Help with setting up room?

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Equal-Opp_Tyler

New member
hi im very new to this whole world of recording and stuff. the only experience i have is using a multitrack to record acoustic stuff. nothing fancy at all.

so i decided that i am finally going to start a more legit recording operation. i cannot find any space besides my bedroom for the time being. it sucks but i have to work with it. i am fairly sure i do not have room for a drumkit in my room. so i was thinking, could i just take my firepod amd a laptop to another location or room and track drums there then transfer files to the pc in which i will be doing all the editing?

also, how bad is it to track in the same room as the control station is? i was thinking of maybe putting the vocals in a closet(decent sized closet) and covering the micd amps with a blanket while tracking.

are these really bad ideas? i have very limited space for about 6 months. but i want to make sure that i can find people that need recording done around here (will be doing a lot for the local highschool garagbands) before go and rent a nicer space

thanks
 
Give it a minute, it usually takes a a little while to get a response.

As for your questions, tracking in a control room is ok if you are ok with using headphones.

Maybe if you have the same program on the PC and the laptop it would be just putting the project file to the PC. In that case go for it.

As for the vocals in the closet..one of the acoustic guys should take that one. Just a tip for the road, blankets dont do as much as people tend to think they do. Im not going down the treatment road though.

Good luck and im sure more people around here will be alot more help.
 
sorry, im just impatient i guess. i figured a blanket would maybe A) help isolate the sound a bit or B) keep a little extra noise out since it will be in the same room. i could prolly just change the gate tho right?

and the closet seems like the "deadest" space in the room. there is very little reflection in it.

and i would be using the firepod, so it would be the same type file right?

thanks
 
I dont mic amps to often so I cant directly answer if it will help, but IMO it would cut out some of the ambience of the room. I dont know if thats a good thing or bad thing so Ill move on and let someone else answer that.

The firepod, to my knowledge, is only basically your "gateway" to your PC or laptop. Its just audio or MIDI data going through. The file im talking about is when you track your audio into whatever DAW your using, and then save the project file. I dont know if this will work (never tried it) but you should just be able to save the project and then load it on your PC into your PC DAW. Again I have never tried it so I may be way off.

Your closet may be the most dead sounding room but some treatment will probably be needed. You dont want a completely dead vocal room either. But again there are experts on this site for this topic.

Here is a good site to read up on: www.ethanwiner.com

He is a member on this site and can help you.

Sorry again if im giving you half answers but id rather not point you down the wrong road.
 
thank you. no worries if you are off a bit on the info. i plan on getting as much advice as i can before i go and do stuff. the firepod came with cubase so im using that.

the only reason i am gonna mic amps is because my guitarist/best friend will only play using his tone so i want to make sure i can make everyone happy. i used him as an example for a picky person.

and i plan on a little treatment to the room and closet (bass traps at the very least) but i could always like crack the door open a bit and see what that would sound like too haha
 
I have been tracking and mixing in the same room for a couple of years now. I have bass traps in the corners and a little Auralex on the walls. Because I track everything in that room most of my recordings seem to have the same vibe to them. I think it's a good idea to track in different places if you have the means.
I think since your room has to also be your bedroom, you need to do the best you can getting some bass traps going and figuring out your prime mix position.
Most of the time you want to put your desk/monitors on a short wall so the sound is directed to the length of your room. You may be limited in your options due to the doors, windows, bed, and other furniture. I have read that you should avoid putting the desk in the corner.
 
the room is so small it basically is one big corner haha. i think i might buy a futon thing. uncomfortable, yes but im willing to make sacrifices the short walls are almost the same length as the long ones so idk where to put the desk. a corner seems most space efficient
 
If you are forced into the corner then so be it. Make the best of what you have and just record stuff.
 
I would avoid recording in the closet unless it's at least the size of a small bedroom. I have an isolation booth that I use sometimes if I need a scratch guide guitar to play along with a drummer, but I never end up using what I record in there. I always have the guitarist rerecord in the big tracking room.

And if you have a nice big drum room (tall ceilings, wide open space) you can remotely record in, definitely go to it.

A firepod is simply an external audio card. Software is what you would ideally want to be the same between the laptop and your desktop. You might even look into getting an external firewire hard drive so you don't have to bounce files back and forth, just hook up the hard drive to whichever computer you're using.

I got an external 320 gig Western Digital MyBook for $50 brand new. I do all of my recording directly to it because it's faster (and much bigger) than my laptops internal drive.
 
I have bass traps in the corners and a little Auralex on the walls.
Click to expand...
Here is the best advice I can give you . Bite the bullet, save your money up and buy as much 2" and 4" thick Owens Corning 703 and make yourself some MOVABLE broadband absorption panels, and portable SUPERCHUNKS(bass traps) for the corners. As to your closet, is it full of clothing? Probably so and you will get SOME absorption from them. If not, line the whole closet with 2" and the cieling with 2 layers of 4". Theres plenty of threads here telling how people have built and hung these panels. Just do a search...they are very easy to build. The superchunks are not easy to build, but they are the best thing you can possibly do for a small room...PERIOD. Use them even up where the walls meet the cieling. I lost the file with a picture of one, so look here.
http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=535
Understand this. The smaller the room, the more treatment you need..PERIOD. Almost to the point of completely deading the room depending on how small it is. Then you have to add electronic FX or reverb to add ambiance. The truth is, the smaller the room the more difficult it is to use the actual acoustics of the room for recording. Thats because of the modal response of small dimensioned rooms. They usually reinforce the low mids which makes recordings sound boomy. Using superchunks in the corners absorbs these resonances(modes) because they TERMINATE in the corners.
Read the rest of the story herehttp://forum.studiotips.com/viewforum.php?f=8&sid=f0f6bebb00b7b2a1e852a2060a6e0284
 
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