#1904142 - 03/06/08 04:18 AM
New Studio Build Acoustics
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Gawain Hewitt
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Registered: 03/06/08
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Loc: London UK
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Dear All,
Firstly I want to say thankyou to Ethan for such a clear resource on his website, and to all the contributers on this forum for the great postings. I have learnt a lot in a short time.
I have relocated my studio, and am in the process of doing the build and acoustics. I am due to recieve an SPL meter tomorrow and will grab and ECM8000 as well and will be doing a load of measurements hopefully next week. (Off topic 0 but any Mac OSX programmes out there for waterfalls?)
My concern is that i may have compromised the space before i started by building a small vocal booth in the control room, which i built before i read ethans FAQ on his site. See below for a picture of the room as it is currently.
All dimensions in Meters (sorry English!) - 1m = roughly 3ft.
If i can succeed in leaving the monitors where they are following measurement, would the presence of the booth to the right of the speakers compromise the stereo image? I am thinking that if the mirror points on the booth wall and studio wall are addressed similarly then it may have no impact at all?
The room itself has been custom built by someone else (before my time) and the walls as on the plan are plasterboard, with 4 inches of fibreglass behind, then concrete. Initial measurements using Waves PAZ and a calrec condenser imply that things are not too bad at the moment, with a 3 db hump at 60hz and a null at around 110, repeating i assume on modes. Otherwise a wobbly, but not to scary line going up. I will post some proper graphs and waterfalls when i measure it with proper software.
I have a load of Aurelex foam i have inherited - lots of the 2ft x 2ft nobbly things, maybe 8 triangle bass traps, and then i still have some flat acoustic foam on the walls from the previous occupant (although they orientated the studio to face the window, with no vocal booth). Are the aurelex traps any good? - I also may be able to get some real traps. I have covered the window with wooden removable panels with aurelex 2ft panels on it (6 of them - too many?)
Basically i am keen that this room is really nice to mix in, if i have to remove the booth to do that then so be it. I am prepared to build traps and such, although i currently suspect that the fibreglass in the walls is going some trapping of its own.
Further - my tiny vocal booth, is this more trouble than good? - I take it i should try and make it very dead otherwise it will be boxy.
Thanks to all for your time and patience reading my rambling thread.
Your input is gratefully recieved.
Regards
Gawain
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#1904144 - 03/06/08 04:22 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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Gawain Hewitt
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Registered: 03/06/08
Posts: 8
Loc: London UK
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Additionally - the speakers are Dynaudio BM15's. They are the square things with BM15 scribbled in them!
The smaller monitors on the desk are JBL control 1's with SB1 subwoofer.
I will concentrate measurements on the Dynaudios.
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#1904157 - 03/06/08 04:48 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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Gawain Hewitt
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Registered: 03/06/08
Posts: 8
Loc: London UK
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And the studio height is 7ft or 2m 12cm
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#1904232 - 03/06/08 06:54 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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firubbi
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would it create problem that you place your monitors all the way left to wall. i mean you didn't sit on middle.
thanks
_________________________
firubbi
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#1904240 - 03/06/08 07:04 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: firubbi]
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Ethan Winer
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Registered: 06/12/00
Posts: 5405
Loc: New Milford, CT, USA
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Any chance you can remove the booth? Aside from the harm it does to the control room itself, I personally prefer not recording things in tiny rooms because it doesn't usually sound good. Much better is to record in the same larger control room using headphones.
any Mac OSX programmes out there for waterfalls?
Yes, Fuzzmeasure is excellent:
http://www.fuzzmeasure.com
--Ethan
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#1904284 - 03/06/08 07:59 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Ethan Winer]
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Gawain Hewitt
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Posts: 8
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Sorry Firubbi I don't understand.
Ethan - Yes I can remove vocal booth.
....It just hurts, I used to be proud of that... ;-)
I feared as much!
Still - I suppose this one goes done in the box marked "experience"... (and money/time poorly invested!)
Thanks Ethan
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#1904381 - 03/06/08 09:49 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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Ethan Winer
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Right, experience. Make believe the booth was already there when you moved in, so all you need to do is remove it. 
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#1904520 - 03/06/08 12:28 PM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Ethan Winer]
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Gawain Hewitt
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The booth was already there, The booth was already there, The booth was already there, The booth was already there, The booth was already there, The booth was already there, :-)
Mmmmmm.. getting there!
Think i have managed to obtain 5 real traps second hand which i am pleased about (very expensive in UK due to shipping from US)
Will get destroying, measuring and will post results and waterfalls etc...
Is roomeqwizard ok to use?
Gawain
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#1904624 - 03/06/08 01:57 PM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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Ethan Winer
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Yes, REW is fine.
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#1911356 - 03/17/08 05:06 PM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Ethan Winer]
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Gawain Hewitt
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Ok - well hello again everyone!
I have now taken down the vocal booth and we are back to a nice big room!
I have been trying to take some initial measurements to get a feel for the room and how I should approach treating it. I have had a lot of trouble trying to get REW to work, it won't take an impulse response for some reason, very frustrating. However managed to find a demo of Fuzz measure 2 (i am on Tiger, 3 won't work) and have a couple of pictures.
Firstly the frequency plots.
Left Speaker
Right Speaker
I am a little confused as to what I am looking at here, should i be imaging a line through them at about -13db, and the variations up and down are my issues? - Found REW much clearer on that measurement, will do again on their software. Any comments or help interpreting this would be appreciated. By the way, i had 5 real traps stacked near the right speaker i now realise (I'm at home now) - that might explain the skewed results on the bass end, also looks like the piano might be making quite a lot of difference? - Actually coming to think of it, the window is currently covered up by 3 wood panels, with a total of 6 midrange 2" x 2" panels on it, that would explain a lot too... mmmmmm....
Now for waterfalls.
Left speaker:
Right Speaker:
Again, help would be appreciated. I assume that it is showing both quite a colorful difference in volume depending on frequency as well as some big bass issues?
I am using Pro Tools HD, Behringer ECM8000 into an apogee mini me for measurement. I have a Realistic SPL meter if needed. I am measuring Dynaudio BM15's on stands.
I intend to spend all day on wednesday measuring and placing treatment so would really appreciate some advice on how to approach this. The readings above were taken from the third side of a triangle with the speakers. Should i also be taking readings from other positions.
With regards to placing treatments, i understand about treating the mirror points to address early reflections, and also that i may need to do something to address flutter (can i measure flutter?). With regards to bass trapping I am planning on doing the following (assuming my measurements show it works!)
This is of course not to scale. The yellow traps are Real Mini Traps, i have 5 to use. The grey ones in the corner are Aurelex, and i have a few more of those too. I also have lots of mid range foam and stuff. Do you think these are fairly good places to have a go with the real traps? or am i completely barking up the wrong tree?
Finally, at what point should I be thinking that things are ok? - what's an acceptable amount of deviation frequency wise? clearly completely flat is impossible, so am i looking to get it within 6db or 3db? or more?
Once again my thanks for you assistance, its very very helpful.
Regards
Gawain
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#1911745 - 03/18/08 11:54 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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Ethan Winer
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Registered: 06/12/00
Posts: 5405
Loc: New Milford, CT, USA
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should i be imaging a line through them at about -13db, and the variations up and down are my issues?
Yes, I think that's about right. When people plot only low frequencies it's tough to know where Zero is!
The yellow traps are Real Mini Traps, i have 5 to use. The grey ones in the corner are Aurelex, and i have a few more of those too.
I'd put the MiniTraps in the wall-wall corners, and move the Auralex corner foam to the ceiling corners because foam is easier to mount there than MiniTraps.
Finally, at what point should I be thinking that things are ok? - what's an acceptable amount of deviation frequency wise? clearly completely flat is impossible, so am i looking to get it within 6db or 3db? or more?
If you can get the LF response within a 10 dB window you're doing very well. Not +/- 10 dB, but 10 dB total span from the highest peak to the deepest null.
--Ethan
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#1911850 - 03/18/08 03:26 PM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Ethan Winer]
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Gawain Hewitt
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Registered: 03/06/08
Posts: 8
Loc: London UK
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Thanks Ethan,
I'll let you know how i get on.
Gawain
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#1917213 - 03/27/08 01:20 PM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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Gawain Hewitt
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Registered: 03/06/08
Posts: 8
Loc: London UK
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Hello Ethan and all,
So i have completed the studio and placed the traps as near to recommendation as possible (i.e. had to put one on back of door instead of corner because of door being too close to corner) and I am very happy with the results. Off the top of my head 30hz-300hz is within 10db lowest null to highest peak (just!) and left and right are within a couple of db of each other at any one place. Also waterfalls are showing no significant ringing above 40hz.
I will post pictures and graphs in a couple of weeks, it's just my baby is due to be born in the next couple of days.
If its ok with Ethan I would like to credit Ethan and this forum for the assistance given. I would like to add a thanks on our studio spec list and later on our new website as i feel this community is so valuable. Our studio is run as part of a Music Charity which supports the development of musicians and music businesses and we simply could not afford to pay a consultant to achieve this level of result on our budgets.
Thanks again
Gawain
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#1917631 - 03/28/08 08:41 AM
Re: New Studio Build Acoustics
[Re: Gawain Hewitt]
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Ethan Winer
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Loc: New Milford, CT, USA
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Of course it's okay.
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