John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi,

I will be moving from my old practice space into a new space soon and I would like to treat the new room to make it an optimal room for recording live. I don't need a control room or vocal booths, just one big live room. We play loud rock(Drums,Bass & Guitar) and of coarse I want the drums to sound as good in the room as I can afford to make them. I'm also not concerned with sound leaving the room either, just the quality of the sound inside. Our existing space consists of a 17' x 11' cinder block walled room with concrete floor and ceiling that we treated with carpet on the floor as well as two of the perpendicular walls. To my ears it sounds pretty decent but I'm sure I can do better this time. The new room measures 16'-8" x 14'-6" with 11' ceiling height. Again the walls are block and the floor and ceiling are concrete. I'm am definitely on a budget and would like to use carpet again and as many DIY options as possible to construct whatever other treatment devises you suggest. I am not looking for some sort of acoustically perfect room, as if that were possible, just some general rules when treating a room such as mine and maybe even some preferred placement options of the drums in the room. Please don't chew my head off if I left some information out or am making an impossible request. There is so much information on this forum that I don't even know where to begin. Great site though.

Thanks,

Richard from Nashville

Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things!

treated with carpet on the floor as well as two of the perpendicular walls.

That would not have sounded very good. Carpet does the exact opposite of what you need: it absorbs a lot of high frequencies, some mids, and no lows at all. What you really need is something that absorbs lots of lows, a fiar amount of mids, but does not touch the highs. There's a reason why you don't ever see professional studios with carpet on the walls or floor... and if you ever do see "carpet", then it is not actually normal carpet that you'd use at home: it is acoustic carpet that is designed to be acoustically transparent: it allows the sound to get through to the treatment devices that are hidden behind it.

I am not looking for some sort of acoustically perfect room, as if that were possible, just some general rules when treating a room such as mine

The very best you could do is to buy several panels of OC-703 insulation. Most hardware stores sell it, or can get it for you. It is semi-rigid fiberglass insulation, and comes in panels that measure 4' x 8'. It comes in thicknesses of 2" and 4" generally, but sometimes you can get other thicknesses. For your room, get enough that you can cover about 50% of the wall surfaces with it, and at least 50% of the ceiling. For the walls, make some simple 1x6 frames the same size as the panels of 703, put the 703 inside, and cover it with the fabric of your choice (just make sure the fabric is "breathable", meaning that if you hold a piece over your mouth and nose you can breath through it without trouble.

For the ceiling, make "clouds", which are roughly the same (frames, OC-703, fabric) but with plastic across the the lower side if the frame, between the 703 and the fabric. Use chains to attach those to the ceiling so that you can change the angle easily.

That should do the trick!


- Stuart -

Hey Stuart,

Thanks so much for the reply. Your response has left me with a couple more questions though. Those 703 panels come about 2" thick. Do I need to double them up or anything or will the single panel be good enough? Also, I've read that in square or close to square rooms that it's best to orient the panels on parallel walls in an opposite pattern so the panels will be facing bare wall. Is this right and if so would the panels need to be arranged like the drawings I've attached but reverse the pattern on the parallel wall? I should do nothing to the floor?

Thanks again,

Richard

Sorry, the two layouts stacked on top of each other are walls and the one to the left is the ceiling. Also, do I need bass traps in corners? If so what about the corner where the wall meets the ceiling?

Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things!