Drum Booth, size?

[Mixbuster]

Hey.

I've been planning making a drum booth to isolate the loudness of the drums.
Now, my q. is? Is a booth which is 2,5 x 2m to small? Will it be kind of box soudning? Im planning to use it for guitars and maybe vocals too?

The rest of the room is about the same size of the booth i'm planning to make, but due to costs, I can't afford to treat the whole room with absortion and diffusors, and iso the room from bleeding sound to the outer world

Any adwise would be great!
Thanks!

[Ethan Winer]

Yes, that's very small. You can make any small space workable by making it totally dead with thick absorption, but larger would be a lot better.

--Ethan

[Mixbuster]

You have any ideas or plans how I can reduce the sound leaking out? by up to 80 - 90% ?
Without making the wall 1.000m thick

[Tomer1]

On a budget?
Forget about it...

A good design doesnt have to feature 1m thick walls and usualy it doesnt.

Low end transmission ,the same intenssive low end which is genereted from a bassdrum is very hard to deal with when it comes to insulation and solutions are usualy costly.

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by Mixbuster

You have any ideas or plans how I can reduce the sound leaking out? by up to 80 - 90% ?
Without making the wall 1.000m thick

Just like Tomer said...that's going to be tough. I mean, you could build it using standard stud wall construction, and that will cut down transfer down considerably compared to being in the room with the drummer. Getting 90% isolation is going to be another thing entirely though....lots to consider, pretty much no cheap way to do it.

Frank

[avare]

Originally Posted by Mixbuster

You have any ideas or plans how I can reduce the sound leaking out? by up to 80 - 90% ?
Without making the wall 1.000m thick

I'm not trying to be pedantic, but isolation is measured in dB which is a ratio, like percent is. 80 - 90% is meaningless.

Andre

[skatingbasser]

I wish the term never reached conception. Booths are for vocals.

[CKK]

Dont listen to them - I've got a 2x3m drumroom aswell as a 5x5m with pyramid ceiling (4,5m), and often I chose to use the small room drumrecordings. The room is dampened with 5 rockfon bats hangin on the walls, it has limestone walls a wooden floor and a plaster ceiling. I even have a 1,5x1m window into the control room (plexiglas for less "slapback"). You should however choose your mics and pre's with care, finding the ones that "complements" the room/drums/player the most.

I can post soundclips of raw drumrecordings if you like.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by CKK

Dont listen to them - I've got a 2x3m drumroom aswell as a 5x5m with pyramid ceiling (4,5m), and often I chose to use the small room drumrecordings. The room is dampened with 5 rockfon bats hangin on the walls, it has limestone walls a wooden floor and a plaster ceiling. I even have a 1,5x1m window into the control room (plexiglas for less "slapback"). You should however choose your mics and pre's with care, finding the ones that "complements" the room/drums/player the most.

I can post soundclips of raw drumrecordings if you like.

Post away..
I know a studio over in the UK that has a room with about 6 foot ceilings that is sometimes uses for drums. Not your everyday sound but as an effect it works depending on what is called for.

Glenn

[Mixbuster]

Originally Posted by CKK

Dont listen to them - I've got a 2x3m drumroom aswell as a 5x5m with pyramid ceiling (4,5m), and often I chose to use the small room drumrecordings. The room is dampened with 5 rockfon bats hangin on the walls, it has limestone walls a wooden floor and a plaster ceiling. I even have a 1,5x1m window into the control room (plexiglas for less "slapback"). You should however choose your mics and pre's with care, finding the ones that "complements" the room/drums/player the most.

I can post soundclips of raw drumrecordings if you like.

Yea! That would be great! Post away :D

[CKK]

I'm on it.

I will make an mp3 playing each mic in 4-8 bars at 120bpm. Then you can drag it into your seq., split it for every 8-10 bars. And drag the snippets to seperate tracks, this way you can do your testing with each and every instrument in the kit.

I will do the same with some drums I have recorded in a major studio in Copenhagen, and in a much bigger room.

Hopefully I can upload it tonight (if family allows).

[CKK]

A small sample of the most recent recording done in the small room. It will not do for all productions, but for this one it just fits nicely.

It has been recorded through a Tore Seem consoles preamps.

Heres the layout:

245Bpm, cut it for every 10 bar and let them all go to "zero" on dif. tracks. Kick, snare, tom1, tom2, oh-L, oh-R, HH, room, snare side.

Remember, these are raw tracks without any processing what so ever - no eq, no comp. no nothing blah blah blah - you know the game

I will post a sample of the song when finnished, so you can hear the final outcome. And tomorrow I will post a sample of the most recent drum recording I have been a part of in a major danish recording studio (the differnce is not huge).

[Glenn Kuras]

I only have my lab top speakers so can't really hear things. I should be able to get into the studio later this week to take a listen. Thanks for taking the time to post!

Glenn

[kasperjensen]

I think those drums sound pretty cool.

I tried bringing them into my DAW and had a little play with them... To me they sounded great.

I am also looking to build a small drum (read: multipurpose) room, so now I know that it can be done, and it can be used.

[Disjointed]

I hate to be a hater, but i can definitely hear the box around your drums.

I record drums in an approx. 24x16 room, and i can hear that too, and wish i had a bigger space.

I mean its not that its bad, its just trying to chase down the "real" reverb that can make your kit sound fantastic.

[CKK]

Originally Posted by Disjointed

I hate to be a hater, but i can definitely hear the box around your drums.

I record drums in an approx. 24x16 room, and i can hear that too, and wish i had a bigger space.

I mean its not that its bad, its just trying to chase down the "real" reverb that can make your kit sound fantastic.

No doubt, you can hear the small room - and this small room is not my "goto" drumbooth. But still, it can be done - and it is possible to make "good" sounding recordings - even in small rooms.

This is a recording done in my second smallest rooms 4x3m. Again no processing done to it, through my Tore Seem console (no eq. in recording). The trio jammed a little while I corrected mics on the drums - so they are all over the place having a little fun. Recorded through 7 channels - OH's and kit/ambience being the "loudest" and spot mics being used for "snap" only.

A good trick is to ad a small amount of high qual. reverb on the kit mic(s).

[mrseuss]

Considering there is no process on those samples i think they really good, i am about to move my studio into a new building and have 2 rooms available;

Room 1 has the main entrance and two windows and is 3m x 2.5m

Room 2 has no windows just one door (through to the other room) and is 3m x 1.8m.

Both rooms have a cathedral style ceiling and are 2.8m at the highest point.

Originaly i was planning on having Room 1 as the recording room for drums, vocals ect and Room 2 as the monitoring room. But am now contemplating switching the rooms.

Do you think i would be better having the larger room as the drum room or the monitoring room?

[TheBigLongy]

CKK, I know this isn't related to the thread, but those who were jamming, are they into cinematic orchestra by any chance?

As for the drum sound .... Depends on what you want from the sound, if it's for commercial recording and other bands, then you need a room that will give you as many options as possible with regards to getting the sound you want, unfortunately this also means that it needs to be bigger to accommodate. That said, i've heard some lovely drums recorded in really small rooms with some creative micing and processing.

Horses/courses.