John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all,

First time user of this forum. I am curious hoping to have my curiosity about a few things satisfied, first one being the subject of this thread.

To preface this subject here are a few things to know:

I am a heavy metal player, and have neighbors that don't like me and will find any reason to complain about me, so I can only be so loud. My instruments of choice are mainly that of vocals, bass, and guitar. The only mics I have available to me at this time is a Shure SM57 that I use for recording my voice and my 2x12 guitar cabinet, and an MXL 990 condenser mic that I currently don't use due to not having the right kind of adapter to put it onto a mic stand. The monitors I use to listen to my recordings are a pair of Alesis M1 Active monitors that are positioned approx. 6'' away from my living room wall pointing outward towards the main part of the room. These monitors are also going into a 3rd gen Mbox audio interface that has two channels. For software I am using Reaper as my DAW and Bias FX and Bias amp for when I am not satisfied with the guitar tone that I'm getting.

My workspace:

My home that I currently live in is a stationary single wide mobile home that I'm guessing was built sometime in the 80's. Here are a few pictures to illustrate the space that I am currently working with.





As you can see I have a lot of wide open space that I know won't be ideal for any sort of recording, but I'm willing to try the best I can with what I have. Keep in mind I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on treating my space (if I did I certainly wouldn't be living where I'm at right now), so tearing out my walls and floor to replace them with soundproof material (or creating a new room) is out of the question.

Reference recordings:

Guitar - https://voca.ro/lbslqDe3JMh

Bass - https://vocaroo.com/amDwfD7GfKU

Vocals - https://voca.ro/6mpeKQFE34I

Questions:

- Can I get away with building a tent with moving blankets around my guitar cab? (It involves surrounding the cabinet with the blankets and placing and positioning the mic inside of it)

- Would investing in movable acoustic panels be a good cost effective solution that would work in my situation?

- Would treating my ceiling with foam be a benefit or would it not be worth it due to the space I would need to cover?


So if any of you fine experienced individuals can point me in the right direction of what I need to do to solve my problem, much would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum!

The only mics I have available to me at this time is a Shure SM57 that I use for recording my voice and my 2x12 guitar cabinet

That microphone can do it all! For one of my repeat clients, no other microphone sounds better on his voice! Granted, I have to hang a big foamy off the end of it and use a pop filter as well, but man does it ever sound sweet!

Here are a few pictures to illustrate the space that I am currently working with.

I would ask that you edit your post and upload/post your photos directly onto the forum instead of photobucket because years from now, no one will be able to see the photobucket pictures. Thank you!

- Can I get away with building a tent with moving blankets around my guitar cab? (It involves surrounding the cabinet with the blankets and placing and positioning the mic inside of it)

If you're hell bent on recording your real guitar amp and have it loud, the only cost effective solution would be to use an isocab. You can build your own by making an air tight box out of material (such as OSB or MDF) that has a ton of surface density. Treat the inside of the box with insulation, not foam.

Another thing to keep in mind is that recording guitar amps quiet is often better as you're not exciting room modes as much. Plus, in my experience, I don't like high gain amps cranked up much as the power amp distortion gets mushy.

Impulse responses are a very awesome and popular solution. What you need is a load box if you want to crank it up. Otherwise, record your cab quiet, capture your effects send or power amp slave out which is line level and then use an impulse loader.

- Would investing in movable acoustic panels be a good cost effective solution that would work in my situation?

This will give you a better sound in your room but won't help with volume bothering your neighbors whatsoever.

- Would treating my ceiling with foam be a benefit or would it not be worth it due to the space I would need to cover?

I can't think of many situations ever where foam would be a good idea. Proper insulation is magical for helping improve room acoustics but again, it won't help with sound escaping from your dwelling.

Greg

Thanks for the advice!

My biggest concern amongst anything is getting a decent guitar tone, and it's good to know that I can still get one by recording my cab quiet.
Although, instead of getting a loadbox, would using an active DI box like the one's that Countryman makes be just as good? I'm not really looking to make a isocab but its good to know that that is an option.

Also, I tried messing with the pics to get them to upload onto the site but it didn't accept the resolution seeing as both are panoramic images. Is there a way I could upload those images without sacrificing the resolution? I could take individual pictures I guess, if all else fails.

Although, instead of getting a loadbox, would using an active DI box like the one's that Countryman makes be just as good?

Generally speaking, an active DI box doesn't mean that it can be used as a speaker load. So if you have a tube amp, you need an actual load box.

Also, I tried messing with the pics to get them to upload onto the site but it didn't accept the resolution seeing as both are panoramic images. Is there a way I could upload those images without sacrificing the resolution?

On a mac, open the picture in preview and use the resize tool to make it no bigger than 1200px wide or tall. If the file size is too large, export it as a jpg and move the quality slider just a hair less than full. This typically shrinks the size well under 500KB.

Greg