Studio above basement

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davecg321

New member
I have moved my studio from my basement into my living room as the basement is damp and not very inspiring!

The living room is directly above the basement. The flooring is cheap wood effect stuff and is supported by wooden beams and I imagine a layer of 2inch mdf or something similar.

Will this cause any unwanted artifact when recording? I.e sub bass build up etc

I'm not experienced enough to know what to listen out for but still want to get the best sound possible. I've still got some foam panels stuck to the basement ceiling, so I may as well leave em there.

-dave
 
Yeah, leave the foam in the basement. They probably didn't do anything for your sound down there, and will do little (if anything) in your living room.
Are you tracking drums or bass guitar? It's unlikely miking a bass amp or kick is going to be an issue with your upstairs set up.
 
I'd be more concerned with the new room than the basement. Is it treated properly and does it respond well to sound? I wouldn't worry about sub sonic freqs or anything. You should be using high pass filters to cut that stuff out anyway.
 
Cheap wood effect floor? Laminate flooring?

Either way, area/throw rugs. Also, use your corners wisely.

So you're putting the TV and couch downstairs?:D
 
Actually if you put a layer or 2 of Insulation under the floor on the ceiling of the basement you could have a really good massive bass trap, thoughts?

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
Actually if you put a layer or 2 of Insulation under the floor on the ceiling of the basement you could have a really good massive bass trap, thoughts?

Alan.
Click to expand...
Nice one Al! The floor is going to be pretty transparent at LF anyway unless you "mass" it up. You could use a dodge I read about some months ago. Throw in some unopened bags of glass fibre or rockwool. They will act as bass absorbers. They will not be affected by the damp and if circumstances change can simply be taken out and used for another purpose or sold.

Dave.
 
Actually you could put the lower layer as a foil faced fibreglass, by sealing it with the silver tape you could keep the moisture out?

Alan.
 
My upstairs room is an open plan living room/dining room. All my studio stuff is in the dining room half so there is plenty of space.

I've read that larger rooms are better (the upstairs room being about 30 ft X 12ft)

Yes laminate flooring haha!

Why will foam panels do "little" ?
I have a fair amount of coverage on my walls (panels glued to the back of art canvasses and then hung for easy removal)

There isn't any noticeable room honkyness or unwanted reverb. Along with the foam panels I also have plenty of books and use a mattress at the far end of the room in front of the bay window.

I also use a reflection filter for recording vocals

Would I benefit from placing mics/stands on a rug of some kind?

I'm not tracking drums of any kind. I'll probably just DI'ing bass. The music is modern folk kinda stuff. Mainly acoustic/vocals/violin/French horn
 
Foam only absorbs higher frequencies, leaves the bass stuff unchecked. You wouldn't notice when tracking, but when it comes to mixing your low end will be wonky.
 
davecg321 said:
Why will foam panels do "little" ?
I have a fair amount of coverage on my walls (panels glued to the back of art canvasses and then hung for easy removal)
Click to expand...

Foam does a lot. It just suffers from being 'out of fashion' around here.

But it doesn't do everything - and that's really where the rub is. Some folks will put foam up in a trailer house and wonder why it doesn't sound like Skywalker Sound.

Foam absorbs some freqs - mostly the higher ones. Foam does not absorb lows. Like many, i've learned that the hard way decades ago, long ago before i did my due diligence. You'll need to do yours, also.

But shaped foam also tends to break up a reflective surface and that works in almost all frequencies. Often, just taking a whole lot of reflectivity out of a smaller space can do WONDERS for the space. It will still need some low end treatment, probably.

Regardless, don't get caught up in "monkey-see, monkey-do" engineering. Do some measuring and run some spectrum curves (lots of software and mics to do this very inexpensively). Then treat what you need, if even that.

If you want absolute reference results and lab grade space, then you can have that if you spend the time and money. If you just want things a little better than they are, you can do that, too. The investment, and its return, is up to you.

Ponder5
 
Chili said:
I'd be more concerned with the new room than the basement..
Click to expand...

This^^^^^^


davecg321 said:
My upstairs room is an open plan living room/dining room. All my studio stuff is in the dining room half so there is plenty of space.

I've read that larger rooms are better (the upstairs room being about 30 ft X 12ft)

Yes laminate flooring haha!

Why will foam panels do "little" ?
I have a fair amount of coverage on my walls (panels glued to the back of art canvasses and then hung for easy removal)

There isn't any noticeable room honkyness or unwanted reverb. Along with the foam panels I also have plenty of books and use a mattress at the far end of the room in front of the bay window.

I also use a reflection filter for recording vocals

Would I benefit from placing mics/stands on a rug of some kind?

I'm not tracking drums of any kind. I'll probably just DI'ing bass. The music is modern folk kinda stuff. Mainly acoustic/vocals/violin/French horn
Click to expand...

First, from an acoustics standpoint 30' x 12' is not big....however, it is better than 10'x 12' room; nonetheless it will still require treatments. I would recommend getting a room analyzer (i.e. room EQ, etc.) to measure the room at your mix position before doing anything. Knowing exactly where the problems are in your room will make treating them more effective and potentially less costly to address otherwise, it's like shooting in the dark.
 
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