Improving room treatment

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 4:22 am

Hello!

Back with some new questions. I intend to add some more foam wedges (from Wave Panels) to my little home studio - used as control room/tracking room/drum room/anything else you can think of room. My 4.6m long, 3.95m wide, 2.7m tall room now looks like this:

The reddish bordered black thingies are 2m tall slabs of 90kg/m3 fiberglass, encased in not-very-acustically-transparent fabric (it's somewhat thick, and seems absorptive to high frequencies). Also, in the back of the room there are some more slabs placed on top of the 2m tall panels in the corner, and more on top of the bookshelves (which are filled with books positioned on a crazyman's quest for a bookcase quadratic residue diffuser - I was pretty certain that it won't act anything like a quadratic residue diffuser, but it was sure fun doing the math and book positioning)

The red squares/lines are the proposed placement spots for the 6 pieces of 5cm thick 60cmx60cm, 25kg/m3 wedges - basically one on the ceiling above the desk, two on walls on each side of the desk for stereo image improvement, and three more placed on the ceiling above the drumkit (which I've yet to purchase - goddamn Mapex distributors).

What do you think about the general positioning of room treatment, sweet spot/monitors? And, more importantly, about the proposed placement of the wedges - maybe I should use only 2 of them above the drums, and two above the mix position?

Thanks in advance,
Mihai Toma

P.S. Edited a couple of times to correct mistakes and add more info.

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 9:01 am

Seems like you have put a lot of brain into this. What happens when you close the door on the top, left in the diagram? As a mix position, it should remain balanced, match the other side otherwise your mixes will lie to you.

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 9:29 am

With the window at the back right it's already imbalanced.
Balance is key, I failed to notice the speaker mic at our church being panned 40% left because me and the desk are panned hard right in the building.

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 9:42 am

Well, you would know better I suppose.

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 9:46 am

I know nothing about acoustics, fair enough. Well, except that 12" stone walls have high amounts of reflection.

BUT it seems pretty logical that a window behind you is going to offset something, even if it's treated?

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 11:32 am

Sorry, I forgot to mention - the left wedge is supposed to stay partly on the door and partly on the wall. So once the door is closed that isn't a problem, I guess. Very Happy

Concerning the side window - I don't find it such a problem for the stereo image, as it's "way" behind the mix position. Either way, I don't really have a better placement choice in this room, regarding the stereo image; the window is there to stay. After some EXTREMELY unscientific testing, it seemed to me that what is behind the mix position doesn't matter nearly as much as what is in front of the mix position - Ethan, could you please confirm this or set me in my acoustically unsound place?

So, any suggestions regarding the placement of the wedges, or any other suggestions?

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 7:01 pm

Could you cover those windows with something?

I'd also add a 4" panel behind the open door near the corner where the wall top wall meets the left side wall. Obviously you can't straddle the corner there, but having something near the corner will help. Or get something portable that you can move into place when the door is closed.

I'd probably quadruple what you've got on the ceiling above the mix position, assuming that that's a 2'x2' panel. I'd do two 2'x4' panels.

First reflection points look a little off-balance to me...maybe make that panel on the right twice as large.

Good Luck,
Frank

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:50 am

@Weasel9992
Considering that the panel on the right is beyond the sweet spot, does it really matter as much?

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