Studio Reorganisation

[OriginalNoGuru]

I got a pretty small space in the attic and as I add pieces I'm forced to reorganise (and sometimes eject) my gear. The attic is also the storage for family camping gear, wetsuits, winter coats and a myriad of other things we need to keep but don't have room for day-2-day in the house.

Just got a new keyboard (and a FaderPort) and with no room on my desk my father-in-law has donated an old keyboard stand for me to put it on.
It's still gonna require a major re-shuffle and furniture move (it's a really small space!) to get it to fit and be able to access the things I need regularly.

Got me thinking... How often do you all reorganise (if at all) your studios?
Is it just as difficult in a larger space than a small one?
Is your studio space dedicated or shared use (bedroom/living room/kitchen/toolshed etc) ?

 

[Haze47]

i dont think you should be reorgasising you studio much... back in the day i didnt give a shit where anything was, but since i have learnt more i know how important the layout of your space is in regards of acoustics and monitoring.... basically your speakers NEED to be shooting down the long walls of your room and the listening position needs to be 1/3 of the way down that wall as such... otherwise you are risking your tunes being influenced by standing waves... if i had a space like you seem to i would fuck of trying to monitor in it at all and just use good quality studio headphones.... either adjust the room as i said, or use headphones, dont fuck about shoved in a corner or off to one side or too close to a wall etc etc - if you do, your mixes might sound good in that room, but they mos def wont travel...

Ideally you need bass traps in the back corners, but sofas/heavy furnishings do help somewhat - you aint gunna have any trouble with room reflections fucking with your high end as it sounds like there is loads of stuff to diffuse the sound, but i bet your low end will suffer...

im lucky in that i use a spare bedroom as a dedicated space - only got mu music stuff in... room is a good size so i can arrange it as mentioned.... was a nightmare producing in other places i have lived in - like i say, the tunes all sounded shit outside of the studio....

 

[Fade]

Good question. All I can do is put my shit in a corner of the room unfortunately, so my right speaker is at the corner and it's much bassier than the left, so I need to fix that with some pads or whatever. Any recommendations?

 

[Haze47]

dunno man, i would try and get that speaker away from the wall if poss - as far away from it as possible, and rearrage it so that your listening point is 2/3 of the way down your long wall and bang in the middle of your short wall - ideally you want at least a foot of space between your speakers and the wall....

this is how it should look - ignore the acoustic panneling (obviusly you do want all that if you are a mixing studio or mastering house but nearfield monitors dont need as much as all that in practicallity - furniture also helps)

http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/feb06/images/studiososmirrorpoints01.l.jpg

check the mixing postion and monitor placement in relation to the walls of the room - that placement ensure the best sound reproduction for a given room
like i say, if you cant to do that , i would use headphones for mixing man - listening to stuff, not so much of a problem, but for making beats, i would avoid monitoring in situations like that (if you want it sound good outside of your room that is....) a work around - albeit far from perfect would be to eq your audio interface output/monitors if they have have an eq - basically you are folding the sound back on itself so it could either be phase cancelling your low end leading to thin bass (which doenst seem to be what is happening) or just stacking it up and enhancing it (sorta like feedback in a way) - what i would do is a/b a tune you really know on headphones and your speakers and adjust the bass levels of your output - if you have an eq on the monitors or the audio interface start rolling the low bass off until the levels are similar in your headphones and your speakers... you will probably find you want to cut 6db or more of bass ... if you dont have an eq on the devices try and insert an eq into your soundcard, some do this and again roll off the output going to the speakers.... will be hard to a/b tho as you will have to keep muting that eq when you go back to referencing with the headphones otherwise you will be eqing the headphones low end as well, which you dont want to do.... borrow some sick phones to do this on as well if at all possible...

 

[OriginalNoGuru]

I'm kinda stuck where I am in terms of listening position.

Attic room... Eaves on 3 sides with only one vertical wall (next doors house) and a 2 foot by 4 foot hole in the floor (hatch and ladder). Pretty much 8ft by 10ft of usable (mainly seated) area and only able to stand up straight in the middle (of the house) of the 'room'. There're only 2 real options for desk placement and my chair is pretty much in the same place either way!

All the stored family stuff is under the eaves though... Arrangement with wifey is that usable part is mine.

NB: The actual corners of the room are just less than 2ft high. Room was plasterboarded (by me) and there's a lot of RWA45 (rockwool) behind the plasterboard (both in the eaves and between the rafters in the roof as well as behind the one vertical wall). Regular fibreglass loft insulation under the floor which is carpeted...

 

[Fade]

@Haze47 I would love to move it center but I just can't, there's no room. I really don't want to mix on headphones but I'm wondering if just adding some padding behind the left speaker would help.

 

[wrightboy]

@Haze47 I would love to move it center but I just can't, there's no room. I really don't want to mix on headphones but I'm wondering if just adding some padding behind the left speaker would help.

i would add padding behind both. while it's not ideal, it will definitely help.

 

[Fade]

i would add padding behind both. while it's not ideal, it will definitely help.

But the issue is the right side being bassy because it's in the corner. I don't know if the padding will help much either way because for it to be equal I'd have to have a wall on the left too. I need to try and test this shit once and for all.

 

[Haze47]

@Haze47 I would love to move it center but I just can't, there's no room. I really don't want to mix on headphones but I'm wondering if just adding some padding behind the left speaker would help.

not really tbh the problem is with the bass, not reflections, so paddng behind wont do anything - basstraps use Owen Corning type rock wool and air to subdue/absorb the standing waves - padding wont do jack... like i say best thing to do is EQ your speaker - drop the bass on your entire system...

 

[Fade]

like i say best thing to do is EQ your speaker - drop the bass on your entire system...

Once I start testing this stuff I'll post back with results. I mean, when I listen to them everything sounds ok it's just if I isolate each speaker there's a clear difference.

 

[OriginalNoGuru]

it's just if I isolate each speaker there's a clear difference.

Assuming you've swapped the monitors over just to double check it is the room and not a physical fault...

It happens...

 

[Haze47]

you should be able to eq each speaker separately tho, so it shouldnt be toooo much of a problem....