Jump to content

Square room, hard surfaces, sounds like crap


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 57
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

Would these panels help the boomy, or do I need bass traps?

 

 

Before spending money, I would try getting them off direct contact with the floor. I've found that works wonders with my subwoofer when I play in hard-surface rooms (generally rented rooms for private parties, weddings, etc. with hard-wood floors or concrete or ceramic tile)

 

I just had a new HVAC system installed last Wednesday (so much for my gear budget!) and they used these very solid, very dense foam blocks underneath my new air handler, that sits in the drip pan. You might want to look into two or four of these to get that speaker 4 inches or so off the floor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I hope that when you're mixing/mastering, you pull that desk about a yard away from the walls. The whole idea of nearfield monitors is for the direct line from speaker to ear to be short enough that reflections are minimized. That is totally defeated if the speakers are near the walls. The first foor or three (away from the wall) make a huge difference! Try it and see. For example, play a steady low note (like C2 or lower), and move your head around: up, down, left, right, in, out. Notice the HUGE difference in volume that you hear depending on your head position. This is a clue. Try this with different notes.

 

Then pull your desk 3 feet from the wall and try again. Notice the difference?

 

As others have said, you want to avoid two opposing walls that are hard-reflecting. The simple solution is to treat two adjacent walls. The problem with this is that you'll have an asymmetrical room when you mix: whichever side you treat will sound deader than the opposite side. (I assume you're smart enough to treat the wall behind the mixing desk!) Use of near-field monitoring helps to minimize this asymmetry, but it'll still be there, and you'll create unbalanced mixes as a result.

 

The solution is to use moveable panels for some of the acoustic treatment -- or else to re-orient the mixing desk diagonally so that it backs to the corner where both walls are treated. If it's on wheels and is easy to move, this might be ideal.

 

Another possibility is to hang curtains (using the heaviest material you can possibly manage) so that you can adjust how much wall is covered to suit whatever you're recording.

 

Experts say that a recording studio should have a hard floor, like wood. I don't know quite why that is, but I suspect they're right. However, in such a small room, a carpeted floor might be better.

 

In the past I've hung carpet remnants on walls. I've gone way too far, creating a room (actually, a garage) that was way too dead. We carpeted the floor, walls, and garage door, and hung horsehair carpet padding (which I don't think you can get any more) in big (2 foot radius) loops from the 10' ceiling, sort of like, huge corregated look. The room was so dead, recordings I made there lacked life, and when we practiced, everyone was asking everyone else to turn up. Lesson learned! Admittedly, super dry might be more useful today with all the nice plugins to add ambience. But I still prefer real ambience to fake. It also depends on the genre; I did make two recordings in that super-dry studio that worked due to the complexity and electronic tone of the arrangments: didn't need or want much ambience. Here's that garage, cerca 1984:

studio-1984-franklin.jpg

 

(Entitled: how NOT to build a studio.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The thing to know about bass traps is the theoretically ideal bass trap is equivalent to an open window of the same size. So, don't expect something small to make a big difference. However, things aren't quite as bleak as that fact: sometimes the location is critical. For example, you can imagine that a "window" in a lower or upper corner would have more impact than a window in the middle of a wall.

 

To help with bass, make panels like Paolo's, but add another layer of heavier material on the back side (e.g., plywood: make a shallow open box and glue the foam panel in.)

 

Another way, discussed on another thread here: add a layer of drywall, with an air gap between the original and new drywall layer. They make spacers for this purpose, which are normally nailed to the studs but could be nailed through the old drywall to the studs. This might be a bit extreme, though. I'll see if I can find that thread; it's about basement studios and treating the ceiling to reduce the transmission. Note that this will also dramatically reduce the loudness on the other side -- but it'd help reduce bass reflection as well. You could reduce cost and trouble (and effectiveness, somewhat) by using 1/2" drywall rather than 5/8". I've done both and am always amazed at how much easier the 1/2" is to handle, just because it's an easy lift for one person, and easy to carry two at a time (with two people) up or down stairs, cutting the number of trips in half. They're 80% as effective.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

There's definitely a specific resonance going on. Would these panels help the boomy, or do I need bass traps?

 

Both panels and basstraps serve the same goal: absorption - aimed at slightly different frequency ranges. So in short yes, they would help, but you should know what the problem frequency is and apply the appropriate treatement. From your description I'd expect that basstraps will work, perhaps absorber panels across at least one corner, wall to wall (covering a part of the corner hardly makes any difference, so you should go for the whole length).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Homedepot and lowes sell 6X4ish foot rugs for like $40 each

hang one of those on at least three walls. Hang them from the top, it's important that they're not right up against the wall, there will naturally be about an inch of air between the rug and the wall, which makes all the difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Don't forget puppy is not doing critical mixing or extreme high level jamming. So 2" fiberglass 2" from the wall and 4" rockwool are great as gobos and panels in serious Studio or Live Room applications they are overkill for the pups. Stick with 1" or 2" panels using the clips I linked and call it good. If you hang 2" panels 2" from the wall that will be 8" of room gone for two adjacent walls. That's a lot of space for the small room you have not to mention is it worth the battle with the wife? Is it worth the extra cost and labor? Just sticking 1" panels against the walls will give you a lot of sound damping. Add some 16" to 18" bass traps will be the finishing touch. After being involved in way over 100 build outs I know when and where to go to extremes

 

;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...