Accoustic treatment help.

[Rendroc's distortion lab]

Hi, while I've dabbled at recording for years, I'm only starting to take recording seriously by actually researching and learning. However one of the first things I've learned is that I need to accousticly treat my studio space not just for recording but for mixing too. However the problem I have is that the room I use is the house storage room. I don't have a dedicated area and there is no other place, so I have to use it. The room is cluttered with an assortment of shelving, instrument racks, storage boxes, storage bags, etc. There's not a space that's not crammed with stuff or a part of wall that is not covered with instruments or picture frames, etc. I cannot declutter. I use sennheiser headphones HD560s for mixing as well as Genelec monitors. It's there any work around to accousticly treat the space. What if I hung accoustic blankets or put up a semi-circular accoustic foam floor to ceiling wall screen around the mixing area?

 

[Deleted member 196982]

Just some thoughts… Early reflection points are the main thing (for monitoring) in a space you can’t alter much. All the clutter can act as diffusion but you might have some resonances in all the clutter. Moving pads might be easiest and probably more effective than acoustic foam. If the monitors have rear firing ports I’d put some behind them and staple some overhead if there is not already acoustic ceiling tile there.

 

[rob aylestone]

Duvets on a boom stand set high with the boom horizontal, so it's a T shape. Dot this around and adjust for taste, then put 'em away.

 

[ecc83]

What are the dimensions of the room? If, after subtracting the volume of the "junk" it is very small you might be on a hiding to nothing and best to stick with headphones for mixing.
For recording in tiny spaces you just have to absorb the ***t out them and do the best you can.
If however the net volume of the room is decent, say >25 m cube then the random items become an advantage in breaking up reflections.

Dave.

 

[60's guy]

What are the dimensions of the room?

You beat me to asking the same question. The fact that he is unable to "declutter" the room is problematic. An empty room lends itself much better at determining the source of reflections. Square room? Rectangular room? Ceiling height? Every dimension matters. Wall, Floor, and Ceiling construction are also a consideration.

Reading John Sayers is worth the time and effort.

 

[Rendroc's distortion lab]

Thanks everyone for the advice, here's a little more info about my setup and some images. My room is about 3x4m with my desk in the centre of the 4m wall. Here's a picture and speakers are small genelecs see below.

 

[ecc83]

'Kin'nell!

Dave.

 

[rob aylestone]

I like the busy nature of the room. Plenty of diffusion. Do the tweeters in the genelecs point at your ears? They tend to go dull off axis, and with the limited bottom end this might impact on your mix and EQ decisions?
Realistically - I suspect your room is what it appears to be. A useful space, but with compromised acoustics. If you can modify your ears to cope with what it does to the sound, you can make it work. It's just not really a treatable space. No corners spare for traps, no bare walls for HF treatment, real symmetry - so without clearing it all, it's just not going to be balanced and even. Often happens in multi-use spaces. My guess is you cannot remove everything and unclutter because it is all there for a reason.

 

[tmix]

My first thoughts are that the ceiling is probably the fist thing I would try to treat with either Clouds (dropped suspended panels) or fixed panels on the ceiling.
The suspended panels do absorb better in my opinion due to being able to catch direct soundwaves from the source but also reflected waves from the ceiling.

The diffusion and absorption from the items in the room may well be enough to handle a good amount of first reflections.

Here is a picture of my studio. My Son and Wife helped me build and hang these and they work great!

 

[Hmrc]

That window with view, must be preserved,
the rest is fixable as indicated on the previous post by "tmix" .

 

[Papanate]

Your speakers are too high IMO - if you adjust them to lower I think you will hear the room better and know what needs fixing.

 

[ecc83]

Your speakers are too high IMO - if you adjust them to lower I think you will hear the room better and know what needs fixing.

Yes they are a bit. Genelecs have a 'tilt foot' so if they cannot be lowered maybe you could tilt them forward? Were they the usual square boxes I would say invert them to get the tweeters nearer your ears.

Now, chuck, I know you say you cannot de clutter but is it possible to clear the 'crap' BETWEEN the speakers? The random reflections of all that stuff is spoiling the stereo imaging big time.
Clear the space and insert a wodge of Rockwool. Even a layer of pyramid foam would help.

Dave.

 

[GoodTimesRec]

That's a lot of stuff in the room, which is indeed good for diffusion. Maybe if you really want to you can hang some ceiling panels or find a spot for some bass traps. But as others said you should start with putting the monitors and where you sit in the optimal spot. That will go a long way for the speakers and stereo field sounding as good as possible. Find a room node calculator and put yourself and the speakers in the spots where the nodes aren't

 

[ecc83]

"Diffusion" is all very fine and dandy throughout a room (not sure it is ALWAYS needed?) but having 'hard' objects between the speakers causes the destruction of the proper radiation pattern necessary for sharp stereo imaging.

But! Perhaps in the modern, low quality MP3 buds world studio peeps no longer care about creating |(or re creating) a believable stereo "picture"? So long as some ***t is "panned about a bit!? #Here a bit of panned ***t. There a bit of ***t # !!

The key to getting a good stereo image is first good speakers and Genelecs are reckoned to be excellent. Next they need to have very similar acoustic material close to them, i.e. NOT a solid wall one side and a window the other. If you cannot make the sides the same at least put up absorbent material. And, as mentioned, a clear space (or at least a symmetrical one, e.g. computer screen) between them and more absorbent.

The requirements for a good acoustic RECORDING space are somewhat different. You want a large to very large room with well controlled reflections and a 'nice' reverberation quality. No, practically none of us have that or even close so the best you can do is try to keep the nasty little room out of the mics.

Dave.