Room design / treatment

[Mixbuster]

Hello again!
I'm making a control room out of this (See picture below).
And I'm stuck, wondering if anyone of you may have an idea of how to treat and design this room? (where to put basstraps, how to, where to sit, etc.)
I generally mix and produce rock&metal music if needed.

Gear; Monitors M-Audio BX8A + M-Audio BX10s.
Mic preamp; Focusrite Saffire DAW Interface w/8 mic pre, 26 i/o.
Software; Cakewalk, Sonar 7 producers edition.
My desk is 1,80m, just so you include it in former drawings.



Thank you so much!

[Weasel9992]

Could you post some dimensions?, location of furniture, surface compositions, etc.

Thanks!

Frank

[jwl]

That room will need PLENTY of bass trapping. You have 2 dimensions that are the same (3m), and I suspect the ceiling height is close to that. Your room, in other words, is likely to be a nearly perfect cube, with the room modes from all 3 dimensions being roughly the same.

But yes, the more detail you give us the more helpful we can be.

[Glenn Kuras]

And I'm stuck, wondering if anyone of you may have an idea of how to treat and design this room? (where to put basstraps, how to, where to sit, etc.)

Start with straddling traps floor to ceiling in all corners. Also straddle any ceiling to wall corners you can on front, back and or side ways. As JWL pointed out this room is not going to be easy to treat and honestly if you have another room you can use then I would look into that. Beyond that start by sitting 38% of the room length and treat all early reflection points in the room. OH and put thick panels on back wall behind where you sit.

Glenn

[Mixbuster]

The ceiling height is 'bout 2,40meter.
The roof is made by gypsum plates.
It's in my basement, wall to live room is two 10 cm thick walls made by clapboards, with 5cm air in the middle. Treated with glasswool :)
The window and backside of the room is concrete.
The front and live room side is made by clapboards.

I was planning to lay parquet on the floor.

Hope this is more helpful ;)
Thanks!

[Weasel9992]

Ah...sorry, I didn't see the dimensions. So, 3m on two sides with a 2.4m ceiling...that's going to take some work in the form of a ton of bass trapping, but it could work. The prescription for that illness is always the same: floor to ceiling bass trapping in all four corners, bass trapping on most of the back wall, and bass trapping at the front and back wall/ceiling corners at least. That should make a big dent in the low end signature of that room, then you can work on the high end reflections around the mix position.

Parquet is fine, but you might want to think about an rug or two that you can place strategically to soften the room a bit.

Since you have a separate tracking room, that's a whole different discussion.

Frank

[Mixbuster]

Thank you so much!
But should I make floor to ceiling bass traps, or buy real traps and put in corners?

[Weasel9992]

That depends on how much time and patience you have and how handy you are. Pre-fabricated panels are very low on hassle, they have a very consistent look and you know that what you get will work. It's a judgement call.

Frank

[Mixbuster]

Hey guys, thanks for thy answers.
I have a another question; How many bass traps, mids, and high freq. traps do you recommend I put up?

I planned to make floor to ceilings bass traps in the front corners. Do you recommend putting monitors inside the trap, or outside?

Thanks.

[jwl]

If you can, cover all 12 corners of the room with bass traps. You can't have too many bass traps; the more you add, the flatter the response will get.

Then you can use thinner panels (2" thick or even 1" if you are using 703 or 705) to create your Reflection-Free Zone.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by Mixbuster

Hey guys, thanks for thy answers.
I have a another question; How many bass traps, mids, and high freq. traps do you recommend I put up?

I planned to make floor to ceilings bass traps in the front corners. Do you recommend putting monitors inside the trap, or outside?

Thanks.

If you can, cover all 12 corners of the room with bass traps.

Well if you don't plan on putting anything else in the room, YOU BEING ONE OF THEM, that would be a great plan. I myself would start with all wall to wall corners floor to ceiling, Thick absorption behind you and panels for the early reflection areas. I think in this case, due to the room being squ I would NOT put thinner panels but thicker ones in the early reflection area. It will absorb a little more bass and in that room you are going to need all you can get.
It really is going to come down to just putting in treatment, trying it and if need be add more. Just understand that your room is not going to become perfect due to its shape.

Glenn