Beginner Treating L shaped Room

[TravellingHammer]

Hi there

Have been researching this all afternoon.

My room layout is in the shape of an L and there's straight sloping ceilings in two areas.

This is the room I have to use and the reason I'm posting is because I'm concerned a home studio/significant investment could be wasted if the room is particularly bad.

Looks a bit like this:

http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/images/decorating_living_rooms_layout.jpg

Where the sofas are placed in the above picture, are the sloped ceilings.

My initial plan is to setup the speakers and desk in front of double windows (imagine them opposite the grey box shape in the picture). The windows span the distance of that top wall.

This would be on the long side of the room but the shorter side end (the far right sofa side) is in a wierd alcove bit with a sloped ceiling which I imagine would change the sound significantly.

Love to hear feedback from anyone with experience in this area.

Thanks for your time

[DC-Choppah]

I am not an expert in this area and am still learning how to treat my own project studio space.

But you should say what you are trying to do in this room. Is this a studio, with a mix position?
Are you just watching movies? What are you going to do in there?

Just trying to help.

[TravellingHammer]

Sorry, good shout

I am wanting to setup a home recording studio for mixing and recording purposes.
I'm already using the room for recording but have been mixing at a friend's studio.

Am yet to buy monitors until I've got advice on the room.

[Helmutcrab]

Hi TravellingHammer,

A diagram with room dimensions may help here but i appreciate its a bit of effort. Just going on the diagram you linked ( if roughly correct ) i think the standard advice would be to set up the speakers where you have placed the sofa. That way you will be firing them down the longest length of the room ( the best way whenever possible ). This position will also allow for side wall to side wall symmetry at the mixing position. This is important for stereo imaging. The small part of the L looks very small but could still be treated. Having windows is good as it lets some of the low end pass out of the room but i appreciate obscuring them with a side trap is not ideal but necessary.

However, you mention the sofa is in an alcove with sloping ceiling ?. Difficult to visualise this without a description and diagram/drawing or maybe you could take a photo of it and post it up ?. I think with a bit more information someone more knowledgable than myself would be best to advise you on this part as where you set up is very important to the acoustic treatment you employ.

Cheers,

Peter

[JH Brandt]

+1 to what Peter wrote above.

We really need some measurements to advise. Height included.

cheers,
John

[thefruitfarmer]

Hi there

Have been researching this all afternoon.

My room layout is in the shape of an L and there's straight sloping ceilings in two areas.

This is the room I have to use and the reason I'm posting is because I'm concerned a home studio/significant investment could be wasted if the room is particularly bad.

What you could do is find the best place for the speakers first.....use one speaker in mono and move it around the room. Find the point where the bass is full sounding....then bring a second speaker next to the first and move them apart to find a good spacing for stereo.

You will probably find this is firing down the long axis of the room.

There will be places in the room where the bass will sound uneven, some notes will agitate the air in your room and become louder or quieter than they should be.

To reduce the effect of the room colouring the sound you can add bass traps. You can build them yourself or you can buy them.

Depending on the exact dimensions of your room I would say that you can probably do something in the room that will make a significant difference. It is a portable investment in that you can take the bass traps with you when you move. As to the cost, DIY is considerably cheaper but you need to have the motivation, tools, knowhow and facilities to make them yourself.

[TravellingHammer]

Hey guys

Thanks for such helpful responses.

I have taken two photos of the room that will hopefully help form a general consensus of where to mix from?

1) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151443155191269&am...

2) Photo 2

[Helmutcrab]

Hi there,

Cheers for the photo you posted. Your probably aware the second photo is the same as the first i think - easily done. After looking at that photo i can understand your conundrum. It may work if there is enough space for at least say a 3 ft stereo pair of speakers but i do not know if there will be enough space to then place bass traps in that part of the room as well. As thefruitfarmer said you could try a speaker there and see how it sounds using the SOS bass staircase test tones or the like.

I got a lot of help here after i posted a diagram detailing all dimensions including room heights. I would advise you to measure the room from wall to wall and wall to ceiling and also measure the area in question which appears to be a triangle shape including all details. The more info you give, the more help you are likely to receive.

I think G.I.K acoustics may give free professional advice in the UK ? but again i think they will probably need more info to give the best advise. If you are not confident with d.i.y or don't have the tools or time ( which is considerable ) i would advise looking into them as they are reasonably priced and would save a lot of work, especially if its just for a small number of traps as there is a fairly steep learning curve initially ( acoustics research, basic wood work, upholstering, the right tools, the right materials and sourcing them locally etc ).

All the best,

Peter.