OK it is definitely time for some acoustic treatment in my little home studio. I am having a real hard time getting the bass right in my mixes. I'm sure part of that is lack of experience. I can get it to sound good in the studio and then when I play a CD in my car or on the stereo downstairs it sounds muddy as hell. I think the room acoustics aren't doing my newb skills any favors. I think I may need a sub but I think it's pointless going down that road before I get my room under control?
I don't want to start a OMG!!! what do I do?!?!? help me please! thread on such a broad topic so I'll tackle this one step at a time and try to give as much info as possible.
OK from what I have read you gotta get your monitoring chain in order first. So here is what I've got. I run my passive event 20/20s with a crappy Gem Sound XP - 350 stereo power amp. Monitoring chain is:
Output from M-Audio delta 1010lt into my Behringer Xenya 24. The monitor out from my mixer goes to the input of the amp from the amp we go straight to the Monitors.
I know that the brand of amp and mixer I'm using aren't the greatest but it sounds pretty clean. No hiss or popping or anything like that. Any deal breakers here?
Next would be monitor placement. I know they are supposed to form an equilateral triangle with your ears but should they be aimed at your ears or the wall behind you?
How from from the wall should the backs of the monitors be?
What about those monitor isolation pads, they look like a rip-off to me. Do I need them or can I just set my monitors on towels or packing foam?
I know I'll need some broadband traps and maybe some foam but I'll tackle that once I'm sure I have my head around the monitor stuff.
I think that Massive explained monitor placement quite well on Another Thread
score another one for the search function
As for treatment, Bass Traps floor to ceiling in all 4 corners. If you have a decent sized room this can be all that you need aside from maybe a little foam here or there to dampen any flutter.
OK I think I got the monitor thing figured out one more question though. What about those monitor isolation pads? Necessary or not? Folded towel or packing foam work just as well?
Now with the bass traps. I have a few specific questions.
Are the Auralex foam bass traps adequate?
I've seen some non branded stuff on ebay for much cheaper (damn this newb account can't post links) Any good?
What properties should I look for in foam traps?
What about the sheets that have big sawtooth wave like ridges that are sold as "broadband" panels. Any good?
I have a little bit of a problem with the layout of my room. The back wall has 2 doors on it in both corners (closet and entrance). I don't know if I can fit bass traps in those corners and still be able to open the doors. (door frames about 2 inches from the outside walls and the doors open toward the walls). I have seen smaller "corner blocks" on ebay that look like they would fit. Are they better than nothing?
What about the floor/wall ceiling/wall corners do those need treated?
How about pre/post treatment measurement how does that work? I'm guessing you use a test tone and place a mic where your noggin would be then record and analyze that?
Any tips on where to start with that? Where I can get a test tone and what software would I use to evaluate it?
Im sure I'll think of more questions as I move along. Thanks for the input fellas!
Not having them, generally speaking. Foam is good for spot-treating flutter and comb filtering and little else.
Generally, you should be looking at actual broadband rigid traps - GIK Acoustics, RealTraps, etc.
Yes - The ceiling/wall points should be treated also. Those rear corners are absolutely vital - Again, you may just want to see what it would take to not be in that room. Or at least turn it around so you can have your rear corners treated. If you look at GIK, look at the "Monster trap" or whatever they call the jumbo beasts - Those and the TriTraps are really the only ones that are even going to touch the problems you're going to have in the 60-ish Hz area.
[EDIT] - Sorry - I may have mixed this up a bit with another post about a specific room (hence the 60Hz issue). In any case, foam corner traps are fairly worthless. Unless you put bass traps in front of them.
Once again if it looks to good to be true it probably is. After looking at the prices for the realtraps and gik stuff I think I'll be better off rolling my own. Sounds like I have to figure out where I'm gonna put my desk first though.
The is pretty much zero chance of me moving to a different room. At least not for a few years. The problem with going to the opposite wall is that I only have about 5 ft of space between the doors to work with. One advantage would be that I'm closer to the closet and it would be easier to put my PCs and some gear in there which would cut down on noise and clean up the studio a bit. Either of the long walls would work but it is my understanding that it is better to have your workstation on the short wall? Although it probably isn't worse to setup there than it is to have an untreated wall behind me?
The room dimensions are roughly 10 x 14. At least as best as I could tell late last night with my 5ft tape measure. Once I get my post count to where I can post pics I'll post exact dimensions and some drawings.
.38 the length of the long wall from the short wall. Works with any rectangular space.
In your case, you want your head to be 5' 4" from the 10' wall. It works either way - Front wall is "generally" what you want for a stereo rig, the rear wall is usually preferred in a surround rig.
In any case, that's going to be pretty tight - but you can probably have your speakers about a yard away without too much of a problem.
