Temporary basement studio - trying to make the best of it
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2022 6:21 am
Hello
Im currently renting a townhome with a basement where I have all my guitars and mixing desk. I do not do any professional projects right now, just my own tracks. My goal is to try to create a solid temporary treatment. I'm not looking to convert my basement into a situation that would attract clients, but rather just something that will allow me to get a generally accurate idea of what is going on with my own music that I am recording/mixing.
I am not recording a live drum set, I am not concerned about high SPL. The only elements recorded with a microphone here at all would be vocals; I am an electronic artist.
Images will be attached that offer the same/more information, but for those that prefer to read, my basement is 29 feet long and 19'6" wide. 7 feet up from the floor you will find the floor joists which are themselves 10", giving us a total height of 7'10". On the right side of the basement is my stair case, which starts at the bottom of the basement (from the birds eye view) and extends forward all the way to the exact midpoint (14'6"), with a width of 35.5". Also at the bottom of the basement's aerial view you will find the laundry space which is unusable for my purposes, of course. In the top left corner is a furnace, which is essentially a 28"x28" square of unusable space. The leftmost portion starting at 32" from the leftmost wall of the basement, the topmost portion starting 38" inches from the topmost wall of the basement. The electrical panel is located in the very topmost, rightmost corner of the basement, rendering the space around that useless for my purposes. There are also two poles in the middle of the space, seen in the photos.
I know how to, and have the means to, build my own corner traps and broadband panels. I'm an electrician by trade and am generally handy with basic construction projects. My issue is placement, of both the treatment and of my listening space. On one hand, I know it is favorable to face my desk in such a way that the speakers project sound across the longest dimension of the basement. With the bottom portion of the space being unusable due to laundry machines, this puts the top-middle of the basement as favorable, with the speakers facing the bottom. The issue I have here is that the electrical panel is thus behind the speakers to the right, and I cannot put a corner trap in that corner because the panel must be accessible. The furnace to my immediate left is also an issue. That being said, it is where I am currently set up, about three feet off the wall.
So on the other hand, I could place my desk facing the shorter dimension of the basement along the left wall and build corner traps in the corner behind the furnace and the bottom left corner. Unless it would be a useless endeavor, I had considered placing my desk there and building a couple of "fake walls" going left-to-right across the basement, one above and one below my listening space, to create a sort of room within a room, so that I could both have my corner treatment and also have my speakers facing the longer dimension.
I could also simply place the corner traps, instead of in a triangle fashion with the walls, simply as if they were on a broadband panel on each wall, so that they would be flush with the electrical panel and not blocking access.
Another thought that had crossed my mind is simply building as many broadband panels as I could and covering as much wall space as I possibly could.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
To clarify, there is an acoustic drum set in these pics, but only for storage purposes. Jam sessions do not occur here and I do not record this kit. It is irrelevant for my purposes.
Im currently renting a townhome with a basement where I have all my guitars and mixing desk. I do not do any professional projects right now, just my own tracks. My goal is to try to create a solid temporary treatment. I'm not looking to convert my basement into a situation that would attract clients, but rather just something that will allow me to get a generally accurate idea of what is going on with my own music that I am recording/mixing.
I am not recording a live drum set, I am not concerned about high SPL. The only elements recorded with a microphone here at all would be vocals; I am an electronic artist.
Images will be attached that offer the same/more information, but for those that prefer to read, my basement is 29 feet long and 19'6" wide. 7 feet up from the floor you will find the floor joists which are themselves 10", giving us a total height of 7'10". On the right side of the basement is my stair case, which starts at the bottom of the basement (from the birds eye view) and extends forward all the way to the exact midpoint (14'6"), with a width of 35.5". Also at the bottom of the basement's aerial view you will find the laundry space which is unusable for my purposes, of course. In the top left corner is a furnace, which is essentially a 28"x28" square of unusable space. The leftmost portion starting at 32" from the leftmost wall of the basement, the topmost portion starting 38" inches from the topmost wall of the basement. The electrical panel is located in the very topmost, rightmost corner of the basement, rendering the space around that useless for my purposes. There are also two poles in the middle of the space, seen in the photos.
I know how to, and have the means to, build my own corner traps and broadband panels. I'm an electrician by trade and am generally handy with basic construction projects. My issue is placement, of both the treatment and of my listening space. On one hand, I know it is favorable to face my desk in such a way that the speakers project sound across the longest dimension of the basement. With the bottom portion of the space being unusable due to laundry machines, this puts the top-middle of the basement as favorable, with the speakers facing the bottom. The issue I have here is that the electrical panel is thus behind the speakers to the right, and I cannot put a corner trap in that corner because the panel must be accessible. The furnace to my immediate left is also an issue. That being said, it is where I am currently set up, about three feet off the wall.
So on the other hand, I could place my desk facing the shorter dimension of the basement along the left wall and build corner traps in the corner behind the furnace and the bottom left corner. Unless it would be a useless endeavor, I had considered placing my desk there and building a couple of "fake walls" going left-to-right across the basement, one above and one below my listening space, to create a sort of room within a room, so that I could both have my corner treatment and also have my speakers facing the longer dimension.
I could also simply place the corner traps, instead of in a triangle fashion with the walls, simply as if they were on a broadband panel on each wall, so that they would be flush with the electrical panel and not blocking access.
Another thought that had crossed my mind is simply building as many broadband panels as I could and covering as much wall space as I possibly could.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
To clarify, there is an acoustic drum set in these pics, but only for storage purposes. Jam sessions do not occur here and I do not record this kit. It is irrelevant for my purposes.
