Can poor room acoustics...

E

EdJames

New member
...make even the best equipment sound terrible?

Cause I've upgraded the hell out of my equipment yet the old equipment gave a much better and cleaner sound (but I moved house in between).

Guess my main question is; how much difference to a recording will room acoustics make (equipment is listed below by the way).
 
It's like anything else, your recording will be as good as your weakest link, so if the acoustics are bad, the recording will be too. Acoustics make a huge difference to the recording AND mixing. So it doesn't matter if you have the best equipment available, if the acoustics ar bad, you aint gonna have the best sound. Build some bass traps, then some broadband absorbers. Search this site(especially the building forum)for how to/where to put them, if you don't already know.
 
It might be said that poor room acoustics make especially the best equipment sound terrible. The better the mic/pre/converters, etc., the clearer you will hear how bad the room sounds, which may have been conveyed less with cheaper equipment.
 
the way I always think of it is it's just like signal flow through your system. The first crap thing that enters your signal just seems to get amplified as it goes through. Start as clean as you can get it, and keep it clean.
First the musician/instrument
Then the acoustics of the room and how they react with that musicians sound he is putting out.
Then the microphone that is capturing all the above things.
Then the preamp that is amplifying the mics signal
Then the converters that are trying to accurately represent the acoustic signal in digital form.
Then the plugins or outboard gear you are using
Then the mix bus of your system
Then the speakers
etc.

The more you add into the signal chain the more things you have to worry about.
 
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In my thinking... the better it sounds to start with, the better it will sound in the end. Listen to the way things (different instruments, voices, drums whatever you intend to record) sound and at about the same volume as you will record them at. I mean really listen, hear all those nasty little reflections and buzes and rattles, the fewer you hear the better. Some rooms are just natural studios with just the right sound, others need a lot of help to be even passable. If you have good musicians, playing good instruments and you are recording with good gear but it still dosent sound right on playback...that's a good indication your room needs some help.
 
This is all especially true in recording drums...heads need to be tuned, drummer needs to have the chops to hit the same place on the snare head to get the same type of tone, as well as managing the attack, etc etc. With all those factors taken care of, I've heard amazing snare tracks that came from an SM-57 plugged into a mic input on a Mackie compact mixer. Go figure.
 
I think it's the room then.

My old room just seemed to give this perfect studio sound, no conditioing at all, but the insloping solid walls offered no reverberations. I mean, my equipment is 10x better, but maybe thats why it's picking up these sounds that the old one couldn't. Maybe I need to just tweak the settings.
 
Robert D said:
It might be said that poor room acoustics make especially the best equipment sound terrible. The better the mic/pre/converters, etc., the clearer you will hear how bad the room sounds, which may have been conveyed less with cheaper equipment.
Click to expand...

I agree - as you up the ante of your potential sound, the more every detail and flaw stands out... remember when we were all recording with 4-tracks and RadioShed mic's, we were just worried about being able to physically HEAR the bass guitar at all... now we all actually want it to sound GOOD too...
Ah, innocence lost :p

So as everyone has said, as you up the quality of one thing you are creating a 'new' weakest link in your chain - and the room is pretty important for your sound, and it sounds like unfortunately your new space isn't plug-and-play.... get to work on those homemade bass traps ;) !
 
So would it be good enough to get three bits of wood, and stand them like this:-

------
I
I M
I
------

The --- are the side panel (of wood), the III is the back panel and the M is the mic. If I then put that foam padding on the inside of the wood, would this work well enough?
 
I got to tell you that is how I got into the acoustic business. Many years ago after spending all that money on great gear I still was making crap sounds. In fact as some of you said before it sounded worse with the better gear. Once I learned about room acoustics it all fell in line. Most big studios that you go to will brag way more about the sound of the room before the preamps they have. Well if they have some huge SSL then that is what comes up first. :D
Now with all that said you have to do things right also. You can not put a bunch of blankets on the wall and call it done. You need a good amount of bass traps and thinner panels for the reflections in the room.

Glenn
www.gikacoustics.com
 
Not really. Keep in mind the room has a bunch to do with the tracking AND the mixing.

Check out Ethans site tagged above for a good understanding. Hope it helps.

Peace sir.........
 
Robert D said:
The better the mic/pre/converters, etc., the clearer you will hear how bad the room sounds, which may have been conveyed less with cheaper equipment.
Click to expand...

bennychico11 said:
The first crap thing that enters your signal just seems to get amplified as it goes through. Start as clean as you can get it, and keep it clean.
First the musician/instrument
Then the acoustics of the room and how they react with that musicians sound he is putting out.
Click to expand...

Robert and Benny got it summed up for you. Say no mo.....
 
EdJames said:
...make even the best equipment sound terrible?

Cause I've upgraded the hell out of my equipment yet the old equipment gave a much better and cleaner sound (but I moved house in between).

Guess my main question is; how much difference to a recording will room acoustics make (equipment is listed below by the way).
Click to expand...

I think mic, polar pattern, and placement choices can help reject a bad room or capture a good one.

If your room sucks you're better off moving in closer to the source with a focused polar pattern. If you have a great room(which i've never experienced) you can back off and capture that.

Better instruments won't change the acoustics of a bad room. You'll just have better tone in a complicated recording environment.
 
So what you're saying is that by recording on a lower volume and closer to the mic, you could elimate some of 'the room' sound?
 
moving closer to the mic will "help" but if you really want to fix the problem then start to work on your room.

Glenn
 
myfipie said:
moving closer to the mic will "help" but if you really want to fix the problem then start to work on your room.

Glenn
Click to expand...

I agree, but speaking for myself and the the place I rent, getting a room up to spec. is out of the question. So rejection is key for me.

Maybe this is to bold, but I think alot of people who post here don't have the freedom to go all-out with acoustic treatment, and just want a passable signal.

If I could, I would. When I can I will.

If he's able to go the whole nine, I'll duck out now because I know very little about the science of a good room. I've only tried to get rid of my room sound for good reason.
 
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