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#1931194 - 04/23/08 10:20 AM

Looking for help with a difficult shaped room

Chris Kausel
Member

Registered: 04/23/08
Posts: 1
Loc: USA

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[note: cross posted at homerecording.com/bbs because I mistakenly thought that was Ethan's forum]

I'm hoping for help or feedback on setting up a challenging studio space.

Viewable at the bottom of this post, is my floorplan, both as an empty space, and then filled with all the stuff I put in it. The room is multipurpose, serving as an office and a den in addition to a home studio. There is also a kitchen with a bartop looking into the room.

Other challenging features of the space:

Almost the entire rear wall is actually a sliding glass door looking out onto a patio.

The left-side front and rear corners of the room are chopped at 45 degree angles. The front corner cuts deeper into the room and is uniform from floor to ceiling. The rear cuts less, with the bottom half a glass-covered gas fireplace that cuts further into the room than the recessed mantle on top (see diagram).

The kitchen bartop is also at a 45 degree angle, as a semi-wall in the front right corner at only 5 feet tall. (The kitchen is full of highly reflective surfaces like tile countertops, hardwood flooring, laminated cabinets, and appliances). But it's set back away from the primary geometry of the room, so I'm not sure it really has a significant effect. There's a hallway adjacent too, which confounds figuring out reflections.

The first question I have is: what is the ideal placement of temporary sound treatment in such a room?

The second question I have is: can I do better with the positioning of the studio area? I know Ethan recommends sitting centered on the long axis of a room, with more of the room behind than in front. However, neither end of this space seems like it could work very well, with the sliding glass doors in back and the main entrance and angled wall in front. Also, the midi drumset, which is hooked up to the desk, must stay adjacent.

There's also the TV and couch area ("den"), which will take up a full half of the room no matter where placed. And the sliding glass doors only open up on the left side and there has to be a path clear to it.

So back to the question of acoustic treatment: It's obvious I want a bass trap straddling the right rear corner... But what about the 45-degree cut corners? And for the door at the front right, any treatment put in that corner would block the door and could only be set up for the duration of a mixing session.

Actually, considering the fireplace and TV, I imagine all my bass trap panels would have to be put up when sessions begin, and removed again when sessions are done.

The surfaces in the room are: standard drywall on metal studs painted with a shallow splatter-texture. The 9' ceiling is just like the walls. There are lots of picture frames hung up. The floor is wall-to-wall short-pile carpeting. The sliding glass doors are double-paned glass with full-length, side-to-side vertical blinds that can be drawn open or shut.

I purchased 6 panels of 4" 8lb mineral wool board, and 6 panels of 2" (also 8lb). My thought was to make 6 bass traps for corners, and 6 absorbers to hang on the walls, or at angles along the corner formed by the wall-ceiling. I can't attach anything permanent.

Any feedback is highly appreciated (however, there's no point in telling me to ditch the non-studio stuff cluttering the room, because I can't do that for now). Thank you very much!

Here is the room with all the stuff in it:

Here is the floorplan without any stuff in it for an easier time visualizing alternate possibilities:

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#1931358 - 04/23/08 03:30 PM

Re: Looking for help with a difficult shaped room [Re: Chris Kausel]

Speaker Boy
Senior Member

Registered: 02/04/08
Posts: 54
Loc: Santa Barbara, California

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Treatment options are explained here http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

Basically you want to treat all first reflection points. Put two panels overhead, one in front of the sliding glass door, two panels on the wall behind you, and two panels on the front wall behind your speakers. Have someone walk along the walls of the room with a mirror--with you sitting at your listening position. Any place you can see your speakers you should put a panel.

Ethan does an excellent job explaining room setup here http://www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

Corner Bass traps should be at least 4" thick and should be placed in as many corners as possible. The wall-ceiling and wall-floor corners work as well. To limit the amount of material used you can measure your room using roomeqwizard. Then play the problem frequencies and place the bass traps in the corners where the peaks and nulls are the worst. Or you can play the filtered noise http://www.realtraps.com/lf-noise.htm and then move around the room to place the traps.

You should definately try to move your desk in front of the sliding glass door firing lengthwise in the room. Center the desk as best you can from side to side. Place your listening position about 8ft from the sliding glass door. This relocation could have more impact than any treatment you might do. Plus this way your couch acts as a great bass absorber in the middle of the room.

If you ask more specific questions, Ethan and some of the other big guns here, can give you much better answers.

Jeff

Edited by Speaker Boy (04/23/08 03:33 PM)

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