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[Dennis Allen Cupp]

I am building a new control room in the "Bonus Room" above our garage.

I am attaching a horrible schematic (MSPaint) of the basic concept. The man room is 14' wide by 19' long. I'v got a seperate machine room, seperate storage room/iso booth and a seperate vocal booth. Each room is roughly 4' by 6'.

A couple of quickie questions:

1. Typically how far from the Console to the Rack/Producers Desk should i allow. From the arm rest of a console to the edge of the rack gear. 4'? 5'?

2. How much distance between the back wall and monitors should i allow?

THe brown Objects on the picture are where i plan on building up the floor for a MiniStepUp floor so i can hide my cables n stuff.
I was going to make it from 2x4's and fill it with insulation, except for the cable paths. Please tell me if i am making a huge mistake.
Any input is greatly appreciated.

Dennis Cupp
Aztec Recording

[franman]

[quote
A couple of quickie questions:

1. Typically how far from the Console to the Rack/Producers Desk should i allow. From the arm rest of a console to the edge of the rack gear. 4'? 5'?

2. How much distance between the back wall and monitors should i allow?

THe brown Objects on the picture are where i plan on building up the floor for a MiniStepUp floor so i can hide my cables n stuff.
I was going to make it from 2x4's and fill it with insulation, except for the cable paths. Please tell me if i am making a huge mistake.
Any input is greatly appreciated.

Dennis Cupp
Aztec Recording[/quote]

1. we use 4' as a drop dead minimum.. It's comfortable and easy to get to.. 4' to 4'-6" is fine.

2. Back wall to monitors... front wall to monitors... each boundary will cause "interfance" with Low Frequency emitted from the speakers. The first thing you do, is experiment with monitor/listening position placement, to get the smoothest (sounding/measured) low frequency response at your listening position... Generally as you move the monitors closer to the front corners you will get increased bass response...

3. 2x4 plan for step up floor sounds fine.. best to use at least a couple of layers of 5/8 - 3/4" material on top of framing to make sure floor system is damped and non resonant.. definitely insulate the joist bays well.....

Read earlier posts on how to apply treatments...

1. Early Reflection Control
2. Base Trapping
3. Diffusion as appropriate for distances involved... it's all been covered a couple of times at least in earlier posts...

[Ethan Winer]

Dennis,

Besides Fran's great advice, it looks to me like your speakers are very near to the center of the room front to back. This is not good! Untreated rooms have peaks and deep nulls all over the place, but the middle of the room has the deepest bass null of all. So the middle is not a good place for the listener or for the speakers.

I understand your desire to sit more toward the rear of the room and look forward, but you'll get a better low end response if the speakers are closer to the front wall and you're about 1/3 of the way back. You may have to swivel your chair around to see behind you, but it's worth it. Or put a mirror on the front wall.

--Ethan

[franman]

Great point Ethan... Yes, either sitting in or placing your speakers in the middle of ANY dimension is not good form!

[Dennis Allen Cupp]

Thanks guys for the info.
The drawing is very crude. I apprecate you taking a second and looking at it.

My listening position is roughly 9' into the room, which is almost center. I can move it up a nudge without much fanfare.

The room is the typical "Playroom above the Garage", meaning that i have a sloped roof...therefore a sloped ceiling. I have brought a flat ceiling down to about 9'7". I have 4' kneewalls as well. So standing at the door you see small walls a sloping roof to a 43' wide ceiling. Hopefully all these odd angles will help me sonically. I have attached another picture of the ROUGH framing of the rooms its self. I will take more pictures tonight, as i have added flooring and have framed in the basic room.

Also, is there any thoughts on ceiling fans in a control room. I had one in my old room (9' Ceiling) and it was always on low, and i NEVER had issues with it.

Thanks for your input and advise!
Dennis

[franman]

well, after you stay out of the center area...

we have discussed the "leslie effect" of ceiling fans in other posts... We've done rooms with fans, but they can cause a sonic nuisance if the air movement interferes with your loudspeakers... just be careful about placement, and make sure you're not expecting to move so much air that you actually feel a breeze...