Record drums in gym?

[burningTr33]

Im trying to record for this heavy rock band and was wondering if a basketball gym can get me a decent sound for a demo. The ground is made from concrete and i think the walls are dry wall material.

[TonyB]

Wow! For slow jazz maybe, but heavy rock it could be a big mess unless you do some treatment to tame the reflections.

It can work if you put some blankets in the room. You didn't say how large the gym is, but probably too large to hang blankets on the walls.

At a minimum you may need to self-made gobos (i.e., blankets draped over chairs, and even better the parallel bars and horizontal beam!).

You'll have to watch the nasty reflections and tame them by dampening (blamket) and close proximity (get the mics as close as possible to the sources).

[Cailyn]

Do you have any choice besides the gym? That would be about the last I would want to record a band or drums for the reasons Tony mentioned. I think you're better trying to find a smaller and more acoustically neutral space than a gym. Otherwise, can you build a temp enclosure with heavy blankets for the drums? Even with close mics, you'll still get all those reflections bleeding into the mics.

[TonyB]

Yeah, what Cailyn said.... what about the nurses office?

I'm assuming the gym is in a school. If it's in a school, I thought there'd be a band room.

Cailyn's right, putting the mics close can help but will be subject to all kinds of bleed issues, which is why I recommended poor-boy gobos in any case.

[bradzoot]

If you are in a gym? there will be roll mats a plenty and of course changing rooms and a Store cupboard even (Tho' you'll no doubt have to empty it and put it all back after) lol.
If you have no other place to do your recording, like the others say you will have to damp it all down some.
Good luck

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by bradzoot

If you have no other place to do your recording, like the others say you will have to damp it all down some.
Good luck

And oh yeah, KEEP THE DRUMMER OFF THE TRAMPOLINE! Someone's liable to get hurt!

[suprstar]

A dead room is better for drums. You can add some reverb to dead room tracks, you can't remove the reverb from tracks recorded in too live a room..

[bradzoot]

Excuse me while i go off thread for a second.

Q/How do you know when you're playing on a level stage?

A/The drummer dribbles evenly from both sides off his mouth.

Sorry

[burningTr33]

i have this other room that is carpeted. its a lot smaller than a gym but its almost as big as a decent sized classroom. do u think thats better?

[suprstar]

probably ..