Studio Setup, Take 2

[BeniRose]

So after the only feedback I got from everyone was to "clean my room", I did so! I cleaned up my basement and even slaved hours over making a nice little video tour of my space. I figure this would give you a better idea of what I'm working with than some pictures. Hopefully someone will reply with some advice.

So far I've gotten two different suggestions for where to place my desk, so I'd like to get a more affirmative answer. Also, it's been decided that all non-studio related items will be going under the stairs and I might section off that whole area for DJ and other non-studio musical gear, so I think it will mostly be a question of which wall to put my desk on, where to put it, and what treatment I should start doing to the room (keeping in mind it's a rental).

Here's the video tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16yExItshK4

And here's a quick mock up of the floor plan, the boxes are my washer and dryer, and the circle and rectangle are heating and water units (you'll see them all in the video), none of which can move.



Thanks in advance for all the advice guys, I really appreciate all the feedback I've gotten so far from you guys.

[BeniRose]

[solaris1982]

3 Cheers for STRYPER!!!!

yes, I recognize that riff at the beginning. It was the sound of my childhood

I'm new to the recording world, but I've heard that listening position in a corner is bad.

I noticed you've got the M-audio Bx5's...how are they? I was thinking of getting a pair (or maybe the bx8's)

[Nightfire]

I'll reply in the morning (its 1 am and I should be going to bed) but I just wanted to give you hand out some mayor kudos for the Stryper riff at the beginning


Mike

[Nightfire]

Allright, first off you want to be shooting the soundwaves in the long direction of the room, and you want to get ouf the corner.
Your basement is all concrete so you'll have a lot of boominess going on with reflections.
The red parts on the sketch are the bass traps. You should put them in the corners, and also on your first reflection points (to find the first reflection points have someone walk along the wall with a mirror until you can see the monitors in the mirror, or, until you cant see them anymore depeding where you are walking from).
The red part in front of the mixing desk is also meant to be a cloud. Since you have reflective floors you'll want to dampen the refelctions. Ceiling clouds are a good way to do this. Anywhere between 4 and 6 inches should be fine I think. Just like a bass trap, but hanging from the ceiling. Some people go with a very minimalistic frame for the clouds in the event should they ever drop, you dont want a big 2x4 frame landing on your skull.
Theres plenty of threads in this forum on how to build your own bass traps and ceiling clouds so you'll be fine.
Lay down pieces of carpet if you can, it'll probably help with HF absorbtion a little bit.


Mike

[BeniRose]

Originally Posted by solaris1982

3 Cheers for STRYPER!!!!

yes, I recognize that riff at the beginning. It was the sound of my childhood

I'm new to the recording world, but I've heard that listening position in a corner is bad.

I noticed you've got the M-audio Bx5's...how are they? I was thinking of getting a pair (or maybe the bx8's)

I was hoping someone would appreciate that

Yeah, I've learned that being in a corner was bad since I moved in, but haven't really been inspired to rearrange the room until now.

The Bx5as are really great, at least I love them, as far as cheap nearfield monitors go. Sometimes I wish I got the KRKs just cause they look a lot cooler, but I think mine sound a bit better than they do. I'd highly recommend them for monitors at that price level, but someone who knows a bit more than me and has had in depth experience with the KRKs (I've only played back some tracks on the Rokit 8 inchers for about a half hour) might be able to tell you otherwise.

[BeniRose]

Originally Posted by Nightfire

Allright, first off you want to be shooting the soundwaves in the long direction of the room, and you want to get ouf the corner.
Your basement is all concrete so you'll have a lot of boominess going on with reflections.
The red parts on the sketch are the bass traps. You should put them in the corners, and also on your first reflection points (to find the first reflection points have someone walk along the wall with a mirror until you can see the monitors in the mirror, or, until you cant see them anymore depeding where you are walking from).
The red part in front of the mixing desk is also meant to be a cloud. Since you have reflective floors you'll want to dampen the refelctions. Ceiling clouds are a good way to do this. Anywhere between 4 and 6 inches should be fine I think. Just like a bass trap, but hanging from the ceiling. Some people go with a very minimalistic frame for the clouds in the event should they ever drop, you dont want a big 2x4 frame landing on your skull.
Theres plenty of threads in this forum on how to build your own bass traps and ceiling clouds so you'll be fine.
Lay down pieces of carpet if you can, it'll probably help with HF absorbtion a little bit.


Mike

Thanks for the advice Mike. I really appreciate you explaining everything. Unfortunately I've now gotten 3 different answers, so (of course no offense to you) I'm going to wait for any and all second opinions before moving anything. I have carpet on most of the floor, but I need to get more. It's 100% covered where my computer is though, and it's nice thick stuff. For the bass traps, you mean I should sit at my desk and have someone move a mirror around on the wall until I can see the monitors, right? Also, I'd have to have my desk a little more to the right because there's a water pipe that runs diagonal in that corner. The backs of my monitors wouldn't face directly into the corners, so should I put some foam or something on the wall behind it? One thing about that wall is that it's poorly plastered, so it's not a flat reflection surface

Again, I really appreciate you going into detail about the traps and the cloud, so I'll look into those for sure. Looking forward to hearing more from you guys!

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by BeniRose

I've now gotten 3 different answers, so (of course no offense to you) I'm going to wait for any and all second opinions before moving anything.

Here's a second opinion - I agree with Mike's placement advice. But you'll need a lot more bass trapping than shown. Consider that merely a start.

--Ethan

[BeniRose]

Oh, also, not sure if you saw in the video or the original pics, there's lots of duct work above that section where you say the desk should go, so I'd have to put the desk a good 3 feet off the wall in order to hang a cloud, and there's also a big pipe running right down the center of that wall, but that could still be a possibility. I think I'm going to start going through all my stuff and moving non studio stuff under the stairs. Is under the stairs going to be an acoustic problem?

[Nightfire]

Being a little bit away from the wall wont hurt at all. You'll probably even benefit from having your monitors away from the wall a little bit, as long as you put enough absorbtion panels in front of your desk.

I dont see any acoustical disadvantage to stuffing up the space underneath the staris.


Mike

[BeniRose]

Originally Posted by Nightfire

Being a little bit away from the wall wont hurt at all. You'll probably even benefit from having your monitors away from the wall a little bit, as long as you put enough absorbtion panels in front of your desk.

I dont see any acoustical disadvantage to stuffing up the space underneath the staris.


Mike

Cool. I'll start cleaning things up some more and then decide if that's where I want to put it. I was hoping to move to the other side of the room, just to open things up more and get a change of scenery, but I'm most interested in having the best sound.