Room with closets, wardrobe...

ermi · Post by **ermi** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:59 am

Hi!

There are the pictures of my mixing room. In making, of course. Sorry, for the mess.

Front, listening position. The boxes on the table are placed where the speakers will be.

Back, right of the listening pos.

Back, left of the listening pos.

The room is 3x4m, 2,4m high.

Here's a quick drawing of the main objects.

Now, I have the possibility to remove some closets. The dark ones would be the first to go, since they're also poorly built/old.
The big wardrobe will have to stay.

The room has some noticeable ringing/echos. (I tried clapping) Especially near/right behind the listening position. There's significantly less ringing in the back of the room. Could it be because of the big wardrobe?

I'll be soon placing some rockwool panels. And a carpet on the floor.

Should I remove (some) closets or not?
Should I rather stuff them with something?
Should I use some cardboard boxes somehow, since I have many of them?

Thanks!

ermi · Post by **ermi** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 5:20 am

Right now I have a dilemma:

I have some very old glasswool, which I'll wrap up in some plastic or some stuff that doesn't let the air through.

Now there are mainly two places where I'd put it:

1. In the bookshelves low closet, located in the front right corner (on first picture).

2. In the opposite corner (third pic), above the big wardrobe. (Then I'd stuff the front right low closet with some pillows or foam, to make it similar to the one in this article, last page: http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/hearnoevil.pdf)

Then, a third option would be to put the glasswool in both places, but only in the front of the hole and leave empty space inside.

Thanks again!

phyl · Post by **phyl** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:06 am

Personally, I'd get as much stuff out of the room as possible, and then do what you can to insure that what's left is distributed evenly on the left and right sides of the room so that you have some symmetry.

Now you can start placing the fiberglass for best effect. Putting the fiberglass in the front and rear corners of the room would provide some bass trapping. Adding a fiberglass 'cloud' above the mix position (where you sit) would also help.

If you have the time and ability, consider building some of Ethan Winer's bass traps.

ermi · Post by **ermi** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:01 am

Update: the big wardrobe will be thrown out.

The rest of them will mostly stay.

phyl: But isn't it good to leave some closets, so to brake the room in smaller angles? I hope you know what I mean. I think I read about that in that .pdf article too.

But I'll try to make the room more symmetrical, that's for sure.

I already stuffed the white, low closet in the front-right corner with some hard and some soft foam, so to make a bass trap out of it.

Now, for better bass-trapping: is it better to leave it there or to put it in one of the corners in the back?

Also, I just got a few rockwool panels, 5cm thick, and I'm hanging them around.

phyl · Post by **phyl** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 1:46 am

You're probably thinking that the remaining closets etc will act to diffuse the sound waves coming from your speakers, and that's true, but they may also create a lot of early reflections at your monitoring position.

The more stuff you remove, the more room you have for absorbtive panels, bass traps, etc.

The conventional wisdom is to treat all the corners with bass traps and then add absorbtion and trapping along the wall in order to reduce the early reflections at the listening position. As far as whether you should treat the rear or forward corners first, I don't have an answer. Hopefully someone else will offer some advice.

I'm somewhat of a beginner in this area myself, so be sure to get a wide range of opinions.