Danny Danzi


 Just make sure you get a sub, Rain. I sincerely feel it's important though there will be a few guys that will fight me to the death on that. Even if your room doesn't need much sub, it gives you low end that most near-fields are not going to get on their own even if they appear to be a little bassy. Put it this way, with the right sub used in moderation, bass won't be something you ever second guess again....and to me, that was always the thing I struggled with. :)
       

Yeah, my brother in law is one of those guys. lol Had that discussion about subs w/ him recently. He's a terrific engineer, but, for me, that's an option I'd like to have, though that's probably further down the road. 

hate to be contrary... nah, hate's too strong a word<G>...

Priorities for acoustical treatment for a small, critical listening space, to me, would look something like this:
1) select your monitors - use what you go, budget for new, makes no difference.
2) GEOMETRY - trapping LF and reflections is fine and good, but, it's even better if you don't need to. That means focus on geometry, and if you can't move the walls remember you can move the loudspeakers, and your ears! Try to keep the distance from the back of your head to the back wall at least (roughly) 12 feet - this provides a lot of options further down the road.
3) Bad reflections - there are bad reflections, and not so bad reflections... start with the worst reflections. Even if you just sketch out the room on paper it'll be easy enough to see the bad ones. Adjust the geometry to get rid of them if you can, otherwise treat them.
4) LF problems - I almost always leave these to last because the other steps will usually mitigate them.

A couple other thoughts
- avoid tuned traps, broadband traps are easier to work with, tuned traps should be a last resort.
- avoid tools that claim to correct time domain problems in the frequency domain. I know a lot of people like them, but the fact is you can NOT equalize out a time domain problem yet - the horsepower to create the required information isn't here yet.
- be aware of just how much absorption you are adding to the space. Too much is, well, too much! There are other tools, such as diffusion and reflection, that you want to use as well.

While it is a difficult pill to swallow, allocating some of your budget to work with an acoustician can pay for itself many times over. Even if they just make suggestions, they've dealt with small rooms a lot, and they can provide that experience to help you avoid gaining that experience<G>!

Something that few do is to find the best position for your monitors before you set the room up. This will go a long way to making them sound better.

The way you do it is to get a friend to walk around with one active monitor and you stand in front and listen. Feed a mono mix from a quality CD mix into the speaker. Make sure the cables are all long enough for free movement around.

There are some spots where the speaker will just sound better compared to other spots. Aim to set up your monitors there.

Problem is that many set the room up first and think the monitors will just go over there. But there may not be a good spot. While the room is relatively empty or with only minimal stuff around the walls you can do the monitor test.

You can use the same approach to find the best place to set drums up in a room for recording. Tune the floor tom down low and walk around with it hitting it around the room. There will be places it just booms and sounds fat and other spots where it sounds thin and weak.

Thanks guys. 
 
As I mentioned, I have no idea what the room will look like, but I'll make due w/ what I have. Since we're renting the house, it won't be possible to make any modification to the structure of the room itself.  
 
Considering the houses that we've checked so far, I wouldn't really expect to find a secondary room that's much bigger than, say 12 x 14 or such. As I said, far from ideal, but that's what I'll need to work w/. 

Lastly, I do intend to keep furniture and equipment to the bare minimum, so beside the guitars and amp, it all boils down to my little desk and what's on it (see below), so I shouldn't have to compromise as to where in the room I put it. So it's not likely that I end up in a corner or w/ the monitors against the wall.

We do have a good friend here who'll be able to assist w/ acoustics if needed, I'll most likely ask for his input anyway.

In the long run, we'll be moving back to Canada, in our house. I'll have a much bigger room to work w/ there and I can count on my brother in law to help me out w/ the acoustic treatment and all. He has designed and built his own studio, and the place is amazing. Great live rooms and terrific mixing room.



Here's the biggest part of the stuff I do have here w/ me. Beside the secondary audio monitors and a bigger computer/display, that's pretty much all I need and intend to work with.

Driving around Las Vegas, I've seen mostly California-style homes with 2- and 3-car garages. I'd be looking for a place with an extra garage. Further out of town you might find an older place with an outbuilding, barn or shed. Having a space that's twice the volume of a typical suburban bedroom would make the acoustical challenge substantially easier.

Well, obviously if that's possible, I'd jump on it. That being said, so far, all the houses that we've checked had a smaller garage. And my wife is anxious to set up her power tools and all, so that'd be priority no 1 if there's room for more than a car.