It was initially built as a garage but was partitioned and converted to a workshop/homestudio.
The whole thing is concrete slab with 4x2 construction, 100mm Rockwool RW3 Acoustic insulations (all walls, ceilings, partition) and OSB sheets on the inside.
I used any left over OSB & Rockwool to make a few acoustic panels/cloud.
I didn’t have much choice on room size/shape or materials and had to work with what I could afford so the final music room dimensions are essentially a studio faux pas - despite 25 years of reading SOS I’ve ended up with low-ceilinged Square! [interior dimensions approx L3.9m x W3.7m x H2.2m]
Volume attenuation is pretty good, you can hear drums & guitars from outside but really not very loud, certainly not enough to bother anyone. Temperature control is good and usable all year round with a small electric radiator in the cold months.
It sounds reasonably dead inside, though predictably a little ‘boxy’ when using condenser mics on drums and acoustic guitars. Not terribly flattering but not quite ‘dead’ enough either. As well as the boxy sounding top end I’m not quite sure I’m hearing enough low end in the room to judge it very well and don’t know if it’s the room, the monitor position, or all of the above!
I’m aiming to achieve a dry, neutral sound that doesn’t need to be squashed too much with corrective EQ and that can have extra/improved ambience added later if required. An improvement on mixing accuracy would be nice too, though after decades of loud guitar amps and drummers on stages I am under no illusion that I have the hearing of a Bat and can to spot an errant frequency at 100 yards…working demo mixes are about all I’m good for and I’d use someone with better ears to do things properly should the need arise. That said, I don’t want to be sending out stems that are poorly recorded or have too much of the wrong room sound if it can be avoided with some simple or obvious fixes.
Most things I read about room treatments focus on bass traps, controlling reflections and assume a traditional house type construction of plasterboard or plastered brick walls etc. whereas I’m guessing that in my build, the bass frequencies are free to depart anytime they like as they only have to defeat 11mm of OSB and a bit of rock wool.
Further, I don’t know if the textured surface of the OSB acts as some sort of diffuser, or is a bad choice that could be improved upon.
I have borrowed a Behringer reference mic to use with REW software but am a bit confused by the whole process and haven’t got around to it yet.
Forgive the basic questions (I’m only a guitar player):
Does a room like this need more bass traps - or less?
Do I need more reflective surfaces or less?
Do I need more absorption/diffusion or less?
Concrete floor good or bad?
Better to record instruments adjacent to the less reflective acoustic panel wall and mix at the more reflective OSB walls - or the other way round?
Hoping for some general advice/observations from someone who might have a similar setup and any observations or criticisms to kick me in the right direction.
If it was your room, what would you do?
(Pics below hopefully)
