How to make a room a little more live??

[doclegion]

I record drums in a basement with brick walle and concrete floor.. I was thinking of leaning plywood along some of the walls??No??

Im working with limited space Thanks

 

[BLUElightCory]

There's not much more you can really do, as it sounds like you've got hard surfaces throughout the room, which will yield the strongest reflections. Putting up wood might help, but I don't imagine it'd be much livelier than brick. Taking out any floor coverings, curtains, furniture, or other miscellaneous clutter will increase the reflectivity of the room, for better or worse.

You can also try backing off your mics or putting up some room mics if you haven't already, and blend them in with your close mics. Close micing with cardioid (or a cardioid variant) is going to reject a lot of the reflections coming off the room boundaries, which will take away from the ambience you might be trying to capture.

 

[vespiz]

Angling plywood along the walls could break up some of the modes (if thick enough) and reflections, worth a try, why not? Small rooms are tough though, not much "life" in them.

 

[baalzebubba]

Please define what you are meaning by 'life' in the room. I've heard that word used in many differing situations with differing intent.

When I think life in a room - not a live room, I perceive it as the decay of reflections. With brick and concrete, the only things I can think of immediately that would increase the duration of reflections would be tiled surfaces or the metal hold of a sea-going vessel.

When we're tracking in shitty tiny square room with poor modes, we try to remove as much reflection as possible, close mic, and send some of the sources to a verb or ambient effect to regain that spacial decay.