CrimsonWarlock's new studio build

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crimsonwarlock
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03 Feb 2023

As I mentioned in other topics, my studio was located in an office building that is a one-hour drive (100 Km) from my house. I'm now moving the studio back home, so I will have more time available to do music again. I've started this topic to track and report the project. Maybe someone can get some inspiration for their own home studio.

The room at my office had just about perfect measures, but at home the studio will reside in the attic room with a slanted roof. There are other issues as well, like the roof beams are not placed symmetrical left and right. The room is also just 3 meters deep, which is far from optimal. I'm hoping to get a usable acoustic response with all the absorbers I have.

Over the last two weeks, I've moved our bedroom to another space that came available as the kids have left the house now. This is how the attic looks after that.


20230128_150221.jpg
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Next is removing the TV and setting up a storage rack. After that, I'm going to mount all the acoustic panels on the walls. The whole studio build will probably take a few weeks. After the initial build, I also plan to build a new desk. We'll see where that goes.
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ordjob2
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03 Feb 2023

Why would people watch an empty attic? This is a forum, not a personal blog.

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crimsonwarlock
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03 Feb 2023

ordjob2 wrote:
03 Feb 2023
Why would people watch an empty attic? This is a forum, not a personal blog.
Yep, you're right. Sharing experiences should only be done on a personal blog. Forums and other Social Media are not meant for that :? :shock:
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DaveyG
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03 Feb 2023

ordjob2 wrote:
03 Feb 2023
Why would people watch an empty attic? This is a forum, not a personal blog.
Shush! I'm watching that picture to see if anything moves.
I'm also a bit worried about the captive elephant's trunk

Tiny Montgomery
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03 Feb 2023

ordjob2 wrote:
03 Feb 2023
Why would people watch an empty attic? This is a forum, not a personal blog.
Bit rude if you don't mind me saying. This forum is exactly the place for this kind of thing

I'm interested in this as I may be redecorating my spare room soon, looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Popey
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03 Feb 2023

Be good to see the finished room but I cannot stop looking at that poor elephants trunk now someone mentioned it.

#freetheelephant

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crimsonwarlock
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03 Feb 2023

I was thinking about a name for the studio (every studio needs a lava lamp and a name :puf_wink: ), so I guess it has to be “The Elephant's Trunk Studio” :puf_bigsmile:
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Rising Night Wave
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03 Feb 2023

crimsonwarlock wrote:
03 Feb 2023
I was thinking about a name for the studio (every studio needs a lava lamp and a name :puf_wink: ), so I guess it has to be “The Elephant's Trunk Studio” :puf_bigsmile:
since you have some sort of a wizzard in an avatar picture... you could name your studio in vein something like: The Wizzard Of Gore And Death Studio AKA WOGAD Studio :cool: :clap:
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visheshl
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03 Feb 2023

😁 yes i support studios getting lava lamps...and elephant's trunk studio is a cool name

Popey
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03 Feb 2023

I quite like elephant trunk studio and it is certainly fitting.

May I also suggest "The house of Trunk" a play on words of the house of funk. Seeing as it's now located in you home which appears to have a captive elephant 😂

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crimsonwarlock
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03 Feb 2023

A little update. Some storage space set up, and I put some stuff in it to get it out of the way.

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selig
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03 Feb 2023

I don’t know if it’s possible for you to do, but the first thing I did after my space was finished and still empty was to setup my monitors and do some quick tests in different positions. It’s much easier to do that stuff without having to move everything around. Or maybe you don’t have any options with regards to listening position and monitor/sub placement but I found it helpful since everything else revolved around finding the best starting point for the room. Once I settled on a starting position I set my existing room treatments against the wall for a quick test, then after things were fine tuned I committed to the setup and hauled the rest of the junk in!

I also have a sloped ceiling but it runs the other direction with the low points in front and behind the listening position. Ceiling treatments will likely be essential in that space…
Good luck with the space, it can be a bit tedious moving your studio but I always loved ‘bringing it home’ after it was located away from the house.
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crimsonwarlock
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03 Feb 2023

selig wrote:
03 Feb 2023
I don’t know if it’s possible for you to do, but the first thing I did after my space was finished and still empty was to setup my monitors and do some quick tests in different positions. It’s much easier to do that stuff without having to move everything around. Or maybe you don’t have any options with regards to listening position and monitor/sub placement but I found it helpful since everything else revolved around finding the best starting point for the room. Once I settled on a starting position I set my existing room treatments against the wall for a quick test, then after things were fine tuned I committed to the setup and hauled the rest of the junk in!
I wish I had that option, but the room dimensions dictate a fixed listening position. However, this also dictates first reflection points, so those are easy to handle before everything goes in to place. First positive point is that the room has basically no flutter echos while being untreated, so that's a win in my book.

My monitors will also be closer to the back wall than I would like, again because of room dimensions. But they have special settings/switches for close positioning, so I expect that to be no big problem. I will measure (and if possible, correct) the frequency response of the room with SoundWorks as a final step. I'll post the graphs when I get there.
selig wrote:
03 Feb 2023
I also have a sloped ceiling but it runs the other direction with the low points in front and behind the listening position. Ceiling treatments will likely be essential in that space…
Completely agree. The most obvious corner in the room is where the two sides of the ceiling meets at the top. So I'm putting acoustic panels up there for sure (pictures when it's done :puf_wink: ). I also have a nice cloud, so that will help a lot. However, even the positioning of my acoustic panels is being dictated largely by the positioning of the roof beams.
selig wrote:
03 Feb 2023
Good luck with the space, it can be a bit tedious moving your studio but I always loved ‘bringing it home’ after it was located away from the house.
Yep, the anticipation is killing me :puf_bigsmile:
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selig
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03 Feb 2023

As for monitor position, for most monitors you either want them free field or against the wall. The zone in between is actually the worst case. My last setup was in NYC, so basically a closet! I had to run my rear ported JBLs against the wall (with a 6” GIK panel between) and that’s when I first began digging deeper into the wall issue.
Basically you can put even a rear ported speaker as close to the wall as possible without blocking the rear port. The general rule is if the port is 2” across, leave 2” from the wall.
The idea of Space Loading also comes into play as you move closer to the wall, which results in a 6 dB boost that moves up in frequency as you move closer to the wall. You already mentioned you had monitors that use built in correction for this, so you’re good to go.
Read more here:
https://sonicscoop.com/the-1-speaker-pl ... ely-wrong/

All to say, don’t fear putting your speakers (almost) against the wall, the ‘problem’ it creates is super easy to fix plus you get to use more of your rooms floor space which is important in smaller spaces. You can even move the speakers in/out a bit to fine tune the low end to your liking without changing the basic setup.

The most interesting thing about spaces like this is the “corner” in the ceiling is like any other corner. If you straddle it with a broadband panel you’ll trap the bass as well as the first reflection overhead! Two for one bonus achieved.
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crimsonwarlock
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03 Feb 2023

selig wrote:
03 Feb 2023
As for monitor position, for most monitors you either want them free field or against the wall. The zone in between is actually the worst case. My last setup was in NYC, so basically a closet! I had to run my rear ported JBLs against the wall (with a 6” GIK panel between) and that’s when I first began digging deeper into the wall issue.
Basically you can put even a rear ported speaker as close to the wall as possible without blocking the rear port. The general rule is if the port is 2” across, leave 2” from the wall.
The idea of Space Loading also comes into play as you move closer to the wall, which results in a 6 dB boost that moves up in frequency as you move closer to the wall. You already mentioned you had monitors that use built in correction for this, so you’re good to go.
Read more here:
https://sonicscoop.com/the-1-speaker-pl ... ely-wrong/
Great info, as I've become to expect from you :thumbup:
selig wrote:
03 Feb 2023
All to say, don’t fear putting your speakers (almost) against the wall, the ‘problem’ it creates is super easy to fix plus you get to use more of your rooms floor space which is important in smaller spaces. You can even move the speakers in/out a bit to fine tune the low end to your liking without changing the basic setup.
That's a great tip, I will definitely try that out with my current setup, which is monitors on separate monitor stands. But I'm planning to build a new desk, and that one will have the monitors on the desk itself. I guess in that case, I can move the desk itself just a little. Will see, that desk is at least a few months into the future.
selig wrote:
03 Feb 2023
The most interesting thing about spaces like this is the “corner” in the ceiling is like any other corner. If you straddle it with a broadband panel you’ll trap the bass as well as the first reflection overhead! Two for one bonus achieved.
Exactly what I'm planning to do. I'm basically going to hang a horizontal basstrap in the top of the ceiling :puf_bigsmile:
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MuttReason
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03 Feb 2023

Interesting thread, will be following!

I had an attic space studio years ago and found that lower mids resonant frequencies (essentially harmonics from low bass notes, not the fundamental of the bass note itself) were an issue. Problem was the attic was literally just a converted loft space and the floor was pine planks on wooden joists. Hit the right note at enough of a volume (loud-ish but not crazy, certainly no more than I’d use to check a mix at slightly above quiet listening level) and the entire floor went into ‘washing machine on spin cycle’ mode, if you know what I mean. Drove me nuts and nothing I could do about it short of lifting the floorboards and putting in a floating floor on acoustic rubber blocks. It may be worth setting up monitors early (as Selig suggests) and doing a frequency sweep at moderate volume to see if anything in the room structure starts to join in the chorus.

It’s much less likely to be an issue if your house is a newer build with a more rigid floor structure. My experience was in a 200 year old house where the floors were not much more than a bunch of beams and planks nailed together. The whole room basically turned into a very large, very badly made bass cab :-)

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crimsonwarlock
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03 Feb 2023

MuttReason wrote:
03 Feb 2023
It may be worth setting up monitors early (as Selig suggests) and doing a frequency sweep at moderate volume to see if anything in the room structure starts to join in the chorus.
No such issues here. This house was built somewhere in the seventies or eighties. It is basically pressurized concrete in walls and floors. The roofing is wood (with ceramic panes on top), and the wood structure is also very heavy with a lot of mass. For moderate sound levels and even somewhat above that, nothing is going to move :puf_smile:

Meanwhile, the first acoustic panels are up:

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Hopefully, I get them up on the other side tomorrow, and do the absorbers in the top of the ceiling. If all goes well, then I'll get to hang the mixing spot cloud on Sunday. After that, internet cabling and LAN-switch installation.
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MuttReason
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03 Feb 2023

Cool. Dense building materials definitely a good thing.

Always enjoy seeing how other people put their studios together.

I also always end up with studio envy because for some reason the older I get the fewer square metres I have available to me to take over as my music space. I’m now down to a single 1.3m x 0.6m desk!

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crimsonwarlock
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04 Feb 2023

MuttReason wrote:
03 Feb 2023
I also always end up with studio envy because for some reason the older I get the fewer square metres I have available to me to take over as my music space.
Same here. I've accumulated more and more music stuff over the years, and have less and less space to put it in :puf_wink:

I moved my studio to my office building a couple of years ago because I had a nice room spare there, but the travel distance was killing it. It took a while to convince my wife to move our bedroom out of the attic and into the old bedroom of our daughter (who has flown out, she's an MD now). So now the attic is mine. Quite a bit smaller than the previous room, but very nice to be able to walk into the studio again when I desire :puf_smile:
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crimsonwarlock
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04 Feb 2023

Another small update, hanging the ceiling-top absorbers. Not that easy as the ceiling top is about 4 meters above the floor.


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Jagwah
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05 Feb 2023

Really cool Crimson I will follow with interest. Looking like it's going to be pretty slick, and at home too, fan friggen tastic!

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selig
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05 Feb 2023

MuttReason wrote:
03 Feb 2023
Cool. Dense building materials definitely a good thing.
Not necessarily. My studio tour of Power Station (now Avatar) in NYC revealed they used more flexible walls to intentionally absorb the sound (which of course came as a surprise to me). Solid/dense materials will reflect most/all energy back into the space which increases issues like standing waves/modes. Which is fine if you are prepared to absorb them like high end builds do. But it’s a trade off either way - more dense equals less transmission both directions but also more issues with the sound inside the space. Sums up the two sides of acoustics in audio - transmission vs sonics. In this case the point is moot since the build stage is long sense finished, but I would suspect bass trapping will be important in this space.

That said, transmission was not an issue for my recent build since I have no direct neighbors closer than 1/4 mile at the closest (lucky me!). I did want to be comfortable and opted for 5/8” drywall (thicker than would normally be used) and spray foam insulation all around, and the space stays nice and cozy in the cold (got down to -8° F/-22° C and the studio was still reasonably comfortable the next day (not warm, but not frozen either!).
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crimsonwarlock
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05 Feb 2023

selig wrote:
05 Feb 2023
Solid/dense materials will reflect most/all energy back into the space which increases issues like standing waves/modes.
Agreed. You need dense material for sound proofing, and absorbent material for acoustic treatment. If you do serious sound proofing you get a lot of hard, and therefore reflective areas that you then need to handle acoustically. As for the Power Station, all that wood in the control rooms is pretty special, but my guess is that it acts more as a broadband diffuser than an absorber. On a side note, it's called Power Station again (now owned by Berklee music academy).

However, we weren't talking about sound proofing or acoustics, we were talking about stuff not being mounted solidly enough and the chance that stuff starts to vibrate and rattle. Same as people set their monitors directly on their desk without proper decoupling, and not realizing that they now have another odd resonator (the desk) that's bringing frequencies into the space.

Indeed, because of the quite heavy building materials used in the roof of this house, I do have many reflective areas. Fortunately, because of the steep slope of the ceiling (almost down to the floor), parallel walls are less than 25% of the room, so treating first reflection points will get me a long way.
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crimsonwarlock
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05 Feb 2023

Another small update. The mix-position cloud is up.


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Jagwah
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05 Feb 2023

selig wrote:
05 Feb 2023
That said, transmission was not an issue for my recent build since I have no direct neighbors closer than 1/4 mile at the closest (lucky me!).
If you are talking about the studio you use now I thought that was in an office building for some reason.

I wonder how Crimson's studio will hold up against yours, which appears to be quite the professional studio we would all love to have, I know I sure would! :thumbup:

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