Basement Studio..Help needed

[Chaotic]

Ok so Im moving my bedroom studio to my basement. My basement is a fairly nice size, with a bathroom and outside entrance which is a plus. Heres the dilemma:

The ceilings are only 6'-7.5"! Luckily Im 5'11"! Originally I was just going to set it up as a hip hop production studio. Just a control room and vocal booth. But that really limits what I can do, since Im into all types of music, and besides my own music, I want to start building clientel and one day open a real studio.

SO MY QUESTION IS: Is it worth building a drum room with such low ceilings? Is it gonna sound like garbage no matter how I treat the space. Im not going for major label production quality, but Id like to get a somewhat professional sound.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Ethan Winer]

Chaotic,

> Is it worth building a drum room with such low ceilings? <

Sure. If you cover the entire ceiling with absorption, that's acoustically equivalent to a ceiling that's infinitely high. Either way, any sound that goes up never comes back down.

For the complete story see the Acoustics FAQ, second in the list on my Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

If you get EQ magazine, my article in the June 2004 issue explains this in detail, along with several related issues. If you don't get EQ wait a few more days as that article will soon be on my company's web site, linked under my name below.

--Ethan

[Chaotic]

Thanks, I'll check out the article. One other issue that comes to mind is the best place in my basement to build the room is near the boiler. Should I figure out a way to soundproof that or should I build the room in another part of the basement?

[dbluefield]

Hey Chaotic:)

Thats Basically what I have done - can't report back as of yet as to how well an absorbant low ceiling will work - I'm still at the wiring stage - though a few informal recordings on a simple 4 track provided some encouragement.

Here's the link with a few pics:

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...threadid=16177

Don't forget to go here, if you haven't already:

http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

Best,

Dave
(BDRA, Basement Dwellers Recording Association) - kidding

[Jay Kahrs]

Originally posted by Ethan Winer
Chaotic,

> Is it worth building a drum room with such low ceilings? <

Sure. If you cover the entire ceiling with absorption, that's acoustically equivalent to a ceiling that's infinitely high. Either way, any sound that goes up never comes back down.

Won't that make the room fairly dead sounding? Would diffusion on the ceiling be a better option?

[Ethan Winer]

Jay,

> Won't that make the room fairly dead sounding? <

It depends on what the floor is made of and how much other absorption is in the room. My friend and pro studio designer Wes Lachot prefers to leave a band around the room's perimeter, but still have the entire center portion of the ceiling absorbent. That way you can record drums or whatever under the absorbent cloud, yet not make the entire room quite so dead sounding. But this is for a "real" studio that already has a reasonable height.

For a basement studio I'd still cover the entire ceiling with the thickest fiberglass you can pack in there. This puts plenty of bass trapping all around the room in the ceiling corners where it does the most good. Then you can add a border made of thin cardboard or very thin plastic under the perimeter only to restore some of the ambience. This gives the same ratio of live to absorptive surfaces that Wes recommends, but provides more bass trapping which is always welcome.

> Would diffusion on the ceiling be a better option? <

Not with a height of only 6-7 feet!

--Ethan

[Jay Kahrs]

You know Wes? Small world. The guys a madman. Love him. He's helped me out a few times.

[Ethan Winer]

Jay,

> You know Wes? <

Yes, we've gotten to be good friends over the past few years. We're even working on a very cool project together right now.

--Ethan

[BoogiepopJDM]

Heres a few acoustic advices
-Try to have atleast 10 feet from your mix position to the rear wall, this enable you to hear bass at its best possible. the farther away from the rear wall the better.

-try to have absorbers that can cover a wide range of frequencies. diffusers and bass traps are essentials

-try to rid of parallel walls as best as possible.

If you say you have a very narrow ceiling to floor space id concentrate deeply on treating the ceiling with acoustic material that'll help rid of alot of standing waves.