Ambience

[MetalDave]

Ok, I posted this already but in the wrong forum but here goes again..

I hear alot of talk about ambience on here. I think ambience can be good but what we need to remember is Isolation. Do it in a seperate room from your noisy computer. Make sure the Furnace/AC isn't going to turn on in the middle of something. Air movement can be heard as tape noise or hiss. I have noticed some rooms give you that without any noise at all... Like putting your ear up to a sea shell....

Post replies and share your tricks on the subject. I have to go to work but, I will talk more on the subject unless everyone else covers it before I get back at 8:00 PM MST

[String7th]

Most of us don't even need to worry about recording room sound, natural reverb, or ambience right now. It takes a lot of space to start out with, then it involves audio wave science from the beginning of construction. Things like a floating wooden floor, room inside a room, quadratic diffusion, tuned bass trapping, and boatload of how sound waves travel at certain frequencies. Even small studios have spent

What we can do with amateur budget and recordingreview.com knowledge, is concentrate on isolation and broadband absorption

[MetalDave]

Ok, lets talk about inexpensive ways to get rid of that tape noise sound that can arrise from the sound of the room (like putting a sea shell up to your ear)..... I know maybe some curtains on the walls Egg flats work good too. Last time I checked you could get about 100 egg flats for $30.00. we aren't trying to spend money like the pros' we are trying to get close to or even pro results on a low budget. Anyone have any ideas what we should do with the room?
ex: carpet the walls... I had a room I built about 15 years ago it was 10' X 10' X 10' high on one end and 10.5' on the other we wanted to get unreal ambience. It sounded like a high powered rifle when I hit the snare. Then we put mirrors on all four walls and ceiling.... WOW you could do 3 and 4 part harmonies with yourself! But every time I listened to it on my Fostex 4 track I had tons of tape noise. No fans in the room and the levels weren't any higher than what we were using before outside the room. I thought at first maybe something was wrong with my Fostex. Then we figured it out... It was the room. too much ambient acoustics cause a hiss on recordings. These results can be corrected by mic positioning and other things but I want to hear how some of you have dealt with this.... this.. phenomenon. Treat me like I don't know anything so if someone wants to know how to deal with their enviroment they will have an idea how this all works. I can tell you a mirror reflects sound better than a chunk of Black rockwool. sound reflects off of things in the same incraments as light. Lets talk about things we do to make a nice room or booth or both LOL. I want to know how to get results from the room without building a Million Dollar studio.

[the.blode]

I think when most people in this forum are talking about ambience, they're talking about reverb times.. A quality live room can make a quality recording space. the 80s went through a trend of killing all room sound - and what came out of it was digital reverb soaking EVERYTHING, because the real stuff just wasn't there!

Isolation is important, yes. But don't sacrifice your room for it. bad Tape hiss comes from inadequate gain staging, not from the environment. You can cover your walls with carpet and curtain and whatever the hell you like to 'isolate' it, but in reality you are totally killing the diffuse reverb field without actually doing anything for the accuracy of the room. so.. put simply; if you put carpet on your walls you are making your room worse (generally.)

[String7th]

No carpet.
If you want to work on a drum room, Get rigid fiberglass or mineral wool panels and make a 45 degree angle wall in each corner. That will get you on the road to getting a better room sound.
Next you can get more of those fiberglas panels and mount them on the wall every 2 or 4 feet, leaving blank wall between them. Mount the wall panels 2-3" off the wall using wood or fiberglass spacers. Hang 2 more fiberglass panels over the area the drummer will play, but either mount Auralex(or similar) styrofoam diffusion panels on them facing down, or cover it in the foil facing, facing down.

[MetalDave]

OK but how much do these panels cost? I was hoping to come up with inexpensive ways to make a good room. Sometimes just hanging blankets in the right spots will help alot.

[the.blode]

The most inexpensive method is to build it yourself. "acoustic tiles" and the like are generally only average absorbers and rarely absorb down to very low frequencies (which is what you really want.)

Some consumer diffusors work alright, but I'd stay clear of acoustic tiles and similar, unless you've got really good reason to believe that they're the real deal.

You probably won't do any harm buying some fibreglass and just chucking it about the room, but to make the most of your time and money you really need to study up.

[MetalDave]

I have been working with rooms for about 30 years now. I used to run live sound for about 12 years so I dealt with new rooms all the time. I have used fiberglass and it ruined the singers voice. he couldn't stop hacking. the stuff floats around the room. you could see it little sparkely peices floating in the air. I have used egg flats, I have had a problem with them rattling against the wall because they weren't glued on good enough. Just thought maybe I could get a few fresh I deas on here. I have run carpet half way up the wall before, I think hanging curtains and opening and closing them to adust the acoustics has worked the best for me so far. I am getting ready to soak a bunch of cash into this garage and wanted to have several ideas before doing so. any other ideas would be appreciated, Thanks.

[brandondrury]

If you want to work on a drum room, Get rigid fiberglass or mineral wool panels and make a 45 degree angle wall in each corner. That will get you on the road to getting a better room sound.
Next you can get more of those fiberglas panels and mount them on the wall every 2 or 4 feet, leaving blank wall between them.

My drum room has zero absorption in it at the start of a session. I don't want my drum room dead. It want it big and live sounding. If the room doesn't compliment the drums, I would grab several wrapped Rockwool pieces and toss them in there, but I would never immediately deaden a room first.

Sometimes just hanging blankets in the right spots will help alot.

The blanket is probably the most powerful tool in the entire studio. I would be lost without blankets.

You probably won't do any harm buying some fibreglass and just chucking it about the room

Unless of course your room had some magical qualities to it to begin with.

I have used fiberglass and it ruined the singers voice. he couldn't stop hacking. the stuff floats around the room.

It MUST be wrapped in fabric or covered with something.

I have run carpet half way up the wall before

That's a short cut to boomy, dull recordings in a hurry. I don't think I'll ever recommend carpet on the walls.

[brandondrury]

I wanted to follow up on this thread:

I was reading in the December of 2006 issue of EQ this morning. I came across an article with Mark Linett (Frank Zappa, ELO, Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) where he was remixing an old Beach Boys album to DVD.


Mark Linett:

put everybody in the same room and let the sounds bleed into different mics. I think that's so much a part of that great sound on "Smile" and "Pet Sounds", and I guess someone noticed because I got a Grammy nomination for engineering "Smile".

.....Let the natural sound of a band playing together in the same room bleed into the other mics. It makes it....bigger.

While maybe Avenged Sevenfold is looking for a different sound than the Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, this concept of using ambiance/bleed to make things sound bigger and better needs to be noted and considered even with a metal band.

Brandon