My recording room: A short and painful horror story, with a graph

[Soundstorm]

I have a problematic room too, in fact my readings look worse than yours after $2500 worth of acoustic treatment.

I’d highly recommend looking into IK Multimedia ARC studio for correction. It’s a box that goes between your interface and monitors and stores your room correction curves in it, so you don’t have to worry about toggling a plugin on and off. Works incredibly well and is only $300.

I’ve also been using the Slate VSX, and while they’re great (especially for travel), I still mainly use my monitors.

 

[311splawndude]

That was the most confusing thread I have ever read in the last 14 years here

Answer?

Carpet

 

[nightlight]

I have a problematic room too, in fact my readings look worse than yours after $2500 worth of acoustic treatment.

I’d highly recommend looking into IK Multimedia ARC studio for correction. It’s a box that goes between your interface and monitors and stores your room correction curves in it, so you don’t have to worry about toggling a plugin on and off. Works incredibly well and is only $300.

I’ve also been using the Slate VSX, and while they’re great (especially for travel), I still mainly use my monitors.

Thanks for the recommendation. I did some research on the ARC Studio device versus Sonarworks ReferenceID software, but most of the reviews are inconclusive. At this point, I'd rather spend $300 on room treatment rather than on these kinds of virtual room products. Feel that they are kind of gimmicky, or at least that's what I think based on my time with ReferenceID, which is the only one I've tried.

That was the most confusing thread I have ever read in the last 14 years here

Answer?

Carpet

We aim to please...

... but it didn't do shite, so f*ck that guy and the high horse he rode in on.

 

[Soundstorm]

Thanks for the recommendation. I did some research on the ARC Studio device versus Sonarworks ReferenceID software, but most of the reviews are inconclusive. At this point, I'd rather spend $300 on room treatment rather than on these kinds of virtual room products. Feel that they are kind of gimmicky, or at least that's what I think based on my time with ReferenceID, which is the only one I've tried.

There’s a guy that compared it against a $10,000 Trinnov system that does the same thing. You’ll also find a lot more user reviews over on Gearspace. But best of luck to you. Tuning in a small room with just a few hundred bucks in acoustic foam is gonna be an uphill battle, if not simply impossible. Honestly you’d probably be better off with some headphones or something like the VSX. Use as many different familiar references as you can when mixing. Familiarity is the key.

 

[DanTravis62]

... but it didn't do shite, so f*ck that guy and the high horse he rode in on.

What, the "i dont do close micing" shitter who makes bad recordings and talks shit to everyone proffered useless advice? I'm scandalized.

 

[Chubtone]

I also have been doing battle with a bad sounding 10'x10' bedroom studio in my house for years. I have spent countless $1000's of dollars trying differnt methods of getting things to sound right. One thing that helped is going from larger studio monitors down to Yamaha HS-5's.

Then I remembered one of my former guitar students has been the house engineer at Tommy Lee's studio for years. He has worked with Motley and Mick Mars tone and also Phil X and John 5 and grew up on the same old school sounds I like.

To avoid confusion, the following picture is not of my home studio, but Tommy's studio

So I contacted him and found out that he has his own bedroom at Tommy's house, but also lives just 15 minutes away from me part time also. I explained my situation and asked if I could hire him to come slum it in my home studio for the day and help me capture my guitar sounds. He was willing and about 2 weeks ago he came over.

Biggest takeaways, he uses the exact same Audio Technica ATH-50X headphones the original poster mentioned he already had. He prefers those $150 headphones because his mixes on them translate very well to listening on most other systems. He also said I listen to my monitors way too loud. Now I am trying to get used to listening at the level he kept them at. As also suggested earlier in this thread, he very much likes the Waves CLA NX for mixing in those headphones. He said that he has mixed many professional albums at home in his own condo with headphones and very moderate volume on his monitors and never had the neighbors complain.

He said I will never like the way my room sounds. That all the treatment in the world won't make it a good sounding room just will make it less and less horrible sounding. That headphones and my studio monitors at a much lower volume are the cures and learning my room and how mixes in those headphones using the Waves CLA NX and learning how they translate to other systems and compensating will have me happy with what I am doing much more than trying to treat a room that won't sound good regardless.

It was a full day of so much information and never hearing my recorded guitars sound better that is was almost too much to take in but this my best memories of what I got out of it.

And regarding "carpet", a 7' x 9' area rug in my 10' x 10' room certainly helped with the reflections.

 

[PiggySmallz]

I also have a fairly square room 12'x12'x9.5' with a 2'x7' closet at the back. All the treatment in the world won't make it an ideal space to mix. A lot of the reflections are better but there will always be issues in the lower frequencies due to dimensions.

I use genelec 8330a (5 inch woofer) at a lower volume to mix. More volume gets fatiguing quickly and larger woofers just aren't necessary in a small space. I'm far from an engineer but if you're going to treat a square room you need a lot of traps and possibly custom hemholtz bass traps tuned to the modes you're having issues with. It gets pricey quickly. Better off using correction software. I'm just stubborn and wanted to kill some of the reflections when I use my amps or listen to music. I'll never mix/master an album in the room so its less important to me.

Also I know people are half joking in here but a carpet is going to kill the highs, it won't do a thing for bass frequencies. Lower frequencies are longer waves therefore requiring much larger/thicker traps to tame them.

 

[nightlight]

So I got my bass traps. I'm pretty disappointed with them, they are really soft foam and don't look like they are incredibly high density. Of course, what do I expect for a lousy 12.50 Sing dollars for 16 bass traps made in China?
That said, I did a mix in the room without using my room correction software after adding the traps, and the results are really impressive (at least to my unschooled ears). Have a listen:



I'll do a room measurement and see how things have changed, if at all.

PS: Youtube appears to have ruined the audio with compression. I am attaching the audio file here for anyone who is interested. It's a OneDrive link.

Mandatory Suicide - Slayer (Cover)_9.aif

 

[311splawndude]

I also have been doing battle with a bad sounding 10'x10' bedroom studio in my house for years. I have spent countless $1000's of dollars trying differnt methods of getting things to sound right. One thing that helped is going from larger studio monitors down to Yamaha HS-5's.

Then I remembered one of my former guitar students has been the house engineer at Tommy Lee's studio for years. He has worked with Motley and Mick Mars tone and also Phil X and John 5 and grew up on the same old school sounds I like.

To avoid confusion, the following picture is not of my home studio, but Tommy's studio

View attachment 346322

So I contacted him and found out that he has his own bedroom at Tommy's house, but also lives just 15 minutes away from me part time also. I explained my situation and asked if I could hire him to come slum it in my home studio for the day and help me capture my guitar sounds. He was willing and about 2 weeks ago he came over.

Biggest takeaways, he uses the exact same Audio Technica ATH-50X headphones the original poster mentioned he already had. He prefers those $150 headphones because his mixes on them translate very well to listening on most other systems. He also said I listen to my monitors way too loud. Now I am trying to get used to listening at the level he kept them at. As also suggested earlier in this thread, he very much likes the Waves CLA NX for mixing in those headphones. He said that he has mixed many professional albums at home in his own condo with headphones and very moderate volume on his monitors and never had the neighbors complain.

He said I will never like the way my room sounds. That all the treatment in the world won't make it a good sounding room just will make it less and less horrible sounding. That headphones and my studio monitors at a much lower volume are the cures and learning my room and how mixes in those headphones using the Waves CLA NX and learning how they translate to other systems and compensating will have me happy with what I am doing much more than trying to treat a room that won't sound good regardless.

It was a full day of so much information and never hearing my recorded guitars sound better that is was almost too much to take in but this my best memories of what I got out of it.

And regarding "carpet", a 7' x 9' area rug in my 10' x 10' room certainly helped with the reflections.

This is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

@PiggySmallz - didn't realize carpet was bad. I have carpet and drywall in my mancave and can't imagine tone without it. Then again, I know very little about recording and do not necessarily shoot for bright/snappy tones.

 

[PiggySmallz]

This is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

@PiggySmallz - didn't realize carpet was bad. I have carpet and drywall in my mancave and can't imagine tone without it. Then again, I know very little about recording and do not necessarily shoot for bright/snappy tones.

It's not necessarily bad. It just may tame a lot of the highs and leave you with more low end. So in a smaller room it's not fixing your issue and more than likely creating a bigger imbalance. Also carpet on the floor isn't the end of the world, it's more when people add carpets to the walls for room treatments. I'll probably throw a small area rug down in my room just for "ambience" lol

Analyze the room with a mic and software from your listening position and see where your issues are. Ultimately if it sounds good and your mixes translate don't worry about it. Professional mix rooms are incredibly expensive and for most of us as amateurs, it just doesn't matter. If you're having a great time playing guitar and like what you hear then by all means keep doing it!

Software correction can help a ton if you want to really hear the difference without spending thousands of dollars.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I also have been doing battle with a bad sounding 10'x10' bedroom studio in my house for years. I have spent countless $1000's of dollars trying differnt methods of getting things to sound right. One thing that helped is going from larger studio monitors down to Yamaha HS-5's.

Then I remembered one of my former guitar students has been the house engineer at Tommy Lee's studio for years. He has worked with Motley and Mick Mars tone and also Phil X and John 5 and grew up on the same old school sounds I like.

To avoid confusion, the following picture is not of my home studio, but Tommy's studio

View attachment 346322

So I contacted him and found out that he has his own bedroom at Tommy's house, but also lives just 15 minutes away from me part time also. I explained my situation and asked if I could hire him to come slum it in my home studio for the day and help me capture my guitar sounds. He was willing and about 2 weeks ago he came over.

Biggest takeaways, he uses the exact same Audio Technica ATH-50X headphones the original poster mentioned he already had. He prefers those $150 headphones because his mixes on them translate very well to listening on most other systems. He also said I listen to my monitors way too loud. Now I am trying to get used to listening at the level he kept them at. As also suggested earlier in this thread, he very much likes the Waves CLA NX for mixing in those headphones. He said that he has mixed many professional albums at home in his own condo with headphones and very moderate volume on his monitors and never had the neighbors complain.

He said I will never like the way my room sounds. That all the treatment in the world won't make it a good sounding room just will make it less and less horrible sounding. That headphones and my studio monitors at a much lower volume are the cures and learning my room and how mixes in those headphones using the Waves CLA NX and learning how they translate to other systems and compensating will have me happy with what I am doing much more than trying to treat a room that won't sound good regardless.

It was a full day of so much information and never hearing my recorded guitars sound better that is was almost too much to take in but this my best memories of what I got out of it.

And regarding "carpet", a 7' x 9' area rug in my 10' x 10' room certainly helped with the reflections.

I had added Waves CLA NX for that reason. Saw it on sale and figured I would use it. As I and others have already mentioned, you just can't make a small space that great. There are some smaller and medium sized studios that turned out great recordings but that is also due to how well they mixed it and let's be honest, the bands and how strong the material was/is. But you can pump thousands in treatment in a room but then you suck all the life out of it. So then you reintroduce diffusion with more wood surfaces but then that can mess with you in other ways. I think general practices of a thick cloud, some proper super chunk style bass traps and decent broadband acoustic panels on reflection points is good practice but for mixing, I think you have to lean on reference mixes and phones to help you hear more nuances. If you get used to good references and then can also use something like Waves, I can't see why you couldn't get good results. A 10x12 room just isn't going to sound like a larger room with high ceilings. Andrew Scheps is another ITB and mix with headphones now, He prefers that work flow . So if you know you can't invest that much in your space, get the bare minimum paneling ( not foam) and make sure your recording chain is good. Good preamps, good mic'ing practices. You need to start with a good product, no amount of correction will help a badly recorded guitar or a crappy song with a terrible vocalist.

 

[Ben Waylin]

Carpet

I hear it has to match the drapes.

 

[nightlight]

I had added Waves CLA NX for that reason. Saw it on sale and figured I would use it. As I and others have already mentioned, you just can't make a small space that great. There are some smaller and medium sized studios that turned out great recordings but that is also due to how well they mixed it and let's be honest, the bands and how strong the material was/is. But you can pump thousands in treatment in a room but then you suck all the life out of it. So then you reintroduce diffusion with more wood surfaces but then that can mess with you in other ways. I think general practices of a thick cloud, some proper super chunk style bass traps and decent broadband acoustic panels on reflection points is good practice but for mixing, I think you have to lean on reference mixes and phones to help you hear more nuances. If you get used to good references and then can also use something like Waves, I can't see why you couldn't get good results. A 10x12 room just isn't going to sound like a larger room with high ceilings. Andrew Scheps is another ITB and mix with headphones now, He prefers that work flow . So if you know you can't invest that much in your space, get the bare minimum paneling ( not foam) and make sure your recording chain is good. Good preamps, good mic'ing practices. You need to start with a good product, no amount of correction will help a badly recorded guitar or a crappy song with a terrible vocalist.

Thanks, that’s why I’m looking into VSX. It doesn’t claim to fix your room, it does everything on proprietary headphones.

 

[njshred]

I have 6” rockwool covering three walls, and 1” foam on the ceiling. I never measured, but it sounds good to us.

 

[Greazygeo]

My room is small, with some treatment. Like Chubtone, I also went with smaller monitors HS5 from Mackie HR 8” and lower volume. And like I said a page or so ago the ARC Studio. That setup is really good. Like night and day different.