John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

After much reading, lurking, questioning, and perhaps overthinking, I've decided to post a drawing. It is not a measured drawing, rather an approximation cobbled together in MS Word. I plan to build this space out over the next couple of months.

It's an awfully small space, as you'll see. Hopefully not too small for my goals. Two questions that are foremost now (beyond the quality of the overall layout) are:

1) is the scheme to treat the beam ceiling as noted on the drawing a good idea, and

2) is soffit mounting in this space overkill?

Thanks all for looking.

Jay

Hi Jay - that looks pretty good. 2 things - I would build slots on the sisde of the speakers where you have stated 703. Keep the front bright .) I'd then replace the bass traps in the rear with 703. Low bass won't be your problem - low mids will. If ytou want bass traps in the rear put them angled on the ceiling. The soffits will sound cool in that room.

cheers
john

Thanks -- good to know I'm on the right track. Appreciate the quick response. I was unsure about the soffits, but reading this and other posts here has me committed. I'll have to get new speakers, I guess, since my Tannoy PBM8s are rear ported. I was thinking of the Mackie H824s (any experience there?).

RE the Soffits -- it occured to me that I might have a problem with structure-born bass leakage/vibrations from the soffit walls to the house above. If properly built, will I? If it might be a problem, could the soffit walls be isolated from the ceiling joists by an inch or so? Would an airspace like that foul up the function?

Thanks again.

Jay

I think the Mackies are rear ported also but they appear to work in a soffit mount.

It's a good idea to isolate the soffit mount structure from the ceiling, no problem.

cheers
john

The Mackies have a rear-firing passive radiator - I think they have several choices of compensation for position, though... Steve

Just my .02

I soffit mounted my Mackies and am Quite pleased.

I left the HF driver flat at 0db, and bounced the LF driver down to B. I tried A, but the bottom felt funny. B felt best in a soffit to me.

If you build the soffits per John's specs, the port is a null and void issue. The bottom from the passive radiator will be absorbed in that cavity of insulation.

Oh, John the 100Hz issue I was having, I found it. It seems my glass faced monitors were reflecting it back so it would null out at mix position.

Like I said if I move 3 to 6" (just my head) left or right, it would be right. If I got up it would be right. I put some foam in front of the monitors and low and behold the problem just disappeared. So I gotta get some LCD Monitors now... Plastic screen, different resonance frequency.... Oh the fun.

And Get those Ergotron Arms I showed you Steve.

Bryan Giles

So Giles your saying I could soffit the Tannoys using the method in The Recording Manual, despite the rear ports?

I'm nervous about making a purpose-built wall for the Tannoys only to be dissapointed, though I like them and am used to them. The Mackies have a track record, it seems, and are not expensive.

Anyone soffit Tannoy PBM series speakers? Mine are the powered version.

Thanks.

JRSGodfrey the best idea is to build the soffits so that the box containing the speaker can be variable in size, or easily modified so if the Tannoys don't work ( I suspect they will) you can try a different set of speakers.

cheers
john

I believe they will JRS. I had one negative comment about the possibility of an issue mounting them in the soffits.

All I can say is the bass is 100 times tighter than in the free field. And I used to build and design speakers when I was a youngin. My ears do not lie.

Bryan

Matter of fact... I am so confident you will be happy, I can with confidence say with a 90% certainty that you will be satisfied. I had the same fears as you till I built the soffit platform. I place the monitors on the unfinished platform and heard a makred difference. When I finished the soffits last week, all I could say was wow. John is the man, he knows his stuff.

Thanks John and Bryan for the enthusiastic comments. When I get down to actually building the soffit structure, I will no doubt seek your advice again.

Jay