How do I know which Room to Record in?

T

TeenChristian

New member
Hey there! Right now I have all of my music gear setup in my basement. I was considering moving it up to my room, but I'm not totally sure of everything that goes into a "good recording space." At this point in time I can't afford to spend any money on sound treating my room for recording, so until then what kinds of things should I look for in a room for recording purposes? Whats a better size, large, small? Rug or wood flooring? Etc...

Thanks! :)
 
The room that sounds good for the purpose. Some people will record guitars in a hallway. Drums are typically best in a large room, though a small room with treatment on walls and ceiling, with a hard floor, can give great results. A small isolation box for a guitar /mic can achieve great results as well. It depends on what you are after, as well as what you have. Experimentation is the only way to find what works for you. I can tell you what worked for me, on a particular project, with my gear, in my room. It will probably not translate to your music, your gear, in your room. I had no idea what worked until I tried it myself. There is no 'right' room that works for everything. Just the room you choose for what you need.

I know it sounds vague, but it is like asking what color works for a good painting. There is no correct answer. You make selections based on what moves the end result. Yes, treatment of any room is a good start, but the tone you are after may just be a bathroom. None of us can tell you what you want. That's where your own knowledge, use, and creativity come in.
 
I'd go for the bathroom myself but the rest of the family would be ........ up in arms.

Jim pretty much nailed it there in post #2. I would stay in the basement and have a go at it there and believe me you don't have to have your room fixed tomorrow. Some of us have taken a lot of time to get the room that we are recording in *just right*.
 
I'd go for the bathroom myself but the rest of the family would be ........ up in arms.
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Yeah, last time I tried that, it didn't for out too well...

I'll probably take your advice moresound and stick with the basement for now, see how that goes, and work from there - experimenting with new things etc...
 
TeenChristian said:
Yeah, last time I tried that, it didn't for out too well...

I'll probably take your advice moresound and stick with the basement for now, see how that goes, and work from there - experimenting with new things etc...
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Have you seen the make your own bass traps, clouds, gobos and such here on the Home Recording forum?

I don't have any booked marked but I'm sure that someone will stop by here real quick and give you a few links that are the better threads to gather all the info regarding low cost insulation and other materials plus the simple tools that are required.

In fact, if you know of anyone who knows what is the proper end of a hammer, screw gun and saw to hold onto while using them -- the two of you could knock out what you'll need easily on a short hour weekend.
 
I've recorded in every room in the flat, including the bathroom and toilet. The isocab I built for my guitar amp is in a cupboard in the kitchen. I regularly track in the kids bedroom, the front room or my wife and I's room. I've used the corridors, the little cove where the coats hang. Basically everywhere. Treatment in our rabbit hutch is a no goer so I make do when I record the drums and amps and acoustic instruments. But it's great fun. There's a part of me that would like a dedicated 'studio' but then on the other hand I've gotten to like doing things like recording loud guitars from the front room {leads go to the isocab in the kitchen} while the kids watch telly or play or argue.
My point is, if you have a space like the basement, use it. But also, check out everywhere else that you can. And like Jimmy said, experiment.
 
I can't believe that no one has stopped by to post some links on simple building instructions to treat your space!
 
Hi,

Like Grimtraveller, I've experimented with various rooms and setups and in my opinion the best place is wherever you feel most comfortable - because the likelihood of finding acoustic perfection in a home situation is nil.

All the places I tried had pros and cons, but I've gone for the place that simply has the most room to spread out, and the most opportunity to leave stuff set up. Not being cramped and stressed is worth the cost of a few imperfections in other areas.

If certain frequencies gets soaked up, or exaggerated (and you can be sure that they will) then you can test to find out where they are in the range. Provided that you know where the weak spots are you can learn to live with them and compensate accordingly. It may not be ideal - but what ever is? :)

My aim (and I'm admittedly pretty much a newbie myself) is to learn how my room behaves badly and adjust to it. I may eventually muck around with traps and baffles and so on but it's not high on my priority list. In the meantime I'll use mixture of techniques, including reference tracks (It's a popular strategy and involves comparing your sound with a commercial track of similar style. You can 'borrow' their megabucks studio room by comparing how it sounds on your own gear. Roughly speaking if, for example, their bass sounds a little quiet then try setting yours at that level too. Chances are when you play both tracks under normal home listening conditions it will have come out OK - if that makes sense). Another strategy is to use mostly a good set of headphones for mixing and just use your monitors to do checks.

There are downsides to headphone mixing but up-sides too. Here's a good article by Martin Walker Mixing on headphones

Good luck.

Chris
 
moresound said:
That is a great article Chris ..... I had missed it.
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Glad you enjoyed it. I've got a lot of respect for Martin Walker's articles. He seems to be able to speak from great experience but in terms that I can usually still understand. :) I re-read that every so often and see how I'm progressing with his suggestions.

Here's my home attic. Acoustically it's undoubtedly pretty tragic, but it's my mess in my space, and I'm very comfortable in it which means a lot to me. I also don't intend to do much in the way of 'room' recording at this stage. As the guitar, bass, keyboards and drums all go straight in down the wire it only leaves my voice - which would sound just as bad in a pro studio as it does in my attic. I'm sure to want to fiddle with micing stuff later but at this stage it's mostly the mixing that I need to think about.

Chris

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Chris you have more space than most. Looks comfortable.

Look out for that direct sunlight on your guitars and amp!

You have the same G5 mac as I do!
 
moresound said:
Spotted that LAVA lamp right off the bat! :cool:
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LAVA lamp? Hmmm...

You don't mean that dark red 'LAVA lamp' on the left do you? We call them metronomes over here, but the lava lamp name might stick now.... :)

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Yeah, the sunlight is an issue. Those blinds on the western end stay down permanently and the boards on the north facing windows stay up too. there's also a pretty decent aircon unit here for summer - which is now, here in OZ.

How's New Hampshire? I have very happy memories of working in Exeter for a while back in the sixties. Geez, that's almost half a century ago now. :eek:

Cheers,

Chris
 
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