How much absorption do I need?

deadhippy

New member
I have my sheets of 403 cut to length to fit in my corners, and I have plenty of auralex for early reflections, but I don't know how much to use?

I'm doing pretty much 100% DI recordings (drum machine/pod/v-amp), so my question is, how much absorption do I need for DI recording???

Thanks so much for all help.
 
how much absorption do I need for DI recording???
Hello deadhippy. That is the tough question. It depends. First off, control rooms and tracking rooms usually have different needs when it comes to room response. But since you are doing everything ITB, I'd approach this as a control room. The usual criteria is to make the room response as flat as possible. And usually, the first area of concern in small spaces is LOW FREQUENCY absorption....otherwise known as "bass trapping". And usually, small rooms need all the bass trapping you can afford, although even being so called bass traps, they will absorb higher frequencies unless you put a membrane over the face of them to reflect them as you could litterally suck the life out of recordings with TOO MUCH high frequency absorption. With first reflection broadband absorption at the sidewalls and ceiling above the mix position, and a smattering of patchwork absorbers around the room(rear wall and rear sidewalls, you can achieve a pretty good balance with trial and error placement.

REALLY small rooms are the devil though, and sometimes it might even be impossible to get the room "balanced." Some people go so far as to make really small rooms totally dead and either add ambience via electronics(if you are recording acoustical instruments or vocals in the same space) and use other systems to check for "translation". The point is if your room lies to you during recording, it'll double lie during mixdown, although ITB instrument sounds are not the same as recording "real" sounds in a room. However, it depends on your recording strategy. Some people "re-amp" electronic sounds and record them again through a mic.


However, the REAL test is when you playback your recordings in other rooms and on other systems, especially cars, as ITB productions are usually LF heavy . They should all sound approximately the same regardless of the space/system. This is called "translation". Once you can "trust" your room response, your job becomes easier.:D Although, achieving it can be much easier said than done.

I normally would link you to a series of articles on some other sites regarding this, but one is closed down at the moment. Here is another.

http://www.realtraps.com/

Ethan Winer is a contributer here and knows what he is talking about. He owns REALTRAPS.:) Good luck.
fitZ
 
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