmetry is one key issue, the other is the wall behind you being so close, you're going to get a lot of early reflections. You've got one monitor behind a video screen, that's not good, either!

I'd ditch the l-shaped desk (its a space killer) to start, and put a regular desk centered along that 'back wall - you don't need to be facing into the room when sitting at the desk, you're thinking of a 'standard office' set up. You've got tons of empty space wasted around the couch and chair/TV area, push them down further towards the opposite wall.

On the 'recording area' - as it is now, the sound is going to be bouncing back onto the wall and into the corner and then into your mic. Put the amp(s) against the wall, face the corner with the mic (with bass trap or superchunk in the corner) and the reflection filter won't be needed.

I didn't see a beer fridge in your plans ....

[KevWind]

Here are some general guide lines for best positioning in the room. I realize this is a multi purpose man cave BUT

You have a beautiful virgin space to work with so why not start off setting it up for the best chance of success as opposed to inadvertently making problems by poor positioning choices .

The mixing position should be the number one priority of position
The couch and TV should be secondary

It looks like your room is rectangular Yes? so there is one set of shorter walls and one set of longer walls Yes?
if so then
The ideal mixing position/desk should be positioned in line and centered perpendicular to the center line of the shortest wall length sides .
The corner is the worst possible position

The ideal mixing position should be positioned aprox at the 2/3 -1/3 distance ratio dimension wise spot, along the longest walls lengths i.e. should be in the center between the long walls and at a position facing one shorter wall 1/3 distance of long room dimension and 2/3 distance at your back to the other short wall This positioning will give you the best starting point for the least problems room reflections nodes and cancellations.

The 2/3 space behind the mixing position can be used for recording

As Fran suggested For absolute sure put bass traps at least the entire hight of the walls in all four corners and even better along the floor wall seam and the wall ceiling seam

As per Fran an absorber cloud at least over the mix position and record position would also be good.

Crude sketch no scale or dimensions the circle is your head

[BoneDigger]

Great info and this is a lot to digest! Okay, first I'm going to get some monitor stands and start working on ceiling treatment. For monitoring, would treating the walls behind the desk work, or will moving the desk be an absolute necessity?

Would I be better off with wall treatments or with moveable panels?

Sent from a cell phone. Sorry for any typos.

[RedJoker]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

I didn't see a beer fridge in your plans ....

I hope this gets addressed early, as well.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

Great info and this is a lot to digest! Okay, first I'm going to get some monitor stands and start working on ceiling treatment. For monitoring, would treating the walls behind the desk work, or will moving the desk be an absolute necessity?

Would I be better off with wall treatments or with moveable panels?

Sent from a cell phone. Sorry for any typos.

So there is no confusion you can keep the desk in the corner back of the room or at the center back would even be better than the corner and attempt to dampen the back wall BUT you should know those are the absolute number 1 and 2 worst positions you could possibly find, speaking from an acoustical room reflection problems point of view.
To clarify in my sketch and in my post I am calling the short wall you are looking at (while seated in your mixing position) "the front wall" and the short wall at your back and the ones the speakers are facing the back wall . It is much much much more desirable to have the longer distance at your back .At the very very least considering your photo, you would want to turn your desk around so you face the wall and the speakers face out into the room and move it to the center line of that wall, then ideally start to move the desk away from that wall to say 2 or 3 ft from the back of the speaker to that wall



What you are doing by wanting to put your listening position all the way to the back wall with the speakers facing that back wall (and given that you have spent the money to build this room in the first place) , is kinda like spending $8,000 to $ 10,000 dollars on a custom built to order guitar and then putting on 16.5 gauge rebar tie wire for strings. It will work BUTTTTTT well you get the idea .

And to clarify when you say monitor stands are you meaning free standing floor stands or some kind of isolation stand for the speakers on the desk surface ?

[BoneDigger]

Okay, I am going to work on the layout issues some more then. As for stands, I am buying isolation stands that will get them raised above the desk. I am looking at the ones by IsoAcoustic.

Sent from a cell phone. Sorry for any typos.

[BoneDigger]

The beer fridge will go outside the door in the main part of the work shop. I figured it might be too noisy to put in the same room where I am recording.

Sent from a cell phone. Sorry for any typos.