Treating a rehearsal room for Wind Ensemble

[guosh]

hi guys,

i'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but i thought i'd just ask

here's the scoop: i've been allowed to hold closed door recordings in my former high school's band room. however, the acoustics are quite atrocious there

they are planning to do some acoustic treatment, but aren't sure where to start, so i'm wondering if you guys have any opinions?

i've done some free sample recordings for them, and its been pretty bad. to me, it sounds extremely muddy and exaggerates certain sections above others.

i feel that the bass frequencies are overwhelming the middle, whereas the high frequencies are still pronounced.

its quite a complicated room though, some thick curtains were installed, there aren't many walls, just pillars, there's a high ceiling but its not totally even.

i've got a recording of them in this room in here recording wind bands and 2 pictures of the room close to the bottom of the page.

could anyone help with this? or if i'm on the wrong page, would anyone have any idea where i could find more information on this?

thanks!

cheers,
guo

[spm_gl]

I would try to only treat the bass, with foil-covered absorbers for example, because you want to be carefull not to remove to much high frequencies, especially for wind instruments. If the room is too dead, they can't hear themselves properly.

[jwl]

How big a room is this?

[guosh]

i'm not sure how big the room is exactly, but judging by eye, its about 6 metres high, 30 metres deep, 25 metres wide (to the pillars) and 35 metres (including the areas already concealed by the curtains) wide

about 5 metres on each side leads to a range of cupboards for instrument storage, possibly leading to early reflections from the pillars? in response they have installed thick curtains there to prevent further reverberations within that area

once i was in japan, and the acoustics guys there had some amazing results. they made a really small hall that was muddy and dull sound really good. from the audience it sounded clear, but all the musicians could hear themselves as well

its something that i've experienced as a musician in general, that most of the practice studios i've worked in have been acoustically treated, but the musicians can't hear the other sections at all, though it comes out pretty nicely to the conductor

i've never had a room whereby the sound from the musicians seats are anywhere as clear as the conductor's, so i'm trying to avoid such a situation, and try to get a room with a nice clear sound for everyone, not just for recording purposes

[Glenn Kuras]

Boy that is a HUGE room and can't see how you could do much without investing a great deal of money. Do they have endless pockets?

[guosh]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

Do they have endless pockets?

i could stick my hands in first to see where the bottom is