livening up dead live room for drums!

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TimG

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hi there. not sure if i've posted on here before, but i read this forum quite often... so, hello :)

i run a small studio in manchester (UK), mainly recording punk, ska, rock .. guitar based stuff.
my live room is small (about 3.5x5m), but very dead... i have thick matress foam all over the walls. its done a great job at killing most frequencies and is great for vocals, guitars, brass etc.. but i'm not too happy with the sound of drums.. particulary the overheads. i have a lexicon verb unit which is great for putting some ambience back on snare and toms but i'm still lusting after a better overhead sound.

the thing is i have recorded in small live rooms before and got a fairly decent sound of them drum wise, so i know it can be done.

i was building some 'reflectors' or something which i can stand up and move in and out of the room when needs be.

has anyone attempted something like this before? would a couple of big sheets of wood do the trick? or are there better materials i could get for reflecting high frequencies to liven up the cymbals?

cheers
tim
 
Buy some poster frames and hang 'em on the walls. What's the flooring?
 
The problem with a small room is that the reverb it will generate will not be great. Experiment with the position of the drums and the overheads.

Many people here will suggest using a wood floor. If you don't have one you can lay down a sheet of plywood.

This leads to my own question, why do I always see drums being put on a rug is that just so they dont slide? If so is there anything that plywood could be coated with to prevent that problem.
 
Canobliss said:
This leads to my own question, why do I always see drums being put on a rug is that just so they dont slide? If so is there anything that plywood could be coated with to prevent that problem.
Click to expand...

Yes, but a small rug on a wood floor doesn't make a big difference.
 
If by any long shot you have an adjacent area near the room or another room that's even remotely loud or "roomy", put a mic in that room. Mix it in with the dry tracks later. A friend and I discovered that if a large diaphram condenser was put in an adjacent concrete room for drum tracks, the results when mixed were absolutely incredible. No reverb beats the real thing.
 
thanks guys..

i'll look into poster frames.
the floor is carpeted but wooden underneath..
the ceiling is low but is also heavily foamed.

hmmm....

hmmm... mic outside the room.. might work. but then i'd have leakage into my control room

what do people think about big boards of wood placed at angles either side of the kit?
 
There used to be a company that made risers for drums...and they strapped the stands and drums all down (via these heavy duty straps) and then nothing would move at all. What you could do, is build a riser and make some holes for some straps and tie everything down. Or get some sand bags... I did that for a couple gigs, they work, kind of look bad, but hey... when your tracking drums it doesnt really matter on the look right? :D
 
Yeah the carpet under drums is to keep them from sliding.

I have a fairly large live room (29 X 16 feet) so I don't have too many issues with not being able to get it sounding good. I actually prefer a pretty neutral room, unless I'm going for a specific effect.

If you're looking to liven up the room just take down the foam from the ceiling and make the walls bare. How are the cushions and foam attached? Can you take them down easily?
 
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