Home recording space - basement - improving acoustics?

[mbouteneff]

I would love some advice for improving the acoustics of my basement. I am moving into an apartment with a basement. The room seems to echo a TON. Because I'm only recording acoustic/electric guitar and vocals (I use a bass DI and Sonar & Reason for the rest), insulation shouldn't be as much of an issue as just reducing the bouncing of sounds.

I believe the walls are sheetrock and the floor is cement covered with ceramic tile. Would it be enough to just cover the area with carpet? The space is roughly an "L" Shape with a counter closing one part of the "L", and the dimenensions would be roughly 24' x 24' by 7'1/2" had it been square-shaped. There is a support beam running accross the middle of the main space; at this point, the ceiling is only 6'1/2". Here is a floor plan I drew up:

https://img78.photobucket.com/albums..._Floor_Plan.gif

Thanks for your help!

 

[Bass Master "K"]

I think you will probably need to do some actual tracking in this room to find out exactly what it needs. You might end up lucky and have a room where your "live" sound is actually good. Rather than carpets, I would suggest rugs, which you can roll up if they are not needed. Also, the furnature in the place will have an impact on how resonant the room is as a whole.

A lot of people like hanging rugs that can be moved, or baffling to also help out for rooms that are too live. If you do a search on "acoustics" or "deaden" in this site you will probably get some really good suggestions.

 

[Ronan]

Sounds like a pretty cool space. There is a lot of research you can do by checking out the studio building part of this site. John L Sayers also has a forum just for this stuff.

With out checking out the room my guess is that throwing down a few trow rugs will help a lot and the start deadening the wall and ceiling a bit. I would advice you to stay away from some of the Aurelex stuff. Its expensive and does not work all that well. You will want to be looking for something called Owens Corning 703 which are sheets of compressed fiberglass that do a great job of roping in a rooms reflections.

This is a long discussion that is covered a lot in the building forum.

Good Luck

 

[Todzilla]

Your biggest challenge is the low ceiling height. Without more loft, it's going to be difficult to get a really nice sounding space. Are you renting? or do you own? How much retrofitting are you able to do?

You should consider putting OC703, or OC705 in between the ceiling joists. Leave an airgap behind it. Then just thumbtack up some burlap or groovy tapestry. This will help negate the ceiling height issues.

As for wall treatments, this will depend on your mix position. You should probably go for absorptive treatments with some liveliness behind the mix position.

The bad news about basement studios is:
* low ceilings
* plumbing lines put toilet flushes in the middle of that perfect vocal take
* water proofing woes
* humidity problems

The good new is:
* You usually don't worry much about soundproofing, as most basements are totally, or at least mostly below grade
* You usually don't worry about HVAC, since below grade, temperatures stay constant

Good luck