Hello, I would like to have your thoughts on my home office/studio project please. I've all but finished now, just need to decide on flooring. Up until tonight I have been 100% convinced of carpet, however looking for advise and everyone I've read says to use wood flooring. My problem is the room is really echoey (if thats how you spell it) and needs damping down and maybe some limited acoustic foam in specific places. Would my small room warrant carpet in this instance for recording vocals and guitar as well as mixing? It's going to be a multi function room as office/studio/light workshop as hinted by last photo showing desk and workbench. I'm will be covering floor and shelf area with whatever. The ceiling was insulated with board+polystyrene, the floors were raised with chip wood and polystyrene sheets between battens, the walls have all been plastered and painted.

First photo shows my previous home office where I recorded all my tracks (if you've ever listened to them). So I'm trying to improve on what I had.

Hang drapes from the walls and on the windows. You have a lot of bare flat sound reflective wall space. In place of carpet.... place some throw runs on the open areas of the floor. Cushioned chairs and other furniture will also affect the acoustics so as you add that, the sound will change.

You want to find that balance between the room being too "live" and too "dead".

The room I use has carpet, and acoustic 12" interlocking ceiling tiles. Also no drapes, just furniture. When we had the room painted, the furniture was put into the room adjoining. There was an obvious difference in the "sound" of the empty room. It sounded hollow.... or more "live" with lots of unimpeded reflective surfaces.

After you're in the room, if it's still too "live" it's a simple matter to make or buy sound absorbing baffles and bass traps.

Paul you want as much damping in that space as possible. Hard floor is for bigger spaces. If you ever find a need for a more live room, put a sheet of paneling on the floor temporarily.

Paul,

It looks as though you're going to have a really nice, multi-purpose space once it is completed.

I would be thinking of comfort first and how does it sound while recording second. That's because you're likely to be spending extended time periods in the space. If you're not comfortable, how can you enjoy it?

As has been noted in prior posts you can use rugs to dampen reflective surfaces or lay down something temporary to add more reflective surface so both the choice of hardwood or carpet is viable.

Headphones are really the only solution in such a narrow room.

Thanks people. I agree the room needs to be deadened as much as possible. I'm having a short pile carpet fitted on Friday with underlay. I have a kitchen that has wooden flooring and sounds brighter so if I need a brighter sounding vocals I can always record into my laptop from there. I reckon I may need some acoustic foam tiles but will see how it goes first when my stuff is moved in.

Paul,

Scott is right. Don't waste money on sound absorption. The length of one 50 Hz cycle is approximately 22 feet. You simply don't have enough space to hear low freqs adequately.


Regards,

Bob

Paul, as pointed out in your prior thread, there is very high acoustic modal density in that space in lower frequencies which cannot be managed with carpet. It's just simple physics. For mixing, you will need to use headphones for any accuracy below perhaps 500 Hz or so.

It will be very interesting to see what happens. I agree carpet may not be enough but it will reduce room echo. I've got some Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones that I've used to mix with all my tracks and so I will continue to use them but also compare them with my KRK 6VXT's.

I just noticed this article about headphones you can supposedly mix with.

As long as you have fairly flat response headphones, they will be better for mixing than any speakers in this space. Very simple room mode physics presents very uneven bass response as well as comb filtering in mid and higher frequencies. Absorption on the wall behind the desk and listening position will help to cut down the comb filtering but there is really no helping the room modes in such a narrow space.

Very interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

https://youtu.be/PGzWNp3lxXY

Well here's my 95% finished room. Just settling in after a week and finding places for everything. Sound quality from my HiFi system is very good. Not tested VXTs yet. Room echo has completely gone.

Paul,

Nice looking room! Looks like it will be a nice, dedicated spot to play with your music.

95% complete. Is the remaining 5% wall decorations? It will be interesting to hear how the decorations alter the sound of the room.

I hope you will post a link or two to some tunes that demonstrate how the new room sounds!

A "Man Cave" for sure. Looks neat.