New studio space sound treatment

[insch]

I'd be very grateful for some studio treatment advice.

I have a new space, around 4 metres wide by 6 metres long and 2.50 high - see pix. My main setup is across one of the short ends. My work is in music, sound-design and film so there are different requirements for this space and it's a bit of a compromise. I have two screens which will fit together once I have wall-mounted my nearfield monitors - either side of the high window.

Treatment-wise, I have fitted bass traps on this end wall and will fit foam panels on the wall deirectly behind the monitors, once they are wall-mounted, and on their reflection point on the ceiling.

I am not really sure what to do on the side and back walls. I have a number of 30cm x 30cm foam panels, bass traps and 4 60cm x 60cm diffusor panels (see pix). I am just wondering how to use them to best advantage in this space. The floor is wooden and there are minimal soft furnishings. I am aware that the French doors are around a reflection point of the monitors. I will be mounting a curtain across the doors and there will be a blind on the vertical end window. I'll be putting some pictures on the side walls.

Right now the sound isn't bad in the space but sounds a bit bass light.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Thanks

[gullfo]

a few thoughts: your symmetry may be off and have in the monitors slightly (it appears) behind the center monitor can cause HF issues, and the side angled monitor can also do some funny things to your mid frequencies. so i'd start with shift a bit to get more center between the walls and get your monitors at least even with the main screen - put them on something to decouple from the desk.
on the foam - no so great but its what you have - so making some of the square you've shown on the walls and ceiling to cut from reflections. put the bass ones in the corners. and find a heavy drape to cover the glass door - lose the hammock from that spot... between the absorption there and the angled monitor, you're not getting a good image on the stereo speakers.

[insch]

Source of the post a few thoughts: your symmetry may be off and have in the monitors slightly (it appears) behind the center monitor can cause HF issues, and the side angled monitor can also do some funny things to your mid frequencies. so i'd start with shift a bit to get more center between the walls and get your monitors at least even with the main screen - put them on something to decouple from the desk.
on the foam - no so great but its what you have - so making some of the square you've shown on the walls and ceiling to cut from reflections. put the bass ones in the corners. and find a heavy drape to cover the glass door - lose the hammock from that spot... between the absorption there and the angled monitor, you're not getting a good image on the stereo speakers.

Thank you. That's really helpful. Once I have wallmounted my speakers (tomorrow) those screens will then butt together. I'll then put foam on the refection points of the speakers (ceiling and side walls) and add more bass traps. Heavy drapes will def. be added to the French doors. I am attached to my hammock there though - the view over the lake is inspirational - but I could take it down when mixing etc.

[insch]

An update...

I wall mounted my Focal Shape 65's and voila, the bass came back. I've added some foam panels behind the speakers but haven't done any on the reflection points yet. The sound is pretty good at my desk, with clear and defined bass and a pretty good tonal balance. But when sitting on the sofa a few metres back from the wall it's a very different experience with a much less defined bass.

I'd like to keep a bit of a live sound in the back half of my studio if poss, where I have a piano and my guitar amp and guitars, but I'd also like half decent sound half way back on the sofa. Maybe once I have done the reflection points in the front half the sound will be more defined but I am guessing the bass might not tighten up have way back due to inadequate bass traps?

Any advice on finding reflection points on ceiling and side walls - using a mirror to see where the speakers show?

I can put my diffusers on the back wall.

Pix of my new developments.

Thank you

[gullfo]

you could run a small subwoofer by the couch and set the necessary xovers, delays, etc needed for it to be timed correct and just enough to boost the low end.

[Frans Wessels]

Hi,

The pictures shows you are buying good gear, the room deserves equal treatment, as you are looking for.

My first thoughts;

- As suggest by others in this post, centre your desk and the speaker to the front wall for better stereo imaging.

- Lot of work: turn the set up 180 degrees, mixing desk against the other short wall to get away from the big windows. Would be a much better starting point, or not?

- Lower the speakers and have them fire the tweeter at the hight of your ears and slightly "around" your head. So the left speaker is firing a bit next to your left ear, same but opposite for the right speaker. Your head now should sit in a stereo image field

- Find the right spot for the listening position by putting one speaker in the corner at ear hight (temporarily) and move around while sitting on your chair. mark the spots center under your chair while moving around. Best is the sit in the middle of the room and move from front wall to back wall and keep going further away from the front wall. Once you found a good listening position, keep that and work on the best location of your speakers. Just in front of the front wall with (as you have now) absorption just behind the speakers. An Equal distance triangle is the first setup to look for, but may be adjusted later.

- Add a bass trap floor to ceiling in EACH corner of the room. Don't buy the foam ones, but just fibreglass (glas wol) sheets of 60 cm wide and construct a wooden frame (plywood strokes) around the fiberglass to support it. Have it some 12 cm thick to get effect. So you will end up with an air space behind the sheet in the corner, THAT's what should be there to start getting low end damping.

- Find you first reflection points fro the monitors on the side walls. Use a mirror, sit on your chair AT the listening position and ask someone to slowly move the mirror along the side walls starting at the front wall. You look at the mirror and when you start noticing the speakers, make the first mark on te side wall. Keep moving the mirrors until you do not see the speaker anymore and add a second marker on the same sidewall. Put an absorber (again sheet of fiberglass between those 2 markers and you have reduced sound bouncing of the sidewall into the room. The left sidewall absorbers handles the right speaker and the right absorber handles the left speaker. This trick simulates how sound from a speaker bounces to the wall and then hits your ears. As long as you see the speaker in the mirror you will also hear it via the wall.

- Put a cloud above the listening position to tame reflections from floor and ceiling. Just a thick absorber hanging from the ceiling.

Now of course we should say measure, measure measure. But the point ssuggested by the others in this post and if you want mine will be the start on a bit of a pragmatic way.

After that you can always decide to deep dive, but ALWAYS listen, decide, change listen as a repetitive circle to improve.

Kind regards,

Frans

[Frans Wessels]

Well may be as an addition, not so much physical treatment;

It is interesting how we perceive sound, how we listen and how we correct. You mentioned the sound being "thin" where we perceive this as, we lack low end. Then the mind takes over and our initial reaction almost always is, "turn up the bass...". Of course that will make it less thin.
I had a good lesson from an experienced sound engineer while I was learning to become a front off house engineer. There are 2 ways to correct things from sounding, add what you are missing, OR reduce what holds a too high level. For instance when a speaker sounds "thin" it usually will reproduce sound with too much mid / high compared to the low frequency. I learned to listen this way; what is "over shadowing" and learn the frequency of that. So "boomy" sound is in the 125 Hz area, tame it just 2 - 3 dB as a start and "boominess" is gone. When it sounds aggressive or up front / in your face, it will be somewhere in the low-mid, if it sounds harsh it;'s mid high. If we learn to identify the related frequencies and only correct those with too much volume, it's easy to correct sound fast and effective. Adding what we seem to miss is the road to everything louder, the rat race to the volume war on stage, in the mix and so on.
A simple way of learning this is to play a piece of music you know well and apply a variable frequency EQ (sweep filter) EQ +6dB and sweep fast first them more and more slowly from 50 Hz to 12 kHz (or just any high enough to have a playing field we all can here) and keep focussing on the frequency in effect during the sweep. Now you can start identifying all these types of sound profile from boomy, through thin to harsh. Also you can reduce the uplift, even go max on reduction (-6 dB and more) to learn understand the complete effect.

Also, if a frequency is canceled out in a room, there is no use adding more of that frequency from a speaker, it will still be cancelled out as that is the physical nature of the situation. If your room is to big for your speakers, adding speakers on different location could be a solution that starts to pop up in the low end. If your room is well treated and balanced, you can use EQ on your speaker to further correct what's required. Of course there are disadvantages like; EQ adds phase shifting just to name one.

- Now to your room, maybe you currently have a bit too much mid / high reflections (1st 2nd ,etc). Adding mid-high absorbers carefully, don't over do it your room will start sounding dull and that leads to fatiguing experience while working in your studio. Those panels you now use are kind of ok, but do not have all wanted effect, they are simple too thin to go low, you end up with only taming around 500 Hz upwards.

- A common approach for professional sounding studios is: soft walls and ceiling, hard floor (no carpets, although you can experiment with them). Added to that, start with corners to tame bass, next tame early reflections at the listening position from both the walls and the ceiling.

- I did notice a diffuser in one of your pictures, looks like a low-mid absorber comparing the width of the wells to your wooden floorpanels width. Your room is not small but diffusers have a need for room to become effective in that sense that close to the diffuser things are not pleasant to listen at. The sound field is diffused, what happens is that you spread out sound energy over a larger area (make sound waves less directional) and that takes some distance before you end up with a "unified" field of sound.
Also, just one absorber in practice will be effective enough to be really noticeable. So, they work but you need to design the diffuser that fits your room and diffuses the frequency range that needs treatment. In your room, maybe at least 2 of those will start to bring noticeable effect. Difficult just to state, chances are that your mixing position is too close to the diffuser to help you out.
A soft wall with panels of at least 6 cm thickness and 6 cm of air behind them maybe a much better option.

kind regards,

Frans