It's go time....Please advise on placement....

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2003 7:28 pm

We're in month 4 of the construction of a new studio.....think of it as a big project room.

I've been lurking and getting familiar with the options for room treatment and have also had a guy that works in conjunction with Auralex come and do a walk through and make suggestions.

No matter how we cut it , it seems that the DIY method (utilizing Ethans Designs) will provide better results and be much more cost effective than slapping a lot of foam(yuk) up on the walls.
The control room is at the point now that we can make some noise. I was hoping that I could get some genral direction as to the number and placement of traps. I'm still a little hazy as to how to go about crunching the numbers.
I'll provide a link to another forum that documents the build out, and include a shot of the floorplan, and detailed shots/measurements of the CR. I've got a pretty good handle on the materials and building of the traps and would just like to hear what other options we may be overlooking.
There are some strange angles to be overcome that in hindsight a different design could have helped but the room is built....we're gonna have to "fix" what we can to the best of our abilities. The control room is not symetrical and is built into a corner....the ceiling is 16 ft and vaulted so the angle to the room is cockeyed. Bringing in drop ceilng panels to create a symetrical ceiling is gonna be a bit of a chore (there's also a support beam running through the front edge of the CR , we'd like to utilize this to drop a "cloud" over the mix position. My forte' is definately more with the gear end of things.....any help and or suggestions much appreciated.
The interior walls are 5/8" drywall, floor is Brazillian cherry/Red oak hardwood floated on 2x7 joists and Auralex u boats. we've achieved good isolation between rooms using double walls (5/8ths drywall, rc channel, mdf soundboard, 3" stud filled with R19, soundboard again then caulked to death.....3" air gap...then repeated above )

CRoom measurments are
Front wall ( cr glass out to studio)11' 10"width by 11' 4" height to 14' 7" height

to the right of that: 8' 7" W by 11' 4" to 8' 7"

next wall to the right 18' 6" W by 8' 7"

to back wall: 19' 6" W by 8' 7" to 14' 7" height

next wall (with door and computer closet) 11' 9" by 14' 7" height
note: the most current pics and floor plan may not post till tommorow morning

Here's the link: Thanks for looking!

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=2128&perpage=15&pagenumber=5

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2003 1:16 pm

I asked similar questions about my control room, which is shaped similarly to yours. Nobody answered my questions either, so I guess it's very hard to predict the acoustics of diamond-shaped control rooms!

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2003 1:41 pm

I am not an acoustics expert however I have set up a few nice recording studios. The main problem I can see with this set up is that your are going to be firing your speakers into a space that gets smaller the further back you go. As in the principal of a speaker you should be firing into a space that opens up, much like a PA speaker horn rather than one that is closing down. What you are doing by setting up in this way is called firing into compression. This is something I have been told never to do. ... Kurt

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2003 5:59 am

Craig,

> I was hoping that I could get some genral direction as to the number and placement of traps. <

Sorry for the delay. I've been swamped.

If you're going to build panel bass traps from my plans, my recommendation is exactly as outlined in that article: Line the entire room with an alternating mix of panel traps and 703 absorbers. You don't necessarily have to cover every square foot of surface, but that's not a bad ideal to aim for. At least for the lower eight feet of wall space.

You high ceiling is both good and bad. Good because higher is better generally, bad because it means you have more surface that needs treating.

I didn't see any specific questions in your post, so all I can offer is these general observations. If you do have questions, fire away!

--Ethan

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2003 4:00 pm

>You high ceiling is both good and bad. Good because higher is better generally, bad because it means you have more surface that needs treating.<

I guess the big question would be should I try to drop in some ceiling to achieve more symetry in the ceiling. did you happen to follow the link to the pics?

I'd love to be able to just treat the ceiling ie: put traps up there and leave the ceiling height.

first question is weather it would benifit us to have a low slung "cloud" approximately the size of the console over the mix position...perhaps angled down in front and treated with a combo of diffusion /absorbtion.

the other question is regarding the storage area that comes off the rear corner of the CR.
Right now it's not designated for any particular use. It's approx 6x7 ft with 8ft ceiling and right now is just an open cavity.
The room is a VERY live drywall'd space so you can imagine the amount of weirdness going in and bouncing around. We'll probably start with a thick theatre curtain to take the place of a door.....maybe a few traps down there as well....It'll probably be a hang out storage place, we call it the dungeon for now.

thanks so much for taking the time Ethan.

Craig

Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2003 10:25 am

Craig,

> I guess the big question would be should I try to drop in some ceiling to achieve more symetry in the ceiling. <

I honestly don't if that's worth the effort, or if it would make it better, or make it worse. I'll guess that you don't really need quite that much height, but this is outside my area of expertise.

I wish I could offer more on this and your other questions. Maybe Wes will find a moment to pop in, or Steve or Jon will have some suggestions from their experience.

--Ethan

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