recording in a shoebox

[blappo]

pardon any redundncy here, as i could find nothing in the archives that specifically addressed my situation. my live room is 8' x 20' with 8' ceilings. it is a room bulit within a room, with osb walls, a layer of soundboard and another osb wall (outer wall). i've covered the walls and floors with carpet, sleeping bags and various materials with the hope of deadening some of the inevitable sonic chaos that loud music in a room of this size produces. i'm still having some problems with low frequency standing waves. at this point i have neither the time nor finances to build the ethan wiener bass traps. i did just get 32 1'x'1 foam pads which are advertised as good for knocking down standing waves. from other posts i've read, i realize this may be wishful thinking, however i'm going to give them a shot. can anyone recommend a placement strategy that will maximize the effectiveness of these pads given my situation? thanks.

[chrisrnps]

my live room is 8' x 20' with 8' ceilings.

i'm still having some problems with low frequency standing waves.

It's too bad two of those dimensions are the same (8' wall, 8' ceiling), especially since it sounds like you went to all the trouble of building a 'room within a room'. Your standing wave / room mode problems are really going to be exacerbated (sp?) by having two or more 'same' dimensions in the room. Most of your problems are going to be most noticeable in the low frequencies, which unfortunately is where adding a bunch of foam, blankets, etc. to your walls is going to be the least effective.



http://www.mcsquared.com/modecalc.htm


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[auralman]

have you considered soffets to reduce the # of 90 degree surfaces?

[blappo]

what is a soffet?

[soundguy]

its what happens to muppets when disney buys them.

dave

[auralman]

That rocks.


A soffet is a structure built into corners that renders them ass angles. Bad drawing, but:

_________
/
/ <--- this is the soffet
|
|
|
|

[The Gibbon]

If you'd like to try to build a really cheap, but somewhat effective Helmholtz resonator http://web.archive.org/web/200008161452 ... mTubes.asp

[mechanic]

what's an ass angle?

[trashy]

If you'd like to try to build a really cheap, but somewhat effective Helmholtz resonator http://web.archive.org/web/200008161452 ... mTubes.asp

That would be harder and less effective than building one of Ethan's bass traps...
The easy version should take you about an afternoon: run some 1x2 up the corners and put some ribid fiberglass over the corners - voila! instant bass trap. An even easier thing would be to buy some rolls of regular fibergalss and stick them in the corners - believe it or not it actually works. But it also takes up space.

[blappo]

thanks for all the input. i've considered the rolls of fiberglass, but usually balk at the space it would take up. at this point, i might be willing to make that trade. i've also considered simply getting 8' 4x4s and cutting them diagonal and sticking these in the corners. might this work?

[@?,*???&?]

Take an omni-directional microphone and poke a hole in the bottom of a shoebox. By bottom, I mean at the end of it length-wise. Use tape or whatever you have to to get the box to sit around the microphone and put it up on a stand in front of the drumkit. Use it as a drumkit mic or a fill mic. Nice!

[@?,*???&?]

What's this thread about anyway?

By the way, don't use the mic to poke the hole in the box...fyi

[The Gibbon]

The reason I recommend the Helmholtz resonators as opposed to just the bass traps is that a Helmholtz resonator will be frequency specific. Think of a bass trap as a broadband shelf as opposed to the Helmholtz notching out whatever desired frequencies that are causing your problems.

[brokenchairs]

have you tried moving the drums and cabinets around? sometimes you can change a lot about a rooms sound just by moving things...just a thought.