Need advice on room - how bad is an opening to a smaller room?

[clonewar]

I'm moving to a new house and am choosing between two rooms to setup my project studio. I'm a composer/songwriter and work mainly with virtual instruments so tracking is not really a concern, I just want the best environment possible for mixing. Whichever room I end up using I'm planning on adding a good amount of bass trapping and diffusion

Both rooms have 8' ceilings. I would like to use the larger of the two rooms, but it has an open doorway into a bathroom area (sink and mirror). The open doorway is 3' wide. The bathroom area is about 7' by 5'. The room is 16' by 10'10".

Does the opening into the smaller room present any significant acoustic problems? The other room I can use does not have an opening like this, it measures 14'5" by 10'8", am I better off just using that room?

I'm attaching a not-to-scale quick drawing of the larger room. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Michael

[Ethan Winer]

An opening to the outside is very good. And opening to a large room is pretty good. Your opening is either a little good or not much change. Worse case it could ring and you'd hear it resonate. If you can fill that room with insulation or even hang clothes in there it will be a great corner bass trap.

--Ethan

[clonewar]

Thanks Ethan!

I can't fill the small attached room with insulation (it still has to be somewhat usable) but I can definitely hang clothes and even put some bass trapping in there.

Based on what you said I have a couple of other questions:

There's a small corner in the room before the opening to the smaller room, it's about 1 1/2 feet from the end wall to the opening. If I'm able to use the small room as a big bass trap will I still have to worry about bass trapping in that small corner?

Also, you mentioned that an opening to a larger room is a good thing.. Directly across from the opening to the small room is the door to the main room. That doorway is basically completely in that corner and it leads to a large high-ceilinged living room/dining room/kitchen area (basically the rest of the house). Would having that door open have the same affect (or better) than bass trapping in that corner? The other logistical problem I have with that room is that the door opens to the inside, which is going to make it hard to have bass trapping in that corner.. so being able to leave the door open instead would resolve that problem.

Thanks again for the help!

Michael

[Ethan Winer]

Small corners matter much less than the main "outer" corners.

An opening to another room is usually good, especially if the opening is near a corner. But the only way to know for sure is to measure the room's LF response at high resolution with the door open, then measure again with it closed.

--Ethan

[clonewar]

Thanks again for the advice Ethan!