Problematic room - Should I bother with acoustics?

[flextone]

So you're suggesting that the back wall is more important than behind the speakers?

 

[pandamonk]

There's the back of the room and back corners, yes...MORE important though? I'm not sure. He's got two BIG problems to start off with: he's right up against the front wall and he's much closer to the right wall than the left. Though, like every small room, modal information will dominate the sonic landscape for the most part, the two problems above will probably cause bigger perceptible acoustic issues right off the bat.

Frank

I have suggested he move to the centre of one wall. I don't think adding absorption behind the speakers is as imperative as bass traps and FRP absorption. What does Ethan think? http://www.realtraps.com/art_front-wall.htm

If he can possibly space a few feet from the wall, it would definitely help though. Also if he can afford to treat behind the monitors, he should.

 

[pandamonk]

So you're suggesting that the back wall is more important than behind the speakers?

I am, but Weasel9992 isn't and has his own acoustics company...

 

[pandamonk]

The professional room treatments were a little too expensive for me, and the science of treating a room just goes over my head, so I improvised and made some moving blanket baffles. They are very easy to make and easy to assemble and disassemble so you can put them away when you are done recording or have visitors over, won't mark the walls and you can take them with you when you move.

In addition to the baffles, I had tall bookshelves covering one full wall. I pulled random books "out of alignment" to make the surface uneven, the way they do with those expensive wooden sound diffusers. I also tacked old pillows into the upper corners of the room and stacked the family sleeping bags in one corner.

It's not high tech, nor pretty, and I didn't get every area, but it helped reduce the sound reflections a lot and made my recordings sound much better.

Maybe if you spent some time educating yourself on room acoustics it wouldn't go over your head and you'd gain far better results.

 

[Weasel9992]

I have suggested he move to the centre of one wall.

If he can possibly space a few feet from the wall, it would definitely help though. Also if he can afford to treat behind the monitors, he should.

Ah...yes, you're absolutely, 100% right. If he can move to the center of the wall and get some space between the speakers and the front wall, that would be great. I should have qualified my answer by saying that I was assuming that he couldn't move anywhere because it was a living space.

Frank

 

[pandamonk]

Ah...yes, you're absolutely, 100% right. If he can move to the center of the wall and get some space between the speakers and the front wall, that would be great. I should have qualified my answer by saying that I was assuming that he couldn't move anywhere because it was a living space.

Frank

Yeah. I have suggested he centre his TV along the wall and place the speakers to each side. This means he could listen to the TV over the studio monitors (unless the CRT causes problems) and cause less living problems.

 

[pandamonk]

...not completely dead listening area.

I don't think anyone is suggesting this. You could probably pin a fabric wrapped 703 panel to the ceiling causing basically no damage.

 

[flextone]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I'll start by covering up the front and right side walls and see how it goes.