Advice on Sound Conditioning for Basement Studio

[thesoundandfury77]

Hi, my roommates and I are slowly turning a rec room in our basement into a studio. We use it for both live rehersal and recording. We've spent a lot on equipment and don't really have too much to drop on sound conditioning (maybe $500, more eventually), but want to do what we can to get a decent sound fairly quickly.

I've spent a lot of time researching through this forum and others and am familiar with most of the basic concepts (absorbtion, bass traps, dispersion, etc.), but I thought I would seek some advice on how to actually apply these concepts to my studio.


Requirements:

1. To get a decent sound for live rehersal for both a heavy metal style band and a softer more acoustic style band.

2. Recording is not so much of an issue since we record directly in to a DAW for most instruments. However, we do record drums and vocals with mics obviously. Recording is really for our own use and we don't hope to achieve professional quality.

3. Loudness is never an issue for us so no sound "proofing" is needed.


Studio Details:

I've included a Sketchup drawing (sorry it's pretty large, but I did what I could to get it down in size), but should also highlight the following features that might not be so clear:

Rough dimensions: 25 ft long, 15 ft wide, 6 ft 8 in. high.

1. The walls are all thin wood paneling painted white. On 3 sides they are backed by a wood frame (standard stud spacing) filled with standard insulation and on the remaining side there is nothing except the panels and a wood frame separating the studio from the rest of the basement.

2. The frame on the first 3 sides is mounted onto a typical wall of concrete cinder-blocks that surrounds the entire basement.

3. The entire basement is around 5 ft deep into the ground. (The 3 windows are at ground level.

4. The ceiling is not the typical drop-down style, but is made of thin, dense card board tiles (the kind that get mushy when wet). They seem to be highly reflective and there is definite coloration as you move higher in the room. There is normal insulation between the ceiling and the next floor.

5. The floor of the studio is raised about 1.5 inches off of the concrete (on a wood frame) and is covered with a fairly dense utitily type carpet. Also, the floor is slightly bowl shaped (drainage), being about 1.5 inches deeper in the middle of the studio than at the walls.

6. In the middle of the room the ceiling drops by about 8 in. This drop is about 5 ft wide and bisects the room in half. It is entirely covered in the same paneling as the walls.

So the room is roughly divided into 2 larger segements with 6ft 8in ceilings (tiles) with a 6 ft ceiling (paneling) in the middle. There are two support poles in the dropped area (also covered in paneling) close to the basement-side wall.

7. Drums (not in sketch) are located in the corner with grey carpeting on the walls.


Problems:

1. The cymbals tend to be dominant to the point that they drown out almost everything else. I'm assuming that this has a lot to do with the texture of the ceiling.

2. There is definitely some bass resonance occuring, with the familiar one-note bass phenomenon. This occurs more with the bass amp as opposed to the PA speakers which have a fairly decent bass sound.


That's about it. One more thing though. As I work at a grocery store I have access to as many egg cartons as I might need. I was wondering if these might be useful on the ceiling to disperse the sound, particularily for the cymbals.

I want to add my appreciation for the valuable resource that this forum has been to me. Thanks in advance for any advice or ideas; I'm more of a do-it-yourselfer so I'm really open to anything. Any ideas (cheap, expensive, weird) would be appreciated.


Thanks a lot,

Jeremy

[josh_c]

$500 should be able to get you about 8 batts of mineral wool panels. that would be a great start. another $500 on top of that would be much better.

just make panels with wood frames: 2' x 6' high. place them accross the corners for bass trapping then start placing them around the perimeter.

[AVare]

Absorption is waht you need. Price quotes from people across the world are wildly variable. Home Depot has had Roxul "Safe N Sound" insulation for what works out to 37 cents per square foot! It is 3.5" thick and will give good absorption down to 125 Hz. Pick up a bag or two (about $33 last time I checked) and play around with moving the batts around in the room. Near the drums for cymbals and the rest evenly spread out on the walls and ceiling (if possible). If you decide you like the direction of the improvement, pick up additional bags and move the batts around. The rest of the money can then go to making the batts look prety.

Email me and I can do a site analysis (have a look and listen first hand)

All the way from Hamilton ON, Canada:
Andre

[thesoundandfury77]

Hi, thanks for the reply, I had never even heard of "Safe n Sound"; didn't think that there would be anything that cheap. I have a couple questions though.

Should each slab (they come in packs of 8 it says) be placed separately or is the bag placed as a unit? Or is there another combination that is more effective?

What is the best material to cover them in? Would a simple cloth material do, something like bed sheets, or would that let dust and fibres through??


Thanks a lot,

[sharward]

Home Depot has had Roxul "Safe N Sound" insulation . . .

Maybe in Canada, but unfortunately, not here in Northern California as far as I can tell...

(Just stating that for the record, in case USA folks are following... )

--Keith

[AVare]

Hi, thanks for the reply, I had never even heard of "Safe n Sound"; didn't think that there would be anything that cheap. I have a couple questions though.

Your welcome. One of the problems in DIY acoustics is that names/products/prices vary wildly over the world. "Safe N Sound" happens to be our part of the world's bargain material.

Should each slab (they come in packs of 8 it says) be placed separately or is the bag placed as a unit??

Each "slab" as you call it is a batt. Place the batts individually. Are there

Or is there another combination that is more effective

There are well many combinations and locations, depending on what the goal is. From what you have described, working with the individual batts is best for you.

What is the best material to cover them in? Would a simple cloth material do, something like bed sheets, or would that let dust and fibres through??

Any material that looks like what you would accept and that you can easily breath through. Exception being thin shiny fabrics, which reflect highs. So a trip to Ottawa Street will solve that issue.

Email me and we can get together and go over questions and lots more stuff!

Andre