wooden v.s carpeted flooring

[Btyre2013]

I am considering ripping out the carpet in my studio...

is this a good idea?

more importantly will it improve the sound?

 

[miroslav]

I think much is made of this in the home rec world....when IMO, it applies more in the big space, studio world.
I love the look of the all-wood floor, but I have 2/3 carpet and 1/3 wood only at my mix position because it lets me roll my chair easier.

I think in a smaller space, you have to be careful about reflections as it is, so if you go all wood floor, you probably have to compensate with much more trapping and ceiling absorptoin...and you often end up tossing Indian rugs on the wood floor anyway... ....which is really great looking, but I think it comes down more the aesthetics at that point.

I've toyed with the idea of ripping out all the carpet in my studio, including the 1/3 wood flooring I put in, and then dropping a new hardwood floor on the whole thing...but again, more for the look than the sound.
If you have a very tall ceiling (like up in th 14+ foot range...then you can start talking about the "sound" of a nice live room...but with typical 8'-10' home ceilings....mmmmmmm...YMMV....

I have one room in my house that has a vaulted 14' ceiling and all wood floor....and it does have that live sound...but I would only use that for tracking some thing (like acoustic or a piano, maybe some vocals)...otherwise there's too much of that live "clack" for recording other things or for mixing.

 

[RAMI]

I think the simple, quick answer is that a hard floor is better than a carpeted one. But, like Miro says, you then have to make sure you have proper and enough trapping.

But if you do have proper trapping, everything I've read tells me that a hard wood (or cement, etc...) floor is ideally what you want in your studio.

I've also toyed with the idea of ripping out the carpets and putting a wood floor. But then I think of un-plugging and moving everything and I dread the thought of it. Maybe one day I'll take the plunge, though.

 

[miroslav]

I've also toyed with the idea of ripping out the carpets and putting a wood floor. But then I think of un-plugging and moving everything and I dread the thought of it. Maybe one day I'll take the plunge, though.

I've spent a few hours considering how I could move my racks/console without having to remove them from the room while I put down wood flooring.
The nice thing is that those big items are all on wheels...so if I ever get to the wood floor, I figure I could empty out the one side of all the smaller stuff...amps, drums, etc....start the wood floor there, and then when I get to the racks and console side, I can move them a few feet one at a time and lay the floor in those sections....like a jigsaw puzzle...but at this point I'm not touching a thing. I mean, the sound is good, and I'm not going to gain "world class sound" by dropping in a wood floor....it would just look world class.

It would have been the right thing to do when I first moved in before the studio filled up.
So much for hindsight...

I guess my point was that the wood floor should already be there BEFORE you start working on the acoustic treatment.
Putting one in after the fact means you then have to revisit all that shit all over again, and if you had a decent sounding space, you then have to reacquaint yourself with it and maybe spend more time/effort/money to redo the treatments to take the wood floor into account....but they sure look great!

 

[mjbphotos]

I've thought about ripping out the carpet, too - it's now 20 years old and is showing its age, so a good excuse, but I too question whether its really going to help my sound. SO before I do it, I've got 3/4 of a box of Pergo left over from when we did our kitchen a couple of years ago. Right now I've got it under weight to bend it back flat - sitting in a sometimes=damp basement on a curved shelf wasn't good! When I get it flat enough, I'll put it down in my mixing/tracking area and see what it sounds like. I think you could do the same thing by throwing a sheet of plywood down.

 

[RAMI]

I actually have a really thick slab of hardwood under my chair, about 2X4 feet. I wonder if plywood is hard enough to reflect. This wood I have comes from under the belt of a treadmill. It weighs about 30 lbs. If I had a few more to put around my mixing area, I'd be happy.

Like Miro, it's not only the sound. I'm sure my place would look so much better with laminate. On top of that, I'm sure it's a lot more healthy for my lungs than breathing whatever has been building up in this carpet over the years.

I know me. One day, I'll wake up and say "fuck it", I'll get in my car, go to home depot, buy a shit ton of wood flooring and do it that same day. But that day hasn't come yet.

 

[miroslav]

I know me. One day, I'll wake up and say "fuck it", I'll get in my car, go to home depot, buy a shit ton of wood flooring and do it that same day. But that day hasn't come yet.

That's the way it happens for me.

See....I'm planning to re-carpet the other rooms and hallway on the ground floor where my studio is....but I won't re-carpet the studio.
So when I do that...the carpet in the studio will be this old, shit carpet....and I'll probably just go for it and do the wood floor. I'm just not sure yet how to do a hardwood floor on the cement floor that is under the carpet.
Do I just float the wood floor....glue it to the cement...or nail it to the cement (not even sure how that would work).
I would want the wood floor to be SOLID...lI don't want that hollow vibe...so I'm thinking it would have to be firmly attached in some manner to the cement. It has to sound like the best basketball court...that firm THUMP when you walk on it, no dead spots or wood squeaks.
Ideally, I would love it to be wide-plank hardwood, rather than your more typical 2" strips....but in the end I'll just go with what is the most cost effective...but it has to be hardwood. I will not waste time with anything else, since it will be a PITA doing it, so I might as well go for it.

 

[ecc83]

Why rip anything up? We found the sound of acoustic guitar was much improved by laying some 1/8" hardboard over a carpeted floor. I have done about 75% of the exposed area (room is 12' by 12.5' but has a LOT of junk in it!) .
For a "proper job" you could use 3/8" (9mm) plywood and yacht varnish one side covering the other with thin carpet., If you did not want to bother with carpet some Velcro "hook" will stop the boards moving (F me! Will it stick it down!)

The boards could also do double duty as GOBOs.
Having a "lively" floor in an otherwise pretty dead room makes it more comfortable but does not upset monitoring acoustics much at all (or so I have read!).

Dave.

 

[miroslav]

I'm sure that can work some for a small area to change the sound a bit....but I think it would be kinda' ghetto for the whole studio floor!

Like RAMI and I were saying....it's the look of a real hardwood floor first...and acoustics second.
Not to mention...I wouldn't want to go to all that trouble to cover the whole carpet with plywood.
I mean...If I'm going to move stuff out of the way to do that, I might as well rip out the carpet and put in the hardwood floor.
Plus...I wouldn't want an old carpet sandwiched between the concrete floor and a top layer of plywood.

 

[BroKen_H]

I'm happy with the way my room sounds when recording guitars over my carpet, but when I do vocals, I feel a little distracted by the lack of any feedback at all. Maybe a couple sheets of something laid down on the carpet would help. Mine would be a carpet sandwich between two layers of wood... Def listening to this thread.

 

[BroKen_H]

To the OP, Btyre, you have some of the best mixes and sounds I've heard. I always listen to your mixes of other peoples' stuff when you do them. You've got a great ear, and I think I'd be very critical of any change I was going to make if I had your talent.

 

[ecc83]

I'm happy with the way my room sounds when recording guitars over my carpet, but when I do vocals, I feel a little distracted by the lack of any feedback at all. Maybe a couple sheets of something laid down on the carpet would help. Mine would be a carpet sandwich between two layers of wood... Def listening to this thread.

THANK you!

Dave.

 

[RAMI]

when I do vocals, I feel a little distracted by the lack of any feedback at all. Maybe a couple sheets of something laid down on the carpet would help.

I don't think you're going to hear any difference while tracking just by laying a few pieces of plywood down. Maybe the final result will be a little better, but do you really think you're going to get more "feedback" in your headphones while singing to a music track just because you have some wood on the floor? I highly doubt it, but we're both just guessing at this point, so you never know.

 

[miroslav]

... do you really think you're going to get more "feedback" in your headphones while singing to a music track just because you have some wood on the floor?

A long mic cable....and then take into the bathroom.

 

[ecc83]

I don't think you're going to hear any difference while tracking just by laying a few pieces of plywood down. Maybe the final result will be a little better, but do you really think you're going to get more "feedback" in your headphones while singing to a music track just because you have some wood on the floor? I highly doubt it, but we're both just guessing at this point, so you never know.

Rami, I think the live floor idea is to prevent the room being "oppressive" for those that have to spend long periods in it? Then, in that time you will not be listening on headphones but to monitors or indeed nothing at all for considerable periods.

I don't get the "cans and singing" point? If you sing to live mic a foot away it will be picking up much the same "room" as your uncovered ears would. If you are using "ego" foldback reverb? Don't matter.

The various ways to treat a control room are covered in the Feb 2015 issue of Sound on Sound.

Dave.

 

[RAMI]

I don't get the "cans and singing" point?

I don't get that point, either, but I'm not the one that made that point. I was responding to what Broken said about putting down a wood floor to get more "feedback". I quoted him right there in my response.

 

[ecc83]

I don't get that point, either, but I'm not the one that made that point. I was responding to what Broken said about putting down a wood floor to get more "feedback". I quoted him right there in my response.

No mate, not the quote. You said there would be no difference or feedback. My point was that monitoring on cans with a live mic you will still hear "the room". Now, how much good it'll do ya I don't know! But hear it you must.

Dave.

 

[RAMI]

No mate, not the quote. You said there would be no difference or feedback. My point was that monitoring on cans with a live mic you will still hear "the room". Now, how much good it'll do ya I don't know! But hear it you must.

Dave.

So, you're telling me that putting a piece of wood down under you when you're recording a vocal track with music coming through the headphones, is going to make an audible difference to the singer in the headhpones while tracking? I highly doubt it.

 

[ecc83]

So, you're telling me that putting a piece of wood down under you when you're recording a vocal track with music coming through the headphones, is going to make an audible difference to the singer in the headhpones while tracking? I highly doubt it.

So you are telling me that room acoustics do not affect a singer and that those acoustics are not transmitted though to headphones via a live mic in the room?

Dave.

 

[RAMI]

So you are telling me that room acoustics do not affect a singer and that those acoustics are not transmitted though to headphones via a live mic in the room?

Dave.

Why are you putting words in my mouth? I never said "room acoustics do not affect a singer, etc.........".

But something as subtle as putting a piece of wood under the singer is not going to make a difference as far as what he hears in the headphones while tracking vocals with music playing in the headphones. We're not talking about the difference between a non-treated room to a treated room, or recording in a bedroom as opposed to a garage. Those things would make a difference. The difference between a completely carpeted floor and a completely wooden floor would also make an audible difference, I agree with all that.

But, I was responding to Broken's post specifically. I thought we're talking about putting piece of plywood under a singer, putting headphones on that singer, blasting a backing track through the headphones while the singer sings, and expecting that piece of wood to have an audible difference to what the singer hears in the headphones.