Hi guys,
I've always wanted to turn my bedroom into a well sounding mix room. So, as a first step towards my dream, I made a 3D SketchUp of the room and where "I think" the acoustic treatment should go.
It would be great if you guys take a look into it and correct me If I've done anything stupid. Clearly, I have zero experience in room acoustics.
My room dimensions are 12' 2" L x 11' 8" W x 10' 4" H.
I'm planning to build 4" thick absorption panels (with extra 2" air gap between Rockwool and wall) made out of Roxul Rockwool Safe n Silent Pro 330 (40kg/m^3 density). The ceiling bass traps are going to be made out of Roxul Rockwool Safe n Silent Pro 380 (100kg/m3 density).
I'm also planning to build the "Output Platform Desk" using a model I found in SketchUp's 3D Warehouse.
The monitors I have in mind are the "Adam A5X". Please share your thoughts on that, too.
I'm attaching a JPEG overview of the plan as well as the whole .skp SketchUp file (which can be opened with SketchUp viewer).
Please, the amazing people of Audiosex, take a look!
.skp SketchUp File:

 

Last edited: Jul 27, 2020

welcome buddy. i hope some of the legends might hope in here. glad to see a country fella here. he he. besides i have not much studio room experience so.

 

Hey! thanks for reading brother!

 

I I had the budget I would make the bass traps to cover the whole corner and buy a sub to be paired with the speakers.

Low frequencies are hard to eliminate, it may make you to add too much reverb, cut too much low end front instruments.

 

I did consider covering the whole corner, but two of my corners have guitar hangers close to the wall, and my friend did this beautiful wall art near the front corner. I was hoping not to mess it up.
The main door is close to the rear corner too.
So, covering up the whole corners; top to bottom is somewhat a hard choice for me.

 

Sorry Dude, but your room is just a terrible starting point

Ther are some basic rules .

Below 215 ft2 is a bit low
https://www.acousticfields.com/acoustic-treatment-for-a-square-room-recommend/
From this artikel ""There’s No Acoustic Treatment For A Square Room That Will Work If Your Dimensions Are Too Small


And standing wave will hit you hard with nearly quatratic room + size.

But to make it a bit better turn you room 90°from the top .

Your listing place should be on the smaler side of the room

like
benderandgaia wrote the corners are really important . You will totally get to much bass from your room with lot of reflections

But my biggest advice is with this room, mixing with headphones . Sorry that I can´t say more gratifying things

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jul 22, 2020

First of all you're off to a good start by modeling it in 3D, (Sketchup is my program of choice too for this sort of work).

1) all your panels are 6" thick, you don't want that, too heavy and you'll eat up too much of the room, 3" is more than enough if you're using proper insulation (4" max).

2) Its good advice to have your listening position at 1/3 of the room length but lets be realistic, in a small room like this you're not gonna want to waste all that floor space, as well its better to have room for the bass to develop. Push the desk such that it is 1 ft away from back wall.

3) By following 2 you will also solve the problem that your first reflection points are a closet door and a window.

4) Panels behind the speakers are too close, move them out such that they are directly in line with each speaker. Probably right on the edge of the window will do

5) remove the diffuser on the window, not needed, put a curtain instead, more to block sunlight from drying out your cables

6) The panels on the left and right wall on the closet and window are questionable, I would leave them out for now as they're too much of an inconvenience.

 

While I do agree with you, I don't have any other option unless I build another room. And to be honest, my heart sank reading your comment.
Thanks for pointing out the harsh truth!

 

1. Yeah, 6" panels are a bit much, I'll trim that down.
2. I placed the speakers 2 ft away from the rear wall, as I read somewhere on the Internet. I do agree that's a wastage of floor space.
3. The window and door is an inevitable problem, I couldn't agree more.
4. I agree those panels are in a bad position. Thanks for the suggestion!
5. Where else can I put the diffuser?
6. Yeah, those panels are questionable. I guess I put them there thinking it'll help with more absorption.
Thanks for the suggestions!

 

Just wanted to mention a 3D design tool I use. While mine is a simple "studio" design example below, the tool is cool. It's the free Sweet Home 3D. It's easy to use, can create amazing designs, images, and videos. It can import lots of different 3D model formats and libraries (including SketchUp). And, it's open source and absolutely FREE! Windows, Mac, and Linux. Watch their video on the home page.




http://www.sweethome3d.com/

 

Wow! Thanks for this! I was wondering what would I do after the 30 day SketchUp trial.
This one looks cleaner too! Textures are smooooth!

 

Last edited: Jul 22, 2020

1. You can learn to mix in a bad room. But you can’t record great sounding material in a bad room.

2. Consult with Ethan Winer & Glen Kuras over at Gearslutz.

- They both are probably gonna recommend you put as much broadband in there as you can. All corners floor to ceiling and clouds too... Pick up Rod Gervais’ Build It Like The Pros book while you’re at it.

 

Diffusion is useless in a room that size.

 

Well, I thought about posting on Gearslutz, but they are not allowing new registrations.
I'll take a look into the book you mentioned! Thanks!

 

To be honest, I made that diffuser already when I had some wood pieces lying around. My intentions were not justified at that time. I think I saw someone building a DIY diffuser on Instagram and thought about making one myself. So in your opinion, is it just useless or will it worsen the situation? Is there any harm in placing the diffuser in that position?

 

This page can be useful to find the modes of your room:

https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc?l=365&w=250&h=296&re=EBU listening room

There are other useful tools too.

 

Here. Check Ethans video out... WARNING!! Don’t be turned off by his quirky odd behavior & poor choice of intro music. He is an industry pro & has given lectures at AES conventions. He also did a great job debunking the myth people can hear the difference between modern DAC converters at one of those conventions - its on Youtube somewhere.. His videos provide quality information but lack top notch production.

 

The problem with diffusers in small rooms - especially if they are placed close to the listening position - is that they can negatively affect your stereo image. In the worst case they can tear holes in the stereo image, which is the opposite of what they are supposed to do. The frequency range to which they are tuned is also crucial here.

As some others here have said, small rooms are difficult to work with. You can tackle some problems, but you will never get them completely under control. If you are not able to find a more suitable room, you should at least be aware of this. How far the bass range can become a problem depends on the nature of your walls. And of course the choice of speakers. The less lowend is emitted into the room and the thinner the walls are, the less has theoretically to be absorbed. The problem with thin lightweight walls is that they start to resonate in the lower octaves. Therefore, targeted bass absorption is the foundation for a linear frequency response and short impulse responses.

In my opinion, you should not do anything without proper room measurement. Especially in small rooms it is necessary to tackle the problems very specifically.

You are welcome to have a look around here in the thread:
https://audiosex.pro/threads/room-acoustic-thread-how-to-treat-your-room.50138/
(needs a revision, but at the moment I've no time for that)

if you do not have a measuring microphone, you should at least use the room simulator in REW to optimize your listening position and identify possible room modes.

 

Thanks for this! I should probably learn some of these stuff! Lots of information to take in!

 

I watched few of his videos. The guy is a LEGEND! So much information!
"These are acoustics books mostly, maybe that helps a little bit", made me chuckle!
Thanks for this!