10x10x8 Tracking Room?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:16 am

Hello all!

I'm getting ready to build a rehersal room in my garage(mainly so I can play my drum kit without totally offending the neighbors) and was wondering if a (10x10x8 LxWxH) would be able to be treated somehow to be able to possibly track guitars and drums in?
It would be convient being at my home allowing me to practice recording more.Any advice would be apreciated. Thanks

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:43 pm

Buddy,

> was wondering if a (10x10x8 LxWxH) would be able to be treated somehow <

You can treat any room and improve it. But you're already off to a bad start with a room that's very small and, being square, surely has severe bass problems. Your best bet is to add as much bass trapping as possible, treating all corners including the ceiling corners.

--Ethan

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 6:24 pm

Thanks for the post Ethan!
Well its more for me to be able to play at th house but I figured I'd put the questoin out there see what I got Back.I could actually make the room longer but not wider,probably 3'- 4' further.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 7:18 pm

If you can lengthen the room to 12', 8 5/8", you can get very close to a room ratio recommended by C.P. Boner ( 1:1.26:1.59) which will make your room sound as even as possible before treatment. This works by spacing the resonances of the room as evenly as possible so that no one resonance is isolated perceptually. Treatment willl still be necessary in order to shorten the ringing of the low end resonances and to eliminate flutter echo between walls and ceiling, but due to your favorable dimensions, you might not need to treat the room so heavily, depending on what kind of sound you're after.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 7:42 pm

Hey David thanks for the reply.

Well thats sounds like good news!I have plenty of room for those

dimensions.What about a control room 5X10X8? (LxWxH)

And if I build the walls with 2 layers of 5/8" drywall on each

side and insulation,Would this be pretty good as far as hearing noise

from outside the room?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:58 pm

5 X 10 X 8 control room? Sounds more like a vocal booth. With the necessary acoustic treatments, you'd have about 1 foot to sit in. Perhaps you should consider making one large multi-purpose room for tracking and mixing, not simultaneously.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:32 pm

Thanks David

I figured it would be to small .Thanks!

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:30 pm

I built a similar room in my garage. I also made it "portable" to some extent because I rent and have moved it 3 times now. I have had great results with it as far as keeping the noise down for the neighbors, and decent results with tracking. I can play pretty much any hour of the day/night and I have never had a complaint from any of my neighbors (living in 4 different locations) - we turn it up pretty loud too (full drum kit, 400W bass rig, 100W guitar stacks).

For construction, I made 10 4' X 8' panels, one with a door in it (cheap discontinued double pane glass/insluated model from home depot). Each panel consist of a 4' X 8' 2x4 frame, filled with fiberglass insulation and half inch sheetrock on each side. I stood them all up, making a rectangle 3 panels long and 2 panels wide (total of 8' X 12'). For the roof I made 3 more panels the same way (the middle one less wide), and have them sunk about 2" into the room. I did this by making the 2x4's stick out a little longer, and notching out a 2x2 inch peice at the ends. I hold all the panels together with strapping and metal brackets. After this, I put up sound board (basically compressed cardboard, can get this at hardware stores) on the inside to deaden the room, since all sheetrock makes it pretty live. I also put some carpet down on the floor.

This room is great for sound reduction, but not the best acoustics. Whenever I record I use close mic techniques as the "room sound" isnt all the great, and then just use artifical reverbs/delays/... (plugins).

If you hve any more questions or specifics let me know.

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:43 pm

Modular!not a bad idea.

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:20 pm

In this case you really should calculate the modes, to get rough idea of where the problems will be. Do all your standard broadband absorption, measure the room if possible and be prepared to build traps tuned to take out the stacked modes.

Dan Nelson

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:21 pm

Thanks Dan

Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 1:36 am

oddity -

i've been looking into building a similar type booth, that is built with a type of frame that can be disassembled and reassembled. what was the total cost of the project? if you have some time, some more detailed info on materials used, building plans, etc, would be amazing. i just got a quote for around $6000 (plus $800 shipping) from vocalbooth.com for a simliar size booth - yikes!

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