Room reverb question..PLZ help me

[Elmo89m]

Ive heard a lot about how important room treatment is since ive been here...some say dead is good others say the room should be made to have a certain kind of reverb...I get what a dead room is, but i dont no the difference between good reverb and bad reverb....Im asking this because i will be recording drums in a basement soon...it has a definete echo/reverb thing going on...the walls are painted and the floor is carpeted....its like a 24x10 room with standard ceiling hegith...my question is is this reverb im getting Really bad, kinda of bad, not bad, or good, and if it is bad what should i do?

 

[Dogbreath]

These are just my thoughts on it...but there are some excellent threads in the studio building section.
Some reflection is a good thing. It keeps your sound "alive". The way I set up my room was 50% acoustic foam coverage on the wall behind my drums and some T-111 paneling and spot gobo's on the wall I'd be facing while playing. Here's a pic.
http://www.songramp.com/homepage.ez?Who=keldog&showArticle=yes&article_id=3509

It's kind of an all-in-one room, but it works pretty good. I'm sure the guru's around here have some better stuff for you.

Pics usually work for me. Hope it helps.................

Kel

 

[Ethan Winer]

Elmo,

> i dont no the difference between good reverb and bad reverb <

Very simple. Good reverb is neutral, and has more or less equal energy and decay length at all frequencies. Bad reverb favors some frequencies more than others, and is often accompanied by resonances that further skew the sound. Here's a simple test: Clap your hands in the room loudly and listen carefully to the decay. If you hear a "boing" sound, or anything else having a specific pitch or clearly audible echoes, then that's bad. If you hear just a wash of "haaah" sound with no specific pitch, that's good.

My guess is your basement does not have a very good reverb due to its size and shape. Purpose built reverb chambers have angled walls, and specific dimensions that are not related to each other. The good news is you can improve any room a lot with acoustic treatment.

--Ethan

 

[Elmo89m]

do you think for this specific project beofre i can treat it properly i can get by with doing every other wall with couch cushion sleeping bags, blanks and the triangled bed foam....or will that make it worse?

 

[XLR]

I think ceiling ht is the most crucial factor of your room's size.

Tim

 

[northsiderap]

Grasshoppa

Perhaps the ideal would be to be studious of different room geometries and how they affect sound waves.

Then you could tailor your room sound specifically to your tastes, with the full knowledge of what exactly you are doing.

Google "Acoustics," "Helmholtz," "Standing Waves," and "diy bass traps" for starters.

Or:
1) Corners are bad
2) Parallel walls are bad
3) We love surplus wool blankets and putting nails into our spare bedroom walls (and ceiling)