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[imdrecordings]

Hello,

I just moved into a 2 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend and we are turning one of the bedrooms into an office/mixing room. Walls and ceiling are all painted sheet-rock and a carpeted floor.

As far as room size goes:

H= 7.8'
W= 8.3'
L= 10.9'

I'm being pushed to the back part of the room, almost right up against a wall, so unfortunately I can't take advantage of the lengthy part of the room due to her desk being in the same room.  She gets one half and I get the other.
Meaning I have only 8.3' front to back.  I have Dynaudio BM5A'a which are rear ported, so I made qty.2 Bass traps 24"x48"x4" using Owens 705. Above the mix position I made qty.2 24"x28"x6" traps using two sheets of Owens 703 and one of 705 in each trap.  I have a bass trap in each corner, each are 24"x48"x4" made of Owens 703.  

The part I'm struggling with is, is it better to have the densest material in front of you(behind your monitors) or behind you?
I figured sense my monitors are rear ported that the 705 Owens at 4" thick would be good. It's such a small place that I thought about putting qty.2 24"x48"x6" made of Owens 703 directly behind me.  Would a denser material be more appropriate for the rear wall or for behind the monitors?

Here is a bad drawing... hardy to scale

Thanks for any help!

[rankus]

Can't you swap your desk position for her desk position?

[imdrecordings]

rankus wrote on Sat, 29 December 2007 12:58

Can't you swap your desk position for her desk position?

Well, I don't think it's an option.  She really has her heart set on facing that way and being in that part of the room.  She feels that she needs to be able to face people as they are walking into the room.  Even though there wont be anyone walking into the room but me.

Any who, thanks for the reply Rick.  I thought about having no Bass traps behind me and put up a Down Comforter to kill reflections from the rear.  I could save an extra 80 bucks if I didn't need to buy 6 more sheets of 703.  The fact that it's so close is what confuses me.
 To trap or not to trap?  That is the question!

[brett]

imdrecordings wrote on Sat, 29 December 2007 00:23

The part I'm struggling with is, is it better to have the densest material in front of you(behind your monitors) or behind you?

in a room this small you will need dense material placed symetrically all around the room and use an air gap in between the wall an panels. the room is too small for any live reflections to be getting into your ears and low end nulls are going to be an issue. So big bass trapping up front to get any usable bass, and even thicker on the rear wall because there may be a modal build up there. You should also turn and face the short wall with the windows. The windows may help with the bottom end response by acting as bass traps. but you need to be facing the short wall. you cannot over do it on the trapping in a small room. I used a 10x10 room and it took a lot of absorbtion to make it barely usable. With 8inch traps up front there was still a poor low end response and mixes were bottom heavy. I tried to compensate by mixing with an eq boost but it took a few mixes to get it right and it never felt right mixing in there. Best of luck.  

[imdrecordings]

brett wrote on Sun, 30 December 2007 03:27

imdrecordings wrote on Sat, 29 December 2007 00:23 The part I'm struggling with is, is it better to have the densest material in front of you(behind your monitors) or behind you? in a room this small you will need dense material placed symetrically all around the room and use an air gap in between the wall an panels. the room is too small for any live reflections to be getting into your ears and low end nulls are going to be an issue. So big bass trapping up front to get any usable bass, and even thicker on the rear wall because there may be a modal build up there. You should also turn and face the short wall with the windows. The windows may help with the bottom end response by acting as bass traps. but you need to be facing the short wall. you cannot over do it on the trapping in a small room. I used a 10x10 room and it took a lot of absorbtion to make it barely usable. With 8inch traps up front there was still a poor low end response and mixes were bottom heavy. I tried to compensate by mixing with an eq boost but it took a few mixes to get it right and it never felt right mixing in there. Best of luck.

Hey thanks Brett.
She changed her mind and now I get her spot! Awesome.  
Do you think because the room is so small that I should trap the corners from floor to ceiling? There are only 2 corners where that is possible. The other two corners have doors, so I'll have to flip the 24"x48"x6" traps horizontally in the corners and angle them downward.

For now it seems that I have enough to cover the corners with 24"x48"x6" traps (2 of the traps need to be flipped horizontally), take care of my early reflection points and maybe make another 24"x48"x6" trap for wall directly in front of me, to suck up some of the low end from my rear ported BM5A's.  Maybe even make another 24"x48"x6" trap to take care of the ceiling reflection and provide added bass control above the mix position.  That means I'll only need one more box of O&C705!  
Sweet!

Do you think I could get away with using 4" thick traps?  I could save even more money and have more traps.  Or is 6" minimum?

I have a feeling I'll have to trap the 90 degree angles where the ceiling and wall meet in front of the mix position and the sides.  But I can take care of that later.

Here is a new work of art.  I even changed the color of the carpet :

[gullfo]

4" thick across the corners will help but if you can get 6" then you're better off. as Brett pointed out, its a very small room and the bass will buildup quickly as the height and width are close in dimensions. the wall-ceiling and wall-floor corners also count so it you need additional trapping consider using those locations as well as vertical corners.

also, heavy drapes across the back wall over the small door and window could help if you cannot get much trapping there.

From Measurements                     

      ratio   size   m   sqrt(2)   bolt   ebu   iec   >5%h   1.00   7.80   2.38   0.01   TRUE   TRUE   TRUE   TRUEw   1.06   8.30   2.53   0.25            l   1.40   10.90   3.32   0.07                                       ax 1st   ~note   ax 2nd   ~note   ax 3rd   ~note   ax 4th   ~noteh   72.18   C#2/Db2   144.36   C#3/Db3   216.54   G#3/Ab3   288.72   C#4/Db4w   67.83   C2   135.66   C3   203.49   G3   271.33   C4l   51.65   G1   103.30   G2   154.95   D3   206.61   G3                           vol   surf   edge   area   rt60   r(ms)   Dc   mfpft   706   480   108   90   0.95   302.68   3.85   5.87m   19.98   44.64   32.92   8.40                                       T(ms)   eyring   millington   Fcut   ~note   Fc   ~note   5.22   0.82   0.73      51.65   G1   287.49   C#4/Db4                           ratios   diatonic   stdev   modes   df   Fs   ~noteh-w   1.06   +I      0.39   86   1.79   435.13   G#4/Ab4w-d   1.31   

[rankus]

Scott, I would say you should send Glen a bottle for this input!  

[imdrecordings]

Agreed!
When I saw his post I couldn't stop grinning.
Glen, thank you so much! PM me your addy and your poison!
My girlfriend wants to thank you for making her cup size a little bigger.

[gullfo]

check the contact info on my site   did i get your hair right?  
cheers!

[imdrecordings]

gullfo wrote on Mon, 31 December 2007 19:41

check the contact info on my site   did i get your hair right?   cheers!

Close, but I've got more hair in the front and less in the back.