Basic Acoustic treatment

[smash]

So...

I have a room,

Roughly 2.4m x 2.2m x 2.4m but with a slighly sloping roof.

So yes, it's nearly a cube :-(
but it's mine.

For those who have been to Kris' Musikwerk's suite, it is basically a 2/3 size version of that...

I'm basically mixing TVC's in there, monitors at this stage will be KRK Rocket 5's.

I've inherited a few rolls of the same acoustic treatment that is treating our Control Room, and main studio.
It essentially seems to be 50mm thick wool / felt material.
(I'll include a pic later, can't upload atm.

Because the room is so small, I'm thinking to basically deaden everything up to around seated head height, lots of bass trapping in the corners, and then possibly some diffusion in the top two foot or so of height to give a little "air" to the sound.

I would normally not make the back of the room dead, but in this case, the "back" of the room is only 2 m from my seat.

I could go to slayers for this, but you guys are generally pretty good.

So.. my questions are this:

1) Should I deaden the entire room at head height, or only first reflection points, and corners - given that it is so small.

2a) Should I add some diffusion to non reflection points to try and even out the room flutter.
2b) Got any diffusuion suggestions - Cheap please - things are tiiigggghhhhhhht.

3) Is the 50mm woolly felty thing going to be relatively even, should I double it up?
I don't want to treat the room, to find out all I've done is suck out 1 freq band, and nothing else.

__________________
Simon "Smash" Ashby
I see dead people... or people who smell that way...

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[Ben M]

Hi Simon

Just quickly... my 2 cents

Put a generous diffuser on the wall behind you and trap/deaden the back corners. The monitor position in a small room like yours will probably mean the speakers will point directly to those corners over your shoulders. They need special attention. Trapping/deadening with corner panels to take the square out of the room.

all the best

[Senad]

That's very tough Simon..In such a small room absorption seems the only way, but to absorb evenly you need to give up some space to fit deeper/larger traps in there. Back wall is just too close to you to diffuse it IMO..Probably wideband absorption for mid and highs and some panel/membrane absorbes to get down a bit lower...can be cheap if you're handy..higher density rockwool slabs accross corners as suggested above would also be good..or even filling the corners with rockwool "triangles", stacked up to the ceiling

[rick]

2/3 the size of kris's space..? ( that i tuned for him )
dont beat your self up over acoustic treatment
there is none that will "fix" that space

deaden it up put the same kinds of diffuser that kris has ( half round bits of plastic from phonic )
and get on with learning what your room does wrong so you can learn compenstate
its never going to be right - dont sweat it

[Jason Dirckze]

How about those Blak Hole (sic?) wideband bass traps? Don't know if they are any good, but they have a money back deal, so you can send em back if you're not happy with them. Some respectable people are endorsing them it seems.

Anyone have some or know more about them?

[TimS]

There is an ad in the latest AT on the Blak Hole treatments..

[rick]

you dont need a bass trap for a space that size , you need headphones

[Chris H]

you dont need a bass trap for a space that size , you need headphones

..........then burn a reff disc and hop out to the car and have a listen.

[Jason Dirckze]

you dont need a bass trap for a space that size , you need headphones

..........then burn a reff disc and hop out to the car and have a listen.

Hmmm... don't think a car is a good reference point for a TVC mix. Change that to hop in the living room and play it through an old CRT telly. If it sounds good on that...

[Chris H]

you dont need a bass trap for a space that size , you need headphones

..........then burn a reff disc and hop out to the car and have a listen.

Hmmm... don't think a car is a good reference point for a TVC mix. Change that to hop in the living room and play it through an old CRT telly. If it sounds good on that...

It ain't necessarily so:) ...... as a lot of domestic TV's have full range domestic hi fi systems as playback, with subs often turned up too high for the movies, and as monitoring bass in a small room is the issue here, i find my car's system is a great point of reference as i'm used to how my favorite CD's sound in the car. I agree it's also a good idea to play it through the old CRT telly as well. Then after a while when you are used to getting the mix close to right on a variety of playback systems you will pretty well nail the mix first off every time.

[Senad]

There is an ad in the latest AT on the Blak Hole treatments..

yeah and a review on them if I'm not mistaken..It says, if I remember correctly, that the guy who makes them doesn't wanna release any data...I wonder why.

[TimS]

There is an ad in the latest AT on the Blak Hole treatments..

yeah and a review on them if I'm not mistaken..It says, if I remember correctly, that the guy who makes them doesn't wanna release any data...I wonder why.

Yep... I thought so too..

[Jason Dirckze]

Website states he is happy to talk tech to those that are interested or who want to know details...

[smash]

you dont need a bass trap for a space that size , you need headphones

I'm mixing on cans atm, however, it gets annoying having them on all day, everyday.

Not to mention not being able to hear the phone.

Finally, Cans can let some things through - we had an issue here the other day when something had been done on cans, and ended up with some slight phasing issues between the two sides. Yes, mono fold down will address, but speakers make it easier.

Additionally, If I'm doing a quick playback to a producer, I'd rather have it off speakers.

But Thanks heaps for the info everyone - I'm gonna make it as good as possible given the limitations, and then "learn" the room from there.