help me get the best out of my studio space

[gondii]

Hi everyone - would really appreciate some help. To make space for a new family member, I have to move my studio stuff into our bedroom. We live in the middle of a city, so we'll have to make the best out of the limited space we have. My room treatment has been pretty bad to non existent before and I also had pretty bad studio monitors, so I relied mostly on my AKG 702s with Sonarworks and referencing. However I want to upgrade my home studio and try to do treatment as much as the limited space permits.

Here is a sketch of the situation.


https://ibb.co/bNwH7xX

Edit: I updated the specs and image.

So basically I have about 12 square meter of space available in an 20 square meter room.

In the back of the monitoring there is a book shelf with books. I have read that while not ideal, it does help a little bit with bass trappings. Are there ways that I can better utilize the bookshelf by placing stuff inside? Maybe absorption/diffusion material in between and above the books.

Left of the set up is a relatively large window with a thin and a heavier curtain. I read that again, while not ideal, if you get quite large and heavy curtain that cover basically the whole area of reflection it also can do some good. On the right side of the set up I am planning to also install a large and heavy curtain. This is mainly to keep some of the light and noise from bothering my wife when I am working on my music with headphones while she sleeps. During the daytime, when I would actually be using the monitors, I could open (part of) the curtain to adjust some of the boxiness.

Now I don't earn my money with mixing. I don't need to deliver commercial mixes to clients. Also I don't plan on listening to music or mixing on very high volumes. However I do want to try to get as much as I can out of the set up. So my questions are:

- what can I do to improve the acoustics in the space - what can I do with the book shelf? My thoughts are - heavy curtains, ceiling panels, stuff in the bookshelf and try to leave some room to the wall behind the speakers and also put up absorption panels up on the wall.

- do you have any recommendations for monitors that would work in a set up like this... what do I watch out for? (will try to demo, too) the maximum budget I have set is around 800€ for the speakers. I do have Sonarworks reference with the mic already. Also what is the consensus on subs?

Any feedback is much appreciated!!

[kovacs]

Do you actually do any live recording with microphones? Or are you just concerned about listening/monitoring.

[gondii]

Listening, monitoring. No or minimal recording (a bit of my own vocals, but usually heavily processed).

Just one addition, I can actually put the room curtain/divider on the right side of the door, that would actually be better for everything and increase the space to about 3x3.5meter.

[kovacs]

My home studio is, like yours, a part of a bedroom which looks much the same. I have the desk and guitar equipment etc next to two windows. We have a sloped ceiling. There is a large double bed, a book case and a door. Paneled walls (MDF). I have not needed to do anything special to dampen harmonics or standing bass waves. I don’t even have curtains. So I guess it comes down to what level of accuracy you need. You could always buy some foam plates to dampen the acoustics if you feel it’s necessary.

For vocal recording I use one of these:

[gondii]

Ok that is actually very encouraging. I was planning to purchase the monitors first and then begin treating the room over the a couple of months after. Can I ask which monitors you use?

[kovacs]

I have used a set of KRK V4 Series II monitors for many years (since 2005 or so), since our previous place was smaller and my studio had to be very small. I have been very happy with them and see no reason to buy larger monitors. I use headphones (BeyerDynamic DT770 Pro) when I need all the details. I use my living room speakers and iPad to test my bounces.

[Melkor]

I wouldn't mix in a room with someone else sleeping, headphones or not.

Is it possible to set up shop in the loungeroom or dining room?
Much more privacy after midnight, you can go make coffee etc etc.

If there are kids about, this is not an option, as they will quickly wreck your gear... but if there are only adults, this option is much better.

Also, most loungerooms/dining rooms are bigger and less symmetrical, and will sound significantly better if you do need to check the mix through monitors.

Good luck!

[gondii]

The "ideal" room is becoming the kids room. And my wife is already moving her art supplies into the living room area to set up her area there. Unfortunately this is the only thing that makes sense I fear. Although with working full time and a child, I don't stay up that late anymore, so I won't be doing a whole lot of music when the wife is asleep, but there will be some overlap that I want to compensate for to the best of my abilities.

Another thought - I could also set up the computer facing away from the window.