John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I just moved into a house and have a 12'x12' room to make into a home studio. The equipment is all set up. But the sound is horrible, especially when I record vocals.
The wall my desk faces has a 2'H x 6'L window that's 1' down from the ceiling and is in the middle of the wall.
On my right is the entry door that's back in the corner behind me. Directly to my right are 2 closet doors that are about 5' wide together.

To my left is an 8' sliding door, leaving 2' of wall per side.
The back wall has nothing. It's just a wall.
The floor is hardwood, but I have an 8x10 rug on it.

I don't want to do any kind of construction. I would like to get the room to sound the best I can without construction - knocking down walls, etc.

Any help to get the room to sound better would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Greg

Hi Greg. Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things!

That said, a square room (where two dimensions are the same) is not a good way to start, since all of the modal resonance issues in the "length" direction will line up exactly with all of the modal resonance issues in the "width" direction. If the height also happens to be related, such as having an 8 foot ceiling in a 12 foot room, then there could be additional modal problems all adding up at the same frequencies. That alone could be a source of the biggest problems you are hearing in your room.

You probably don't need to change the room itself by moving walls (although that would help!), but you will need to build acoustic treatment devices, and place them at the correct locations in the room. Since the room is small and also square, it will need a LOT of treatment. So at the very least, you will need to "construct" some DIY acoustic treatment. Or if you REALLY don't to do even that type of construction, then you'll have to buy commercial treatment to do the job, but that's going to be more expensive: you can make DIY panels yourself for much less than the cost of buying commercial panels and getting them shipped to your place.

The first thing you'll need to do is to run a test on the room to identify what the problems actually are, so you can figure out what treatment you will need, and where you will need to put it. Here's how to do that:

How to calibrate and use REW to test and tune your room acoustics

We will also need an accurate diagram of the room, and photos too, to help understand it.

But before you even do that, check the forum rules again please!



- Stuart -

Hi Stuart -

Sorry for not complying with the rules. I honestly did not see them. There is a lot of money to be spent. I need new audio monitors as well. So getting the measurement mic and sound meter may not be in the next few days. I will go over everything you said and will do them when I have the money.

Thanks,
Greg