Help with my new space.

[lukas412]

Hello everyone, first post at this great forum. Hope someone can give some advice. So I just moved into a new house that my girl and I own, and there is one room upstairs that I am going to use for my studio. Its small and an odd shape. I make electronic music, experimental ambient to detroit techno. I dont really do any instrument recording, except guitar, but not acoustic recording. So the space just needs to sound decent when I produce and mix down tracks. Sound proofing is not really a concern, just need decent sound in the room. I have some of the old KRK 8" monitors. I ussually work alone so as long as I can get a decent sweet spot in the room I will be happy. I will attach a quick diagram I did of the room. I suspect that its gonna be difficult to get it sounding great due to all of the parallel walls. I am just looking for monitor placement ideas, and any acoustical treatments that would help. Im a newbie to acoustics so any help is greatly appriciated.



Thanks,

Luke

[Mark Alan Miller]

One simple suggestion is to place your 'sweet spot' so it's diagonally opposite that box where the stairs are (your right speaker kinda near the window, the left one on the left wall in that diagram.)
You'll lose a touch of square footage behind the desk that would likely go diagonally in that corner, but I think it's the way to go. (From experience, as I set up a small electronic music studio almost exactly like this in a house I lived in for a while, and arrived at the diagonal setup after frustrations with anything that was 'square' in the room.
It's also the only easy way to get some kind of symmetry for your 'control room'...

[joelpatterson]

This is a great forum.

You don't really want flat bare walls and ceilings for the sound to bounce around on, if you could do anything like hanging curtains or rugs up, a little of that kinda thing goes a long way. Alot of that kinda thing, like heaps of bean bag chairs all over and piled up against the walls, would be helpful and pretty stylish as well.

[lukas412]

Great thanks, I appricate the suggestions. I was thinking about a diagonal setup myself. I just didnt know if it would make it better or worse. I think ill give it a try. Also the ceilings are about 8.5' high, any suggestions for treating it, besides a drop cieling?

Thanks!!

Luke

[Mark Alan Miller]

I encourage the diagonal set up, 'cause any other way and you'll have aysymmetrical reflections, regardless of how you treat the room (unless you go completely nuts with real diffussion, which would lessen the issue.)
For example, if you set up with monitors on either side of that window, you'll have a completely different set of early reflection coming from that staircase wall behind you and to the right, than you would from the left. Imaging will suffer!

As for the ceiling, some diffusive/absorptive foam at the "mirror spots" on the ceiling (where you could see your tweeters from the listening position if the ceiling were a mirror, as well as the "mirror spots" on your walls (in a diagonal setup the sides might be less critical) will help a lot. If you put a nice heavy curtain on the window (not a bad idea) make antother to match on the left wall there, like a faux window. It will help with the symmetry, in the way the cloth will act like an absorber of some mids/highs.
Remember not to kill too much mids and highs if you're not trapping some bass somehow. (What's that stairway/door made of? It might kinda act like a bass trap already...!?)

Some more thoughts...

[trodden]

i suffer from a similar set up. I should have set up diagonal as well but figured that it would take up too much space since my "control" room is a multi-use room with the rest of the house.

my measurements are a bit larger.. 13'-15' in place of your 10' but also have an "unusable corner" like in the lower right of your diagram.

here's the view of my room with my back to your 6'1" equivalent wall facing the long wall.. to the left of me is a large closet the owner won't let me get rid of (my unusable corner, used by the rest of the house to house gear they don't use or is broken...damnit)





and a view from the "top right corner" of the room where i have a sliding glass door to the live room.




and finally view from the green couch.

[lukas412]

Thanks again for the help everyone,

I think the diagonal setup is gonna work great. I placed stuff around last night to see if it was all gonna fit and it will fit very nicely. I will post some pics when I get it all setup.

Thanks!

Luke

[Mark Alan Miller]

Luke-
Yay! Looking forward to seeing how you set it up.
(And Trodden - that's pretty cool what you've got there, too!)