Budget studio, No Money Wife's in School.

  • Thread starter Thread starter capnkid
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capnkid

capnkid

Optimus Prime
I stay at home, with the kids and I make 0 dollars right now.

I have a computer with an EMU 0404 sound card.& a 2 channel mixer.

Fender and a V-amp, sometimes a 18 watt marshall clone.

The drums I'll be mic-ing with a single mic ( like I said NO MONEY)

So, what I have done is tore apart and old play house I made for my kids that was in the basement. It has left me with (two) 2x4x8's (two) 2x4x6's and roughly 10 2x4x4's. One sheet of plywood, one sheet of pressed wood, and some misc ply wood sizes.

what I was thinking of doing was building a triangular room. I have a big roll of cheap vinyl tolex I could cover the concrete floor with, and I have egg crate sponge I would put on the ceiling (floor Joyces)

what do you think?
 
sponge wont do anything helpful, and i've never read about triangular rooms, but it seemsl iek you'd be better off just leaving what you have as it is. you can make decent recordings with one mic on drums and some guitar, i dont think you need a triangular room for it.
 
capnkid said:
I have tore apart a old play house I made for my kids that was in the basement.
Click to expand...

You Monster!!

Why Do you want to build a triangle room? Can you not leave everything open plan?
 
capnkid said:
I stay at home, with the kids and I make 0 dollars right now.
So, what I have done is tore apart and old play house I made for my kids that was in the basement. It has left me with (two) 2x4x8's (two) 2x4x6's and roughly 10 2x4x4's. One sheet of plywood, one sheet of pressed wood, and some misc ply wood sizes.
what do you think?
Click to expand...
Please see my website.
I built my workstation based on 1 piece of 3/4 inch plywood.
 
gummblefish said:
You Monster!!

Why Do you want to build a triangle room? Can you not leave everything open plan?
Click to expand...

I was thinking too, do you remember going to the movies and there was ruffled curtains all along the sidewalls and back of the theater?

Was this for reducing sound waves in there during a movie?
If so, wouldn't the same work in a basement? As long as I had the concrete floor, some heavy duty wavy curtains, and something on the ceiling?
 
capnkid said:
I was thinking too, do you remember going to the movies and there was ruffled curtains all along the sidewalls and back of the theater?

Was this for reducing sound waves in there during a movie?
If so, wouldn't the same work in a basement? As long as I had the concrete floor, some heavy duty wavy curtains, and something on the ceiling?
Click to expand...

I personally would leave it open planned rather than start tring to construct a smaller room that isnt really going to do much for you anyway. My friend has a basement studio and he just put Theatre curtains around the walls, with a few bass traps and absorbers. Worked pretty well.
 
I agree on keeping it open. It might be helpful to 1st determine what you are trying to achieve in your space, for instance:

1. Are you trying to minimize outside noise from getting in and on mic?
2. Are you hoping to cut down on inside sound getting out and to neighbors?
3. Do you wish to improve the sound characteriztics of the space you record in?
4. All of the above?

You can't really do anything without at least SOME budget and even with a huge budget it might not be possible to do everything.

Here are a few ideas:

1. To reduce some sound in and out drywall is likely the most cost effective form of readily available mass, but the price adds up fast if doing a whole basement.

2.To help reduce some echo and maybe suck some of the highs out, moving blankets or heavy curtains would be one way to go. You could maybe buy a moving blanket each week and begin to line the walls.

3.While 703 isn't exactally free, building some bass traps could be lots of bang for your buck.

4.I'm not sure exactally how effective it would be, but i imagine you could consider building some form of multi-purpose treated partitions to surround your drums, then adjust (Move) to help get your guitar amp better recorded and maybe act a vocal area as well... not sure.

5.There's is also the PVC/ Moving Blanket type of "vocal booth", but again, I don't know how effective this would be.

It's easy to start thinking "If i just build a small room i could insulate the hell out of it for pretty cheap and then i'll rule the world!!!!", but overall, I'd say save a bit, do some research, get some 703 and take advantage of the open space as it will probally sound better and be far less expensive in the end.

:)
 
You don't have enough material to soundproof, so I'd forget about that. Use the 4' bits to build portable square panel absorbers. Scrounge some insulation wherever you can, and fill the squares with it. Cover with cheap fabric, spray with flame retardant. Leave the room as open and large as possible--the heavy curtains work in the theater because it is a BIG space. If you can spare the bread, buy some roll insulation and leave it in the roll, stacked in the corners. Cheapest bass traps available.
 
Just go for cheap room treatment, don't build a smaller room within the basement just leave it open and do the best you can with the wood you have. Regardless what you do to the room, you'll most likely need a better setup, sure 1 mic will record the drums but it probably won't give you the sound you want/are looking for. Sound treating the room won't help you much unless everything else is your line is good. (The Good Rule)
GOOD acoustics + GOOD instruments + GOOD musicians + GOOD mics + GOOD setup = GOOD RECORDINGS, if one of those isn't good then you'll notice in the recordings. All the stuff I own I would qualify as descent therefore all my recordings are decent so if I were to upgrade my mics to more of a professional status a normal person wouldn't tell a difference, i'd have to upgrade everything else as well...
 
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