To All Design Guru's - Parallel Wall question

scuppari

New member
I've read on several sites you should avoid parallel walls when designing a studio. My studio will be located in my basement and consists of two rooms, each approx. 10'9" x 13'10" in size once finished. Both rooms will have a trey ceiling (used to hide pipes) with a height of 8'3" around perimeter and 9'2" in center.

Can anyone offer insight to potential problems I may encounter b/c of the room dimensions? More importantely, can you offer any enhancemnts that should be made to the framing before I have the framing inspected (yes, I have a permit) and electrical completed?

Hope to have pictures posted within day or so.
 
If you have access to Excel, download MODESv2p.zip from this site. You'll have to convert your dimensions to inches first, but it works well. Try the average height of your ceiling, then min and max height - I would guess the average would be more indicative of real-world.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/acous...1014747184/_Excel_calculation_f_001016109651/

If you want simpler, this is an Excel/Lotus spreadsheet I wrote about 10 years ago, enter feet in units/tenths to get just axial modes (most important ones) This one is quicker but not as complete. Look for no two modes at the same freq within 4-5 hZ, no modes further apart than about 20 hZ, between 30-300 hZ. This isn't easy with a small room. Splayed walls would waste too much space in that small a room, try Auralex.com for treatment of flutter echoes between walls, control of early reflections. They have a neat little primer on acoustics101 that is very informative. Here is the link to my simple spreadsheet, called roomtune. Look under "Other Application"...

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/downloads.nsf/category

If your ceiling is kind of like a tent, I'd set up so the ridge runs the same direction as your outstretched arms when you're sitting at the desk looking at your speakers. if one side is lower, put that at the front. (Helps early reflections) HTH... Steve
 
Thanks for the excel file. I've plugged in the dimensions but I'm having a hard time intrepreting/understanding the data. I would attach the zipped excel file for you to peek at, but it's too large to post on this board.

Here's a sample of the file:

nx ny nz f Type
1 0 0 40.8 Axial
0 1 0 52.6 Axial
0 0 1 65.2 Axial
1 1 0 66.6 Tangential
1 0 1 76.9 Tangential
2 0 0 81.7 Axial
0 1 1 83.7 Tangential
1 1 1 93.2 Oblique
2 1 0 97.1 Tangential
2 0 1 104.5 Tangential
0 2 0 105.1 Axial
1 2 0 112.8 Tangential
2 1 1 117.0 Oblique
3 0 0 122.5 Axial
0 2 1 123.7 Tangential
1 2 1 130.3 Oblique
0 0 2 130.4 Axial
2 2 0 133.1 Tangential
3 1 0 133.3 Tangential


What should I be looking for? This could be a great lesson for many Newbies like myself. Thanks again for your help!
 
That sounds like the first page of the MODESv2 spreadsheet - Until you've spent the next several years reading books on acoustics/room design, I would ignore that part mostly. That sheet requires two update calculations after entering your data in the Length Width Height fields, after which all the data is actually relevant. The part you posted is a listing, in ascending order of frequency, of each mode (resonance) of the room, listed by whether they are Axial (only two walls involved) Tangential (4 walls, or 2 walls + floor and ceiling) or Oblique, where all 6 surfaces of the room come into play.

The simplest way to use that sheet is convert your dim's to inches, enter the 3 dim's into the 3 yellow cells, press Ctrl-Shift-S, press Ctrl-Shift-C, then click on the Mode Strength tab at the bottom and make sure there are no double-height lines in that graph. Double height lines in that graph means you have two dimensions that are exact multiples of each other, which will cause problem resonances at that frequency and octaves above. Then click on the Bonello tab, and make sure the blue bars are as tall as, or taller than, any red bars. I can tell by the numbers you posted that you used the average ceiling height, but I mentioned the Ctrl-Shift steps because the first time I used this sheet I didn't notice the charts hadn't updated. That's what those two extra steps do.

That should give you a quick idea if there are going to be any glaring problems. Beyond that, you would be getting into areas that require either a LOT of study, or hiring an acoustician. The good news is your room doesn't look bad for one that small. If you want to learn a lot more, I would suggest F.Alton Everest's book Master Handbook of Acoustics, available at Amazon.com. Price is about $25. Another one with some room suggestions is Sound Studio Construction on a Budget , F. Alton Everest $20.96 @ Amazon. Both are written so a non-engineer can make sense out of them with some study.

Basement rooms are notorious for footfall problems and rarely have enough headroom to do anything very serious about it. If you own the place, you could concievably add a layer of sound board and a new floor in the upper room, along with a heavy carpet and pad. Under the floor, lots of fiberglas insulation and at least some Resilient Channel on the floor(ceiling) joists, then hang two layers of sheet rock, preferably different thickness (1/2, 5/8") on the channel, the second layer at right angles to the other to avoid coincident seams, finally get several tubes of Butyl caulk (stays flexible, so won't crack) and try your best to make the room airtight. Electrical - Stay away from conventional in-the-wall electrical boxes, bad for sound-proofing. Instead, better to surface-mount outlets and run conduit to them, also on the surface. Every time you poke a hole in the wall, you just wasted 3 other things you did to soundproof the room. Resilient channel on the furring out studs of your walls on one side, two layers of sheetrock, 1/2" spacers under the edge of wallboard to fasten, then caulk with butyl thoroughly. (Don't forget to remove the spacers before you caulk...) Second layer of sheetrock is better glued to first, so no vibrations and greater mass. Be careful not to use too long screws so they don't hit the stud and cancel out the resilient channel. My fingers are getting tired, go buy the books... Steve
 
Steve -

I went back and did the two Ctrl-Shift steps and checks the two sheets you suggested. Mode Strength is one (1) across the board and blue bars are equal to or greater than red from 40-250 Hz.

Thanks again for your help.
 
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