Room sound

tunesbybill · Post by **tunesbybill** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:28 pm

So I'm visiting a friend in CA and I walk into his apartment and low and behold...20ft ceilings!!! I'm not even kidding! I did the typical clapping and hooting like a maniac to check the sound (silly, I know, but I like hearing how it bounces and flutters) and then got out my guitar. I haven't heard my guitar sound so good. I wish I had some drums and gear, but alas, nothing.

I guess I'm just saying...well, nothing. Anybody else ever gone into a room and wished that they could record there?

jakeao · Post by **jakeao** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:20 pm

There is this tunnel where I work that is maybe, 9x9x200 feet. Solid concrete. It has the most amazing echo to it. I always think it would cool to record drums in there.

nordberg · Post by **nordberg** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:27 pm

yeah...every room i go into that isn't mine!

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:45 pm

i like the way my 2 car garage with 15 foot ceilings sounds.

too bad it's filthy, not climate-controlled and full of stuff (including a deep freeze).

still, maybe i could run a few mic and headphone lines out there and unplug the deep freeze for 15 minutes at a time.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:51 pm

That's the great thing about the physical world. Every space has a sound.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:56 am

my parents put an addition on their house a couple years ago, one big room with a cathedral ceiling and tons of windows. sounds lovely. their neighbors outdid them and put a 40x50 room on their house. ceilings are probably 30 feet up. it's awesome. i want to go and record really really slow drums there one day.

ms morespace's apartment is essentially one bigish room, like 20x20 or so. parquet floors, odd angles on the walls, one wall is all sliding glass doors. the reverb in there is AMAZING.

i was at my little brother's place the other night, and his living room had a nice reverb to it to. and it made me think....both of these places are pretty standard apartments, and we hear all the time how bad standard apartment rooms are for recording, what with the standing waves, bass build up, flutter echo, etc. but it seems to me that a room that sounds really nice to talk in would be good for recording, no? i mean at least vocals and guitars and such?

what do you guys think? i really don't know, i've been in a big loft for the last 7 years, and before that i recorded in a basement, so the typical apartment is a mystery to me.

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:20 am

The band room that is my classroom has like 20ft (or more!) ceilings and some kind of weird acoustic treatment on the walls, but a linoleum floor. There are tiers built into it that are sort of like risers. Sometimes, I just sit in there and play drums and it sounds so nice. I'm sure I could use it to record, but can I get the janitors to stay the hell out and stop running loud equipment all over the halls for a weekend? Probably not.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:54 am

could you go in and record at night?

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:27 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:could you go in and record at night?

I wish I could. They lock it up at 12. The school is never empty...there are always custodians there.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:14 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:my parents put an addition on their house a couple years ago, one big room with a cathedral ceiling and tons of windows. sounds lovely. their neighbors outdid them and put a 40x50 room on their house. ceilings are probably 30 feet up. it's awesome. i want to go and record really really slow drums there one day.

ms morespace's apartment is essentially one bigish room, like 20x20 or so. parquet floors, odd angles on the walls, one wall is all sliding glass doors. the reverb in there is AMAZING.

i was at my little brother's place the other night, and his living room had a nice reverb to it to. and it made me think....both of these places are pretty standard apartments, and we hear all the time how bad standard apartment rooms are for recording, what with the standing waves, bass build up, flutter echo, etc. but it seems to me that a room that sounds really nice to talk in would be good for recording, no? i mean at least vocals and guitars and such?

what do you guys think? i really don't know, i've been in a big loft for the last 7 years, and before that i recorded in a basement, so the typical apartment is a mystery to me.

i would record almost anywhere, especially if the room sounds like it might be nice.

becos i usually have no other choice, i do most of my recording in a small room with 8 foot ceilings, so i close mic pretty well everything and keep amps turned down and face acoustic guitars into a double-wide closet full of empty cases covered in heavy blankets.

any chance you could bring a portable DAT or flash recorder and a pair of mics and try recording something in those spaces?

lee · Post by **lee** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:31 am

hey, cool post.

there is a parking lot just outside of detroit, by my favorite dive diner. it's an out-door lot with a low-ceiling [10ft-ish] that covers about 30 sq yards of cement. the acoustics in there are the strangest thing i've ever heard. im no physicist, but there must be some wild reflections in there; all flutter with no long reflections (there are no side walls). ive wanted to record vocals in there, but alas, it's right next to two busy/noisy roads.

RodC · Post by **RodC** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:45 am

I hear ya, then I always think of making an IR of the room. Then you have to figure out how to get a decent recording, and of course there is the whole shooting a gun thing

centurymantra · Post by **centurymantra** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:54 am

I'm actually getting ready to do a remote recording/jam session with some friends and friends-of-friends. There's a building in the donwtown area here in which the top floor is this AMAZING space. I was given a tour of the building (the downstairs is an art gallery/performance space run by some folks I know through a friend of mine who works with them) and as soon as I walked in to the upstairs area I was, like, whooooooahhhh!!

It's pretty huge and mostly open. I'm guessing about 3,000 -4,000 sq. feet - maybe more, with 20-25 foot ceilings and very nice wood floors. Not to mention the vibe of the space...NOT a dreary warehouse. You really have to see it to appreciate it. I clapped my hands and got some heavy duty cathedral style reverb. A little over the top actually - but this is what should make the recording fun. There will be numerous room mics. Time to break out the 200 ft. mic cables!

standup · Post by **standup** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:32 pm

There's a bridge in my neighborhood that takes a street over a stream valley. There's a running trail that goes under the bridge, far enough from the stream that it's not loud. The street isn't super-busy. If I ever overcome laziness, I'd like to go down there with a portable rig and record something. The underside of the bridge is a concrete arch, a flat concave surface and hasinteresting reverb.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:58 pm

standup wrote:There's a bridge in my neighborhood that takes a street over a stream valley. There's a running trail that goes under the bridge, far enough from the stream that it's not loud. The street isn't super-busy. If I ever overcome laziness, I'd like to go down there with a portable rig and record something. The underside of the bridge is a concrete arch, a flat concave surface and hasinteresting reverb.

use that place to reamp the lead vocal in a song with a sparse arrangement.

tho it's not terribly elegant, line up the thing by hand afterward.

*takes a nap*

Message Board

Room sound

Room sound

Who is online