acoustics
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Posted on Jul 01, 2002 10:13 pm
brock
Member Since: Jun 28, 2002
hey my room is solid concrete(its a old bomb shelter)like 14 by 18. so i coverd all the walls with carpet. the carpet is about 1 1/2 inches away from the wall because of the wood we had to mount it on. we have a nice thick carpet on the floor. but the celling (spelling?) is not covered by anything. its just concrete.....would it be better or worth my time to cover it with something? the room is used as a playing place for recording (the place the instruments are when being recorded... the recorder and mixer is in another room) schould i cover it? and i don't know much about room acustics, but how do people know ware to but padding and ware not to....like in pro studios you'll see a wall with padding in random places. if theres a site i could go to, to find out about this kindof stuff could you guys give me a link or somthing thanks.
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Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 01, 2002 11:55 pm Go to www.auralex.com
They have several link's to other section's of their site that will give you the info you need to figure out what to cover and what not to cover. And how much covering you might need to serve a certain purpose.
Jul 02, 2002 05:06 am Really, you don't want to cover every wall with sound absorbing material, that will make the room way to dead, if you have ever been in a room that is totally dead it is really weird, you can actually hear your heart beat...
Theoretically speaking you want to have every other wall absorbing. Opposite walls if possible have one absorb and one reflect, but furntiure or bookshelves in the corners to help keep control of the bass. Leaving the ceiling cement would be fine, and actually, in some cases it may be cool to put a mic up there sometimes, like when recording a guitar solo, throw one mic on the speaker and one up in the corner, facing the corner to catch ambient sound...it can really make a sound fill up, it's very cool sometimes without having to actually add artificial reverb...
In the recording tips section there is a acouple article about building a studio which includes info on tuning rooms as well as building great sound control boards cheap, they are the exact sound boards I use as I wrote the article after building them.
stupeMember
Since: Apr 03, 2002
Jul 02, 2002 12:35 pm i agree with db. i record my drums in a room made of dry wall with carpet, and i really wish i had a room made out of concrete, or better yet, wood. because it would allow me to tweak it a lot. but my room sounds really dead, it loses a lot of detail because it just absorbs everything. i have to use a lot of eq, and reverb to make it sound better.
brockMember
Since: Jun 28, 2002
Jul 02, 2002 12:45 pm why would you want a room made of totally concrete? cause before i but the carpet up in my room it sounded as if i was in a tunnel. everthing eckoed forever, and it sucked. well anyways. in my recording room (the room with the mixer and recorder) how schould i have it? 100%? would that be best for getting the true sound out of my speakers?
Jul 02, 2002 12:53 pm well, he didn't say he would leave the walls bare, just that he wanted to framework to be like that for a starting point...
As far as your room, as I said, I would go with half absorbing, one of the two opposite walls, and read the article I mentioned, it has more info about the matter.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Jul 02, 2002 09:31 pm Sound absorbtion is the process of transforming air movement into heat. Concrete does a fairly good job of doing that, better than carpet in many cases. Tuning a room to taste is an art from what I have learned so far. Another site to visit is www.shure.com . Shure microphone has a number of pdf format booklets on recording and sound in general. One pdf addresses different materials and their ability to absorb or reflect various frequencies. I was quite supprised at some of the studio set ups used by long standing production studios. In some cases they will bring along many types of portable baffles, traps, etc. and use educated expermintation to get the right tuning of a room. There arn't too many forumlas to the art of recording.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 02, 2002 10:02 pm A room that can be varied as far as sound absorbtion is concerned is the ultimate way to go. So rather then apply a permanant product to all the surface's, yo should find a way to make it mavable and removable. There may be a time when you want some echo, and then there may be a time when you want the room fully damped.
As far as the mixing room, only partial damping is needed. I use Auralex 2" wedge, cut into 2' square's. There is just enough on the wall's to damp a little. It helps deaden the roar of my PC and all it's fan's and crap. I also have a suspened cealing with acuastic tile's installed. This really eliminate's a lot of echo, but does not completely kill the ambiance of the room. I can still record a live vocal or guitar in here and have it sound good.
