Room Treatment for Guitar Recording

[Matt Smith]

I ran an interesting test yesterday to see how much the room sound was playing into my guitar tone. I recorded a part like normal, and then moved the cabinet outside and miked it and recorded the same part. Now obviously it's not a perfectly scientific test because of mic placement, but I really tried to duplicate the placement as perfectly as I could to minimize that as a factor. Anyway, you wouldn't think the room would play into it too much when close-miking with a 57, but I guess it does because I could definitely hear a pretty big difference. The tracks recorded outside were less muddy and way tighter and more focused, with better high end. I've been planning to put some bass traps in the room, and I guess I need to quit putting it off and go ahead and do it. The room is very treated, with strips of 703 on the walls alternating with open wall space so I wouldn't have much of a high frequency reflection problem, but the room wouldn't sound completely lifeless (we also rehearse in there, as well as record drums in there, so it doesn't need to sound like a tomb).

Do you guys think the sound will tighten up significantly once I add the bass traps? Or am I losing valuable mid-high content with all the absorption from the 703? I assume it's a case of the low frequencies masking the highs moreso than any lack of highs, but I thought I'd ask in case anyone has any experience with this (and I've read all the online acoustics/room treatment sites many times...I'm talking strictly for recording loud amps).

I wish I could find a place to get those big, thick foam walls like they use in the "A Year And A Half..." video (at least without paying an arm and a leg). I don't want to build any gobos or whatever to put around the amp because I want to avoid close reflections (especially in a relatively small room like ours).

Thanks guys!

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Well, I don't know if this will help much, but I noticed my guitar sound tightened up hugely when I brought the cabinet out of my amp closet (heavily treated with rockwool) and placed it in my drum room, in a corner, facing outwards into the room. In the closet, it seemed tubby, whereas in the drum room, it sounded much more focused. Then again, I've got a huge Hemholtz resonator wall in the drum room & no parallell surfaces, so that's helping out big time.

I'd say, get the bass traps. Talk to Ethan Wiener at realtraps.com He's a great guy to deal with.

-0z-

 

[MKS]

Save your money, check these out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3278&item=7328229293

I just got four in last week. Made an amazing difference. Plus, the guy is easy to work with.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[vile_ator]

In 2 studios we built we installed amp closets. In the second studio we even put a wood floor and tried to make it as rigid as possible. But we never use the closets. Its true these small rooms do effect the guitar sound. Seems hard to believe when you have a speaker cab hammering a mic at 120 db but its true. We just put the cab out into the drum room and mic up, then place a little wall of foam around the setup. Works great. The small rooms have resonant frequencies in the mid bass areas that always seem to muddy up the tone.

Colin

 

[Matt Smith]

Can you recommend a good place online to get those foam walls, by chance? And MKS, thanks for the eBay link; I'll have to pick some of those up. The guy is in Atlanta too, so maybe he'll let me pick them up in person and save on shipping.

Anyway, thanks everyone.