What can I realistically do to improve this space?

[sphelan]

Here are some photos of my "studio" or should I say "space for music making".

http://picasaweb.google.es/shaneskil...09270375067570

It's not quite up to the level of Circle Studios...yet, but it's all I've got.

The gear I have is as follows:

• Mac Pro
• Digidesign 003
• Keystation Pro 88
• KRK RP6s plus RP10
• Kore2
• Acoustic guitar
• Ibanez bass guitar
• Squire Strat
• Various percussion instruments
• Yamaha PSR9000 (for decoration)
• Mics: Sm57, Sm58, 2x AKG Preception 150, Rhode NT1A, AKG C1000S, AKG C3000B,

As you can see, it's tucked into the corner of the living room in our two-bedroom apartment. Not anywhere ideal at all, I know. But until I win the lottery or someone starts a collection for me, it's all I've got for the moment and for the near future.

The room is 6m 35cm long by 3m 33cm wide. The "studio" occupies 180x150cm of this! I can here Trev wincing already!!!

There is a large window to my left when facing the monitors (photo 2 and 3). Behind my head there is a bookcase on the other wall (photo 5 and 2).

Really I am very limited in what I can do regarding fixing or hanging panels on the walls. I could make up some free standing panels if they might improve things but storing them might be awkward given the space.

We hope to buy something bigger in the future, but that could be a year or two down the line. As a result, I don't want to make any structural changes that could affect the appearance of the ceilings and walls when removed.

Basically, I am looking for advice on how I can maximize the results I can get from this space.

In photos 6 and 7 you can see a small hallway which has the two bedrooms and one of the bathrooms leading off it. There are therefore four doors that can be closed to make it an isolated space. Would this make a good vocal booth?

I presume I should hand duvets or something in this space to tame the reflections.

I notice anything I bounce to audio and then check on another system sound rather more boomy. Should I just disconnect the sub woofer? Could it be causing more problems that it's worth in this set up? You can see it in picture 4 just under the keyboards.

PS I was unable to upload the photos here for some reason so here is a link to them....

http://picasaweb.google.es/shaneskil...09270375067570

[Dave Boulden]

IMHO, your hallway would not be suitable for recording vocals... I think you'd get better results by hanging a duvet in one corner of your main room and then place a mic in an SE Reflexion filter (or similar) on front so that your back is to the duvet. The hallway area would probably just give you a horribly boxy sound with problematic room-mode resonances.

For mixing, probably about your only option is to either make some rockwool filled panels (or get some GIK panels from Frank) to stand temporarily on either side and behind your speakers to mitigate the unbalanced stereo field reflections from the window to the left and the full room space to the right.

There's probably not much else you can realistically do with this space on a restricted budget and still retain it's use as a living room.

[tehlord]

Get a freat big rug on that floor for a start surely?

That space is in a very similar situation to mine, except the room mine's in is about twice the size as there's an open plan kitchen as well.

For mixing purposes i've found that if I load up a similar sounding commercial track as the one i'm making in one of the mixer channels and solo that now and again I can keep track of how the room is effecting the mix. Not ideal admittedly but there's not a lot else I can do. This method had seen my mixes improve considerably in a very short space of time however. It's just about getting used to your own setup.

Your neighbours must love you btw

[FrankGIK]

Okay, check it out...I think you can fix a lot of your issues just by reorienting yourself so that you're firing down the length of the room rather than across the short width. Take the white couch and move it to the long wall next to the red one, then move the mix position so that you're facing the window. There you go...now you've got over 6m behind you, and that puts your primary mode down way, way lower than the 3m dimension would give you.

So, having done that, I'd scoot the listening position out just a bit from the wall and get a couple of 4" panels on stands (or not on stands) behind it in front of the window. Maybe you could get 4" panels on stands for the right and left reflection points. The back of the room is open, so there you have it...

Once you make that move your mixing life will improve DRAMATICALLY.

Frank

[sphelan]

Wow, Frank, you've just given me hope. I am not expecting to turn my space into a recording studio just hoping I can make some easy changes to improve the overall quality of what I'm hearing.

Cheers, mate...now I just have to convince the missus!!!

Any more tips, guys? Keep 'em coming!

[FrankGIK]

DON'T PUT UP ANY PANELS UNTIL YOU MOVE THE MIX POSITION. You may not need them at all, at least not for a while. See how much you can improve things without adding a thing.

Frank

[sphelan]

What about my sub? Is it potentially bad news in this environment?

[TrevCircleStudios]

Originally Posted by sphelan

What about my sub? Is it potentially bad news in this environment?

Frank is the man.

Sub is almost certainly bad news. If you want a sub, you need a lot more treatment to deal with it.

[modz1]

Sub..? No.. No... No....

[sphelan]

Originally Posted by modz1

Sub..? No.. No... No....

Too late to send it back to DV!!!! Just as well the fuse blew last week!! Since then I've disconnected it!

[sphelan]

I know I might be shot for asking this but...

Would I be better mixing on cans than using my current monitor set up (still have to talk to the misssus LOL!)?

[TrevCircleStudios]

In a word. No. As stated above, listen to reference mixes as you go, once you have something you are happy with on your monitors cut a disc and try it in the car, the bathroom, your ipod and on your cans and see what 's going wrong, and then go back and fix it. It makes for a much longer process but ultimately it will help you learn your monitors.

[FrankGIK]

Originally Posted by sphelan

I know I might be shot for asking this but...

Would I be better mixing on cans than using my current monitor set up (still have to talk to the misssus LOL!)?

Nope. The sub is probably not a good idea, but one way you do it kinda use it and not use it. Turn it on to reference the low end when you need to, but leave it off most of the time.

Here's the deal...everybody listening? An acoustic environment is just like a wave tank. What happens when you increase the oscillator force? You get bigger waves, right? The waves are all in the same places (wavelength), they're just higher at the peaks and lower in the troughs (amplitude). When you turn a sub on, you're pouring a ton more energy below 70Hz into the room, which is increase the amplitude at the nodes **and** the nulls; in other words, the peaks are higher and the valleys are lower. Subs have to be carefully integrated into a space...it's not that they're useless, they just have to be planned for.

Frank