are there any "higher end" mixing rooms with a CARPET on the floor?

[mark007]

I know that most "higher end" mixing/control rooms have wooden floors but I was wondering if there are some that actually have carpets (all throught not just a part of it)

In my case, I'll have a "high quality" project studio - just one room which will be used for both: mixing and recording my own voiceover. I'm spending quiet a lot of money on good quality equipment and the room itself so I wanted to know if a carpet can still be a very good valid option acoustically speaking or if wood is really the way to go (even if the room will also be used for my VO recording as well)

mark

ps: actually the main reason I'm considering a carpet rather than wood is that I've had some problems with the concrete slab in the basement floor and the inspector told me that there still might be some slight movements in the future and recommended a more "flexible" floor finishing just in case... However, if wood is much more advisable acoustically speaking, I still might decide to go for it

[Kyle S]

maybe its dumb but what about a segmented, removable, raised hard wood riser? itd be expensive for sure.

[PhilE]

Dont worry about it. Put in a carpet and a wooden ceiling

[Led]

You could do a floating laminate wooden floor over the carpet. They have a bit of room to nove in them.

[jwl]

I've seen carpeted control rooms before. It can make sense; first reflections are first reflections, even if they come from the floor, and carpet will break those up a bit.

Generally I do prefer reflective floors for tracking, though. Especially for acoustic instruments. Our ears are used to picking up localization cues from floor reflections; so in most cases it just sounds better. Of course there are counterexamples, but in general...

It also depends on what's going on with the ceiling. I'd pretty much always make at least one of them absorptive.

[Joe Porto]

I would do wood laminate over foam insulation and get some area rugs. This will give you the option of rolling up the rugs to adjust room ambiance. I would also look into getting some acoustic treatment on wheeled gobos as opposed to attaching it all on the walls. This will give you more options between tracking and mixing in a single room.

[aidyhall]

The only real reason for wooden floors in control rooms is to make the room more natural-feeling to talk and work in, to avoid that 70's-type 'deadness' that makes a control room feel slightly un-natural and uncomfortable.

The wooden floor in modern control rooms is generally under the engineer's feet, so provides no reflections back to the listening position. The sound from the speakers hits the floor and is absorbed or diffused by the back wall. Communication within the control room, however, is reflected off the floor, and sometimes other surfaces, providing additional reflections that help the voice sound more natural.

From a practical point of view, I hate control rooms with rugs, because it means you can't slide your chair around. Intensely annoying if you just want to zip over to an outboard rack and back.

[Chris Kress]

Does it matter if you have carpet? The actual square footage coverage of every absorbative and reflective material is important. The degree at which each material reflects and absorbs sound at all different frequencies important. The cubic volume of the room is important. All surface materials (carpet, hardwood, glass windows, drywall, OC 703) are combined in a way that yeilds the flattest resonse and a specific desired reverb time.. These are the considerations..

I don't know how else to start on a room other than using a spreadsheet that considers all of these factors.. BTW, carpet is always a pain in the ass because you have to compensate elswhere for its high-frequency-only-absorption (and none on mid and lows).

On the other hand, my room is not perfect, and I considered all of these.. It is workable but it doesn't sound like the expensive rooms.. I have been trying my ass off.....

[jayfrigo]

I've seen many with a combination of carpet and wood or stone, but I don't recall any that are all carpet.

[avare]

Originally Posted by Chris Kress

I don't know how else to start on a room other than using a spreadsheet that considers all of these factors.. BTW, carpet is always a pain in the ass because you have to compensate elsewhere for its high-frequency-only-absorption (and none on mid and lows).

The BBC decades ago developed an absorber that was colloquially referred to as "anti-carpet" for ceilings in rooms with carpeted floors! Everest (may peace be with him) wrote about this extensively. The BC RD reports detail the design of it.

Merry Christmas

Not just a good carpet:
Andre

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

I've seen many with a combination of carpet and wood or stone, but I don't recall any that are all carpet.

Yea me too. I am sure there are some high rooms out there with them, but for the most part it is a hard floor with throw rugs.

Now we are talking about rooms that are designed from scratch though.

Glenn

[avare]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

Yea me too. I am sure there are some high rooms out there with them, but for the most part it is a hard floor with throw rugs.

The way you worded that reminds me of a world champion skater. He was asked in an interview if there are non homosexual world class skaters. His answer was "Yes, of course, there many of them! I just have not met them yet."

Andre

[Anonymatt]

Number one, you can't zip around on your chair.

Number two, have you seen a carpet in a commercial recording studio? Hello, Admiral Steamer. I guess it depends on how punk rock your scene is.

Otherwise, wooden floors scream "Class!!" Look at any apartment listing.

The acoustic considerations might have more to do with just how much unobscured floor there is in the first place, and what percentage of it makes up of the total exposed surface of the room. This is unscientific, however, and doesn't take any of the specific physics or geometry of your space into account.

The room I work in, a second bedroom, has wooden floors. There's a rug in the center, but I zip around on a strip that goes from my keyboard to my rack of stuff with my mix position in the middle.

If anything, the sproing I get from the reflections off the wooden floor remind me of that little bit of reverberation you get in most purpose-built control rooms. And you probably won't have some huge desk and glass to worry about. Suckers.