room treatment for recording drums

BrettB

BrettB

New member
Hi all,

this weekend our band starts to record the drums of our new demo. We have good mikes and material to record it, only: it has to be inside of a living room. And the sound is definetely not bad, I wondered if you had suggestions to improve it.

It is approx. 8 - 3 meters, and there a few coackes, a table and chairs, cupboards... that fill the room. Lot of reflections, so everything sounds pretty loud. The most annoying thing I think is going to be a the cymbals. They are often way too loud in the room. The balance between snare and kick seems ok.

Is there any way to dampen those cymbals or should I leave the room alone so I won't wreck the ok sound it has now?
 
Can you spend any money? OwensCorning 703 aka Rockwool aka Rigid Fiberglass is a great absorber. Search on the studio forum for more info. About 10 2'x4' sheets of that placed around the room would go a long way to reducing the reverb time.
 
Don't overdo the sound absorbtion stuff or you'll suck the life out of your live drum sound and it will end up sounding drier than the Sahara.

Is there carpet on the floor? If not, then maybe throw down a couple of rugs. Otherwise just go with what you've got
 
Brett, I have the same problem, the only thing I do is hang some blankets, place some rugs in the floor, move a futton close to the bass drum, it could work as a bass trap. For more info check this out

Tama
 
Rockwool and OC703/Rigid Fiberglass Soundboard are two entirely different materials. They have different properties, and RFS costs about 3 times as much.
 
Might work well to checker if you dont want it too dry. But if not that then just do one side of the walls with the Rigid Fiberglass. Whatever you do, dont throw blankets up on the walls, and dont do the egg crate thing.

danny
 
Don't bother fiddling with the room

Seriously, if it's just a demo don't worry about it. What a room sounds like & how it sounds when it's recorded are two different things. From your post Brett it seems as though you are hypothesising about something that you haven't heard. The solution here might be nothing more than politely suggesting to the drummer that he doesn't twat the cymbals so hard. Getting him to put them higher up might help, or tell him that the "pros" always play their cymbals quieter in the studio. How the kit is miced up will make a difference. Close mic the cymbals then turn them down in the mix? Problem solved.
 
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