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ok i have no actual "studio" when i record, i just have my room(I'm 17 for christ sake). and i feel it has sh*tty acoustics for recording drums...but dont ask.

Could you guys just tell me what type of room is OK for drum recording?
i know nothing... i just want to know anything basic... big room, small room, lots of "reverb" in the room, or should you hear nothing bouncing off walls... HELP ME OUT

thanks

Comments

anonymous Fri, 08/11/2006 - 15:33

It depends on the sound you want. I dont know a whole lot either , but common sense and a little experimenting tells me that for a "big", wet (lots of reverb) sound, you need alot of reflection off hard surfaces. so no sound deadening, mostly reflective surfaces. Or if you need, or want a more controlled, and dry(little reverb) sound, go for the covered surfaces - auralex type materials on the walls by the drums, or have a generally dead room. I get a pretty good sound in my one room studio by using the foam on the walls and ceiling to get a dry-er sound, and then add the reverb I want by usind the effects on my DAW after the fact.
Either way, reverb in the room or not, or big OR small room, you can get a good sound by proper tuning of the drums, proper placement of mics, proper effects and eq'ing. It all plays in to the final product, and it depends on what YOU want. personal taste plays in as well, there is no right or wrong way. Listen to some of your favorite drum sounds. There are some seriously f*#ked up sounds on alot of music, but its because it worked for the song. You need to invest some time experimenting and using your ears if you want to "nail" the sound. Thats what I do, its just alot of work, but it pays off when you realize you're doing it right, and it's fun too.

anonymous Sat, 08/12/2006 - 03:43

gabrieluko wrote: Could you guys just tell me what type of room is OK for drum recording?

Any room will work. But the bigger the room the more open the sound, with less standing waves. Standing waves are reflections (meaning the sound is bouncing) off of opposite walls. Like when you hit the toms and they seem to ring on forever and ever and ever.

In a smaller room, you will get what "I will refer to as" a closed sound, with alot of standing waves. Now standing waves will not fuck up your recording. But as you get better and better, a couple of years down the road, with a little more exp. You will hear in your recordings that when you have alot of standing waves, this means that the waves are bouncing off of ALL the walls and going "past" every mic in the room as well, until the sound fades away. So you end up with a delay issue. That can be heard even by experienced beginners.
:lol: Ha, I like that...experienced beginners.

Now the only other input I have for you is this.
If you empty the room. Like all the beds, chairs, sofa's, ect. You will get a WAY different (not better, just different) sound Vs if you try to record with 2 sofa's a LazyBoy and a bunch of carpet hanging on the wall.
When you put things like couches, sofas in the room, it really helps to absorb the standing waves. AND will change the sound of the room ALOT. So if you record in your room while its empty, see what it sound like after you do that. Then add something, anything. Like a sofa, or a couple of big phat chairs with lots of padding. Also big dense blankets work great and are easy to hang or even just drape across the corners of a room. All these ideas are somewhat simular to a "bass trap".
A bass trap, does just what you would think. It traps the bass (waves) from bouncing all over the room again, and again, and again, until the signal runs out of strength. It absorbs some of the signals energy, without killing your sound.
Happy recording!
Hope some of this helps.

anonymous Sun, 08/13/2006 - 03:17

I hope you guys & girls don't have cable, they exercise "free speech" all the time.
I remember when I was 17, we made up new "curses" I mean new "curse words". Just so we would be able to "curse" in front of the teachers and they would NOT know what we were saying, and most importantly could NOT get us in trouble. Like Hey Jackmaster, your a such a douchebag.
Since were all freedom loving Americans (aren't we all?) I took the liberty to look up the definition of curse
Curse -- (noun) A calling down of evil or harm upon one

Wow, evil...cool :twisted: . I love evil, like killing a bunch of Americans during the Salem "witch" trials and labeling the people who were not Christ followers as witches.
It's all starting to make sense. Free speech bad, Jesus and church good.

Well I'm off the the bathroom, to take a shh...I mean dump

Davedog Sun, 08/13/2006 - 10:55

Oh give me a break. This isnt about freedoms or any such notion. Its about taste and consideration of others, something you apparently have no knowledge of. The point being, you dont have to use those type of words on a forum read by lots of people the world over, some of which are young children.....yeah thats right , kids read this too. We have teachers who use these pages in their classes. Hey you wanna spout off about your unalienable rights to freedom of speech then take it to the Supreme Court or go hang out in the 'cave' over at Homerec. You can act or say anything you want there. The grosser the better. Here, there must be decorum and class. You dont like it? Bail.

Any more of this and it gets locked.

anonymous Mon, 08/21/2006 - 12:56

Yeah well, back to the subject. There are many things you can do to record drums. Drums are a lot of the times the most difficult to record, because there are so many sources to mix and in sound tests, the drummer may be testing at a different level than he or she actually plays. Usually, I don't want too much "reverb" or reflections when recording drums, but that is my preference. Try moving the drums around your room, or bring them into another room to record. See what sounds good to you. If you want to "deaden" the room ambience sound, you can put thick blankets on the wall or ceiling. Or you can stand your bed's matress against the wall behind your set. (I'm assuming that since you're 17 you are looking for low budget answers.) Mess with different mic setups. Mic each drum, or have two overhead mics, and a mic for the kick. Like I tell everybody, just keep expeirmenting until you get what you like. And its good that you're intrested at such a young age. As you'll get older you will be able to afford better equipment, and you're on the right track asking questions. The advice you'll recieve here is very valuable. But remember, this is an expensive hobby until you start recieving profit from it. You'll still need a job until that point. Good luck

natural Mon, 08/21/2006 - 14:47

If the room is not a 'good' sounding room (IE: 4 parallel walls) your best bet is to make the room as dead as possible.
As mentioned previously, use carpet, chairs, etc.
Then use verb and other tools to carve a better drum sound. It can be done,
but it will take some trial and error.

SUB TOPIC:
Just because you have free speech, that doesn't mean that someone else is obligated to allow you to use their airwave, magazine, website, TV, etc to express yourself.

Oh, to be young and full of wonder.