Problems with vibrations transmitted by the floor

[w6vms]

Greetings,

I used to own a house on a concrete slab. To record my daughter playing a grand piano, I'd set two mics on stands, with the shock mounts, aimed at the soundboard. It worked great, we were very pleased with the results.

Last falll, we moved to a house with a crawlspace, and since then, I haven't had much luck with getting good recordings. The main issue is the floor... the previous one was solid (hardwood over the concrete), vibrations were never an issue. Now we have hardwood above the crawl space, and the mics are picking up just about every vibration... the fridge, the air conditioner, people walking around, etc. Turning off the a/c and the fridge is not really practical (particularly in the summer!). I can deal with people's steps, we're a small family and we can hold still while recording...

I've experimented putting rugs under the stands, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Ideas on how to deal with this would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

-jav

 

[BigRay]

if youve got the coin, the enhanced audio m600 shockmounts are the @)(#)@(#)@(#)(@ for stopping vibrations, and the difference between them and a regular mount is like night and day.

 

[Gamelan]

A hardwood floor is basically a big sound board and amplifies everything. Try to make sure unwanted sounds don't reach the floor in the first place. See if there is a way to rubber mount the air conditioner, rubber feet under the fridge would probably help too. Closed cell foam (the white kind) is useful to put underneath the mic stands for more isolation. I have both hardwood floor over crawlspace and concrete slab recording environments in my home studio and each is good for different things. The biggest problem I found with hardwood floors, other than footsteps, is that any sound underneath the house comes right up through the floor, because it's just a thin layer of wood and not much of a barrier. This can be reduced by baffling under the house, sectioning off the area underneath where you record so foreign sounds don't get in the crawl space. You can also "mute" the floorboards by cramming insulation between the joists under the floor. Or go all out and finish the underside of the joists with a sheet of plywood spanning the area and seal the whole thing.

 

[musicstew]

I completely agree with BigRay, shock-mounts will help quite a bit.
Other options will be more expensive unless you have another room.

-Stew

 

[Dani Pace]

If your mic cables are long enough you can try hanging the mics from the celing. You can spend the bucks for mic holders designed for this purpose, modify existing stands to do the job, or just put a few hooks in the celing and hang the mics from them. If you use hooks in the celing, don't hang the mics from their cables, use stretchy cord, bungees, or (my favorite) huge rubber bands. A second hook with the mic cable draped over it helps keep the mic pointed where you want it.