Prospective Home Studio Setup w/ Diagram, Suggestions pls

[cityofthemoon]

I am planning to convert my bedroom into a control room of sorts, primarily used for mixing progressive rock and rock tracks, occcasionally acoustic music as well as metal-orientated music.

Here is a diagram of this room:



The floor is carpet, and the walls and floor are thick, solid concrete.

I would appreciate suggestions as to if this room is suited to use for mixing, and also suggestions as where to place bass traps etc. (a general idea) and also monitor placement. Also, probably for another thread, but would you recommend Event ASP8's or Mackie HR824's for this room; i've listened to both and cant decide which one is better, theyre both great, just different.. saying that, i like the pronounced high end of the Mackies, heard a lot of good things about the Events.

All suggestions about the room or gear would be appreciated,

James

[Vaylence]

If your monitors/bed are to scale you are going to have a problem. You head needs to be at the end of an equalateral triangle with the two monitors for the best mix position and sterio image.

lets see monitor spread is approx 1/3 length of the room with puts it at around 4ft apart, which puts your ideal mix position in the middle of your bed. . .

general rule is bass traps in the corners (I challange you to find a prefab bass trap with out a 90 degree angle on it).

for high end and flutter echo. . .

from the mix position (middle of your bed :P)

look directly left, you need absorbtion there
look directly right, you need absorbtion there
look directly up, you need absorbtion there
look directly behind you, you need absorbtion there

You kind of have a wonkey back wall you may end up needing to put absorbtion on the doors of your wardrobe with shelves

The heavy curtain may work okay on the left, but my spider sence is tingling on those wooden cabinets. It will probably be tough to control the acoustics in this room.

As far as the monitors go, I dunno

Good luck

[TeddyG]

Nice drawing!

How did you do that?


TG

[cityofthemoon]

Microsoft Word, Drawing Toolbar, and took a jpeg screen capture.

Thanks for the advice Vaylence

Cheers.

[TeddyG]

For now, don't worry about the room, at all.

Let your closets open(I assume they're full of sound-absorbing clothes). Your bed will absorb some, too(This is good), book shelves with books - same thiing. If you actually hear something "resonating"(Vibrating) - like a picture frame or cabinet doors - DO someting about it(Lay the picture on the bed while mixing, rubber band the door shut, etc.). Try mixing with all doors open and all shut, etc. At some point, maybe fill-up that far angled wall with a big cardboard box of winter clothes, beach towels, anything "dense" but not "Dangerous"(Loose fiberglass insulation), or messy. Try your "setup" in the angled corner? Try your speakers above the headboard of the bed, or on the cabinets at the foot of the bed and do your "intense" listening while lying on the bed(Hoping the bed will "absorb" some of the "too big for the room" bass.). We do what works best, mostly by l-o-n-g trial and errorr(Well, mostly error).

Get some little speakers(5 or 6" woofers - even less, seriously.). The heavy bass of larger speakers will not serve you well.

Get some good headphones(You'll hear the bass, just fine, on these.).

Wail away!

Go back and forth speakers to headphones, make a mix that sounds good to you. Make a CD. Listen around - the car stereo, the living room stereo, friends stereos, etc. Note any problem areas(Don't hear the"X" or too much "Y"? "Back to the studio!" Make a change or two(Be subtle!), listen around again.

You'll get nice sounding stuff. Pretty soon, you'll "learn" your own system and how it compares with others and... you'll get lots of exercise and stay in-touch with your friends...

By the way... This is, pretty much, how people do it who have the finest equipment in the world...... Even once they "get a handle" on how their studio relates to the outside world. Without "listening around" they'd never get out of the studio and they'd have no friends...


Another thought occurs: There are "panels" made(Aurelex has them, I believe), that might fit in your angled corner? Or, you might try a used(Or new, if the coin?) office furniture place for the "office cubical" panels that stand by themselves? 4x8 foot or more or less size, fabric-covered, absorbant to some degree. A couple of these(Or more) would be temporary and could be angled to suit. A couple more accross other walls where they would fit(Like your "long" wall opposite the angled wall)? Should help alot AND of course you can glue whatever you want to these - Like pieces from that 99 dollar box of studio foam!

-----------------------------------

I suppose my Word 97' doesn't have that drawing bar? Nice, though - looks good(Update the drawing, for reference, as you do "things" to the room).


TG

[stickers]

Ok what we have it lack of space with the bed. it takes up a lot of space. Get a sofa that converts into bed. that way when you have people over they can sit on the sofa.


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