treating my new room

Apsilon

New member
Hello guys, im new to this so sorry in advance if this post is unusual or something.

I am moving to a new room next month and want to do a lot of vocal recording in the new one. It is 5,30m (~17 foot) x 4m (*~ 13 foot) . The height is 3,70m (~12 foot) so quite high ceiling. The only windows are on one of the 4m walls (short ones), and they are quite a lot of windows, but i have curtains. On the other 4m wall i plan on putting a really big bookshelve for diffusion (whole length of that wall actually). The floor is wood parquet, and i have a thick carpet for it.
I am gonna build basstraps for the corners and treat the 5,30m aka the longer walls with good panels (no cheap foam).
Now i am asking myself how i need to set up the panels. Near to the floor? Symmetrical or asymmetrical along the long walls? How is the high ceiling goin to influence the room sound? And what is with the windows? Do i have to worry about overtreating and deadening the room? Or should i go with as dry as possible for vocal recording?

Would be glad if you guys could help me out with the fine tuning :)

Thanks a lot in advance!
 
You are only recording vocals? Singing or voice-over? Doing any mixing? If only vocals, you probably don't need much more than creating a somewhat dead area that you face into close to the wall so first reflections are greatly reduced.
 
Thanks for the answer!
I do mainly rapping and singing. Want to do mixing as well, not like professionally though, only my own stuff.
WhatsApp Image 2020-02-16 at 14.20.35.jpeg
The wooden looking things on the wall at the top are windows.
That is my planned room. Which corner would you advise me to do that exactly? And if i have the option to treat the room well (with basstraps and some good absorbers on the walls) wouldnt that be the best option still? Or would i just plain and simple reach the best sound if i only treat a corner?

Greetings from Berlin :)
 
There's the AMROC room node calculator. It gives you some idea on the quality of the room size and where the problems are, and there are specific absorptions you can see what the targets are. You've already got a couple "traps" with the bed and sofa, but yes, bass traps in the corners are important, then you probably want to treat the first reflection points from your monitors to your listening position on both the sides and with overhead clouds.

If you're recording vocals, I would consider treating the side walls and overhead - even in that size room - where you'd stand to record. You might be able to use the same broadband traps you have for mix-monitoring if that's a good spot to record from.

Not sure what the back wall is, but some broadband trapping and diffusion can't hurt. A good size bookcase filled with books is not a bad natural way to do at least some of that.
 
Thanks a lot for your answer as well! :)

Now because it is a really old building it would be hard to do overhead clouds, you think that would be a problem with high ceilings as in too much reverb? Or are higher ceilings actually better for recording because the sound is reaching them kinda late? I find different opinions on this one online...
For the mic positioning: would it make more sense in the middle of the room, or facing to the window side (with the basstraps in the corners) or should i just try out what is best? I think 1 or 2 moveable broadband absorbers would be useful, right?

Thanks in advance ;)
 
Thanks a lot for your answer as well! :)

Now because it is a really old building it would be hard to do overhead clouds, you think that would be a problem with high ceilings as in too much reverb? Or are higher ceilings actually better for recording because the sound is reaching them kinda late? I find different opinions on this one online...
For the mic positioning: would it make more sense in the middle of the room, or facing to the window side (with the basstraps in the corners) or should i just try out what is best? I think 1 or 2 moveable broadband absorbers would be useful, right?

Thanks in advance ;)
I forgot the ceilings are high - probably can be ignored (them *and* me :)). Yes, large rooms are easier because the distances mean the echos are not nearly as loud, and contribute only ambience if you are lucky. The parallel reflective surfaces can still create standing waves so you want to prevent that with diffusion, if needed.

The bass traps are really going to be for mixing so the room does not give you an exaggerated sense of bass in the recording. They won't do a lot for your vocal recording. That's where you want to minimize reflections (movable broadband traps/gobos can be useful), and if you have any external noise that can't be suppressed you probably want to be facing that direction, i.e., so the back of the microphone's pickup pattern (assuming cardioid) has the null aimed at the noise.
 
Alright guys thanks a lot i really appreciate it!
I now bought 8 Basotect panels (14 kPa*s/m²) 2 meters ( 6.6 feet) high and 1 meter (3.3 feet) in width but only 5cm (2inch) in thickness. I now have 2 options.

1. I combine 2 panels for a thickness of 10cm (4inch) which is appearently enough. I then would have 4 pretty big panels.
2. I buy some rockwool sonorock 035 (8 kPa*s/m²) and put 10cm(4inch) behind the basotect panels. I then would have 8 panels with 5cm basotect and 10cm sonorock and a total of 15cm (6inch) in thickness.

I am more and more leaning towards building moveable panels for more flexibility while recording. With the second option i could put like 4 panels on the walls and would have 4 moveable panels. Too much for the room above?

Would really love to have your advice, thanks in advance!
 
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