Attic Shaped Studio

#436

yes, definitely try to set the fan speed with the least amount of possible electronics noise. this way after a session is done and some more air is needed, just crank it. :-)

same with lighting - having work lights to see what you're doing during set up / tear down and general maintenance, and then the nice lighting for moods.

#437

I like that idea with the lighting!

The current fan controller has 4 settings: off, low, medium, high. I've located it under my desk so I can switch between them without getting up from the desk. Very useful for what you mention and switching it on/off for recording quiet instruments.

#438

Speaker boxes coming along. I drilled an 80mm diameter hole for the upper duct and a smaller hole for cables and DIP switch access. There will be another 80mm duct hole in the bottom of the speaker, but I have to wait until later in the build until I determine the exact location of the speaker box so I can make sure that and the corresponding hole on the speaker shelf are aligned.

On the shelf!

The left knee wall is 25mm longer that the right knee wall. I've built the soffit structures exactly the same size though, in an attempt to make each side sound as close as possible. This means there's a 25mm gap to the right of the left soffit structure. This was anticipated a while back in the thread, and Stuart suggested padding it out with something like an acoustically transparent baffle. Good plan, but it's only 25mm, and maybe I could get away with having a slightly larger baffle face one side?

So I built a test baffle face out of OSB to see how much difference an extra 25mm width made. I built it to the larger size and did an REW sweep. Then sawed it down to the normal size and did another sweep. Both tests were done on the same (right hand) soffit. With the soffit in this partially built state there was no significant difference, so that's how I'm going to proceed with the real faces. If any problems develop later in the build it'll be easier to saw the larger one down so both faces are identical.

Cheers,
Jennifer

#439

The test baffle has a rectangular hole for the speaker, but the speaker is egg shaped, so this won't do. I built an MDF router template for cutting speaker shaped holes in the final MDF baffle faces. It's sized and shaped to give a few mm clearance around the speaker so the baffle face won't touch it at all. Quite an involved process! First, use a contour tracing tool to trace one edge of the speaker onto the MDF board.

My junior hacksaw skills are poor so I used repeated slices with the stanley knife to cut along the transcribed curve.

Then repeat the contour match, transcribe and cut for the other edges.

It matches! The template here is resting on the speaker box edges. When in the soffit there will be a small gap between the baffle face and the speaker box edges though, so since the speaker is tapered this will also create a small gap around the perimeter.

#440

I had a recording session today so had to get the room back into working shape. I really like the way it's coming together. I love the sound of the speakers in those locations, and I can see the soffits are going to improve the tidiness and professional look of the room without consuming useful space or overpowering the room appearance.

#441

coolio! and once those soffits are in place it's going to be a whole new listening experience

#442

a slight variation on the baffle size shouln't been an issue.

#443

Thoroughly impressive! Im still hanging drywall :/

#444

eightamrock wrote:Source of the post Thoroughly impressive! Im still hanging drywall :/

Thank you! Well it's a big place you have, and doing the drywall is a big job, especially when you have to do several layers

#445

I've sawed the side wall and sloped edges of the soffit baffle faces. A little bit tricky due to the bevels required. I thought the best way to figure out where to cut the inside edge was by attaching these baffles to the soffit structure then dropping a plumb bob from the corresponding edge on the sloped ceiling. I made the marks but ran out of time for sawing them today.

#446

are you going to paint them? maybe the fractal from your main monitor?

#447

gullfo wrote:Source of the post are you going to paint them? maybe the fractal from your main monitor?

That would be well trippy! Afraid not though, I'll just be painting them the same cream colour as the walls

#448

As the Genelec speaker isopods give some benefit in reducing the transmission of low mid frequencies to the structure they are mounted on, I decided against bolting the speakers to their shelves. I had them on the isopods before, and it was ok then, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

A problem with putting the speakers in the soffit on the isopod feet is that they could move if pushed with a bit of force. Potentially having to remove the soffit face and re-align them if/when this happens would be a major headache, especially during a session. Lining them up to meet the soffit baffle face before putting it on might also be tricky. So I made some 1mm deep recesses in the exact location of the feet to provide consistent speaker placement and resist pushing movement. I kept the recesses shallow to avoid interfering in the resilient behaviour of the isopods.

Router template made by carefully transcribing the location of the feet then drilling 22mm holes.

1mm deep holes copied with the router template bit.

Test fit - it works! It gives substantial resistance to horizontal movement imposed from outside the speaker.

Do the same on the other speaker box.

Speaker in place. There is sufficient speaker overhang to meet the soffit face flush while allowing a small gap between the speaker box and soffit face.

#449

very nice! and if you're not glueing everything together, if you need to go beyond the iso feet you have the option to re-arrange the isolation and keep the rest of your assembly.

#450

Thanks Glenn, yes indeed, if required there's enough room in those speaker boxes to fit an isolation assembly like the one you showed. They are well screwed together so no need for glue.

I'm even more impressed with the isopods now I can observe their behaviour when sitting on those very rigid shelves. The resilience is far more obvious on those than it was when they were on the relatively flimsy and lightweight speaker stands. I shouldn't be surprised though, Genelec know a thing or two about speaker design after all!

Cheers!
Jennifer

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