Help with room. More traps?

[Vocalvoodoo]

Hey all,

Looking for some help with my mix/VO recording room. Bryan, I also sent you an email. I think I owe you a beer from the last time we met up.

Anyway here is the deal...

I'm in a new room now. It's basically 16x12x7. The main heating duct going through it which runs the length of the room on the left side, from front to back. It's butted up along the wall and ceiling so it looks like a part of the rooms wall. It is 29" wide, and 10" tall. Under the heating duct there are shelves built into the wall. They run from the front of the room to about 8.5' feet back. They are 6" deep. (I included those 6" in the total width of the room)

In the front corners I have the acoustical cotton bailed and stacked floor to ceiling and covered with black cloth, which I'm considering covering with foil scrim. Then I have 6 4" 2x4 703 panels.

2 are floating on the front wall behind my monitors. Also, the front wall are some kind of smoked mirror tiles covering the whole wall. I guess the people who lived here before us used it as some 70's porn shag room. ;-)

2 are on either side of the mix position straddling the floor and wall horizontally laying on the floor. Sitting on top of those I have resting against the wall both a 4" 2x4 panel and a 2" 2x4 panel. So essentially to each of my sides there are these contraptions made from 3 panels.

Above me, I have a 3'x4' panel of 703 1" that is hanging down about 3 inches. Between the panel and the ceiling I've put pieces of the 3 inch acoustical cotton creating a cloud of sorts.

In the back corners, I have 2 2" panels straddling the corners. They are make-shift panels from scrap 703 that are about 1.5'x3.5'. Behind each of those I have various pieces of scrap 3 inch acoustical cotton. There is also a 4' CD shelf on the back wall that I suppose could be giving me a little diffusion?

Lastly, I have a 4" 2x4 acoustical cotton 'bass buster' mid front wall straddling the floor and wall horizontally.

I did a reading of my room based on the info and files on Ethan Winers site and I have a HUGE null right at 118hz. To the tune of about 30db. Everything else in the spectrum below 300hz is 'relatively' flat. But the room still isn't as clear in the low end as I'd like it.

My mix position is at about 38% of the room and I am off from center to the right about 6 inches. On the back wall there is a door to a restroom.

So I guess I looking to see what might be the best way to further treat my room. Should I do any diffusion along with more trapping?

Keep in mind too, the room needs to stay as dead as possible, or at least reflection free as possible because I also record VO in this room. As of now, it sounds great for VO. No reflections what-so-ever, but not too dry either. Plenty of bare wall to keep things from sounding too dead.

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers!

[Vocalvoodoo]

And one last pic...

[Vocalvoodoo]

Anyone? Does the current placement of traps seem ok, or could I arrange what I have to get better results? I also plan on getting at least 3 more 4" 2x4 panels.

Cheers,

Josh

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Vocalvoodoo

Does the current placement of traps seem ok

Sure.

I also plan on getting at least 3 more 4" 2x4 panels.

Yes, more bass traps can only help. But it's clear you've done this well.

--Ethan

[bpape]

Hi Josh.

I just answered your other email. We'll get together sometime later this week.

What you've done looks pretty good. There are a couple other things that we may need to address but I'll know more when I get over there and we can play with things in real-time.

Bryan

[Vocalvoodoo]

Thanks for the responses Ethan & Bryan.

At this point I'm looking at adding 6 more 4" 2'x4' panels.