Beginner Help: Studio in Middle of the House

[DForm]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the board looking for some help. I posted this on the John Sayers board also but I want as much info as I can get.

I’m trying to build a small studio in the one empty room of our house. I need two sections in this studio, the first being where I create and mix the music. The music is all computer based (hip hop) or from samples, so I basically need a good environment to listen to the music so I can mix it properly. The second section of the studio is a place to record vocals. I currently just record in the middle of the room and they sound pretty bad with lots of annoying reverb, I’d like them to record dryer. I’m looking to start making changes to the room in the next few months, we own the property so we can do what we like but it we are also limited by the fact that people walk through this section of the house to get to back room. This room also functions as a hangout when we are making music.

I’m not worried about keeping sound in the room because we usually keep it at reasonable levels that won’t disturb the neighbors.

Current Room: The dimensions are listed in the photo. The ceiling is 8ft tall, there is currently carpet on the floor. There is one window that cannot be removed but can possibly be covered by something from the inside (don’t ask why there is a window in the middle of the house). The door next to the window is hollow, the rest of the doors are solid wood. This house was built in 1948 so there is a crawl space underneath the floor and a small attic with no insulation above the ceiling. The walls and ceiling are all drywall.

Studio Equipment:
Computer System (No external Mixer) with flat screen
Keyboard
Turntable and mixer
Microphone
Two Studio Monitors
Seating: Small Sofa

Questions:
What is the best layout for the room?
Where should the mixing station be and where should the vocals be recorded?
What is a good use for the closet (I always thought vocals)?
What kind of treatments need to be applied to the walls?
Where do I place the monitors?
Is carpet better than wood flooring? (The wife is placing wood in the rest of the house)

I’m basically starting from scratch, I’ve been making music for a long time but I’ve been doing it in apartments on tiny speakers and headphones for the longest time. Now that I own a house I get to do what I like.

 

[Hart]

Have you looked at John Sayer's plans? You'd have to play with it some because of your doors (and that closet) but I'd say that's a darn good place to start from.

 

[gummblefish]

Questions:
What is the best layout for the room?
Where should the mixing station be and where should the vocals be recorded?
What is a good use for the closet (I always thought vocals)?
What kind of treatments need to be applied to the walls?
Where do I place the monitors?
Is carpet better than wood flooring? (The wife is placing wood in the rest of the house)

Hi, i sure there are many thoughts on this, i'll tell you mine.

I would put the mixing console in the middle of the wall..the one without a door on it, To each side put the monitor speakers at earlevel and angled in a triangle with you being the tip. I wouldnt record vocals in the middle of the room, generally its not a good idea to record in the middle of a small room because of standing waves. Depends on your room though so see what suits you. I would personally use the closet for recording "dry" vocals. I could only speculate as to what materials to use, theres better guys on here for that..im sure they will be along in a bit if they havent replied already. In the room itself i would make some bass traps and absorbers and i would probably go with a wood floor.

 

[Hart]

I too would probably go with a wood floor. I disagree on the console placement though. I'd put it out from one of the short walls. You want the speakers to run the length of the room.


I'm no expert, I just read a lot so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Bill Furnett]

I would mix the lenght of the room (sound towards the hall) and use the closet as a vocal booth or do a Hart booth in the corner, but you'll likely want that corner as the hang out area.

 

[Hart]

Yeah, what Bill said with the desk.

For your purposes I would not put my type of booth in your room though. It really screws up the balance of the room and that's something I'm struggling with for my mixing area now, but for me as a voiceover type the booth was more important so it took precedence.

Here, a picture is worth a thousand words right? It's not to scale, but you get the idea.

 

[DForm]

Thanks

Thanks for the help, you are pretty quick.

Quick questions (they might be stupid): What is the difference between putting the desk against the wall an putting it away from the wall? Or is the desk away from the wall because of the door swing?

My wife is happy to hear wood floors but why is wood better than carpet? Does it have to do with absorption?

I saw something on Sayers sight where he built corner traps and put the monitors in there, would this work in this room?

Last one: If the desk is away from the wall does putting storage (lower than desk height, I have some records to store) behind the desk have a negative effect?

Thanks

 

[Hart]

My wife is happy to hear wood floors but why is wood better than carpet? Does it have to do with absorption?

Somebody more knowledgeble will have to answer the others. Carpet tends to absorb high and some mid frequencies but not lows and that screws with your room obviously. From what I've read, and think I understand, it would be better to have a reflective floor (like wood) and treat the walls and ceiling for absorbtion.

Plus, it's more versatile. You can put rugs down and move them around to where you like them.

I have another question. You've got rooms on either side of this one. Are you worried at all about disturbing family members in those rooms? It sounds like you're not concerned now, but what about down the road?



The temptation is strong to start building right away, I know. Been there done that, had to tear some of it down. But I'd suggest you read all you can here, and at John Sayer's site. Ask questions, figure out some rough ideas for plans.. ask more questions, get critiques.

Also, you need to be thinking about what kind of budget you are working with. That will help the guys who know what they are talking about answer your questions.

 

[DForm]

I'm not really worried about the loudness outside of the room because I only work on music when nobody is around. Since the music is pretty much computer based besides vocals there is not a lot of noise coming from that department. I usually monitor at regular listening levels with occasional louder shots to see how it sounds.

There is so much information on the two boards that I don't know where to start. Is there a group of threads or some recommended reading regarding this stuff?

 

[Hart]

Yeah every sticky on John's site, lol. It's a lot to deal with I know. I'm also taking several people's reccomendation and buying Rod Gervais's book soon.

 

[Bill Furnett]

Good call on eliminating the corner booth Hart.

It might be possible to do a sliding door or even reverse the door so it opens into the closet to gain a bit of floor space and then maybe do sofit mounted speakers in the corners on each side of the closet, but at this point it's best to let an expert chime in as it might be an altogether bad idea to go with the closet booth in favor of simple gobos around the mic.

 

[Hart]

For some reason, I can't stop thinking about this even though I have work I need to be doing.

What's the best use of the closet? Storage. Not to be a smart alec about it, but it's only 2 feet wide. By the time you add acoustical treatments it gets very tiny in there. I don't think you'll get a very good sound out of it either. I think you would do better to plan on recording the vocals in your main room.

Your room is not that big so I don't think I would worry about a vocal booth anyway. Create a good multi use space and maybe build some gobos later for added versatility.

My gut feeling says the thing to do (since you aren't worried about isolation which still concerns me some) is to decide on your layout then build some DIY treatments in your room, with 703/mineral wool/or what have you, and play with it some. You'll need several bass traps. As many have said many places, don't just think about the wall corners either. You can put them on the corners of the wall and ceiling too. I have a link at home to some I'm thinking about building but I don't recall where that link is at the moment. I'll post it tonight.

In my room, I've found a little correctly placed treatment can go a LONG way.

This won't cost much, isn't permanent, and is a great learning process.

 

[DForm]

If there are simple things I can do to increase isolation I'll go for it.

The closet is probably too tight for vocals so I think your idea of going for a solid multi purpose room is the best.

On the bass traps. They go in all four corners but is this from floor to ceiling? Also are you recommending bass traps across the entire width of where the wall and ceiling meet or spaced out in chunks?

I'm definintely going to read up some more before I start anything but I'm trying to get an idea.

Is there a specific angle that the monitors need to be pointed at in order to be most effective?

 

[Hart]

If there are simple things I can do to increase isolation I'll go for it.

Well, it takes mass. If it was me, I would think about it. But, having re-read your original post I see it would be a bit of an undertaking to deal with the floor and the ceiling. And there's no point in beefing up the walls if you can't do those as well. Isolation is only as strong as the weakest link. Hopefully one of the resident experts will chime in with ideas on this one.

On the bass traps. They go in all four corners but is this from floor to ceiling? Also are you recommending bass traps across the entire width of where the wall and ceiling meet or spaced out in chunks?

That's a great question. It depends. The corners are where I would start. Then add more as needed. As you research more you'll come across stuff about room size and modes and stuff. I'm not qualified to give a fantasic answer here unfortunately.

I'm definintely going to read up some more before I start anything but I'm trying to get an idea.

More of us should.

Is there a specific angle that the monitors need to be pointed at in order to be most effective?

Yeah, there is. And this is where the search funtion can be your friend. There are lots of posts I've seen here and at John's site detailing this. I've read it, then promptly forgot it so I'm loathe to go from memory. Do a little digging on monitor placement and you'll get it.


ADDED:

Here's that link to one DIY'er bass trap I mentioned earlier. I'm thinking I'll do this but without all the holes in the sides: http://www.hp-h.com/p/hapicmpur/basstraps.htm

We keep talking about bass traps, but remember that's just one part of the equation you need to treat your room.

have a great night.

 

[DForm]

OK,

I talked to my wife about this and it looks like my desk is going to have to be close to the wall where the closet is. She's an ex interior designer which has it's pros and cons but doesn't always bode well for the home studio.

The desk can block entry to the closet because I will make one side able to fold down and the closet is only going to be for storage. The desk is only going to have an LCD monitor and 49 key keyboard on top. The mouse and typing keyboard are going to be in a slide out drawer which will actually push my head about 50 inches from the wall. Looking on the web I found the rull of 38% which for me will be impossible but 38% from the wall is about 58 inches so I'm not too far off.

Another questions my wife made me think of: Would making the closet door out of plexiglass be too reflective if it is behind the speakers?

Here is a sample of the room updated a little bit. The yellow are absorbers, the long blue thing against the wall is seating that doubles with storage for my records and also holds my turntable and mixer on the left end. I would put a moveable bass trap in the corner by the door when the room is in use unless there is a better solution.

 

[Hart]

Cool. I see you've been studying.

Read up on first reflection points. I see you've got treatment on the right side of the room but not the left. That's going to cause some issues. You might consider building a "plug" and putting it in the window so you can even out the balance.

For a movable bass trap. Hmm. I seem to recall a few discussions about building gobos on casters that would work for this I think.

You could consider putting your desk on casters too so you could move it a bit to make getting in and out of the closet easier. Careful placement of your cabling should make this pretty easy.

I hope some others chime in soon because you've now just about reached the limit of my knowledge and I don't want to be one of the people who gives out bad information, no matter how well meaning it is.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Innovations]

For the first reflection point next to the window if you don't want to lose the window try adding some heavy drapes that you can close while listening and recording.

 

[DForm]

That window is killing me. Both me and my wife hate it for different reasons. We would just remove it if we could but code won't allow us to.

The drapes sound like a good idea or we might just place a sheet of plywood in it and make it flush with the wall on both sides. Then I can put the absorber on top of it. If we put drapes on one side and an absorber on the other would that have a negative effect?

Putting the desk on casters is a good idea too.

How important is it to put traps in the wall-ceiling corners and are these small boxes like 1' x 1.5' or do they have to be around 2' x 4'?

 

[Bill Furnett]

Hey DForm, if you haven't checked out Ethan's killer site yet here's a link.

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

From what i understand (And i could be wrong) there are two common ways to treat the corners:

1. Straddling- Placing the 2x4 framed panel of 4" 703 on an angle so the two walls and the back of the trap form a triangle.

2. The Super Chunk method- Superchunks is actually a product name for triangular shaped wedges of foam that fit into the corners, but I mean taking 2 x 4 panels of 4" 703 (Unframed of course) and cutting them in half diagonally, then stackng these triangles on top of each other and covering it in fabric. This wedge fits into the corner of course.

I want to say that the 2nd method might be overkill for your needs, but I'll leave that to someone with the know how to recommend either way.

Since the 703 is a bit pricey you'll really want someone here with the experience (Maybe the esteemed Ethan himself should he pop in) to suggest an optimal configueration of 2" and 4" panels as well as the very best layout that takes into consideration the room's dimensions and dual purpose of tracking and mixing.

 

[DForm]

Anymore comments on this?

I've read a lot of the literature at the winer site and I've been looking over a lot of other posts.