the room is about 400 sq feet with 6 ft 8 inch ceilings. tiled floors with a big rug in the center. i have a bar in one side with carpeted sides and a futon against another wall.
is it possible to get good tracking with low basement ceilings? what type of acoustic treatment would help?
for small rooms with low cielings...absorption is your best friend..lots of it.
Please don't take Rick's advice. (sorry Rick)
With all due respect....Bullshit
. The room he wants to STAY in is 400 sf. That means, by guessing the dimensions, it is at LEAST 20'x20' to give you an idea of its size. Even though still a small room, it is large by Homestudio standards. The problem is Comb filtering via the 6' 8" cieling. And there is only ONE way to prevent it...ABSORPTION
And since the ceiling is already low, my thinking is to remove the drywall over a small area where he places a mic, LINE the joist cavitys with 2 layers of drywall up against the existing subfloor above and then either fill the entire cavity with batt insulation, or a layer of 4" OC703 and cover with fabric. This will keep the cieling from being lowered even more, and adding the mass will keep or even improve what existing Transmission Loss he had in the first place. This is all ASSUMING he doesn't have a DROPPED grid cieling. Should a dropped cieling be the case, then no need to remove drywall from a ceiling above it, unless there is NONE
Simply line the airgap as described above.
I hadn't even mentioned broadband/LF absorption yet because of lack of info on his mixing geometry and room dimensions, monitor axis etc. However, I'm STILL going to suggest that LOTS of bass trapping such as floor to ceiling SUPERCHUNKS of 703 in the corners, and patchwork broadband absorption placed according to his geometry, both on walls and over the mixing station as well as sidewall first reflection points. You MUST know as well as I do, this is STANDARD HOMESTUDIO TREATMENT PRACTICE. I don't understand what you are implying here, but your full of shit. My recommendation is ONLY by way of limited info on his room. You negated it without even offering an alternative. You negated ABSORBPTION but didn't even offer a solution to his problem which since in your view absorption is WRONG..then that only leaves....ahem...diffusion...which you didn't even offer an insight on how to achieve a "diffuse sound field" in his space. BTW, in reality, you kinda put words in my mouth by this....
Without the important spatial cues that we normally hear, (such as is heard in a living room or bedroom) we suffer from what is know in acoustic circles as ear fatigue (which is caused by dead listening rooms or anechoic chamber).
NOWHERE, did I suggest making his space totally DEAD. I only implied that the only way to negate Comb filtering from the cieling is to use absorption THERE. As to "spacial clues", remember, this is a small room where diffusion is limited by the room dimensions. Yea, spacial clues are important, but eliminating comb filtering/modal response is more important in my view. And small rooms are NOTORIOUS for these problems. And usually, the ONLY way to deal with them is ABSORPTION...
http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?t=535
http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2116
http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=48
http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47
BTW, for even smaller rooms, trying to achieve "spacial clues" without mud is absurd.