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Live room survey
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:34 pm
by WiseMindsRecordingStudios
I am about to "treat" my live room. I mainly plan to record drums in this room but occasionally I will be recording guitars and drums together as in a "live" band scenario.
The drums are on a 6"h x 8'w x 6'd riser that will be carpeted. (see pic for layout) The room will be hardwood floors, walls painted drywall, ceiling "popcorned".
I am planning on suspending a cloud of 2" - 4" rigid fiberglass above the entire riser.
I originally was going to build bass traps in each of the 4 corners of the room. Now I am not so sure. The room is quite rectangular as you can see. Should I diffuse? Trap? Both?
What whould you do? I am interested in hearing your proposals and why. Thanks in advance.
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:37 pm
by WiseMindsRecordingStudios
Just a side note, the black curtains you see in the mock-up are still planned for the room. I guess I should mention that I am looking for a slightly live room but not the cement box it is now. And the root of my question is, are bass traps needed in this room?
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:37 pm
by knightfly
If it's drywall, yup; if it's concrete, double-yup
You may wanna replace one of the corner traps with a longer, slat resonator centered at around 300 hZ; that's the prime modal frequency for kick drums in the 22-24" range... Steve
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:03 pm
by WiseMindsRecordingStudios
Steve, thanks for the get back. I have another question. I used the RT60 calc that John posted in another thread. After entering all of my info into the calc.. Here are my figures:
Code: Select all
Before treatment
125hz - .35secs
250hz - .88secs
500hz - 1.48secs
1khz - 1.93secs
2khz - 1.32secs
4khz - 1.05secs
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After hanging 6x8 cloud, 6x8 carpeted drum riser, 8'x18' heavy curtains on back wall. (no bass traps)
125hz - .35secs
250hz - .47secs
500hz - .44secs
1khz - .38secs
2khz - .36secs
4khz - .35secs
To me...this seems pretty flat and in the range I am looking for. Am I right in guessing if I get these #'s to near zero then the room will be dead? What are your thoughts?
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:08 pm
by knightfly
Right; that's about as low as you'd want for a live room, anywhere from .4 to .7 depending on if you're recording classical instruments, or higher RT if it's a LARGER room. But for that size, looks like you're golden... Steve
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:20 pm
by len-morgan
Are you really going to point the Bass drum right at the door between the LR and CR? It seems to me that you'd want to rotate the whole set a bit so you playing directly perpendicular to that wall. Especially THAT wall.
len
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:10 am
by WiseMindsRecordingStudios
len-morgan wrote:Are you really going to point the Bass drum right at the door between the LR and CR? It seems to me that you'd want to rotate the whole set a bit so you playing directly perpendicular to that wall. Especially THAT wall.
len
Good point Len. I do have a plexi deflector and the door will be treated with fabric and fiber, but that will be closely observed when the room is completed.
Also, I should note that the door is actually more off center than it looks in the sketch-up. The door is more perpendicular to the ride cymbal.
As far as the wall goes...yes the wall... I may have to put some sort of diffuser on that wall, maybe a curved panel.. what step am I on?!?
