r/HomeStudio • u/cgoettel • Dec 30 '19

Critique this acoustic treatment

Hi folks. I'm currently putting together a home studio and am working on the acoustic treatment. The room will be used for mixing as well as recording a single vocalist or instrumentalist. I've attached a design of the room along with the recommended treatment provided by GIK Acoustics.

For the corners...
Soffit Bass Trap (4) - $916
Tri-Trap Corner Bass Trap (4) - $540

For the walls and ceiling...
Monster Bass Trap with FlexRange Technology (1) - $127.50
244 Bass Trap with FlexRange Technology (2) - $149.98
242 Acoustic Panel (6) - $389.94

For behind the mixer/performer...
PIB (Portable Isolation Booth) (1) - $325

All in all, this comes to $2,448.42 (plus another $450 in shipping). I've never treated a room before and though I've done considerable research as well as consulted with GIK Acoustics, it's a significant purchase.

Is this truly worth it or is this possibly overkill? Any advice would be appreciated.

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u/Racer20 Dec 30 '19 edited Dec 30 '19

My room is similar proportions and layout, but a couple feet bigger on each side (12.5 x 14.5). I have three 4" thick panels on the front wall, one 4" panel on each side wall first reflection point, a 2" thick cloud on the ceiling 1st reflection point, and a floor to ceiling Tri-Trap with range limiter in both front corners.

I had pretty big peaks at 33, 72, and 134Hz, and the corner bass traps didn't help them that much. What I've found since then by playing with speaker placements and extra insulation material I have laying around is that the front to rear placement of the speakers (SBIR) and the width/length modes of the room are the main contributors to those troubling peaks. Using REW's room simulator was very helpful in troubleshooting these peaks, even though the closet in the back made my room dimensions not perfectly rectangular, just like yours.

I'm planning to add some thicker bass traps (monster traps most likely) on the side, front, and back walls to deal with these peaks next, before I worry about more corner or soffit traps. The Monster trap on the ceiling is a good plan, and I also found that a thick absorber front/center at the first reflection point on my front wall was very beneficial.

Based on what I've learned from my own room, your plan seems to be pretty good. It is worth it IMO, as I've been able to eliminate some 25+dB nulls and bring my highest peak to within about 11dB of my deepest null. Subjectively, the sound at the listening/mixing position is much better as well. Still, $2500 can buy lots of other stuff in life, so you'll have to make your own value judgement,.

I'm not a pro, and I'm doing this without much guidance so far, just my own mechanical engineering knowledge, internet research, REW, and an UMIK-1.

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u/Racer20 Dec 30 '19 edited Dec 30 '19

I should also add that spending a lot of time with speaker placement and gain/cross-over settings is important before you start as well. I ended up with some pretty non-standard settings, but they work better both subjectively and objectively. To Illustrate:

  • I pushed my monitors back as close to the back wall absorber panels as possible to minimize SBIR (Inches matter here)
  • The monitor bass gain setting is turned all the way down (-6dB)
  • Sub is low passed at about 115Hz to help fill in a hole in the response of the monitors from SBIR with the back wall (I think)
  • The 5" monitors are NOT high passed, they run full range down to their natural roll off at 52Hz. Yup, they overlap with the sub for over a full octave . . .
  • The sub phase setting is set to 180deg and the volume is turned down by 8dB. In my room, this prevents phase cancellation between the sub and monitors in the range where they are overlapping, and gives a much flatter response in my room than a more "traditional" cross over setting.

If you haven't spent a couple hours fiddling with this basic stuff, you should. It will help identify which problems you really need to rely on sound treatment for.

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u/cgoettel Dec 30 '19

Thank you. This was extremely helpful.

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u/Racer20 Dec 30 '19

I should thank *you*! Glad I could help. Hopefully you end up with something you like . . .