Studio Room Re-design.

[colony nofi]

Hi all.

This is a thread to cover the design of my composition room in our studio complex. Construction will start in 2 weeks - there's still time to change things - even dramatically if necessary.

I'm looking for comments - but also, there may just be information that pops up in the thread that will help others out as well.

I'm going to attempt to make this as clear as possible - so will separate into a number of posts to this one thread. I will try provide as many pics, diagrams and measurements as I can.

It may take a day or so to get all the information here - bear with me, there's quite a bit to get through.

First up though, the room as it currently is.

[colony nofi]

So - as a background.

For the last 3 or so years, I have been using this room to compose in. In addition, the space at the rear of the room has been used for rehearsals and band practices - something that is no longer going to be occurring in the room.

It sounds - ok - workable - as it is. Not perfect (as you will see) by ANY stretch of the imagination.

Unseen in the pic from the first post is the ceiling. It is dead (50mm tontine) in the top end.

I will try post some photos of the room as it currently is soon - as they will show some parts much better than the very basic diagrams.

[colony nofi]

Here is another diagrams showing the room as it currently is.

[colony nofi]

The current room construction is room within a room.
This basic construction will not change at all. We are simply going to strip out all the room treatments, and start again.

The exterior "skin" is either double brick, 150mm concrete (external walls) or 19mm yellowtongue on 18mm mdf (internal walls). All exterior walls that were existing were covered in acousticheck 14mm plasterboard and sealed. Ceiling was completely sealed with 2 layers of acousticheck plasterboard.

The interior room was floated. A floor frame was built and raised on pucks. The interior walls were built off the frame, and ceiling built on the walls. Thus, the whole room "floats".

Isolation is good - but not perfect. Good enough internally, and great externally. Neighbors directly attached to the studio are seperated by another solid, double brick wall, (with very tiny air gap) and THEN their (brand new) double brick wall. We tested isolation with 100dB of music playing in the studio, and we could not pick it up above background noise in the house.

[colony nofi]

FuzzMeasure measurements.

Figure 1 is freq resonse only - showing L & R differences.
Figure 2 and 3 are waterfalls. (Right first, then left.)
Interesting seeing the large differences - especially 50Htz vs 60Htz nodes being excited.

[colony nofi]

Measurements taken from listening position, L&R speakers separately.
Speakers are Focal Twin 6 BE's.
Sweeps were 10seconds, done 4 times and averaged.
Approx level at 85dB.

There are many interesting things that even this small amount of data shows.

I wonder if the 50Htz vs 60Htz nodes have anything to do with the rear shape of the room? There are BIG differences between L&R. (Just look at the 95Htz region!)

Up next - theoretical calculations on the room, pics, and detailed designs.

[colony nofi]

Have taken some of the fabric covering panels of some of the walls of the room as it is currently, and took a few photos to better explain parts of the diagram.

The room (from the back)



Near the desk



(Note - the centre speaker is out of position.)

Some detail showing constraints over where the speakers can be placed and still allow doors to open. Stands are being changed.





Current superchunk :




Showing current hung tontine (100mm thick, 100mm off the walls)




Showing how the ceiling line "molds" around a load bearing beam.

[colony nofi]

So - onto the new design. This is where your input and thoughts would be most appreciated.

We had a number of design aims / specific areas to address when considering the new room treatment. (In no particular order)

1./ Non - symmetrical space at rear of room.
2./ Room nodes (under 300Htz)
3./ First reflections (including vocal booth window) and listening position
4./ General ethos of acoustic treatment
5./ Carpet area on floor
6./ Client comfort / look and feel of room.
7./ Workstation / Desk area
8./ Speaker stands / speaker placement
9./ Use for surround projects
10./ Reflective surfaces

The following is what we have come up with.

[colony nofi]

This is my current thinking for construction - to allow for some flexibility in changing treatment as necessary.

1./ Replace carpet (on rear 60% of room) with timber floor.
2./ Remove current treatment. Only treatment that will remain is that which is currently under the window at the front of the room, and at the very front of the walls (and on VO door and computer room door)
3./ Build timber framing for new treatment
4./ Build mdf boxes for membrane / porous membrane traps
5./ Install fibreglass insulation in massive trap in rear corner of room
6./ Build new speaker stands, movable traps (for behind speakers)
7./ Build new superchunk for front floor/wall corner
8./ Build (and install) new cloud above the listening position/.

Stop - and measure again - BEFORE any of the membranes of the membrane traps (6) and polys are put on, or before hangers (or trap made from tontine sheets) is created.

I'd then like to create the large trap at the rear of the room. Hangers came to mind as an option, but it could be easy just to make a trap using spaced tontine acoustisorb sheets (spaced 50mm apart). This will be installed, and the room measured again. Evaluation would be carried out as to weather this remains, or we try hangers - or some other treatment.

I have also left space for a trap around 500mm high, 850mm deep (across the width of the back of the wall - around 2000mm from memory) that is constructed as a sealed box, to be turned into either a porous absorber, a tuned hermoltz box etc etc. Again, to be decided after further measurements.

Once that is settled, and measured, decisions on exact treatment of the membrane absorbers would be made. Im 90% certain I will use some filling in the boxes, and that they will most likely be porous membranes - tuned to roughly problematic room nodes (L/R mode mainly - as these are the walls they are on.) The rear corner membrane traps may well be able to help a little further with front/back nodes if necessary.

Finally, tests will be done with polys to listen if the final result with/without them in place works better. There may be space for other polys to be constructed.

[colony nofi]

Further diagrams showing the general design.

[colony nofi]

This is the new desk position. Measurements were taken with speakers in old position, and new anticipated position. Difficulty is that the 39% position is calculated by where the new "back" of the room will be, not where it is now. We are willing to move this given measurements after the final room treatment is in place.

[colony nofi]

The cloud is simply 4 sheets of 50mm acoustisorb3 tontine layered, in a frame that is 2000x2200mm. Hung from room, porous top and bottom (apart from framing underneath to hold the acoustisorb in place.) Will be finished with fabric panels.

[colony nofi]

So this is the basic idea for framing construction needed to hold the new treatment in place.

You may notice that the RHS of the room is slightly (100mm or so) lower than the left around the position of the load bearing beam in the ceiling. This is to make space for the airconditioner unit. (Simple split system.)

I have not shown all noggins etc - just the positions for the frames to be constructed. Most likely 400 to 500 centers, with anything up to 1000mm noggins.

[colony nofi]

The fill (standard pink batts, tontine acoustisorb3 etc), membrane trap finish (probably bamboo ply - we have the exact tech specs for this - and the ply has an incredible finish and quality - eg 4mm is to +/- .2mm) and fabric panel finish is shown (approximately) in the following sketches.

[SKlogic]

thanx

Can You show me full range freq response (not low end only)? (1/12 be fine)

What setting on the back of the focals?

[colony nofi]

Do you want a waterfall for full range?

I'll see what I can do tomorrpw. I have not looked into the top end of the room much at all - thats this weeks job

Setting on focals is flat all the way. (Flat HF, Flat LF)

Cheers!

[SAC]

Outside of he modal range of from ~0-300 Hz, the frequency response and waterfall are not particularly useful.

Instead, for specular reflections, the ETC is the dominant maximally useful measurement as it provides arrival time and gain of individual specular reflections, as well as information regarding energy density, sparse and diffuse conditions.

[SKlogic]

Originally Posted by colony nofi

Do you want a waterfall for full range?

Cheers!

no-just freq response


PS: I whink near field monitors on the table is not good idea! ;-)

[colony nofi]

@SAC - yeah, thats what I gathered. I hadn't even looked at waterfalls above 300Htz.

ETC measurements will be posted here early in the week - they have been done, but are on a different computer.

@ SKLogic - Freq response is up to 20k on one of the first posts.

(The Emes monitors on the desk were there for a very specific purpose, and usually do not reside in that room.)

Cheers, B.

[SKlogic]

My browser (safari) don't show me that :-)
I open image in new tab and that's it! Thanx! I am stupid guy :-)