Acoustic Room Treatments 101

[bassballs27]

Hey everyone!

I've done a bit of internet searching and have searched this forum as well.
I've never treated a room for acoustics ever, so this is a very new process to me.

Here's sort of what I gathered so far (and believe me, any of this could be incorrect, misinterpreted):

1. Many people don't treat their rooms with acoustic treatments (and this where many people run into issues with mixing)
2. If there's any wall that should be treated with acoustic panels (anything from 1ft x 4ft, 2ft x 4ft, or the scatter 1ft x 1ft panels, it's definitely the wall behind where the studio monitors have been placed that should have treatment. Don't place the panels tightly together either.
3. Consider placing acoustic panels on the side wall roughly 90 degrees from the face of the studio monitors. Seeing as the studio monitors should be placed angled and facing the listening position.
4. Place scatter panels (usually the 1ft x 1ft scatter panels) along either the back wall or the wall behind the monitors (these can act as absorption as stated in #2 above)
5. Bass traps should be placed at all 4 corners of the room (if your room is rectangular or square)
6. Small rooms and if they're square / having the same width and length, these rooms tend to be among the most difficult for acoustic treatments.
7. For a rectangular room, the ideal place to put the listening position is facing the short wall, trying to place the seat at roughly 38 to 40% distance of the longest wall.
(For example, if you have a 10 x 15ft room....placing the listening chair at 5.7ft away from the shortest wall (which is 10ft for this example) is ideal)
8. Never place anything in the direct path of your studio monitors and yourself. Watch that the studio desk doesn't cause reflections if your placing the monitors close to or on the studio desk. Best to provide isolation or stands to avoid reflections.
9. Install a cloud panel above the listening position

I've got some issues with the room I'm looking to treat for acoustics.
Main issues are the location of the doors and a window dead centre of my short walls and one of those short walls has a 1ft notch on either side, making placing bass traps challenging / confusing

The room is 11ft x 16ft with a 9ft high ceiling.
Ceiling material is the sprayed "popcorn" finish, flooring is wall to wall carpet.

It's unfortunate that both my short walls either have doors or a big window.
One end is a double door, dead centre of the wall measuring 66" wide and has 33" of wall space right to the corner. And the window on the other end has 32" of wall space on either side of it. However, both corners on the window side has a 12" notch out of it on either side which connects to a 1ft bulkhead that crosses so the other 12" notch on the opposite side. Basically this wall has a 3 sided 12" picture frame around, sort of like a coffered ceiling, but obviously it's a wall. My big question here is....should I really treat this odd wall with bass trapping in the corners or not?

I haven't bought monitors yet because I'm still planning these acoustic treatments. I'm looking at the Primacoustic London kits as they seem acceptable by both my wife and I The problem is, they're definitely not cheap. Since my room is on the larger side (175 square feet, not really huge) the Primacoustic 10 is for 150 square feet, where the 12 is 200 square feet. But the price difference is double! And the amount of equipment is quite substantial. This has me wondering how I should approach doing this...and even asking, what are these treatments really doing?
Should I really be buying my monitors first and adding one panel at a time to see how much difference they really make???

I currently have lots of items in my room that can easily be used for absorbing and reflecting sound as well. Nothing that seems to be any taller than 48" though. So, I've got lots of wall space on the reflecting walls.

I really want to put my desk on the long wall, just off centre.
I get it that it's a short throw for my future monitors...but if I treat the walls, it might end up being okay.

At this moment, with no room treatment, my "clap test" reveals way less reverberation in comparison if the room was completely empty of furniture and gear. And it's especially good in the seated listening position. I don't know will all this money spent on treatment possibly over treat the room? I know I need some treatment, but not sure if I really need all the treatment (or even can physically fit the treatment) in the Primacoustic 16 kit. Seems like overkill to me, but I do know something needs to be done!

I'll post a diagram of my room for clarity.

I appreciate any advice from the acoustic specialists out there!

 

[bassballs27]

Here’s the room diagram….

 

[bassballs27]

Here’s some rough ideas for room treatments…see the messy bass traps in the notched corners?

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Honestly, ask GIK
Acoustical Room Advice - GIK Acoustics
Obviously they are doing this to sell you their products, but you can take their advice and DIY.

 

[seamonkey]

Check around here REW room acoustics and audio device measurement and analysis
A good combination of room treatment and EQ, and room measurements.

 

[bassballs27]

Honestly, ask GIK
Acoustical Room Advice - GIK Acoustics
Obviously they are doing this to sell you their products, but you can take their advice and DIY.

Yeah, I've been pondering that with another company local to me, just to see if they can give me some feedback.
This is a great one too.

The DIY point reminded me another point to add to my post above.....

10. It doesn't necessarily matter what medium you use for sound treatment (i.e. Fibreglass Wool, Foam, etc) it's all about it's thickness. The thicker the better, but obviously within reason. I noticed a lot of bass traps (if they're a panel style) are at least 2" or possibly 3". I see those corner fill engineered foam on Amazon and have thought that these must have a bit of usefulness since they have good thickness. I'd never be installing foam with glued directly to my wall. It would be via 3M Command Strips or a Velcro system. To be honest, I might actually attach all my room treatments with 3M Command Strips initially (if it's possible) just so I can get a feel for how the room sounds.

Really interesting stuff this is because EVERY ROOM IS DIFFERENT.....sort of like EVERY BASS GUITAR IS DIFFERENT. The Room is an instrument....and it needs some form of treatment!

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Yeah, I've been pondering that with another company local to me, just to see if they can give me some feedback.
This is a great one too.

The DIY point reminded me another point to add to my post above.....

10. It doesn't necessarily matter what medium you use for sound treatment (i.e. Fibreglass Wool, Foam, etc) it's all about it's thickness. The thicker the better, but obviously within reason. I noticed a lot of bass traps (if they're a panel style) are at least 2" or possibly 3". I see those corner fill engineered foam on Amazon and have thought that these must have a bit of usefulness since they have good thickness. I'd never be installing foam with glued directly to my wall. It would be via 3M Command Strips or a Velcro system. To be honest, I might actually attach all my room treatments with 3M Command Strips initially (if it's possible) just so I can get a feel for how the room sounds.

Really interesting stuff this is because EVERY ROOM IS DIFFERENT.....sort of like EVERY BASS GUITAR IS DIFFERENT. The Room is an instrument....and it needs some form of treatment!

I'm not an expert, but the medium does matter. Material that is not dense enough won't attenuate low frequencies. Material that is too dense will reflect sound instead of allowing to pass through to be attenuated.

 

[bassballs27]

I'm not an expert, but the medium does matter. Material that is not dense enough won't attenuate low frequencies. Material that is too dense will reflect sound instead of allowing to pass through to be attenuated.

Yeah, I agree with this statement for sure, because it has to be a medium that offers acoustic absorption or diffusion depending on the application.

This begs me to wonder when people suggest to DIY these Rockwool panels....are they really getting the right thickness? Is it too thick or too thin? It's a very interesting subject acoustic treatments.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Yeah, I agree with this statement for sure, because it has to be a medium that offers acoustic absorption or diffusion depending on the application.

This begs me to wonder when people suggest to DIY these Rockwool panels....are they really getting the right thickness? Is it too thick or too thin? It's a very interesting subject acoustic treatments.

It all depends on what your goals are. If you're just trying to "make it better" on a budget, then optimization isn't really the goal, and just about any DIY rockwool panel is better than nothing. If you're trying to create a professional level room, the details matter. Going off your drawing, you're looking at ~20 panels/traps, so it seems you're somewhere between "anything is an improvment" and "gotta be pro". But if you're looking at spending thousands of dollars on room treatments, hire a consultant, either locally or online.

 

[bassballs27]

It all depends on what your goals are. If you're just trying to "make it better" on a budget, then optimization isn't really the goal, and just about any DIY rockwool panel is better than nothing. If you're trying to create a professional level room, the details matter. Going off your drawing, you're looking at ~20 panels/traps, so it seems you're somewhere between "anything is an improvment" and "gotta be pro". But if you're looking at spending thousands of dollars on room treatments, hire a consultant, either locally or online.

Yeah, I'm on a budget, but some might not call it cheap. I'm definitely not looking for a professional level treatment because this isn't my professional job. I'm just doing this for fun and if it turns into something, cool

The contents of my current room definitely do something as oppose to nothing and that needs to be considered.
I can totally understand why many individuals just give up and forget treating your room because it's like your said, it's either a "better than nothing strategy" or get "hired help" which can cost money.

Anyway, I've sent Primacoustics in BC all the information above......along with GIK and a local acoustic panel shop to me here in Ontario. Let's see what they come back with.

 

[yodedude2]

i know nothing. that being established ... i would put a towel or 3 over the window, draw the blind, and ignore it - make it be like a wall. center the desk facing the window and go from there.

do put something on the ceiling to 'break it up'.

ideally, those 'notches' serve as de facto bass traps to some extent. but again, wdfdik?

edit: oh yeah, put some drapes or cloth blinds over the double doors.

 

[bassballs27]

i know nothing. that being established ... i would put a towel or 3 over the window, draw the blind, and ignore it - make it be like a wall. center the desk facing the window and go from there.

do put something on the ceiling to 'break it up'.

ideally, those 'notches' serve as de facto bass traps to some extent. but again, wdfdik?

edit: oh yeah, put some drapes or cloth blinds over the double doors.

Yeah, that's the ideal case to use the short wall....but going for the less ideal scenario as I'm thinking above, I can treat the wall behind the listening area. With having the double doors behind me and facing the window, I guess the doors could be treated, but I'm not looking to do that.

Here's a sample of a treated 14ft x 8ft room from the Primacoustic website using the London 12 system.
See no bass traps on the "live wall".....yet where all the equipment is, it's treated. This room is 14ft x 8ft versus mine which is virtually 16ft x 11ft.
Amazing how an additional 3 feet changes everything if you look at the London 16 kit.

London 12 - Primacoustic
London 16 - Primacoustic

I share your idea with regards to the notches.....aren't they working against the bass traps if they are placed in the corner? Would I at least need to treat one side and not the other? Looks like it would be a custom idea if anything. I'm curious what the manufacturers are going to say and if they come up with something....I will probably post it.

 

[bassballs27]

I should probably make mention another point of room acoustics.....

11. You can over or under damp your room. Too much acoustic treatment or absorption will make your room sound "dead" versus too little or no treatment makes your room "live". The best of both worlds can be to have both a dead end (with treatment) and live end (no treatment) to your studio if needed.

 

[silky smoove]

2. If there's any wall that should be treated with acoustic panels (anything from 1ft x 4ft, 2ft x 4ft, or the scatter 1ft x 1ft panels, it's definitely the wall behind where the studio monitors have been placed that should have treatment. Don't place the panels tightly together either.

This is contrary to what most acoustic experts will tell you. Ethan Winer has written extensively on the subject. Both Glenn Kuras from GIK and Rod Gervais told me specifically that placements directly behind the monitor are about the last place they would start with treatments. Remember that in a room the size of yours the ideal placement for your monitors is with the rear of the monitor as close to the front wall as possible without actually touching it. This necessitates front ported or sealed monitors as a rear ported monitor won't work in this application. You can use this handy calculator (The Wall Behind The Loudspeaker (mh-audio.nl)) to determine the cancellation frequency off of the front wall. You'll find that unless you have the monitor speakers sufficiently far from the wall that the cancellation becomes quite a low frequency which is difficult to treat acoustically. Moving the speaker closer to the wall raises that frequency into a much more easily treatable range.

4. Place scatter panels (usually the 1ft x 1ft scatter panels) along either the back wall or the wall behind the monitors (these can act as absorption as stated in #2 above)

Scattering and diffusion only work if you have sufficient space. Most people don't. Be sure and read the specs of any scattering or diffusion device to determine which frequencies are scattered/diffused and then use any number of online calculators to see if that's a benefit or even audible in your room.

one of those short walls has a 1ft notch on either side, making placing bass traps challenging / confusing

Not at all. Placing flat panels on both walls adjacent to the corner has the same function as straddling the corner with a trap, it just requires twice the number of panels to achieve the same results. As a benefit you retain floor space in the corner that a straddling/angled trap would have taken up.

It's unfortunate that both my short walls either have doors or a big window.

Looking at your diagram the short wall with the window looks like an ideal place for the desk both in terms of firing your monitors along the long dimension of the room, and putting an acoustically challenging surface (the window) behind the monitors rather than in their speaking path.

Should I really be buying my monitors first and adding one panel at a time to see how much difference they really make???

Yes, you should buy your monitors first. How else are you going to test room response and treat accordingly if you don't have monitors? Also, you can do some work with monitors and no treatments. The same can't be said about treatment and no monitors.

I really want to put my desk on the long wall, just off centre.

Do as you please, but there are acoustic benefits to putting it along the short wall. The off-center bit is going to present other problems as well in terms of one speaker producing more low end due to wall proximity than the other. It may also create phase cancellation issues in a weird way as the speakers interact, but to be fair those interactions happen with a symmetrical setup perfectly centered in a room as well, so it's not the end of the world to be a little off-center. Your room dimensions aren't so wildly different along each axis that one orientation is going to be massively better than the other.

I don't know will all this money spent on treatment possibly over treat the room?

It depends entirely on your intended use of the room. Are you just mixing in the space? If so then it's pretty hard to over-treat. Are you recording with microphones in this space as well? If so it's quite easy to over-treat, but given the size of the room I would do everything I could to take the room out of the equation rather than using it as a source of color for recording at the possible expense of making mixing more challenging.

0. It doesn't necessarily matter what medium you use for sound treatment (i.e. Fibreglass Wool, Foam, etc) it's all about it's thickness. The thicker the better

This is 100% incorrect. For instance, OC703 or Knaff are the premium insulation products used for panel absorbers. If you use either of them in a filled-corner or superchunk arrangement the density gets too high and low end absorption decreases. Conversely, a filled-corner or superchunk built with pink fluffy fiberglass insulation is an excellent low frequency absorber, but if you use that material in a 2", 4" or 6" panel you'll find that it does very little for low frequencies. Material type, density, air permissivity, thickness, whether or not foil backing is present, the type of fabric skinning the absorbing material, the amount of exposed absorbing material surface area, the size of the air gap behind the absorber, the lack of an air gap behind the absorber, the placement of the treatment horizontally and vertically, the angle of the treatment relative to the room... All of these things matter. You can start excluding them but then you're doing yourself a disservice in terms of understanding what's happening in your room and what the treatments are changing about the space.

 

[littlebun]

Hey everyone!

I've done a bit of internet searching and have searched this forum as well.
I've never treated a room for acoustics ever, so this is a very new process to me.

Here's sort of what I gathered so far (and believe me, any of this could be incorrect, misinterpreted):

1. Many people don't treat their rooms with acoustic treatments (and this where many people run into issues with mixing)
2. If there's any wall that should be treated with acoustic panels (anything from 1ft x 4ft, 2ft x 4ft, or the scatter 1ft x 1ft panels, it's definitely the wall behind where the studio monitors have been placed that should have treatment. Don't place the panels tightly together either.
3. Consider placing acoustic panels on the side wall roughly 90 degrees from the face of the studio monitors. Seeing as the studio monitors should be placed angled and facing the listening position.
4. Place scatter panels (usually the 1ft x 1ft scatter panels) along either the back wall or the wall behind the monitors (these can act as absorption as stated in #2 above)
5. Bass traps should be placed at all 4 corners of the room (if your room is rectangular or square)
6. Small rooms and if they're square / having the same width and length, these rooms tend to be among the most difficult for acoustic treatments.
7. For a rectangular room, the ideal place to put the listening position is facing the short wall, trying to place the seat at roughly 38 to 40% distance of the longest wall.
(For example, if you have a 10 x 15ft room....placing the listening chair at 5.7ft away from the shortest wall (which is 10ft for this example) is ideal)
8. Never place anything in the direct path of your studio monitors and yourself. Watch that the studio desk doesn't cause reflections if your placing the monitors close to or on the studio desk. Best to provide isolation or stands to avoid reflections.
9. Install a cloud panel above the listening position

I've got some issues with the room I'm looking to treat for acoustics.
Main issues are the location of the doors and a window dead centre of my short walls and one of those short walls has a 1ft notch on either side, making placing bass traps challenging / confusing

The room is 11ft x 16ft with a 9ft high ceiling.
Ceiling material is the sprayed "popcorn" finish, flooring is wall to wall carpet.

It's unfortunate that both my short walls either have doors or a big window.
One end is a double door, dead centre of the wall measuring 66" wide and has 33" of wall space right to the corner. And the window on the other end has 32" of wall space on either side of it. However, both corners on the window side has a 12" notch out of it on either side which connects to a 1ft bulkhead that crosses so the other 12" notch on the opposite side. Basically this wall has a 3 sided 12" picture frame around, sort of like a coffered ceiling, but obviously it's a wall. My big question here is....should I really treat this odd wall with bass trapping in the corners or not?

I haven't bought monitors yet because I'm still planning these acoustic treatments. I'm looking at the Primacoustic London kits as they seem acceptable by both my wife and I The problem is, they're definitely not cheap. Since my room is on the larger side (175 square feet, not really huge) the Primacoustic 10 is for 150 square feet, where the 12 is 200 square feet. But the price difference is double! And the amount of equipment is quite substantial. This has me wondering how I should approach doing this...and even asking, what are these treatments really doing?
Should I really be buying my monitors first and adding one panel at a time to see how much difference they really make???

I currently have lots of items in my room that can easily be used for absorbing and reflecting sound as well. Nothing that seems to be any taller than 48" though. So, I've got lots of wall space on the reflecting walls.

I really want to put my desk on the long wall, just off centre.
I get it that it's a short throw for my future monitors...but if I treat the walls, it might end up being okay.

At this moment, with no room treatment, my "clap test" reveals way less reverberation in comparison if the room was completely empty of furniture and gear. And it's especially good in the seated listening position. I don't know will all this money spent on treatment possibly over treat the room? I know I need some treatment, but not sure if I really need all the treatment (or even can physically fit the treatment) in the Primacoustic 16 kit. Seems like overkill to me, but I do know something needs to be done!

I'll post a diagram of my room for clarity.

I appreciate any advice from the acoustic specialists out there!

It's hard to gauge how your room mixes will translate on other systems -even when you think it's been treated. A safe way to help remove any reflections is to mix at a low level. The louder you mix the more you will start hearing hot spots (notes) and start chasing them. I've professionally mixed 100's of track for public consumption in an un-treated room in my home; using headphones as a ballpark mix check, and then I would mix at a low level. I think it's a good idea to get treatment and wish I had done it, but I just learned my room and dealt with it.

 

[bassballs27]

This is contrary to what most acoustic experts will tell you. Ethan Winer has written extensively on the subject. Both Glenn Kuras from GIK and Rod Gervais told me specifically that placements directly behind the monitor are about the last place they would start with treatments. Remember that in a room the size of yours the ideal placement for your monitors is with the rear of the monitor as close to the front wall as possible without actually touching it. This necessitates front ported or sealed monitors as a rear ported monitor won't work in this application. You can use this handy calculator (The Wall Behind The Loudspeaker (mh-audio.nl)) to determine the cancellation frequency off of the front wall. You'll find that unless you have the monitor speakers sufficiently far from the wall that the cancellation becomes quite a low frequency which is difficult to treat acoustically. Moving the speaker closer to the wall raises that frequency into a much more easily treatable range.

Yes, I totally get this from a practicality stand point. I would much prefer using sealed or front ported speakers. In fact, sealed are at the top of my list. I'll definitely check out that calculator.


Scattering and diffusion only work if you have sufficient space. Most people don't. Be sure and read the specs of any scattering or diffusion device to determine which frequencies are scattered/diffused and then use any number of online calculators to see if that's a benefit or even audible in your room.


Not at all. Placing flat panels on both walls adjacent to the corner has the same function as straddling the corner with a trap, it just requires twice the number of panels to achieve the same results. As a benefit you retain floor space in the corner that a straddling/angled trap would have taken up.

Yeah, the 24" x 48" should just barely straddle the knotch is my point. But what about the air gap behind the trap? Obviously it's loosing volume if it were a standard corner?


Looking at your diagram the short wall with the window looks like an ideal place for the desk both in terms of firing your monitors along the long dimension of the room, and putting an acoustically challenging surface (the window) behind the monitors rather than in their speaking path.

I know, I know! Remember though, I'd be putting an acoustically challenging set of double doors behind my listening position too. It's definitely not the ideal room to treat for acoustics, that's for sure! Especially with the format I'm choosing.


Yes, you should buy your monitors first. How else are you going to test room response and treat accordingly if you don't have monitors? Also, you can do some work with monitors and no treatments. The same can't be said about treatment and no monitors.

I guess I'm just reinforcing the fact that my intent is to treat this room and not buy my monitors first and do nothing like many will do. So my approach is come up with a bit of plan, see if it makes sense, see what costs.....and maybe it's worth buying the "better monitors" if it's going to be done right. I know, even the cheapest monitors will sound better in a well treated room! So you really can't go wrong with the monitors, but wrong with your treatment methods! LOL!


Do as you please, but there are acoustic benefits to putting it along the short wall. The off-center bit is going to present other problems as well in terms of one speaker producing more low end due to wall proximity than the other. It may also create phase cancellation issues in a weird way as the speakers interact, but to be fair those interactions happen with a symmetrical setup perfectly centered in a room as well, so it's not the end of the world to be a little off-center. Your room dimensions aren't so wildly different along each axis that one orientation is going to be massively better than the other.

This is what my initial thinking was too. But I've also read from the internet (where I got most of this somewhat questionable information from) that you shouldn't place the desk dead centre, nor should any treatments really be placed dead centre. That I found alarming! There has to be some form of a symmetry from my understanding, but I may be wrong.


It depends entirely on your intended use of the room. Are you just mixing in the space? If so then it's pretty hard to over-treat. Are you recording with microphones in this space as well? If so it's quite easy to over-treat, but given the size of the room I would do everything I could to take the room out of the equation rather than using it as a source of color for recording at the possible expense of making mixing more challenging.

It's going to be a general purpose room, mixing, recording, playing bass with my bass amps, chilling out on my chairs.....basically living.

This is 100% incorrect. For instance, OC703 or Knaff are the premium insulation products used for panel absorbers. If you use either of them in a filled-corner or superchunk arrangement the density gets too high and low end absorption decreases. Conversely, a filled-corner or superchunk built with pink fluffy fiberglass insulation is an excellent low frequency absorber, but if you use that material in a 2", 4" or 6" panel you'll find that it does very little for low frequencies. Material type, density, air permissivity, thickness, whether or not foil backing is present, the type of fabric skinning the absorbing material, the amount of exposed absorbing material surface area, the size of the air gap behind the absorber, the lack of an air gap behind the absorber, the placement of the treatment horizontally and vertically, the angle of the treatment relative to the room... All of these things matter. You can start excluding them but then you're doing yourself a disservice in terms of understanding what's happening in your room and what the treatments are changing about the space.

Yeah, I back peddled this comment in one of my later posts. The medium of course should matter....but that begs me to question the "better than nothing strategy" of using objects you find around your house. Sure, it's not going to be pretty....but a room full of "stuff" as oppose to being 4 walls, a desk, a computer, a chair, you and a monitor....with no treatments.....well, the added complexity of the "stuff" is going to create sound reflections and absorptions of all sorts, but you're going to get whatever you get. Either making the situation better or worse.

Great posts man! I really appreciate your feedback!

 

[bassballs27]

It's hard to gauge how your room mixes will translate on other systems -even when you think it's been treated. A safe way to help remove any reflections is to mix at a low level. The louder you mix the more you will start hearing hot spots (notes) and start chasing them. I've professionally mixed 100's of track for public consumption in an un-treated room in my home; using headphones as a ballpark mix check, and then I would mix at a low level. I think it's a good idea to get treatment and wish I had done it, but I just learned my room and dealt with it.

Great comments!

I bought headphones first! Just for this very reason and this is a really great suggestion!
As long as it's some point of reference, you can figure out how the room interacts with your studio monitors.

The comment about mixing at a low level, I started thinking that it would make sense to go for smaller monitors and start by using them at low levels. Wouldn't I be just avoiding the situation of dealing with too much bass or mids and highs that sound way off though? Eventually, you've got to turn up what your listening too.
I still really like your approach of diving in and figuring out what I've got going on first and the learn the room.
I'm really still thinking about adding in some of these room treatments as stated, even if I can't do or my wife won't let me do all of them! LOL!

 

[silky smoove]

Yeah, the 24" x 48" should just barely straddle the knotch is my point. But what about the air gap behind the trap? Obviously it's loosing volume if it were a standard corner?

An air gap behind a panel absorber of any type will generally increase its low frequency performance. A single panel straddling a corner works about as well as two equivalent material/thickness panels placed on the adjacent walls. You're using twice the absorption devices to equate to the performance of a single straddling absorber with an air gap behind it. Straddling the notch in your walls or flanking it on either side will both work well. The question is whether or not the added floor space of flanking is more beneficial than the extra money you'd have to spend on double the treatments for that purpose. Your best bet in terms of pure acoustic treatment performance is a filled-corner design but that's not practical for a lot of folks. You could build a superchunk that incorporates the notches in your wall quite easily and for relatively little money if you're handy with DIY tasks. There are plenty of guides online. Check out the John L Sayers forum for detailed information.

I know, I know! Remember though, I'd be putting an acoustically challenging set of double doors behind my listening position too. It's definitely not the ideal room to treat for acoustics, that's for sure! Especially with the format I'm choosing.

What's so challenging about the double doors? Acoustically they're just another wall for sound to bounce off of. I assume these are wooden doors like you'd find in most homes. If they're a real problem put a thin panel absorber on each with an adhesive product capable of holding the weight, such as 3M's Command Tabs. Get some bass trapping in the adjacent corners and you''ll probably be fine without even touching the door.

and maybe it's worth buying the "better monitors" if it's going to be done right. I know, even the cheapest monitors will sound better in a well treated room! So you really can't go wrong with the monitors, but wrong with your treatment methods! LOL!

The obvious answer is always "get the best speakers you can afford," but to me the better answer is "get some reasonable speakers for your budget that leave room for room treatments after the fact." This will allow you to get some speakers in the room and setup properly (correct height, correct angle, correct placement relative to the front wall, ideally not on the mix desk, etc.), listen to the room with the monitors working, make some judgements, take some measurements and then make an informed decision about acoustic treatments. You'll almost certainly benefit from some treatments, especially bass trapping, but until the system is in-place you would just be blindly purchasing treatments and hoping they'll work out. With a listening test and room measurements you'll know exactly what you need, what you don't, will come in closer to your budget and will end up with a better result.

This is what my initial thinking was too. But I've also read from the internet (where I got most of this somewhat questionable information from) that you shouldn't place the desk dead centre, nor should any treatments really be placed dead centre. That I found alarming! There has to be some form of a symmetry from my understanding, but I may be wrong.

That's bad advice. The ideal position for your mix desk is centered on the short wall in a rectangular room. Your monitors should be symmetrical to the desk, except for a subwoofer if one is to be used. If a single sub is used then it is ideally placed asymmetrically and as close to one of the monitor speakers as possible. Most people stick the sub in the center but that creates frequency cancellations from the side walls that can be problematic. There are plenty of calculators online that will demonstrate this and allow you to make an informed decision, but suffice it to say; "as close to either one of the stereo monitors speakers as possible" is a very good starting point for sub placement. Make everything else centered and symmetrical if possible.

It's going to be a general purpose room, mixing, recording, playing bass with my bass amps, chilling out on my chairs.....basically living.

It sounds like it's a non-critical space. In other words, you're likely using this space recreationally as opposed to professionally the majority of the time. If that's the case then keep that context in mind when spending money and purchasing treatments. All of this stuff is great fun, but if it's stressing your budget then don't let it be a source of anguish. Get it functioning first and then fine tune it over time as budget, time, energy, etc. allow.

Yeah, I back peddled this comment in one of my later posts. The medium of course should matter....but that begs me to question the "better than nothing strategy" of using objects you find around your house. Sure, it's not going to be pretty....but a room full of "stuff" as oppose to being 4 walls, a desk, a computer, a chair, you and a monitor....with no treatments.....well, the added complexity of the "stuff" is going to create sound reflections and absorptions of all sorts, but you're going to get whatever you get. Either making the situation better or worse.

This goes back to my earlier point about getting monitors first. Setup the room and see how it works first. After that the treatments will likely only make it better acoustically, but will perhaps make things more challenging in terms of space usage. For instance, if you need to put a wall hanger up for a guitar in a spot that would be ideal for an absorption panel you have to decide which to prioritize, function or acoustics.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I followed this guy's instructions for DIY sound treatments. Bought ready-made foam bass traps for corners, which I set up for each session and stack in the corner when session is done. Not a "professional" scenario but the sonic results work very well for me. Visually, it's also a win because the color scheme looks great -- my A/V studio doubles as a home office.

 

[Slough Feg Bass]

my ghetto method is to buy some of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-sou...eywords=foam+eqq+panel&qid=1629309791&sr=8-21

and then I spray mount them to some foam core type panels from the arts & craft store, about 24" x 48". Once those are ready, I put a wire on the back like a picture frame, and I hang them in various spots in the room until I find spots that are good. pretty cheap when you consider the alternatives. sometimes I hang them from mic stands behind me when I am mixing, and move them around a bit. They work well as baffle/gobo when recording stuff as well, to create a dead space around the sound source. Here is one of them, a bit worn, but still does what I need it to do: