Attic Shaped Studio

[endorka]

I painted the speaker flush mount baffle faces with an oil based eggshell paint to provide a slightly glossier and harder wearing surface than the walls. This might be useful as these faces might have to be removed every now and then for speaker repair or what have you.

I also made some improvements to the inner workings of the speaker flush mounts:

- an extra layer of wood on the back of the baffles to improve bracing and give a slight reduction to sound transmission.
- gaskets to join the speaker box to the flush mount baffle.
- deep foam gasket between the speaker and the flush mount baffle.
- gasket to bring the baffle edges closer to the speaker face.

Added gaskets to flexibly couple the speaker box to the baffle face.

Added an extra layer of 18mm thick wood to brace the back of the baffle faces and add extra mass to reduce sound transmission. These fit around the soffit frame.

Large foam gaskets coming from the baffle faces to surround the speakers. There are gaskets along the bottom of the speakers too, but it was easier to fix them to the speaker box.

Another gasket to bring the speaker perimeter of the baffle a bit closer to the speaker.

Cheers!
Jennifer

[gullfo]

berry beery nice! i really like how the overall room is brighter (visually) and your mix listening position must be pretty sweet at this point.

yeah stiffness and mass and damping of the baffle plate is critical to avoid resonances. having a seal is also important to avoid helmholtz action.

good thing you have those weight lifter weights handy

[Starlight]

Your constant attention to improving your studio is evident. Long may you reap the benefits of such dedication and hard work. Well done, Jennifer!

[endorka]

Thank you both

Yes, since these changes there is absolutely no doubt that you're in a recording studio now as opposed to a studio in a home. The visual change is quite dramatic!

Source of the posthaving a seal is also important to avoid helmholtz action.

That's an excellent point that hadn't occurred to me, thank you.

good thing you have those weight lifter weights handy

You're not kidding! Without regular workouts on these I'd struggle to lift many of the materials required for the build. They also help with playing a heavy bass guitar and lifting music gear.

Cheers!
Jennifer

[RJHollins]

Just blown away by the design, execution, and details you have put into this build. Fantastic !

Combined with Gullfo's guidance, it is a true learning experience for us all !

May everyone have a Happy, Musical New Years

[endorka]

Thank you RJHollins, much appreciated. Yes it certainly has been a learning experience and a very positive one!

Up until this point, the live room has been a bit of a cinderella room, inheriting the cast off treatment from the main room once it's been rendered obsolete by ongoing improvements. Useful and sounded good but a bit cluttered. But no more - I've cleared it out with a focus on acoustic treatment dedicated to its purpose.

First of these are some slatted absorbers on a wall. These are 4' (120cm) high and are there to reflect and bolster treble frequencies beneficial for e.g. recording acoustic guitars, hand percussion. Singers usually stand when singing so their vocals won't be affected so much by those as their heads are above the top of the slats.

I sized the slats and gaps based on the following video with John Brandt. Slat width is 53mm, so 343/0.053 gives a response of 6472Hz. Sound is reflected specularly at and above this frequency. There is a diminishing effect below this that has the effect at -10dB at half that frequency i.e. 3236Hz. Gaps are 23mm. Lower frequencies pass through the gaps to the absorber.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUG3tnwTW8E&t=651s

I built the slats separately so they could be retrofitted on top of 100mm thick absorbers built over ten years ago!

Attached to the wall with a french cleat. I've left a ~15mm gap between the bottom of them and floor to conceal cables etc. Old absorbers still in use around the slatted units; when I have some time I'll make some triangle shaped ones to fit that space properly.

I made one of the slatted units shorter to allow easy access to this mains socket.

Cheers!
Jennifer

[gullfo]

very nice! and multivariable as well! let me know if you want to get adventurous with other patterns like QRD, primitive root, Sayer or Newell patterns. i have made a plugin which allows me to generate different ones and sizes etc very quickly...

[endorka]

Thank you Glenn, much appreciated. Cheers! Jennifer

[RJHollins]

I enjoy viewing the continued progress . You do very fine work, and it looks very nice !

[endorka]

I've made several changes to the live room that have improved the acoustics and freed up a lot of space.

In the past I relied on movable baffles with varying absorbing and reflecting properties to tailor the room to different recording situations. These worked well but took up a lot of space whether in use or not. After years of recording and using certain combinations of these baffles far more frequently than others, I realised I could redesign the room with a permanent setup that works well for those combinations and frees up a lot of space.

New features since the previous update:

- 200mm deep absorbers (light fluffy type insulation) on another wall, with space couplers in front of them to usefully scatter some high mid frequencies back into the room. These are fixed into IKEA wardrobe units that were already fitted when we moved in to the house

- Improved ceiling absorption with 100mm thick Rockwool RW5 panels inherited from the old version of the control room.

- Improved perimeter absorption.

- The multicore cable to the stagebox now runs through the ceiling instead of running along the floor. A vast improvement!

Initial woodwind test recordings reveal the acoustics to be tightly controlled while retaining a balanced amount of high end. I'll have some percussion and vocal recording sessions soon, it will be interesting to hear the difference it makes to those.

Cheers!
Jennifer

[gullfo]

very very nice! clean look and seems like a good balance with the scattering and refletive devices vs plain old absorption.