been lurking, now first question

Hi everyone, I've been lurking in this forum for some time learning and trying to find out as much as possible before I start asking questions. First of all here is some background on me, I've been playing music for quite a while now, did some recording over the years and the music took me to some interesting locations in the past. I've just purchased a house with a studio already built and wired equipped with a vintage console (moving only in February so I do not have all the dimensions yet). However, the studio is of the basement variety and that is OK for most part (guitar, bass, vocals). I'm worried about one thing - creating a good drum room. The main room is pretty large roughly 28 by 30 feet but ceiling is low - 8 feet or just under covered in acoustic tile The control room is 14.9/10.9 same ceiling height. there is a raised floor (2 inches) in both rooms. I do not think the main room has the best acoustics - it is pretty dull sounding but then again this was just a clapping test and there is tons of carpet so I don't really know. Now given those constraints how realistic is it to create a good drum room. This is a serius project for me and ideally I would like it to have variable acoustics that could acomodate a large drum kit and a baby grand piano (not necessarily at the same time). Any help would be appreciated, If I omitted some info please let me know and I'll add it. Best Regards, Bart

It is pretty common in lower ceilinged drum rooms to completely absorb the ceiling so that you dont hear the reflections from the low ceiling. Sometimes thin acoustic tiles will tame some of the highs but leave the woofy mids and lows. Some 2" Compressed fibreglass above the kit helps immensely. If the floor is also dead the snare and toms will sound lifeless. Setting the drums on some plywood helps a lot. Hope that points in the right direction. I am a recording drummer and have OFTEN recorded in low ceilinged rooms and sounded fine. The trick is to absorb above the kit to give an acoustic picture that the ceiling is taller. Tom

thanks for the info - from the looks of things this is pretty much how this studio tracked drums in the past. I'm wondering if anything can be done from a design standpoint to enhance the room acoustics to where they could be comparable to commercial facilities. I'm trying to convince our drummer not to want to record at the studios we did in the pa$$$t. But I want to have proper justification. My budget is 15K CDN -b

Did you want to chop up the main room and make a drum booth? I find drums are happiest in the largest room possible. So unless you really need to track multiple instruments where you would need the isolation , I would track in the large room. I guess you could set aside about a 7 x 9 ft or 9 x 11 ft room for a vocal booth. If you made it pretty dead on a few walls and the ceiling you could use it for a small drum kit or amplifiers in a pinch. The smallest drum booth I every sucessfully recorded in was a really dead, 5 ft by 6 ft booth. The floor was live but all ealse was killed so you would not hear the "smallness " of the room. Please don't missunderstand. I am NOT a proponent of dead drum rooms. I like a lively controlled sound. But so often it is not possible for drums because they need room to breathe. So short of having a big live room, kill all the reflections you can except the floor. Tom

Well, this is kind of what I'm trying to decide. I'm ready to re-model the studio if this can give me the proper results but at the same time I do not want to make the mistake of spending tens of thousands of dollars on something that is not achievable acoustically (and being a musician I do not have spare $$$ to throw around). The setup as it is, is perfect for close-mic'd bass/guitar, re-amping, vocals and local bands. I got a vintage Harrison console in the deal and I would love to try those pre-amps on the next record. I'm still wondering, how good a room can be created with these low ceilings, can I make it sound like a nice size room if care is taken to absorb reflections from the ceilings? How about the shape, are certain shapes (curved walls maybe) that are more beneficial then others? Or is it always going to sound like a closet no matter how big an area as long as the ceilings are low... Maybe the money would be better spent to simply build an addition to the house with high ceilings?

bart wrote:

I'm still wondering, how good a room can be created with these low ceilings, can I make it sound like a nice size room if care is taken to absorb reflections from the ceilings?

Yes! I have made at least 10 albums in my existing studio room where the ceiling is only 8 foot. If the walls are far enough (5-6 feet or more) from the kit and the ceiling is treated to be acoustically transparent. You should have a perfectly usable room. The mics cant tell if the ceiling is 12 feet up or 8 feet up if the sound is not reflecting from the ceiling to tell them so.

bart wrote:

How about the shape, are certain shapes (curved walls maybe) that are more beneficial then others? Or is it always going to sound like a closet no matter how big an area as long as the ceilings are low?

It is beneficial for the drums to be set up totally non symetrical to reflective surfaces. If this can be accomplished by building skewed walls or portable standing gobos(absorbors) that is all you need.This is actually true of all tracking as far as I can see. I know you want things to be optimal, but also realize that making a good recording seems to be equal parts performance , room ,equipment and recording-mixing technique. A lot of really nice recordings are made in less than otpimal rooms if care is taken with mic placement and intrument location within the room. My personal talent to perform is a bigger hinderance to my drum recordings than my room. ;) Maybe this is not a good idea.. but here is some stuff I recorded in my existing small place. On some of the Jazz tunes the drums sound may be easier to hear: http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/alb ... 55&alid=-1 Tom