I converted a room disconnected from my house into a recording studio.
I had to build a wall to make the room square and it is now 13X13. I have foam on the ceiling and carpet on the walls. I thought the cement might give it some "bounce" but it doesen't sound all that great. If I covered the floor or parts of the wall in plywood would I get more reflection and a noticable difference in sound?
I do not have very much money to spend, so it's either this option or something else cheap (I'm 16).
On the plus side there is a bathroom connected to the studio which has all the surfaces tiled in it and it sounds absolutely spectacular!
Concrete floor and egg crate foam= crappy recording
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zappabass
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:11 pm
- Location: Visalia, CA
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knightfly
- Senior Member
- Posts: 6976
- Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:11 am
- Location: West Coast, USA
welcome to the board -
One of the first things I’d have to ask is why you decided to make the room square - unless there was some problem with a wall or a garage door, square rooms are more difficult to get sounding good since they have two dimensions that are identical, causing more modal problems (peaks and nulls) to have to deal with.
The second thing you should undo, is the carpet on the walls - this does absolutely nothing for sound proofing, is a fire hazard, and carpet only absorbs high mids and highs - this leaves too much low and low mid energy in the room while sucking out all the highs, so the room sounds fairly dead and “boxy” -
If this is going to be both your recording and mixing room, it needs to be fairly dead in ALL frequency ranges for best results; then, you “put back” the ambience in the mix with artificial reverb - either a plug-in for your computer software, or a dedicated hardware reverb unit.
If you can give a better idea of what your budget is, we may be able to suggest a plan of attack that can work for you -
Also, please EDIT YOUR PROFILE to include a location; it’s pretty difficult to recommend stuff without a location since price and availability differs so wildly around the world… Steve
One of the first things I’d have to ask is why you decided to make the room square - unless there was some problem with a wall or a garage door, square rooms are more difficult to get sounding good since they have two dimensions that are identical, causing more modal problems (peaks and nulls) to have to deal with.
The second thing you should undo, is the carpet on the walls - this does absolutely nothing for sound proofing, is a fire hazard, and carpet only absorbs high mids and highs - this leaves too much low and low mid energy in the room while sucking out all the highs, so the room sounds fairly dead and “boxy” -
If this is going to be both your recording and mixing room, it needs to be fairly dead in ALL frequency ranges for best results; then, you “put back” the ambience in the mix with artificial reverb - either a plug-in for your computer software, or a dedicated hardware reverb unit.
If you can give a better idea of what your budget is, we may be able to suggest a plan of attack that can work for you -
Also, please EDIT YOUR PROFILE to include a location; it’s pretty difficult to recommend stuff without a location since price and availability differs so wildly around the world… Steve
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zappabass
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:11 pm
- Location: Visalia, CA
The way the room was designed there was a small 6X6 "hallway" that dropped down into the square floor. I built a wall so that I could put my recorder in there and record drums and figure out if I needed to make mic adjustments or whatever I needed. Its easier to hear what I'm recording because it's quiet in there. Also there is a big window on the door leading to the yard.
I'll try taking down the carpet, the walls are just painted drywall though.
My budget is probably going to be about $100-200.
I'm not looking to sound like a 2,000 per hour studio or anything, I just think its a little to dead in there and needs some more reflection.
I'll try taking down the carpet, the walls are just painted drywall though.
My budget is probably going to be about $100-200.
I'm not looking to sound like a 2,000 per hour studio or anything, I just think its a little to dead in there and needs some more reflection.
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knightfly
- Senior Member
- Posts: 6976
- Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:11 am
- Location: West Coast, USA
Given your budget, I'd pull the carpet off the walls first; then, I'd limit the foam on your ceiling to a 4 x 8 foot section centered over your mix desk, to kill ceiling reflections - I would use the rest of that foam to make some corner traps, saving two sections about 3' x 3' for your two side walls - these should be placed on the wall exactly centered on the spot where placing a mirror will show you 1 or both speakers in the mirror, while seated at the mix position.
You will also want absorption behind your speakers and spaced off the wall by a few inches - this should be probably around 3-4 feet square minimum and will help kill low mid bounces and smooth out the response.
Your ceiling and side wall absorption (at least) will give better results at lower frequencies (therefore more even) if you space them away from the wall by 3-6 inches - one way to do this is to get some lightweight lattice panels at Home Depot, cut them to size, and stitch the foam to the panel - this will keep the panel open for sound to pass through, and still give a way to mount them to.
At the very least, if you can't space the foam off the wall, you should mount it "backward" - in other words, put the "nubbies" toward the wall - this will give a bit more effective depth of the material which improves the range of absorbed frequencies and helps even out room response a bit.
Here's a general idea of what you're going for; ideally, you would use something better than foam but you already have it (along with a tight budget) so wherever you see yellow fiberglass is a candidate for your foam... Steve
You will also want absorption behind your speakers and spaced off the wall by a few inches - this should be probably around 3-4 feet square minimum and will help kill low mid bounces and smooth out the response.
Your ceiling and side wall absorption (at least) will give better results at lower frequencies (therefore more even) if you space them away from the wall by 3-6 inches - one way to do this is to get some lightweight lattice panels at Home Depot, cut them to size, and stitch the foam to the panel - this will keep the panel open for sound to pass through, and still give a way to mount them to.
At the very least, if you can't space the foam off the wall, you should mount it "backward" - in other words, put the "nubbies" toward the wall - this will give a bit more effective depth of the material which improves the range of absorbed frequencies and helps even out room response a bit.
Here's a general idea of what you're going for; ideally, you would use something better than foam but you already have it (along with a tight budget) so wherever you see yellow fiberglass is a candidate for your foam... Steve