Live Room Measurements

[losthighway]

Hey gang. I'm gearing up for the next round of improvement cycle at my place. Last summer's journey of control room measurement/treatment was difficult but fruitful.

Has me thinking about my live room.

I know the goals aren't exactly the same but I assume you can find and should treat major anomalies. The obvious challenge is where to measure from and how to orient speakers.

[Scodiddly]

I suppose you could try putting a little monitor speaker wherever you plan on putting a source, and then put the measurement mic wherever you'd put a recording mic?

I'm only used to doing this stuff where there's a PA system!

[frans_13]

I'd ask, how much bass trapping is already there? You could post a few seconds of drums playing in the room or something.

[Nick Sevilla]

The obvious challenge is where to measure from and how to orient speakers.

Hey there.

I think the best way to go about your live room, is to set up a regular type session, if you have, say drums, an electric or acoustic bass, an electric guitar amp, basically what you normally do there for basic tracking.

Then, once you have your mics where you prefer them, track and listen objectively. Are you regularly having to cut out low end from some of the mics? Where are they placed? Maybe some bass traps in that part of the room will help... Which mics regularly need more high frequencies? Maybe move that setup a bit, see if you can get them out of a mid or high frequency null (those are small or tiny, we're talking a few inches or less). Is one particular mic really difficult? Measure right where that mic is, find out what frequencies there is too much of, too little of. Sometimes rotating your entire drumkit a couple of inches makes the whole thing sound better through the mics.

Just remember to always listen through the recording chain. And don't delude yourself into believing that you can ""fix it later." The best fix is getting the setup right to begin with.

For example, the Fleetwood Mac Rumours album? The drums took them 3 days to set up until it sounded pretty much like what you hear on the record. They did not have plugins or DAWs back then, so they had to get it right to tape. They recorded a few test passes as they went until it sounded amazing.

On my own recording, of Yes's Magnification, we took a little over two days to get the drum sounds as well. That meant less EQ overall, and less mix processing. That was some 19 microphones, due to the extra toms.