Which Room for Recording?!

[recordingsounds]

All,

My current studio is downstairs in which was suppose to be my
dinning room. It has hardwood floors and 9 foot ceilings and the
recordings in the room sound great. I'm in the process of adding
a full drum kit and it will probably be too tight a space to keep
the drums there. I could always lug them downstairs from my
bonus room everytime I need them which is probably only once
or twice a month.

The other idea... I have a much larger bonus room upstairs - probably
twice the floor space (around 20 x 20ish) but...it only has 8 ft. ceilings.
My wife has agreed that if I decide we will replace the carpet in the
bonus room with hardwood floors and use it has my recording room.
I know that it is impossible to know until you actually hear the room
but I'm looking for some advice before I spend the money and effort
on the hardwood floors upstairs. From the following room descriptions
which (in your personal experience) do you think would sound best for
recording:

Downstairs dinning room: 9 ft ceilings, around 12 x 12 adjacent to 2 story
open entry way and adjacent to large living room. I record vocals in the 2
story open entry which sounds great. Problem - I can't close it off when
recording/practicing and too small for permenent drum set.

Upstairs bonus room: 8 ft ceilings, 20 x 20 with double doors into room
(great for hauling equipment in/out) - and I can close the doors. Currently
has carpeting but would replace with hardwood floors for the entire room.

I realize it's a SWAG - but - Which would probably sound better?
Thanks!

[mathamagician]

The bathroom!!

But seriously, I wish I had a nice room for recording that did not include a bed...

[recordingsounds]

Thanks for the very useful advice.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Like you yourself said, it's impossible to judge how either will sound over the Internet. However, let me give a stab at an answer for you...

Either way, I hope you have budgeted for at least some acoustic treatment, whether downstairs or up. It doesn't have to be super fancy or even super expensive, but something to tame/trap the bass response and diffuse at least some line of sight first reflections. Check out the studio building forum on this BBS for some great tips, both pro and budget, on treating your rooms and setting up your gear.

Assuming you'll be willing to do at least some acoustic treatment (which is a practical necessity either way), that means you'll be able to at least somewhat tame and tune either room to sound halfway decent. With that in mind, the upper, larger room sounds more attractive to me, for several reasons:

First, the higher ceiling and larger dimensions are more likely to be better than worse acoustically than the smaller, lower room. This is not a given, but IMHO it's at least playing the percentages better.

Second, just having the extra elbow room is a bonus. You put even a 5pc drum kit and DAW workstation in a 12x12 room and you've already used up a majority of your room. The extra 64 square feet in the larger room could be a godsend not just in room for people and gear, but also in increased flexibility for microphone positioning, gobo use, etc.

Third, the easier access, being both upstairs and having the double doors can make moving gear and people in and out much easier than having to traverse a stairwell.

Now, on the potential downside are that the acoustic treatment might be a little bit more expensive for the larger room if only because the size of bass traps and diffusions panels may need to be a bit larger. But again, using a DIY budget approach, this cost does not have to be anyhwere near prohibitive. Also, you might consider if that room is too close to the main living area of the house where the sound and the people might seem a bit intrusive on the peace of the rest of the house. I don'yt know the layout, only you can decide that. But if you wife has already accepted the idea, that may be a moot issue. But make sure she undertsnads so that after having your new studio built and running for a few weeks, she doesn't suddenly relaize that he adreed to more than she bargained for.

HTH,

G.

[recordingsounds]

Thanks very much for the good practical advice. I'm leaning toward
converting my upstairs larger bonus room into my music/recording
room. The biggest initial expense will be replacing the carpet with
hardwood floors. I assume that's the best way to go. Is there a
cheaper way to go for the floors that will provide good accoustics
without having to install expensive hardwoods? Thanks again!

[gummblefish]

Originally Posted by recordingsounds

Is there a
cheaper way to go for the floors that will provide good accoustics
without having to install expensive hardwoods? Thanks again!

I made a 'tongue and groove' hard wood floor square that i can put up and take down at my leisure. Its handy for when i record acoustic guitars. I just assemble it, set a chair on it put up gobos around the area and record away. It was from left over peices of a hard wood floor i put in downstairs in my living room.

[SonicAlbert]

First of all, your wife is a saint--very few women would even consider having a dining room turned into a recording studio filled with drums. Second, it's pleasant to live in a home that feels like a home and not a recording studio. Third, hardwood floors are nice no matter what, so taking up the carpeting and putting in a wood floor is a good change no matter what.

I vote for converting the upstairs bonus room.

[RezN8]

Many acousticians tell me it's best to start with AT LEAST 2,600 cubic feet for recording rooms. Even though your smaller room has higher ceilings, here's the math:

20x20x8= 3,200

12x12x9=1,296

Considering all the other benefits - more space, can close doors, easy load in, etc. I think the choice is clear go for the bigger room.

BTW- what's under the carpet - my guess is it's a wood floor? Why not just sand it down, coat it and call it a day? The money you save could go to bass traps.

[chessrock]

Why do you feel that hardwood floors are somehow necessary in order to sound good?

Look, when you're dealing with low ceilings - and yes, even 9 feet is pretty low - you're going to have all kinds of early reflections (and flutter echo) to deal with if you've got two paralell, hard/smooth surfaces to deal with, no less than 9 ft away from each other.

If I was in your shoes, and any option was open to me, I would go with the hardwood floors, but only if I could treat the ceiling somehow; i.e. with a series of accoustic panels (like 703 insulation covered with fabric). That would actually be a really nice setup if you could swing it.

Without that option, then I would actually go the opposite route and go for the thickest / heaviest carpeting I could get my hands on ... until you can get the ceiling treated, that is.

And this goes for either the upstairs or the downstairs.

[Robert D]

I don't think 8' or 9' is all that much diff. 12' or 20' is, and gives you room to even think about doing some creative acoustic treatment in there.