John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi there,

first post here. I have been reading a lot on this forum and on Gearslutz to have the best room possible in my home for my studio. I am slowly getting there, taking some measurements with REW and trapping the frequencies and all. My listening spot is getting really good. My mixes translate well. My question is concerning an adjacent room next to it:

I'd like to make this adjacent room an amp and vocal recording room. The room is 10.4'x8'x7' unfinished with 2 concrete walls and 2 regular 2x4 and gyprock. I was wondering if it was a good size to make that this kind of room? My idea was to put OC703 in all the walls and ceiling, and instead of putting gyprock, I would just cover the insulated walls (and ceiling) with fabric, so that the walls themselves would be my absorption. I would put in a couple of amps in there with a spot for the vocals with gobo's in front and behind the singer.

Comments? Ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi. Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things!

... taking some measurements with REW ...

If you'd care to post the actual MDAT files (both from original empty room, as well as the current state), then I'd be happy to take a look at those and analyze them for you, to see what you have already accomplished and what still needs to be done.

an amp and vocal recording room. The room is 10.4'x8'x7'

The ceiling is rather low, so it would not be great for vocals, but would probably work fine for amps.

My idea was to put OC703 in all the walls and ceiling, and instead of putting gyprock, I would just cover the insulated walls (and ceiling) with fabric,

So you do not need any isolation ("soundproofing") at all? You just want to make the room sound dead, with no need to isolate it? In other words, you are confident that there are no sounds coming form outside that room that could mess with your recordings? And also the sound that escapes from that room into the rest of the world will not bother anyone else? Is that correct, and that's the reason why you don't want to isolate the room?


- Stuart -

Soundman2020 wrote:Hi. Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things!

... taking some measurements with REW ...

If you'd care to post the actual MDAT files (both from original empty room, as well as the current state), then I'd be happy to take a look at those and analyze them for you, to see what you have already accomplished and what still needs to be done.

an amp and vocal recording room. The room is 10.4'x8'x7'

The ceiling is rather low, so it would not be great for vocals, but would probably work fine for amps.

My idea was to put OC703 in all the walls and ceiling, and instead of putting gyprock, I would just cover the insulated walls (and ceiling) with fabric,

So you do not need any isolation ("soundproofing") at all? You just want to make the room sound dead, with no need to isolate it? In other words, you are confident that there are no sounds coming form outside that room that could mess with your recordings? And also the sound that escapes from that room into the rest of the world will not bother anyone else? Is that correct, and that's the reason why you don't want to isolate the room?


- Stuart -

Thanks! I will take a reading tonight and give results. I have not done any work on it yet.

I want to make it as dead as possible for recording vocals and guitars, although I wouldn't mind a bit of room ambience in it, but I know is nearly impossible in the room size. I don't really need to isolate, my house is in a very quiet neighbourhood and the room is silent enough in that part of the house (no hvac or plumbing). Same thing for sounds coming out, I am in the clear on that. Right now, I track my vocals in the recording room, which is not super great either, but still can get good vocals with dynamics and ok vocals with condensers. I'd just want a space to record those two to clear a bit of space in the tracking room and isolate the guitars during "off the floor" recordings and make a nice looking room for inspiring vocal work. Doesn't need to be perfect, because either way I'll end up selling the house in the next 5 years to buy something bigger with better studio potential. It was the only house I could afford!

My tracking room is 34'x10.5'x7' (I know, not great), but I still manage to get good sounds out of it. I was reading on room modes and ratios for a long time... from what I can understand, a good ratio for a mixing room would be 1:1.6:2.33 and a good room size for vocals would be around 1500c/feet. So... What if I was to split my tracking/mixing room in two to have a 7'x10.5'x16.3' for mixing and a 16.5'x10.5'x7' for tracking vocals/amps and then the smaller room for drums and regular jam space? I am just trying to optimize as much as possible the space I have in the basement.

Bump? What do I need missing from the "Before you post" instructions? Just trying to be courteous and have some help. Thanks.

I want to make it as dead as possible for recording vocals and guitars, although I wouldn't mind a bit of room ambience in it, but I know is nearly impossible in the room size.

Vocals and guitars sound better in slightly different acoustic "spaces". At least for me, I prefer a deader room for vocals, and a room that's a bit more live, a bit warmer for acoustic guitar. For electric guitar, it sort of depends on what sound you are aiming for: it might be better very dead, or it might be better with a bit of ambiance. So ... maybe you could make your room variable? Design some panels that open/close/slide/rotate/flip to change the sound of the room a bit.

My tracking room is 34'x10.5'x7' (I know, not great),

It would be great. . . . if the ceiling was higher! a 7' ceiling doesn't give you good acoustics. Hopefully your next place (the one "five years from now") will have much higher ceilings...

Anyway, for this room, now that I understand what you are looking for, I would suggest that you make the room with two acoustic "zones", and make it variable. At the one end, put thick porous absorption on about 80% of the ceiling, but vary the thickness: use both 2" and 4", to ensure that you are not treating it all the same way. Put thin plastic on that, to prevent the fibers from filtering down over time. Do something similar on the walls: Perhaps a superchunk in one of those corners, and varied thickness absorption panels on the walls, covering maybe 60% - 80%. You don't need plastic on those panels. For the other end of the room, use less absorption: say only 20% coverage on the ceiling and one wall, and perhaps even diffusion on one of the other walls. Then put a variable acoustic panel on the walls in the middle, between those two ends (or maybe a gobo). Make one side highly absorptive and the other mostly reflective but also a bit diffusive. Glenn ("Gulffo") has a nice design for that, with a sort of "slotted poly" on one side. Or you could just do curved or angled plywood. No specific tuning or major design, as you'll be using it creatively. In fact, you could do several such variable panels in smaller sizes, so you can open / close just one at a time, or all at once, or any combination, to give you even more variability.

Also, build all of that so it can be taken down and moved to your new studio when you go.

This would give you a room where you could do vocals in the deader end and acoustic guitars in the more live end, and electric guitars / other stuff at whatever point in between gives the best sound, opening/closing your variable panels as needed to adjust the acoustic response of the room.

- Stuart -

Soundman2020 wrote:

I want to make it as dead as possible for recording vocals and guitars, although I wouldn't mind a bit of room ambience in it, but I know is nearly impossible in the room size.

Vocals and guitars sound better in slightly different acoustic "spaces". At least for me, I prefer a deader room for vocals, and a room that's a bit more live, a bit warmer for acoustic guitar. For electric guitar, it sort of depends on what sound you are aiming for: it might be better very dead, or it might be better with a bit of ambiance. So ... maybe you could make your room variable? Design some panels that open/close/slide/rotate/flip to change the sound of the room a bit.

My tracking room is 34'x10.5'x7' (I know, not great),

It would be great. . . . if the ceiling was higher! a 7' ceiling doesn't give you good acoustics. Hopefully your next place (the one "five years from now") will have much higher ceilings...

Anyway, for this room, now that I understand what you are looking for, I would suggest that you make the room with two acoustic "zones", and make it variable. At the one end, put thick porous absorption on about 80% of the ceiling, but vary the thickness: use both 2" and 4", to ensure that you are not treating it all the same way. Put thin plastic on that, to prevent the fibers from filtering down over time. Do something similar on the walls: Perhaps a superchunk in one of those corners, and varied thickness absorption panels on the walls, covering maybe 60% - 80%. You don't need plastic on those panels. For the other end of the room, use less absorption: say only 20% coverage on the ceiling and one wall, and perhaps even diffusion on one of the other walls. Then put a variable acoustic panel on the walls in the middle, between those two ends (or maybe a gobo). Make one side highly absorptive and the other mostly reflective but also a bit diffusive. Glenn ("Gulffo") has a nice design for that, with a sort of "slotted poly" on one side. Or you could just do curved or angled plywood. No specific tuning or major design, as you'll be using it creatively. In fact, you could do several such variable panels in smaller sizes, so you can open / close just one at a time, or all at once, or any combination, to give you even more variability.

Also, build all of that so it can be taken down and moved to your new studio when you go.

This would give you a room where you could do vocals in the deader end and acoustic guitars in the more live end, and electric guitars / other stuff at whatever point in between gives the best sound, opening/closing your variable panels as needed to adjust the acoustic response of the room.

- Stuart -

Thank you! That is basically what I have started. I will build more panels for a better cloud and make my listening spot deader, while adding a couple of diffusors near the drums and some bass traps. I will try to deaden that adjacent room to see if I could use it for vocals, I think I could make it work.

Thanks again!