Advise for Treating Basement Studio

[1234]

Hi Everyone,

In the process of setting up a new basement studio in my house. It will be used to track drums and other rock instruments, as well as mixing duties as well. I have already begun building some frames for bass traps, and I have 192ft^2 of 703, total, that I just got delivered today.

I'm wondering how you guys would treat this room? Specifically, I'm wondering how the 703 should be distributed per frame. Like, should corner traps be 6" thick, with first-refelctions being 4", should I have a bass trap thats even thicker than 6" for low bass freq's? More coverage but thinner traps? Whats the balance?

As you'll see in the doc, part of the ceiling is dropped, with r-11 insulation above it. Would this be a good place for the drum kit, or mixing desk? Any other suggestions/tips would be greatly appreciated too!

Attached is a .doc of the room dimensions.

[Glenn Kuras]

I really don't have time to calculate what you have and how much you can make, but I can give you a few things to think about.

-Covering more corner area always out weighs thicker panels covering lessor corner area. So if you can only make 6 6" panels you are better off to make more of the 4" panels and cover more corner area. You will get to a point though that adding panels will only help a wee bit. Meaning the first 12 panels may get you 90% of the way there and adding another 12 might only get you 5% improvement. I will say though that with a room your size I could see 12 to 16 panels straddling corners pretty easily. Nice room BTW.
-For the early reflection areas you can get away with 2" panels which should leave you fiberglass to make more bass traps.
-For the back wall I would just use 6" to play it safe.
-Set up is pretty important so I hope you are facing the bottom short wall on your layout.

[1234]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

I really don't have time to calculate what you have and how much you can make, but I can give you a few things to think about.

-Covering more corner area always out weighs thicker panels covering lessor corner area. So if you can only make 6 6" panels you are better off to make more of the 4" panels and cover more corner area. You will get to a point though that adding panels will only help a wee bit. Meaning the first 12 panels may get you 90% of the way there and adding another 12 might only get you 5% improvement. I will say though that with a room your size I could see 12 to 16 panels straddling corners pretty easily. Nice room BTW.
-For the early reflection areas you can get away with 2" panels which should leave you fiberglass to make more bass traps.
-For the back wall I would just use 6" to play it safe.
-Set up is pretty important so I hope you are facing the bottom short wall on your layout.

Thanks Glenn! For you last point, "Set up is pretty important so I hope you are facing the bottom short wall on your layout", when you say bottom short wall, do you mean the short wall under the non-dropped ceiling area, or under the dropped-ceiling area?

[Glenn Kuras]

I mean facing the 16"4 wall. One thing I just noticed that I did not read before about your room is there is a drop ceiling. You can straddle panels in the corners and long where the floor and wall meet, but you will not be able to straddle the upper ceiling to wall corner.
(like this one is)



Your true ceiling corner is above the drop ceiling. Just wanted to point that out, which btw you can stuff fluffy fiberglass up there which will work pretty well to control low end.

[1234]

In fact, the drop ceiling has r-11 already stuffed in there (not by me). Is r-11 dense enough to do anything for the low end?

So, would it make sense, then, to have mix position facing 16' 4'' wall, and drums perhaps set up below drop ceiling?

Anyone else have any thoughts in this?

[Glenn Kuras]

In fact, the drop ceiling has r-11 already stuffed in there (not by me). Is r-11 dense enough to do anything for the low end?

If it is thick enough (6" or more) yes it will help control low end. I would focus it along the perimeter corners around the room.

So, would it make sense, then, to have mix position facing 16' 4'' wall, and drums perhaps set up below drop ceiling?

Yes but if the drop ceiling is made from rigid panels (most are) I would hang or replace the panels with rigid fiberglass or mineral wool panels.

[1234]

Thanks Glenn, your always a help here! The r-11, as far as I can tell, i stuffed up there throughout that area of dropped ceiling, which is a pretty big surface area. How dense is r-11?

I'm not sure how rigid the panels are, they are typical dropped-ceiling, office-building-like...Will these reflect more than is ideal?

[Glenn Kuras]

Thanks Glenn, your always a help here! The r-11, as far as I can tell, i stuffed up there throughout that area of dropped ceiling, which is a pretty big surface area. How dense is r-11?

It is not dense at all (I think 1 pound?) but will work well if make thick enough.

I'm not sure how rigid the panels are, they are typical dropped-ceiling, office-building-like...Will these reflect more than is ideal?

If a typical drop ceiling then it has thin plastic on it with 705 behind it. If so it is fine if not in the early reflection points.

Glenn