Shape of Studio

[edwinoldfield]

I am moving and am going to build a free standing studio. I am familiar with the acoustic treatment needed, but does anyone have opinions on shapes. I hear square is bad, what is ideal? I see whisper rooms seem to be pretty square, how about size also? any thoughts?

Thanks!

[FLZapped]

Actually, you are leaving out one dimension, rooms are three dimentional creatures, so you should think that way. Therefore, rather than thinking a square is bad, you should be thinking a cube is bad.....

You'll find this place to have a lot of good information:

John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum • Index page

One ratio set that could be used is 1:1.14:1.39 another would be 1:1:26:1:59

The idea being that each dimension would be a different length so that the room nodes do not line up. Even so, you still have three sets of parallel surfaces.

There are many other things to consider as well, so a nice long read of the above website will be of great value.

-Bruce

[edwinoldfield]

Perfect What is a great site! Thanks, Bruce

[Mike Sommer]

Are you talking about a vocal booth, or a single room studio or a studio with a booth?

For Voice Over, one only needs a single room studio. Of course it's always nice to have a machine room to keep loud equipment in and if you must have a vocal booth 5x6 would be suitable but you'll need to make it completely dead, but who wants to work in a stuffy box?

The bigger the room the better for VO booths. And avoiding a square design means just that -the fewer "right angles" you have the better. This alone will give you a head start in tuning the room by eliminating Flutter and Comb echo that you won't need to compensate for. THe design below would be a good start; the ceiling should have a slope to it also. This design is similar in size and shape to A&M Records Vocal rooms and a few others - just the treatments are different. One of the older studios I worked at here in LA, everything was covered in stone, cork, wood and plants. Not only was it a pleasure to work in it sounded wonderful.

But not everyone has this kind of room in their home for a booth of this size, but if you did, this could be used as a suitable recording and production room combo.

If you're stuck in a rectangle configuration, 15x10 with your mix position at 38% back from the 10' wall and you'll have a magical little set up. Then you can move your mic anywhere around the room especially with the set up below; a room like this can sound very good- flat with a little action in it.

The only thing that would make this room better are some diffusors along the back wall and above the mix desk, along with a wood floor, or possibly a soft ceiling (12" of Owens Corning 703).

[edwinoldfield]

Mike, I am not sure of the room dimensions, have only looked at them once, although funnily enough they seemed a little odd, but I will have the key in the next couple of days. It is on a very quiet street in a metropolis of 9 million people which is pretty cool and pretty hard to find something that quiet, second floor old house. What I am most concerned about is quality, I want to improve my equipment over time and this would be the start of it. It is interesting the site that Bruce gave a link too says that the space should be air tight and then you use ventilation systems. My main concern is to get the quality that is needed to compete over time with where you are (I was there at one time in a nice house at the top of Chataqua blvd, pretty nice up there in those palisades). So if it is a vocal booth, a sectioned of formed room, just as long as it creates a good recording space, that would be the great.

[Mike Sommer]

Yes, air fastness is required for 100% sound isolation. This could be nearly impossible with an older home without going to studs,replacing windows, insulating with cellulose insulation and double drywall with high density plastic sheeting in between layers, then caulking and filling every air gap and crack you can find.

So as long as you don't need to cut out a lot of background noise such as cars, barking dogs, weed whackers, foot steps or Nigle Olsson next door laying down a disco track- you should be okay with a simple isolation booth. Whisper Rooms are ok but you can often hear noise in them --they just don't offer the mass to knock out unwanted noise. I can only say, nothing beats a proper booth than a floating floor, double walls and lots of 703, and 4 layers of drywall --though some times it does not require all that, but nothing kills sound like mass and space.

Further perspective can be gained on all this here:
Studio construction & acoustics - Gearslutz.com

What might be best for you is to get in there and live in it a while, and find out what the room and the neighborhood offer up first.

And as I've pointed out many times in these pages is that if you want good sound, tune your room first, 75% of your sound comes from your room. A well tuned environment is paramount for good audio. So before you haul off and and invest in a lot of gear, tune the room first. You'll be much more satisfied if you do.

[FLZapped]

Originally Posted by Mike Sommer

The only thing that would make this room better are some defusers along the back wall and above the mix desk, along with a wood floor, or possibly a soft ceiling (12" of Owens Corning 703).

In a small room, diffusion doesn't work all that well. It's better to stick with absorption. Effects, such as reverb, can always be electronically added back in later.

-Bruce

[Mike Sommer]

**Sorry for the huge typo, I'm just banging away with my big ol' bear paws over here.

Actually diffusers are very effective in close quarters. They work so well in fact that the gang over at Skwalker Sound have diffusers, on rollers and place them around the performers. Diffusion does not add echo to a room, it breaks up or scatters the sound that strikes it and creates a very pleasant neutral sound, something you need when you've sucked all the life out of a room with 703.

The purpose for the absorption is to remove a the ringing of flutter, comb filter echos and early reflectiveness of a small hard right angled room. The bass traps remove the excess bass or Boom that's built up in the room particularly after removing all the highs. Installing diffusors will help bring a nice balance to the room --remember you still have all that all that absorption in there.

Diffusers like this, help maximize acoustical performance, by randomly dispersing sound waves to provide a consistent acoustical environment.

Space Couplers create a natural large sound. Very nice over a mix desk in a small room.

[FLZapped]

Once again diffusion in a small room is not that effective. It takes several wavelengths for them to create a diffuse field.

Here is another forum on just acoustics:

Acoustics Forum • Index page

BTW - Absorption is just as effective in reducing echos, it just does it in a different manner and it is the preferred method in a small room.

The guys at Skywalker are not using their diffusers in a small room and they are using them to color the sound for the reason I stated above.

-Bruce

[edwinoldfield]

Thanks for all the information. I will post some pictures of the space when I get it in the next couple of days.