John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I found out that I have easy access to free stones. The walls marked in red are cement block and it would be easy to add the stones to those walls.




Here are my questions...

1- Two of the rooms are very small and even the largest room, the drumroom (marked A) is only about 200 sq feet. Would there be any sonic benifit at these small sizes? (I read it was questionable but since the stones are free...)

2 - If I do apply stone, how long a run for each room would be recommended. (A has about 20 feet of block, B room has about 9, C room about 4)

3 - If I create a stone wall is it then ok to have its opposing wall be parallel? (If they can be parallel, this alone makes it tempting so that I can keep more useable space)

Thanks...

What size are the stones? Steve

There are enough rocks to fill a football field in every size from marbles to far larger than my friend and I could carry. They just blasted an area to make room for a new housing complex and this part of the country is located on solid rock. BTW the stones are jagged and irregular, not smooth.

Here are a couple of picts of rocks around the size I was thinking of...

The "red" side of the A room might benefit from a stone wall, and the most you might need to do (if there's still a bit of flutter" would be a few absorber panels along the opposite wall.

Downsides - masonry is heavy. Make sure the floor/foundation can support the weight. A 6" thick masonry wall would weigh about 560 pounds PER LINEAL FOOT for 8' tall wall.

Also, your room sound will literally be "cast in stone" - if you don't like it, tough. Other than tearing it out, placing absorbers in front of it is about all you could do to change things.

Have an experienced mason do (or supervise) the work - errors here can kill.

Sources that are close to the wall (since the stones aren't smooth) will likely have "hot spots" or specular reflections that may cause mic placement problems - either move further away from the wall or place an absorptive gobo between mic and wall.

'bout all I've got... Steve

Thank you Steve

sounds like a shit idea.

you'll get all sorts of probelms.

If you like the sound the wehey, but i don't think it'll be what most people are after.

you'll get all sorts of probelms

Think that's kind of what I elaborated on a couple posts back ??!?

Newell's done several stone rooms and points out in a couple of his books that this isn't for everyone... Steve

Hmm, I had read in the SAE manual:

Diffusion In the studio

Diffusion in the studio is a great idea and one of the best way to add it is to have stone walls in your studio. Not flat stone but round and irregular stones that create a rigid random diffuse surface. The reverberation created in such a room will be rich and diffuse which is what you want in a good reverb unit. (Note here that some effects units have a control over diffusion in their reverb programs)The greater the "depth" of the diffuser the lower the frequencies affected. I recommend such a wall in a drum room if you want live drum sounds.

But, trust me, if it doesn't help... I don't want to do it. It's a good deal more work. Collecting the stones, dealing with the way it would affect the flooring, the time to put them. I was planning on doing a 16' x 7' section. That would have been a lot of work.

Thanks, unless I get some real arguments the other way - no stones.

Rock...that's not the way to get stoned... kidding...

Aaron, you ought to come by this weekend...

I'll see what I can do. Was suppose to do some transfers tonight, but that just got cancelled. Tomorrow night I've got a huge outdoor party to go to. Sunday I'll probably be recovering...

I'm looking to maybe start some fabric in the control room this weekend. Give me a call tonight and I'll see how my schedule is shaping up.

Aaronw wrote:Rock...that's not the way to get stoned... kidding...

And to think of all the times I resisted mentioning what a rockin' studio that would have been...