Help setting up my control room!

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vegafreak

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So I recently moved and now my control room is smaller and boxier. The dimensions are 10 ft by 10 foot, with a closet and the entering door and the end of the long ways wall. The room has carpet (and I'm getting curtains), I'm using dynaudio bm5's to mix with, and I have a crap load of foam waiting to be hung. I mostly wondering how much/where should I hang my foam, if I really am going to need diffusers....etc. Any help will be appreciated since I have only about 3-4 days to set up my control room.

Oh, I'll mostly be mixing post rock/post rock electronica. Thanks!
 
Massive Master said:
You won't need much (if any) diffusion in a room that small and you certainly won't want any foam...

Broadband trapping and lots of it - You're sitting in the middle of an acoustic nightmare.

You might start here - Very basic, but it covers the points and sends you elsewhere for more: http://www.massivemastering.com/blog/html/blog_files/Basic_Room_Setup.html
Click to expand...

so how much will treating the corners help harsh echo between the walls that are only 10 feet apart? should I line up a healthy amount of fiberglass on the back wall?
 
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I also have means to rigid fiberglass but I don't really know how to apply it in that type of room
 
For a square room, you'll need bass traps.

a bunch of em.

Not sure how much I'd worry about hangin foam at this point.

And check out the threads these guys are pointing you too. It'll save you alot of grief later when you're trying to mix.

If ya can't hear it correctly, ya can't mix it correctly.

Know what I mean?
 
try just googling "diy bass traps"

Bass traps are your friend. :cool:
 
So....can anyone tell me the best places to hang my rigid fiberglass or foam diffusers other than the corners? I'm pretty much going to be lining those carpet to ceiling....Thanks for the advice!
 
You *always* start with the corners. There's really no other reasonable approach. If you want to catch fish, you go where they congregate. Same with absorbing low end reflections - You trap where they congregate.

Other than that, high-side corners in line with the mix position (centers on the short walls, centered on the .38 position on the long wall), the back and front walls if the room is small (EDIT: Read the top again - You could cover the entire front and rear walls without argument from anyone - keep in mind that "covering" means keeping air behind the fiberglass also - Not right up against the wall), Side walls and ceiling at first reflection points (you could also cover the entire ceiling).

You're probably going to wind up with a pretty "dead" room - Which isn't ideal, but there isn't much of a choice in this case (starting with a small square).
 
vegafreak said:
Any help will be appreciated since I have only about 3-4 days to set up my control room.
Click to expand...

Here's my standard reply which will get you 99 percent of the way there. All rooms need:

* Broadband (not tuned) bass traps straddling as many corners as you can manage, including the wall-ceiling corners. More bass traps on the rear wall behind helps even further. You simply cannot have too much bass trapping. Real bass trapping, that is - thin foam and thin fiberglass don't work to a low enough frequency.

* Mid/high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling.

* Some additional amount of mid/high absorption and/or diffusion on any large areas of bare parallel surfaces, such as opposing walls or the ceiling if the floor is reflective. Diffusion on the rear wall behind you is also useful in larger rooms.

For the complete story see my Acoustics FAQ.

There's a lot of additional non-sales technical information on my company's web site - articles, videos, test tones and other downloads, and much more.

--Ethan
 
Massive Master said:
You *always* start with the corners. There's really no other reasonable approach. If you want to catch fish, you go where they congregate. Same with absorbing low end reflections - You trap where they congregate.

Other than that, high-side corners in line with the mix position (centers on the short walls, centered on the .38 position on the long wall), the back and front walls if the room is small (EDIT: Read the top again - You could cover the entire front and rear walls without argument from anyone - keep in mind that "covering" means keeping air behind the fiberglass also - Not right up against the wall), Side walls and ceiling at first reflection points (you could also cover the entire ceiling).

You're probably going to wind up with a pretty "dead" room - Which isn't ideal, but there isn't much of a choice in this case (starting with a small square).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, hopefully it's not to frustrating dealing with newbies like me. should I leave the fiberglass in rectangle sheets and hang them floor to ceiling as is with that air space in between or cut the fiberglass in triangles and line the corners so there is no space betwee?
 
And yeah I've already resigned to the fact that my room will be dead. I'm just trying to do the best I can with the little I have
 
Ethan Winer said:
Here's my standard reply which will get you 99 percent of the way there. All rooms need:

* Broadband (not tuned) bass traps straddling as many corners as you can manage, including the wall-ceiling corners. More bass traps on the rear wall behind helps even further. You simply cannot have too much bass trapping. Real bass trapping, that is - thin foam and thin fiberglass don't work to a low enough frequency.

* Mid/high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling.

* Some additional amount of mid/high absorption and/or diffusion on any large areas of bare parallel surfaces, such as opposing walls or the ceiling if the floor is reflective. Diffusion on the rear wall behind you is also useful in larger rooms.

For the complete story see my Acoustics FAQ.

There's a lot of additional non-sales technical information on my company's web site - articles, videos, test tones and other downloads, and much more.

--Ethan
Click to expand...


Thanks for your help! I read your acoustics article and it was most helpful. You said "real" bass traps, I have 4" 703, is that not going to cut it in my small room or to I ned to go out and buy 705? I know you mentioned 705 would be better in your article but will it make that much of a difference in my small room?
 
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You can go with 4-6" panels straddling the corners, but if you have enough (it takes - what, 3 times as much I would think?) to cut the 2x4 sheets into three triangles and *stack* them in the corners, that's an ideal situation. Then you can build one simple frame, staple cloth over it and place it over the fiberglass.
 
Dogbreath said:
try just googling "diy bass traps"

Bass traps are your friend. :cool:
Click to expand...

most all of the DIY bass traps I looked up our the triangle design that does not leave space between the fiberglass and the wall. Was ethans article saying that the space is better? should I just build it that way?
 
Massive Master said:
You can go with 4-6" panels straddling the corners, but if you have enough (it takes - what, 3 times as much I would think?) to cut the 2x4 sheets into three triangles and *stack* them in the corners, that's an ideal situation. Then you can build one simple frame, staple cloth over it and place it over the fiberglass.
Click to expand...

Do I need the frame or can I just staple cloth?
 
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