Absorption: Control Room vs Live Room

cincy_kid

cincy_kid

Active member
Hey all,

I will be starting a new thread for my new studio layout in the near future, but I was just thinking about this and wanted to ask this question initially:

I read a lot of articles on Ethan's realtraps site and of course many threads here. I have a good grasp on how I am going to layout out absorption panels in my control room taking care of early reflection points and using the mirror trick to hit the spots that need done.

My question is in the live room where I will be singing and playing guitar, is there some general rule of thumb on where to use panels, treatment, etc? The way I have been doing in the past for the few recordings I have done was to just have the panel(s) in front of the mic. For example, if I am standing, facing the mic it would be:

ME >> MIC >> PANEL

I figured that way, my vocals that didn't go into the mic would then hit the panel and be absorbed instead of bouncing around and going into the mic at a delay. Am I correct or whats the proper way to have it set up? Same question for when I am playing acoustic guitar and just have the mic pointed at the guitar, and also electric guitar when I have my amp miced.

Most of the rooms I have seen in the studio thread here seem like they just have some decorative aurelex (spelling) on the wall at diferent points or not much treatment at all. I was considering building movable gobos for singing and the guitar amp, but wantred to see if there was a good thread explainging this or a good rule of thumb on where these need to be placed while recording.

I know I have read stuff on bass traps, so I am guessing that would be part of the live room? :o

Thanks again, and feels good to be back!
 
If it's primarily vocal and guitar, then some minor broadband absorbtion in the corners coupled with some gobos are probably the best way to go.

Bryan
 
Hey thanks for the reply Bryan ~

I just finished re-reading Ethan's acoustics page and still kinda confused on some issues which I may just post on his board or see if it's already answered there.

Like, i think he says 2 different ways is best for absorbers. He says leaving an air gap behind the panels are like 50% better performance, but then I also read where he said to stuff fiberglass behind it, or even attach it directly to the wall.

I am guessing the air gap is just beneficial for bass traps since it helps with lower frequencies.

Also, was gonna tear out my carpet and put down some laminate for the looks and to have it a reflective surface. However, since my space is small, I dont want it to sound too "boxy"....

I dunno....hehe
 
Carpet is what will MAKE your space sound "boxy" - it sucks out high mids and highs without affecting other frequencies... Steve
 
Hey Steve,

I was just going by Ethan's acoustics article where he says:

"If you've ever seen photos of high-end recording studios in magazines, you probably noticed that the studio room floors almost always use a reflective material like wood or linoleum. A hard floor gives a nice ambience when miking drums, guitar amps, and acoustic instruments.......I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a reflective floor for achieving a natural sound when recording acoustic instruments. If you record in your living room and your spouse refuses to let you remove the carpet, get a 4- by 8-foot sheet of 1/4-inch plywood to put over the carpet when recording............When a room is very small the reflections are too short to be useful and just make the room boxy sounding. In that case the best solution is to cover all of the surfaces entirely with absorbent material and, for a studio room, add any ambience electronically later. "

So, for a small room, doesn't that mean not to use a reflective floor, but something to absorb it like carpet or a rug?
 
cincy_kid said:
Hey Steve,

I was just going by Ethan's acoustics article where he says:

"If you've ever seen photos of high-end recording studios in magazines, you probably noticed that the studio room floors almost always use a reflective material like wood or linoleum. A hard floor gives a nice ambience when miking drums, guitar amps, and acoustic instruments.......I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a reflective floor for achieving a natural sound when recording acoustic instruments. If you record in your living room and your spouse refuses to let you remove the carpet, get a 4- by 8-foot sheet of 1/4-inch plywood to put over the carpet when recording............When a room is very small the reflections are too short to be useful and just make the room boxy sounding. In that case the best solution is to cover all of the surfaces entirely with absorbent material and, for a studio room, add any ambience electronically later. "

So, for a small room, doesn't that mean not to use a reflective floor, but something to absorb it like carpet or a rug?
Click to expand...
Reread what Steve said(mainly the 2nd half)... :D
 
A room usually shouldn't be completely dead. If the room is tiny, like mine, then yes it should be pretty dead, but the one place, in my opinion, where it can be reflective, is the floor. The floor is the same distance from the sound source in a small room as it'd be in a large room, so the effect will be the same(good). Obviously if you have a low ceiling then you'll wanna add absorption there.
 
Pandamonk caught the drift - completely absorbent is NOT the same as "high/high mid absorbent" - which is not the same as "reflective". Unless you want the frequency response/reverb time of your (small) room to "color" everything that's heard/recorded in it, stick to either fully reflective (wood, concrete, vinyl) or fully dead (as thick fiberglass or MW as you can get) - carpet does NOTHING for bass, low mids, mids - only high mids and highs.

This means that you'll have more bass and low/mid freq's in the room by using carpet (or thin foam, for that matter)- and more bass/low mids is NOT going to give you a true recording.

Lots of people use a small throw rug under a drum kit, but it's not to improve sound - it's to ELIMINATE it (as in, noise from things sliding around, kick pedal sounds, etc)

HTH... Steve
 
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