Yeah - alot of those a really good suggestions, thanks.
Does anybody know where you buy shipping blankets, or tapestry's ?
Could you elaborate a little more on the homemade box to hide the cables ?
Hi Matt,
Don't think of any of this as me giving you a hard time - this is just what **I** would do if it were my room. It's just constructive criticism. Not ragging ya!
I think they are around $20 each
You can get real packing blankets at
http://www.markertek.com
But that isn't the route I would go.
Personally, here is what I would do:
#1. Take everything out of there - I mean completely empty it.
#2. Get some sheetrock and cover up the open studs.
#3. Paint the room.
I'll let you in on a secret - the top of the line paint at Walmart is Sherwin Williams top of the line paint -Buy it as Sherwin Williams and it's about $30 a gallon, buy it at Walmart as their brand and it is under $15 a gallon - same paint, different label. Wally world is Sherwin Williams biggest customer. (My bass player is a painting contractor, that is how I found that out.)
Make a weekend of it, and make some of your friends help you. If they are recording there, they benefit from the room, so make them help!
Then, once you have the room fixed up and painted. Look at the layout. of the gear in the room - what set up would work best for the band to play in and to record in. personally, I think drums in a corner is a nightmare. I'd put the drumkit front and center, and set it up just like a stage.
Or, after you cover up that closet, put the drumkit in front of the closet facing straight out. - that way the drummer has at least 3' behind him - this trick helps make the drums not sound so "boxy" in recordings. Drums need to be AWAY from the walls.
I'd hang the guitars on the wall in the room somewhere.
Do those PA speakers have tophats in the bottom of them? (A pole mount so you can put them on a speaker pole)
If so, buy a pair of speaker wall mounts from Carvin and mount them on each side of the closet and aim them out into the room.
**Make sure that you have them securely mounted into the studs if you do this**
Move those plastic catch-all containers in that corner into the closet. Basically, move anything that isn't musical out of the room.
You can make a "frame" to cover up the opening of the closet using 2"x2"'s and use 2" L-brackets on the corners. Glue and screw it together - if you need help - ask around, if one of your friends is a carpenter, he can probably put this thing together for you in under an hour.
Hit up Wally World's fabric department, and get some kind of Fabric that compliments the paint color (ask your wife - women , I don't care who they are, have a better eye for this. Or, if you go with Tan or sand color walls, gt some kind of brown fabric - those will match together well) and buy enough of that to stretch over the frame. You'll need a hand staple gun like you would use to put up insulation with. Basically you are just making a kind of "screen" to cover up the front of the closet so people don't see in it. It will just help the room look better.
Hope those help.
The key really IS using what you've got, and have fun!
Tim