which room would you rather record in?

M

MadHatterTCM

Eternally Striving
For drums...

a small 11x11 dead room. With walls and floor carpeted. Tiled ceiling.

Or a large 30x15 room. carpeted. tiled ceiling, untreated walls.

Completely dead small room? or lively room with only okay sound.

The drums SOUND a lot better naturally in the larger room.
What do you think about it for recording though?
 
It really depends on what sound you're after. If you want that really tight, in-your-face RnB drum sound, the a room with a strong ambience is probably not the right way to go.

However, I think :

MadHatterTCM said:
The drums SOUND a lot better naturally in the larger room.
Click to expand...

that says a lot about what my initial decision would be ;)
 
MessianicDreams said:
It really depends on what sound you're after. If you want that really tight, in-your-face RnB drum sound, the a room with a strong ambience is probably not the right way to go.

However, I think :
The drums SOUND a lot better naturally in the larger room.
Click to expand...
that says a lot about what my initial decision would be ;)
Click to expand...
Bingo! Right on down the line.

It's not a "which one is better" situation. Which one is better, brown shoes or black shoes? Which one is better, chocolate or vanilla? Which one is better, bass or treble?

When in doubt, go with what sounds best to your ears.

But what you really need to do is to figure out what you want the drums to sound like *first*. You need to set a target, a plan in your head for how you want the song to sound when your done (and not just with drums.) THEN, based upon that plan, pick the best tools you can find to get the job done, including the room which will get you closest to your target sound.

G.
 
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One thing almost undoubtedly -- 11x11 and dead... MUD. Carpeting on the walls and the floors with (assuming here) no bass trapping? MUD.
 
Massive Master said:
One thing almost undoubtedly -- 11x11 and dead... MUD. Carpeting on the walls and the floors with (assuming here) no bass trapping? MUD.
Click to expand...


Yeah, unless there is massive bass trapping, that room is not dead. It's dead from 20k to 800Hz, under that, it's VERY lively. And not in a good way.



Scott
Not an audio engineer.
 
But when you say "tiled ceiling" in the small room, do you mean acoustical drop ceiling with a lot of airspace above it? In that case, you do have a massive bass trap and it theoretically could sound OK.

That being said, my "studio" is barely larger than your small room and pretty well treated. You know where I record drums? My garage.



Scott
Not an audio engineer.
 
well i decided before i got in there, that i was just going to use the larger room. No lie, it sounded great, and possibly the best drum tracks that i've gotten to date.

I'll post some clips later. see what you guys think..
 
jaybriggs84 said:
If the ceilings are high in the large room then I would pick that hands down
Click to expand...

They were 10-12 feet.

One of the walls, was brick, one had lots of windows..

SSPX0008.jpg


definitely doesn't look ideal in any way, which is why i was sketchy on it...
but worked nicely.
 
drum sound i got



nothing but a quick leveling (no real eq or anything, just volume adjustment) and some compression on the master.
Pretty good for raw tracks?
 
414's for the overheads. d112 in the kick.

The 414s and the 3035 in front of the kit turned out to be the most useful mics.
I really like the tom sound, and that's major thanks to those mics..
 
Very good!

Contributors to the good sound:

1) You didn't put the drums in the center of the room
2) There are large areas of different flat surfaces - brick, glass, plaster?, carpet?
3) There's a lot of stuff in the room with differing irregular surfaces - soft couch, wood drum riser/stage, wood and vinyl chairs, piano.

All those things are going to absorb, reflect and diffuse the sound in different ways and that typically makes a room sound good.

FWIW, your huge windows are a pretty darn effective bass trap, that may have contributed as much to your sound as anything.



Scott
Not an audio engineer
 
loudsongs said:
Contributors to the good sound:

1) You didn't put the drums in the center of the room
Click to expand...

Really? I thought the centre of the room would be the best place, considering it's away from the walls. But, that "rule" might change in a large, un-treated room? I'm curious what others think about that one.
 
The center of the room is where all the problems caused by having parallel walls come together.
 
And when the *source* of that energy is in the middle of the room already, you're doubling your problems.

Middle = Bad. Live room, tracking, mixing, mastering and otherwise.
 
Farview said:
The center of the room is where all the problems caused by having parallel walls come together.
Click to expand...

Massive Master said:
And when the *source* of that energy is in the middle of the room already, you're doubling your problems.

Middle = Bad. Live room, tracking, mixing, mastering and otherwise.
Click to expand...

Thanx guys. I guess I had it wrong the whole time. Luckily, I never actually put my drums in the middle of any room, because it wasn't possible. So, I'm a genius by accident. :D
 
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