John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I have decided to get a little more practical and actually put together a mixing space that I can actually afford to build this year. I am tired of waiting.

Overview- I want a room that I can mix in with a decent amount of accuracy and translation.

Existing Construction- I am taking over the dining room of my house (one benifit of being divorced I guess). The house was built in 1921 with hardwood floors and 10' ceilings. It is also remarkably soundproof. I can stand in the front yard and not be able to hear someone playing a drumset inside (how do you explain that?). So soundproofing is not an issue...I just want as good a mixing space as possible.

The Room Itself- The room is 14"x14" which would normally be a nightmare...but...there are openings into other rooms of the house that can make the room acoustically much bigger. Here is a picture:





Here's what I am thinking:

1. Locate the mixing desk on the wall between the doors to the kitchen and living room.

2. Locate monitors against that wall

3. Construct "doors" that are really just framed 703 panels that will let the bass into the kichen and living room and laundry room (making the "room" seem much larger to the bass frequencies.

4. Construct large broadband absorbers to go across the back corners.

5. Place panels on each side and directly above the mix position to create a cheap RFZ






So...the questions

1. I love the price tag on this project...but do you think that this room has the potential of sounding "good".

2. It is my understanding that placing your monitors against the wall can help prevent bass phase interference at the cost of increasing the overall volume of the bass. If the speakers are designed to compensate for half-space is this arrangement okay?

3. Is my idea of turning the other three rooms into large bass traps a sensible idea?

Thanks,
Richard

Sounds like this could work; in fact, you should probably also do the "703 door" thing into the laundry as well.

Speakers - against wall may work, but sitting on the desk is NOT a good idea; better on stands BEHIND the desk, with isolation pads under the speakers. Assuming a 4 foot triangle between speakers and head and about 3 foot deep desk, if the speakers rest on the desk you could get a pre-echo condition (due to sound traveling many times faster in solids than in air) that can re-radiate from the desk surface and reach your ears BEFORE the direct sound; with those dimensions, you'd be looking at a 1/4 wave null somewhere between 100 and 200 hZ that might drive you nuts trying to equate it to a room mode or SBIR.

I'd go VERY heavy on the corner absorbers, and probably same with wall-ceiling corners, considering the two 14' dimensions... Steve

Thanks for the reply:

*I will be doing the 703 door thing into the laundry as well

*I will be going very heavy in the back two corners...in fact corner traps will be quite large.

*I was planning on putting the speakers on separate stands or on a wall mounted shelf.

Now for questions:

1. The pre-echo thing will be dealt with...but how important is the issue of early reflections off the desk?...I could pull the desk away from the wall but it would eat floor space and look messier. Worth it?







Thanks