Suggestions for this room (pics included).....

[ringemaster]

I recently talked my wife into letting me turn our 2nd bedroom in the apartment into a little room for music. So...I built a desk (yes I built it myself), bought some monitors and some other gear and got myself setup. I've known from day one I would need to treat it acoustically, but everything I've had to buy before the acoustic treatment I would consider necessities.

Anyway, now I've got about $750 saved and ready to spend on some beginning acoustical treatment and was hoping the expert opinions of the people here. The room is 12' wide, 13' long (the sides w/the mirrors and the window are the ends of the long side of the room) and 7'10" high under the smaller part of the ceiling and 9' tall under the raised part of the ceiling. The lower part of the ceiling juts out 1'4" into the middle of the room and only exists on the long side of the room.

Given my limited budget (with my expectation of spending more in the future on additional treatment), what would you guys recommend?

Oh...I had to agree to have my room setup this way so we could fit a futon on the room for guests, so I'm sort of stuck with the orientation of the room.

Here's some pics of the room:





















Thanks for the help!

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by ringemaster

Given my limited budget (with my expectation of spending more in the future on additional treatment), what would you guys recommend?

My advice for you below is the same as for everyone else with a rectangle room. With a small budget, you're looking at either DIY or buying from one of the "affordable" treatment vendors.

All rooms need:

* Broadband (not tuned) bass traps straddling as many corners as you can manage, including the wall-ceiling corners. More bass traps on the rear wall behind helps even further. You simply cannot have too much bass trapping. Real bass trapping, that is - thin foam and thin fiberglass don't work to a low enough frequency.

* Mid/high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling.

* Some additional amount of mid/high absorption and/or diffusion on any large areas of bare parallel surfaces, such as opposing walls or the ceiling if the floor is reflective. Diffusion on the rear wall behind you is also useful in larger rooms.

For the complete story see my Acoustics FAQ.

There's a lot of additional non-sales technical information on my company's web site - articles, videos, test tones and other downloads, and much more.

--Ethan

[ringemaster]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

My advice for you below is the same as for everyone else with a rectangle room. With a small budget, you're looking at either DIY or buying from one of the "affordable" treatment vendors.

All rooms need:

* Broadband (not tuned) bass traps straddling as many corners as you can manage, including the wall-ceiling corners. More bass traps on the rear wall behind helps even further. You simply cannot have too much bass trapping. Real bass trapping, that is - thin foam and thin fiberglass don't work to a low enough frequency.

* Mid/high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling.

* Some additional amount of mid/high absorption and/or diffusion on any large areas of bare parallel surfaces, such as opposing walls or the ceiling if the floor is reflective. Diffusion on the rear wall behind you is also useful in larger rooms.

For the complete story see my Acoustics FAQ.

There's a lot of additional non-sales technical information on my company's web site - articles, videos, test tones and other downloads, and much more.

--Ethan

Thx Ethan. Is diffusion something I shouldn't even be considering at this point?

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by ringemaster

Is diffusion something I shouldn't even be considering at this point?

Sure, but understand that good diffusion costs more than good absorption, whether you buy diffusors or DIY them yourself.

--Ethan

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by ringemaster

Thx Ethan. Is diffusion something I shouldn't even be considering at this point?

Sure diffusion could work but I think it would be more icing on the cake. The big thing is your not really set up totally perfect so your going to have low end problems that should be dealt with first.
I see you and Bryan (our lead acoustic guy) have been emailing so go with what he recommends for the budget you are trying to stay in for now.

[ringemaster]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

Sure diffusion could work but I think it would be more icing on the cake. The big thing is your not really set up totally perfect so your going to have low end problems that should be dealt with first.
I see you and Bryan (our lead acoustic guy) have been emailing so go with what he recommends for the budget you are trying to stay in for now.

Thx.