My music room acoustics suck - so what do I do?

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drewboy

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Hi folks, this is a kind of newbie question I guess, but I'd like to hear what people think. I have a computer dedicated as a DAW, and record through a Tascam US-428. I'm guessing my music room is maybe 25' by 20', give or take, with a 10' ceiling. I have 2 computers running in there. My music computer has 3 fans in it, which I thought was great at the time I set it up so I can run the fastest and hottest processors. But all this stuff is damn noisy, and I don't really have an option of getting very far away from it. I was hoping to get some ideas from people for sound baffles, or in general how people recording in their homes deal with it.

As people here say over and over again, once you get a decent mic the room contributions are more and more noticable. I have a SP C1, and recently got a pair of MXL 603s's. I tried to record some acoustic guitar with these in X-Y configuration, going through a bluetube pre. Aside from the preamp noise (which can be significant if not careful) the room/fan noise is pretty ugly. Picking up that high frequency detail and rejecting computer/fan noise is tough.

I have a Joemeek VC6Q that I use for vocals, and with the SP C1 I've had a moderate amount of success by getting as far away as possible and exploiting the directionality of the mic, but those 603's seem to pick up everything. I've been pretty excited to purchase an ECM8000 and experiment around with it, but concluded that if I don't solve this issue there's probably no point.

Thanks in advance,

Drewboy
 
The only way I've been able to deal with the space I had, which is conciderably smaller than what you have to work with, 12'X27', was to build a controll room to house the gear and have a tracking room that was well insulated acousticlly. I went with a 10'X12' controll room and a 12'X16' tracking room(the wall that separates the two is a foot thick). Looking back, I would've laid it out a little differently by angling the walls and such, but still would've had to have a controll room. Check out John Sayer's web site. Lots of insight there to help you make some informed decisions on studio layout.
 
Did you see the posts in the 'computor and soundcard' forum?
Your right, it doesn't mix well with quiet recording, or probably with mixing for that matter.
 
They make little ISO booths you can buy to house your computer.
 
OK I'll bite. Where is the "computer and sound card" forum? Couldn't find it here. Those iso booths for PC's sound interesting - is there a particular company to recommend? I would be a little wary about hampering the air flow and overheating the computer.

Yeah, the major home construction option is one I am looking at, but trying to avoid. I was kind of hoping that someone would recommend a roll-in isolation panel or something that I could use to effectively isolate a part of the room. There's never an easy answer I know, but I was hoping to hear from people what they are actually using and what seemed to help them out the most.

I'm actually curious: can someone venture a guess on how many people on this board are using a PC to record with? Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I would have thought this to be a fairly high percentage. Probably a good poll question for the "Rack" forum.

Thanks for the replies,

Drewboy
 
quiet fans

I know you can buy relatively quiet fans for your computer. I'm considering this myself, mine's a beast.

-Sal
 
Great links SalJustSal, lots of useful info there. Now I know where the computer and sound card forum is! I checked out that iso cabinet Michael, it looks like a pretty solid piece of furniture, but wow - $799 for 19dB of attenuation. That's about what it cost me to build up my computer. I may go the fan route first and see where that gets me with a couple of new $20 fans. Always nice to hear that we are not alone!

Thanks again, happy recording to all

Drewboy
 
I've seen them them for a lot cheaper, I just can't remember where. I'm sure if you shopped around, you could find something for around 100 bucks, Or, you could probably make one pretty cheap too.
 
I just stuck my 1.4 AMD in the closet and ran the cables under the door. Made a world of difference. The only problem now is I can hear the monitors buzzing....
 
1) Close micing - get as close as you can to the sound source.

2) Hypercardiod patterns. Mics with this type of pattern will reject a lot of the unwanted room noise you are refering to. STAY AWAY from omnidirectional mics and patterns.

3) Blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, baffles.
 
The desk I use for my DAW is a really cheap drawing desk made for art and stuff. The shelf area on the side near the floor is made of some thin painted metal (where I keep the PC). When I first powered the thing on I was like "Dang this thing is noisy" but so far I havent used it for anything serious and all the recording i've done on it has been direct. no mics in the same room yet.

One time just out of curiosity I took the PC out of the desk and onto a padded card table. I powered it on and suddenly it didnt sound nearly as loud. The metal frame of my desk seems to amplify the sound of my PC to nearly double its actual volume. All I can say is before you spend your money make sure whatever is in contact with your PC isnt enhancing the vibration of the fans and hard disks. Its suprising what your furniture may be doing to your sound.
 
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