Help with treating a suboptimal room

[Herman Munster]

I'm about to start the process of treating my "suboptimal" home studio mixing/tracking room. I've attached photos below. The reason I say it is suboptimal is that is is about 13.5'x13.5'x8' (The ceilings are only 7ft5inches in the rear 5.5 feet of the room because of a 12x5.5ft hardwood riser I built for the back of the room. The rest of the flooring is carpet. I realize that I will have issues (modal) because it is square, but it's all I've got to work with for now. It is likely that I will build some gobos for the space outside the door (opening now in the pics, the door is coming) and that this space would be used for drums, and some acoustic instrument/vocal recording. Here is my current thoughts after doing as much research on this over the past several months as I can:

1) Install as many bass traps as I can, especially the front and rear corners as well as along the angles where the wall meets the ceiling on both sides.

2) Likely place absorptive panels to the side of the mixing position. I'll likely move the storage shelves shown in the pics. Any suggestions where to move them?

3) Likely install 1-2 absorptive panels above the mixing position.

4) Likely stay away from any diffusion given this is such a small room.

Here are current questions I'm trying to make sure I've addressed:
1) Do I need bass traps on the 2 back doors (to be installed late week)? The room is more than 10 feet deep and the cloth sofa should help some, so I'm thinking not.
2) The left wall (facing into the room) has a window with curtain over the bottom 3/4. What, if anything do I need to do to the opposite wall for symmetry. The walls are currently wallpaper and I can do whatever I want to them (per my wife). There is a chair rail about 3-4 ft up from the floor with sheetrock below that.
3) Since this is a small, square room - do I need to treat the walls in front of the mixing position? My initial impression is no, but I'm not sure if I'm missing anything given the "smallness" of the room.
4) Once I have done all this, do I need to put anything else on the walls or ceiling to tame the mids and highs, or just leave it be? A friend suggested placed small Auralex panels in a checkerboard pattern on the ceiling and walls, but I'm not sure. I don't want a dead room.
5) Are there any hopes of getting a decent drum sound out of the space outside the door on the hardwood? I plan on building gobos for this, but realize with an 8 ft. ceiling comb filtering will be an issue without a cloud.

I think that's it. Many thanks to Ethan Winer for his excellent videos and articles I've read over and over the last few months. I still feel like a medical student wondering through an ICU ward in the acoustics world. Thanks for any advice....

[Glenn Kuras]

"1) Do I need bass traps on the 2 back doors (to be installed late week)? The room is more than 10 feet deep and the cloth sofa should help some, so I'm thinking not."

That it a opening into the other room, right? You should not need anything there.

"2) The left wall (facing into the room) has a window with curtain over the bottom
3/4. What, if anything do I need to do to the opposite wall for symmetry. The walls are currently wallpaper and I can do whatever I want to them (per my wife). There is a chair rail about 3-4 ft up from the floor with sheetrock below that."

Symmetry is very important, but behind the early reflection to the left and right then I would not worry about it. I doubt the curtain is doing much of anything anyway.

3) Since this is a small, square room - do I need to treat the walls in front of the mixing position? My initial impression is no, but I'm not sure if I'm missing anything given the "smallness" of the room.

I would place panels that are 4" or more thick behind each monitor to help with SBIR (Learn what is SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interface Response).)


4) Once I have done all this, do I need to put anything else on the walls or ceiling to tame the mids and highs, or just leave it be? A friend suggested placed small Auralex panels in a checkerboard pattern on the ceiling and walls, but I'm not sure. I don't want a dead room.

Put 2 to 3 panels above the mix spot in the early reflection area.


5) Are there any hopes of getting a decent drum sound out of the space outside the door on the hardwood? I plan on building gobos for this, but realize with an 8 ft. ceiling comb filtering will be an issue without a cloud.

Sure, you could treat the ceiling above the drum set which would help a lot.

Hope that helps.

Glenn

[Herman Munster]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

"1) Do I need bass traps on the 2 back doors (to be installed late week)? The room is more than 10 feet deep and the cloth sofa should help some, so I'm thinking not."

That it a opening into the other room, right? You should not need anything there.

Sorry, Glenn. I don't think I made it clear, but I'm going to put doors up in that opening in the next week. I've got two solid core doors on the way. That's why I was asking.

I suppose the only other question is whether or not I'm on target with everything else???

[jwl]

Don't forget that every room ever built is "suboptimal." "optimal" is an abstract ideal; we just do the best we can with our budget and our rooms. :-)

Standard rules apply, you pretty much have the right idea.

Bass taps in as many corners as you can. This is especially important given your square room. If you don't want to kill the room use membrane absorbers.

I'd go with some traps on stands as well. You can use these to create a RFZ while mixing, or arrange them strategically while recording. You can get enough stands to make a RFZ on the side walls, and also on the rear wall and front wall. 10 2x4 traps on stands would go a long way toward this (2 each L/R, 3 each F/R) for mixing, modular panels for recording.

I wouldn't rule out diffusion in this room. Might help. maybe make a couple of the traps on stands diffusors.

I wouldn't checkerboard the entire ceiling. Instead, make 'sweet spots' with full coverage of absorption, above the mix position (part of hte RFZ) and above where the drums will be.

I would recommend bass trapping in the rear of the room. These can also be on stands if you wish, to give you additional flexibility.

[John Hunter AC]

What your room has is problems with all frequencies. In small rooms with parallel walls you run into many different problems concerning frequencies either canceling or becoming amplified. With small rooms such as yours bass will just build up and sound muddy. Because bass waves are very large in small rooms they will just overwhelm the room. When mixing you want bass clarity you don't want to hear more bass than what is actually coming out of your monitors.

Bass Traps will fix your problem with bass, but what about other frequency problems? Other frequencies are also being canceled and amplified. You need to address all problem areas.

You want to even out the room so that when you walk from one area to another you hear all frequencies at the same volume. Why? because if say your mix position is stuck in an antinode you will want to lower the volume in the mix because it seems to loud. You do this, and then you go out to your car and the bass is to low. The opposite will happen with nodes. The bass will be to loud in your car because you raised the volume thinking that the bass was to soft when it really wasn't.

The solution to your problem is All Broadband Bass Traps because they treat the entire frequency spectrum. I am the designer of A-3BT Bass Traps. My bass traps are All Broadband Bass Traps. I use the most breathable fabric available on any bass traps in order to allow the maximum amount of absorption by the roxul insulation in all frequencies.

I would suggest treating your two front corners. I would put one directly centered in front of the mixing position where the cieling meets the front wall. Also where the floor meets the front wall in the same configuration. Also two more to the left and right of your mixing position in the first reflection points. The last one the Seventh one I would attach to the ceiling above the mixing position to cover the first reflections off of the ceiling.

Go to my website for pictures or more information about my Bass Traps and what they are ideal for. (MySpace.com - John Hunter Acoustics - 23 - Male - Los Angeles, California - www.myspace.com/johnhunteracoustics)

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by Herman Munster

Sorry, Glenn. I don't think I made it clear, but I'm going to put doors up in that opening in the next week. I've got two solid core doors on the way. That's why I was asking.

I suppose the only other question is whether or not I'm on target with everything else???

Yea i think you are doing pretty well. Keep us posted on how things work ou!!

Glenn