JWL.Freakwitch.net

February 20, 2006

Quitchcraft acoustic treatments, phase one

Phase one of acoustic treatments for the studio is officially underway. It's officially DIY, because a)it's all we can afford, and b)it appeals to my punk aesthetic. I'd love to build a gorgeous studio, but I have neither the time nor the budget. But I do need to make the room our studio is in sound good before trying to record an album makes sense.

I was for some reason hesitant to write about it, but truly I have been hyperfocused on studio design and acoustic treatments as of late. So here's the plan. We are ordering enough material to build 6 bass traps and 6 moveable gobos. We're going to use acoustical cotton (as opposed to rigid fiberglass or rockwool panels) as the sound absorber in both designs. The cotton comes in thick, dense sheets of 2'x8'x5.5". We will also need some lumber, and some fabric.

The bass trap design is simple (though technically these will be "broadband absorbers" since they will absorb high frequencies also). Take one of the cotton sheets, put it inside a wooden frame made by 1x3s, and wrap the whole thing in cotton. Add small legs with scrap 1x3 so that it will stand upright, and put one straddling each corner of the room, making a 45-45-90 triangle. This design is simple and should be very effective at helping to smooth the bass. I will also hang 2 of them in the wall/ceiling corners of the studio.

The gobo design is a bit more complex. For this, I will need to build a 4-sided frame out of 1x8s, that is 2' wide and 6' tall. A 2'x6' piece of MDF board will be attached to one side, creating a reflective surface. The other side of the frame will be cloth, covering up another of the above cotton pieces, leaving room for about a 2-3" airgap (and some reinforcing braces, along with possibly a layer or two of sheetrock for further mass and acoustic isolation) between the cotton and the MDF.

The gobos have 2 functions. During times when I need to listen carefully to the speakers, such as a mix, the gobos will be arranged to create a Reflection Free Zone (RFZ) at the listening position. And, when recording, we'll be able to move them around to get the area where the person is performing to sound good.

Eventually, I think we will have a total of 10 bass traps and 14 gobos. This allows one bass trap in each wall/wall corner, one bass trap in the wall/ceiling corner of the short walls, and two bass traps in the wall/ceiling corner of the longer walls. The gobos will be placed against the walls unless needed for recording; 4 each on the front/rear walls, and 3 each on the side walls.

In addition, some room construction needs to happen. We need to install 2 doors in a way that makes sense acoustically, finish sheetrocking the room (adding a 2nd layer of sheetrock to the framed walls, and take care of the ceiling.

The plan for the ceiling is to stuff fluffy fiberglass between the ceiling joists, paper side down in the room except for just over the mixing position (part of making an RFZ) and over where the drumkit sits (to help the overhead mics sound better), with a blanket stapled to the bottom of the floor joists, covering the fluffy stuff to keep the fiberglass fibers from falling down. All other areas of the ceiling will have the fiberglass paper side down. Then, the entire ceiling will be covered in fabric.

Once all these steps are finished, we will have a much larger amount of sonic flexibility while recording, better isolation, better sounding recordings, and most importantly, we'll have a mixing environment whose sound isn't distorted by sonic energy bouncing endlessly around the room. We'll be able to trust what we're hearing, and mix without overcompensating for bad acoustics.

Furthermore, 2/3 of our efforts will result in modular items that can be (relatively) easily moved to other locations.

Real Soon Now, we will have taken our first bite out of this, and we'll be about 1/3 of the way there.

February 18, 2006

w00t! fruit!

Tonight was fruitful. I got the new headphone mixer wired in a way that will work for us. 3 new sets of isolating headphones are on their way to us. And we'll begin acoustic treatments in the studio within a week or two.

Things are moving forward with Freakwitch. This is a good thing.

When I feel this, I can't help visualize a big cauldron, stirring (deosil) a big thick sludgy liquid....

Bubble, bubble....

February 16, 2006

acoustics and studio construction

My mind has been on acoustics lately. Not acoustic guitars, but on ways in which one can improve the sound of a room. In particular, I'm trying to improve the sound of our studio. I have A Cunning Plan(tm) that I actually think we might be able to afford.

But in coming up with this cunning plan, I've discovered many people writing about the same problem, ie, how to get a small room to sound good. And in reading about on the net, I came across this behemoth of a studio build diary by a guy in the UK. His work and craftsmanship is stunning. He started in his garage, ripping out the floor so that there was literally a dirt floor, and built up from there -- 2 concrete floors (one floated on top of the other for isolation), and 7 layers of sheetrock for sound isolation. This thread is 123 pages long as of now and is highly detailed with lots of, as he says, "piccies." Fascinating stuff to see what is possible for the truly obsessed. I literally got lost in that thread for 2 or 3 days.

Our modest space and budget won't allow for anything like that, at least not now. However, I'm confident that my plan will make our studio room much more listenable, to the point where I could probably actually mix songs in it. And that's A Good Thing.

February 06, 2006

sound affects

Interesting how sound affects my reality. Last Christmas, I got a pair of car door speakers to install into my car. Given that I don't have a garage, and that it's winter in Maine (albeit an incredibly mild one, we haven't had much snow yet), I haven't had a chance to install them until today. But, they're in, and they definitely sound better.

Also, we (Freakwitch) ordered a headphone mixer several months back, but it has been backordered. A serious case of vaporware by the freaks at Mackie. But, the place I ordered them from just got them in, and our order will be shipping out soon.

This means that we can start album production sooner than not, and that's A Good Thing.