10 foot ceilings worth the expense?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tubedude
  • Start date Start date
tubedude

tubedude

New member
I am building a new house that will also house a fairly large live room and a control room. (wiring them together before the drywall goes up)
I have the option of going 8, 9 or 10 foot ceilings. The price increase is there but not anything TOO bad terrible. Plus, it makes the house have a more expensive feel and probably worth a little more too.
ANyway, how much, if any, sonic benefit would I gain by having the ceilings 2 feet higher? Enough to make it worth my while? I will be recording bands as a project studio and I expect a band a week to roll in there. I think my live room is 22 by 24 feet. I'll check on dimensions and post back later.
Also, does anyone have one of those programs that you can feed the dimensions to that will tell you how to treat the room? I want the live room to sound as good as humanly possible and will probably spend money on bass traps and diffusers if necc.
I think the floor will be a fake wood plank looking stuff over concrete, with a large tight woven throw rug for the drums.
Peace!
 
I don't know what your builder is quoting as the incremental cost for increasing ceilings. However, I know this: in terms of increasing volume of a room, height is by far the cheapest way to expand it. THink about it... width or length requires more span against gravity... flooring and roof systems are more expensive than walls. Thus, if you want more volume, height is the cheaper than a bigger footprint. Sure, a bigger footprint buys you more surfaces on which to pile your crap (not a bad thing).

I also think 8 foot ceilings prohibit both a nice sized room and some of the optimum proportions cited in the literature. Go with 10 foot ceilings and options abound.

Of course, it's your money, not mine, so I won't feel the ouch one way or the other.

Good Luck...
 
The bigger your smallest dimension can be the better. That will typically allow for better mode spacing. I ran the dimensions through John's room mode calculator the only common modes will be at around 25hz, 258hz and 283hz.

I dont know how much of a problem the 25hz mode will be, but with a volume of 7280 cu. ft. the 258hz and 283hz modes shouldn't be a problem, but it might not hurt to target it a little. Someone else jump in and correct me if I'm wrong.

Eric
 
td - I built a new house about 6 or 7 years ago.
It's around 2800 s.f.
I opted for 9' ceilings upstairs and 8' downstairs.

I wish to hell, many times over, that I had done the 10' ceilings downstairs. There's no way to change it now.

If you can afford it, DO IT!!!

you'll never look back!
 
10' ceilings in a tracking room are great, if you can't afford 16' or 24'... :=)

for a 24 x 22 x 10 room, I get a volume of 5280 Cu Ft, not 7280 - still, that's enough for good low freq support. As far as mode spacing, with a 9.5 foot ceiling the only modes that are too closely spaced are length/width, which give only 2 hZ spacing between the primary freq's. However, since that freq is around 23-25 hZ, you might not be able to make noises that low and might be able to just ignore it. If not, it would take a pretty steroidal bass trap to control - might be easier to move a wall a little, and maybe use a closet bass trap to help. 24 x 21 x 9.5 is smoother response, no other warts besides the 23 hZ one. If your dimensions are cast in stone, you could still do a lot worse so I wouldn't worry about it too much... Steve
 
Pardon by brain fart, I have no idea how I came out with 7280, I was operating without a calculator when I fugured it. And think, I used to be a Math teacher (maybe that's why I'm not any more).

Eric
 
"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, critique.

Aw, shit, was that a critique??? Damn... Steve :=)

Hey Eric, when ya get as old as me, (I invented dirt, contrary to Al Gore's claim) they aint just brain FARTS, they turn into pure shit...
 
definitely go the extra 2 feet Tubedude. It'll be worth it for sure.

cheers
John
 
Ok, thanks.
I checked and my actual dimensions are 22 by 20 for that room. What would be better, 9 or 10 foot ceilings?
What would have to be done to treat this room to make it as acoustically pleasurable as possible?
It will have Pergo flooring (looks just like hardwood) over concrete, with a large tight woven rug for the drums. Wil I need bass traps, diffusion, absorption anywhere?
Peace!
 
10 foot ceilings would cause a modal problem with the 20 foot width, especially if you're not doing a splayed shell to get rid of parallel walls. 9.3 foot finished height actually works out the best for modal response with a 22 x 20 room. the cubic volume of your room is enough to support pretty good low bass, so you might not need as much bass trapping as a smaller room would.

Other answers: yes, yes, and yes. check out the stuff at SAE. If money's tight (duh) check out all the DIY stuff on traps, absorbers, etc -

here

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

here

http://www.locall.aunz.com/~johnsay/HR/index1.htm

and here

http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html

Good luck... Steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top