What would you do with this room?

tobinharris

New member
Hi folks

I'm a hobbyist considering treating this room for tracking vocals and acoustic guitar at the same time.

I'd like to keep it light if possible as it's also a 2nd spare room. My goals is to record some songs, just for the fun of it, but to a quality that is honest and good.

Don't really know what I'm doing. Have read stuff at GIK Acoustics and other places, pointing to the need for Rockwool wall panels and maybe a bass trap or two.

Here's the room

office.jpg

Ceiling height is fairly standard (2.2m I think).

For mixing I'm happy to use headphones, although do have some monitors.

My current thinking is:

office.jpg

  • Desk middle of wall D with monitors either side on stands.
  • A few 4ft panels on wall D.
  • 4ft panels either side of desk on walls A and C.
  • 3-4 panels along wall C
  • Mic 2/3 along facing treated wall C with Aston Halo

Of just buy a GIK PIB and see if that helps?

What would you do?

Thanks in advance!
 
Tracking and mixing (with monitors) are different things. With a narrow room like that you are best to try to dampen as much of the reflections as you can. Do something with the corners. Your sidewall panels should be at the point of first reflection. Hang the panels on hooks so you can move them, or use them as gobos when tracking.
 
The desk location looks fine though I'd try to make sure the treatment on each side does cover those "first reflection" points, which should be balanced, i.e., in the same locations, even with nearfields monitors. And a couple of overhead "clouds" will make a difference both at the desk and where you record.

You could probably be closer to wall "b" for recording, assuming that's the direction you'd be facing.

My room is badly shaped (square), but I tend to record at a point so I have good treatment in front of me, to minimize reflections of what is being recorded, but located so the surfaces behind me are as distant as possible, because then whatever does bounce off the wall in front of me, by the time it makes the round trip, has been reduced in volume as much as possible.
 
The desk location looks fine though I'd try to make sure the treatment on each side does cover those "first reflection" points, which should be balanced, i.e., in the same locations, even with nearfields monitors. And a couple of overhead "clouds" will make a difference both at the desk and where you record.

You could probably be closer to wall "b" for recording, assuming that's the direction you'd be facing.

Thanks Keith.

Yes, getting panels in the sweet spot in the mixing space might be tough, need to play with it.

For the mic, would you sing/play facing the wall b) so that the reflections hit the wall b, bounce back to wall d, then finally bounce back to b in a mush smaller way!?
 
Many thanks, appreciated.

Would a couple of 4ft x 2ft 100mm thick rockwool bass trap gobos do the job?

Yes, floor to ceiling if possible.

FOr mic recording, I face )at an angle) towards two walls 3-4 feet in front of me that are covered in 4" traps. - so the sound coming out of me doesn't get bounced around at all, it gets absorbed first pass. Behind me on the walls (and above, and in corners) are more traps of course.
 
Yes, floor to ceiling if possible.

FOr mic recording, I face )at an angle) towards two walls 3-4 feet in front of me that are covered in 4" traps. - so the sound coming out of me doesn't get bounced around at all, it gets absorbed first pass. Behind me on the walls (and above, and in corners) are more traps of course.

Makes sense, thanks for the extra tips.

T
 
...
For the mic, would you sing/play facing the wall b) so that the reflections hit the wall b, bounce back to wall d, then finally bounce back to b in a much smaller way!?
Yes, that's the idea. Of course, you want the wall you're facing to be as non-reflective as possible, but unless it's 100% treated and absorbs 100% of all sound, something is going to be reflected. Assuming you're using a cardioid mic, that [initial reflection] sound will not get picked up, but whatever it bounces off behind you will make it back to the mic. With the "inverse square law" in mind, you want to maximize the distance that sound (i.e., what you don't want to record) has to travel before reaching the mic.

P.S. It might not just be an echo of your voice, but other environmental noise you can reduce by correct mic placement, such as computer noise, or perhaps a window where some outside sound inevitably seeps in. Using the mic's polar pattern, room shape and treatment location can really make a difference in how studio-like you can get your home recordings. (IMO/IME/YMMV/etc.)
 
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