Room Treatment for My CR

[koipond]

Hi,

I've been reading over the information in this forum and while there's a lot to absorb, I've been steadily learning. Awesome resource!

I am in the process of treating my control room, 19'8"x11'6"x9'10". Here's a little info about the room:

- Located in a mini-mall
- not concerned with noise, as most of my mixing will be done at reasonable levels during working hours; loud mixing will be done after neighbors leave for the day
- drywall, laminate floor, and drop ceiling
- not sure about construction details, but I will not be doing anything that isn't easily removable since I'm renting
- max budget of $1000 USD

I have treated the room with superchunks made of R30 in three vertical corners and floor/wall corner and using 6" 703 panels at first reflection points. I have a total of six 703 panels and plan to lay them out as follows: two at 1st reflection points on side walls, two as cloud hanging from drop ceiling, and two at the back half of the CR to reduce flutter echo.

I downloaded REW and plan to take measurements of the room but have a few questions:

1. I am buying a 24"x24" sheet of Sorbothane from a local McMaster-Carr but am not certain what thickness and durometer hardness I should choose. I am using four cinder blocks and a top cap for each stand, total weight is approximately 160 lbs. per stand. My monitors are Genelec 8040a at 18.9 lbs. each. Any suggestions on the hardness and thickness adequate for my needs?

2. The flutter echo in the room bothers me tremendously. I have about 6' of width on the back wall that I could treat. Would I benefit from putting a qrd diffuser on the back wall? I'm looking for something light so I probably want something made out of eps. Any suggestions on a good retailer if a diffuser fits my needs?

Thanks for you help.

[koipond]

I thought I'd add some more info about the room and my circumstances.

The room is part of a music store specializing in Asian instruments. We recently moved to a new location and I now have space to set up my recording gear. Once finished, I will use the room to record instrument demos for our web page and occasional private sessions (the studio is not open to the public). We have a classroom next to the CR that we may eventually use as a live room, but I want to get the acoustics sounding good in the CR first. The CR will be my crash course in acoustics. lol

I'm planning to post measurements of the room soon but wanted to get Sorbothane first so I can set up my monitors before taking measurements. The local store sells a 24x24 sheet in thicknesses of 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4" thicknesses with 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 Durometer hardness levels. I'm not sure which sheet would be sufficient for my needs.

I found this company selling diffusers and they have two models I may be interested in:

prime 7 diffuser

prime 37 diffuser

The prices are reasonable and I think a diffuser would help when we do product recordings. Would either be a good fit for my room?

Thanks!

[gullfo]

sorbathane - go with the 1/2" 30 hardness.

it looks like you need ceiling treatments since a bunch of the issues are probably floor-ceiling related. having diffusers on the back wall as well as side walls and ceiling would be a nice touch. maybe consider space couplers hung about 12" down from the ceiling with scatter absorbers on the ceiling.

[koipond]

Thanks for the advice gullfo. I hope to get the Sorbothane and make room measurements this week. I placed an order for some diffusers and should get them in a week or two. Exciting times!

[koipond]

I finally had time to use REW and make some graphs. I made the measurements with three superchunks in the corners, and panels at the first reflection points. I bought the Sorbothane and made my monitor stands out of cinder blocks.

Since this is all new to me, I didn't know which graphs to post and I don't know how to read the measurements that well. How do my graphs look? Any suggestions on what I can do to make the room sound better? I should be betting some diffusers in a week or two and will make more measurements once I install them. I'm also considering getting some Gridfusors from GIK Acoustics for the drop ceiling, if my room can benefit from them.

Thanks,