Studio NATD

[MDV]

new acoustic treatment day

This is my studio.

Its made of gaffa tape, and black.

Seriously though...

The traps are all rockwool; 140kg/m^3, 10cm thick in the corners for the lowest of the lows, the rest are 60kg/m^3 ~10 cm off the wall at main reflection and nodal points. Also, there are angled slabs of the same under them to catch some of the wall-corner build up. The entire wall area behind the desk and the monitors has a layer of rockwool (right up against the wall in this case) for the length-wise modes and early reflections off the monitors.

The sound in here is much more linear and much, much more resolved and clear now. Love it. Pretty cheap too. Seriously improved sound out of the amps as well; far tighter and, somewhat uexpectedly, livelier.

Not pictured: the rockwool fort I made to encase the front of the cab and mics. Supposed to do two things; diminish reflections back to the mics so low end is less obfuscated and to diminish the volume in the room so I can track in there without having to have phones at silly level (I like not being deaf!). At the latter its superb; only a rumble escapes, easily ignored. I havent tested the intelligability improvment yet though; havent miced yet.

A short tour.




My amps

All pretty self explanatory. Mics are down the side of the desk: AT4050, 2x SM57, 2x NT1a, i5, MD421, F14.



Some of my gizmos and headphones. Fireface 800, radial phazer, J48 and X-Amp, little labs red eye just off to the side, Phones; senn HD25 and RS140, AT ATH-M50, Ultrasone Pro750, and dont underestimate the 24" monitor for dealing with the information density in a DAW. I wish I had two. Adam A7s and a sub 8 (under the desk...yes ben I know you arent supposed to put them there, but thats where it works best in here).



Some guitars. And Optimash Prime, in his continual state of thumbs-up approval.



Rear wall trapping, Ubercab, with V30s and Swamp thangs, on an Auralex Gramma.



Edit - silly mistake.

[dave_mc]

very nice. :D

[MDV]

Thanks :)

[FernandoDuarte]

Fernando:  Jealous mode ON

Hope someday I can go to a house...

[MDV]

ner ner ner ner ner ;)

Really, really struggling for space in here, actually. The size makes the acoustics worse too (4m x 2.7m x 2.5m ewww, all of which have a mode at about 120hz, so I get HUGE buildup there, which this and speaker placement have only just and so leveled out) with brick walls (very reflective).

Just got a bunch of voxengo plugins as well. Elephant, soniformer, glissEQ, HarmonyEQ and Voxformer. Very impressive. Oh yes. Very impressive indeed. A steal for what they do and how they sound.

[FernandoDuarte]

my entire apartment is like 55mē (2 dorms) and there is people under and above it...

[38thBeatle]

I think duck tape has the best tone though some say the mids are a bit overbearing.

[MDV]

my entire apartment is like 55mē (2 dorms) and there is people under and above it...

This room is about 11m^2.

And I have neighbours, but they always greet me with a smile and never complain (though I've told them they should if I bother them; I'm not out to be a pain in the arse, I'm just a bit loud). Maybe they think I'm nuts?

The gaffa tape has a more transparent top end, see?

[HTH AMPS]

The gaffa tape has a more transparent top end, see?

Silver gaffa has a nicer 'sheen' to your tone  :D

[Stevepage]

Sweet collection of amps. Jealous  :D

[MDV]

Ta :)

But black gaffa tape has a darker, meaner sound.

[Deadstar]

Is jealous - man what's your job that's a lot of good gear.

The voxengo plugs are great, got a few myself. I work atm as a class assistant teaching Mastering and I've found Elephant to be a much better limiter than things that are up to ten times the price like the overrated piece of jobby that is the waves L2.

I think the reason that it might seem somewhat livelier though it might seem like inverted logic is that your losing the build of early reflections in a small space that cause a blur so it's easier to hear the depth of the space the instruments are recorded in.

Just bought some primacoustic stuff that still has to go up on the walls but one of my monitors (also Adams A7s) just died so I need to get that fixed, had a  look inside myself but can't see any obvious problems in the circuitry that I could fix myself.

I'm actually about to apply for a PhD in Acoustic research in order to create a better listening environment so if I'm accepted and do have any discoveries then I'll let you know.

Apart from the obvious sub problem you might want to move the screen back a little, kinda messes up the stereo imaging.

[MDV]

My job was....complicated. I'd have to explain half the nuclear fuel cycle to tell you what it was, but I quit anyway. 'Technical and Operations advisor for the Vitrification of Highly Active Nuclear Waste'. It was boring. Now, audio/mix engineer, guitar tech and occasional guitar teacher (if I feel a potential pupil is going in a direction I can really help them with).

I guessed the same explantation for the additional liveliness, after I heard it. I just didnt expect it.

Trust me, the sub is where it is for a very good reason - the seperation between the monitors and sub is part of how I'm dealing with my gargantuan ~120hz buildup. It can go in a corner, but i found it has an adverse effect on the stereo field at the crossover I require (a little too high to be non-directional). I may experiment again, now that I have better treatment, however.

Accepted on the monitor (visual) location, I realise that, its only where it is because I had to dig around in the cabling thats behind it.

Elephant is in particular superb. The eqs are a little odd, but they work really well too; you can actually get a nice bit of transient emphasis out of them (due to their dynamics influence), it can add lots of punch and clarity.

Best of luck with the PhD! Going into acoustics proper is something I've considered, since my degree is physics and I did a lot of acoustic analysis in my previous professional capacity anyway. Do let us know things you find, I for one will be most interested.

Edit: spelling, of the particularly egregious sentence-meaning-changing kind

[Denim n Leather]

Is that an Arcam CD73?

[MrBump]

^ could be wrong, but I can't see anywhere to put your coffee cup..?