Suggestions for improving tracking room?

[andyhix]

I guess I'm mostly interested in getting the best possible drum sound out of this room, but I'm also interested in possibly being able to spread amps out and track 2 guitars and drums at once. Also, this isn't my basement, it's my bassist's, and as you can see it is a multipurpose room (storage, kid toys, etc). And the final hurdle is budget. There isn't much of one. I could probably buy a few sheets of 703 or something to make a cloud, or some gobos, if needed. Anyway, just to start a discussion (if anyone other than me wants to have one) I'll start with some pics:


As you can see it's a pretty odd shaped basement, with several nooks and crannies. The exterior walls are all concrete block; the one interior wall is wood panelling (I'm not sure what's behind it, but probably drywall). The gray boxes are simply rough indicators of the excessive storage shelves everywhere, as you will see in the next few pics. I should probably mention that I am totally guessing on the dimensions.


This pic is standing roughly in the bar area, looking back towards the drums and desk. Again, pretty cluttered, but it probably is helping somewhat to cut some reflections.


This shot is from the desk, looking back towards the bar/lamp collection, just to give you some further perspective.


The ceiling is all typical acoustic tile. I don't really know if this stuff does anything for acoustics as far as we are concerned, though.

And finally to preemtively answer your first question, the reason I'm not sure what exactly needs to be improved, is that we haven't had a real drummer sitting there for a while, as they are hard to come by. So, when we do have one there, we hope to already have the room as good as possible, so we can jump right into recording (ideally). In other words, I don't have the luxury of setting up to record drums, listening to the recording, moving the kit, moving sound treatment stuff, replacing drum heads, trying again, listening, (repeat ad naseum). Obviously, I realize that some of this will have to be done, but I'd like to address whatever I can up front. OK, enough rambling.

[gullfo]

well first and foremost, cleaning up the place would help... clearing out the 16x24 area and stacking things around the edge would help make the place feel more like a room... removing things that buzz and humm (besides the musicians... :-) will help.

if you could pool together about a $1000 you could build a decent studio which in turn would attract a good drummer... you could leave off doors (in this design) to save money but you'd have acoustically OK rooms. the ceiling could potentially use a layer of sheetrock but you'd have to find out if the ceiling joists could support it... otherwise just shaping the space using 2x4 and sheetrock and some 703 fiberglass will make it decent.

[andyhix]

wow, my man! Thanks for the effort. Admittedly probably more that we will be able to accomplish, but great ideas. I guess I'm looking for more temporary/portable solutions. At some point in the next year or two, I'll be doing a real construction in my own home, but for now, we are stuck tracking in the place I pictured. It's really not nearly as messy as the pics make it look. You know, the camera adds 10 pounds, or in this case maybe 10 boxes

You are right about the cleaning up and the buzz/hum concern. We might have to critically assess the sitch.

Anyway, we do have a drummer, for the record, sort of, that will be doing the tracking. But we are lucky to get him to show up once a month for a few hours. I guess I wasn't clear about that. I'll definately save your sketches for reference though. And you'll definitely be hit with some green rep for that!

[gullfo]

if nothing else, you could put together some gobos to add isolation then. if you have a way to get them in and out of the basement easily, you can build some failr heavy ones, if not, you could go with a lighter construct to provide some separation. other than that, trying to put in some 703 absorption around the corners (and wall-ceiling floor-wall count as corners...) will help even the response a bit.

Abbey Road gobos http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/merce...udio/abbey.pdf
there are many other plans for DIY gobos or acoustic partitions...

[VSpaceBoy]

What is your goal? You say you want the drums to sound good.. well, what do they sound like now? How does that compare to what you want?

Looking at the room it doesn't look so bad. I mean, you have diffusers all over the place to break up first reflections and a larger sized space with acoustic panels on the ceiling. There are much worse places to record in. If it was me, I would start be pulling the drummer out away from the back wall while recording.

Go to the MP3 clinic and look for the last song I posted in there. That song was recorded in a live take scenario in a room similar (if not worse) that what your in. Live guitar, bass, and even vox. Its not the best in the world, but it was also a live take.

[andyhix]

You know, I hate computers sometimes. I posted a big reply already, hit "post" and it disappeared. The gist of it was this:

a. Thanks for the comments guys. they are definitely helpful.
b. Sorry for asking a somewhat unanswerable question.
c. I will try to get a drum sample to listen to and post it here.
d. VSpaceBoy - I listened to your sample at the mp3 clinic. I like the drum sound quite a bit. Especially the toms - they sound nice and full. That is one thing I'm concerned with as some early preliminary tests indicate that the toms sound hollow and ringy. They might just need to be tuned better or dampened a bit.

Thanks!

[VSpaceBoy]

[QUOTE=andyhix]VSpaceBoy - I listened to your sample at the mp3 clinic. I like the drum sound quite a bit. Especially the toms - they sound nice and full. That is one thing I'm concerned with as some early preliminary tests indicate that the toms sound hollow and ringy. They might just need to be tuned better or dampened a bit. QUOTE]

Compress the crap out of toms and mix that with the original sound.

[JoshO]

hey gullfo what wall matierials did you use in the sim studio?
And are you sure that the provided space will be enough for drums and mics and equptment in the space with room to move arround?