My name is Aaron and i'm the proud owner of a studio I have been building in Gloucestershire (England U.K.) I have finished the build and kitted out the outbuilding with some of the best gear i could afford on my budget and I am now at the final stage of acoustically treating the live room and control room. Unfortunately my budget doesn't allow me to buy ready made treatment with specialist audio analysis equipment and I was wondering if i could pick your brains on a few things.

I have attached a quick sketch of my two rooms and my 1st trouble is space. I understand 100mm fibre is adequate for fixed corner bass traps. A local supplier can get hold 100kg/m3 fibre slab. Would this be ok or too dense?

Secondly (because of space) do you think 50mm 100kg/m3 would be satisfactory for midband/lowband wall panels. If so could i get away with mounting them closer to the walls than 100mm. Finally, where would you place the panels and how would i get around corner bass traps where the doors are? I understand it's a big question and a lot to ask of you but i'm really worried about this and don't have a very big budget for it so any advice would be amazing.

Should be fine



Yep the 100k will work fine also. You want to space them off the wall to help absorb a bit more low end. If you can't then that is that. The main goal is to get the bass traps in the corner. That is when you will be absorbing a lot of the low end.
One note though. For your back wall, in the control room, I would recommend putting THICK absorption panels to help with nulls and peaks coming from that area.



Hit as many corners as possible with bass traps and thinner panels for the early reflection points (http://www.gikacoustics.com/news_020209.html)

I'm sure 100 kg/m3 is fine.

Yes, 50mm 100kg/m3 is fine for mid/high absorbers.

You should also move the mix position if possible to face the window into the live room. More here:

How to set up a room

The above article also shows where to place reflection absorbers. This elaborates on that further:

Early Reflections

As for bass traps, rectangle rooms have 12 corners not just four! The photo below shows how to deal with a door corner, mounting one panel on the door and the other on the adjacent wall.

--Ethan

Thanks guys,
I'll get started. However would this be the same principle for the live room? I think I'm going to have major issues in there.
Is there a chance i could make it too dead and where would i put the wall panels in there?

That live room has 2 problems, small and square. I would hit the corners with bass trapping and knock as much of the room "tone" out as possible. Spread them out evenly around the room. I would start with covering 30 to 40% and go from there.

BTW for the door, you could also make stands and place them in the corners. Ethan's idea is GREAT, but keep in mind that the door will need to open to the outside if placing that way.

Thankyou guys for all your help on this. I will get to it and let you know how it goes.
Take care
Aaron