Thing you hate most.

[brandondrury]

I can't think of a bigger problem I have than my room.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

ya thats a lot of peoples biggest problem. If you actually have pretty good equipment and still aren't getting that real sound, then its probably your room. I lucked out on the room for now.

Ben

[brandondrury]

I'm getting so desperate that I'm thinking about just buying a place. I can tell it may happen sooner than later. I just can't stand this boxy shit anymore. It's effecting my quality of life.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

Brandon- I've heard some of your mixes. And damn If you've got as bad of a room as you say, well you must be an amazing engineer (which I'm not saying your not) because I can't hear that at all. Maybe its just my newbie ears?

Ben

[brandondrury]

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give my recordings a rating of: DOG SHIT!

Okay, they are not god forsaken pick vomit infested shit stirring tones (actually, that may be a good thing), but there is something TOTALLY lacking from my work compared to major label shit. My drums are crap and I blame the room. When I have a good room, I'll have nothing left to blame, but myself...which will be a fun time.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

Ya drums really need the room. Actually I've noticed that with close miced overhead techniques you can actually get rid of most of the room sound and just get the strait drums. Plus some of them (recordermans for example) actually get a better overall mix of the kit (that being the physical drums) rather than just cymbals. Maybe try some of that...?

Ben

[brandondrury]

The problem with the room thing is it sort of swings both ways.

Let me explain. From the way I understand it, most of us refer to a room as the reverb you hear in the room. You hit a snare drum and then you can hear the decay. That's the conventional room. It's possible that the decay is terrrible and that could be considered a "bad room" maybe.

Then there is another type of bad room. It's when the room is so small that you really don't hear a noticable decay or reverb on anything (even with a room mic). The room is so small that everything sounds boxy that is recorded in it. Essentially, comb filtering causes the room to be out of phase with the instrument. The end results sounds very cheap. I struggle with this on a daily basis.

You can really see this effect at my place if you move a 4x12 cabinet around. The low end will vary in extreme amounts. Even though I have 32 2'x4' bass traps, I still have big problems with this. So when I toss a 57 up on a cabinet in my room if I put the cabinet in the wrong place, the low end is gone. The 57 will not pick up any low end. Because it was cancelled out before the sound even got that far.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

What were the dimensions of your room again brandon?

Ben

[TAlderson]

I would put my room outside of my house, kind of like an extension or something. Or a shitload more soundproofing. There's just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much noise in my house, I can only really record when no one else is home. And even then, the dog usually finds a way to screw it up.

-Tyler

[brandondrury]

My room is started out at about 10'x12', but by the time I added my bass traps, it's much smaller than that. I think I've stumbled upon a technique that reduces the boxiness of the room when recording drums, but I want to try it a couple more times before I post it.

And even then, the dog usually finds a way to screw it up.

That's funny! I just got one of my better projects mastered. There is a cat's meow in it from one of the room mics. The band loved it.

Brandon