Alternative recording locations

[zoroaster]

Hello everybody,

I'm new to the forum, although I've been lurker for a long while. I'm not sure whether I'm posting this in the right place, or whether it should be on this forum at all, given that my question is somewhat more of a real-estate one than a technical recording one. However, I'm desperately looking for ideas and suggestions, and I'm sure someone must have had similar problems. So:

I've been playing around with home recording for 5-6 years. I have a nice little setup with a mac, a couple of decent mics, and good headphones and some extra gear. This is more than good for the precision level I'm operating on right now. Most of my stuff is based on acostic guitars and vocals. Nothing very loud, but loud enough to be the source my current problems.

Due to being a grad student with little money, I have always lived in shared houses, and there is a problem with sound leakage. My house also has jalousie windows, which provide exactly zero sound isolation. The leakage from my housemates is a problem, but I am mostly concerned about the other way around. My housemates are tolerant enough, but they are not musicians and I am sensing a growing (yet undisclosed) annoyance. I am also a hopelessly self-consious vocalist, and I have huge problems doing anything knowing that anybody is listening. My creative process is very much that of getting completely immersed in a project, ideally for 6-8 hours at a time, typically writing, practicing and recording interchangeably. I have no problem understanding that this can be quite a pain to listen to from a neighboring room.

A few months ago, after realizing that it wouldn't be possible to figure out a working schedule with my housemates, I tried to solve the problem by setting up camp in our tiny storage attic. It's great for keeping all my stuff out of my room and for having a somewhat secluded space (it's pretty cozy up there). However, it gets insanely hot during the day, and the ceiling height is 5ft at the most (I'm 6'4"). And while it isolates pretty well from my housemates' rooms, it pretty much broadcasts any sound to the entire neighborhood.

So - neither of these options seem to be sustainable, but it would absolutely break my heart to have to give up this hobby. What I am considering now, then, is to try to find some other location to record anything that's somewhat loud. I have tried renting a band rehearsal room, but they are painfully expensive around here. I've thought about contacting schools or storage locations to see if it would be possible to rent a little room for 4-5 hours at a time every once in a while, but I've had no luck so far. I would not be entirely opposed to changing my current car for a larger one, if I could somehow make it work as a mobile vocal/guitar booth.

I am obviously less concerned about sound quality than isolation at this point, but a better sounding place would be great.

I'm sure my situation can't be entirely unique. Does anyone have any experience with, or ideas for, how to deal with this? And is the van idea entirely crazy?

TLDR: I'm giving up on recording vocals and acoustic instruments at home. Does anyone have any experience with or ideas about a cheap alternative location for recording loud stuff?

I apologize again for the off-topic question, please let me know if it can be moved somewhere else, or if just shouldn't be here at all.

Thanks!

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

There is bound to be a place near you that will let you sit in an unoccupied room for an hour with your laptop and a microphone.

 

[MeltdownStudio]

Put it to your room mates straight that you are a musician and thats what you do, they will have to respect that, and that fact that you also pay rent on the house you live in should give you equal rights to them im sure.

So what i think you should do is workout an agreement with your mates as to whats time would suit everyone best when you need to pratice and also how loud is loud to them, im sure you could try work something out.

You could get a thick curtain and a rail thats goes all the way around the room and use an old mattress to block up the window, that should help you a small bit with the sound coming in/out of your room

Jay
Meltdown Studio

 

[mjbphotos]

1) Get over being self-conscious about your singing. You'll never get the best sound holding back. Maybe start going to open mics or jams where you can get past this.

2)If no schedule can be worked out with your roommates, you can:
a) Move
b) Find another place to play/record. There are places like Jamspot (near Boston) where you pay by the hour, usually around $20.
c) Rent a storage locker/room that has heat/ac.
d) Just do it in your place, f*ck the roommates!

I wouldn't recommend trying to record in a van - outside noise WILL get in and the sound will not be good anyway.

 

[zoroaster]

Thanks a lot guys, I apprecciate it. I'll probably ditch the van idea for now. I've gone to some length trying to pad my windows with mattresses in the past. It definitely helps, but naturally it only gets me so far, sound always find a way in/out. If anyone has an idea about where a desperate home recorder might be able to rent a room at night on the cheap, let me know! There are indeed places around where you can rent a practice room for around $20 per hour. I suppose this isn't really all that expensive, but say a weekly four-hour session would definitey leave a mark in my personal economy. Maybe it's worth it, though. Although I find that there is often quite a lot of sound leaking from neighboring practice rooms in these places.

Interestingly, from browsing these forums it seems that a lot of people own their own houses and don't have this kind of problem. I guess this somewhat surprises me, surely there must be tons of young, broke people in cities struggling with this kind of thing?

 

[mjbphotos]

Interestingly, from browsing these forums it seems that a lot of people own their own houses and don't have this kind of problem. I guess this somewhat surprises me, surely there must be tons of young, broke people in cities struggling with this kind of thing?

Yes, they make do with what they've got, or find someone to collaborate with who has a better place to work, etc. IF you paid for 4 hours per week @ $20, that's $320 a month - you could probably move to another apartment with a better opportunity to record.