Flooring?

Something I found quite funny...

I was at Home Depot buying this stuff for my studio (because it's in a basement and I'm too paranoid to put real wood or laminate down) and the worker there was asking what I was using it for. I told him I was building a new recording studio in my home and he says "Oh, really? This might be a bad choice then. Carpet is your best bet and most common in studios because it will help deaden the sound and make it sound more professional."

And another one...
I was at Home Hardware buying some more drywalling finishing materials and the worker there (probably in his late 40's and is a local "seasoned" musician playing in a 'Geriatric' Rock Band) and he curiously again asks me what sort of project I am working on. I again tell him that I am building a studio and have just finished soundproofing behind the drywall and am moving onto the next steps. He decided to throw me a HUGE golden nugget of amazing advice and says "Oh soundproofing, huh? You know what really works great? You'll never believe this but it's really cheap. Line your walls with egg cartons! It's the conical shape that helps soundproof your room." I very politely tell him that that's very interesting and that I should try that one day, but I heard it might be a myth. He then proceeds to tell me "Oh no, I was in a studio before and recorded some material there with my band and it sounded just DANDY!" Yes, ladies and gentlemen...it sounded "dandy"! So go out and grab your egg cartons today.

I just LOVE getting acoustics advice from morons at hardware stores!! :p
(makes for fun story telling I guess)
 
witzendoz said:
I would go for the hard flooring. I have built 4 studios over the years 2 with carpet and 2 without, and the best sound always comes from the hard floor. It's also easier to clean up spills (coffee).

You will need to kill some of the reflection of the ceiling, I used hanging cloth covered frames with high density polyester (the real sound absorbing stuff), and 3 of these in my room was heaps. Also you can roll out a rug or 2 if need be using them to taylor for the sound you want.

I eventually used the click together laminate flooring in my latest recording space, this sits on a polystyrene sheet with air pickets that reduces transmitted noise, not as good as a fully floating floor but does help reduce transmission thorough the concrete. I did have the concrete floor for a while and this can also work with some rugs, as it gets cold in winter.

My control room has tiles, it had it in the space when I moved it so I just left them, put a rug over part of it and it works fine. A hard floor in the control room works good if you are rolling a chair around also.

Check out the photos on my site.
Cheers
alan.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of going with tile vs. hardwood in a 30X12 control room/tracking room that had an appearance of wood.

I could also put down a few area rugs that would cover (let's say) 50% to 70% of the floor if that helps.

Would that being said, if the rest of the room and ceiling were properly sound proof, would tile work?

Thanks for your help!

VT
 
Hard floors are desired in Recording AND Mix rooms because;

THAT is the way we hear things.. Cellos are played on a hard floor. Pianos are played on a hard floor. They will sound very different on a heavily carpeted floor and probably not to the liking of many. This is subjective, but the subjective preference of most is for the hard floor.

Here are some book references:
----
Hearing Music in Different Environments
"An important aspect of acoustic foldback, however, is the time that it takes to arrive back at the performers. Ideally it should arrive immediately, and some does via the floor and direct sound from the instrument. However, the majority will have to travel to a reflecting or diffusing surface and back to the performers. There is evidence to show that, in order to maintain good ensemble comfortably, the musicians should receive the sound from other musicians within about 20 ms of the sound being produced."

Non-environment rooms
"These rooms have speakers, which are flush mounted in a reflecting wall, and a reflecting floor. The rear wall is highly absorbent, as are the side walls and ceiling. The combined effect of these treatments is that sound from the loudspeakers is absorbed instead of being reflected so that only the direct sound is heard by the listener, except for a floor reflection. However, the presence of two reflecting surfaces does support some early reflections for sources away from the speakers. This means that the acoustic environment for people in the room, although dead, is not oppressively anechoic."
".....as the floor reflection has very little effect on the stereo image."

"Acoustics & Psychoacoustics" 4th ed - HOWARD ANGUS

---

"Consider, for example, the sound from a source that is reflected by the room surfaces as well as by various objects in the room. We are all walking on floors speaking but we seldom react to the sound reflected by the floor, neither for our own voice nor for the voice of the person we are having a conversation with.

On the other hand, we are immediately aware of the reverberation of a cavern or the echo of our footsteps caused by sound reflection from the facade of a building that we are walking by (provided that we are at sufficient distance from the wall).

Three reasons can immediately be thought of as a hypothesis for these effects: (1) The sound level difference between the original and the reflected sound must be sufficiently small, (2) the time difference between the arrival of the original and the reflected sound must be sufficiently large, and (3) the reflected sound must be in addition to the sound reflected by the floor that we usually hear. However, we are always subconsciously aware of the reflected sound as a part of the total sensory environment.

Most persons feel uncomfortable in their first meeting with the quiet and sound-absorptive environment of a fully anechoic chamber where there is little sound reflection even from below the listener."

"ACOUSTICS OF SMALL ROOMS" by MENDEL KLEINER, JIRI TICHY

----

And last but not least from "Recording Studio Design" by Philip Newell:

"At each stage of our design we therefore need, to consider its effect on the musicians as well as on the purely acoustical requirements. Anyhow, it seems to be very widely accepted that floor reflexions are in almost all cases desirable, and indeed most live performance spaces have hard floors, so let us begin the design of our large neutral room with the installation of a hard floor."
-----

Although concrete or tiled flooring is possible, the Cons for concrete flooring are:
1. Insulated or not, it can get cold.
2. It is very hard and hard on your joints if you stand a lot. This goes for performers as well. Not comfortable.

This is another reason why we use the hardwood flooring or laminate flooring in studio; we can add a resilient layer under it for anti-fatigue, thermal insulation, and impact reduction.

In most cases I will recommend Regupol 4010 or QT4010 as an underlay. This type of resilient padding can solve both problems, cold and fatigue. This type of flooring can also add up to 36 dB of impact isolation. ;)

Cheers,
John
 
FYI. The current issue of Sound on Sound has a couple of features on control room acoustics and treatment.

Dave.
 
Ethan Winer said:
Yes, good choice, though another option is to put plywood sheets down onto a carpet floor when needed. Home Depot sells plywood already cut into 2x4 panels, and I recommend that to people who already have carpet.

--Ethan
Click to expand...

Hi Ethan, I have carpet in my studio control/ tracking room (and a 7x8 vocal booth). I was thinking about putting a 4 x 8 ft piece of plywood down on top of it, maybe some quarter round transitions at the edges so you don't trip, and maybe a bamboo rug on that (or laminate wood) for aesthetics. That way a section of my room would be more reflective for recording acoustic guitar, etc. (Without ripping up carpet and costing a ton).

Any suggestions as to:
1) how big a slab of wood is needed to help give a more natural acoustic sound (does it need to be the whole room, or just a little under the instrument and microphone? )
2) how thick should the plywood be
3) whether it would be wiser under the desk and chair for mixing and tracking or towards the back of the room for tracking alone

Extra info - the room is mostly soundproofed with rc1 channels, double drywall, one wall slanted and plenty of wall absorption and bass traps.

Thanks!
Michael
 
Over here we have a material called "hardboard". It is compressed sawdust combined with a binder and is denser than most woods and has a shiny hard surface that will resist scuffing for some time unlike plywood.

It is available in 8'x4' sheets (and 10 by 5s I understand but they would be ungainly to handle) in 1/8" and, rarer, 1/4" thicknesses. Fix down with 2" double sided carpet tape the board is cheap enough that it can be replaced fairly often when worn.

Dave.
 
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