Room Acoustics Problems

J

JC Lives

New member
I have a question for anyone that might be able to help.

I have a problem recording my hammered dulcimer in my studio. The harmonics on this beast are very hard to control and don't mix to well in my room.

The question I have is: do you think I would have better luck moving to a corner to record as to doing it in the middle of the room.

My thought process in asking this question is that maybe if I am closer to the walls, the ambience would be less noticable.

Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Joe
 
Thanks for the reply c7sus. I am using an AKG c4000 b. I typically place it about 1.5 to 2 feet above the instrument facing it down at about a 65 degree angle.

I kind of like your idea about the blanket, but will have to come up with something other than a boom stand though since I only have 2 and one of them is being used for the mic. Also should I use a heavier blanket and the way you described setting it up, does it need to be covered on the top as well as the sides.

Thanks for the help
Joe
 
DUH

As I was clicking on the submit button on my previous post I realized what you said about having my back to the opening. Am I correct in assuming that this setup should be behind me as aposed to around the instrument.
 
I think I got it c7. If I understand, I create my tent, place the dulcimer inside the tent and I stand outside.

I will also try the different mic positions that you suggested. I have tried various positions but still have problems.

Thanks for your help
 
An idea from my better half

When I got home last night, I explained to my wife what I wanted to try and accomplish. She totaly amazed me and came up with a good idea. I have an 8 x 4 peice 1/4" plywood sitting in my basement. I am going to cut it in half to make 2 panals and cover them with batting and material. I will then come up with a way of hanging them on the wall when I need them and take them down when I am not. I can use this for recording vocals as well. I have a corner in my room (the only corner) where i can hang them. I think that this will be a great imporvement. Now all I need to do is get myself to do it. With the drive I have had lately to start getting some better sound, I don't think it will take me to long.

If anyone has any thoughts of whether this will work or not, please let me know.

Peace
Joe
 
Careful

Hey dude, Hope no person of the female persuation reads this and gives you a hard time. TE HE TE HE
 
That's a good idea ...

another thing you could do is get some hinges and make gobos that could be moved to where you want them in the room. I have two that I use a lot to make a little vocal booth and to set up in front of the drums to break the reflection from the opposite wall. They work pretty well. Mine, actually, came from a hi-fi store ... but I always thought it'd be easy to make more out of plywood, hinges, batting and fabric. Well, it's a thought, anyway.
Here's a pic of what I have:
gobo2.jpg


BTW ... if you want to see some great studios to get more ideas ... check out Brian and John's Studio's Under Construction web page. There's lots of home/pro studio pics there.

[Edited by BigKahuna on 01-25-2001 at 17:55]
 
hmmm ... My eyes must be going because I swear I did that image deal right. It looks right accoding to the vb page.
aww ...screw it ... here's a link to the pic.
 
Hey BigKahuna,

What is the size of those things. They look pretty cool. One thing that I will need to do is make them a little wider due to my hammered dulcimer being about 3' wide. What you have is the concept I was thinging of but wasn't sure on what size to make. Also it looks like there is some kind of frame around the edges. Could you take a moment and kind of describe the construction.

Thanks for the post.

Happy recoding, Joe
 
Each panel is 1'8" x 6'
They're held together with three small hinges. The hinge edge is cut at a 45º angle so that you can "close" the panels to a full 90º angle if you want.
The batting is completely wrapped in black fabric and then attached by two long plastic pieces that run the height of each panel. Actually, each panel has a 1/8" groove routed into it that the fabric is shoved into .. and these plastic things are hammered into the same grove over that. I think you could probably instead fasten the fabric/batting to the panels by nailing a quarter-round or other simple wood trim piece .. run it the height of the panel, nailing every 6" or so. To ensure that the fabric/batting is secure, you could also staple it on first and then put these trim pieces on.
The other side of these gobos have a reflective laminate material on it ... kinda like counter top. If you wanted a reflective side, you could probably find some remnant laminate at a hardware store and glue it on with rubber cement.
Anyway, hope that helps!
Good luck.
 
You out did yourself there BIGK. You have helped me out greatly and it is very much appreciated. once I am done with them I will let you know how they turned out. Thanks again

Peace
Joe
 
A sort of baffle, if you will . . .

Joe,

I don't know how much it would cost to do this type of thing, but I saw the plans for this in a book I bought about home recording. It's basically what you guys are talking about, but a freestanding version. Create a frame with wood about 6 feet tall and four feet wide. The width of the wood should be about 6-8 inches and it should be some pretty thick wood. Stretch canvas or some other heavy material over the front of the frame. Now you fill the inside of the box with some type of acoustic insulation like fiberglass or something of that sort. Then you stretch canvas on the other side of the box and you've got yourself a baffle. They're pretty big, and I'd imagine that they absorb a pretty good amount of sound. If you want me to scan and email you the plans, I can do that for you. Just drop me an email. :)

Also, you might consider this. I don't know what kind of room you're working with here, but you did say that there was one corner in the room. Well, think about putting up some curtain rods in the corner of the room. Attach them to the wall at the ends, then suspend the other ends from the ceiling. This should make a square or rectangle in the corner of the room with two sides being the wall and two sides being the blankets. From that you can hang bedspreads, blankets, etc thus creating your "tent" without having to build those baffles. This should also make a pretty good acoustically dead area in the room.

--Tax :D
 
It's in the works

Yo Taxman,

I have alreay started building my unit. It is going to be very close to what you suggest. I took a 4 X 8 peice of plywood and cut it in half. I then attached 6' legs to it and added some horizontal brasing. I attatched the 2 peices with some hinges so that they can be placed in a corner as well as closed up for moving or storage. The only thing different is that I am going to attach carpeting to the panels instead of batting and fabric. There are two reasons for that choice. The first being it will be alot easier. The second is that I already have the carpeting. I already had all the material to build this with the exception of the hinges, some screws, and I also bought some corner molding to put around the outside frame (for cosmetic and stability reasons).

When I am done (hopefully this weekend), I will try to somehow get a picture of it that can be emailed to anyone that may want to take a look at it. Getting the picture in email format might be difficult due to not knowing anyone with a digital camera. I might know someone with a scanner though.

I am realy excited to get this done and get back to doing some recording. Hopefully, this will be the answer to alot of my problems. Thanks all, for the help.

Joe
 
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