Possibly the most important equpment- The Room - any advice

[RyanC]

Hello-

I've been moving up all my gear slowly but surly- I'm a Diy'ist at heart and I want to start addressing the most important piece or gear- the room.

I have a dead booth and then a big room with closets off of it - I have my bathroom as my "live" booth etc. My studio is a one big room type with the control room and the main tracking room being the same. I also have a remote control room, where I can audition drums etc when tracking in the main room.

I have 8ft cielings, and I have rockwool bass traps on the walls and it cut down alot of flutter echo, but I used velour to cover them so they are somwhat reflective at higher frequencies which I like- I know I need to soak up a bit more bass in my room, but the problem spots are not anyware near the drum spot or the monitoring so it's not a super high priority for me.

Anyway I've been looking at treating my cieling- my problem is I would like to have a live sound that is more suitable for quieter drummers and a dead sound that is less problematic with the louder drummers.

So the question is to DIY or not to DIY??? My thought is that I need some diffusors and a good way to use a dense cloth that will further attenuate MF (and some HF) if I need it- So- I could get some T'fusors, or some RPG metro's and then have a piece of fabric that can be put over it, or

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I was thinking about a 3d random diffuser (not a QRD) that uses tile or somthing extreemly reflective all set at different angles. And then again the same thing with the fabric (picture a heavy "curtain" that could be attached to the cieling and pulled accross the diffuser surface). I am wondering what you all have tried and what your experience is with getting good control, but not a super dead sound. And what/how you can vary your room to fit the project- thanks

Ryan

if youre thinking about diy, you should find and buy f. alton everest's book, the master handbook of acoustics.

[lucey]

I applaud your priorities ... it took me years to appreciate rooms.

OTOH, a room is a room. Empty or treated you end up with a basic sound ... sure if it's big and you have the money, you an change it around ... but the outside dimensions PLUS major treatments are the determining factor.


Having said that ... discovering how each section of each room sounds and how to place instruments and choose mics/pre's is the next step and there is a lot of potential in this step to suit the room to the style.