Post by asti on May 20, 2020 21:36:00 GMT
Hello everyone. I'm currently attempting to set up a mixing/production room, that is approximately 12 feet wide x 24 feet long x 8 feet high, with concrete walls on all sides (although one side has several windows in it; I plan to cover these with plywood before placing panels over them).
Shots of space: imgur.com/a/qpFbkEr
However, at one side there is an intrusion into the room of a little over a foot, making the room only 10 feet 11 inches wide there. On the other side of the room, there is currently an opening where I will be installing a door, however for the time being it is simply an opening. I have 12 DIY bass traps of 4 inches of OC 703 with a vented wooden frame. I know conventional wisdom would suggest placing these spanning the corners of the room, but I have some obvious reasons that will be somewhat difficult in 2 of my 4 corners (door, intrusion). My current thought about solving that is to buy some freestanding corner traps for the more problematic corners (probably a good idea anyway) In its current doorless state, I have my speakers placed in the narrower side, spanning it as evenly as possible for symmetry (last image at that link).
So the current question I have is, assuming I build a door, does it make more sense to utilize the additional width of that size of the room, at the cost of having a thinner surface (the door) there instead of the much thicker concrete with less width on the other side? In either case, should I place bass traps spaced off the wall at the width of the intrusion and then set up my monitors symmetrically with the new false plane created by the panels? Would this make a difference in imaging/symmetrical response by having more low frequency absorption on the this side with a larger air gap as I'd put these closer to flush with the other wall (I know bass response is less directional, but if this would make a difference?
I haven't been able to use REQ for technical reasons yet (can't seem to make it work with my interface), but I have sonarworks installed which showed (with no treatment) the biggest problems at around 110-120 HZ with a large spike there and a null/dip around 2k. I'm curious as to whether the broadband absorption would help with the null in the upper range (I don't fully understand how this works beyond the insulation helping with excessive or built up amounts of bass). From just a hearing standpoint, the room started out really terribly (boomy-echoey bass, flutter in the high range, lack of clarity throughout). With just a sonarworks calibration, the bass got less boomy and the mid range pulled up a bit, and bringing the treatment in with haphazard placement (waiting to decide what direction to shoot before more permanent installs) helps more with boominess but still really not tight. The whole upper range feels oddly recessed as well even with the panels in the room and Sonarworks on.
Am I fighting a losing battle with the thick concrete walls reflecting tons of bass anyway? I could maybe move to a much smaller house/wood room and just treat it really heavily, but this space has advantages with low risk of sound contamination and size, so I'm inclined to try to make this work as well as possible. I'd really appreciate any guidance on how to move forward with this, thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Quick edit: I'm guessing one response is going to be "add a lot more bass traps," which while I can do within reason, will not be my end goal given that I probably won't stay in this space for that long. I'm looking to get it as functional as possible within my budget and time frame. I could probably add another $500 of material, however that is going to be best used.
Shots of space: imgur.com/a/qpFbkEr
However, at one side there is an intrusion into the room of a little over a foot, making the room only 10 feet 11 inches wide there. On the other side of the room, there is currently an opening where I will be installing a door, however for the time being it is simply an opening. I have 12 DIY bass traps of 4 inches of OC 703 with a vented wooden frame. I know conventional wisdom would suggest placing these spanning the corners of the room, but I have some obvious reasons that will be somewhat difficult in 2 of my 4 corners (door, intrusion). My current thought about solving that is to buy some freestanding corner traps for the more problematic corners (probably a good idea anyway) In its current doorless state, I have my speakers placed in the narrower side, spanning it as evenly as possible for symmetry (last image at that link).
So the current question I have is, assuming I build a door, does it make more sense to utilize the additional width of that size of the room, at the cost of having a thinner surface (the door) there instead of the much thicker concrete with less width on the other side? In either case, should I place bass traps spaced off the wall at the width of the intrusion and then set up my monitors symmetrically with the new false plane created by the panels? Would this make a difference in imaging/symmetrical response by having more low frequency absorption on the this side with a larger air gap as I'd put these closer to flush with the other wall (I know bass response is less directional, but if this would make a difference?
I haven't been able to use REQ for technical reasons yet (can't seem to make it work with my interface), but I have sonarworks installed which showed (with no treatment) the biggest problems at around 110-120 HZ with a large spike there and a null/dip around 2k. I'm curious as to whether the broadband absorption would help with the null in the upper range (I don't fully understand how this works beyond the insulation helping with excessive or built up amounts of bass). From just a hearing standpoint, the room started out really terribly (boomy-echoey bass, flutter in the high range, lack of clarity throughout). With just a sonarworks calibration, the bass got less boomy and the mid range pulled up a bit, and bringing the treatment in with haphazard placement (waiting to decide what direction to shoot before more permanent installs) helps more with boominess but still really not tight. The whole upper range feels oddly recessed as well even with the panels in the room and Sonarworks on.
Am I fighting a losing battle with the thick concrete walls reflecting tons of bass anyway? I could maybe move to a much smaller house/wood room and just treat it really heavily, but this space has advantages with low risk of sound contamination and size, so I'm inclined to try to make this work as well as possible. I'd really appreciate any guidance on how to move forward with this, thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Quick edit: I'm guessing one response is going to be "add a lot more bass traps," which while I can do within reason, will not be my end goal given that I probably won't stay in this space for that long. I'm looking to get it as functional as possible within my budget and time frame. I could probably add another $500 of material, however that is going to be best used.
