HELP! Questions about building a quasi-studio on a small budget.

[clazymike]

Hi--

I had some very basic questions about building a quasi-studio on an extrememly small budget and I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions.

Now, I'm a poor and broke college student with very little funds to work with, so I'm going to need very cost-efficient solutions to create my quasi-studio. The reason I call it a quasi-studio is because I'm going to be a college sophomore next year, and I'll basically be doing all the recording in my dorm room.

I would like to isolate the sound in a corner of my room. The way I thought of doing is to find a heavy curtain and some mounting brackets and mount the curtain on the cieling, so that the person recording can just pull the curtain around to enclose themselves (a la a shower curtain). I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but does anyone have any thoughts on that? Would anyone perchance know where I could but some really cheap curtain?

How about if anyone has any other suggestions for me to try? Again, I would like to remind you that I'm pretty strapped for cash, so a cheap solution for me is a good solution. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me!

Michael

 

[Track Rat]

For a dorm room, a heavy curtain sounds fine. If you can, get a hold of as many moving blankets as you can. They always come in handy.

 

[frederic]

I would agree with TrackRat, in that blankets would be your ticket.

Large nails, thick blankets and you're good to go. Don't forget to wad a few of the blankets in the back corners (behind you) to act as bass traps. They be fugly, but it does work fairly well. Good luck!

 

[clazymike]

Would anyone happen to know where to buy some really inexpensive heavy curtain?

 

[frederic]

Would anyone happen to know where to buy some really inexpensive heavy curtain?

Salvation Army.
K-Mart.
Macy's when they have a sale.

You can also buy thick fabric at a fabric store, and staple it to the moulding at the top of the room (assuming you have moulding). If there is no moulding, slap up a furring strip

 

[ola]

We used to buy lots of "engine blankets" at an army surplus. They were about 8'x5' and really dense. Cost a buck or so each and you could almos always find unused ones.