What's the 1st thing I should do to my unfinished basement to record?

[jona]

I've recorded for years on a Tascam 4-track and a Vestax HDR-6 with absolutely no knowledge of recording, and it shows. I have just bought a house and the only place my wife will let me set up is in the basement. It's unfinished and I'm strapped for cash. What are some basic things I can do to improve sound quality for recording guitar, vocals, piano, etc? I have read the posts about the SM 57 and intend to pick one up at some point (up to now I've been using some RadioShack thing). I get a lot of noise/hiss and don't know if maybe I just need a better recorder/computer software, or if I can improve layout or put something on the bare block walls. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

Jona

[brandondrury]

Great question. Great recordings have been done in basements on four tracks. Keep that in mind. You may want to try searching for on the forum. I know someone used a 4 track and posted some excellent sounding recordings. I can't remember who it was though.

You need to be VERY careful with your acoustic situation. I'm assuming the walls are concrete. This can be AWESOME or it can be TERRIBLE depending on the room, the instruments, and the song. You are really going to need to play with that. I'm the kind of guy that would prefer a room that was too live for tracking because it's VERY easy to knock down the ambience of the room using whatever you can find. A few blankets hung with mic stands will make a big difference in the ambience of the room.

While I always recommend bass traps in just about any sized room, they may be out of your budget at this point.

Are you looking to upgrade your recording system or are you keeping the 4 track?

Brandon

[jona]

Thanks for your response. It is encouraging to know that I should be able to make something with what I've got. I will have to start experimenting.

Yes, the walls are concrete block (and the floor tile, or concrete where the tiles have come off). I would like to upgrade my system at some point, but once I'm in a position to buy a recording computer, I need to fiqure out if it can withstand the moisture level downstairs. I have a dehumidifier running part-time, and an old piano is down there, but I keep my guitars upstairs. There's also the long-term hope to finish the basement so that it would have resale value, but also be good for recording while I'm here.

Jona

[brandondrury]

With the concrete walls, the first thing you'll want to get away from is called "flutter echo".

Flutter echo is a real fast reflection that can often make a ringing sound. There are two ways to get rid of it.

1) Deaden the room so that the reflections don't smash into each other.

2) Put up a few angled surfaces that will break up the parallel walls.

The thing about recording done this way is the personality of the room will be on every track. If you can make that work for you, great! You won't be able to get any and every sound out of a room like this.

Brandon

[PhilB]

I am in the same situation actually. But i've put off doing much downstairs because of the idea of multil mulit $$ for the room with in the room idea...it's also kind of too messy currently...

but anywho.

blankets on mic stands...cool idea! don't have to drill into the wall or put hooks into the joists overhead...portable/changeable too..i like it.

Another VERY important point when mixing i got from another forum of BIG guys (brandon knows where). monitor by you facing the SHORT wall, the idea being most reflections bounce off side wall and then go al LONG way before bouncing off rear wall and back to you...and of course direct stuff out of the speakers also gets the long throw. makes for much better mixing (doing it the other way would give way too much room reflection). There's a lot more to do of course but that's one quick easy thing that matters. Another is to put quieting material on any surface that will reflect i.e. put a mirror on the side wall while facing the monitors...move it until you can see the monitors in the mirror. Deaden that area. Seems obvious once you hear it, but if you don't know...it's golden.

Cheers,
pb

[DogpitStudios]

What are the dimensions of your space? Once we know exactly what you have to work with we can help a bit more. Im assuming you have a large concrete rectangle. I'm also assuming that you have 8' ceilings though its most likely more like 7'4" or something. And the last thing I am assuming as others are assuming to, is that your room is not a large square or cube, meaning all three dimensions are different. Because your room is concrete, building wooden deflectors (notice I say deflectors and not diffusers) may be completely out of the question, even though its my preferred way around the solution. There are two large things here that you are going to want to control. The overall reverb time of the room (this including flutter echo, and other forms of cancelation due to colliding waves and repetitive echos), and the bass or low frequency response. These matters must be treated differently because they are completely different things. When you clap your hands in a room with high end absorption, it will sound dead, but in reality your bass response in the room could be so random as to cause peaks in the frequency response resulting in ringing. Concrete rooms will only make it easier for there to be standing waves in low frequencies. If you the expensive acoustic foam you can buy anywhere up all over your walls and waste yourself $300 you will reduce a lot of the natural reverb of your room resulting in the dead sound, but now your mixes may result in a super high bass when played elsewhere besides your room. I'd say the first most important thing would be to bass trap all the corners off with simply just covered OC 703 or 705 rigid fiberglass. Its pretty cheap and comes in 2x4 panels. There are other absorbent materials that I'm sure others will name after me, I only push forward OC because I have worked with it before. If you lay it covering the entire corner so that it forms a triangular air gap, you will eliminate a lot of the overpowering bass response in the room, though much may be left. If you are in the mood to build some non parallel walls this is the best way to tame reverb time and flutter echo, but if you can't do that, then covering an entire wall with absorbent material may be your only option. PhilB mentioned the mirror technique which is something I've seen Ethan Winer talk about when trying to find the first reflections from your monitors to cover in absorbent material. I'd have to second that and say its a great way to get your mixing to sound better. If you could draw up a plan of your room, we may be able to easier give you a cheap yet effective way to treat your room well for you.

Ben

[brandondrury]

Kick ass post dude.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Kick ass post dude.

Brandon

Hoping that you were talking about me, THANKS.

I've invested months into acoustics research. Actually I started researching cause you, Brandon, told me to haha. So I guess its thanks to you. Anyway, I've spent a lot of time talking with, reading, studying, ect. Ethan Winer. I have to say no one gives help like him. It's gotten to the point where on the studio building and display forum on my other board, people actually are dropping PMs asking for my expertise. I usually hand over Winer's site and say I'm no specialist, just a kid with ambition and a dream (and a terrible control room to work with :P ).

If any of you need it www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html is one of the greatest articles I have ever stumbled upon. Its a bit word heavy and a very tough read. Took me 10 times to get everything, and I still may be missing some of the more advanced concepts. At least I'm confident though hahaha.

Good luck with your studio dude.

Ben

[brandondrury]

Its a bit word heavy and a very tough read

No one sums it up in laymen's terms like Ethan. Have you tried reading any of the Alton Everest books? Those seperate the men from the boys. I highly recommend the Master Handbook of Acoustics. Fair warning. It's not for the meek.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

No one sums it up in laymen's terms like Ethan.? Have you tried reading any of the Alton Everest books?? Those seperate the men from the boys.? I highly recommend the Master Handbook of Acoustics.? Fair warning.? It's not for the meek.

Brandon

Haven't read any from him, but now that its suggested, I'll give it a go around. I'm one of those guys who believes acoustics is more important than my gear (to some extent : ). After all if your room is a basement with concrete walls, chances are, your recordings are gonna sound like they were recorded in a basement with concrete walls... could be a good thing.

Ben