D
dquarles
New member
Hi all,
I'd like some advice, as I am beginning the process of modifying my band's new rehearsal space and we are already tracking here at least occasionally. That is, we record every live practice to 8 channels (stereo OHs, bass DI, vocals DI, & snare, kick, 2 guitars close-miked), and occasionally tracking individually. When we are attempting to get decent recordings, we'll track drums and bass together in my living room then move over to the warehouse for guitars, vocals and overdubs. This is sounding pretty great so far.
View attachment 62978
View attachment 62979
View attachment 62980
I've drawn our warehouse space using Google SketchUp, as you can see. For clarification, the dimensions of the warehouse are 12x12x30. The roof slopes upward, though, from roughly 11'6" at the entrance to 12' in the middle. The wall we've built cuts off about 4', reducing the effective dimensions to 12x12x26. The lofts are about 8 feet high; the "desk" is about 4 feet high. As of now we are only really using about 15 feet of the length, so there is definitely room to alter the space a bit. Oh, and the nearest band is 3 bays away, at least for now.
What I am concerned about is the eq response of this room both for rehearsal and mixing purposes (mainly mixing). As of now, I have our monitors positioned in the corners on the back, metal wall, facing inward at about a 30-degree angle, and I try to sit about 8-9 feet back from the monitors. It sounds generally weird / muddy, though, which sucks when I am making adjustments between takes that sound terrible when I get home. All of the loft panels (4x8), are attached with chains and easily taken down. The makeshift-desk in the back could easily be removed too. We want to keep at least the long back panel up for storage, which is 4x12. This would leave us four 4x8 panels and a 5x8 desk, if we pulled everything down. I'd like to put these panels to some sort of great use, like a vocal booth to allow for tracking when other bands in the complex are practicing, or smaller iso boxes for guitars so we could all track live with zero bleed. I have 20 1x1 squares of acoustic foam waiting for good use; carpet and other fabric I can generally find by keeping an eye on the craigslist free section and while driving around town. Beyond that, I don't really want to put more than another $100 into this space, so we are pretty limited.
I'm fairly new to recording, and while I've read a little bit about room treatment and the math behind ideal dimensions / eq response, I'm no expert. The sound of the room is definitely my primary goal. If we happen to construct something cool and useful in the process... that's awesome, but not necessary. I'm open to any advice on what to do with this space, and I have free time (for once) this week, so the sooner the better.
Thank you!
I'd like some advice, as I am beginning the process of modifying my band's new rehearsal space and we are already tracking here at least occasionally. That is, we record every live practice to 8 channels (stereo OHs, bass DI, vocals DI, & snare, kick, 2 guitars close-miked), and occasionally tracking individually. When we are attempting to get decent recordings, we'll track drums and bass together in my living room then move over to the warehouse for guitars, vocals and overdubs. This is sounding pretty great so far.
View attachment 62978
View attachment 62979
View attachment 62980
I've drawn our warehouse space using Google SketchUp, as you can see. For clarification, the dimensions of the warehouse are 12x12x30. The roof slopes upward, though, from roughly 11'6" at the entrance to 12' in the middle. The wall we've built cuts off about 4', reducing the effective dimensions to 12x12x26. The lofts are about 8 feet high; the "desk" is about 4 feet high. As of now we are only really using about 15 feet of the length, so there is definitely room to alter the space a bit. Oh, and the nearest band is 3 bays away, at least for now.
What I am concerned about is the eq response of this room both for rehearsal and mixing purposes (mainly mixing). As of now, I have our monitors positioned in the corners on the back, metal wall, facing inward at about a 30-degree angle, and I try to sit about 8-9 feet back from the monitors. It sounds generally weird / muddy, though, which sucks when I am making adjustments between takes that sound terrible when I get home. All of the loft panels (4x8), are attached with chains and easily taken down. The makeshift-desk in the back could easily be removed too. We want to keep at least the long back panel up for storage, which is 4x12. This would leave us four 4x8 panels and a 5x8 desk, if we pulled everything down. I'd like to put these panels to some sort of great use, like a vocal booth to allow for tracking when other bands in the complex are practicing, or smaller iso boxes for guitars so we could all track live with zero bleed. I have 20 1x1 squares of acoustic foam waiting for good use; carpet and other fabric I can generally find by keeping an eye on the craigslist free section and while driving around town. Beyond that, I don't really want to put more than another $100 into this space, so we are pretty limited.
I'm fairly new to recording, and while I've read a little bit about room treatment and the math behind ideal dimensions / eq response, I'm no expert. The sound of the room is definitely my primary goal. If we happen to construct something cool and useful in the process... that's awesome, but not necessary. I'm open to any advice on what to do with this space, and I have free time (for once) this week, so the sooner the better.
Thank you!
