Room treatment

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Member Since: Apr 14, 2013

in my everlasting journey to better mixes, I know realize that I need to get some traps and wall treatment going. My room is pretty small 11x 13 and I share it with my wife and all of her art stuff(it's a lot!) and with my gear- it's pretty tight.
What is the minimum I should start with? I have 8 Rock wool slabs on order and will begin assembly of some panels when they arrive.

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Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Sep 30, 2014 07:50 am

Such advise is pretty impossible to give without knowing the room...it would be a good start though, to break up the bounce in the corners and along any long, flat, parallel walls.

Byte-Mixer
Member
Since: Dec 04, 2007


Sep 30, 2014 03:41 pm

Pretty much what Dan said. A diagram would help a lot so we'd know where the closet/doors/windows are located. Also, how high is the ceiling?

A good starting point would be bass traps in the corners. As was recommended to me, if you are placing panels across the wall, the thicker the better, and they should probably be at least 3 ft. wide. 2 ft. doesn't really cut it.

If you have to go with 2 ft. (or smaller) you could build soffit columns to fit in the corners. Cut panels into squares, and stack them up floor to ceiling. That's what I'm currently in the process of doing for my room, and it's not much different. it's 9.5 x 13.4 ft. with a 7 ft. 9" ceiling.

Treating to control the bass of the room will help with a huge chunk of the problems in your typical small home studio room. Then you will want to find the primary reflection points. Sit at your listening position, and have your wife walk a mirror along all the walls, and the ceiling if possible. Mark every spot you see a speaker from your listening position. That's a primary reflection point, and a spot where you'll want to hang a broadband panel. Might want do look for those spots on the ceiling as well, and possibly hang a panel as a cloud.

Every room is different, but that should be a good starting point. If you have bookshelves in the room, that can act as basic diffusion to help break up reflections.

Member
Since: Sep 30, 2008


Oct 04, 2014 12:48 am

Deleted By NBrunk

Member
Since: Apr 14, 2013


Oct 19, 2014 09:36 pm

update-- I built 6 panels. 2 super fat bass traps(2 sheets of rock wool ) and 4 (1 sheet) panels. Put the fat ones in the corners, 2 at the side reflection points, 1 behind the mix station and last on in the corner on the front wall. I fired up a mix I was working on and found that it was all low end and vocals(higher end)- zero mids. The guitars were not punching through- and I love guitars!! I really think this is going to help my mixes big time.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 20, 2014 08:52 am

Thanks for following up, that's great, I hope it works for you. If done right, it can have major impact on how you hear your music.

Using an app like HarBal www.har-bal.com/ can show you your frequency level throughout the spectrum without considering the room acoustics. I've found that pretty darn useful from time to time as well.

Good luck!

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