General Recording Question regarding different rooms

Nola

Nola

Well-known member
Hey guys, so I'm at my inlaw's cabin and about to start recording.

My two choices for a room:

1. Upstairs room has 12 to 13ft ceilings and sounds reverby. Walls are all wood, but there's a brick fireplace and windows that give some reflection. Floors are all wood except for a few rugs around the living room.

2. Downstairs room is a finished "basement" (i say this because it's not totally underground, with about a foot or two of the ceiling above ground). Ceilings are lower, about 8ft, all wood walls but floor is carpet. The room is much more dead sounding. It's not totally dead, but it's not reverby.

So my question is this: which room would be best for (electric) guitar and which for vocal? I was thinking to record the guitars downstairs in the dead room and the vocals upstairs in the lively room. Is that how you'd do it? I don't have time to test every location unfortunately and need to get to work recording tomorrow, so just a general guideline on which room would be best for each. Thanks!
 
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As usual, I'd say gobo's/fiber panels, enough to section off and control how much room tone gets into the mic.
The upstairs, with it's higher ceilings let in in controlled amounts, could be useful - Really, it depends, on the room, the sound you're going for.
But having the means to go 'dryer- or not as needed allows you the choice.

add.. When the room tone isn't working (which is quite likely/often in our 'home brew situations, we try to minimize it as best we can. There in lies the rub. It's the low- and low mid ranges that are harder to control. I.e. 'boomy resonant notes down there.
 
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The upstairs sounds like it would be more fun, but try them both. Close miked amps are tolerant of room problems, just don't put them too close to a wall or point them right at something reflective. I'd be more interested to learn how the vocals sound in that upstairs room. If it were me, I'd start there. I want to hear that old Fender turned up!
 
You can always add room, but you can't remove it.
Use your limited time to track, not get in over your head with a room you can't control and find yourself back here asking more questions.
 
fat_fleet said:
You can always add room, but you can't remove it.
Use your limited time to track, not get in over your head with a room you can't control and find yourself back here asking more questions.
Click to expand...

^^^ Yup. You're close-miking your amp, so the room should not be an issue either way, but for vocals, unwanted/uncontrolled reflections are seldom good.
 
Thanks, dudes. Yeah Robus, I want to hear this thing, too. In about 10 minutes!
The basement has a cement floor, then a raised floor made of some kind of plastic to keep moisture out, then carpeting over that. Weird. The room sounds a tiny bit "boxy" but pretty good and not totally dead. The upstairs is a really nice room, but as flat feet says you can't undo reverb. It's a good problem to have, though, because these rooms kill what I was dealing with at my place. My in-laws are still here and just leaving now, and I only have a week or so to get everything done (12 songs), so I didn't want to spend any of that valuable time lugging the gear up and down stairs and doing tests. Maybe I'll have to, but at least now I'm more informed if I don't, so thanks.
 
I would at least try the big room...and in a pinch, hang some quilts/blankets over the windows or at a few spots of the room to tame a bit of the reverb, and don't just close-mic everything. Pull the mic back 1-2 feet from the cabs...let some of the room come into them.

You can always record "dead" if that's your goal...so here you have an option to try something different, and to learn how to work with it.
 
thanks, miroslav. good advice.
i wound up using the downstairs room. it sounds pretty good.
 
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