Are you a room acoustic expert?

[midKnight]

Hey Gang...

I hope it's ok to post this question on this thread, as I have decided to take my 2nd bedroom and now turn it into a control room/recording booth.

I have been reading up on room treatment all day (love days where I have nothing to do at work) and quite frankly my head is going to explode. Math aside, it sounds like an extremely complex subject that while I'm interested in making the best recordings possible, I quite honestly don't want to become a "room acoustics engineer".

I'm going to go home and make a scale drawing of my room, and I'd love it if I could get some opinions on the best layout for the room, as I really can't afford to have separate control/recording rooms, but it's a fairly decently sized room (with some unusual features, my roof is slightly angled and I have wood beams running across the ceiling evenly spaced), so I'm hoping I can get away with doing both in the same room.

This is probably a bad question to ask (but there's of part of me that perhaps enjoys the "ignorance is bliss" cliche), I have always been pretty happy with the sound quality of the music I play in this room, but after reading all day I'm realizing that while it's pleasing to my ears, it certainly isn't accurate in any sense of the word, so I'm beginning to wonder if I will enjoy listening to it as much once I have made some adjustments to make it more accurate?

I have read all day long about ear fatigue in untreated/unbalanced rooms, and it must be my total lack of understanding, but I can listen to my mediocre system all day long (in my untreated room) and I "feel" fine (no headaches or other symptoms)... so I must totally be missing the boat on this subject.

-Nick

[String7th]

Originally Posted by midKnight

I have read all day long about ear fatigue in untreated/unbalanced rooms, and it must be my total lack of understanding, but I can listen to my mediocre system all day long (in my untreated room) and I "feel" fine (no headaches or other symptoms)... so I must totally be missing the boat on this subject.

Not everyone gets it, especially if you have very nice monitors, contantly listen at low volumes, or just don't mix all day everyday. For the past year I have spent about 25-35 a week in front of my monitors. Mostly Saturday and Sunday 10 hours each, then scattered throughout the week. After about the 6th month, I knew very well what ear fatigue is. Now I just can't mix after a project. I have to explain to the band, we'll come back and listen with fresh ears, because right now I want to punch a kitten.

[brandondrury]

while I'm interested in making the best recordings possible, I quite honestly don't want to become a "room acoustics engineer".

I know that feeling!

This is probably a bad question to ask (but there's of part of me that perhaps enjoys the "ignorance is bliss" cliche), I have always been pretty happy with the sound quality of the music I play in this room, but after reading all day I'm realizing that while it's pleasing to my ears, it certainly isn't accurate in any sense of the word, so I'm beginning to wonder if I will enjoy listening to it as much once I have made some adjustments to make it more accurate?

You bring up a GREAT point. My control room is pretty much dead. My live room is definitely live. You can hear lots of ambiance and it has an exciting quality to it. It's fun to be in that room. When you walk into the control room it kind of sounds like you are in trouble. It's not that my control room is THAT dead, it just isn't LIVE.

It gets very tricky when you are tracking instruments in the same room as you are mixing them. There is definitely something to this "ignorance is bliss". To take it further, if you aren't an expert you could be doing more harm than good. This one reason I recommend focusing on low end treatments with bass traps and keeping the midrange and top end reflections about where they are in most cases.

When you get your monitoring system really accurate, the benefits are astronomical! However, it took me 6 years to get them where I wanted them.

I have read all day long about ear fatigue in untreated/unbalanced rooms, and it must be my total lack of understanding, but I can listen to my mediocre system all day long (in my untreated room) and I "feel" fine (no headaches or other symptoms)... so I must totally be missing the boat on this subject.

I've never heard of this. I always associated ear fatigue with harshness.

After about the 6th month, I knew very well what ear fatigue is. Now I just can't mix after a project.

This is pyschological unless you just constantly blast your monitors. For a million bucks you could DEFINITELY mix right after a project. I had a band that wanted to track and mix 6 songs in one day. OUCH! I was exhausted, but we did it. The mixes actually turned out pretty damn good considering I never got to play them on another system or make any changes.

I think it's hard to tell the difference between ear fatigue and total body fatigue!

[String7th]

Listening to crappy music too long fatigue