Treating my small "control room" and "live room", is this sufficient?

[JDavisNJ]

Hey guys,

Here's the deal. I have a room that is about 11.5'x10.5' right now that I do most of my mixing, etc. in. I have most of my amps in here and do most of my playing in here. I'd like to do some acoustic treatment to optimize the results that I get.

My plan is to follow the 38% rule, which is difficult in this room. I'm pretty close to the front wall, and depending on where I sit, I'm already 38% towards into the room from that front wall.

What would be ideal acoustic treatment for such a small room? I plan on making my own bass traps. From what I've read so far, placing as much as I can on this front wall is very important. Also, placing traps at ear level on the opposing side walls. As well as placing traps in all of the corners.

Does this sound sufficient enough for a mixing environment?


Lastly, I plan on micing my amps in my bedroom. It is adjacent to this mixing room, around 20' away. I think it will be a better micing environment because it is smaller and has a more "dead" sound already due to carpeting and the amount of "stuff" in the room.

How should I optimize this room? I plan on getting the cab off of the floor to decouple it to reduce boomy guitar recordings. What are the other important spots to take care of? Acoustic panels on the sides and in front of the cab? Can I get away with not treating the walls in this room if this is the case?


Any input would be appreciated.

thanks,
-Joe

[Glenn Kuras]

Joe,

16x16 is squ so you really are going to have to straddle as much 4" to 6" rigid fiberglass as you can. Start with all wall to wall corners floor to ceiling then start covering ceiling to wall corners. Treat front wall with 4" (one 2x4 panel behind each speaker), 2" panels for early reflection on left/right walls, ceiling and 4" to 6" panels (2 to 3 of them) on the back wall.

Glenn

[JDavisNJ]

Thanks for the reply Glenn. Looks like I have a lot of bass traps to build. Heh...

Although I don't have the cash to build all of them at once at the present moment. What do you think is most important to take care of first?

thanks,

-Joe

[JDavisNJ]

Wow I'm ********...Don't know where I got 16x16 from. Maybe I was referring to my old room lol.

This rooms is actually 11.5x10.5, I just measured. So, it's not technically a square like I thought.

Glenn, are there any corner bass traps that you recommend that I can buy? I feel comfortable building the ones for the front and back walls, not so sure about the others though.

And for where the ceiling meets each wall, is it necessary for traps to run that entire length? Or just in the corners? thanks,

-Joe

[Glenn Kuras]

Glenn, are there any corner bass traps that you recommend that I can buy? I feel comfortable building the ones for the front and back walls, not so sure about the others though.

Sure OURS!!!!!! Really what you want is bass traps that are 4" or thicker that have rigid fiberglass or mineral wool core inside.

Glenn

[jwl]

It really is as simple as getting as many bass traps into as many corners as you can. If you are going to do it a bit at a time, I generally recommend starting with the corners closest to the speakers and working your way out. Though sometimes it makes sense to do the front wall first, then the rear wall, then the wall/ceiling corners on the side walls.

Once you get the panels built, try them in different spots until you get an idea of how they sound, and then install them whereever they do the most good.

[Glenn Kuras]

Although I don't have the cash to build all of them at once at the present moment. What do you think is most important to take care of first?

I would start with one in each front corner and maybe 1 or 2 on the back wall. If nothing else though start with front corners as it will also help with SBIR ([Learn what is SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interface Response).)

Glenn

[JDavisNJ]

Thanks for the responses guys. Glenn, sorry I haven't gotten back to you with the dimensions info yet, been a bit busy around here. Thanks for that link!

-Joe

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by JDavisNJ

Thanks for the responses guys. Glenn, sorry I haven't gotten back to you with the dimensions info yet, been a bit busy around here. Thanks for that link!

-Joe

No problem Joe.

Glenn