Should my room be empty?

jcb08j

New member
Hello everyone, I'm brand new to the forum. I stumbled across while doing some research for putting together a space I will be using to mix my new project. The room is rectangular and I've found enough resources to figure out how to acoustically treat the room as well as where my desk/monitors should be placed.

Here's my question:
The room right now has some things in it such as a couple PA speakers, an electronic drumset and an electric guitar. I'm wondering if it will have a negative effect on my sound quality to keep these items in the room or if the room should be empty save for my desk and equipment. If it's alright to have them in the room, I'm assuming I should put them in front of my desk (behind the direction of my mixing monitors) as opposed to behind me where they might affect and disrupt the sound waves. It's not ideal for the room to be empty, but it is certainly doable, and if it will have a noticeable effect I'd rather have the room empty. If it won't though, I'd like to avoid the trouble.

While I've been mixing for a short while now, I'm admittedly new to actually trying to set up a space made for mixing and getting the purest sound possible out of my monitors (JBL LSR series if you're wondering) for this purpose. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
My view is that the more stuff you have in the room the better. Disrupting soundwaves is a good way of getting the room not to sound like a room, and more like a neutral space.
 
I agree with GZ. The more stuff, the better.

The caveat being, it's not very scientific and so it becomes unquantifiable. I work my day job in the same little office where I record, so I have computers, bookshelves, storage cabinets, printers, guitars, keyboards, a microscope and whatever other crap lying around. It all helps to absorb and/or reflect in a non-predictable manner so it doesn't sound like an empty room. On top of the 'mess', I still have bass traps and first reflection absorbers.

I think all the stuff in the room will add a benefit.
 
I remember a while back I visited an Audio IT professional and his office had a really nice neutral/dampened sound to it, which he attributed to all the book shelves and sheets covering things.

I think it's important to keep the first reflection points unobscured, such that your broadband absorption panels can do their job properly. Beyond that, unless it's a purpose built room, I don't think extra stuff hanging about is of much concern - and in some cases, like bookshelfs on the rear wall etc, it can even improve the acoustics. Just make sure there is no rattling caused by the lower frequencies.
 
Yep . . . you can get unwanted rattling as things resonate with low frequencies. And maybe strings on undampened guitars might resonate.

Given that my wife is a socialite, there have been times where she is at our next door neighbours' house and she has reported rattling within THEIR house from me playing bass (guitar) back at home haha If I go too loud, I get rattling from INSIDE our walls.

Something that should be definitely treated/avoided when recording with microphones!
 
Given that my wife is a socialite, there have been times where she is at our next door neighbours' house and she has reported rattling within THEIR house from me playing bass (guitar) back at home haha If I go too loud, I get rattling from INSIDE our walls.

Something that should be definitely treated/avoided when recording with microphones!

My wife attributes the fact that none of the pictures on the walls stay straight for long to too much bass.
 
I occasionally have some rattling issues with my track lighting...not so much from bass guitar, since I always record that DI, but from a couple of my amps/cabs when getting into some low-end, chunky playing...with the volume up high.

It's usually not something that the mic will even pick up, as it's right up against the cabinet getting the full force from the speaker, but still, when I hear that bit of rattle in the studio, it catches my ear and I have to try and dampen it.
It's just the UV glass filter that sits inside the light housing. It's held in by a clip, so it's not super tight.
I ended up taking some real small heat-shrink tubing, sliding it over the clips and shrinking it down tight, and that makes the clip sit snug against the filter.

Ahhh...the small oddities found in a home studio. :D
 
I occasionally have some rattling issues with my track lighting...not so much from bass guitar, since I always record that DI, but from a couple of my amps/cabs when getting into some low-end, chunky playing...with the volume up high.

It's usually not something that the mic will even pick up, as it's right up against the cabinet getting the full force from the speaker, but still, when I hear that bit of rattle in the studio, it catches my ear and I have to try and dampen it.
It's just the UV glass filter that sits inside the light housing. It's held in by a clip, so it's not super tight.
I ended up taking some real small heat-shrink tubing, sliding it over the clips and shrinking it down tight, and that makes the clip sit snug against the filter.

Ahhh...the small oddities found in a home studio. :D

I have the same problem. What do you do to dampen the track lighting? I've been afraid to poke around too much in there, not sure where I'd put dampening material. I'm not even really sure which part is doing the rattling.
 
Thanks for all the replies! That's good news, and great suggestions. After reading all this I might try to stuff a few more cushiony, non-rattley things in the room to deaden the sound a little more.
 
I have the same problem. What do you do to dampen the track lighting? I've been afraid to poke around too much in there, not sure where I'd put dampening material. I'm not even really sure which part is doing the rattling.

It's a witch hunt.

If you can have someone else cause the rattling...and then you just try and find it. Move/touch things until it stops, and then you know where the rattle is...and then you can consider how to stop it.

Like I said...for me it was the glass UV filters covering the inner halogen bulbs.
If the entire housing is vibrating, you might be able to wedge some kind of material in-between the housing and the track...?

Not always easy to find or fix....
 
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