Building a small recording/reverb room.

[Goblin]

Not trying to attack you personally, but that's a very odd question coming from someone who claimed to have worked with plenty of small rooms before. I know US houses are mostly constructed from timber joints and dry walls, but surely you have at least in your life, been inside a basement or a warehouse with plain concrete walls?

What question?

 

[Goblin]

I worked at Bearsville Studios for fourteen years. There was a live echo chamber in the facility, and there were practically fist-fights over who got to use it. It was an extremely non-technical, no big fuss room, about 8'W x 10'L x 9'H. It had a concrete floor and sheetrock walls and ceiling with a thick rough masonry parge - very uneven. Common wisdom on the room construction itself would no doubt be that it was a bad idea. We threw in a monitor from a pair no one would use for anything else and a stereo mic that was equally unpopular. The decay time went on forever and usually had to be damped down to be useful (a couple of bolsters would do the trick). It was always in demand. I think you have the right idea. It will sound like whatever it sounds like, and that will make it distinctive to your studio's sound. My only advice: rough parge.

Hey trouble, hope you're doing good.

My internet conection is dead slow at this moment, but I'm looking for what a rough parge is. Can't find a decent translation either (to spanish, so I can explain it to the pro in exact detail) Today the pro plaster man is coming to give me different budgets.

Does it mean, only to apply to the finish of the plaster a rough finish, a texture, or is it a complete different technique and mix than regular plaster? Like using various layers, a different plaster mix, plaster density, etc?

http://www3.ipc.org.es/guia_colocac...ion/capas_intermedias/revocos_enfoscados.html
Can't find a page that explains only what a "rough parge" is.

You can DM me if you want.

Thanks!

 

[JW]

Yeah, for a reverb chamber, as soon as you add anything absorbing (like a sh*t ton of bass trapping for controlling low end perhaps) or a bunch of gear and chairs and perhaps wood treatments. . .) it stops being an chamber. Also, most chambers are big, but a very empty, tiled bathroom can have quite the decay sometimes . . but you only know it when you're done if it's a build out. If it sounds reverby now and is amazing somehow then leave it empty except a speaker and a mic) I'd say if it has to be a recording room, try to control low end and make it vibey otherwise. . . . but very it would be stretching it expecting it to be a 'verb chamber too.

 

[Gold]

I was once in a very interesting drum booth in London. I forget the name of the place but it would have been in 1990 in North London. It was a popular place with lots if known albums recorded there. From the tube you had to find your way through a field to the street with the studio. Very secluded for the middle of London.

The booth wasn’t much larger than a drum kit. Through absorption and reflection they managed to make that closet sound like a room at least four times the size. It stuck with me.

 

[Goblin]

Yeah, for a reverb chamber, as soon as you add anything absorbing (like a sh*t ton of bass trapping for controlling low end perhaps) or a bunch of gear and chairs and perhaps wood treatments. . .) it stops being an chamber. Also, most chambers are big, but a very empty, tiled bathroom can have quite the decay sometimes . . but you only know it when you're done if it's a build out. If it sounds reverby now and is amazing somehow then leave it empty except a speaker and a mic) I'd say if it has to be a recording room, try to control low end and make it vibey otherwise. . . . but very it would be stretching it expecting it to be a 'verb chamber too.

Yeah, thanks for the advice. If you're interested read on up my previous comments to see how I'm planning to build it from the ground and make it a multipurpose room.

I guess I can get out of it a nice slapback at least. Yeah, def not a verb chamber. If I wrote that somewhere in my previous posts I correct, I'm posting at 2 am and very tired.

But definitevly a sound that's characteristic of that room and can't be reproduced elsewhere.

I'm guessing the room can have a "reverb sound", just as a regular bathrom will give you that kind of reverb or slapback, then control the dynamics of said reverb with materials here and there if needed, and then have the options of dampening it quickly, with highly absorbing materials, and movable wood planks and hanging clouds for other uses like I explained in previous posts. It will be a long project, and done step by step, trial and erros. Check out my other posts if you want. Thanks JW.

 

[Goblin]

I was once in a very interesting drum booth in London. I forget the name of the place but it would have been in 1990 in North London. It was a popular place with lots if known albums recorded there. From the tube you had to find your way through a field to the street with the studio. Very secluded for the middle of London.

The booth wasn’t much larger than a drum kit. Through absorption and reflection they managed to make that closet sound like a room at least four times the size. It stuck with me.

Yeah, you're right, I mean man, you have to work with what you have and try to make it work. It's science and some weird stuff thrown in there as well, and we listen with our ears (brain really), not with our eyes.

A lot of recording/reverb/multipurose rooms, like world class 15.000$ an hour rooms (I really don't know the actual figure, but I'm sure it's really expensive) are imperfect and no one knows why they sound so effing good. For example one of the rooms at Sunset Studios (where Prince recorded a lot of his stuff), where the floor goes slightly down, it's not leveled, and has other weird qualities that in theory, paper and measurements should make it unusable for anything sound related. People have tried to figure out how a room that by theory should sound like total crap but instead sounds amazing and can't figure it out (shrugs). That's why I like music, listening it, playing it live, making it and recording it.

The Wu-Tang Clan, as legend goes, sampled some of their drum sounds in the shaft of an elevator for their first record, and those drums sound wicked as hell. And you know what they say about The Wu-Tang Clan lol.

Same as one of the rooms in the now defunct Sound City Studios. That room by no means should have sounded that good, and it did, and no one can tell you why.

I know my room it's not a 15 L meter by 20 W meter by 10 H meter room, but that's not the point.

But coming back to your post, totally men, I can dampen that sucker up, place some reflective materials here and there, and get a good drum sound, with practice. I'm sure no diva drummer is gonna come record at my place complaining: "the room it's too small".

It's funny, usually, the higher you go in the hierarchy, ladder, of level of good musicianship, craftmanship (people who make profesional consoles, pedals, mic pre's, etc) , and level of recordist (engineers, mixers, and people who master), the more common man/woman everyday people, down to earth, friendly, and less diva they are. Again, shrugs.

Thanks Gold.

 

[Gavin Pursinger]

Yes...I like this 'play it by ear' approach. Decades of living this has yielded some good results...thx