Room acoustics and treatment: Does it matter what's behind my monitors?

Emdprodukt

Emdprodukt

Member of Dude Castle 69
Jun 26, 2007
2,520
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Kiel, Germany
I'm creating a second workstation in my bedroom to be able to work from home (my studio is pretty far away, I have no car and my mixing room is really small).

First, a little sketch so you know what I'm talking about:

room.png


There is no way to put anything anywhere else so we have to work with what we got (this is my girlfriends bedroom too ;))

As you can see there are windows right behind my monitors but there are wooden blinds in front of them.

(picture: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2932654/IMAG0052.jpg)

1. So I want the best !possible! treatment for that room. Our wardrobe has a flat surface and is standing in a corner. So I can't put corner traps up there. Do you think it makes sense to put a trap on top of wardrobe in the corner?

2. Are the windows (with the blinds) behind my monitors going to be a HUGE problem?

3. upper left corner is not really a corner. What should I do?

4. I cant put basstraps from the ground up to the ceiling. Is it best to put them on height with my monitors? I was thinking of getting those for the ceiling-corners (if that makes sense), worth the money?: http://www.thomann.de/de/the_takustik_cbt_37.htm

5. What's the best to put behind me? Lasse once told me you can use books as diffusors. Max got some really cool and cheap diffusors. Or should I stay with traps?

6. I was thinking about getting a sub. Do you think it will work in my room?

That's it for now. You may like to use my numbers to answer my questions :D I'm sorry I don't know enough about acoustics... it's something I'm eager to learn.
 
Well first off all what kind of monitors are you using? And why can't you move the configuration of the furniture around a little. There is definitely better ways to rearrange everything to be both comfortable and more ideal for your workstation. The first thing i noticed was your desk isn't even centered. I would also try to make the speakers shoot down the length of the room but those windows will cause issues if you don't want to cover them up.


1. Yes, Basically in a small room you just can't have enough corner bass traps.

2. You normally want to avoid doing this, especially if your speakers are rear ported.

3. Same rule applies, it's still pretty much a corner that needs to be completely covered. If 1 trap don't fit or isn't enough you can always straddle 2 traps side by side and still get some good results. Anything is always better than nothing.

4. You would really want to cover from floor to ceiling. The reason is you want to get rid of corners and the biggest corner there is, and the most problematic one, is the tri-corner. Some manufacturers like RealTraps and Primeacoustics make triangle shaped traps that are made for tri-corners. This might be a decent alternative if you can't do floor to ceiling.

Also, avoid foam, it's just not worth it. For the same amount of money you'll spend you can get much better results with acoustic panels like ones from GIK Acoustics, ATS Acoustics, Real Traps, Ready Acoustics. GIK and ATS are probably the most affordable and i would personally go with GIK if you can afford one of their packages. If your handy with tools you can even make them yourself, save tons and get the same performance.

5. Focus on absorption and get your room fixed before you even start thinking about diffusion.

6. Don't get a sub, it'll cause you more problems than anything in a less than ideal setup.
 
C-Martin said:
Well first off all what kind of monitors are you using? And why can't you move the configuration of the furniture around a little. There is definitely better ways to rearrange everything to be both comfortable and more ideal for your workstation. The first thing i noticed was your desk isn't even centered. I would also try to make the speakers shoot down the length of the room but those windows will cause issues if you don't want to cover them up.


1. Yes, Basically in a small room you just can't have enough corner bass traps.

2. You normally want to avoid doing this, especially if your speakers are rear ported.

3. Same rule applies, it's still pretty much a corner that needs to be completely covered. If 1 trap don't fit or isn't enough you can always straddle 2 traps side by side and still get some good results. Anything is always better than nothing.

4. You would really want to cover from floor to ceiling. The reason is you want to get rid of corners and the biggest corner there is, and the most problematic one, is the tri-corner. Some manufacturers like RealTraps and Primeacoustics make triangle shaped traps that are made for tri-corners. This might be a decent alternative if you can't do floor to ceiling.

Also, avoid foam, it's just not worth it. For the same amount of money you'll spend you can get much better results with acoustic panels like ones from GIK Acoustics, ATS Acoustics, Real Traps, Ready Acoustics. GIK and ATS are probably the most affordable and i would personally go with GIK if you can afford one of their packages. If your handy with tools you can even make them yourself, save tons and get the same performance.

5. Focus on absorption and get your room fixed before you even start thinking about diffusion.

6. Don't get a sub, it'll cause you more problems than anything in a less than ideal setup.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your answers!

I can't move stuff around because that would mean I have to put the wardrobe in front of my windows and heating. I don't want to cover my windows because that's one of the reasons I'm lucky to work at home: sunlight. Andy has a very big window in front of him, Eddy has/had one to his right side. If you have an idea how rearange, let me know :)

The sketch isn't perfect but my desk is pretty much in the middle of the room - my monitors (adam a7) aren't shooting down the length of the room though.

I allready built basstraps and will put as many as I can into the room.
 
I hate to say this but you're in a really bad spot with that room and all the extra complicating factors such as bedroom furniture, girlfriend using the room and so on.

Arrange everything so you can put panels at the first reflection points, get as many additional panels as you can fit in the room, ideally in the corners (or better yet make superchunks). That's pretty much all you can do... and you'll still be having a hard time working there.
 
Hey I'm not saying you can't make it work :) Just don't expect it to be easy. You'll also have to check your mixes on various other speakers/room/headphones, but hey I'm doing that even after all the superchunks and panels and whatnot.
 
It just sucks so god damn much that there is no room for a studio in my hometown (at least nothing that's WAY too expensive for a hobyist) and I just wanna improve and can't because my rooms suck so god damn much. You should see my "control room" in my "studio". it's a broom closet! Please excuse my frustration.

I can't pull the monitors back from the wall (30% rule or something), I can't get rid of the wardrobe. My girlfriend sleeps in this rooms, besides that I can do what I want.
 
I've watched the whole thing and now I know: It all depends. Great :D There is no rule of thumb, cornertraps arent always usefull, it's not always good to position your monitors along the long walls, it can be good to have them at a wall or not... well... WHAT SHOULD I DO :D
 
I was really wondering if it's such a problem my monitors are near to a wall now. They have a closed back. Reflections from the wall behind me should be a bigger problem or am I getting something wrong?
 
Emdprodukt said:
I was really wondering if it's such a problem my monitors are near to a wall now. They have a closed back. Reflections from the wall behind me should be a bigger problem or am I getting something wrong?
Click to expand...

heres what you should try out:

play sine waves from 30hz (depending on your speakers) to 300hz and make notes which frequencies apear louder or quieter (you will need a radioshack loudness meter / 100€ lautstärke messgerät) . id try to set the sine waves averaging around 75 db. (i'd work in semitone steps)
after that you know exactly which frequencies are problematic.
lets say you have a + 15 db @ 120 hz (thats what i had before i treated my room) - now only use one speaker - play 120 hz sine wave - move the speaker and look at your measuring device - the frequency should become louder / quieter in certain spots. youll find the optimal place (of course you wont get anywhere near a flat response) but youll find the best place for your speakers. moving them 50 cms away from the walls actually made a huge difference here. so try it out, get to know your room.

its never a good idea to get too close to any untretead walls ;-)
 
Moin!

First give your gilrfriend a big kiss because of her tolerance or better marry her :)

In the rearrangement the left monitor points directly towards the tv. This could cause some unwanted reflexions in the whole frequency range.

So if your making music, you should try to turn the TV for 90 degrees counterclockwise
 
Before doing anything else: Check out pics of Ermz place, then show them to your girlfriend. If she isn't comfortable living amid a sea of panels and corner traps, then you're doomed from the start :lol:
 
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