Good gobo plans or place to buy them?

[AdamWathan]

Converting a garage into a studio this summer and I'm not entirely sure if it's going to be practical for us to build a separate live room and control room in the space we'll have so I was considering either buying or building some gobos about 6 to 8 feet high to try and isolate the sound a bit when tracking so that I can still try and reference the sound coming out of my monitors instead of the live sound... I'm not even sure if it's worth it really, but I'm interested in seeing some plans or finding some places to buy decent ones anyways!

The space we'll be using is probably going to be about, 18 to 20 or so by 12ish, so making two 9 by 12 rooms would be alright, but probably a little tight since my band is hoping to be able to use the live room as a rehearsal space as well, so it needs to be big enough to accomadate more than just one instrument at a time... Plus with the double walls and stuff you are cutting down your interior room size pretty significantly....

 

[colonel kurtz]

make some wood frames, cover them with burlap, then stuff as much fiberglass insulation as possible into them

 

[AdamWathan]

How would you mount legs on them though? How do you create a solid base so they don't want to topple over...?

 

[colonel kurtz]

screw some 2x4's onto the bottom as feet?

i don't know man, there's honestly a million ways to go about doing it...i was just trying to give a general idea. i would definitely go the DIY route though, as most decent gobos i've seen are ridiculously expensive, and are made from exactly what i mentioned in my previous post

 

[AdamWathan]

Another idea I just thought of... What about some really heavy curtains that I could pull across to separate the two rooms? If I had 2 really heavy curtains with a gap in between them do you think that would be enough to lower the bleed enough for me to hear the monitored sound through my monitors more clearly than I would be hearing the live sound? I just want to be able to hear what my mics are picking up when tracking instead of hearing what is happening in the room... I still would rather do 2 separate rooms so that I could have a window installed to be able to have visual contact between the two rooms, but if there isn't enough space to justify it then the curtain setup sounds appealing...

 

[gorath23]

I guess it all depends on how loud you are cranking the amp, I doubt that a double set of curtains would be enough, certainly not to the extent where you could distinguish the monitor sound from the live one. I would imagine gobos and then isolating the area directly around the cab with foam might be the better option. I saw a video where a guy had placed foam to either side, and on top of the amp, on the floor and directly in front (well around 3 feet away).

 

[G-Wrath]

The curtains won't work for the drums. Tried that for practicing once in a garage and it more or less did nothing.

 

[AdamWathan]

I'm more so worried about drums than guitar amps haha... But I think I might have a solution... What do you guys think about making like, 2 hinged 6 foot wide "doors" that are stuffed with rockwool and using them as like a retractable wall sort of? So I could have them closed during tracking, sectioning off an area about 12' x 7' for the drums, and still have a 12' x 15' control room. I could open it all up for mixing and have bass traps in the back corners as well as the benefit of all this absorption on the walls from the panels that would be folded back and have a nice big 12' x 22' control room. Then I could also leave the whole thing open for band rehearsals where we would then be able to utilize all the control room space as well... So far this is sounding like a definite winner to me, as long as these doors will provide enough isolation. It doesn't need to be silent by any means, but as long as I can hear my monitors and not have to wear earplugs to avoid getting ruined by the live drum sound, it should work...

I'm working on a diagram now, will upload soon.

 

[AdamWathan]

 

[AStacy2]

I dunno man, drums are loud. Unless you are making two seperate rooms with double layer drywall at least and do a good job at sealing everything, I don't think it's gonna work too great. I would just get a set of isolation headphones instead of doing all that work because you'd probably hear just as much with them on as with what you're talking about doing.

 

[Zack Uidl]

+1 for isolation headphones

 

[AdamWathan]

I've got 2 pairs of Vic Firth isolation headphones, but I don't trust them vs. my monitors... It would be nice though to have a guitarist tracking in the control room with the amp in the enclosed area and not have to throw isolation headphones on every musician in the room :\... If this wall will work as good as the headphones then I'd rather do the wall... I think I'm going to build it as one room and experiment with different things after the fact.

 

[AStacy2]

Cool man, I'm not too sure how well it'll work but I hope all the work isn't for nothing. Let us know though!

 

[gorath23]

All I'll say is that I have a horrible feeling you'll go to a lot of effort only to find you still have to use the isolation headphones. Whatever you do I think two 'layers' of sound insulation would be a lot better than just the one. Gobos positioned around the kit, then those big-ass 6ft doors closing off the area may work.

 

[Metaltastic]

I've got 2 pairs of Vic Firth isolation headphones, but I don't trust them vs. my monitors

Dude...what about those gorgeous DT 770's in your signature? :zombie:

 

[AdamWathan]

Dude...what about those gorgeous DT 770's in your signature? :zombie:

They don't isolate the sound enough to allow me to hear the mic'd sounds louder than the live drum kit if I'm in the same room They do sound absolutely wonderful though I think I'm still gonna try this wall idea because it will work at least as a gobo system, and if I have to use my DT770s and have the doors closed for me to be able to hear properly then that's fine... It's not like it's going to cost me a whole lot, just some 2x4s and a like 2 bags of Roxul Safe N Sound.. Whole thing will be like maybe $200.

 

[scorpio01169]

that plus this http://www.whisperroom.com/big_nbc.htm may do the trick...although expensive

 

[Zool2107]

Here is thread from a forum about studio bulding and acoustics: DIY acoustic treatments
Btw if you search that forum for "gobo" there will be plenty of results