Can u tell me what you think?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SaltSlasher
  • Start date Start date
S

SaltSlasher

New member
I have been recording in my office, which is a square shapped 9 x 10 1/2
with half the ceiling being 6ft high, and the other half is 7ft.

Anyways, I stopped recording with mics because of quality. But this is what I have been planning:

My bedroom is the "family room", and it is rectangle, and is 15.9ft long and is just under 11ft wide, with 8 foot ceiling. Not to mention that the wall I would put my desk, is a completely bricked, with a stove indented into the brick.

My current desk is a L shape, but it sucks trying to combine an office/school desk with a music production desk.
This is why I am planning to step it up. Switching my two rooms around, and buying a second desk, would give me that extra desk space. Plus the L shape sucks for studio monitors.
There is the desk I would get, it is affordable andt will be the one I settle with:

Buy Studio RTA Creation Station Studio Desk | Desks, Tables & Workstations | Musician's Friend

They have a newer one in the Guitarcenter catalog, that you can also buy a side cart, that has like a 20-30 space rackmount built in. I like the one I showed you cause it's longer and then I would later get one of the side tables.

I want to put a new desk symetrical with the brick wall, and they sell studio monitor stands, that have triangles for the base. They are 18 inchs, and where the brick wall is, on the floor, the brick comes out exactly 18 inchs, so I can either put the stands on the brick, or on the carpet, giving me 18 inchs behind the monitors.

I figured a brick wall would give it better sound. Next I was thinking of buying a DIY foam kit, like the auralex studio designer kit, but since I don't own the home yet, I figured I would buy a couple slabs of plywood, or some kind of wood, and I would glue the foam to them. That way I can mess around until I find the best spots, and nail them to the wall.
I would put them on the opposite wall of the brick wall and get the corners kit. I really don't have money to do floating floors, or any other professional constructions. I just want something simplistic, that gives me the minimum quality that someone would need.

Your probably going to mention that there is no door to this room, and there is a 7ft x 7ft opening that opens to a hallway and another little hallway to the laundry room.

I am not sure how to fix this problem, cause I know things should be air tight. My parents have a carpenter friend, and he quoted us a lot of money to install a wall and door. So unless I want to cough up a bunch of money,the best solution I could think of, is buying a huge piece of wood to cover the majority of it, and glue the foam on it. That way it would be a temporary fix, and not to much money.

I am not trying to go full blown studio, but I would like to get a decent sound, that is worth adding to my tracks. Once I own the house, I will probably redo this whole room.

Since I will be having two desks, I plan to get one of them new iMac's especially since they got the new sandy bridge cpu's in them. If not I will have a mac book pro by august for school.

So can you tell me what you think? I am still debating a few things, but this is what I am thinking of doing right now.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2733.webp
    IMG_2733.webp
    45.4 KB · Views: 97
  • IMG_2734.webp
    IMG_2734.webp
    29.8 KB · Views: 96
  • IMG_2735.webp
    IMG_2735.webp
    20.1 KB · Views: 94
  • IMG_2736.webp
    IMG_2736.webp
    34.9 KB · Views: 98
Don't waste your money on foam. Build or have someone make you panels made with OC703 or rock wool. They are portable and will actually improve the sound in your room. Foam will do nothing other than attenuate the high end and lessen flutter echo. You can purchase prefabricated panels if you or someone you know isn't handy. I built 12 2'x4'x4" panels for under $300 using Roxul 80, drywall corner bead, rivets, spray adhesive and $2 per yard cloth.
 
Carpet the walls. Brick is horrid and not. Hard reflections in room. But it will block a bit of the outside world too. On the cheap, already in inventory options. Lean your bed mattress against the wall. Comforters draped over book shelves and other things to improve the inside acoustic. But it depends on what you'll be recording. Human voice only, a headset mic and an sE reflexion filter to smother your head in kind of works for me when I need to take the room out of the image. On the bed and under the comforter if you need more isolation. Although not ideal or "professional" by any means. But sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.
 
SaltSlasher said:
I stopped recording with mics because of quality.
Click to expand...
I don't understand. Quality of what? The mics? The room?
I was thinking of buying a DIY foam kit, .
Click to expand...
Not a good idea. Like Jimmy says, foam is not good for acoustic purposes. You won't control bass, which is 99% of the problem in 99% of rooms. You need rigid fibreglass for proper room treatment.
Jimmy69 said:
Don't waste your money on foam. Build or have someone make you panels made with OC703 or rock wool.
Click to expand...
This is good advice.
Shadow_7 said:
Carpet the walls.
Click to expand...
This is horrible advice.
 
Shadow_7 said:
Carpet the walls. Brick is horrid and not. Hard reflections in room.
Click to expand...

Carpet is the worst advice (I rank it with egg cartons). Brick is OK but you need to tame it. Hang some high-band and broadband absorbers over the brick, try covering about 1/3 of the brick first and increase it if the brick is still too reflective. Add some bass traps to the corners of the room. Carpet will make the room dead, a dead room sucks the life out of the recording and is a horrible place to work in.

The reason the door is expensive is that to build a sound proof door costs money, you need a solid core door with a good frame and good seals.

There are no short cuts but you can make the absorbers yourself to save money.

Cheers
alan
 
Shadow_7 said:
Okay, then blanket the walls.
Click to expand...

Are you just guessing and throwing out "suggestions"? Or are you trying to help someone? Blankets and carpets are bad ideas. They'll just make everything sound like it has a blanket or a carpet over it. They'll cut the highs and mids and do nothing for the bass, which never sounds good. You got a problem with using proper materials?

I record in a garage with just bass traps in the corners and clouds over my drums and listening area. I have cement walls. The "room sound" is not a problem. I'd never do anything as ludicrous as hang carpets or blankets on the walls.
 
c7sus said:
Why not just go ahead and burn the house down and get it over with?
Click to expand...
at least the reflections would be gone ;)
and the low frequency specs on the blanket...

125hz .07 NRC
250hz .32 NRC
500hz *.75 NRC
:(

anyway.......

I swear I already posted a reply to this,hmmmm...

I'd say that with foam, carpet or blankets you will be seriously disappointed with the results. Also a good chance of your “sound” being super muddy and bass heavy, as you remove the higher frequencies with those materials.

1st off I would seriously consider looking at absorption materials that are more broadband. As they will have a more balanced effect on your room reflections.

2nd with all of the furniture in your pictures, Id say keep whatever material you get up above the furniture (kida a no brainer I know)

3rd If the desk goes back-facing to the brick wall, then I would say that you should start treatment on the opposite wall, and the corners of that wall as well.

4th That open space will probably need something to cover that open hallway/other room, to remove coupling effects. Not only that but reflections from the sidewall on the other side will reach your ears while the ones going through the opening will not, and this will throw off your balance/stereo field decision making. I guess you could look for one of those zig-zag folding privacy walls of get freestanding acoustic panels to set in front of the opening while you are working. You wont get this room “air tight” even if you sealed that opening off completely.

Good luck with your setup and I agree that is worth it to have a dedicated desk/workstation for your music productions.)

b
 
I'm sorry, I guess I assumed that you'd have the mic(s) on the same side of the treatment as your sound source.

Point being that you can add room ambiance digitally. Taking it away after the capture is much harder.

I didn't say ONLY carpet or blanket the walls. I didn't say carpet all of the wall(s). Or that those should be the ONLY treatment. Or even that they should be permanently affixed and not modular and movable. For those of us with significantly smaller spaces, ANY reflections are problematic. Especially if you truly have 6' ceilings like the OP hinted towards. That doesn't sound like a normal space to me. Basement? Attic? Yes the other room should sound better since it's bigger. But it's not just the room a lot of the time. If you say live near train tracks, an airport, a military base, or other less than ideal acoustic influences. Is it just a stove, or a full fledge chimney? Thinking bird song, wind turbulence and other bad for the audio if those are NOT sounds of interest. Kind of hard to tell since you've put the fire marshal's worst fears over the "stove" already. If I'm looking at those pictures right.
 
NO amount of carpet should go up on the walls. Period. It won't help the sound. I'm in a garage that also has 6.5' and 7' ceilings. Nothing wrong with a little reflections. As has been mentioned about 4 times in this thread already, the only thing carpeting and blankets (and egg-crates, etc....) will do is kill your high's and high-mids. That makes it worse because now you have nothing but low frequencies flying around.

Forget the carpet and the blankets. Get proper materials and place them properly.
 
I thought that carpets traditionally went on the floor?....
 
The title of this post is simply beautiful....

I was already to come in here and tell you what to think but then I see you typed some long post so I am not going to tell you what to think as it appears you already got good advice - kudos on the thread title tho :)
 
In small spaces the reflections are very strong. Which is problematic. So you've got to do something, what depends on your needs and purposes. Aside from obvious echo issues, you've got a built in comb filtering effect with the reflections mangling the source audio. Perhaps not that big of a deal for drums where the attacks are the point of interest and short lived. But for anything more sustained and with a familiar tone, an issue. Not so much in that it's mangled, but it's mangled inconsistently depending on the pitch(es) involved. Weakening the reflections if only in part is still better than not at all.

But I guess it depends in part of what you're recording in that space. String Bass, or a piccolo flute choir. And the type of mic too I guess. A hyper cardioid mic could suit, given that the primary reflection is blocked by the thing making the sound. But it depends on what you're recording as directional mics don't work well on sources that move around a lot. And if it's mechanically linked to its environment (no shock mount) other issues come into play.
 
Shadow_7 said:
In small spaces the reflections are very strong. Which is problematic. So you've got to do something, what depends on your needs and purposes. Aside from obvious echo issues, you've got a built in comb filtering effect with the reflections mangling the source audio. Perhaps not that big of a deal for drums where the attacks are the point of interest and short lived. But for anything more sustained and with a familiar tone, an issue. Not so much in that it's mangled, but it's mangled inconsistently depending on the pitch(es) involved. Weakening the reflections if only in part is still better than not at all.

But I guess it depends in part of what you're recording in that space. String Bass, or a piccolo flute choir. And the type of mic too I guess. A hyper cardioid mic could suit, given that the primary reflection is blocked by the thing making the sound. But it depends on what you're recording as directional mics don't work well on sources that move around a lot. And if it's mechanically linked to its environment (no shock mount) other issues come into play.
Click to expand...
Hehe....Your posts are always looooong, and I noticed that I always stop reading them about 3 sentences in.

Anyway, I stopped reading this one, too. But just in case you said it again, I'll just repeat this to the OP: Don.t use foam, carpets, blankets or egg crates on your wall.
 
Carpet on the walls is never good. It does nothing but look dumb.
 
RAMI said:
Hehe....Your posts are always looooong, and I noticed that I always stop reading them about 3 sentences in.
Click to expand...

I bet that goes over well with your clients. Your songs are always so long. I press stop 3 seconds in.
 
Shadow_7 said:
I bet that goes over well with your clients. Your songs are always so long. I press stop 3 seconds in.
Click to expand...
I don't have "clients". And judging by some of your "advice", I hope you don't either. Even your short posts make no sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top