Hi everyone...can you guys help me with my space?

[Capriccio]

I have just enough room to put a 24" corner bass trap in there

Bass traps in all 4 corners are really a fundamental requirement to taming the bass in any room.

I'm not sure how well everything is going to end up sounding with the garage door there.

The door will vibrate in sympathy with the sound in the room and thus requires extra trapping.

... above the drums ... What would you guys do here?

Investigate the benefit of using 2" of acoustic foam mounted on the ceiling above the drums. 2" of acoustic foam will perform better than 2" of mineral wool and as it is the higher frequencies that are most in need of trapping, acoustic foam might do the job easier and neater than constructing a suspended mineral wool cloud.

That would leave a 6' space between the top of whatever i put up there and the ceiling.

Your room doesn't look that tall. Did you mean 6", not 6'?

 

[35chevy]

Bass traps in all 4 corners are really a fundamental requirement to taming the bass in any room.

I am definately doing all four corners.....that's as far as i've gotten toward coming up with a solid plan.

The door will vibrate in sympathy with the sound in the room and thus requires extra trapping.

I have no idea what to do here...I need ideas.

Investigate the benefit of using 2" of acoustic foam mounted on the ceiling above the drums. 2" of acoustic foam will perform better than 2" of mineral wool and as it is the higher frequencies that are most in need of trapping, acoustic foam might do the job easier and neater than constructing a suspended mineral wool cloud.

jimmys69 also mentioned using auralex over the drums. I guess i'm going to look further into going that route. Now i just have to find out how big of an area has to be covered.Your room doesn't look that tall.

Did you mean 6", not 6'?

I did mean to say 6" nstead of 6'.


Thanks to all of you for your help so far.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Basically, my approach was to create an imaginary line from each side of the drums to the overhead mics. Just controlling high end reflections from the ceiling to the back side of the mic's with 2" foam. My first thought would be to add some mass to the garage door to help stop it from resonating. Setup some freestanding absorbers in front of it. Moveable absorbers would seem beneficial in your situation anyway, for different instruments. Build an adjustable height base for gobo's, on wheels, so you can adjust the treatment for different situations. Just my opinion tho. Best yet would be to get rid of the garage door. Though, what is outside? I would be curious how a room would perform with an open side (garage door open). Is it urban or inner city outside that door?

 

[35chevy]

Making progress

I got rid of the flourescent lighting and I gots me a Lava Lamp! I took this picture with my Iphone and it looks a lot brighter than it actually is. It is quite comfortable now and the light is much more natural than the flourescent lights. I'm pretty happy with it. My next project will be the corner traps, then add some trim work around the A/C and hide it with a curtain, then on to a set of speaker stands. The list goes on...

 

[JimmyS1969]

Lookin good man!

 

[CapacityWKS.]

Hey it's starting to look great!
If I were you, I'd make some Gobo's to surround your drum kit.
It'll help a bit!

 

[35chevy]

Hey guys. It's been a while since I posted here. I havn't had much time to spend with this project in recent months. I guess because of the "life gets in the way" kind of stuff. I'm back on it and I've made some progress and thought I'd share and get some ideas. My wife and I finished up some superchunk corner traps tonight. We made these out of 1x4's that we cut in half, a couple pieces of osb, roxul safe n sound, some black fleece type material, and some trim moulding from the local lumber yard. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

I guess the next thing I'm going to do other than finish the other two corners, is move the monitors off the desk by making some stands or something, and treat the reflection points on the walls and ceiling. My luck, the reflection points will end up right in the middle of the windows. How's it looking to you guys so far?

 

[fetuslasvegas]

Lookin' good, lot's of progress!!! Now go trade those sabians in and get yourself some Paistes!!!

 

[GIK Acoustics]

Looking good! Any plans to get some speaker stands in the future? I would definitely recommend getting them up off your desk if possible. If that isn't a possibility, I might suggest getting some good decoupling under your speakers. The IsoAcoustics stands are really great if you HAVE to use your speakers on a desk - check out their lab testing they've had done on them!

 

[35chevy]

Don't be hating on my sabians...LOL. They will go away eventually.

As far as the speakers, A good friend of mine is a cabinet maker and I talked to him today about helping me with a desk. I'm going to start mydesign for that asap. I'm going to deal with the speaker issue then.

 

[JimmyS1969]

I'm a big fan of cinder blocks for monitor stands No resonance, and totally ghetto. lol

Seriously, that is what I use.

And I have a few crappy Sabians too.

 

[35chevy]

I'm a big fan of cinder blocks for monitor stands No resonance, and totally ghetto. lol

Seriously, that is what I use.

And I have a few crappy Sabians too.

I've seen folks around the web using blocks and it is tempting for me to go that route. A little paint or maybe some fabric to change their identity would help them out some. The room still sounds like a train wreck right now anyway, so what would new cymbals accomplish?

 

[JimmyS1969]

Yep, black spray paint on mine. Makes for good storage shelves for crap too.

New/better cymbals always help. Take care of the room first though. I have B8's that sound decent. Nothing like Paiste's tho...

 

[fetuslasvegas]

Yep, black spray paint on mine. Makes for good storage shelves for crap too.

New/better cymbals always help. Take care of the room first though. I have B8's that sound decent. Nothing like Paiste's tho...

Yeah, deal with the room first, to me sabians especially B8s just sound shitty to put it bluntly... I've used many a symbol, don't buy into the zildgen hype, their splashes and chinas are aight, but, nothing beats paiste's sound, SERIOUSLY!!! Not hating, just the only 2cents I had to toss in, nice spot, I'm jealous.. get it sounding right!!!!

 

[GIK Acoustics]

Yeah, deal with the room first, to me sabians especially B8s just sound shitty to put it bluntly... I've used many a symbol, don't buy into the zildgen hype, their splashes and chinas are aight, but, nothing beats paiste's sound, SERIOUSLY!!! Not hating, just the only 2cents I had to toss in, nice spot, I'm jealous.. get it sounding right!!!!

Zildjian's "real" cymbals are amazing. Their ZXT/ZBT and other "cheaper lines" are *okay* for the money (just like the B8 line), but I agree that the A's and Z's are not nearly as great as they're cracked out to be. However, their upper K line and K customs are truly astounding cymbals.

Otherwise, I agree.

 

[35chevy]

Ok, so I moved the drums to the center of the room. Now I'm kicking around some ideas.

Of course, I am building corner traps just like the other two corners that I did.

I am thinking about building free standing gobos to place in front of the garage door. I'm thinking four 2'x4' panels made with a 1"x4" or maybe 2"x4" frame and filled with 3" safe n sound. Im looking at hinging them together in pairs so that I can fold them and move them out of the way to open the door when needed. Should this be enough treatment for the garage door?

I have a space in the ceiling above the drums where the ceiling is raised so the garage door will open. This space is raised 6" above the rest of the ceiling and is 8' from the floor. My idea is to build a frame from 2x4's that will span across this opening. I'm thinking three 2'x4' panels of 3" safe n sound will do. This will give me three 3" panels above the drums with a 6" space between the panels and the ceiling. This will allow the door to still be able to open between the panels and the ceiling. Is this enough above the drums?

Don't be afraid to tell me if I need to scratch the whole project LOL. That's why I'm here.

 

[GIK Acoustics]

I think your idea should work good!

That is, as long as you aren't trying to isolate from your neighbors!

 

[35chevy]

The neighbors are no problem, fortunately.

Anybody think I should make any changes to this plan before I commit to it?

 

[paddedcell]

This is looking pretty sharp to me! I sure wish I had that much room to work with.

You mention that you're going to be changing your mixing desk configuration, so all I'll note is that you should definitely try to isolate your monitors from whatever surface they're sitting on. Lots of ways to do it. I have my (rather small) monitors sitting on large coffee cans filled with sand, with a layer of 1/2" sound-deadening felt between the can and the monitor. I noticed the difference in bass response immediately, and again when I got my bass traps installed. One thing you might want to consider, once you've got the new mixing desk, is to hang a "cloud" over the desk to kill any potential reflection from the monitors. (I'm still trying to figure out how to do that in my studio). It's little stuff, but it sure makes a difference.

Keep posting the occasional pic -- it's interesting to watch this develop.

 

[paddedcell]

Vocals are best recorded just off center of the room IME. I hang two 2'X4'X4" rockwool panels from the ceiling, in a 'V' behind the mic, with a panel on wall behind singer, to stop reflections off the walls.

That's a great idea! My studio is starting out as a control room, and everything has to be done in there. It's 7' by 9' with a 7' ceiling. In recording vocals I definitely get a "room sound" which is OK on some stuff, but not OK in a general sense. I'm going to try your technique with "hanging gobos" to see if I can kill the room reflections.

I love this site. . .