13'x11'x8' room - Big enough to record guitars in?

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cmorris975

cmorris975

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Hey there,

I am moving into a new house and I was wondering if a room with these dimensions is big enough to record guitars (and get a good sound) in.

Thanks,

Chris
 
Sure hope so - that's almost exactly the same dimensions as the room I'm building out now. I'm far from an expert on this, but I've been doing an awful lot of reading on the subject, so I have thoughts on the matter, but please don't base any big decisions on anything I say.

I think in general - when tracking in a room this small, it's better to just try to remove the room as much as possible. You're just not going to get any natural sort of reverb or decent "room sound". Make the room as dead as possible and add the reverb in the box later. No reason it shouldn't be fine for mixing as long as the room is properly treated.

I just carried down four bags of Roxul Safe n' Sound into my little bitty room. I think I can get four floor-to-ceiling superchunk-style bass traps and still have enough left over to stuff the ceiling joists. Then I'll cover the ceiling with muslin and that should take the ceiling entirely out of the equation. I've got 8 panels to hang on the walls, all 4' x 2', four are 4" thick, 4 are 2" thick. They're some kind of fiberglass substance - it's the same stuff my local indoor gun range uses between the lanes.

I think even Ethan Winer would say that should be enough.
 
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Yes, that room size is big enough (but larger is always better to an extent). Treat all the corners (wall-to-wall and wall-to-ceiling), first reflection points and ceiling with acoustic traps (not foam!). Set mixing desk in center of one of the short walls. Read this thread about small room acoustics.
 
As much as we all read here about proper bass traps (I'm starting with just vertical corners), do y'all here really trap every corner? For my approx. 10' x 10' (yes square) room, that would be theoretically 24 2' x 4' traps alone! Wow.
 
As much as we all read here about proper bass traps (I'm starting with just vertical corners), do y'all here really trap every corner? For my approx. 10' x 10' (yes square) room, that would be theoretically 24 2' x 4' traps alone! Wow.
Do the wall-wall-ceiling corners of the 'square' room first - start with the back ones, then the front ones and go from there. At some point you're going to think "wow, the sound is so much clearer now!"
 
Do the wall-wall-ceiling corners of the 'square' room first - start with the back ones, then the front ones and from there. At some point you're going to think "wow, the sound is so much clearer now!"

Sounds like a plan! That should tell me alot. Was looking to cheat at first as I only have 2 packs of 3" SnS coming for now. Was thinking single height 2' x 4' x6" in 4 corners and 2 first reflections on each wall. (Mirror tip for placement on sides). Then the next build would be to add another set in each corner and a cloud or two...
 
What guitar? Electric? Close-mic the amp and take the room out of the equation.
Acoustic? Treat the room well like MJB suggested then close-mic to remove as much of the room as you can. My studio is 10x10x10 and I record my acoustic in it. I get okay results.

Or find another room in the house that sounds great and do remote recording.

Also, would it be big enough to mix in?

As for mixing in your room.... most home recording type peoples only get one room to work with. It's got to pull double duty as a recording or 'live' room AND a mixing room. The two are quite different and therefore compromises have to be made. I choose to set the room up for mixing and compromise on the live sound. It's deader than an ideal live room should be, but I can add in ambience later when mixing. To me, it is more imperative the room behaves properly when mixing because that is where you really need to know how the music sounds. A good live recording won't sound good if you can't hear it working in a mix.

hth,
 
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