I enjoy the hands on work of building. There's something about working with tools and wood, starting with nothing and making something that's profoundly satisfying. But before driving the first nail making a plan is equally fulfilling.
Over the last few weeks I've been spending time with a notebook, drawing sketches and making materials lists. My intention is to be as efficient as I can and have the whole project figured out before I start. There are a few jobs that have to be done to prepare the space, including moving a door and insulating the walls and ceiling. This will involve cutting into an existing wall and blowing in insulation, and making an access hatch to get into the ceiling. This will help with sound isolation and also with air conditioning. At that point I'll begin the actual studio construction.
The goal in a studio is to minimize the effects of the room and hear the sound from the speakers as clearly and transparently as possible. Any solid surface will reflect sound waves and depending on the distance from the source will create an echo from the returning wave. These waves interact, with the result adding frequencies to the sound that aren't actually there. There are two ways to deal with this. One way is to alter the source sound to compensate for the echoes, using an equalizer, and the other is to "treat" the walls with materials that both absorb and disperse the various frequencies. Some math is involved beginning with room geometry.
A room has a fundamental frequency determined by it's volume. It's calculated using the formula f = v/2*L where v is the speed of the sound wave, and L is the length of a tube or device the wave is traveling through. For this space that is 57Hz, which is just about the frequency of a bass subwoofer. Now if I wanted to control a frequency that low I'd have to add a considerable amount of mass to absorb the energy, so I'll use an equalizer to lessen it. This is only partially successful and I also have to deal with the multiples as well; 114Hz, 228Hz, 556Hz, and so on up to 17.7Khz (17,000Hz). Relatively small rooms like mine are especially tricky because the walls are closer together and parallel so middle frequencies, which include vocals, can be muddied up by uncontrolled reflections. The way to deal with this is with baffles, and tuned absorbers as well as a combination of hard and soft surfaces. The majority of techniques I'm planning to use will mostly be absorptive. Lower numbers will require some carpentry, and higher numbers will be handled with soft materials that diffuse higher frequencies. Even then the clearest sound will be at the mixing position, in the engineer's chair right in front of the speakers.
These sketches show the two layouts I'm considering. One is at the end of the room, and the other is on one side. There are advantages to either, and for the moment I'm leaning towards the side option. This puts the speakers in front of the exterior wall which is more absorptive of bass so it will be somewhat easier to control. Also, if I'm working with someone in the room I can see them, making communication easier.
So I'll be finalizing the plan soon, next is budgeting and materials.
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| Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA |
