Control Room renovation

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by judah

...

Judah,
That is looking really great and I imagine the improvement will blow your mind. I think I am missing something. What is the crisscross cable for that I see in the clouds? Is it to help hold in the rockwool?

Also how are you liking working with the rock wool compared to 703 insulation?

Good work,
Michael Greene

[judah]

Hi Michael,
thanks for your support. Right now I can clearly hear the improvement. I already knew that most of my problems were coming from floor-ceiling reflection and now it's sounding so much better I just regret I didn't have the guts to redone the room earlier.

The criss.cross is just rope used to hold the rockwool in the clouds. Completely useless. Removed.

Rockwool is not bad and I find it much easier than 703 to work with but both of them are a pain in the ass nontheless. This is the most annoying part of the process. I want to get over it so badly....

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by judah

Hi Michael,
thanks for your support. Right now I can clearly hear the improvement. I already knew that most of my problems were coming from floor-ceiling reflection and now it's sounding so much better I just regret I didn't have the guts to redone the room earlier.

The criss.cross is just rope used to hold the rockwool in the clouds. Completely useless. Removed.

Rockwool is not bad and I find it much easier than 703 to work with but both of them are a pain in the ass nontheless. This is the most annoying part of the process. I want to get over it so badly....

Your welcome. I imagine the improvement is dramatic. So you took out the rope because it didn't do anything to hold the rockwool in? That sucks. I don't know what the prices are like where your at but here the price of rock wool is way way way cheaper than 703 so I may have to go pick some up when I move my room in the near future. I don't know if I want to work with 703 again but I am sure I will have to.

Keep the updates coming.
Michael Greene

[J.S.Vega III]

Really great work, please keep updating and describing!

[judah]

Originally Posted by MJGreene Audio

Your welcome. I imagine the improvement is dramatic. So you took out the rope because it didn't do anything to hold the rockwool in? That sucks. I don't know what the prices are like where your at but here the price of rock wool is way way way cheaper than 703 so I may have to go pick some up when I move my room in the near future. I don't know if I want to work with 703 again but I am sure I will have to.

Keep the updates coming.
Michael Greene

Yeah Michael, I took the rope off because the rockwool is not folding down under its own weight. I just strap it around one panel and then discovered that there was no need for it. Nothing dramatic. The panels I used for the clouds are around 40Kg/mc, not rigid but not fluffy either. Rockwool and 703 here (at least in my hometown) is abotu the same price but the latter is much harder to get. I can buy rockwool in three different densities, fluffy, semi-rigid or rigid and the store is about 1km from the studio. Very handy. Today I'm gonna fill up the big cloud and then I'll just relax a bit. It's national holiday here around after all. :-)

[judah]

Originally Posted by J.S.Vega III

Really great work, please keep updating and describing!

Thanks J.S. for your comment. Hope I'm gonna be done with it for the end of the week.

BTW, next week I'm gonna be out for some monitors shopping. A friend of mine instist we have to go out and have a listen to ADAM P22 and Focal Twins. My JBL are holding more than fine, but I'd really like to look around for something new.

[pieca]

Hey, really great!!!

Keep us informed about the sound enhancement!!!!!

[judah]

Hey all,
yesterday I finally put up the last cloud, and the difference is absolutely stunning! I can walk around the room and the only reflection I still hear are coming from the last untreated corner. Right now the ceiling seems to work pretty well. I need to put up all the fabric and trims in the clouds and then I'll finally move to the last corner. Still need to drill a hole in the wall to pass wiring.

Last night I had a bit of time to spare while I waited for sleep to come. I calculated around 50 hours put into the project so far. It means that if I had all the materials at hand, better skills and time I could have complete the job in around 1 week from start to finish. I'm not complaining at all but it is kinda frustrating to work for a couple hours and than leave, coming back the day after and work a couple hours more and so on and on...

I'm getting the job done but it had me thinkin....

[judah]

Don't know how but I got all the clouds done! I'll have to wait for my electrician to wire the light points.

[judah]

...

[cyjanopan]

very very nice looking units ! I wonder how big difference will be

[judah]

Thanks cyjanopan,
just goin' by ear the room sounds much better now. Will need to do a few sweep passes once I'm done with the whole thing.

I'm very close to the end of this crazy thing. A few more hours of hard work and then it will be time to wire things back and enjoy the results.

[judah]

Don't know if I already posted this but here's where the clouds idea comes from:

LP Swist - Recording Studio Designer and Acoustical Consultant

The panels and corner traps are a mix up of various design gathered on the web and especially here:

Recording Studio Design :: Index

BTW, Seti Orion and Eduardo Apolonia building threads were a huge inspirations too.

And I have to thank Gulffo (aka Glenn Stanton) once again for his help and patience.

Will come back later with (hopefully) some better news (and pictures) and a finished control room to show off!

[judah]

Hey all, here's the latest update after a very long weekend.
I'll let the pictures speak for myself.

[judah]

...

[judah]

Yetsreday I put the trim all around the back corners, mopped the floor a thousand times, put most of the stuff back in the room and started wiring it all up. I'm very close to be done.

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by judah

Yetsreday I put the trim all around the back corners, mopped the floor a thousand times, put most of the stuff back in the room and started wiring it all up. I'm very close to be done.

Judah,
That looks really great. Can't wait to hear how it sounds. I am sure its a vast improvement.

Michael Greene

[judah]

Thanks Michael, I put up 1 Tannoy Reveal last night to test the room out. I was very impressed by the improvement in the mid and high frequencies. I was expecting much more on the bottom but was in for a surprise. I have to be honest and say that there's still some problems down on the lows (under 100Hz), but just goin' by ear I can hear that the dips and bumps there were smoothed out very much. Before the end of the week I'll have my JBLs back (gave'em to a friend of mine while I renovated the room) and will use FuzzMeasure to see what my job brought to the table. I have a few measurement I made before the renovation started and I'll use those to check the results.

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by judah

Thanks Michael, I put up 1 Tannoy Reveal last night to test the room out. I was very impressed by the improvement in the mid and high frequencies. I was expecting much more on the bottom but was in for a surprise. I have to be honest and say that there's still some problems down on the lows (under 100Hz), but just goin' by ear I can hear that the dips and bumps there were smoothed out very much. Before the end of the week I'll have my JBLs back (gave'em to a friend of mine while I renovated the room) and will use FuzzMeasure to see what my job brought to the table. I have a few measurement I made before the renovation started and I'll use those to check the results.

Cool. Keep us informed.

Mike

[Doublehelix]

Hey Judah! Looking great bud!

As you are well aware, all of your earlier pictures are gone from the thread, not sure what happened, but nonetheless, they are gone.

Can you repost another closeup picture of the light fixture that you used? I am working on designing my clouds as well, and most of the recessed lights that I have found have a can that is too deep for my designs.

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

[judah]

Originally Posted by Doublehelix

Hey Judah! Looking great bud!

As you are well aware, all of your earlier pictures are gone from the thread, not sure what happened, but nonetheless, they are gone.

Can you repost another closeup picture of the light fixture that you used? I am working on designing my clouds as well, and most of the recessed lights that I have found have a can that is too deep for my designs.

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

Thanks DH,
the only pic I have is the one attached, unfortunately all the light are in now and it would be quite a pain in the back to take one out and make some close-ups. Anyway, if you use Sketchup or know someone who uses it, I can send you my project file. I uploaded a 2D rendering from Sketchup to show you what it looks like. Let me know if I can help you out.

[judah]

Last night went to the local IKEA store to pick up some badly needed shelves for the entry. I'm gonna put them up and store all the crap I have flyin' around in the studio.
I also got a chance to drop by my friend and get my beloved puppies (JBL) back and hooked them up when I finally got home at about midnight. I can honestly say that I'm thrilled so far with the results. The mids and highs are super clean and the stereo image is now (finally) stereo! I was used to this big mono image coming from two speakers because of reflections coming from the side windows and rear wall and now the sound is oh so much better!
The lows are cleaner and tight, much better than before. Still lots of wiring to do and then I'll finally check the room out with Fuzzmeasure.

[Doublehelix]

Hey Judah:

Thanks for the picture of the light. That is exactly what I am looking for! Does it require a large can above it, or is that "it"??? Where did you buy them if you don't mind me asking?

Also, I am a big fan of Sketch-up myself, and would love to see your sketch-Up file.

Post it here maybe, or PM it to me???

Thanks again, and man, I am really impressed with how well everything turned out, your side traps and the clouds... Very nice indeed!

[judah]

Originally Posted by Doublehelix

Hey Judah:

Thanks for the picture of the light. That is exactly what I am looking for! Does it require a large can above it, or is that "it"??? Where did you buy them if you don't mind me asking?

Also, I am a big fan of Sketch-up myself, and would love to see your sketch-Up file.

Post it here maybe, or PM it to me???

Thanks again, and man, I am really impressed with how well everything turned out, your side traps and the clouds... Very nice indeed!

Hey HD, thanks for your kind words. The whole light fixture is what you see in the picture. There were two metal "ears" with a screw on the back that I took off. I just cut the hole in the wood panel a bit narrower than the light itself and forced the aluminium body in. Very simple yet effective.

Got them here:
eBay: #150236906809

Mind you I'm in Italy so it was very hand for me to buy them in Milan, barely 100km from the studio. The price seemed reasonable to me.

PM me your e-mail address and I'll forward you the Sketchup file, tried to upload it here but SKP is not in the allowed file extensions list.

Cheers.

PS: hey HD I have to say that the lights warm up quite a bit after a while. I'm keeping an eye out on the wood panel but so far it doesn't seem to be a problem. Will report back in case of fire! (just kidding....)

[judah]

On, while I'm waiting for my tech to come here and do the "serious" stuff on wiring, I decided to clean up the entry a bit. It used to be a mess with lots of useless stuff around. Now it's some sort of controlled mess.

Pics:

1. Before
2. After
3. After

[judah]

I'm 99% there with the control room. Need to solder a few more wires but the hard job is over. Enjoy the pics and tell me what you think.

BTW, last night I finally had a chance to mix a song for a group of friends I was working with before doin' the renovation. I started from scratch without listening to the older mix and compared the two at the end of the night. I have to say I'm really impressed by the difference between the two. The new mix is much smoother in the mids, not peaky at all, low frequencies (especially the bass) are even and not second guessed and the overall balance is spot on. What else can I say? I'm very very happy. The room is finally a good sounding one, at least to my ears, much more comfortable to work in and the vibe is very relaxing. It was a pleasure to share all of this with you. Thanks.

[judah]

...

[judah]

And here's me behind the desk.
You can't see it in the picture but I got a big smile on my face. :-)

[DirkB]

Great job, well done. Looks very pro .

Greetings,
Dirk