Acoustic treatment

Nitebob

So....the missus gave the go-ahead to turn a part of the garage into a studio :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

Now comes the tricky part: Acoustic treatment

The garage door faces the busy main road. So I will have to fill the cavaties of the door with acoustic treatment...Then I have some loose doors (x3) my youngster damaged, I thought I could use as a type of a "screen" once treated....

I heard that too much acoustical treatment kills your mix as well. When it comes to recording vocals or acoustic guitar, I'm assuming you would want acoustical tretment behind you, so you get some resonance from the room?

Can I get some pointers from you guys?

Nitebob

Okay...let me simplify the question: Is a "live" room better for recording and a "dead" room better for mixing?

doc-phil

I think what you don't want to do is buy 50sqm of thin accoustic foam and cover your room wall to wall with it. All that will do is dampen the high frequencies, leading to a very dull sounding room which will make you prone to harsh sounding mixes.

In terms of mixing, you mostly want to control the low end, which is the most difficult. There is a real science behind it, but you can't hurt yourself by buying or building a few bass traps for your corners and sticking up a few panels on the walls.

It's almost impossible to control those frequencies below 100Hz cost effectively, so don't get too hung up on that. Do what you can with the finances available to you.

I bought 4 x vicoustic mega fuser bass traps (two in each corner of the room where my desk is, and 8 primacoustic control columns (cost me about R7.5k total?). I know its not perfect, but there is clearly a noticeable difference as opposed to when the walls were just bare.

My room is carpeted, so haven't put anything on the ceiling so as not to dampen the high frequencies too much.

You want to avoid being hit with unimpeded standing waves and room modes, which you can achieve decent results on a budget.

A live room you will want to treat differently to a control room - but in both instances you don't want copious amounts of room reverb/echoe as those sorts of things will come through in your recordings and may not be the type of sound you're after.

Other things that I've found honestly do help is just putting in furniture... a thick foamy couch made a big difference in my room (I have not proved this scientifically ?) and other items of furniture help to diffuse audio waves as they bounce around.

The best bass trap is the door to your room. Let them bass frequencies fly out the door instead of hitting you in the ears 3 or 4 times! Be careful about noise pollution though ?

Watch youtube videos and read internet resources, there are plenty. Have fun and report back on progress/results!

Stoffeltoo

Thanks Doc Phil this was educational. Another question? foamie enclosures around mikes, only for vocal recording or suitable for instrument amp miking as well?

doc-phil

Stoffeltoo wrote: Thanks Doc Phil this was educational. Another question? foamie enclosures around mikes, only for vocal recording or suitable for instrument amp miking as well?

I know some guys like to record their amp from within a semi soundproof enclosure covered on the inside with acoustic foam. this is normally because recording a loud tube amp becomes a problem for the neighbours. Slap on a mic and see how it sounds - fortunately with things like amps you generally have more freedom to move things around (as opposed to your mixing desk which is a huge mission). If you are getting unwanted room reverb, record your amp somewhere else.

I don't think any sort of mic enclosure for your amp is necessary, and I'm not even sure you get such things haha... maybe, but I've never seen one used.

For vocals, a wrap around vocal booth on a stand with a pop filter should be more than enough in a room that isn't suffering from too many acoustic woes.

Nitebob

Thanks Doc...the internet is full of advice yes, but a lot of them contradictory. For example: Your talking vocal booth (as is a couple of guys on the net), another guy says: Bass trap in the corner, your back to the corner and sing into the open room. Another says only treat one wall and stand next to that wall and sing...