Soundproof Your Studio

If you are interested in learning more about how to acoustically treat your recording studio, download my FREE Acoustic Treatment Guide to dial in your home studio acoustics. 

Yes, you read that right. This is a very controversial topic out on the internet and I wanted to confront it head on. Everyone, and I mean pretty much everyone, wants to angle their studio walls. However, it is a myth that has been perpetuated through the ages. In this article I will give you all the science behind what angling walls really does. 

1) It Will Not Fix Room Mode Issues

Splaying walls will not eliminate room modes, but it may shift them slightly and help a little with diffusion. (Everest and Pohlmann 257) Everest and Pohlmann also cite a study by Van Niewland and Weber in their book that shows that room modes in non-rectangular rooms are in fact still there, but are harder to predict. 

This means that choosing a rectangular room using a room ratio that falls within the range of some of science's best acousticians: Bolt, Boner, Volkmann, Sepmeyer and Louden, will give you a room that has a more uniform distribution of modal frequencies in a room. (Everest and Pohlmann 254) This means you can predict the room modes and more easily treat them with room acoustic treatment. 

2) You Will Lose A Lot Of Space In Your Room

This may be the main reason not to splay your walls. First, let's be clear you can angle walls in a control room after the initial rectangular shell is created. This can be done using smaller framing timber and creating what is known as a reflection free zone around your speakers. It is important to note that even when a studio seemingly has angled walls, the true soundproof wall behind the inner studio is still rectangular. 

Now, angling walls will help with one thing and that is flutter echo. Flutter echo occurs when sound bounces between two parallel walls. It is the pinging sound you hear when you clap your hands in a room. It is also not desirable for recording studios. However, you can easily treat flutter echo in a room using acoustic panels. It is far cheaper to hang panels then to angle a wall. 

If you are dead set on angling your walls then you must angle them the right amount. According to the Master Handbook of Acoustics most walls are splayed "between 1ft in 20ft and 1ft in 10ft." (Everest and Pohlmann 257) This means if you splay one wall in a room that is 20ft long you will lose 10 square feet of space. I don't know about you, but that space is really useful and expensive to build. 

It's also important to note that in a control room you cannot just spaly one wall. You want symmetry in your room, so you would need to splay two walls losing even more space. 

You can see that splaying walls is not really ideal for any studio and especially a home studio. 

Conclusion

There is not really much benefit to angling your walls in a recording studio. The cons far out weight the pros. One of the biggest factors in good room acoustics are using correct room ratios to start with and having rooms with large volumes. Splaying your walls will make it so you do not know the room modes and may actually make your room sound worse, and it will decrease the volume of your room, also making it sound worse. 

All problems with flutter echo and diffusion can be solved using carefully placed acoustic panels. You do not need to waste money and space angling walls. 

Works Cited: 

Everest, F. A., and Ken C. Pohlmann. Master Handbook Of Acoustics. 6th ed., McGraw Hill Education, 2015. pp. 257-259.

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Many potential clients reach out to me saying they have less than $10K to build a studio. The problem is that unless your studio is a 8x10 square foot room or smaller, chances are you will need to spend more money on your soundproofing project. 

Next, if you add in the cost of properly acoustically treating your studio, you are looking at another couple thousand dollars as well. 

In the video above I go over several different studio sizes and different budgets and show you with my soundproof studio budget calculator, exactly how much a soundproof studio will cost both if you build it from the ground up or inside an existing structure. 

To download the soundproofing budget calculator simply click this link:  https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/calculator. 

FREE Soundproofing Workshop: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/workshop

In 2020 I built a soundproof studio in my backyard. I had no prior experience building studios and I primarily used Rod Gervai's book, Home Recording Studio: Build It Like The Pros and the advice from The Soundproofing Company to design and build my studio. In this article I want to show you how soundproof my studio actually is, so you know what level of soundproofing you can achieve with these methods. 

Before you build your studio you can take SPL measurements as many times as possible each day for 7 days to see what the highest reading you get is. This will be the SPL reading you need to soundproof against. 

In my studio I recorded an SPL of around 26dB. I took this measurement at 9:17am on a Monday morning. I then went outside and measure the ambient SPL of my neighborhood right outside the front door of my recording studio. The peak readings I got while outside was 57.6dB. So my transmission loss, or TL for short, was 31.6dB. 

Now it is important to note that not all frequencies have the same TL. So low bass frequencies will pass through my soundproof structure more easily than higher frequencies. Our goal with soundproofing is to try and reduce the sound outside as much as possible, while also reducing the loud sounds in our studio from coming out into the neighborhood. 

The best way to do SPL measurements for your studio is to take as many as possible at different times of the day. For example if you hear a siren passing by, pull out your SPL meter and record the level. This will help you get an idea for peak SPL levels in your studio. 

So in this test I did while playing my monitors, I reached an SPL of 87.6. When I closed my door while the speakers were still blasting the SPL outside dropped to 48dB. That means there was a TL of 39.6db. We also know that 48db was the ambient SPL of my backyard, so essentially my studio blocked out all the sound of the speakers at a very high listening level. I would never mix or listen back as loud as I was playing them. 

For drums there would certainly be a higher SPL in the studio and thus maybe a higher SPL right outside. I will have to do that experiment the next time I have drums in the studio. 

After working in my studio for 2 and a half years I can say that a take has never been ruined due to outside sound. That is not something I can say for my home studios previously. I can also say that when we play with drums or a full band in the studio the neighbors have never complained. I do not use the studio at all hours of the night, but I am confident it would not be a problem. 

Now I do hear some noises. Super powerful sub bass from cars in the apartment complex behind my house will enter the studio, but only in very low frequencies like 40hz and below. That is annoying, but you can EQ that off in most recordings. It is also fairly rare. 

I can hear thunder, but again it is only the low frequencies and it really doesn't come through much. I cannot hear rain at all. 

If a helicopter is flying really low I might hear some of its lower frequency energy, but it is not super loud. 

Lastly, if they are mowing the lawn, it really doesn't matter unless they drive the lawnmower right by my door or directly up against the back wall.

My door...oh my door. What a headache it has been. It has cost me so much time and money. If I could do it all over again I would have designed a communicating door system with Zero Industry seals going around each door. I also would have used the JH Brandt method of door construction not Gervais's. I would have used Corning 703 wrapped in fabric between the doors to increase transmission loss. 

One day I plan on adding a second door and better seals, but my budget currently does not allow for it and honestly it doesn't affect my work. It is more of a nerd and ego thing to make my door as soundproof as possible. 

This said, I am confident that I would hear even less if my door had been built better the first time through. 

I hope you have found this article insightful and helpful in understanding how soundproof a studio can be and how soundproof my studio is. Remember, you cannot eliminate all sound, but you can reduce it to an acceptable level for professional level recording. 

FREE Acoustic Treatment Guide: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/acoustic

Hire Duncan Ferguson: https://thevoltageexchange.com/

This week's video and article is a bit different from my usual teaching. I recently had coffee with my new friend, Duncan Ferguson who is a professional mastering engineer and owner of the studio, The Voltage Exchange. We toured his studio and talked about his acoustic treatment build out. Here are some key takeaways. 

Duncan weighed his costs with this build and decided to put his money into the acoustics not the soundproofing. 

Duncan says it himself, this design was born from his experience with a masters degree in acoustics, running sound testing for stadium shows and his years as a professional mastering room. He does have a lot of knowledge, but this was his first studio design. 

Acoustics vary depending on the usage of the room. In Duncan's case he needs an extremely flat and accurate frequency response in his room. For this reason it may be more dead or in some cases "boring" than a live room in a studio. His studio design is based off the control room principal where all acoustic decisions are made to get the most accurate listening experience possible. It is good to keep this in mind as you watch the video, since not all rooms should be acoustically treated the same way. I also find that acoustic design is more of an artform than a science in much the same way mixing and mastering is. Ultimately, we need to follow some ground rules, but the real beauty of the sonics of a room is in the ear of the beholder. 

If you are designing a recording studio then check out my FREE Acoustic Treatment Guide to get all the best tips on acoustically treating your home recording studio. 

FREE Soundproofing Workshop: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/workshop

When most people think of soundproofing they think of foam, a room within a room and a floating floor. Now there are a lot of myths out there about floating floors and today I want to clear it up by telling you that floating a floor in almost all situations is a bad soundproofing option. 

The best option is to build on a concrete slab. This option offers you the best soundproofing for your home recording studio. 

The reason a concrete slab is the best option is because it sits on the earth which offers great insulation around the slab and that the slab itself has so much mass that it can stop sound from entering your studio. 

If you are building a soundproof studio in your home then you should build your studio in your basement if it has an existing concrete slab or in your garage. 

If you are planning to do what I did and build a studio in your backyard then you can pour a concrete slab and build your studio on top of it. 

If you want to have more than one soundproof room in your home recording studio then the best option is to pour isolated concrete slabs. You can see in this diagram below that isolated concrete slabs allow you to have adjacent rooms that are not connected by the same floor. This means sound will not travel from one concrete slab to the other. 

An expansion joint and some caulk fills the space between the two slabs. I would recommend you find a concrete specialist who has experience pouring isolated slabs before you choose this option. 

Well, this is a common problem. My first gut reaction is find a different location where you can. The amount of money and expertise needed to properly float a floor is beyond the scope of a home studio. If you absolutely must float your floor then you will have to live with the fact that your floor will be a weak link in your soundproof room. 

A weak link means you will not know until you are finished if your studio will be soundproof enough for your goals. This means gambling tens of thousands of dollars on a soundproofing job that might not work. 

If you are building a soundproof home recording studio stick to using a concrete slab as your floor. It will start you off with the best soundproof floor possible. I don't recommend building a home recording studio on a floating floor and would recommend you move or change the location of your studio before going down that path. 

FREE Soundproofing Workshop: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/workshop

Lately I have been thinking a lot about if Green Glue is really necessary in a soundproof studio build. The first hint, was that Rod Gervais only mentions Green Glue in a small section of his book. His entire process involves 5/8" drywall with specific construction techniques. So, why then do we need Green Glue? This is what I will answer in this article. 

Green Glue is a damping system. Damping involves reducing sound energy by converting it to heat by reducing the vibrations in the material. There are many damping materials on the market, the most notable competitor to Green Glue being Mass Loaded Vinyl or MLV. 

In his book Home Recording Studio: Build It Like The Pros, Rod Gervais states the following: "There are a large number of damping systems on the market...But the only one that has caught my attention (providing not only greater isolation at low frequencies than standard drywall, while maintaining a cost performance that is reasonable) is a product called Green Glue..." (Gervais Chapter 4 Floor, Wall and Ceiling Construction Details pg.89). 

To understand how Green Glue works we need to compare it to the mass needed to get the same isolation  without using Green Glue. To understand this we need to look at Mass Law. Mass Law states that each doubling of mass adds 6dB of additional isolation, but in the real world that number is closer to 5dB. (Gervais Chapter 4 Floor, Wall and Ceiling Construction Details pg.89).  

So, if you have two sheets of drywall on each side of your wall the next step is four sheets on each side to increase the isolation by 5dB.

Gervais shares a graph in his book from lab tests done by the Green Glue Company. These tests were done by a reputable third party lab with no connections to the Green Glue Company. 

In the diagram below you can see that the top two lines in the graph show the Green Glue Assembly (two layers of drywall with green glue in the middle on a single stud wall) and the estimated performance of 4 layers of drywall per side. 

What is important to note is first, the Green Glue simply outperforms the four layers of drywall across the entire frequency spectrum from 250Hz upward. Starting around 125Hz and below the green glue is superior to the four layers of drywall. 

If we look at two layers of drywall without Green Glue it is clear that the Green Glue certainly outperforms the two layers of drywall across the entire frequency spectrum. 

Now the initial instinct after looking at the graph is to say, great! Let me use Green Glue because it clearly gets the best results. Before you jump to that conclusion you need to ask yourself how much isolation you really need. 

If you are primarily recording acoustic instruments and listening back to your speakers at a normal listening volume then you probably don't need to spend the extra money on Green Glue. However, if you are playing drums at all hours of the day or rehearsing with a heavy metal band at full blast then you would be wise to use Green Glue to get the maximum isolation possible. 

The next logical step is to think if your walls are getting really great isolation then you are good to go. However, if you use Green Glue and your walls have a really high STC value, but your doors and windows do not then you will not have a soundproof room with an STC as high as your walls. 

Your room is only as soundproof as the least soundproof assembly in it. This means if your walls get an STC of 73, but your door gets an STC of 57 then you probably did not need to spend all that money adding Green Glue to your walls. 

STC is not even the best way to compare the door and the walls. The best way is to look at the Transmission Loss over the entire frequency spectrum. 

For example, let's look at the transmission loss of the best Overly Acoustical Door. This door gets an STC of 57. Overly, by the way, is one of the most reputable soundproof door companies on the market. 

Below is a diagram from the Overly door product catalog. 

If we compare the frequencies of the transmission loss chart to the double wall with Green Glue we can see some comparisons. Now remember, the graph from the Green Glue company shows a single stud wall. In studios it is best to use a double stud wall so your transmission loss will be even better. 

This said, this high end door achieves really good results across the frequency spectrum and would perform better than the drywall with Green Glue in the low end. The only downside is this door probably costs upwards of $5,000. If you build your own door you need to try and match the weight of your walls with your door. 

If you are using Green Glue, remember the mass of your walls will be close to the equivalent of four layers of drywall on each side. For a double door system that means both doors need to weigh close to 176 LBs or more to match the mass of your walls. 

For most DIY soundproofing projects Green Glue may be overkill. However, if you are a drummer or a very loud band then I would consider Green Glue and building a very heavy door or buying a professionally built one. The key is to remember your soundproofing is only as good as your weakest link. Companies like Green Glue want to sell you their product, but be aware of the bias towards getting superior results without taking into account your doors and windows as well. 

Works Cited:

Gervais, Rod. “Chapter 4 Floor, Wall and Ceiling Construction Details.” Home Recording Studio: Build It like the Pros, Delmar, Clifton Park, NY, 2011.

“Product Catalog.” Overly Door Company, https://door.overly.com/products?PT_Guid=d942747f-96d5-4dc3-8b3b-58a3b5b70a55&PM_Guid=2f9a63cb-9c60-4b12-8cc9-8c852003606e&PA_Guid=b5b287a4-917d-4771-bac9-07cc0941bd0c.

FREE Soundproofing Workshop: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/workshop

Yup, you read that right. Don't do it! I am trying to stir up the internet on purpose. MLV is not as good at stopping sound as Green Glue with two layers of 5/8" drywall. I also am going to argue in the article that your soundproof room is only as strong as its weakest link, which in all rooms will most likely be the door. 

It is so important to understand that a soundproof wall with an STC rating of 63 and a soundproof door with an STC rating of 57 means that your room will have an overall STC of 57. Your wall will block a lot of sound, but those same sounds will come in your door that were blocked by your wall. 

With this in mind it is extremely important to build your door so that it matches the STC of your wall. 

So what does this have to do with MLV. 

Let me explain. 

That is a good thing right? Well, not so fast. If you build a doublle wall with just two layers of 5/8" drywall on both sides and achieve an STC of 63 then your door must also equal an STC of 63. To do this you must by a $5,000 plus door from a soundproof door supplier or build your own. To build your own you must match the mass of your two walls. 

So, two walls with an a combined STC of 63 means you have 4.4lb/sqft on one side and 4.4lb/sqft on the other side. If you build a single door it must equal 8.8lb/sqft. Lets say your door is 36" x 80" or 20 sqft. Then your door must weight 176lb at least. This is the minimum and more is better. 

Now, if you add Green Glue to your walls then we know that is the equivalent of adding 2 more layers of drywall to your wall. The reason we know this is from lab testing and this information is also in Rod Gervais's book: Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros. 

This would double our mass needed on our door to 352lb's. Yes, that is a very heavy door. 

If you add MLV you will need to figure out how the added weight and damping effect of MLV will increase your soundproofing and adjust the door mass accordingly. Since Green Glue performs better than MLV my guess is you could build a slightly lighter door. 

My point is that you may get enough soundproofing from just the two layers of drywall on each wall. This would mean you are wasting money on Green Glue or MLV. Or if you do use the damping products you must increase the mass of your doors and windows accordingly. This will increase cost overall and may, again not be needed. 

According to Lab Tests done by the Green Glue company with a private third party lab, Green Glue simply performs better than MLV. Look at this graph from the Green Glue company below. 

You can see that Green Glue outperforms MLV except at 125hz. It performs better than MLV in general over the entire frequency spectrum. So, my question to you is why would you use MLV over Green Glue? Why would you use MLV over just two layers of 5/8" drywall? 

Is it because MLV is advertised well all over the internet? That is true and most searches for soundproofing will lead you to MLV. That is called great SEO and it makes MLV suppliers a lot of money. The bummer is that you are the one losing out, not them. 

My point is that adding damping in the form of MLV or Green Glue will improve the STC and Transmission Loss of your walls, but do you have the means to also increase the STC and TL of your door as well? If not, then do not bother with either MLV or Green Glue. Next, we know from lab tests that Green Glue performs better so if you are going to add a damping layer to your soundproof design please use Green Glue and not MLV. 

FREE Soundproofing Workshop: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/workshop 

Rod Gervais Book - https://amzn.to/3vFI8OD 

Master Handbook of Acoustics: https://tinyurl.com/y6sdpz4n How To Build Soundproof Windows: https://youtu.be/JQiozaQcTkk 

Roto Metals: https://www.rotometals.com/

Door Seal Kit: https://acousticalsolutions.com/product/privacyshield-soundproofing-door-seal-kit-complete-set/

Do you have existing windows in the room where you want to build a soundproof home recording studio? If you don't want to remove them entirely this article will show you two ways to create soundproof window inserts. 

I learned this method from the Master Handbook of Acoustics by Ken C. Pohlmann and F. Alton Everest. This design involves building a seal either in front of or behind your existing window in the window cavity. The idea is to use four layers of 3/4" particle board sandwiched together. You can see in the diagram below how this works. 

You place the particle board in a wood frame and use four carriage bolts to secure the board together. The last board creates a full seal around the window opening and must be airtight for the system to work. 

The second design is from Home Recording Studio: Build It Like The Pros by Rod Gervais. This design allows you to open or close a massive door in front of or behind your existing window. 

This design involves installing a solid core door cut to the size of your window opening. You then attach the door using two to three hinges. You add more mass to this mini door by sandwiching 8psf of sheet lead between the door and 3/4 plywood. 

Next, you need to build two gaskets to seal both the solid core door and the 3/4 plywood add on. It is best to add a third final seal. This can be magnetic weather stripping or a door seal kit like this one: Door Seal Kit. This system will allow you to open or close your window door when you are recording or not. 

If you want to keep your existing windows as is then either of these designs will work to isolate your window for home recording. The downside will be the window will be blocked during times when you need maximum isolation. These means you won't get any natural light. 

The benefit of the door method is that you can open your window and allow fresh air into your studio on nice days. This is something even professional studios do not usually have and could be a nice plus to your home studio design. 

FREE Soundproofing Workshop: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/workshop 

Rod Gervais Book - https://amzn.to/3vFI8OD

How To Soundproof Walls: https://youtu.be/m4G8l4RUydE

When I was first thinking about building my own home recording studio I wanted to build it in a pre-fabricated shed. The reason? It is cheaper and easier to just have a shed delivered and then soundproof the inside of it. In theory this is a great plan, but there are two main things we will talk about in this article that make your shed design potentially a disaster. 

Currently, my friend and builder, Henry Thompson, is building a soundproof recording studio here in Nashville for a drummer/producer. The studio is a big barn style shed. The goal is to soundproof his pre-fab shed so that he can play drums without bothering his neighbors and produce clients in a professional home recording studio. 

This shed was placed on an existing concrete slab in Taylor, the owners, driveway. The company who sells the shed came in and built the full shed in a day or two. 

That is an incredible deal, but there are two big problems with using a shed that was built on site. 

First, the shed was built with a wood deck floor on top of the concrete driveway. 

Second the shed walls or sheathing are very thin. This is part of the reason it is cheaper than traditional building methods, but this is also why it is not ideal for soundproofing. In soundproofing we want mass, and thin walls mean way less mass. 

The first thing you must do is remove the wood deck floor. To do this you must remove the plywood from the floor and cut out all the wood cross bracing on the floor. You must use the concrete slab as your floor for it to be properly soundproofed. 

For the the thin walls the key is to add mass to those existing walls. To this I recommend adding two layers of 5/8" drywall to the inside bays of your existing sheathing. To save money, I would have taken the plywood from the original shed floor and cut it down to size to add mass to the outside walls. 

Below is a diagram from Home Recording Studio: Build It Like The Pros by Rod Gervais. 

Notice in this diagram that he recommends adding two layers of 5/8" drywall with a small gap around the drywall. Fill the small gap with backer rod and acoustic caulk to seal the added drywall to the sheathing. Then you can add a 1" cleat over the backer rod and caulk to ensure the new drywall is fully sealed and airtight. 

This method will ensure your outside walls match the mass of your inside walls and is crucial to achieving the STC ratings we need for recording studio design. 

You can build a professional recording studio in a pre-fabricated shed, The key is to build it on top of a level concrete slab and to beef up the interior walls and ceilings of your building so that you are starting with an excellent structure. Then when you add the soundproofing techniques on top of that structure you will get professional results. 

FREE Soundproofing Workshop: https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/workshop

Sonarworks: https://www.sonarworks.com/soundid-reference/overview?oid=2&affid=254&sub1=affiliate&utm_medium=affiliate

A garage is an excellent place to build a recording studio. In this article we will look at the process and a simple design showing how I would build my studio in a garage. 

Below is a mock up of how I would design my studio. This is not to scale, but it gives you an idea of the major elements we will talk about in this article. 

First, I chose my room dimensions using the Sepmeyer room equation. The sepmeyer equations are based off room dimensions that will reduce the amount of room modes in a room. Room modes are bad when it comes to acoustics, so starting with an ideal room size to begin with will make acoustically treating the room that much easier. 

For my studio I chose 18.64ft x 12.8ft x 8ft (celing height). You can use the calculator at this link: https://www.odometer.org/misc/ht/. 

This room size also leaves space in the garage to be...well a garage for storage, parking a car and extra space for my ERV and baffle boxes. More on that to come! 

The floor of a garage is usually concrete. This is all you need to soundproof a floor. Yup, no floating floors here. Just lay down a carpet, some laminate flooring or hardwood flooring and you are good to go. 

For my walls, I would use a double wall system. This would offer excellent soundproofing. I would use nice wood paneling on my front wall and left side wall for both acoustics and vibe. You can trade out drywall for wood whenever you want. It is all about the mass. As long as you get mass on your walls you will be fine. I would put green glue in between my drywall layers to maximize the soundproofing. 

For the ceiling I would use a hat channel system. I would want to make sure that my ceiling height is truly 8 feet when the hat channels and two layers of drywall are installed. If my ceiling height ends up being less than 8 feet then I would want to change my inside wall dimensions. 

To install my ceiling I would install I-B1 acoustic clips wit 7/8" furring channel and attach the two layers of drywall with green glue to my ceiling. 

If I had the space I could also build a free standing ceiling off my inside walls using new bracing and this would be the most soundproof option. 

I would use a communicating door system to soudnproof my entryway. The comunnicating doors use two solid core doors that open opposite to each other. It is important that the doors are airtight. I would buy a door sealant kit from acoustical solutions. You could also maybe save some money buying door seals directly from zero industries too. 

For heating and cooling I would install a Mr. Cool Minisplit. For a room this small I would install a 1200 BTU model. I would run the lines for the Mini Split through my walls and connect them to the compressor outside. 

Many people forget about the need for fresh air. The mini split doesn't provide fresh air, so we need a separate system. I would install an ERV to provide fresh air in my studio. I would run the fresh air and exhaust air through two separate baffle boxes attached to the outside wall of my studio. This would ensure that the air is not heard and that the two big holes in your wall won't ruin your soundproof room. 

Once I finish building the soundproof shell of my room then I will install the acoustic panels. First, I would put bass trap panels in all four corners of my room spanning from the floor to the ceiling. 

Next, I would create a reflection free zone or RFZ. This is around the area where I will be listening, mixing and mastering my music. To create the RFZ I will hand acoustic panels on either side of me on both walls and hang an acoustic cloud over my head. This will ensure that the sound I am hearing from my speakers is not distorted by reflections off my walls and ceiling. 

Next, I would put diffusion panels across my entire back wall from roughly 2 feet off the ground. This will ensure that any sound-waves that hit the back wall will be evenly dispersed back into the room. This will make my speakers sound clearer and more focused. 

Then I would set up my desk so that my listening spot is 38% of the length of the room. This is the ideal location to listen to your speakers in a rectangular room.  In my room that listening spot would be at 7.08Ft. 

I would then set up my speakers to they create an equilateral triangle from my listening spot. I would angle them so that they are pointing directly towards my listening spot. It is important to make sure that if your speakers are say 5 ft apart that both speakers would also be 5 feet from your listening spot. It is important to note that your head will most likely sit just in front of the peak of that equilateral triangle. Use your ears to dial in the exact spot. You will know when it sounds perfect! 

Lastly, I would use Sonarworks speaker calibration software called Sound ID to calibrate my speakers to get them as flat as possible. This will make up for any problems in my room that the acoustic treatment couldn't fix. 

After that my studio would be finished and ready for recording, mixing and mastering. 

If you found that to be a great overview, but feel like I should have gone more in depth, well you are right. The devil is in the details as they say. So reach out to me if you would like to learn more and need some help building your professional DIY home recording studio.