Room acoustics and the studio desk/carpet

[tommyvine]

hi,

i'm in the process of setting up a recording studio and have come to the tricky issue of acoustics...

From what I've read, it's best to set up absorption pads at several mirror points behind the monitors, on the left and right walls of monitors, on the ceiling, on the rear wall.....no one seems to mention what to do about the floor??? is it better to have a wooden floor with no absorption or to put an absorption pad down at the 'mirror' point below the monitor speakers?

Additionally, is no studio desk better than a studio desk....was thinking of just getting Roland SS-PC1 Laptop Support Stand to minimise early reflections thus avoiding the need for studio desk...

any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Btyre2013]

work on the first reflection points but also make sure you have a few bass traps in there too, having a ceiling trap is also important especially if you have a reflective wooden floor

 

[ashcat_lt]

"Nobody" talks about the floor and the desk because there's very little realistically to be done in most home studio environments, but of course it makes a difference.

A carpet is nominally better than a hard floor. A nice thick broadband absorber would be even better, but not usually an option for ergonomic reasons. The same is true of the desk and mixing board. I think it's obvious why it would be difficult to get any absobtion on there. The best we can hope for is to angle the desk a bit so that those first reflections don't bounce into our ears.

Or remove the desk altogether. Your idea of a small stand is good as long as it's really all you need. I have a TV tray that just barely fits my keyboard, mouse, and NanoKontrol. Most of the time I have another for pizzas and beers and other crap, but I move it away from me when doing real critical listening. I can definitely hear the difference, though, if I move one or the other of those around in that space between me and the monitors.

 

[Robert Tielke]

I placed lite Story foam on to the ceilling to achieve dissusion of the higher freqeuncies and send them to the rear.

 

[witzendoz]

A carpet is nominally better than a hard floor.

I have hard floors in both the recording room and the control room. However I have got ceiling clouds. I prefer the sound of rooms with a hard floor, they sound good when recording acoustic instruments, drums and vocals, and they are also practical in keeping the place clean and moving gear around. If the floor is a bit too live, a rug can help.

I think a carpet over the whole floor tends to kill all the high end and does nothing for the low and low mid, so the room sounds dead and lifeless.

Alan.

 

[ashcat_lt]

I thought we were talking about the mix position. In that case, the first reflection off the floor or any hard surface between the speakers and the ears can really do nothing but cause phase cancellation and weirdness in your monitoring.

 

[witzendoz]

I thought we were talking about the mix position. In that case, the first reflection off the floor or any hard surface between the speakers and the ears can really do nothing but cause phase cancellation and weirdness in your monitoring.

Most control rooms around the world have a hard floor? Carpet gives a false acoustic.

Alan.

 

[sheggs]

Most control rooms around the world have a hard floor? Carpet gives a false acoustic.

Alan.

Both a hard floor and carpet can work. The actual problem isn't the floor or desk exactly it is just another example of first reflection points. Because a lot of people have large desks then the first reflection point often hits it creating additional problems at some frequencies. In most cases a hard floor and clouds is going to work out just fine

 

[witzendoz]

Both a hard floor and carpet can work. The actual problem isn't the floor or desk exactly it is just another example of first reflection points. Because a lot of people have large desks then the first reflection point often hits it creating additional problems at some frequencies. In most cases a hard floor and clouds is going to work out just fine

I did forget to mention one studio I had that did have carpet we put down a thick plastic protection sheet, a heavy duty office chair sheet, the width of the control room so that the wheels of the chair and the rack wheels did not chew up the carpet. So I suppose that this had a hard surface floor anyway LOL.

Alan.

 

[Robert Tielke]

A desk is no problem if you place the monitors that way, that mirrowed first reflections do not reach the ear. Absorbers behind the montors do not have much effort because the monitors do not emit such frequencies to the backwad diection which could be treated by common thins absorbers. Side walls are the biggest problem, because of the false reflection of the opposite monitor. Killing these ones is the key.

 

[mjbphotos]

A desk is no problem if you place the monitors that way, that mirrowed first reflections do not reach the ear. Absorbers behind the montors do not have much effort because the monitors do not emit such frequencies to the backwad diection which could be treated by common thins absorbers. Side walls are the biggest problem, because of the false reflection of the opposite monitor. Killing these ones is the key.

Except if you have monitors with rear-firing bass ports ...

 

[homestudioguy]

hi, i'm in the process of setting up a recording studio and have come to the tricky issue of acoustics...From what I've read, it's best to set up absorption pads at several mirror points behind the monitors, on the left and right walls of monitors, on the ceiling, on the rear wall.....no one seems to mention what to do about the floor??? is it better to have a wooden floor with no absorption or to put an absorption pad down at the 'mirror' point below the monitor speakers? Additionally, is no studio desk better than a studio desk....was thinking of just getting Roland SS-PC1 Laptop Support Stand to minimise early reflections thus avoiding the need for studio desk... any help would be much appreciated!

Below is a one year old pic of my Studio and absorbers.
There have been some equipment changes since this was taken but the absorbers and studio layout are the same.
The DIY Absorber units behind my desk are 8" deep with compressed fiberglass and work well with the Rear Ported Monitors.
For fun, I've named them my, "Black Hole" Absorbers
The DIY Absorbers on the right wall mirror what's on the left wall and do a great job in regards to early reflections PLUS, they are mounted on DIY Units that has them sitting about 4 1/2" away from the wall which increases Bass Frequency Absorbtion .
I have some "naked" 4" thick 2'X4' Owens Corning Compressed Fiberglass Panels to create corner absorbers with.
I just need to get them covered with Fabric and mounted.