Brand new and totally lost - can anyone please help?

[EpicEsquire]

I am setting up a home recording setup in my spare bedroom and I have no experience with acoustic treatment. I have attached a rough diagram of the room (the sliding glass doors are covered by sliding plantation shutters)

The desk is up against the 9'2"" wall
Speakers are equidistant from the side walls and 5" from the back

I use an Apogee Element 24 audio interface and a Blue Spark XLR condenser microphone

I read that with modern day audio interfaces, there is no need to calibrate the audio interface so I moved to Measuring

I placed the microphone in the listening position and REW flashed that my levels were good

I am attaching the .mdat and a screenshot of the "waterfall"

However, I have no idea what I am looking at or what this translates into

Perhaps I need to find a professional to come measure the room?

I appreciate any advice you can provide - thank you

 

[John Mulcahy]

The 57 Hz and 130 Hz peaks are quite pronounced, it would be good to try and improve that. If you have some flexibility in the positions of your speakers or seat you can try moving things around to see if it helps, a good way to do that is to play the Pink PN test signal and look at the RTA with the settings below, so you can watch how the response changes as the mic and/or speakers move. You could also try some parametric EQ to bring down those peaks.

 

[EpicEsquire]

The 57 Hz and 130 Hz peaks are quite pronounced, it would be good to try and improve that. If you have some flexibility in the positions of your speakers or seat you can try moving things around to see if it helps, a good way to do that is to play the Pink PN test signal and look at the RTA with the settings below, so you can watch how the response changes as the mic and/or speakers move. You could also try some parametric EQ to bring down those peaks.

View attachment 29313

I realize the use of the Blue Spark XLR probably affected the readings

What do you think of using ARC 2.5 to "tune my monitors" rather than using acoustic treatment?

 

[John Mulcahy]

You can have a go, but a couple of parametric filters will likely have much the same effect in the range you measured.

 

[Tonto]

Like John said, position the speakers for their best response first. That 70 Hz dip is your room response. I would then treat 1st reflection points, then parametric EQ.

 

[EpicEsquire]

Thank you for your responses - today, I moved my speakers so they are both 12" from the front wall and they now form an equilateral triangle with a spot just past my ears.

Here is where I am at now:

The space between my desk and the wall is not large enough for a 24” bass trap (the max diagonal space is 21.5”) — are there bass traps that can accommodate this? Also, two more questions:

1-do the bass traps go from floor to ceiling? and
2-I have crown moulding (4” vertical and 1” from the baseboards) and baseboards (4” vertical and 1” depth from the wall) - as such, can the bass traps be installed in between the baseboards and crown moulding or will I need to cut the baseboard and crown moulding so the bass traps can be installed flush against the floor and ceiling? (attaching photos).

I know any advice you can give will not be "scientifically specific" to my room but, as I have no treatment right now, I have actually thought about getting some high end IEMs for tracking and mixing and doing away with attempting to treat this room but, I am not a quitter and thought I would persevere and see what I could do to try and treat it.

Thank you again.

 

[Timebandit2]

Hi there, yes, there are 12" x 48" bass traps available from GIK acoustics that come in a variety of configurations, I use them myself, they give really good results when combined with their 244 traps at reflection points, they are quite affordable and easy to hang. I would start with the front and rear corners front wall and a reflection free zone (sides and ceiling) around the mix position.

If you send them a plan of your room and the REW files they'll advise you of the best options and you can start with a few and just add until it's finished. If you keep an eye out on their ebay site, you can find some great prices on exhibition/trade show surplus items.

 

[EpicEsquire]

Hi there, yes, there are 12" x 48" bass traps available from GIK acoustics that come in a variety of configurations, I use them myself, they give really good results when combined with their 244 traps at reflection points, they are quite affordable and easy to hang. I would start with the front and rear corners front wall and a reflection free zone (sides and ceiling) around the mix position.

If you send them a plan of your room and the REW files they'll advise you of the best options and you can start with a few and just add until it's finished. If you keep an eye out on their ebay site, you can find some great prices on exhibition/trade show surplus items.

I just ordered this today:

 

[Timebandit2]

That's a great start, very attractive finished you've chosen as well, you'll find the membrane fitted traps really help tighten up and seperate the bass.

The problems with smaller home studio rooms are they are not usually long enough for bass waveforms to fully develop so they become a rumble that washes over everything, there are a few ways to counter that limitation, probably, the easiest is to downsize speakers, my room is 14' long and was really problematic the low end.

I had 8" Event 20/20 monitors which sounded terrible! I swapped out for a pair of 6 inch Presonus Sceptre 6 coaxial and the difference has been amazing, it's such a joy to hear bass notes actually playing rather than rumbling and a sparkle and clarity in the upper ranges ! I sti!l have an issue with 138Hz which will be rectified by a coup!e of deeper traps flat on the rear wall.

I'm curious at to what's on the other side of the glass doors and If you could utilize that space into your room.

 

[EpicEsquire]

That's a great start, very attractive finished you've chosen as well, you'll find the membrane fitted traps really help tighten up and seperate the bass.

The problems with smaller home studio rooms are they are not usually long enough for bass waveforms to fully develop so they become a rumble that washes over everything, there are a few ways to counter that limitation, probably, the easiest is to downsize speakers, my room is 14' long and was really problematic the low end.

I had 8" Event 20/20 monitors which sounded terrible! I swapped out for a pair of 6 inch Presonus Sceptre 6 coaxial and the difference has been amazing, it's such a joy to hear bass notes actually playing rather than rumbling and a sparkle and clarity in the upper ranges ! I sti!l have an issue with 138Hz which will be rectified by a coup!e of deeper traps flat on the rear wall.

I'm curious at to what's on the other side of the glass doors and If you could utilize that space into your room.

I am using Rokit5 monitors but thinking of switching over to Yamaha HS5

As for what is beyond the sliding glass doors - it is a patio outside - unusable space as far as the studio goes

 

[Timebandit2]

What better way of stopping the bass nodes from developing, take the back wall out by opening the doors, weather, nieghbours and environmental sounds allowing :-)

 

[Timebandit2]

Of course you could try some light weight diffusers on the wall, they tend to have the same effect of opening up a space wooden ones are the best but there are some others available made from different materials, not sure what they sound like though...

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[EpicEsquire]

What better way of stopping the bass nodes from developing, take the back wall out by opening the doors, weather, nieghbours and environmental sounds allowing :-)

It's a side wall though

Of course you could try some light weight diffusers on the wall, they tend to have the same effect of opening up a space wooden ones are the best but there are some others available made from different materials, not sure what they sound like though...

2D Sky Skraper Sound Acoustic Diffuser Diffusor Panel Absorption Treatment | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 2D Sky Skraper Sound Acoustic Diffuser Diffusor Panel Absorption Treatment at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

Where would you place that in the room?

 

[Timebandit2]

I thought the glass doors were behind your mix position so they'd be light enough to attach them without having to screw or nail things in. Have you tried moving you desk into that position to see how your monitors sound? The room looks fairly square so it wouldn't make a lot of difference but it may just surprise you as glass, although highly reflective to mids and highs is far more porous than brick walls.

With a solid wall, you really have to have trapping because the wall will just stop the sound waves in its tracks and bounce them back creating a ream of room nodes, diffusers scatter the sound and can help break up some room nodes so it's a valid thing to look into, you could use some double sided tape to attach them to the surface such as glass doors behind you. Could work well as you have scatter plates in the items you've ordered.

There are some lightweight hollow diffusers on eBay of varying shapes that you can stuff with rock wool so you can get the benefits of diffusion and absorption in a really light weighted solution. Of course, it goes without saying that we'll never hear the music properly in small rooms (as some bass notes need up to 48 feet or more to develop. We need to aim for a design that is consistent and reliable in how it plays back to stop us over emphasise bass and others frequencies that will just sound awful anywhere else!

That's why I asked if you Have you sent your room plans to GIK for advice? It's a free service and they're really helpful.Theres a multitude of videos on you tube that have videos of people using all sorts of methods in home studios, well worth a look, very informative and in some cases very entertaining!

 

[EpicEsquire]

Yes I spoke with James at GIK and he was super helpful

The sliding doors are covered with full length plantation shutters so the entirety of the glass is covered

 

[Timebandit2]

That's good, they are really great on advice. Maybe you might find some free standing panels to go each side of your mix position useful, they could then be moved about for isolating vocals/acoustic instruments when using headphones, for ceiling cloud I used some standard accounting foam which I attached with Velcro, does the job quite well.

 

[EpicEsquire]

That's good, they are really great on advice. Maybe you might find some free standing panels to go each side of your mix position useful, they could then be moved about for isolating vocals/acoustic instruments when using headphones, for ceiling cloud I used some standard accounting foam which I attached with Velcro, does the job quite well.

Luckily, the first reflection point on the wall where the sliding doors are is on the wall and not the sliders