Absorption in Sudio

[darnold]

Im wondering what would be the best way to put of sound absorbtion in my sudio. The room is huge, and the problem right now is the walls are brick, so the room is very live. Im right now, going to build 3 or 4 mobile foam pannels, so i can move them around and put them around drums, vocals, etc. But i would also like to put a little on the walls. Would it be a good idea to put carpet on the walls or would it be better just to leave them brick (live) and to use just the foam pannels for absorbtion?

Tell me what you think. Im on a very low budget but i think i can get carpet for free. I would rely mostly on the pannels for obsorbing but i wanted to deaden to rest of the room a little bit also.

im out,
Darnold

 

[BigKahuna]

carpet will work, but what you should be after is broadband absorption. Carpet, if I remember right, will only absorb the hi-mids, resulting in an apparent boost in the low-mids and low freqs. Although, if you built a frame and mounted the carpet so it's a little bit away from the wall, you'll absorb more lower frequencies.
But, to really do it right, you need to look at multiple solutions ... or build a broadband absorber. That's not to say don't get the carpet (especially if it's free and doesn't smell like dog pee ).
I'm still working on the acoustics of my recording space, but I've also been using some gobos that "fake out" the mics and allow me to still get useable results.

Here's one of my gobos:

 

[darnold]

Yah i know that already. What i was asking if it would be a good idea to use carpet to deadin it. but im also making 3 pannels with studio foam on them to obsorb most of it, but i was wondering if it was worth deadening the room a little more with carpet on the walls.

darnold

 

[BigKahuna]

I guess the point I was trying to make was that there's better alternatives than using carpet. But yes ... unless you have a well designed room (ie. minimal standing waves, flutter echo, etc.), you'll need to treat the acoustics.

 

[sjoko2]

Darnold:
One thing you have to consider. A live room is a live room. Baffling an instrument will only chanche the close milking characteristics, you will still have the room effect.

It would be my choice to apply some treatment to the room first. This can be done quite professionally without spending a lot of money, if you're prepared to use a saw, hammer and screwdriver.

In order to come up with some suggestions, we'd need for you to describe the room in detail (dimensions, floor, ceiling, wall(s) construction)

 

[sonusman]

Is this a tracking room only? Or are you monitoring in their too?

Brick is a very nice high frequency diffuser. If you are using the room for just tracking, you may consider leaving most of it alone. Placement of instruments in the room can help alleviate a lot of phasing issues you may have with lower frequencies for tracking purposes.

It may behove you to rent a Real Time Analyzer and check the RT time of different freq's in the room to find out what is out of balance and where before you impart on applying treatments. Anything you apply could very well lead to even worse problems then you may be having at this point. Also, you need to ascertain whether the overall reverb time is too long or not. I know that I prefer a rather lively room for tracking as this gives me a natural reverb that sounds nice. With brick, you get the benefits of diffusion in the highs which really sounds cool.

If you are mixing in this room, well, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Like sjoko2 stated, you don't have to spend a fortune if you have a little hammer and saw skills, but you will still be spending some dough to make a room like this suitable for mixing, because in a mixing room, diffusion and long reverberation are not desirable.

John Sayers Recording Manual is a good place to start in figuring out what you may need to do with this room for acoustical treatments. Don't just start throwing up stuff without a CAREFUL consideration to what it NEEDS. You will probably just throw good money at a bad idea. Forget about carpet jobs, and foam until you know what is needed.

Good luck.

Ed