Thought I’d start a place where we can ask questions and share some thoughts, images, plans, DIY and anything related on the topic of making our spaces sound better.
Most of us have far from ideal rooms for our passion and just hanging a few absorbers and putting bass traps in the corners helped me tame my current almost cube-like space.
To kick things off, the first question I have is on desk placement for my new studio.
We’ll be moving into our house soon and I have this space for my little studio.
It’s 3,8 × 3,6 × 2,5m with a sloped ceiling which starts at around 90cm.
The shape of your room is very similar to mine. The slant on your roof looks shallower than mine and my main problem I’ve had is my height. I’m 6’7 and can only stand up at the highest point of the room.
I did used to have everything set-up against the high wall in the room, but I didn’t have much space to move backwards in my seat and would keep banging my head on the roof.
If I would have set up against the low wall, I’d lose so much space to get my speakers at the right height I wouldn’t have had enough room to freely move about the space in my chair.
So in the end I set it up like I do now, and as my gear list has grown I honestly couldn’t set it up a different way.
I don’t have any acoustic treatment though, I mainly mix on headphones using Slate VMX as I do most of my work once the family are all asleep, I then finish mixes off using IK MTMs. But at least in this configuration they are away from the walls and the correct height. I’m no mixing expert but I can get a decent sounding mix with this set-up.
It has been a double edged sword. On one hand I’ve always had to make comprimises due to the dimensions of this room but it is a large space and if the ceiling was full height, no way would I be allowed by the family to use this, I’d of been relegated to a smaller room in the house.
it’s one thing to treat a room for “perfect” accoustic…
and it’s another thing, to treat a room to NOT feel disturbed by the outside world and ALSO NOT disturb that same outside world…
to achieve a “perfect” accoustic room is way more easy and cheaper to do, than to make sure ur neighbours will never bother u…and on top of it all, that u will never bother ur neighbours…
these two goals are frequently mixed up, but ain’t the same at all…just sayin’…
my living room/studio is much bigger,
but has a similar shape like your room.
pros and cons in my experience are:
that shape needs much less treatment
than a normal cuboid room.
the ceiling is like an acoustic element already.
(less parallel surfaces, wood/insulation)
One little “trick” to solve the problem with speaker height on the low side of such rooms is to let them point up a bit.
What I didn’t like on the low side is that my speakers where so near to the ceiling, no matter what.
I have them on the high side of the room for that reason, my room just sounds better that way. My speakers need some distance from the wall so I loose a lot of space too, but I can still stand or even jump in the front of my desk,
I´d concentrate on the ergonomics of your studio(stuff you own) first,
and think about acoustic treatment later.
If you fill up that room with the usual stuff (+curtain, carpet, books, plants…) it should sound pretty good anyway.
Nice place! And I am more and more moving into the direction of placing my desk under the slope.
I am not as tall as you, but I have enough space to be able to stand in front of my desk and I might steal your idea for the tier stands to go a bit vertical rather then into depth.
