John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I recently posted a topic on the "Studio Design" section of this forum and probably should have posted it here. Check out:

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=679

I'm anxious to get cracking on these improvements next week and had a few questions which will affect the materials I need to buy.

-I have two 7x8 iso rooms. I'm hoping to do a dry room / live room thing. The link above explains the details. Will a faux hardwood floor be a good idea for the "live" room? I'm also wondering if it would hurt to do the same in the "dead" room seeing that it will also have the dropped ceiling of 4" 703 panels. The dead room is used for vocals (music/voice over), gtr amps, etc. Right now booth rooms have low pile "utility" carpet. Is it ok to lay the hard flooring right on top of this carpeting? It would be great to not have to rip it up.

-Is it better to treat the walls and ceiling with both 1" tectum and 703? I'm following a recommendation to go wall to wall (down to 32" from the floor) and the entire ceiling with alternating panels of these materials. Would 703 all around (no tectum) be a bad move?

-Any recommendations for absorption on the area of wall behind mix position? I was told a 4-6" deep box (divided into 8" vertical rows) across the whole back wall (down to 32" from the floor) filled with r-30 and covered with fabric would do the trick. I'm wondering if rigid 703 would offer a more effective and space efficient design.

Thanks for the help!

Ben

bump

Ben, sorry for the delay in responding - been working 12-hour nights for the last week and a half, tonite's the last

I've got both threads on my laptop so I can think about it if I get lucky tonight and the whole plant doesn't fall apart - otherwise, it'll be late tomorrow before I get a chance to comment (although I'm not sure why you need my input with both John and Thomas weighing in) ... Steve

Ben, I'd stick with hardwood floors period - If you get an antsy vocalist with hard, clunky shoes, just put a small bathroom rug on the floor to kill the noise. Singers will be closer to the ceiling than the floor, so you'll want the ceiling and upper walls deadened or splayed. If splayed, doing it with a slat resonator keeps things from getting too dead while letting you pick at least one of the possible modal problems in the booth to tame down.

I would definitely NOT leave the carpet under the wood floor - all it will accomplish is to catch mites, dust, mildew, rot, and maybe cause the wood floor over it to creak more. (Did I mention it was a bad idea? )

I'm not familiar with Tectum other than a brief definition I found in the dictionary. I have Everest's Master Handbook of Acoustics in PDF form on my laptop, and a search for "tectum" brought exactly ONE result which said squat. It sounds like a mineral wool variation of 703, and I don't see the reason for alternating. I'd just use 703, and if you like checkerboard effects then switch between patches of 1", 2" and 3" 703. (Not that it would be necessary, better just use 2 or 3" period.)

One thing I don't understand about most people building studios - I don't think there's any valid point in putting up a bunch of acoustic treatment in a room that you haven't even HEARD yet - granted, you will need SOME, but there are so many variables in this game that it makes much more sense to me to first build the room, THEN test it, THEN treat it. You might get away with quite a bit less work/time/money, and end up with a better sounding room. I know that all rooms will require quite a bit of bass trapping, at least until you get into pretty large dimensions, so that part makes sense to build in. The rest of it can wait til you actually HEAR it, from my point of view...

" I was told a 4-6" deep box (divided into 8" vertical rows) across the whole back wall (down to 32" from the floor) filled with r-30 and covered with fabric would do the trick. I'm wondering if rigid 703 would offer a more effective and space efficient design. " - The 703 would give much better absorption in the same or less space. If you used 3" 703 spaced out from the wall by 3", you would get probably 3-4 times the absorption across the bandwidth. Low cutoff frequency wouldn't change much, since that's controlled partially by total depth from wall to surface - but, withing the frequency range you would get MORE absorption.

Hope that helped... Steve

Thank you Steve. Just the advice I was looking for. Tectum comes in 4x8' sheets and looks alot like Shredded Wheat cereal (with the frosting on one side) Its very hard, not flexible and as a result absorbs mostly mids from what I understand. I was told to use this especially in the "live" booth along with some 703 to gain some absorption without killing the highs. I've actually been using this studio for almost 3 years with minimal treatment (packing plankets, foam wedges, etc.). I knew it was time to do something when I had a voice over talent tell me he could hear the room in his phones. I couldn't hear it in my monitors but I definately heard it when I went in the room to listen to the phones. I definately think that having that sonic signature on all my tracks is not a good thing. Hopefully this will solve that and give me a tighter sound overall.

Found some info on Tectum - here's a comparison- tried to get the absorption (low to high) to line up, knock on wood...

OC Type 703 Semirigid insulation board 1.00 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -A 24 x 48 0.11 _.28 0.68 0.90 0.93 0.96
Tectum panel Silicate-treated wood fiber, organic binder 1.00 A 24 x 96/24 x 48 0.06 0.13 0.24 0.45 0.82 0.64


Looks like whoever suggested the Tectum was right about highs - might be a better way to go for a vocal booth that wasn't large enough for slot resonators but still needed to be "brighter". Only thing, I'd try to get some thicker 703/705 in lower corners to balance out the LF absorption, or the room might be kinda boomy... Steve