Temporary Mix / Master Area Acoustic Treatment Advice

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 11:19 pm

Hello All,

This is a first post for me. I will try and be as clear and informative as possible. Thanks, in advance for the help / advice.

I own my home and it is located in Ohio. I am a recent grad from 'The Recording Workshop' in chillicothe ohio and am excited to get started on projects.

I have recently waterproofed and somewhat finished (painted and some carpet) my basement. It's turned out really nice I would like to turn it into a Temporary Mixing / Mastering / Listening Room until i move the studio into a permanent building.

I am in no way looking to isolate sound. My neighbors are plenty far away and i have practiced with rock bands full volume with no problems.

Just looking to make the room as flat as i can for mixing temporarily.
I would like to make all solutions implemented for this project to be movable to the permanent location in the future.

I am looking to spend $500-$750 (even less if possible)

I am looking for advice in the following areas for.

1. Monitor Placement
2. Acoustic Treatment Placement for mid / highs
3. Bass trap placement
4. Any diffusion concerns and placement ideas
5. floor treatment ideas (rugs / etc)
6. Ceiling Treatment (between joists / diffusion / etc)
7. Anything else you think might help

I am looking at building my own bass traps based on some designs i've found online and maybe some auralex / no name kits for mid / high absorbing. Mainly i'm looking for placement advice and any concerns you might see with the dimensions / surfaces / etc.

the Dimensions of the room are:

7' 8" High (from floor to plank floor - not joists)
11' 3" Wide
33' 6" Long

Walls are Mostly Cinder block painted with waterproofer and a flat water based killz paint. There are (4) 16" X 32" glass block windows around the outer walls. They all have vents. There is about 8 ft of Drywall on the inner wall where i built a wall seperating the 2 halfs of the basement with a 36" hollow core door. The Joists are 8". My washer / dryer / freezer and utility sink are all on the other end of the room. As well as a free standing shelf for laundry stuff at the very end. The Stairs are not enclosed. Desk is 66" Long X 30" Deep X 29" High.

Some of the Gear i am using:

Dual Core PC
Windows XP
Nuendo 3
Mackie HR824 Monitors
Presonus FireStudio
Dual 19" Wide Screen LCDs

Here are the pictures:

the next image are some rough ideas i had for monitor / desk placement and some rugs on the floor:

click here for a bigger version of this next pic (to draw on if you like)

let me know if you need any more info from me! Thanks.

-Nick

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:38 am

This probably the best "first post" ever in this forum. Really. Very complete.

O-H I-O !!!!!!!!!

Bass traps, all four corners, from floor to ceiling. That might be the whole budget.

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:50 am

I don't know where you are in Ohio but you might want to have a look here http://www.hgrindustrialsurplus.com/search-products/search-results.aspx?k=1&searchKeyword=sound&searchCategory=&sortExpression=&sortASC=&pageSize=&searchMethod=keyword and you will see some stuff you could use very easily and very cheaply.

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:21 am

Here is an idea that I've heard here and tried to a limited extent. It is very temporary and transportable. Owens Corning 703 rigid fiberglass comes in "bales" of a dozen 2'x4'x2" sheets. The bales are partially wrapped in plastic. Buy four bales (I think that is close to your budget). Put one in each corner standing up. Done. It's not as good as distributing the sheets in the best possible manner, but it will do a huge portion of the work. I bought a bale and a half to treat my room and I was really impressed how much difference it made just putting the stuff in two corners.

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:18 pm

Well, I haven't posted on here in years- just getting back into recording a bit, and helping a buddy treat a vocal booth...

So I stumbled on this post and figured I'd put in my 2 cents. It's gotta be worth 3 or 4 now with interest.

BTW, I went to The Recording Workshop as well, back when they were SO proud of their giant, state of the art, shoebox sized 740meg hard drives for Pro Tools.

You don't need to spend a lot of money to get that room sounding good, when it comes right down to it. You do need to be aware that a cinderblock basement has very rigid walls, and you will only ignore the low end at your own peril. That being said, you've got an asset in the length of the room.

The bad news is that your width is almost exactly a third of the length, so both dimensions are going to have very similar standing waves (I don't have the math handy...).

So, there's a second reason to pay attention to the low end.

Personally, I would cobble together as many of Ethan Winer's pressure traps as possible. Ideally, I'd put a couple on either side of the mix position, and as many as possible across the front wall, and the rear wall if there's anywhere to do it.

The other best-bang-for-the-buck tool to use is 2" 703 covered with some sort of cloth with a moderately tight weave you can still blow through a little bit. You can often find muslin at $2 a yard. Ask your mom where the fabric deals are in your town, or somebody else's mom.

To attack the low end in that room, do some cloth covered 703 batts hanging about 2' 8" off the front wall, as an 11 foot wavelength will have the most air movement going on 1/4 and 3/4 down it's length.

Put some more batts at 45 degrees across your front corners, all the way up if you can.

You could also probably benefit from some batts hanging at or behind the end of your carpeted area as well, breaking up the room a bit.

You have a good opportunity with the ceiling as well- stick some loose fiberglass batts up there (r12, R19, thicker the better), and pull fabric across the bottom of the joists. Please use something flame resistant!

As far as early reflections, put a few batts a couple inches off the side walls from just beside you forward almost to the speakers. If you leave your ceiling open like it is, then at least put a couple batts above you and a bit forward as well.

How to hang the batts is up to you- I've shoved 4" nails into the sides a few inches from the top and looped wire over them, and pushed them straight onto finishing nails sticking out of the wall. Nailing them up with some 2" or so washers should work well on the ceiling.

So, that's my first impression. Get some 3M Super 77 spray adhesive for when you wrap the 703 in fabric, and make Ethan's traps with a back so you can take them down and move them.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:50 am

Hey all,

thanks so much for the advice so far.

Here is my progress:

I've bought 12 panels of the Roxul Rockboard 60

http://www.atsacoustics.com/item--Roxul-Rockboard-60--RB60-S.html

which i've been told is almost identical to, if not better than, the owens corning 703.

I am splitting it into (9) 2x4 bats and (6) 2x2 bats built with frames of 3" Furring strip and wrapping them in burlap cloth.

I will be placing these in key locations based on advice i've gotten from this forum and others.

I've also stuffed most of the ceiling above the listening area with r19 insulation and covered it with fabric.

Heres my next question.

What is the best / simplest / cheapest way to check the response of the room and listening position to make sure i'm not misplacing these acoustic treatments?

thanks again for all your help so far.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 7:44 am

for modes, RT60, and other checks, you might try the (free) Room EQ Wizard http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:28 pm

Checking to see how you're doing...

In the high end- Ye Olde Mirrore Trikke- get a buddy to run a mirror around flat on the side and walls while you're sitting and standing at the mix position, and anywhere else you want somebody to have fairly clear imaging. Make sure you've got your batts blocking your sightlines wherever you can see either one of your monitors. Use the rest of the batts across any corners you can find.

In the low end- before you treat, sit in the mix position and sweep 20hz to about 5 or 600. do it twice. Once, with your eyes closed, and write down what you hear and your subjective opinion of how much it goes up and down in volueme. Then do it watching a db meter and chart out where it goes up and down and how much. Then do the treatment, and do it again. It should be less the second go 'round.

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