Building a new Bedroom Studio - Advice needed before start up

Hello,
I´m going to set up my flat the next time and therefore I like to redisgn my small Bedroom Studio. Its a pretty basic Homerecording Setup for mixing tracks and recording some instruments (Bass Guitar, small Percussion) but mainly for mixing. I know, I cant spend much money on soundproofing elements, but I can DIY some absorbers or putting mattresses on to the walls, yes the poor student version

I think the two rooms I have to choose from are not perfect, but I like to take less bad for my purposes.
I have read and still absorbing  articles about soundproofing, but maybe you can give me some hints to make a nice and small Bedroom Studio.

As already mentioned I can choose one of two rooms. The livingroom, a little larger, where I make music at the moment or the bedroom, which is smaller and has some short reflections,
when I clap my hands.

I dont know, which one is easier to handle with, so my first Question is, which room to decide on?


Another aspect to consider is, that I like rather a setup like this one, than a table with devices on:
A nice and old armchair, smaller Racks and Mixing desk in front...
http://www.realtraps.com/cust_katz.jpg

This is the floor plan of my flat:

 
   
Any advice or experiences are very appreciated.

Thanks!

any chance you can knock down that wall in the middle?

hehe, unfortunately not, its a rented appartment.

These are the plans so far, to make the best out of it. I´m no CAD specialist...

 

On the backwall an absorber beside a shelf for vinyl records, also absorbers in the corners next to the windows and on the ceiling between listening position and the speakers.
On the side, marked in grey are bookshelves for breaking early reflections, hope this works.

 

Without getting too complicated.
What's on the floor?
It's better to have a live floor and a dead ceiling.
Those windows in front are going to resinate and sound will pass right through.
Also sound will  bounce back out of phase.
They should be covered or filled in with 703.
The back wall should be a diffuser. More of a live end, dead end room. (LEDE)
Use  the mirror method to place the front and ceiling adsorbors,
Sit in the mixing position and have somebody place a mirror on the walls and move it around.
If you can see the speakers that's where the early reflections will bounce off of to you.
Place the absorbors to cover those areas.
Your never going completely sound proof the room from inside or out side sound.

How about making the two absorbers behind your speakers a lot bigger so that they cover the windows and reach till the grey bookshelves?
You don't need this space behind your speakers and acoustically it will make a difference this way.
Only downside is that you'll have no light from the windows.
With small rectangular rooms like these you have to be prepared to fill 30% or so with absorption material. It's a pitty your room is only 2,20 meter high otherwise you could have made a lowered ceiling from rockwool covered in cloth or something alike.

While covering the windows with RW3 or 703 may help, I would first implement other absorber/diffuser techniques and see where that takes you. Some daylight is nice in a work environment and you can also install curtains to block out light when you don't want it. Check out some mode-calcs to see where your problem areas might be. Treating corners (wall-wall, wall-ceiling) first will be the most effective in helping you address your low end issues with regard to your budget, schedule, and amount of space. Diffusing ER's away from the listening position, towards-absorbers, and towards the farthest wall/absorber from the listening position will be most effective in the mid and higher range. The diffuse sound will eventually come back to the listening position somewhat attenuated and "delayed". If the delay is outside of the haas-zone (and maximally attenuated), then it will have less comb-filtering and localization affects. About 1 foot / millisecond means you want at least 20-30 feet of travel to accumulate about 20-30 feet of "delay" and be outside the haas zone. Maybe using reflectors to direct the sound towards a certain location in the room where it is then diffused or "sprayed" will help optimize that? Diffusers also affect different frequency ranges and have different dispersion characteristics depending on the particular unit or design. It can get complicated and even potentially make the situation worse. A flat piece of wood as a reflector angled to direct sound somewhere else is pretty cheap to install and test compared to commercial or even DIY diffusers (and if the flat wood works, who cares). Diffusers do also provide a certain asthetic which is cool.

Another helpful thing to do is to plot graphs with some software, or use tones and a mic/meter to notate reference levels at certain locations. There are some use-able free software tools and low cost measurement mics that are worth the cost/effort IMO. That will provide you with a documented record to reference in addition to what you are hearing. Maybe assemble a binder and take photo's, run various graphs, compile your notes and observations as you go so that after you have made several changes to the environment you can best review where you have been, where you are, and where to go next.

You can also optimize (or significantly change) your listening environment by moving the speakers and listening position even as little as a couple inches. Play some tones (under ~300hz or so) and walk around the room while notating the position of the peaks and nulls (where it's louder and quieter at certain frequencies). Move your speakers and repeat to see where the inconsistencies physically move to or how they otherwise change.

Documenting with your ears, graphs, and notes will help you identify much more specific problems which are easier to address (or be aware of if addressing them is not an option) than non-specific problems.

Most of all, I don't think that room-tuning is an exact science and rules don't always apply but following some guidelines will help you get closer to your ideal environment.

Best,
jonathan

My $0.02, and I know many will disagree with me:

I've been working in small mix rooms for 20 years (personal and project studios) as well as some professionally tuned large ones. 
You shouldn't treat a small room like a large room.  The good practices for a large room don't apply to a very small one.

For your room's size, my suggestion is to use massive amounts of absorption on everything.  Diffusion is a loosing battle in a small room, and modal bass buildups can be mixed around (and fixed somewhat in mastering in the worst case).  What can't be compensated for is the smeary effects from bad slappy reverberation and phase cancellations.  A really dead room takes getting used to, but once your used to it, you can really get great mixes out of it.  Tuned bass traps are important, but are secondary to broadband MF/HF absorption in my opinion.

Put up lots of acoustic foam on all the walls.  Once you think you've gone too far and you can't hear your own voice when talking in the room, put up 50% more.  Don't forget the ceiling, especially where the sound is reflected back to you from the monitors.  Use the mirror trick to find this spot.

In the US, you can pick up some really cheep Auralex these days, $59 for 32 sq feet, with a free flash drive:

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Auralex-Studiofoam-Designer-Kit?sku=422602

And here are some snapshots of the work of today, my new racks. DIY Student Version for around 20€ per rack. They are 6U and and very nice reachable from the sitting position.
The mainframe is simple wood from the market, and the enclosure are these 3mm thin panels. Very easy to work with. Then painted with glaze in larch color for a nice appearance.
Took about 2hours to build them from the scratch.

Some devices will be replaced, some new are already on the bench, to fill those up.
But I think I am at the point where its better to optimize the room...







   

have you considered hanging out at John L Sayers' forum?

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

Rochey said:

have you considered hanging out at John L Sayers' forum?

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

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Yes, I have found it and read some intresting articles over there.

For the next days I´m building some speaker stands. As far as I know they are ideally heavy and somehow decoupled from the ground, has anyone plans for those...?
I´m going to keep it simple, just plain wood and some stones on the ground.

What Emperor Tomato Ketchup said. Plus: I think your toughest problem will be that the length of the room is exactly 2x the height (4.4m vs. 2.2m). If you can put something on the back wall to shorten the room by a bit you may get rid of some bad standing wave overlaps. Not real easy, especially in a rented flat, but doable. A big cabinet 0.4m deep, covering the whole wall, with heavy doors on the front...

Peace,
Paul

Check out this site. It will explain and help you figure out room modes.





http://www.audioholics.com/education/acoustics-principles/calculating-room-modes-with-modecalc

Diffusion is a loosing battle in a small room,

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Agreed. After many years of mucking with different treatments and measuring "the 130 - 200hz boom in my room" I am about to stuff another two whole bags (16 pieces) of soundscreen into the corners of my small mixing room (3.6m x 6m with a low 2.5m ceiling).

+1 on John Sayers place too!

Small rooms suck. But if it is all you have to work with, then do everything you can to get to know how your setup works within this space - and adjust to suit it.

P.S. http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/ your interface and a microphone is a great place to start!!!

Mac

joshco said:

anyone plans for those...?
I´m going to keep it simple, just plain wood and some stones on the ground.

Click to expand...

mdf box filled with sand....preferably thick mdf,  like 19mm or so. 

radiance said:

mdf box filled with sand....preferably thick mdf,  like 19mm or so.  

Click to expand...

Thanks sounds good.

Winetree said:

Check out this site. It will explain and help you figure out room modes.


http://www.audioholics.com/education/acoustics-principles/calculating-room-modes-with-modecalc

Click to expand...

Just run it, and it gives me this:

 
   
Think it looks good, since there are not that many peaks. But upper frequencies are not shown, but as mentioned here are not many of these slappy reverberations.

pstamler said:

What Emperor Tomato Ketchup said. Plus: I think your toughest problem will be that the length of the room is exactly 2x the height (4.4m vs. 2.2m). If you can put something on the back wall to shorten the room by a bit you may get rid of some bad standing wave overlaps. Not real easy, especially in a rented flat, but doable. A big cabinet 0.4m deep, covering the whole wall, with heavy doors on the front...

Peace,
Paul

Click to expand...

I hope its not needed to shorten the room, when all the furnitute is placed.
There is by now not much space.
I have read about a cloud as baffle. A simple angeled wood panel above the speaker and listening position which reflects the soundwaves to the diffusor on the back. Maybe a thing to check out for reducing the standing waves.
Thanks for your tip

For stands these are looking intresting, its more easy to adjust the height.
Think I will "clone" them anyhow and put some heavy material on the bottom of these stands.
Some stones from the building lot next to my house 8)