What to do with my studio’s walls?

[sacredmimi]

The room layout is here:
https://imgur.com/VpCy5Bk

The room is 17 ft by 10 ft, ceiling is about 9 feet.
The 4 side walls are made out of wood, and the ceiling is made out of concrete. Floor is hardwood.

Again, I'm having a lot of reverberation, 0.7 seconds of reverb, which I believe it is a lot? A lot of the frequencies collide.

The 'acoustic treatment' company that I reached out gave me 2 options to choose from:

1. Covering the entire wall with the absorptive materials, then adding broadband panels accordingly. Cost: $6000

2. Just putting the broadband panels on the current wood wall (but may need much more panels) Cost: $3000

Which route is more ideal to go?

[crimsonwarlock]

Foam can be used effectively to kill reflections, for killing resonances you need absorption panels. So getting rid of reverb can be pretty cheap. Start with putting some foam panels up at the primary reflection points from your monitors, then go from there. Putting some carpet on the floor might help as well. Also, making the opposite wall from your monitors 'live' with shelves with books etc. can help a lot.

[topaz]

I personally made my own 1200 x 600 panels (some 1200 x 300) out of RW5 for walls sides, and square for overhead.

I did have a room that was completely covered with foam and it sounded dead and lifeless.

Nothing wrong with a tiny bit of life in a room.

But if you have the budget go for it.

Ps, there is no preset idea that works for this, you have to add as you go and stop when it's cool.

[sacredmimi]

Foam can be used effectively to kill reflections, for killing resonances you need absorption panels. So getting rid of reverb can be pretty cheap. Start with putting some foam panels up at the primary reflection points from your monitors, then go from there. Putting some carpet on the floor might help as well. Also, making the opposite wall from your monitors 'live' with shelves with books etc. can help a lot.

I personally made my own 1200 x 600 panels (some 1200 x 300) out of RW5 for walls sides, and square for overhead.

I did have a room that was completely covered with foam and it sounded dead and lifeless.

Nothing wrong with a tiny bit of life in a room.

But if you have the budget go for it.

Ps, there is no preset idea that works for this, you have to add as you go and stop when it's cool.

Thanks for the reply, both. I create tracks and all, but I mainly mix. Could mixing room also be allowed to be a bit 'live' as well?

The acoustic treatment company told me that the room has a big dip at 80hz and room mode happening at 120hz, which can be solved with bass traps and changing my listening positions, but the high frequencies are too ear-hurting hence recommended to cover all the walls with absorptive materials (he said that material would be polyester), then add panels on top of that. Would you think that will make the room too dead? I do have a big speakers for a given space if that means at all (barefoot mm26). He told me that if I just decide to add panels directly on the wall instead of covering with absorptive materials, he would put much more broadband panels, but would still be much, much cheaper. So, I'm still trying to decide..

[Benedict]

Yes a mixing room can be live. Many were (and maybe still are).

If you get into putting up absorption just take great care that you don't transition a natural live sound into a strange one. That strangeness will show in your mixes - or be an unnecessary adjustment to counter. Better to be adjusting to something natural.

I know most people will tell you to only set up your room so you have the long end to your back. I strongly disagree with this as you actually increase the control the room has as the longer reflections are more easily heard, they seem to deaden the main sound so you turn it up which... Work sideways and have some couches, paper screen or even a thin curtain to separate the spaces.

[crimsonwarlock]

The acoustic treatment company told me that the room has a big dip at 80hz and room mode happening at 120hz, which can be solved with bass traps and changing my listening positions, but the high frequencies are too ear-hurting hence recommended to cover all the walls with absorptive materials (he said that material would be polyester), then add panels on top of that.

You might get some more insight into the acoustics of your room by using this tool (it's what I use to tune my acoustic treatment):
https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc

IMPORTANT: turn down your volume before running this

It will show the problem frequencies for your room size and you can mouse over the frequencies and it will sound those so you can hear if they are actually a problem in your specific case. For each problem frequency it will show the pressure zones in your space so you can determine where you should put your panels. Worked nicely for me.

I know most people will tell you to only set up your room so you have the long end to your back. I strongly disagree with this...

Totally agree. This is the most heard advice, but strangely when you look at control rooms of large famous studios, in most cases, they are build the other way around.

[Benedict]

I know most people will tell you to only set up your room so you have the long end to your back. I strongly disagree with this...

Totally agree. This is the most heard advice, but strangely when you look at control rooms of large famous studios, in most cases, they are build the other way around.

Not only was a taught this when I was in a studio but when I was a Mobile DJ, the (good) Boss was adamant to always avoid working the length of a hall if at all possible (the exception being rooms with real stages, even tho they could still be a PITA if the crowd was small.

[Michael L]

At 120Hz, the wavelength is 9.4 ft/286 cm which is 0.5x the length and 1x width and height which will resonate; while your dip is 80 Hz (14ft/430 cm) which is too long to create standing waves. So if you change your orientation and treat the wide wall (with bookshelves, sofa, entire wall of modulars), it should raise the frequency of the standing waves to divisors of ten feet (112Hz; 225Hz; 450Hz; 900Hz) which are easier to treat. Rugs on floors are great for stopping high reflections off the ceiling. You might want to furnish it first, and add treatment second. Don't forget ceiling panels.

[herodotus]

I recommend starting with this guide:
https://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

The best cheap all purpose room treatments are made with rigid fiberglass, which is just fiberglass that has been compressed under controlled heat. It is shipped flat in 2' by 4' rectangles. It is much more efficient than foam as an absorber

It's a specialty product, and In its pure form it can be hard to find locally. But you can find fiberglass suspended ceiling tiles in almost any home improvement store. These are just 3/8 inch thick pieces of rigid fiberglass with thin white plastic on one side, and if you stack them they will perform identically with the other stuff.

More than anyone could ever want to know about acoustic treatment is available for free here: https://ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html. The good news is that the treatments are fairly cheap to make. The bad news is that you'll have some work to do.

[crimsonwarlock]

It is much more efficient than foam as an absorber

But nobody suggested foam as an absorber here

The bad news is that you'll have some work to do.

Yep, there is some work in it, but it's not that difficult and actually fun to build your own and you can make them the exact sizes and colors for your room. You can see some of mine here:
viewtopic.php?p=7412169#p7412169

[crimsonwarlock]

BTW, I'm currently building some slot resonators, planning for diffusers after that

[AnX]

https://youtu.be/pABvTWSxOes