Need Tips for Strange Shaped Room

[blinkrocker3]

I have a very unusual control room that causes me quite a few issues when mixing. I have noticed a trend of my mixes being too muddy. I believe this has something to do with what Brandon talked about in KHR when he said that people over-compensate for room problems. Although I have never tested my room, my guess would be that I have loads of problems with my low end, most likely from comb filtering. My first move to improving the acoustics would be to bass trap the hell out of it, but I have an unusual corner, so I thought I submit a fairly accurate drawing of my room, along with my current mixing position and see if anyone had any advice.

[bozmillar]

If at all possible, you might get better results if you center your desk in the room. That will at least keep the stereo image more accurate.a

As far as bass traps go, keep in mind that they don't have to be in the corner. That is where they are most effective, but they can work on walls too, if you don't mind them protruding into the room.

[String7th]

The room is not acoustically bad as far as being odd shapped.

Here's a starter for ideas in this pic I made.
Center the desk longways and bring a foot or 2 away from the wall. The bass traps or accoustic pannels can be as simple as rigid fiberglass or mineral board covered in fabric and mounted on the wall. If you know your way around home depot, buy some spacers for the wall panels so it hangs a couple inches off the wall for lower frequency trapping.

Also what I didn;t draw in the picture is you will want those same cloth covered boards over the listening position.

[TonyB]

Good points.

As Boz said, bass traps are most effective in the corners. They are also effective on walls. I have the GIK tri-corner bass traps in the corner (you can DIY your own) as well as the 4" 2x4 panels on the back and front walls. On the side walls I have the 2" 2x4 broadband panels (low-mid freqs to hi-freqs) to reduce first reflections, nodal problems, etc.

As String said, go longways in the room. This is a must. If you are situated with the short walls on your left and right, if you go longways you'll notice a big difference.

Non-square rooms are great for CRs. You definitely don't want a square room. So you got a good room to work in.

You didn't say how high the ceiling is. If it's 10' or lower you might need to hang a 2' thick cloud over your work area.

[blinkrocker3]

The problem with string7th's layout is that there is a window taking up about 2/3 of the wall behind the monitors so I can't but any kind of treatment there and I'm also assuming that it's not good to have glass there.

You didn't say how high the ceiling is. If it's 10' or lower you might need to hang a 2' thick cloud over your work area.

I have an 8' ceiling.

[String7th]

It's not out of the question to block the window.
Check this out
Directly in front of me used to be a 3 ft wide, 5 ft tall window. I stuffed it with blankets, a plywood board, more blankets, and installed a 8 ft curtain along the whole wall to make it not look trashy.

[Audio~Geek]

That's a good plan String7th has drawn up.
And +1 on the cloud idea.

[blinkrocker3]

what exactly is a cloud?

Besides:
8' ceiling - 2' for cloud + 6'1" engineer = problem

As for the window, how much worse would a think curtain be than what you did?

[edub357]

Originally Posted by blinkrocker3

what exactly is a cloud?

Besides:
8' ceiling - 2' for cloud + 6'1" engineer = problem

As for the window, how much worse would a think curtain be than what you did?

just float the blanket above your work space, let it hang lose, you want to dampen the sound. string7th has a great idea for your window issue, u can just frame it out and block it off. but the curtain was something i was thinking of doing

[Bigduggieface]

Originally Posted by blinkrocker3

what exactly is a cloud?

Somebody please elaborate on this 'cloud' idea.

I would assume you need to hang a fabric with some relatively substantial mass to it, otherwise the lower frequencies would pass through unimpeded. I can see how this would provide a tiny bit of diffusion as well, since if you fasten the four corners, the sag in the middle would create a convex surface.

I've got an ugly (but thick and substantial) moving blanket. I thought about buying some prettier fabric to cover it, and hang this thing from its corners from the ceiling, about 3 feet behind my mixing chair. Maybe stuff the gap between the fabric and the ceiling with some sort of absorptive material.

Any comments about this? I thought it might be more attractive and easier to install than fastening broadband absorbers to the ceiling.