Acoustic tiles advice

domforr

Hi, I'm wanting to add a bit of acoustic improvement to my home recording set-up and need a bit of advice.

I currently just have two acoustic tiles -  one behind each monitor. I was thinking of adding a removable panel to my left where the open window is. I know I'm not ideally positioned in the corner, but I can't change that so will just have to work round it.

1) Should I add the panel on my left - or will this confuse matters if there's no symetrical panel opposite?
2) Should I put a panel to the left hand side of the left monitor (my left hand side as facing the monitor)?


It would make sense to me to fill the open gap to my left as that doesn't seem ideal, but maybe others think differently?

My room looks like this:

Cabicular

Its a compromised set up as you know. If I was going to do anything there I would put some on the ceiling. The serving hatch might actually help as if you were getting phasing or reflections you could slide your chair back and it wouldn't reflect from there
I would also consider a heavy curtain for the French doors to damp them down a bit. But to be honest it is what it is,
The speakers are too close together for anything other than really close in monitoring in which case you would struggle to get enough volume up to cause the kind of issues acoustic panels would help with.
If possible I would rotate the desk 90 degrees to the left and position it so that the monitor was in front of the serving hatch and then get a couple of speaker stands and widen out the speakers (I[m saying speakers instead of monitors to try and avoid confusion|)

domforr

Unfortunately I don't have the option of rotating the desk as the chair would then block the sliding doors. So you wouldn't recommend any panel on the left wall (the one that's very close to the side of the left monitor)?

Interesting about the hatch. I was already planning to fill it in some way but it sounds like that may be counter productive!

Cabicular

you'll get a bit of reflection off the wall that a panel would help with but the stereo separation is a bigger issue. But I know you are working with the space that you have . It's difficult to tell from the pictures just how much wall is there

domforr

So the main thing would be to try and seperate the monitors more? What about the back wall behind the monitors? I've got two panels there already but they're fairly low down, so maybe another one in the middle?

Cabicular

I t depends how loud you are monitoring. looks like a fair distance to the back wall so unless you are cranking it it probably won't make a difference. Quick check by taping or hanging a duvet will tell you a lot
The old trick is to sit at your listening position and get someone to place a small mirror on the reflective wall. when you see the speaker , thats where a tile should go. 
I would still look at the ceiling as well, you will get some bounce from that. Also the bass will be unpredictable in that corner so a home made bass trap in the corner might help
I wouldn't expect miracles but there are some small improvements you could make

Cabicular

its worth re-iterating that what you're trying to do with tiles is stop reflections. If the sound bounces off a wall and then mixes with the sound you get directly from the speaker then it can cause phasing issues (i.e. the reflected waveform cancels out the original one as it is out of phase) Because you will generally get more high frequency bounce it  tends to affect the top end.
The bass is a separate issue because the wavelengths are longer so corners should be trapped (I'e dense foam) as a rule of thumb but of course every room is different and every set of monitors is different and there is a certain amount of suck it and see.

domforr

Very interesting thank you. Just to clarify, the bass trap would go in the corner behind the left monitor? Would that be in line with the monitor?

And the ceiling tile directly above the monitors? Just a standard acoustic tile for this?

steamabacus

With such a compromised setup (in terms of room positioning), would you not be better off investing in a pair of decent reference headphones rather than acoustic tiles?

My home studio setup has compromises too and the best thing I've done in recent years is buy a pair of Shure SRH1440 headphones (they were around £165). I'm not a lover of working on cans but a mixture of using my speakers (at very low volumes in my case) for the donkey work and headphones for the finer mixing details has resulted in better results.

Cabicular

domforr said:

Very interesting thank you. Just to clarify, the bass trap would go in the corner behind the left monitor? Would that be in line with the monitor?

And the ceiling tile directly above the monitors? Just a standard acoustic tile for this?

Bass is non directional so that would be fine. If you are having issues like bass disappearing in your listening position then you might need some along the left wall.

Standard acoustic tile but if you are a bit handy insulating fibreglass and some cloth and you can make your own that look a bit nicer
One thing I occasionally do to make the wall nicer is get some canvas prints done and build out the frames a little then pack them with rockwool. and your acoustic tile is now a nice picture... less grief from the missus 

domforr

steamabacus said:

With such a compromised setup (in terms of room positioning), would you not be better off investing in a pair of decent reference headphones rather than acoustic tiles?

My home studio setup has compromises too and the best thing I've done in recent years is buy a pair of Shure SRH1440 headphones (they were around £165). I'm not a lover of working on cans but a mixture of using my speakers (at very low volumes in my case) for the donkey work and headphones for the finer mixing details has resulted in better results.

I've got a pair of Audio Technica ATH-50 headphones which I use a lot for mixing. I do like using the monitors as well though, just for some persepective and I also find the headphones quite tiring on the ears for long periods.

domforr

Actually might be worth getting some open back headphones as the AT-50's are closed so not ideal for mixing.

steamabacus

I've found the Shures pretty comfortable when wearing for long periods.

domforr

Do you think the Shures are better than the AKG K701's?

steamabacus

I'm not familiar enough with different brands to know. If I remember, the AKG K701s were one of the pairs I considered. I ended up going for the Shures because they were at a very good price at Anderton's and I'm very pleased with them. A friend of mine bought an identical set when he heard mine.

I asked on the forum for advice - have a read of this thread for recommendations -
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/64498/recommendations-for-headphones-for-mixing-200-budget

domforr

thanks, they do seem good although the price has gone up quite a bit.