optimal height of space to build control room

[Ethan Winer]

This short article and software lets you determine "good" ratios of length, height, and width:

Graphical Mode Calculator

--Ethan

The Acoustic Treatment Experts

[avare]

Originally Posted by bastawa

hi guys, i followed few recent discussions about control room ratios / sizes.

i wonder if i build mixing room from scratch is 3m high ceiling enough to get great results cheap? many of you pointed that with good size/ratio it's cheaper with treatment. or it's better to go for higher ceiling. i have two options to choose and both are kind of storage rooms where i can build other wall where i would like them to be.
one is 3m high the other is very high. the plus to choose 3m high room is it's closer to my home.

"Cheap" and "closer to my home" have nothing to do with acoustics. The NARAS recommedation is for a 3.3m (hard, not visible) ceiling height as a minimum. This is a good height in and or itself as the ear is at ~1.2m when a person is seated. This places the ear at the vertical 3/8 (AKA 37%) location.

Andre

[Jeffrey Hedback]

+1 Andre

so few words and so much brilliance shared.

Much higher and lower "can" work of course but the type of construction, treatments and speakers become really important. More so than "ideal" for a pro response. The lower ceiling issues might be more obvious so I'll make very quick comment on higher ceiling: you need a speaker that can keep up with the cubic volume of the room to deliver a fullrange & reasonably even sound field across the working areas at a clean a powerful level (and those speakers are expensive).

[avare]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Hedback

+1 Andre

so few words and so much brilliance shared.

Thank you Jeff.

Honoured,
Andre

[bastawa]

thanks avare!!! that explains a lot!

Jeff do you think if i go for 3.3m will dynaudios bm15a plus 10" sub be enough? i was thinking about 30m2 floor.
thanks

[Arqen]

You're a lucky guy if you get to choose your height!

If you want a design example of how to choose ratios, check out Sections 4.1 and 4.5 of my paper:

Eco Recording Studio Control Room Design (Part 1)

Here are the dimensions for the control room in the paper:

• Length = 27’= 8.229 m
• Average Width = 23’ – 7 1/16” = 7.187 m
• Average Outer Shell* Height = 14’ – 7” = 4.45 m

* This was a splayed wall design with both an inner and outer shell. Room ratios were used to determine the outer shell dimensions.

Enjoy!

Tim

[bastawa]

Hi Tim, well it's still not 100% confirmed (the location without fixed ceiling). and i need to really calculate if i can afford the build.
thanks for the link!

[Arqen]

Originally Posted by bastawa

Hi Tim, well it's still not 100% confirmed (the location without fixed ceiling). and i need to really calculate if i can afford the build.
thanks for the link!

Cool. I used the Dolby optimum ratio for film and music rooms (0.67:1:1.55), but there are a number of other ratios you can use, shown in a graphic on pages 13-14 of the paper (pdf page numbers 24-25).

The various choices should give you some flexibility, so you can design a room to fit the space you have available.

Tim