Need help designing a drum room
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Posted on Aug 23, 2011 04:59 pm
Indellable
Music Afficionado
Member Since: Aug 12, 2008
A while back I posted asking about minimum dimensions for a drum room. I had a 20'15' room in my basement that I was gonna take over as my studio with the intent of having a mic room/drum room of 10'x15'. Dont ask me how but my wife has offered the entire room meaning I can keep my existing studio in tact which is already treated and has a 9x6 mic room connected to the CR by 2 sets of sliding glass doors. With the additon of the new room I could feasibly record an entire band at one time which is my end goal. I currently record bands in layers by setting up the drums in the CR and lay them at the same time with the Bass player using a DI box and mic up the amp in the 9x6 mic room. I then layer other instruments and vox. The end result is actually pretty good but, as you know, not ideal accoustically and definitely not great efficiency-wise.
My plan now, would be to treat the new 20x15 room (aka Mic Room 2) and install closed circuit tv between that room and my existing CR. This way everyone can see eachother during sessions. Plus, it severely cuts down on the construction I would have to do vs. properly installing traditional studio windows between rooms. I imagine its much cheaper too.
My questions are now:
- (Hoping the answer is yes but) Can I get away without buidling a room within a room and just accoustically treat the 20x15 room similar to how I did my CR? In my CR I have bass traps, sixteen 2'x4' traps and a 10'x8' ceiling cloud with 3" - 4"accsoutic firebat.
- Any special accoustic treatment I should do to be good for bands?
- Shouldnt I put a platform for the drums to sit on? If so, how big and any info on how/what to build?
- Could I use an isolation in front of the drums so that in the same room, the other guitarists could play at the same time? Is this the same thing as a GOBO?
Any other info is always appreciated and any insight on the CCTV idea is appreciated as well. Seen it work well at another studio.
Thanks.
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Quincysanhttp://www.unitedmusicians.infoContributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007
Aug 24, 2011 02:55 pm Hey man, glad to hear the studio plan is coming together. I'll give my two pennies:
1.) If a full band is going to play in the room, I'd treat all the corners and the ceiling to start. With those treatments in place I'd probably record drums and decide if further treatment is necessary to get a nice live room sound. If the drums sound great, bring in a bass cab and record that. If it sounds good, leave it. If you're getting standing waves or muddiness I would buy some treatment that you can wheel in on casters when you do a live recording or record bass in the room. If the room is good, then I prefer to have as much room sound as possible without getting into muddied territory.
2.) Low end will be your main issue. I'm building 6 ft corner traps @ 24"x24"x33" with Roxul RHT40 4" insulation. 4 pcf. The insulation warehouse owner told me that stuff is the best for acoustic applications...if you want to compare other options I've been using this chart. www.bobgolds.com/AbsorptionCoefficients.htm
3.) I dunno, but it would look cool
4.) I've worked in a studio where two cavities were hulled out in the walls to isolate amps. I wasn't engineering the session...but it ended up sounding like a sack of crap. I don't isolate guitars just put the amps as far from the drums as possible and stand in the center of the room and tell the guitarists to turn their amps up or down in order to 'mix the room' so to speak. I would probably recommend putting a few dense, fluffy, acoustic treatments around the bass amp. Remember the troubling frequencies from the bass cab (<100Hz) don't shoot out of the speaker in a straight line; visualize it as a sphere of low end growing out from the speaker and put treatment anywhere there may be an early reflection point. For instance, if you put the cab in a corner far away from the drums, treat the area behind the amp and closest to the walls before you try treating the area in front of it.
Quincysanhttp://www.unitedmusicians.infoContributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007
Aug 24, 2011 02:57 pm Oh, and I am always sure to keep the bass/guitar amps off the floor. Weird resonating frequencies can crop up and make things difficult to mix/eq.
