"Control Room" Advice

[HudHudson]

I'm moving into a new place and will be using a spare bedroom as a control room for my home recording rig. The room is 12 feet wide x 16 feet deep x 10 feet high but one end of the room is half-open to a staircase leading to the first floor, with louvered wooded shutters across the opening to the staircase. Intuitively I know that the effective length of the room would be extended by the open space in the stairwell, but I would appreciate any tips on how to use or control the effect of the stairwell on my efforts to tune the room. My gut says to point the monitors toward the stairwell but if my logic is flawed help me out here. I'm also looking into free-standing acoustical treatments as I cannot affix anything to the walls (except pictures) under my lease. Would placing some framed 703 panels or diffusors just in front of the wall behind the monitors help reduce transference to the adjoining wall (it's a duplex and the other unit's master bedroom is on the other side of that wall!)? Or do I need something with mass like a big gobo? TIA for your ideas.

[Riad]

Definately post this on John Sayers site.

John and the great people on that forum helped me build my studio, could not have done it without them.

Rob

[Jules]

I guess that you will hear 'echo' / decay of sound traveling down the stairwell.

Is it cavernous, I mean can the stairwell generate echo via it's size?

IF so, do you face your speakers or your ears towards the 'echo chamber"?



Hacks 2c

[AdAudioInc]

What does your lease say about replacing the louvered doors with solid-core doors? You can get oak slabs @ HD for under $100. Chisel a few mortises for the hinges and you're good to go. Might get the owner to agree - they look great and would up the privacy in the bedroom???

Probably a stretch since you can't even hang stuff on the walls....

[tINY]

To keep sound from transfering to the adjacent flat, you'll really need to add mass to the wall and/or build a second one in front of it. If they are already good party walls (offset sutds, or blockwall) then you are in good shape.

As far as the acoustics goes, frame-up some 2 or 4 inch semi-ridgid fiberglass and set them up so that you have to walk a zig-zag to get past them. That sould deaden the back of the room pretty well. You may want to make some of them pannel traps if you need it for smoother bass (though, you may want to forget about bass so you don't PO your neighbors...)



-tINY

[Ethan Winer]

Hunter,

> Intuitively I know that the effective length of the room would be extended by the open space in the stairwell <

Your instincts are correct, and having the additional length helps to improve the low frequency response in the room.

> I would appreciate any tips on how to use or control the effect of the stairwell on my efforts to tune the room. <

To my way of thinking, the term "tune the room" is misleading because you don't really want to tune anything. What all small rooms need most is broadband absorption that's effective to as low a frequency as possible. Besides Rob's excellent advice to ask in John Sayers' forum, have a look at the Acoustics FAQ, second in the list on my Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

It explains all of these issues in detail.

--Ethan

[HudHudson]

Thanks, all, for the advice and references.

Jules, you bring up a good point that I'd completely overlooked because the stairwell leads to the living area, which is large and has a tile floor, so it will definitely add reverb to whatever I'm hearing upstairs unless I block off the windows facing into the stairwell.

Ethan, I appreciate your semantic correction - I guess I'm among many people who incorrectly use the term "tune a room" to mean "apply appropriate acoustical treatments" - and did read all your articles before posting my query. I can see using some of your trapping products to address the bass response in the room and I can make some broadband absorption panels from 703 to suspend with mic stands.

Hud