I think my room sucks?

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sirslurpee

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Okay so, I took my drums over to someones house to try out for a band yesterday (I made the cut, and it's definately a good band, so I'm excited, anyway..) and we set everything up in the basement. Honestly, I was real surprized, but everything sounded AMAZING in this kids basement. Now, I usually have my stuff set up in the attic of an old horse barn, refinished of course. The floor is hard wood with a pretty big rug over most of it, the ceilings are angled so it comes up like /¯¯\ that. The very top part is not covered, it's just plywood, and the rest of the walls are covered except one with carpet. The ceiling is about 10ft high in the middle, and at the lowest spot on the sides, prolly 4 foot high. There's some stuff up there (a mini fridge, a P.A., A coutch, chair, TV, Guitar amp, V-drums, Computer, bongos/congas, etc)
and my drums don't sound anything near like they did in this kids basement. Is there anything I can do to the room before I record to kind of prep it to sound better? And also, will the drums sound better recorded in the basement than they will in my 'studio'?
 
All your questions about how your kit sounds in a live sounding basement (with concrete walls, I'm assuming) vs. a more dampened room sound is really subjective to what style of music (or acutally, tempo) you're playing or recording.

Usually, if you're playing rock at mid-tempo, the liver, more reverberate rooms seem to sound better overall for the kit both played and recorded. If you're playing speed metal or really uptemp material, then you need a more deadened space and/or closer miking for recording to get more prescision. I just found this out today trying to track to a song.

The only way to find out which one sounds better is to actually record in both your loft and basement if you really want to know the answer and to take note of what you like/dislike of either recording environ. Go off of these likes/dislikes to apply what is needed for the context of the song(s) you will be recording. You are your own engineer, so really, you're not going to get a definitive answer to such an abstract question up here.

I've made some outstanding recordings in a very "live" sounding basement utilizing room mics before but certain song tempos and "feel" call for differeing miking techniques so there is no right way to do this stuff since it's all subjective to many different variables. You just need to know how to get a particular sound out of your drums that the context of the songs call for.
 
I heard something about mirrors to help with sound...is this actually something people do?
 
mjm620 said:
I heard something about mirrors to help with sound...is this actually something people do?
Click to expand...


The mirror thing is from a technique to set up your studio monitors or a mastering suite . This is an excerpt from

http://arts.ucsc.edu/ems/music/tech_background/TE-14/teces_14.html


The speakers wound up eight feet apart. This placed the "sweet spot" eight feet from the wall along the center line of the room. This in turn dictated the location of the mixing board and other equipment. Once the equipment was set in place, we checked for reflective phase interference from the console or cabinet tops. This can be tested with a mirror and a flashlight. Set the mirror on the console and hold the flashlight by your ear aimed at the mirror. If the light beam falls on or near the speakers there is a potential reflection problem. This can usually be fixed by propping up the back of the board.
Click to expand...

or

The three-to-one ratio only applies to surfaces that reflect sound to you. The eaiest way to find out which surfaces are reflecting sound to you involves using a mirror. Sit in the mix position. Have a friend move a mirror around on reflective surfaces and make note where you could see the monitor in the mirror. The idea is that if the monitor can reflect light to you from this angle, it can also reflect sound. The most important areas to check are walls, ceilings, floors and table tops. If the distance between the monitor, the offending reflective surface and your ear is less than three times the direct distance between the monitor and your ear, treat the surface.
 
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