John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all!

I'm in the process of converting my garage into a home studio. I currently have a concrete floor where the studio/tracking room is. I wanted to know if it would be best just to keep it like that and maybe paint or stain it or should I look into something else like carpet, (fake) hardwood floor, tile, or vinyl? Asside from looks what would be best for acoutics since the room will be used mainly for acoustic drums and vocal tracking? Also budget is a consideration and I wish not to float the floor. The walls and ceiling are treated with 703 panels and bass traps and it's a fairly small studio room. About 20ft X 10ft. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks!

You can always lay a carpet square if you want that treatment and adding a wooden floor is expensive. I'd go with the painted/stained concrete. The satined can look nice

cheers
john

I was thinking about going the stained route but I was concerned with how the room would sound with concrete. I know most of the large studios use hardwood but since my room is small would there be a problem with sound reflections? I heard that drums track well with a live sounding room but how about vocals?

I heard that drums track well with a live sounding room but how about vocals?

yeah the trouble with live sounding rooms is that you have that reverb on everything, including vocals. You can build some variable panels on the walls though that change the acoustic from live to dead.

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_mate ... encies.htm

scroll down to variable panel absorbers.

cheers
john

Thanks for the advise John that's a great idea. But I guess I'm still wondering if I should go with a reflective floor(concrete) or a dampened floor(carpet) for acoustics. If I used the variable panel absorbers with the concrete floor could I get a fairly deaden sounding room that would have vary little if any reverb for vocal tracks? I know the floor would be reflective but would the absorbers kill the reflections? If so then that would be great! Thanks again for all the helpful advise.

You can always throw down a carpet square over the concrete floor or you can have a carpet floor and lay down a plywood sheet to do drums

cheers
john