Room acoustics
Hi guys
I'm currently toying with having a shift around and moving my audio PC to a bigger room. The problem is this room is untreated and I don't really want to treat too heavily as I also use it for teaching. Does anyone live close to Nuneaton that they can offer any help/guidance in the matter? Tea and biscuits up for grabs!
If not, anyone able to help via the wonders of t'interweb?
Cheers
Paul
Before just randomly treating the room - find out what's wrong with it.
Borrow / beg / rent / etc an omnidirectional measurement microphone and download a demo of Fuzzmeasure (mac OSX) or RoomEQ Wizard (PC).
Run a sine sweep of 30 seconds into your room.
Save the graphs and post them here.
:-)
What he said ^ you can get a Behringer 'measurement mic' for relatively cheap which, while not really up to 'pro' standards, will do the job perfectly adequately for a hobbyist. There's also plenty of places where you can download a swept sine wave file; play it at about 85dB or so, record from your normal listening position, frequency-analyse/FFT the result (I imagine most sequencers are capable of this now; you used to have to have special measurement software when I trained, ee by gum when I were a lad, etc, but again I'm sure the software would be downloadable from somewhere).
Posting the dimensions of the room in the meantime will give us a reasonable idea of what problems you're likely to encounter; IMHO however it's never a bad thing for a studio to be:
1/ Symmetrical about the listening position, with the monitor speakers firing down the room's longer dimension,
2/ Containing a fair number of soft furnishings (rugs, thick curtains, and especially sofas, which can act as easy, comfortable and practical bass traps),
3/ NOT having any dimensions of the room which are the same or multiples of each other; a cube-shaped room would make the worst listening environment imaginable.
Oh, edit; forgot to say, I'm in Birmingham, so less than an hour away by public transport should you be central-ish in Nuneaton.
the Behinger mic isn't that bad, the capsule is actually pretty flat. It's the electronics in it that cause it to go squiffy.
The biggest problem normally is the bass, unless your room is very large the bass will hit the corners and come back and either add or diminish the volume of the bass notes you hear. A few home made bass traps can be made very cheaply from Rockwool panels covered in material. You can then place them in the corners when you want to mix and remove them for teaching. For detailed information google Ethan Winters, he's got loads of info on home made bass traps despite running Real Traps
And run the test Noodles mentioned, and don't think you have to go mental on treatment. Some guys do great mix's with no treatment at all.
Cheers for the info guys. I'll grab a mic and get results posted asap.
Thanks again
Paul
Hi guys
Microphone ordered so should hopefully get that done in next few days.
I've took some quick measurements and included some photos of the room.
Width - 8.5ft
Length - 10.5ft
Height - 7ft
It's a converted garage and I also teach in here. Originally, I used the smaller room for mixing. I built some panels and bought some acoustic tiles to treat some of the first reflection points, but that room was fairly straightforward.
Since I bought an electric kit, I'm thinking of moving the kit into the smaller room and bringing my PC out to the larger room. I ideally want it along the Main Wall (see pic) but I know its not ideal. I also use this space for teaching guitar and so need it to be practical.
As soon as I get the mic I'll run some tests.
Cheers again for the help guys, really appreciate it.
Paul
That actually doesn't look all that bad (apart from the standard-issue Ikea standing lampOriginally Posted by Mr_Brightside
); I think you're on the right lines with electric kit into smaller room and then mix in the larger one, as long as there's the physical space for the kit.
Like I say, the 'home studio design 101' is to make your mixing position as symmetrical as possible, and ideally with the monitors firing down the room's longest axis. If you've got some acoustic tiles already then yep, you're definitely on the way with treating first reflection points, um, first...also, I notice that you've got your monitors seemingly just desk-mounted; for my money the first thing I'd spend on would be some proper speaker stands, or at the very least nick a couple of breeze blocks and cut four squash balls in half to mount the monitors on top of, combination of mass and isolation should help avoid resonances in the furniture.
(NB: you can actually get acoustic de-coupling 'mats' from companies like Auralex, I've no direct experience of them though; for the sake of a tenner if you're ordering anything from Thomann anyway their own-brand ones MIGHT be worth a punt http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_takustik_isopad.htm).
Cheers for the reply thebeagle. I should have pointed out that that isnt my mixing PC, its in the other room. I've got some auralex pads underneath my main monitors in that room.
Cheers
Paul
The first reflection points are the the most important for treatment in a room of those proportions.
Place your seat and then place absorbers / diffusers:
Straight ahead
Left
Right
Behind
Up (if possible)
That deals with any problematic reflections coming straight back at you from walls, causing standing waves.
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