Sound treatment help - Mixing in a narrow room.

[guitarguru777]

So I just recently hooked up with a guy in town who is in the middle of building himself a studio. Unfortunately he has already built the walls and to be honest he had NO CLUE what he was doing.

He had a 20x20 space and built the live room 15x20 leaving a 5x20 space for the control room. Now its not possible to move walls or rebuild so I am stuck with using a room this size to mix in.

I am thinking of placing the mixing desk the furthest from the back wall as possible about 4ft off the front wall. Now this I would think is going to cause an issue with early reflections from the sides and in mix position its only 2.5ft from the side walls.

Unfortunately this is my only way to work at the moment as my management company at my apartment has decided I can no longer have LOUD AMPS in the apartment.

What would your suggestions be for trying to make this work as best as possible.

 

[nosgulstic]

If you're not comfortable with the room you can always mix with headphones you're familiar with.

 

[Wisheraser]

You would probably be much better off just using the 15x20 room for everything. Maybe throw your computer in the 5x20 room to keep the noise floor of the main room as low as possible.

 

[gabriel g.]

whats that in meters?

 

[Soundlurker]

You would probably be much better off just using the 15x20 room for everything. Maybe throw your computer in the 5x20 room to keep the noise floor of the main room as low as possible.

+1

 

[Mattayus]

It's always advised to point your monitors down the longest axis of the room, and place your seat 11% into the room. That's... probably not the right figure I can't remember it exactly but it's something like 11% of the longest axis' length, that's where you should plant your ass! Then just find your first reflection points and dampen them with panels. Since the shortest axis is only 5ft I'd suggest bass traps in the corners nearest your desk, cos that shit's gonna build up fast in such a narrow space!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

So, the guy built a control corridor, huh? I agree with the above, just use the bigger room for everything. A 5x20 room will probably make mixing hell.

It's always advised to point your monitors down the longest axis of the room, and place your seat 11% into the room. That's... probably not the right figure I can't remember it exactly but it's something like 11% of the longest axis' length, that's where you should plant your ass! Then just find your first reflection points and dampen them with panels. Since the shortest axis is only 5ft I'd suggest bass traps in the corners nearest your desk, cos that shit's gonna build up fast in such a narrow space!

Nope, it's 38%, and it's just a general rule of thumb. The only way to find proper speaker and listening positioning in a room is to try out different positioning and measure.

 

[Wisheraser]

Yeah that's the one. The point of it is that it's an odd fraction of the length of the room. Positions like this will have fewer serious modal peaks and nulls. A few of these general positions, for example, are 42.85%, 37.5%, and 28.57%. If you went with a one room approach, 28.57% would be a better place to start than 37.5% as, of coarse, it moves you farther away from the musician and gives you more liberty with room mic placement.

 

[egan.]

Why would anyone build a 5x20 room for anything. That is literally the dimensions of the hallway in my apartment. At any rate, I'd probably use the 5x20 as an iso booth and deaden the hell out of it. Maybe split that and use the back of it as a machine room as others have suggested.

 

[Mattayus]

So, the guy built a control corridor, huh? I agree with the above, just use the bigger room for everything. A 5x20 room will probably make mixing hell.



Nope, it's 38%, and it's just a general rule of thumb. The only way to find proper speaker and listening positioning in a room is to try out different positioning and measure.

Where the fuck did I get 11 from?
Perhaps it's because my room is 11ft and I got my memory scrambled. In any event, I tried!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Why would anyone build a 5x20 room for anything. That is literally the dimensions of the hallway in my apartment. At any rate, I'd probably use the 5x20 as an iso booth and deaden the hell out of it. Maybe split that and use the back of it as a machine room as others have suggested.

If I would wake up one morning without my pants, hung over as fuck, wearing an XXL thong on my head with the remains of family-sized Stroh bottle next to me and realized I had built a 5x20 room the night before, I would probably use it to make an enormous DIY plate reverb. Not kidding, I've been toying with the idea plenty.

 

[ahjteam]

whats that in meters?

20 ft = 6 m
15 ft = 4.5 m
5 ft = 1.5 m

But to be honest, what I would do:

Split the small "room" to two booths, one for singer, one for amp/computer room/storage, and use the big room for everything else

 

[guitarguru777]

Got some video of the place .....

Let me know what you think:


This was the day we agreed to start making upgrades and make it better.