simple question: shelves in corner?

[cstockdale]

Simple question really, I have this spare bookshelf that is designed to fit in a corner. I am just wondering if it would have a bad, good, or neutral effect on room acoustics if I put it in the corner of my studio space?

It would have books and other things on it. It is tall, running all the way from floor to ceiling and is on the opposite side of the room from where I have my "control space" set up (I currently only have a single room I can use, roughly 30 feet by 15 feet, by 8 feet tall. My "control desk" is 12 feet away from one wall, pointing back to the wall so that there is a 18 by 15 space in front of me, and I can hang packing blankets in front of the control desk to sort of isolate the recording area from the control area (mostly to prevent feedback with the nearfield monitors when I run the condensors really hot).

I have a crude drawing of the space, but I can't load it here? Anyone willing to host it just so i can post it here?

 

[Ethan Winer]

CS,

> I have this spare bookshelf that is designed to fit in a corner. <

I think it's a bad idea because it gets in the way of installing acoustic treatment in that corner. All rooms need low frequency absorption, and the best place to put that is in the corners. Is there any way you can put the bookshelf against a wall out of the corner?

--Ethan

 

[knightfly]

Possibly more important: do you like slap echo, or is there some other reason you're running live mics in a room with monitors on? I always thought that was one of the uses for headphones... Steve

 

[cstockdale]

Re: bookshelf. The only reason I am considering this is that there literally is nowhere else in teh house to put it. I will just have to see for myself if it is good or bad or makes no difference.

Re: Monitors. I never have them on while tracking, but I do have them on while fiddling before hitting the "R" button to make sure things sit right in the mix and to see that I have my mic placement/amp eq/pickup selector right etc etc. It is during that phase that I was getting feedback before because my desk was 180 degrees to where it is now: with the monitors facing the middle of the room where I did my tracking, now I have turned them around, and can pull a heavy packing blanket "curtain" across so that the mics don't pick up too much monitor signal (unless I am recording on an omni condensor, then I have to use cans).

 

[Amped]

I defintly agree with Ethan here, No way would I sacrifice valuable corner space for shelving, Traps man,,, traps... It will be bad, and it does make a difference.

 

[Dan Merrill]

To directly answer your question in terms of what will it do- books, especially big heavy ones with their varying sizes and thicknesses add a good measure of absorption and a dollop of diffusion as well. This, I guess, fits into the "makeshift" category of acoustic treatment. I've been in a library room about your size with a 12' metal ceiling that had lined the walls with books, and it was as dead as a doornail. ( mind you, I don't know what there is particularly dead about a doornail.. )

I'm not saying it's the best thing to do with the corners, but clearly you're not putting it there for treatment purposes so my estimate is that it will not adversely affect the current sound of your 30' room. In fact depending on how the rest of the room is outfitted, some added absorption and diffusion may not be a bad thing.

Bottom line: it's not permanent. Try it and see, report back.

 

[cstockdale]

I was looking at John Sayers website and the directions for how to build a bass trap, and bizarre as it may seem, that dang near describes the bookshelf! It is designed to fit into a corner, traps a space of air behind it about 10-inches deep in a triangle, runs almost flush to the ceiling,m and behind the books is another "dead space".