John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

First off, being a new user, I want to thank the creators of this website for such an awesome resource. I've learned a great bunch here.

I've done a lot of reading on this forum, and am about to build my studio in my unfinished basement. The house is new construction, and I will post detailed pics/layouts later this week when I get back home.

But I had a couple questions regarding floating floors. If these have been answered previously on the website, my appologies. A link would be appreciated :

1) My studio is going to be used to track acoustic guitar and voice ONLY. Do I really need to float the floor to maintain enough isolation from the floor above ? I figure acoustic guitar/voice don't really go low enough on the frequency spectrum to require a complete "room within a room" setup. I otherwise plan on isolating all 4 walls and dropping the ceiling.

2) For those with recording experience (everybody here I suppose!), how much height would you say is minimally required to record voice/guitar if you have an abundance of width/length real estate (app. 20' x 20') available for the tracking room ? My ceiling height, after dropping the ceiling will come down to approx. 7' - 7'6" i believe. Would this be enough to ensure my recordings to have the life "sucked" out of them ? I plan on using high quality vintage tube mics for recording, and acoustically treat the tracking room to maintain neutrality. Is there a chart or formula I can use perhaps ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This board rules !

- Robert

1) My studio is going to be used to track acoustic guitar and voice ONLY. Do I really need to float the floor to maintain enough isolation from the floor above ? I figure acoustic guitar/voice don't really go low enough on the frequency spectrum to require a complete "room within a room" setup. I otherwise plan on isolating all 4 walls and dropping the ceiling.

Sound isolation isn't a 1-way street, so whatever isolation you have from outside to inside will be the same for inside to outside your space; however, your plan of recording with high quality vintage mics may open up your recordings to low frequency noise from above or outside; depends on what type noise is prevalent in those areas. Things like heavy-footed stompers with or without carpet above you could prove frustrating; also trains, heavy trucks, etc, from outside. Since you won't be all that loud, you might be able to schedule your studio time when that isn't a problem.

2) For those with recording experience (everybody here I suppose!), how much height would you say is minimally required to record voice/guitar if you have an abundance of width/length real estate (app. 20' x 20') available for the tracking room ? My ceiling height, after dropping the ceiling will come down to approx. 7' - 7'6" i believe. Would this be enough to ensure my recordings to have the life "sucked" out of them ? I plan on using high quality vintage tube mics for recording, and acoustically treat the tracking room to maintain neutrality. Is there a chart or formula I can use perhaps ?

What "sucks the life" out of recordings is UNEVEN absorption; if you have too much high absorption with too little midrange, it can sound "boxy" - if ALL you have is thin, high frequency absorption, it will sound boomy and dull; if you have any two room dimensions the same, or exact multiples of each other, there will be modal peaks/nulls to contend with (some of this can be alleviated with positioning of both the instrument AND the mic)

Charts can help, but "treat and try" is the final authority here; if it sounds good, it IS good.

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_mate ... m#verbcalc

On reverb times - with a separate control room and tracking room, generally you want the CR to have a shorter reverb time, like around .2-.3 seconds - this is so you can hear the effect of adding reverb, either electronically or from the tracking room, which should be (for small rooms/pop music) around .4-.6 seconds - longer for classical, and larger rooms don't sound right with short reverb times.

If you're working in a SINGLE room, one way is to make the room in general longer reverb time, then add a corner "absorption tent" with extra movable panels of rockwool or rigid fiberglass, that will lower the RT of your mix area so you can hear better without room reverb making you think your recordings are "wetter" than they really are.

If this isn't the case, you'll know when you play your recordings in someone's living room (they tend to be fairly dead)

I just posted a ceiling diagram here that may help you -

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... &start=180

It's my post dated April 4... Steve