Conservatory recording?

[TelePaul]

The biggest and only real 'free' room in my house is a 20 x 12 conservatory; glass roof and one of the 20s is also largely glass. It has a wooden floor. Am I kidding myself thinking I can get good sounds in this kind of environment?

 

[TelePaul]

B.u.m.p.i.n.g.

 

[mshilarious]

I would think that you could get a lot of good sounds out of that room. However, I am not sure that you would want that sound all the time. If you are careful with positioning and mic placement, and build yourself a few portable absorbers, that should help in maximizing the number of different sounds you can get from the room.

 

[Nightfire]

You'd get that cool "live in 1977" sound, kinda Bryan Adams-ish. Like already mentioned, I wouldnt want that kinda vibe for all songs.


Mike

 

[TexRoadkill]

You are in the room and you want us to tell you how it sounds?

 

[danny.guitar]

I'd kill for a room that big, not to mention with a wood floor. That'd be good for acoustic instruments.

I'd do what mshilarious said and get some portable absorbers and set them up when you record to tame reflections.

You can buy panels real cheap here:
http://www.atsacoustics.com/cat--ATS-Acoustic-Panels--100.html

Then maybe hammer a couple 'feet' to the bottom of them so you can stand them up and move em around.

 

[gummblefish]

I did all my first 4 track recordings in a conservatory of similar dimensions and they were pretty good. I would recommend using dynamic mics though as opposed to condensers, you might get quite alot of reverb and sounds from outside. Birds chirping and the like can sometimes be great...Aeroplanes and cars not so great. Also when it rains you are pretty shafted, unless you want the intro to 'Riders on the storm' all over your mic. Sometimes you can get a real nice quality from conservatory recordings. Obviously its not an ideal 'controlled' environment but you can achieve nice natural reverb sounds. Recordings in my conservatory are always very thin with not much bass support.