Hello GS;
I want to thank all of the knowledgable posters who have generously provided all of us GS users with heaps of valuable information. I am in the process of treating my home project studio and I would not have known where to begin if I didnt come accross GEARSLUTZ.com. The fact that the pros share so openly on this forum and all egos are, for the most part, in check on these threads is absolutely awesome.
The intent of this thread is to share with you specifics about my space and what I have done thus far in the treatment process. I am hoping to get feedback about what I could do differently, what I may have done wrong and confirmation if I have done something correctly. Additionally, I will share my absorber/bass trap construction and mounting techniques in hopes that it will benefit other slutz or I will learn a better way from feedback.
I am thick skinned and will not be offended by direct critical feedback. I am not a pro and, although I have been a musician for over 32 years, I am just learning about sound engineering and the art and science of acoustic treatment.
I have not done room measurments at this point but have started attacking the obvious and general room issues and intend to measure when I have completed my basic installation and need to fix or address room specific problems. (This may be a mistake...)
Room:
18'Wx25'Lx10'H
Limestone Floor
Sheetrock Wall & Ceiling (3)
Floor to Ceiling Glass on Entire Right Wall (uuhg)
Orientation is.....well a picture tells a thousand words:
This is the front wall (18Wx10H). I plan to center the desk on the wall. The door leads to a bathroom and I should probably treat it. (No...the lava lamp in not for sale;)
Rear wall has a built-in floor to ceiling wood cabinet with flat doors accross 12 of the 18 feet and an exit on the right hand side with a partition creating a corner in front of the door...as you can see.
Left wall has a low wood cabinet centered and leaving 5' on either side. (Baby changing station and instruments can move if necessary). Above are shelves, TV and cabinet cube that is mounted (all of that stuff has to stay).
Right wall poses an interesting challenge. Shitty picture but there are 6 floor to ceiling glass panels. The center 2 are sliding doors. There is a black-out shade that drops from a slot in the ceiling roughly 10" from face of glass and aligns with the wall corners --covers the whole glass wall (you can see better in the Front Wall pic).
Treatment:
I have made broadband absorbers/traps out of OC703FRK and OC705 "like" product.
4"-2x4 OC703FRK with FRK facing wall/ceiling- Plan on putting these accross top of left wall, on front wall and hanging from ceiling.
4"-2x4 OC703FRK &OC705 with FRK facing room for corner traps accross both wall to wall on Left Wall
(currently 8' high but I am thinking about building a larger one to go all the way to ceiling...will that make a big dif?) Thinking about building a freestanding trap along these lines that I could place in corners of glass wall condition (right wall).
Here are a few shots of how I went about building the traps:
Uses a 1x3 frame (stapled and glued) on back of panel and attached RFP with contact adhesive. Used a transparent plactic corner bead (.5") that you find in the shower enclosure section of the hardware store to make edges and corners perfect. Wrapped and stapled fabric to back doing my best with the corners;) At this point I have made about 15 of the 30 or so that I will probably need to get this room right and I am getting faster as I go...lots of work though as many of you know.
Ok so the only thing that I am doing that I havent seen is I am using 18gauge 1.25" metal angle on ceiling and on back of panels for mounting ease and flexibility.
Pretty self explanatory but along with the tracks on the ceiling I can hang them at angles (using longer cables on one end or the other), at different orientations and different heights very easily in cloud. I can also make changes as necessary without a lot of effort.
There are three "tracks" which consists of two rows of angle spaced 20" apart (same spacing as back of panel btw). They cover my kit, desk and rest of tracking area pretty well. I had to avoid lights and speakers in the ceiling but I am hoping this will give me the coverage I need (You can see black track in middle and white tracks on either side on ceiling in the room pics above...wife wants white) I tenatively plan on putting 6 panels (2x4) on each track spaced closely. Thats 18 panels covering ?% of celing....havent done the math yet. I was thinking about experimenting with angles and staggered heights and am
hoping to get lots of input on ceiling cloud placement from you folks. The tracks should allow the flexibility enabling me to accomplish what I need to do.
Currently I have BBA's hung from picture frame hook on monofilament that is long enough to put spacers behind the frame to create space from wall as necessary. I suppose I should try to bring those 4" off wall as they are 4" thick?
Will that make a big dif? (Wife thinks they are ugly already...I think they are beautiful...besides - its my f#^%in room;) Also, I have hung five panels in a straight line symetrically accross top of left wall because of the aesthetic balance...am I much better off staggering them more? I did stagger FRK on the 5 panels with 2 having the foil facing the room and the others the wall.
Goal:
So...with all of that said, I would really like some feedback on my room and ideas about how to maximize the end result. I know the first responses I get will be "come back after you take measurements!". My theory is that I already know the room is broken. I know, as Ethan says, you cant trap to much bass. I dont think I run the risk of creating a dead space with the volume of the room and all the hard surfaces (limestone floor is hard a rock...cause it is.) Therefore, as a starting point, I thought I would just get the basics covered with the corner traps, absorption on ceiling and walls and see what I am left with (I am going to do the floor to wall corner behing the console with 705 as well.)
I do have some specific issues that I am concerned about
:
-Will I need diffusion on walls (rear..)?
-How screwed am I with the left wall being all glass. The solar shade is like a thick opaque vinyl canvas and it covers everything.
-How to treat the corners where they meet the glass? Free standing ideas anyone?
-Doors on front and rear walls.
The bare room is loud and full of all sorts of issues but actually sounds better than I would have thought when tracking certain stuff (acoustic guitar). The dimensions are not inherently problematic based on what little I have read so I am very optimistic that I can acheive a good to maybe quite good ranging sound.
Thanks for reading this if you got this far. I am sure I left out important info but my hands are tired;) Any and all feedback or commentary is greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance for your help and/or participation in this process. Not to blow sunshine up anyones arse, but I will be thrilled if Ethan, Glenn, Andre and many others who I have learned so much from chime in here.
I am having so much fun learning about this stuff and building these tools of acoustic control. I love playing around where art and science meet (check out Jojo Mayer...major drum influence) and I can see why you guys would enjoy doing this for a living. Eventually I would like to build a professional studio in my home or somewhere cool. Friends of mine say the studio biz is like the wine biz in that if you want to have a million dollars when growing wine you have to start with 5 million (or something like that..).
Thanks again.
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). The good news is your room is not as small as most. You can use the following program to test the room to figure out the best area for the mix.
