is this room too small?

[Andi Rauscher]

Hi all,

I am currently looking for a control room to put all my gear in there.
Mainly it´s a Pro Tools HD3 Accell, some outboard, KRK Speakers, etc. The gear is not the problem.
I could rent a room at a friends studio, and use his live room, and I would have my own control room.
This all is cool, but the room is
3 metres x 5 metres and 3 metres high.
I would want a company do the acoustics...

But is this room workable?

I can fit my gear in there, not the problem, but acoustic-wise?
Since I have a Pro Tools HD and stuff, I want a great room, too, but I have a very limited budget. Otherwise I´d rent a huge room, but money is an issue since it is at the moment a private studio, but I definitively get more and more clients every month and it will be an professional studio one day.

any comments are highly appreciated!

Andi

[bpatural]

My studio is a similar size and is perfect for mixing and tracking vocals...the drag is when there are too many people, myself with a couple of clients is fine, but when a&r people start coming, and the entourage comes it gets filled quickly and is a little too cozy, now that i think of it, that's not a bad thing since they don't seem to stick around...but if you anticipate working with five piece bands a lot...it's too small..
as far as treating the room...it's fine if you want to deaden it up for mixing work....my problem seems to be a big sub pocket sitting on the rear couch (can't do much about it in a room this size), but my mixing position seems to work well with mixes translating outside the studio...if you're looking to sound proof the place, look elsewhere as it's just too small to do any effective treatment, i've seen what goes into it and you're going to lose a foot from every wall and the ceiling.
i just made sound panels out of mineral wool and they did a great job absorbing all the reflections.
best of luck!
-brian

[Ethan Winer]

Andi,

> is this room workable? <

Yes, but it will require a lot of bass trapping and other acoustic treatment to tame the inevitable peaks and deep nulls and modal ringing common to all small rooms. So given enough bass traps it would be adequate.

--Ethan

[ddageek]

Andy I think your going to find that your mixes arn't going to translate well at 3 meters wife my hunch is the moniters are going to be hugging the displays and that great big baffel is going to skrew up most of your mixes ! or your going to have them to close to the walls! Yeah a cheap space is hard to say no to but my advice is layout thhe gear in a configuration that will fit in this space and see how workable it s ergonomiclly first then think abot treatment! also what is the Isolation like? if its not good how much space are you gooing to eat up trying to Isolate it!

[u b k]

my room is smaller than that and i build amazing mixes in it. i also track vocals, acoustic guitar, etc., and there are no issues.

the key is that every corner is straddled with 703 for bass trapping, without that it'd be unusable. with the trapping, it's fantastic.

also, i spent a LOT of time experimenting with monitor placement/mix position. don't just settle for what's convenient, take the time to find the place where the speakers sing.


gregoire
del ubik

[bpatural]

just experiment and listen to a lot of records you admire...you'll be able to make it work if you put in some time.
-brian

[Jason Poulin]

Originally Posted by bpatural

just experiment and listen to a lot of records you admire...you'll be able to make it work if you put in some time.
-brian

That's not something that will fix the problem. How can you mix and make critical decisions when frequencies are peaking and nulling like crazy?


At least the records you admire have all ready been eq'd but your tracks are not and you're in the hot seat!

How many times have you mixed in your room and then listen to the final mix on CD in your car and had to re-mix it because the bass was just not sitting right.


Bass trapping is the answer! lots of it!


We just spent 3000$ on 703 insulation for a 12x15 8 foot tall room and a 8x12 8 foo tall room.


that's like 70 panels of this shit. But after putting them up... the difference is amazing.



Good luck!



Jason