John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Dear Members,

This is my first post and can I just say how amazing I think this site is. I've been looking for years for some help with my drum room and now (hopefully) I've found it!

I read your notes on recording drums John and found them incredibly helpful and it's unfortunate that none of the featured studios have the same problem as me.

Essentially I built a 6ft square box in my wooden shed with ply wood, acoustic plaster board and acoustic rock wool in order initially just to practice in but now I'm trying to record in there. My bands range from heavy heavy, to funk and dance so lots going on!

ROOM
Floor: carpet on top of the pine which covers the concrete.
Sides: from outside to inside, the walls are plaster board (10mm) - rock wool - MDF (8mm) - carpet
Roof: just MDF (mm) - carpet

DRUMS
North Custom maple drums
Zildjian Fast crash's, Zildjian Hats and Ride
Many snares with other skin options including a Hybrid

MICS
Overheads: CM3's
Kick: Audix D6
Toms and snare: SM57's

So, obviously the sound inside the room is quite dead and very limited so I'm looking for some ways to possibly give me some recording options. I've had some ideas but before I do anything to drastic I wanted to run them buy some experienced ears to see what comes out.

OPTIONS

1) Stripping back the carpet on the walls, roof and floor to reveal the wood. it's only MDF but may give a more live sound, the walls are also perpendicular to each other and I noted the angled walls in some other forums.

2) I could also try covering the walls in removable plastic or wood sheets so that I can have the option.

3) putting in a false floor - will this reduce some of the bass?

MIC PLACEMENT

It might be that I just need to try different mic placements? It may be worth mentioning that I don't mix, I just record and the guy that mixes usually lays samples over the top. However, lack of space in the room is something he would also like to fix. I've tried placing a condenser outside of the room but it seems to pick up a lot of bass as thats the main frequency the room is producing.

Could anyone else recommend any techniques that might give some different options.

As usual, any help is well appreciated.

All the love,

Shabba Thrash

That's great you have a place to practice and record but unfortunately due to the size and dimensions of the room you will never be able to get great sounds in there. Personally, I would remove the floor and just place a thin rug on the concrete. I would mount 4" or thicker OC703 on the ceiling. I would put wide bass traps in your corners up high away from where they will be in your way. Heck, even if they're 1 foot tall it's better than none in there. Ultimately you need as much bass trapping as you can get. I would also remove the carpet from the walls and cover the side walls with OC703 4" thick and on the front wall cover it with a few columns of poly diffusers that are backed with insulation. No matter what, that room HAS to be dead. But, right now it sounds like it's all bottom end that you're hearing and it makes perfect sense. Carpet will do that to any room. For the wall behind you, it might have to be more insulation. Using some form of slats on the walls could bring life back into the room but to prevent specular reflections, you will probably want to round the face of them. You could also use a pyramid style block as seen in a lot of John's designs. The only issue with adding all of this treatment to try and make your room sound a little better is that it is going to make your room even smaller. Just know that you're always going to be limited in that room and with a ton of treatment in there, it's never going to be a great tracking room.

Greg