Do you know how bad or good your room is?

Recently I met a lot of people recording at their homes. Some have a decent gear, some not. Everybody is kind of sure that they are doing the right stuff and it's just matter of more money for gear, mics, etc. Almost nobody has tried to measure their rooms they are working in for resonances, standing waves, dips, and so on.

When I talked to couple of them about basic room measurement answer

Use nearfield monitors, cans and reality check on a couple systems. My room is untreated but naturally fair.

I don`t know Blue, to me the creative always takes precedence over doing it right. In a perfect scenario, your mics are where they need to be and everything sounds great but when you`re in that moment of creation, its more important to get that idea/take down. When inspiration strikes, its better to clip the track than not even record it.

For me, I usually do pre-production on most of my songs and many times, those tracks are better than the stuff where everything is set up the way its supposed to be. I think its because I`m more relaxed.

On my last record,one of the mistakes I made was thinking the real vocal sessions would sound better than the pre-production tracks... wasn`t always the case. Now with my second record, lots of these vocal tracks are keepers. I know enough now to say, "THAT TRACK IS THE KEEPER, even though its clipping a bit."

my Studio/room is the smallest room in my house...it measures 11'x 12'... it was made to funtion as a Nursery , or a youngest childs room in the 1920's

I was lucky enough to have an old studio design friend come in and measure, design at minimal cost, a decently acoustic room back when I bought this place in 2000.

I've had some major restoration/renovation of my living space over the last three months...There was plaster dust everywhere,

even though I had covered all of my gear and electronics with tarps and taped the doors, and stuffed towels under the jambs...my studio/ music room was still compromised...

I have a fold out couch/bed in there where I sometimes crash around 3/4 am after a session... I had to take the cushion outside, and after vacuuming, had to literally beat it with an old fashion rug beater that I bought at a Flea Market. My Allergies went 'crazy-go- nuts'

'I think the worst is over now, think I'm going to be alright.

I see the morning sun shine like a 'Red Rubber Ball.':thu:

I record in my loft

Sounds crap, but what can you do?

I record in my loft Sounds crap, but what can you do?

Hey, your room has a real cool vintage English feel,

People in the UK are about preservation, here we most , but not all, live in a 'McMansion' society.

Your gear, about the same as mine..will send you a 'pic' soon of my room so you can see for yourself.... (via PM).... no computers...the wife bought me a Macbook with 'Garage Band' haven't touched it yet...........I use a Tascam tape 4-track, and a Fostex 16 track digital with the CD burner...a 1969 Sony reel to reel brought back from Viet Nam in that year.

I use no guitar/amp Sims, I play through the real stuff that I have accumulated over the years.... I recently took some 'mad money' that I made on E-bay and had my old 1968 Echo-plex refurbished. I have a few rack mounted gizmos, a Morley Wah, a Dyna comp compressor, a few tawdry drum machines, some nice old Shure and RCA mics from the 50's that dad gave me... That just about sums it up Mr. Nads.

On my forum there's two factors at play - one is sound isolation, i.e how can my band rehearse at full blast without annoying the neighbours, the other is how do I make my mixes travel from room to room.

The first is basic construction techniques, the second is a bit harder but probably more important IMO.

The second is probably best summed up by a drummer friend who rang me and asked if I 'd design him a drum room like our friend has in his studio, Left bank, that I designed. He reckoned that when he goes to left bank they just throw a few mikes over the drums and they always sound great, no eq required and easy to balance, yet when he does the same at his place they sound like {censored}.

Having a nice room to record and mix in can make a major difference to the appreciation of your artform.

I totally agree. But sometimes it's so strange My fellow sound recording friend put his speakers 5 feet from the wall and speakers are facing the wall while he has like 20 feet to spare. He potentially has bunch of peaks and valleys but he thinks if it sounds good in his position it will sound good every else.

From what I see this is what makes the biggest difference - know you room, get used to it and you will be good to go.

by "know your room" you actually mean - well yes it's a bit boomy but that's the room, It sounds dull but if I add more top Eq it will scream in other rooms and so on and so on.

that's not satisfactory IMO.

I do acoustics research for a living, so yeah, I know exactly how bad my room is.

I can tell you a few things for sure: Auralex LENRDs don't do anything useful, but Auralex MegaLENRDs are the best bass absorption product you can buy and apply.

Ethan's RealTraps don't absorb much bass so you have to have a ton of them, but on the flip side they don't suck all the highs out of the room and leave it sounding dead.

Terry D.

Of course not. "Know your room" means for me to find problems and to address them