treating a 13 X 20 room.....

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thajeremy

thajeremy

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Guys...I know this question has probably been asked 1,000,001 times. I dont spend much time in this forum and the search function has not been very helpful to me on this one. I just moved into a new house and now I have a basement to record in rather than taking up two bedrooms like in my old house. I have 2 rooms in the finished basement....one 13 X 13 and one 13 X 20. The smaller one will be where I mix and the larger will be for tracking drums, guitars. Inside the larger room, there are also 2 closets that measure 6 X 4....I think these will make nice vocal booths. My question is about accoustic treatment....do I need absorbers, diffusers, both? I have found an ebay seller with a lot of stuff for pretty good prices....Foam N More, but I am unsure of what exactly I need to buy....here are a few that I have priced and am thinking of purchasing....
Corner Bass absorbers
Corner Bass Absorbers
24X48X2 wedge foam
24X48X1.5 wedge foam

any thoughts???
 
Most likely diffusion isn't in your future. The mix room just isn't big enough to make it work - not to mention all the absorbtion you'll need to deal with the square shape.

Skip the foam - especially that stuff - basically worthless. Plan on OC703 and/or mineral wool. Plan on LOTS of broadband bottom end control in the mix room - like floor to ceiling in all 4 corners just as a start plus a nice 4" slab on the wall behind the mix position.

The other room is more 'friendly'. You'll still need some bottom end control and a bit of general absorbtion but at least you don't have a ton of modal build up issues.

Bryan
 
thanks man....I have seen OC703 on Ebay..but is that the best place to pick it up? And the mineral wool....never heard of using that so where can that be found?
 
thajeremy said:
Guys...I know this question has probably been asked 1,000,001 times. I dont spend much time in this forum and the search function has not been very helpful to me on this one. I just moved into a new house and now I have a basement to record in rather than taking up two bedrooms like in my old house. I have 2 rooms in the finished basement....one 13 X 13 and one 13 X 20. The smaller one will be where I mix and the larger will be for tracking drums, guitars. Inside the larger room, there are also 2 closets that measure 6 X 4....I think these will make nice vocal booths. My question is about accoustic treatment....do I need absorbers, diffusers, both? I have found an ebay seller with a lot of stuff for pretty good prices....Foam N More, but I am unsure of what exactly I need to buy....here are a few that I have priced and am thinking of purchasing....
Corner Bass absorbers
Corner Bass Absorbers
24X48X2 wedge foam
24X48X1.5 wedge foam

any thoughts???
Dude mix in the 13'x20' room. Add bass traps to the corners, and broadband in the first reflection points and covreing the back wall. Both the broadband and bass traps can be made from 4" rigid fiberglass, 703, or mineral wool. Do a search for these in this forum. Brian who first answered your post supplies all the right stuff if you wanna check out his site sensible sound solutions. Check out his acoustical cotton too.
 
pandamonk said:
Dude mix in the 13'x20' room. Add bass traps to the corners, and broadband in the first reflection points and covreing the back wall. Both the broadband and bass traps can be made from 4" rigid fiberglass, 703, or mineral wool. Do a search for these in this forum. Brian who first answered your post supplies all the right stuff if you wanna check out his site sensible sound solutions. Check out his acoustical cotton too.

So you think drums would sound better tracked in the smaller room??? In my other house, I tried to use the larger room for drums.
 
thajeremy said:
Guys...I know this question has probably been asked 1,000,001 times. I dont spend much time in this forum and the search function has not been very helpful to me on this one. I just moved into a new house and now I have a basement to record in rather than taking up two bedrooms like in my old house. I have 2 rooms in the finished basement....one 13 X 13 and one 13 X 20. The smaller one will be where I mix and the larger will be for tracking drums, guitars. Inside the larger room, there are also 2 closets that measure 6 X 4....I think these will make nice vocal booths. My question is about accoustic treatment....do I need absorbers, diffusers, both? I have found an ebay seller with a lot of stuff for pretty good prices....Foam N More, but I am unsure of what exactly I need to buy....here are a few that I have priced and am thinking of purchasing....
Corner Bass absorbers
Corner Bass Absorbers
24X48X2 wedge foam
24X48X1.5 wedge foam

any thoughts???


If you are interested in some raeding this link will give you some very useful info!!


http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html



:) :)
 
13x13 is a nice vocal booth size. Put absorbers (straddle the corner with some 703, then work out from there with some auralex) at least in one corner set the mic three-four feet out from the corner and have the vocalist sing into that corner, well it would go vocalist mic corner. Then use some auralex foam at spot treatments in the rest of the room to get rid of any flutter echo. This room can also be used for guitar amp miking, and such. Big room for drum miking and mixing, sucks when trying to record and hear what you are recording in the same room. But then at the same time, I wouldn't rule out the 13x13 room for mixing just yet, being square sucks though.
 
in my previous house, I had a 13 X 14 room where I tracked drums and a 9.5 X 11 where I mixed...I was very pleased with the results...I have posted several samples in the MP3 mix forum if you want any samples...you would have to search back a couple of months though....I have a band booked to do 12 to 14 songs in 2 weeks and I have some friends comming over to help me between now and then....just need to know what the best arrangement for my equipment is....and I definitly dont want to have the drums tracked in the same room as my DAW.
 
So you think drums would sound better tracked in the smaller room
Not necessarily, but MONITORING in the larger room with the axis on the long dimension will allow you to hear any COMB FILTERING in the smaller room. When monitoring in the small room, reflections off close proximity walls can MASK the ones in the studio, making it impossible to monitor the sonic truth. Hence the long axis allowing the maximum TIME DELAY GAP from the rear wall.
 
thajeremy said:
So you think drums would sound better tracked in the smaller room??? In my other house, I tried to use the larger room for drums.
No, but you'll be able to mix a lot better in a bigger non-square room. :D

Read what rick said ^ for more detail
 
I did a quick drawing of what my recording area looks like....not sure if it will help anything but here it is....

track312studio.jpg
 
thajeremy said:
I did a quick drawing of what my recording area looks like....not sure if it will help anything but here it is....

track312studio.jpg
Thats a nice space you have there.

Using the 13x13 as live room means you could record drums, vox(in a booth), and guitar(amp in booth), at the same time. But if you used the 13x20 for live room, the drums would be too loud for the booths to be used.

Also, you have a bathroom there. Brilliant! Nice natural reverb.

Only problem i can see for the 13x20 room is the doors in all corners. But if you follow ethans advice, on one of his videos, and just place broadband absorbtion on the door and the wall in the corner, and it will act like one straddeling the corner.

And also the 13x20 room has 2 windows which isn't good for isolation, and the 13x13 only has one, which will be easier to treat.
 
Here's what I'd do(treat the drum room a bit too).
 

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pandamonk said:
Only problem i can see for the 13x20 room is the doors in all corners.

this would be a problem on the two doors towards the center. The two doors that lead into the two closets (booths) are about 16 inches from the corners. The one that leads into the hallway and under the steps are only about 2 inches from the corners.

I know you guys have suggested using absorbers...Im assuming you mean OC 703 as mentioned before....where is the best place to pick this stuff up? I have seen it on Ebay but I dont have anything to compare those prices to.
 
pandamonk said:
Dude mix in the 13'x20' room. Add bass traps to the corners, and broadband in the first reflection points and covreing the back wall. Both the broadband and bass traps can be made from 4" rigid fiberglass, 703, or mineral wool. Do a search for these in this forum. Brian who first answered your post supplies all the right stuff if you wanna check out his site sensible sound solutions. Check out his acoustical cotton too.
Check out the site i suggested :D
 
Pandamonk...in the drawing that you adjusted...would all of those panels you suggested be made of the same material? or should I ask if broadbands and bass traps are constructed the same way?
 
Well if you have 2" broadband absorbers, you should atleast get a 4" 703 for bass trapping. I think it's better just to use 4" for all.
 
but what are the differance other than where they are placed? are they constructed the same way?
 
Well, you need thicker materials to absorb bass frequencies since they have larger wavelengths than high frequency wavelengths. yeah you can construct them in the same way. build a frame out of wood, place the fiberglass and wrap the entire thing around with burlap or any breathable material.
 
thajeremy said:
Pandamonk...in the drawing that you adjusted...would all of those panels you suggested be made of the same material? or should I ask if broadbands and bass traps are constructed the same way?
The bass traps I've put are broadband absorbers, just placed at the corners. You might want to make broadband out of 2" and bass out of 4-6" if you need to save money, but I'd do them all 4" if not.
 
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