To treat my basement for 'rough' recording, I am finishing up some 2" and 4" 2'x4' fibreglass panels, building some 3'x4' wood slat diffusors. The furnace room down the hall will be deadened by mineral wool. The underside of my daw desk has been treated with 1" fibreglass.

The basement is 30' along its maximum length (north-south) and is hardwood and drywall.



My theory in planning this out was that early reflections from having the drums and my desk backed into corners were the most dangerous issues. I thus aimed to deaden these walls, but should I perhaps be diffusing them instead?

I can't rearrange furniture and am going for as minimalistic an approach as possible.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

The main problem I see is lack of left/right symmetry at your DAW. You might consider what I did in my living room home theater - I have a laptop computer on a rolling table with a long snake cable so I can mix on the same audio system I use for TV.

Also, any chance you can angle the bass traps so they straddle the corners at the top of the drawing? Being near corners is good, but straddling might be a bit better.

--Ethan

Yes, Ethan, I actually already have my system wired up through the BOSE surround sound audio of my home theatre / tv at that end of the room, so I can test my mixes very easily on it. It's a handy point of reference, actually, especially because that system sounds so different from my Truth's.

The bass traps in the TV corners can straddle them; I just wasn't sure it would make a big difference. I can switch that easily enough.

As far as diffusion vs. absorption, are there any guiding principles for treating a room this size/shape with such a corner oriented setup I am missing? Or does this look about as good as I can get it without reorganizing?

Mike,

That all looks good. I wouldn't worry about diffusion so much, though the room seems big enough to support it if you want to try that. My main concern is avoiding comb filtering off the walls near the drum set, and off the ceiling over the drums. Absorption in those places makes a lot of sense. You already have that there, so I'd say you're all set.

You should also treat the first reflection points in the TV area of the room. I'm not convinced your zigzag wood panels will do the job well enough, unless I'm missing something. And you have it only on the left which compromises symmetry.

--Ethan

Thanks, Ethan. Perhaps I will forgoe the wood slat diffusors completely. There are a lot of big pots, African wood masks, plants and other objects that may contribute well enough, with the room size to this.

I was planning mostly to build them because in Sept, I go back to university and a small apartment room, where I figured they'd be handy. However, if they don't have much use here, I can just as easily build a dispersive plywood polycylindrical in that room when I get there. Since that won't be my parents' place, it doesn't have to be pretty, so no problem there.

Regarding the corner situation, considering the money/time I'm putting into this (pine framing the panels with stain, varnish, etc.) I've re-thought the layout, and if it will make a big difference, I will move the drums to the centre of the room when recording. I will also add more panels in lieu of the (quite expensive to build) wood slat diffusors.

1) Do you think this will provide a nicer sounding result?
2) Which will be better: to have the drums facing east or north?
3) For a treatment of this type with 4" and perhaps 3" panels of 3 pcf fibreglass and 4 pcf mineral fibre, should I be aiming to get any facing on the panels? It is no inconvience and only a small cost to my supplier to provide it.


North facing:

East facing:

Thanks again,
Mike


Note:
- The zig zag in the top left of the picture is a Chinese 1" thick wooden screen and a permanent part of the basement decor (as are all gray objects in the schematic), not a deliberate acoustic treatment.
- Ceiling is 8 ft.

Mike,

> Do you think this will provide a nicer sounding result? <

It's hard for me to know from here where the drums will sound best. The best thing to do is experiment.

> should I be aiming to get any facing on the panels? <

Yes for corner traps, No for first reflection treatment.

> The zig zag in the top left of the picture is a Chinese 1" thick wooden screen <

Can you get another screen for the other side? Symmetry is always an issue.

--Ethan