moving into a new place... help!

[criticaldistance]

okay, so in my new place i have a spare room which i intend to turn into a small home mix space. i don't have dimensions of the place just yet, but for the sake of argument, it's a pretty standard bedroom scenario.

nearly square... maybe a foot or three difference in the lengths of the walls (i will update with proper dimensions asap). the trick here is the ceiling. it's vaulted. i don't know if this is good or bad, but from my limited knowledge and understanding it leads me to think this could be good. the ceiling is vaulted at approximately a 35-45 degree angle to the walls (again this is just my estimate from the initial visual inspection). there is also a closet at the back of the room that i'm not planning to use.

here come the questions. my first order of business is bass trapping. i am making corner traps for the wall to wall corners from floor to ceiling. in a normal room i was also going to do corner traps for the wall to ceiling corners, but since the ceiling is vaulted, a standard 90 degree corner trap wouldn't work. so question 1, do i need to treat the wall to ceiling corners at all? or would i be better off treating the floor to wall corners with the additional corner traps and leaving the wall to ceiling corners untreated.

question 2, because the ceiling is vaulted, would i need a cloud over the mix position? the floor is carpeted with relatively thick and plush carpet.

question 4, if i take the doors off the closet on the back wall, that would extend the length of the room by at least another 3 feet. is this advisable? and if so, do i need to make another set of corner traps for the inside of the closet? or would i be better off leaving the closet doors on.

and finally, in general, what is the best way to handle treating a vaulted ceiling?

next chance i get, i will take some measurements of the empty room and try to draw up a diagram and update this thread.

thanks all for reading and sharing your expertise. i appreciate it more than you can ever imagine.

sebastian

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by criticaldistance

the ceiling. it's vaulted.

That's good. Orient yourself in the room so the speakers fire the longer way down the room. If you're lucky, that will also have the ceiling start low in the front, go up in the center, and back down in the rear. Either way, plan on some traps under the peak as shown here:

since the ceiling is vaulted, a standard 90 degree corner trap wouldn't work.

You should still put traps there straddling the corner.

question 2, because the ceiling is vaulted, would i need a cloud over the mix position?

Yes, you still need to treat the reflection points on the ceiling. Unless the ceiling angle is such that there are no reflections toward you.

if i take the doors off the closet on the back wall, that would extend the length of the room by at least another 3 feet. is this advisable?

Yes!

do i need to make another set of corner traps for the inside of the closet?

Yes, because that's now the rear wall.

--Ethan

[Glenn Kuras]

or would i be better off treating the floor to wall corners with the additional corner traps and leaving the wall to ceiling corners untreated.

I would treat both, but to start go with the floor to wall corner. If for no the reason that you can move them pretty easy to use in other places if need be.

Glenn

[criticaldistance]

i guess what i should have said was that the ceiling is angled, not vaulted :) sorry about that.

it's not angled front to back lengthwise in the room like an expansion ceiling would be, but rather angled from left to right, ie. starts from 8'-9' ceiling on the left and goes up to 12'-13' on the right. take a look at my very rough drawings for an overhead view and a side view for a better idea :)

so in theory all upward reflections from the monitors would be reflected at the angle of incidence toward the right wall... so would a cloud still be advisable? i hope to have pictures of the space for you sometime this weekend and i will update the post!

thanks for the advice!

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by criticaldistance

so would a cloud still be advisable?

Yes, and mount it so it hangs parallel to the floor, not parallel to the ceiling. This will help to reduce the problem of asymmetry due to the ceiling being higher on one side than the other.

--Ethan