Soundman2020 - Studio Design Forum

Well done Dio.

I also use a house curve adjustment as I found exactly the same thing, that flat is too bright and results in dull mixes. I find listening to reference tracks without it excruciating.

How did you work out the ideal house curve?

Cheers,
Jennifer

Thanks Jennifer !
the house curve I used is not an "ideal" one, it's just the EBU house curve (attached) and I used it as a starting point. I would say that it sounds a little "generous" at the very low end (<80hz) but since my last experience in a reference control room was many years ago I cannot judge if that is good or bad, yet. I will keep it like this for now...

Best,
Dio

The best overall curve, even after all these years, is still the same old-fashioned B&K curve, from way back in 1974. They used cutting-edge technology from those ancient days, to produce the curve: Technology that we'd laugh at today. But it produced the best curve that has held up over time. It sounds neutral and natural.

Part of the "Secret of my Success"... I use it all the time.

Thanks Stuart!
Will try it asap!

The B&K is the one I use, I've attached a file with an approximation of it.

I haven't finished the acoustic treatment of my control room yet so only use it in a very coarse way to get the general high and low end from the monitors close to it. Even with just that it works really well.

Cheers,
Jennifer

Wow I’m so impressed with the finished result - both in looks and the response you’ve achieved..

I am considering the slatted wings approach for my studio as a way of getting some thicker absorption and improving reverb time. I read your post on what wood sizes you used etc but what was this based on/what were you trying to achieve?

Thanks
Gareth

Thanks Gareth,
What I was trying to achieve with the slatted wings was to eliminate the flutter echo from the parallel walls, minimise the low-mid colouration
bare surfaces or insulation panels (other potential treatment) may have and keep some brightness/harmonics in the room for any recording may take place, all that with a logical amount of space occupied by the treatment and a classic, warm look and feeling.
The calculations for the resonators I did where all about there (based on the space I had available) and close to the John Sayers paradigm, so I thought it was safe enough to just use it and not improvise...
Now the nice thing with these absorbers is that if you talk in front of one you get the feedback of your voice from it, you feel you are in a live space but you don't hear any of the usual problems (echoes, mid colouration, weirdness..). I did some test voice recording and there is no room (as we know it, roomy sound) in it, with distance from the mic I could only hear that there was not close miking anymore, not something bad, just different but still clear and detailed. So I think it was a good idea to build these, plus they look much better than just some panels...

Part two:
After utilising the B&K curve and a shallow 6db/oct hipass at 20hz I now have these results :








A nice comparison between the two curves:


mdat:

and a more natural sound, indeed. No harsh or lacking treble, no dinosauric or absent bass, everything seems (listens??) as it should without any "is that know good?" alerts. Thanks Stuart for pointing this out!

Part three:

I think I am almost finished the design of a minimal (physicaly and sonically) desk. The absence of large flat surfaces along with the tilted controller and outboards I believe would impact minimal negative sonic effects. Am I right?


Thanks for viewing
Dio

Thanks Dio. I'll delve back in to the John Sayers forum and find his stuff on slat absorbers.

Your desk doesn't look much different to mine, based on Stuart's design elsewhere on this forum. I like your legs, and might borrow a similar concept when I come to make a better version of my desk.

Gareth

garethmetcalf wrote:Source of the post I'll delve back in to the John Sayers forum and find his stuff on slat absorbers.

It is a little tricky to find te page in that forum, so I saved it!
http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm

One thing I noticed is that due to the imperfect nature of the wood slats the gaps between them are not exact but vary a few mm here and there…
Dio

it's the Sayers slat spacing - it's pretty specific that said, when i do corner slats i tend to tune them for LF absorption rather than wider broadband.

Thanks both!! much appreciated