Long or wide room?

[gavin]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

I have an ALMOST square control room - 13' x 10'6".

Is the extra 2.5 feet lengthwise important enough to set up the monitors
facing LENGTH wise - or is going WIDTH wise (which is more feasible from a
physical location point of view) going to be pretty much the same?

I'll eventually be treating the room with Realtraps or something similar.
Right now I'm just concerned - is the extra 2.5 feet important enough to
move things around or am I being TOO paranoid?

Thanks,

Gavin

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

it's so close it won't matter much. plus that room is tiny. the key
room is "control room". control rooms are arranged for workflow
efficiency. mastering rooms are set up for sonic neutrality.

you can set things up for a control room in that space (many famous
records were cut with control room that were laughably small and
kooky). but your room will never cut it as a mastering room anyway
(it's way too small), so you might as well set it up the way you feel
comfortable. and then if you get something hot, farm it out to a
mastering pro with the right gear/experience/room.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Gavin wrote:
> I have an ALMOST square control room - 13' x 10'6".
>
> Is the extra 2.5 feet lengthwise important enough to set up the
monitors
> facing LENGTH wise - or is going WIDTH wise (which is more feasible
from a
> physical location point of view) going to be pretty much the same?
>
> I'll eventually be treating the room with Realtraps or something
similar.
> Right now I'm just concerned - is the extra 2.5 feet important enough
to
> move things around or am I being TOO paranoid?
>

I spent 4 years in a control room that was 10' x 12'

Due to the arrangement of doors & windows I had to orient the monitors
on the long wall, facing down the 10' dimension. Once I had some modest
treatment on the front & back walls (lots of absorbtion behind
monitors, a mixture of absorbtion & diffusion on the back wall) it
worked fine, no problems.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Theoretically, I would think a narrow long room would be better than an
wide short room just based on the slap delay you'd get from the back
wall being minimized in the long room. But your dimensions are almost
exactly the same, so I think other factors would come into play first.
Are there windows in this room? How does it face the live studio area?
Where are the doors?

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq



Gavin wrote:
> I have an ALMOST square control room - 13' x 10'6".
>
> Is the extra 2.5 feet lengthwise important enough to set up the monitors
> facing LENGTH wise - or is going WIDTH wise (which is more feasible from a
> physical location point of view) going to be pretty much the same?
>
> I'll eventually be treating the room with Realtraps or something similar.
> Right now I'm just concerned - is the extra 2.5 feet important enough to
> move things around or am I being TOO paranoid?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gavin
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Gavin,
I have a studio like yours 17'x 12' for the control room and it works just
fine... you'll have to live and work with it and eventually you'll have it
dialed in... it takes awhile..and some work....the main thing is to enjoy
and keep making music

Craig

 

[gavin]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

You have the monitors pointing across the SHORTER width too?

"Craig Ruggels" <cruggels@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9PjKd.111$wz1.4314@news.uswest.net...
> Gavin,
> I have a studio like yours 17'x 12' for the control room and it works just
> fine... you'll have to live and work with it and eventually you'll have it
> dialed in... it takes awhile..and some work....the main thing is to enjoy
> and keep making music
>
> Craig
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Just to follow up on my own post, I should also mention that most (if
not pretty much all) of the control rooms I've been in have been wider
than they are deep (which goes against the advice I gave). But the
reason for their extreme width was usually because the room was housing
a 96-channel console or something similarly wide. So it seems
ergonomics is an important driving force....

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq


Trevor de Clercq wrote:
> Theoretically, I would think a narrow long room would be better than an
> wide short room just based on the slap delay you'd get from the back
> wall being minimized in the long room. But your dimensions are almost
> exactly the same, so I think other factors would come into play first.
> Are there windows in this room? How does it face the live studio area?
> Where are the doors?
>
> Cheers,
> Trevor de Clercq
>
>
>
> Gavin wrote:
>
>> I have an ALMOST square control room - 13' x 10'6".
>>
>> Is the extra 2.5 feet lengthwise important enough to set up the
>> monitors facing LENGTH wise - or is going WIDTH wise (which is more
>> feasible from a physical location point of view) going to be pretty
>> much the same?
>>
>> I'll eventually be treating the room with Realtraps or something
>> similar. Right now I'm just concerned - is the extra 2.5 feet
>> important enough to move things around or am I being TOO paranoid?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Gavin
>>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Gavin,

> is the extra 2.5 feet important enough to move things around or am I being
TOO paranoid? <

I think it's worth it. As Trevor pointed out, echoes off the wall behind you
become more of a problem as that distance is reduced. Just as important is
comb filtering, at both mid/high *and* low frequencies. For example, when
you're 34 inches in front of the wall behind, you are sitting in the middle
of a deep null at 100 Hz. The frequency of the null changes as you move
forward and back, but it always remains. If you can get farther from that
rear wall the frequency shifts lower. This is usually beneficial because the
strength of the reflection is reduced some, so the null depth is also
reduced.

--Ethan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>Just to follow up on my own post, I should also mention that most (if
>not pretty much all) of the control rooms I've been in have been wider
>than they are deep (which goes against the advice I gave).

I have a 15'x24' control room..monitors facing the long way. I had it the other
way before but a number of reasons changed my mind.
1- Facing the short way not q smany listeners could get in proper listening
position.
2- I found that the long way setup results in a MUCH more even sound throughout
the room..this helps with the " Can you turn the bass up..etc" type comments
from back of the room listeners. I did pretty simple cheap and straight forward
non-destructive acoustical treatments which resulted in a very pleasant "living
room" type listening environment.
Monitors are Mackie 824's with a 2x12" Bag End ELF sub.


John A. Chiara
SOS Recording Studio
Live Sound Inc.
Albany, NY
www.sosrecording.net
518-449-1637

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Yes, John, that sounds right. As I said, I think having the room deeper
rather than wider makes more sense. I guess I was just stating the
irony that most control rooms (at least around here in NYC where space
is limited and people are trying to cram in huge consoles) are set up
wider rather than deeper. I guess the ideal room is big enough to not
make any dimension an issue. I suppose that a non-rectangular room
would also be the best, too.

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq

Blind Joni wrote:
>>Just to follow up on my own post, I should also mention that most (if
>>not pretty much all) of the control rooms I've been in have been wider
>>than they are deep (which goes against the advice I gave).
>
>
> I have a 15'x24' control room..monitors facing the long way. I had it the other
> way before but a number of reasons changed my mind.
> 1- Facing the short way not q smany listeners could get in proper listening
> position.
> 2- I found that the long way setup results in a MUCH more even sound throughout
> the room..this helps with the " Can you turn the bass up..etc" type comments
> from back of the room listeners. I did pretty simple cheap and straight forward
> non-destructive acoustical treatments which resulted in a very pleasant "living
> room" type listening environment.
> Monitors are Mackie 824's with a 2x12" Bag End ELF sub.
>
>
> John A. Chiara
> SOS Recording Studio
> Live Sound Inc.
> Albany, NY
> www.sosrecording.net
> 518-449-1637

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Actually they are at the far end in the corner, I have the big middle
atlantic editting desk so I had to angle it. pictures should be up on my web
site monday www.craigruggels.com so take a look then.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

> I guess the ideal room is big enough to not
>make any dimension an issue. I suppose that a non-rectangular room
>would also be the best, too.

Not sure if this is the case unless you can do extensive testing and room
design...I have seen quite a few randomly thrown together "non-rectangular"
control rooms and they are a reflection mess. The long room seems to lessen the
reflected/direct ratio as long as the close reflective surfaces are treated. It
is also easier to design acoustical treatment for a rectangle than a
complicated multi reflective space..or so it would seem..I'm no expert but I
hear room sound stuff pretty well.


John A. Chiara
SOS Recording Studio
Live Sound Inc.
Albany, NY
www.sosrecording.net
518-449-1637

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

It's probably more important to suppress early reflections, so I'm inclined to
go with wide rather than long.

"Big" in every dimension is potentially the best, of course.