Studio remodeling question

[RonKujawa]

I went from a 7' x 10' room last year to a large bedroom 15' X 18' that is combo bedroom and studio. In both rooms I have been using (6) 2' x 4' x 2" rigid fiberglass acoustic panels I put together with Owens Corning 703 rigid fiberglass, fabric, and spray adhesive. I used some cardboard triangles and anchors on the back to make mounting points. If you have the cash, definitely check eeoo's link, but this was a pretty cheap route to go and they make a massive difference in the sound of the room. I have a couple in a corner as sort of a vocal booth, but it is nowhere near enclosed. The others are spaced around the room. When I record acoustic guitars, I can take a couple off the wall and lean them against each other behind the mic to help control the room sound without making things totally dead.

There was a great section at http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/ but it looks like the revamped their forums and I can't find it. I got sucked in there for about a month once.

I do remember that the recommended listening position is 1/3 of the way into the room and like Russell said, you want to throw the long way.

Ron

[lesmac]

Sorry if I had a bit of verbal diarrhoea-funny word that
If you do what Russell and Paulie said its easy and should be fine. It can be a trap getting caught up in what's good, better, best when we should just be recording.
Cheers
Lester

[sabalsounds]

+1 Ron's comment! I too got sucked into the internet's "bermuda triangle" which will happen to you if you simply google: room acoustics. Wow...so much information and passionate debates of room nulls and diffusion

I don't know the OP's experience with room acoustics but I suggest the simplest approach is as follows:

Use this basic approach to treat any room:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3UE28DhVeM

Adding to the above: do consider all the 1st points of reflection which include the floor and ceiling and the wall behind the speakers not just the side walls. If the room isn't carpeted put a thick rug underneath your listening position and, if possible, place an acoustic ceiling cloud over your listening position to tame reflections in both directions:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Primacousti ... 1438884.gc

1) Once the 1st points of reflection are addressed 2) then focus on corner bass traps to tame the low end as best as possible. The end game is for your ears to hear as much of the sound directly from the speakers in front of you as possible at your listening position (not the room reflections) while also minimizing the amount the room is boosting and cutting certain frequencies 3) address any flutter echo and (optional) consider diffusion.

Proper room treatment is something I avoided for a very long time because I didn't understand its impact and it didn't seem as necessary to me as a new plugin, etc until I did all of the above (DIY) and was just astounded at how much detail commercial recordings had in my treated studio vs untreated. This has to be experienced to be believed.

It didn't happen over night for me but overtime, with treatment, headphones, and some additional monitoring I am now able to take my mixes from the studio to our car(s), earbuds, cellphones, etc and the mixes hold up.

[lesmac]

More +1s on the room treatment and getting sucked into the void.
Thats some pretty good advice there on how to start and treat your room.

The sine sweep from 20hz to 20khz can be enlightening.
I just googled and found this link. Be careful with some of the test tones as they will test your equipment and yours ears too.!!!

http://www.dr-lex.be/software/testsounds.html

http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-ch1.htm#audio

I reckon Mike Senior's book is pretty cool


Lester

[lesmac]

Edit on the sine sweeps.
They are the same amplitude so you will here how your room is affecting/responding to the signal.
It will get loud then soft whether you've got $3000 monitors or $300.
L