Any ideas for my control room?

Stevo_909 · Post by **Stevo_909** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 3:40 pm

Just discovered this forum, looks interesting. I just recently started worrying about acoustics, so I am trying to learn more all the time

I have a small studio in my home that I use for recording and mixing mostly rock projects. I am most concerned with making my room into a better listening environment for mixing. Usually when I need to track instruments with open mics, I book time at my college's studio.

I have a diagram of the room here: http://www.jargonrecords.com/etc/floorplan.html
(i'm sorry I couldn't just attach an image, but this is the only way I could export it from Publisher.
All measurements are measured roughly. The room dimensions are about 2 1/2 meters wide X 4 meters long X 2 1/4 meters high

Here's the catch: I don't really have the money go buy expensive studio foam, bass traps, and things like that. Could you please make recommendations for how to treat this room with common materials, or cheap stuff I can go buy? I do have a spare mattress hanging around, if that is of any use....

Thanks a lot for your help,
Stephen Raiman
college student / studio intern

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:21 am

Welcome to the site. There are some excellent advisors here John Steve and Thomas. They Really Really know their stuff.

I took the liberty of putting your photo up for all to see effortlessly

Visit this link for some simple easy to make treatments.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm

Bryan Giles

Sorry I couldn;t get the measurements to show without much effort.

Stevo_909 · Post by **Stevo_909** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 2:53 am

Thanks for putting that up there Giles. Much appreciated

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:47 pm

Are you concerned with sound isolation(inside to outside) at all, or just how the room sounds inside?

Stevo_909 · Post by **Stevo_909** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:12 am

knightfly wrote:Are you concerned with sound isolation(inside to outside) at all, or just how the room sounds inside?

No, I am not concerned with isolation at all. I live in a quiet neighborhood, with cool neighbors. I'm mostly concerned with making my room into as accurate a monitoring environment as possible.
To a lesser extent, I am concerned with making the room suitable for recording instruments and voice.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 3:07 am

Stephen, that makes things somewhat easier (not needing the isolation) but not actually easy - your comment

"please make recommendations for how to treat this room with common materials, or cheap stuff I can go buy? I do have a spare mattress hanging around, if that is of any use.... "

Can you clarify things here a bit?

What about tools/construction ability?

Do you have either, or are we limited to strictly cheap things you can get free or cheap and simply put in the room?

Or do you have the time/ability/willingness to do some basic construction?

Do you have an actual dollar figure for budget, or is "free" the only option? (I've talked to people who say "low budget" that mean "less than $100,000", and I've talked to people who say "quite a bit" and they mean "not over $50", so it helps if you can state actual figures -

Also, what (if any) physical modifications can you make to the room if necessary? (none, drive a screw or nail, add things to walls, move walls, etc)

One other thing that would help is some clarification of your drawing - I saw DAW listed as going between two speakers, is that the monitor and keyboard? Is the "shelf unit with mixer" taller or shorter than the table/speakers? Things like this will make a difference in the acoustics of your room for mixing, so need to be understood.

The more info we have, the better chance of getting as far as possible on your budget... Steve

Stevo_909 · Post by **Stevo_909** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:07 pm

knightfly wrote: Can you clarify things here a bit?

What about tools/construction ability?

Do you have either, or are we limited to strictly cheap things you can get free or cheap and simply put in the room?

Or do you have the time/ability/willingness to do some basic construction?

I suppose asking me all these questions means you're trying to give me a useful answer, and it's much appreciated.
I have some tools, and some basic construction ability. I wouldn't be opposed to buying a few materials and building some basic stuff. I don't really have a lot of time to build complicated things though

knightfly wrote: Do you have an actual dollar figure for budget, or is "free" the only option? (I've talked to people who say "low budget" that mean "less than $100,000", and I've talked to people who say "quite a bit" and they mean "not over $50", so it helps if you can state actual figures -

Also, what (if any) physical modifications can you make to the room if necessary? (none, drive a screw or nail, add things to walls, move walls, etc)

I suppose I could spend around $50 on materials. They can be cheap, becasue I don't really care how the room looks, as long as it is functional. I hesitate to spend much on the room, since I am just renting for the school year, and will be out in May.
I can't really make any modifications to the room since I am renting, but a few nail holes or screws probably wouldn't be a big deal.

Do you think it is possible to improve my room much just by using common items (mattress, blankets, corkboard, pillows) and putting them in a few choice places? I'm sorry if I am totally off base. At this point, acoustics seems like a total black art to me (I am trying to learn a thing or two however).

knightfly wrote: One other thing that would help is some clarification of your drawing - I saw DAW listed as going between two speakers, is that the monitor and keyboard? Is the "shelf unit with mixer" taller or shorter than the table/speakers? Things like this will make a difference in the acoustics of your room for mixing, so need to be understood.

I look some pictures of my room, and posted them here (please pardon the mess):
http://www.jargonrecords.com/etc/one.jpg
http://www.jargonrecords.com/etc/two.jpg
http://www.jargonrecords.com/etc/three.jpg
http://www.jargonrecords.com/etc/four.jpg
http://www.jargonrecords.com/etc/five.jpg

The DAW in the drawing is my monitor sitting atop a custom shelf unit I built out of wood which holds my compressor, preamp, and amplifier.
THe mixer is a Soundcraft Spirit F1 sitting atop a 3 level plastic shelf unit, which is slightly taller than the table. The 2nd and first levels of the plastic shelf hold a turntable, and radio tuner respectively.

Once again, thanks a lot for your help with this. It is much appreciated.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 3:20 pm

Here's a fair start on improving your mixes - (see my markup of your room plan)

The mattress can go on your front wall behind the speakers, speakers on pedestals (even stacks of books will work) so that they are against the mattress, equidistant from your head, tilted in just a little more than shown but not straigt at your head, and with tweeters just above your ear height. Make sure whatever you sit the speakers on does NOT protrude in front of the speaker front.

The cork board (or similar) can be 3-4 feet on a side, if the bottom edge is at least as low as your table top - if you can devise some type of stand, such as the things you see in restaurants with message boards sitting on them, that will be fine. You mainly want to deflect any early reflections from your speakers to the rear of the room and NOT to your ears, as will happen with parallel walls.

If you had more mattresses, they could probably be used on the sides also but harder materials need to be angled as shown.

If you make more mix adjustments on the mixer than on the computer, it would be better to have the mixer on the table in front of you. You shouldn't make mix decisions with your head out of the "sweet spot" between the speakers, so whichever control you use the most should be in the center.

Any other absorbent material you can scrounge should be placed opposite the windows, with a large "softy" at the far end of the room. Unfortunately, the door next to your guitar stand is right where this should be placed. Maybe a heavy curtain, on a wire about a foot from that end - you could close it when mixing or tracking to lessen the echo.

You didn't mention where you're located, so I'm not sure if we've used up your $50 yet - those changes should make a noticeable difference in your sound for starters.

Once you've redone those things, you can download a virtual test generator here -

http://www.realtraps.com/nti_minirator.exe

feed the output of your soundcard into the system and slowly sweep the frequency through the audio range while listening for buzzes and rattles - cushion, tape, or remove anything that does, and you're even closer to a usable mix area.

These things should all help, let us know how it goes for you... Steve

Stevo_909 · Post by **Stevo_909** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 1:20 am

Looks like good stuff. The one thing I noticed is the speaker placement. My Tannoy Reveals are rear ported, and the manual recommends placing them at least 6 inches away from the wall behind them. Does this make any difference regarding the mattress and speaker placement?
thanks much

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:21 pm

I doubt it - try them away and against, as long as you don't hear any "chuffing" noises when low notes play, I wouldn't worry about it.

Getting them as close to the mattress as possible will lessen phasing problems. Mainly, try to keep ANYTHING from being in a position to reflect sound toward you from the speakers. If you can lay a mirror flat against anything in the front half of the room and see either speaker in it, either move that object or put something absorptive on it, or turn it another way, whatever it takes.

All you want to hear is the sound DIRECTLY from your speakers, that's the goal... Steve