can I get a good drum sound.

[lazarus]

I am in the process of turning my basement into a project studio. I am stuck in the situation that I am not able to build the walls yet in the area where i will be tracking drums. I know that some reflection is good for tracking drums but will concrete walls and floors be too much if I treat the corner, walls and ceiling with DIY bass traps. i.e. 4" rockwool. I have about 6 traps and have already treated the ceiling which is unfortunately low. My actual question is will I be able to get an ok sound to hold me over until I can finish the walls. I will be using Rode NT5 overheads, Cascade fathead II stereo room mics, Sennheiser E902 and homemade subkick for kick. Sennheiser e935 and shure 57 on snare, not sure on the toms yet. all tracked through focusrite preamps and a Black Lion modded M-audio project mix into protools.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Years ago, I recorded a band "on-site" - which is to say, they wanted to record in their basement... I detailed the session in an article that may give you some tips...

Article --> 9 Tracks In 2 Days

[Glenn Kuras]

All you can do is try. You can always put in the bass trapping you have and get some fluffy fiber glass for the time being. You can always use it inside of the walls when it comes time to build.

Glenn

[lazarus]

Hey thanks guys! Glenn what would I do with the fiberglass? Is it good to leave some of the wall reflective? The drums are in the corner of the room by the way. If more traps would help I will be building more anyway so that is a possibility.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by lazarus

Hey thanks guys! Glenn what would I do with the fiberglass? Is it good to leave some of the wall reflective? The drums are in the corner of the room by the way. If more traps would help I will be building more anyway so that is a possibility.

If you make the bass traps out of mineral wool, OC703 or OC705 you can also use them on the side walls for the over all decay time. How alive you want the room depends on what kind of sound you are going for..

Glenn

[lazarus]

Fair enough I guess I'm just going to have to grab some traps mics and headphones and start moving stuff around.

[dadumtish]

hi, here is the drum sound i get in my tiny studio now that i have treated it as the guys here have suggested
( no reverbs so it sounds dead obviously - i add reverbs later )

GarageBand.com : song profile for drum-test-2 by THE BYTE SYZE STUDIO



and here is what it used to sound like


here is the first recording I did in the untreated room a year ago -

( its loud so watch it ! )

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/12583-red5-krvkit.mp3



and here is after a year of attempting to improve the room ( with rubber matting ) and my mixing ability .

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/26972-drum4.mp3




so if you treat it right , and get the mix are right , yes !

[The Gooch]

Is it good to leave some of the wall reflective? The drums are in the corner of the room by the way. If more traps would help I will be building more anyway so that is a possibility.

What are the dimensions of your room? As a rule, for small spaces, the more treatments you put up, the better. You can always try leaving part of a wall untreated, but my guess is your small space will do better with blankets up on the walls and rugs on the floor. It'll be deadsville, but probably useable. Forget about getting a good "room" sound. Unfortunately, even great gear can't outsmart an acoustically problematic space, so in this case, treatments will be your best friend.

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by The Gooch

What are the dimensions of your room? As a rule, for small spaces, the more treatments you put up, the better. You can always try leaving part of a wall untreated, but my guess is your small space will do better with blankets up on the walls and rugs on the floor. It'll be deadsville, but probably useable. Forget about getting a good "room" sound. Unfortunately, even great gear can't outsmart an acoustically problematic space, so in this case, treatments will be your best friend.

Really well put. Don't worry about getting more room into the drum sound...you won't like the results anyhow. Unless you've got a room that's been designed with a nice, smooth, controlled decay across the spectrum you're better of adding the illusion of space later.

Frank

[lazarus]

I was thinking about moving the drums more into the middle of the room which is about 16' X 16', treating the walls (not completely but throwing up a bunch of traps.) Then building a bunch of traps on stands and surrounding the drums in a sort of stone henge configuration.

[The Gooch]

Originally Posted by lazarus

I was thinking about moving the drums more into the middle of the room which is about 16' X 16', treating the walls (not completely but throwing up a bunch of traps.) Then building a bunch of traps on stands and surrounding the drums in a sort of stone henge configuration.

If you're ready to build all those traps, you will definitely be doing the best you can to neutralize inherent issues in your space. Be sure to use Rockwool that has between 3 and 5 pounds density in those traps. It'll save you a lot of space. The fact that your room is a square is unfortunately a big problem. One of the cardinal rules of building a nice sounding room is "avoid like-dimensions, or multiples thereof." This helps reduce modal buildup. Again, building all those traps is the best thing you can do. Keeping the drums out of the corner is a good thing, too. Good luck!