Any ideas on treating my living room/"control room"?

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I'm getting really tired of having a horrible mixing and listening environment. I've got decent enough gear for doing basic stuff at home (decent for me, at least), but the room sounds really awful and I've placed my desk and thus my monitors like a dick. Here's how it currently looks like:

http://www.syliin.com/jarkko/livingroom2.jpg

Three of the walls are concrete with wallpaper, and the wall with the two doors is a wood framed one. The ceiling is painted concrete and the floor seems like concrete under the plastic mat.

Now, the first problem is naturally the positioning. I'm putting the desk on the middle of one of the shorter walls as soon as I find a smaller desk, but which one would be better? Concrete or the wall with the large window? In terms of handiness, the windowed wall would be better, but what about the sound? The second problem lies within the god-awful acoustics. The room has a nasty reverb (even though I've tried to get rid of it by having two sofas, many matts and stuff), and the low end sounds boomy. The most problematic frequencies are between 200 and 300 Hz. I was thinking of building simple DIY acoustic elements, but what do you guys think? And when speaking of acoustic elements, how should I place them? I have very little money to spend, so unfortunately cost is an issue here :/

Any help or ideas are much appreciated!

 

[smy1]

All you will need to know can be found here:

http://www.realtraps.com/articles.htm

or here:

http://www.gikacoustics.com/

Lots of free knowledge.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

All you will need to know can be found here:

http://www.ethanwiner.com/

or here:

http://www.gikacoustics.com/

Lots of free knowledge.

Thanks, I'll dig right in!

 

[grywolf627]

That realtraps article is really good. I learned a lot about room treatment from that and the forum where Ethan posts a lot (recording.org). I was able to build my own bass traps and broadband absorbtion panels using rigid fiberglass/rockwool. I'll have to dig up a picture.

 

[Soundlurker]

Definitely place your stuff away from the corners and more symmetricaly. Unfortunately your room is pretty small. Nevertheless you'll get better stereo imaging.
Once you've done that, go buy some rockwool and something to wrap it in and make some panels. At least two - one on each side. You'll know where to place them if you stand in your usual position when monitoring and have someone place a mirror on the wall to your left/right and move it back and forth. If you can see your monitors in the mirror then sound is reflected and a panel should be placed there. Another good thing to do is make some rockwool corner panels.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Definitely place your stuff away from the corners and more symmetricaly. Unfortunately your room is pretty small. Nevertheless you'll get better stereo imaging.
Once you've done that, go buy some rockwool and something to wrap it in and make some panels. At least two - one on each side. You'll know where to place them if you stand in your usual position when monitoring and have someone place a mirror on the wall to your left/right and move it back and forth. If you can see your monitors in the mirror then sound is reflected and a panel should be placed there. Another good thing to do is make some rockwool corner panels.

Thanks, that's what I was thinking to do. The worst thing about this room is the fact that it's got two doors near the corners of the other long wall, which makes placing my desk a bit problematic. That's why I'm trying to find a more compact one to replace this hideous 180x80cm bastard

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Haha, putting bass traps IN the corners makes them waaaay more effective. You should look into either acoustic cotton, or Roxul AFBs (acoustic fire batts). Both of these cost a lot less than owens corning, are more environmentally friendly, and to some degree more effective. I would move my workstation to the wall opposite the window (for symmetry reasons), put some small "superchunks" into the corners (you can shape them like a "3-4-5 triangle" to save space because of the door). Then mount some broadband absorbers (just cover batts with cloth) at the "first reflection point", and build a huge "cloud" over your head spaced out from the ceiling to act as a big bass soak too.

 

[nwright]

^ Kevin, where do you find the acoustic cotton or Roxul AFB?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Haha, putting bass traps IN the corners makes them waaaay more effective.

I'm aware of that, it's just that if I'd put the desk on the windowed wall, I couldn't use any corner traps 'cause the window reaches almost all the way to the edges of the wall :/ I'll probably just ignore the fact that I actually need enough room to walk through the doors and put the desk on the opposite wall anyway, since it seems like the best option soundwise

I'm not sure if I can find any Roxul over here, but local manufacturers have decent enough rockwools to make the absorbers and bass traps. Thanks for the input, it's starting to clear out in my head already!

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Check out a post of mine that covers making movable superchunks too:

http://phpbb3.kitchel.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4592

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Look for acoustic cotton too!

 

[Soundlurker]

+1 on the cloud thing.

I have one, it's 1X1.80mX10cm and it definitely makes a difference.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

You know it's funny recording mag just had an article about this, this month. I just got it in the mail today very informative.

 

[dreamcatcher]

I'm so redoing my room starting this week...

 

[grywolf627]

Another good/useful read: http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/a1.htm He used to have pictures in the article showing construction of the tube traps. I have them on my computer at home and can post it if anyone is interested. The tube traps seem to work very well at taming low frequency problems, and they look kinda cool. But they're a real pain to make. But since they're free standing, they can be moved anywhere in the room to catch those standing waves. Can upload pictures of mine too if I think about it when I get home.

 

[everybody's x]

Another good/useful read: http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/a1.htm He used to have pictures in the article showing construction of the tube traps. I have them on my computer at home and can post it if anyone is interested. The tube traps seem to work very well at taming low frequency problems, and they look kinda cool. But they're a real pain to make. But since they're free standing, they can be moved anywhere in the room to catch those standing waves. Can upload pictures of mine too if I think about it when I get home.

I'd like to see them if you don't mind.

 

[grywolf627]

Sure thing, but it'll be later this evening before I can post them. I'm at work right now... "working" very hard. I'll try to get them posted as soon as I get home.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Thanks a lot for the links and advice, much appreciated!

Now I'm pretty sure about the layout of the room, and the only problem is finding a nice desk. Seems friggin' impossible to find a simple desk that's a bit smaller than this one and with a price tag under 500 euros

 

[grywolf627]

Ok...sorry for the delay. As promised I've uploaded files to my ftp folder. Sorry...I don't know how to make a direct link to the files. In the folder called Room Treatments, you'll find a zip with Jon Risch's Tube Traps, complete with pictures. There's also a zip with construction of my own tube traps, panel absorbers (ignore the photo model...sorry Bob! LOL), and my "metropolis" ceiling treatment. It breaks the rules of acoustic treatment. It's partly reflective, partly absorptive...so it's part absorption, part diffusor. It really did the trick for the listening position sweet spot. But it also looked really cool and got lots of comments.

 

[dreamcatcher]

Wow, I only stacked rock wool halfway up the corner and it made an appreciable difference. Alas, I have to order more rock wool