Home studio room build questions

[brownbeartle]

hey everyone,
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, i always seem to do that.

Anyway, after renovating my house there is a room with no purpose that i want to use for my home studio needs. The dimensions are 22' long, by 9'10" wide, but only about 7' tall. (before we took out the walls to replace the insulation and the purgo wood floors, the reverb sounded amazing! i'm so mad that i didn't take an ir). I'm planning on building diy acoustic panels all are 4' L x 2' wide (two behind my speakers, two to the side, two on the side walls by the mix position, two 6'Lx4'w in the center of the room, two by the far end of the room, and finally a diffusor made out of pegboard filled with insulation at the rear wall). Also, the floor will be carpeted.

Of course this seems like a lot, but its needed to kill this huge reverb time.

Really my only question is will the low ceilings affect the sound? i'm sure i'll have to insulate above the drum set and the mix position but i'd like opinions...

thanks!

 

[aortizjr]

That is a long room!

I would probably keep the floor reflective like concrete or hardwood. Then treat the ceiling. Definitely above the drums and over your mix position.

Bass trap the corners as well.

If you are doing diffusion in the back, I assume that is where the drums will be. I just wonder how well pegboard with insulation will work out. It will probably act more like a bass trap. Maybe taking 1/4" ply and curving it instead. Or just do a QRD if you really want to get fancy.

Also instead of doing one big 6x4 piece for the middle, just do more 2x4 pieces and space them out a little bit so that middle section isn't so dead.

 

[Joematthews]

Agree with aortizjr, I would much rather a hardwood floor with some absorption on the roof.

Make all your panels 2x4 and hang them wherever they are needed. If you have the money (which I believe you do) I would build "superchunk" bass traps in all 4 corners.

For the rear diffuser try bending thin pegboard to create a radius and fill the area behind with rigid fiberglass, creating a diffuser and bass trap in one.

What is going in the room? Standard desk and monitors or a full band set up with drums?

 

[MG-Chris]

I wish I had a 22' long unused room in my tiny ass house, haha.

Good luck man!

 

[brownbeartle]

haha my home is kind of goofy, this room used to be a one car garage but the old owners changed it, added on, and turned it into a second kitchen (just a stove and a toilet for some reason.)

But really i'm limited on funds, it took me forever to save up enough money though this build is actually extremely cheap.

For the rear diffuser try bending thin pegboard to create a radius and fill the area behind with rigid fiberglass, creating a diffuser and bass trap in one.

I found the idea for that on a recording blog and i was willing to try it out. It seems pretty legitimate being dual purpose.

Finally, this room will be used for tracking and also mixing. So i decided that making these cheap diy diffusors that can be removed to add some room tone. Would you guys recommend keeping some of the old hardwood floors on the other half of the room for live instruments and carpeting the mix position? or just leaving it all bare and mainly look towards the ceiling?

 

[aortizjr]

Hardwood floor is cool. I would go no carpet at all.

Some say hardwood sounds the best but talking to acoustic guys there are usually way too many other variables. Many new studios are just doing stained or painted concrete. It all comes down to the reflectiveness. Even linoleum does really well and these days you can get some nice looking stuff.

Focus on the ceiling for you absorption.

 

[Colin Davis]

Short rectangles are stable rooms and easiest to make sound good. If you have 7 ft ceilings and 10 foot width, you probably want about 15 ft length. Makes it a lot smaller room doing that though. You have 22 so I'd say shorten that room and use the other space for something. Or, fill one end with stuff, couches, etc and of course bass trap all corners or make a huge diaphragm bass trap at one end of the room. You can plug in your dimensions into an online acoustic calculator and look at the F. Alton Everest books for general building and sound treatment technology.

Colin