Advice on odd room shape w big corners

[nanaandbump]

Hi There,


I was hoping to get some advice regarding a room that I have been struggling with. I have done some sketches of the room and will attach photos. Here are the dimensions:

Length: 18'2"
Width: 13'4"
Hight: 8'

The room was initially an office, then became a dyaxis editing sweet. There was no space with which to store the equipment, so they built two triangular closets in the corners. These take up quite a bit of space, and have made things rather confusing for me… There are three rooms in our studio, one is a Tom Hidley design from the 70s. We have become so busy that we have put this new room into service as a tracking room, and also would like to have it set up to mix in surround.

So here are a few of my questions, bear with me if they are stupid… :

1. - The room is currently positioned so that the engineer faces the wall with the 2 closets. There is a false wall in-between the closets that has some insulation and a TV in it. In the pictures this is the space directly behind the couch. This space has basically become a big corner, which I don't think is good. I have placed my listening position 38% back from the real wall (not the false wall). Spacing with surround is extremely limited because of the doors on the closets. I believe the radius is slightly over 3ft. There are quite a few problems, and the acoustic treatments are minimal as of now. We in the process of investing in more treatment.

I have done some measurements and have figured out that I can flip the room, so that the closets are behind the engineer. This would give me much more space for my surrounds. In fact, much more space in general. In the diagram the radius is 4.5ft. (each monitor is 4.5ft from listening position, represented by the circle on the floor, to the dolby spec with left and right at 30 degrees and surrounds at 110.) Im just not sure how this would lend itself acoustically having those two angled closets behind me.

2. - If I flip the room like this, should I put some bass traps inside the closets? The closet walls are just simple 2x4 framework with sheetrock on both sides and some typical pink fiberglass insulation inside.

3 - Should I stuff the false wall behind the couch with some sort of insulation? Or should I think of diffusion? What worries me is that my left/right monitors will point right at the closets, in particular, right at the hinge of each closet door. I worry about strange reflections here. I would most likely be adjusting how the monitors are towed anyways, it just concerns me some. There will also be a couch back there.


Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I know there are tons of variables that go into this, I suppose I am mainly looking for advice with regards to those closets, and which direction I should face. A complete rebuild isn't really an option. We have a new Tonelux console going in, and are making a bunch of adjustments to the room to accommodate that, so it would be a great time to make acoustic adjustments and make the flip.

Notes on the photos: Everything is to scale, even the tonelux. Sorry about the bass traps, I got out of control with google sketchup. There will be some adjustments made to positioning/quantity of those. My designs will also include some paneling on the walls, and ceiling. I have excluded them from photos for ease of viewing. The circles represent the radius of the doors opening. The large circle surrounds the listening positions, which is 38% of the length of the room back. I may also reduce the radius of the speakers, as of now they are fairly close to walls. I was just seeing how much I could get away with. Of coarse, all of these things will be tailored once in place.

Again, thanks so much in advance for any help. In an ideal world we would be able to hire someone to come give a professional analysis, but I have had a hard enough time as is just convincing the guys upstairs to allow us to make adjustments in the first place.

I look forward to your input,

CT

[Ethan Winer]

Bass traps in a closet behind a rigid door will not be useful. Empty closets stuffed with bass traps will help if the doors are left open. A mixing room needs serious bass trapping in all corners, not just the front or rear, so I'm not sure of a benefit from flipping the room except to space the L and R speakers farther apart.

--Ethan

________________
The Acoustic Treatment Experts

[nanaandbump]

Great! Thanks so much Ethan. I was confused about how those closets will handle low end stuff, but if I don't need traps inside them then thats less money to spend!

The more I think about it, and the more time I spend reading some posts on here, the more appealing flipping the room sounds. The big space in-between the closets sort of becomes a big corner, and I would imagine a lot of low end stuff would just gather in there. I have plenty of space in-between the real wall and a faux wall there to use some absorption.

I also like the idea of being able to experiment more with my listening position. With the room as it is now, my space is so limited there is not much I can do. If I flipped the room I would have a few feet of leeway to experiment with. Im just worried I am going to shoot myself in the foot somehow!

Anyways, thanks again. If anyone has more insights please let me know!

CT