Just Stuff

[catsittingstill]

 I have been laying down scratch tracks for the new album at the rate of two a day for nearly a week.  I only did one yesterday, but I wrote a new song also, so I'm good with that, I think.

I need to sort out recording very very soon.  Right now my major two options are pay for time at a studio (40$ an hour) or buy about $600 worth of materials to pad out the inside of the rumpus room and record in there as many hours as I want (less quiet surroundings, and not sure if the padding will work right but if it works properly I can get as much time in as I want as long as I don't mind getting up at 3 am to do it.)

And if the padding didn't work there is the option of upping the project cost to build a permanent recording booth in the garage (my first plan before I realized how expensive it was likely to be) and take the padding off the rumpus room walls to fully pad out the inside.

But purchasing the padding and having it delivered and installing it would take time; if I'm going to do that I better hurry.  And I think I want to buy an hour of recording time first--$40 isn't an unreasonable test cost--to see how much material I can record in that time and thus get a feel for recording costs for this project, and to listen for myself to the sound quality from that studio.

So I guess signing up for that hour is the way to go today.  Also laying down two more scratch tracks, or three if I can manage it, but I've done most of the easy stuff already.

Comments

[pbristow]

I may be able to help here (or you may know what follows already).

Lots of folks don't get the difference between "acoustic treatment" and "sound-proofing". They end up spending much more than they needed to on thing A, and it still "not working", 'cos what they actually need is thing B.

So, what's the main problem with the space you're recording in? Extraneous noise (in particular, noise coming through the walls from neighbours or road traffic); or that nasty "boxy/fuzzy" sound quality that comes from having too many reflective surfaces around?

If it's the second problem, then lots of padding - almost any kind of padding, however cheap - will help. Obviously "proper" acoustic padding is the best, in that it absorbs as much sound as possble per unit of mass/thickness and is of a material that absorbs a bit further down into the mid-range of the acoustic spectrum than just any old cheap foam matress will do, but if you can't afford the professional stuff then just think in terms of using the cheapest padding you can find, and twice as much of it.

And here's a useful trick I only cottoned on to quite recently: It's not so much the total surface area of padding that matters; it's the *angular* area subtended by the padding at the point of the performer and/or microphone. That's why these mini wrap-around vocal shields have become so pupular: Instead of having to cover the entire wall behind the microphone with padding, just a have a small concave "wall" of padding right behind the microphone, and make sure the performer sings towards that rather than towards anything reflective.

Obviously it gets trickier with guitar, though, as sound doesn't just come from one small point but the whole body of the guitar. Bringing the microphone as close to the guitar as possible (with a mini-shield behind it) helps the direct guitar sound to win out over the reflections from the room, but it spoils the sound of the guitar, 'cos you're only picking up part of the whole. So you need a bigger shield to catch all of it, but the basic idea still stands: Bring the padding closer to the performer, and you need less of it. If you put a 4 foot square of padding on one flat wall, and then sit with your knees almost touching it and the microphone between you and the wall... it'll probably feel very strange singing to a wall, but that pad should absorb just as much stray sound as if you covered four times the wall area and sat twice as far away. (Inverse square law.) Do it a corner of the room, and you've got the equivalent of a mini-shield for guitar. (Any remaining reflections from behind you will porbably be weak enough, and late enough, not to be a problem, but if not, then get a cheap foam matress and use it to "close the door behind you" when you go into your corner.

Sensible caveat: While these are all the tricks I would use myself if given the chance, I haven't actually got around to trying them yet. (There's not enough space in this room to prop up a matress *anywhere*, for a start! =:o? ) But that's the cheapskate's guide to reducing reflection problems inside the studio. =:o}


However, if the problem you're having is extraneous noise, that's much trickier, especially if the noise is at all bass-y. Low frequency noises can only be blocked by two things: Hard vaccum, or *LOTS* of extra mass, backed up by rigidity to reflect the unwanted noise back at the neighbour who's causing it (basically, doing the opposite of what you do to solve the problem of internal reflections). You're talking about building solid walls there, not just adding more padding. If the sounds you want to block are already getting through solid walls, then you need a second wall just as sturdy, and with a decent air-gap in between. If you can't do serious sound proofing, then the only solution to bass-y external noises is to get as far away from them as possible (inverse square law, again).

The ideal recording space is kind of like a boiled egg with most of the yolk taken out: Tough (and HEAVY) outer shell to reflect outside sounds away; soft fluffy inner wall to absorb sounds that are bouncing around inside. And then you put the egg in a wooden box, supported inside it by a ring of *really thin* and slightly flexible pins, just to be sure no contact vibrations get carried through to it when someone joggles the box. =:o}

[pbristow]

Heh. It occurs to me I've either just tried to teach you how to suck eggs, or how to soundproof 'em. Either way, eggs FTW! =:o>