Basement treatment

beingmf · 24th December 2008

OK – we really did sign the contract for this nice 50's house with a huge garden in a nice part of the town and I decided to set up my studio in the basement (no veto from my wife, so I MUST do it

) ).

There would be 2 rooms available, OK in size – now's the question how to treat them acoustically that it'll be as perfect as it can get.
Problem: ceilings are very low (very! low). I think dropping them completely would make the room to claustrophobic as I could almost not stand in there

But if it absolutely needs to be done, I'd do it.

My questions to you pro's are: should I – – –
- treat the front wall (behind the monitors) 100% with bass trap(s) and cover it with acoustic, read: perforated, drywall? Or other acoustic tiles?
- if so, should i build the drywall part angled in some way?
- build a slat absorber on the back wall? OR
- set up corner bass traps on the back wall? OR
- build a slat absorber in the tracking room? (or none at all?)
- treat the ceiling partially (as Glenn usually recommends: 2" min.wool + 2" air gap)?
- not set up any diffusors (cause they don't seem to work in small rooms – why? I had the impression that a diffusor may spread the mid to high frequencies in a small room more "naturally", am i wrong here?)?

I think, side walls will be almost completely covered with synths and outboard, so it may be hard to plan any absorption there – if needed.

Well, what would you recommend? I've got already all the material from the "old" studio and we will have to renovate the house anyway, so tools, dirt and man power is no issue, either

Thanks and merry x-mas to you all!

Glenn Kuras · 24th December 2008

Quote:

- treat the front wall (behind the monitors) 100% with bass trap(s) and cover it with acoustic, read: perforated, drywall? Or other acoustic tiles?

It is going to depend on what kind of SBIR you might be getting from the front wall, but start with bass traps floor to ceiling in the front corners.
Learn what is SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interface Response).

Quote:

- if so, should i build the drywall part angled in some way?

You want to keep the front of the room FLAT

Quote:

- build a slat absorber on the back wall? OR
- set up corner bass traps on the back wall? OR

Once again this is going to depend on room size, but most small rooms do better with THICK (6" thick) placed on the back wall

Quote:

- treat the ceiling partially (as Glenn usually recommends: 2" min.wool + 2" air gap)?

If you ceiling is low put the absorption only between where you sit and the monitors. That way it will hit the early reflection points and not get in the way of where you stand. With low ceilings like that you will get a lot of CRAP (very tech term

) from that area.

Quote:

- not set up any diffusors (cause they don't seem to work in small rooms – why? I had the impression that a diffusor may spread the mid to high frequencies in a small room more "naturally", am i wrong here?)?

In smaller rooms you can use diffusion around the THICK absorption on the back wall and or the back 1/3rd of the side walls. Read about how diffusion works here GIK Acoustics presents "How Diffusion Works!"

There you go, now GET TO WORK!!!!!!!!

beingmf · 26th December 2008

Thanks, Glenn!
Well, some more things come to my mind:
1. when I cover 2 walls (one exterior, one interior wall) completely with mineral wool, isn't it probable that due to the thermic characteristics of the material, the ext. wall will start to get humid behind the layers? I hope to avoid this by using those perforated drywall panels. But I'm not completely sure…
2. what about the floor? Usually – in a larger room – I'd try to have a reflective floor material like wood or laminate. Would it better to have some needle-felt flooring maybe, just to prevent comb filtering a little more? Or should I use laminate with a rug? (since we're going to reconstruct the original 50's floorboards in the bedroom, we'll have lots of spare laminate boards that i could use for the studio…)

i took a closer look at the ceiling today and one really good point (i hope) about it is that it is not even at all. it looks like it was made of bricks, but this is impossible of course. i guess they used bricks for the casing (?). so the ceiling itself might act as a high frequencies diffusor, no?

24th December 2008	#1
beingmf Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Telefunkenland Posts: 1,138 Thread Starter	Basement treatment OK – we really did sign the contract for this nice 50's house with a huge garden in a nice part of the town and I decided to set up my studio in the basement (no veto from my wife, so I MUST do it ) ). There would be 2 rooms available, OK in size – now's the question how to treat them acoustically that it'll be as perfect as it can get. Problem: ceilings are very low (very! low). I think dropping them completely would make the room to claustrophobic as I could almost not stand in there But if it absolutely needs to be done, I'd do it. My questions to you pro's are: should I – – – - treat the front wall (behind the monitors) 100% with bass trap(s) and cover it with acoustic, read: perforated, drywall? Or other acoustic tiles? - if so, should i build the drywall part angled in some way? - build a slat absorber on the back wall? OR - set up corner bass traps on the back wall? OR - build a slat absorber in the tracking room? (or none at all?) - treat the ceiling partially (as Glenn usually recommends: 2" min.wool + 2" air gap)? - not set up any diffusors (cause they don't seem to work in small rooms – why? I had the impression that a diffusor may spread the mid to high frequencies in a small room more "naturally", am i wrong here?)? I think, side walls will be almost completely covered with synths and outboard, so it may be hard to plan any absorption there – if needed. Well, what would you recommend? I've got already all the material from the "old" studio and we will have to renovate the house anyway, so tools, dirt and man power is no issue, either Thanks and merry x-mas to you all!

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26th December 2008	#3
beingmf Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Telefunkenland Posts: 1,138 Thread Starter	Thanks, Glenn! Well, some more things come to my mind: 1. when I cover 2 walls (one exterior, one interior wall) completely with mineral wool, isn't it probable that due to the thermic characteristics of the material, the ext. wall will start to get humid behind the layers? I hope to avoid this by using those perforated drywall panels. But I'm not completely sure… 2. what about the floor? Usually – in a larger room – I'd try to have a reflective floor material like wood or laminate. Would it better to have some needle-felt flooring maybe, just to prevent comb filtering a little more? Or should I use laminate with a rug? (since we're going to reconstruct the original 50's floorboards in the bedroom, we'll have lots of spare laminate boards that i could use for the studio…) i took a closer look at the ceiling today and one really good point (i hope) about it is that it is not even at all. it looks like it was made of bricks, but this is impossible of course. i guess they used bricks for the casing (?). so the ceiling itself might act as a high frequencies diffusor, no?