Specific guidance for treating my studio? Pics inside. Positioning traps & absorbers.

[coyotekells]

Hi everyone, I've gotten so much useful info here in the past I can't leave you all alone.. and it's time to treat my new studio room...

I will be mixing in this room as well as tracking instruments... but I certainly favor making the room better for mixing than better for recording if they don't go well hand-in-hand... though I would expect many aspects are similar

As you would guess (know) this room needs a lot of work as of now.. but I'm going to be upgrading my monitors, as well as adding a sub.. so it's really going to be bad then were it not treated well (but it will be.. thanks guys )

I assume I don't need diffusers in here from what I've read? (room too small)

I do need serious bass trapping and broad band absorbers of course...

I will move my mix position/desk as needed to make things optimal!!
I'm guessing that I should move the desk in at both sides to allow bass traps to run from floor to ceiling, and move the middle (mix position) out from the wall to put me closer to the 38% and give my monitors more space behind them.

Right now, It's my understanding that I need:

a hanging absorber (cloud) above the mix position,
absorbers (or traps?) behind the speakers,
Biggest/best traps possible in all corners,
absorbers (or traps?) on rear wall in line with my monitors,
and broad band absorbers at "first reflection" points (side walls? need clarification on the "mirror" trick)

My sound means the world to me, so please no one shrug-off my plea for advice.. I genuinely want to put all effort necessary into making this room the best I can.

Should I put "super chunk" triangles from floor to ceiling in all corners? Does the ceiling need more treatment than one cloud?

I don't mind getting numerous densities/thickness of rockwool to fit each job best!

How does the funny "drop ceiling" part at the front and the back of the room affect how I should treat it?

And finally, I feel my monitors should be put on stands to sit higher (ear level)... what about the half way rule (they should never be halfway between floor and ceiling). Do I consider that "ceiling" to be the drop ceiling they're under, or the main ceiling in the room?

Here's the general room measurements:

13 feet for the front wall (where the desk is)
15.5 feet for the back wall (where couch/shelf is)
15 feet from the front to the back
7'8" is the ceiling (the "drop" part on the front/back walls comes down 16" and comes out 20")

Not having this room treated properly (or at all for that matter) is holding me up big time... I can't do anything serious until I get this worked out. I know if anyone understands that, you folks do.

Big thanks for sharing your input!!

[coyotekells]

And the last room corner..

Btw, I had to rush these pictures when I had the opportunity to borrow a camera.. so excuse the mess and/or less than ideal angles? Wasn't sure exactly what/how to shoot.

[coyotekells]

LOL.. I guess I got a little over zealous with post and asked a bit much.. now everyone's scared to reply

ANYTHING you might wanna suggest I'm listening

[jwl]

a hanging absorber (cloud) above the mix position,
absorbers (or traps?) behind the speakers,
Biggest/best traps possible in all corners,
absorbers (or traps?) on rear wall in line with my monitors,
and broad band absorbers at "first reflection" points (side walls? need clarification on the "mirror" trick)

Close.

The rear wall traps shouldn't be in line with monitors, they should be at the first-reflection points, which are closer to center. If the rear wall is 15.5' wide, I'd make the rear wall treatment at least 8' wide, if not 12', using 4-6 2x4 absorbers.

For more on the mirror trick and creating a Reflection-Free Zone, see RealTraps - Creating a Reflection-Free Zone

[danbronson]

If it were my room...

I would move the listening position to face the window and exactly halfway between the side walls, and make sure your ears are 38% into the room from the window, with the speakers at ear-level forming an equilatoral with your head.

Then I'd build a whole bunch of 24X48X6 inch bass traps out of fiberglass (at 6" thick, even the floppier stuff is fine, in fact it'll be a broadband absorber and bass trap all in one) from Home Depot or wherever and take care of every corner possible (wall/wall, wall/ceiling - which look a bit awkward, and wall/floor - which are easy cause you just have to lay the trap against the wall) and the early reflection points on the walls as well as the ceiling (which can probably be done with just one trap). Make sure the traps have an air gap just as thick as the trap is and make sure that things are as symetrical as possible to preserve the accuracy of your stereo image.

Don't waste your money on 'super-chunk' stuff. Use the same stuff for all traps. It will definitely help to get your monitors on stands as well as on some kind of pad for isolation/decoupling (I used Auralex MoPads, probably the only Auralex product I will ever buy).