I have a drum room that is used mostly for band practice and to my ear
it really makes the drums sound terrible. The thing I notice most of
all is how thin and ringy the snare sounds in that room. I played
recently at a bbq in someone's livingroom and noticed how amazingly
good they sounded (btw, they are very nice maple D'Amico drums that
are well tuned). What i noticed about that room was hardwood floors,
and lots of reflective surfaces.

I originally thought the problem may have been reflections, so i
covered about 40% of the walls with accoustic foam which did NOT
improve the sound.

Now, I'm thinking that I should have gone the other way and tried to
get more reverb from the room, by pulling up the carpet, getting more
wood on the walls, etc...

I realize this is a very difficult issue to talk about because "good
sounding" is so subjective, and there are so many variables.

I'm mostly hoping that someone can provide some suggestions of how to
go about solving the problem.

My goal is to have a great sounding room for live playing with a 5
person band.

Thanks Very Much
Rafael

Rafael Weinstein wrote:
I have a drum room that is used mostly for band practice and to my ear
it really makes the drums sound terrible. The thing I notice most of
all is how thin and ringy the snare sounds in that room. I played
recently at a bbq in someone's livingroom and noticed how amazingly
good they sounded (btw, they are very nice maple D'Amico drums that
are well tuned). What i noticed about that room was hardwood floors,
and lots of reflective surfaces.

The drum room you have is super small, and super dead, right? So you
don't get many reflections, and the reflections that you do get are
arriving very soon after the original signal.

I originally thought the problem may have been reflections, so i
covered about 40% of the walls with accoustic foam which did NOT
improve the sound.

That kills the reflections on the top end. So now you have all of these
short midrange echoes and you don't have anything at all on the top end.

Now, I'm thinking that I should have gone the other way and tried to
get more reverb from the room, by pulling up the carpet, getting more
wood on the walls, etc...

If you do that in a very small room, you get a room that sounds very bright
and very small and boxy. Because the reflections that you get in a small
room aren't delayed far enough from the original signal.

I realize this is a very difficult issue to talk about because "good
sounding" is so subjective, and there are so many variables.

I'm mostly hoping that someone can provide some suggestions of how to
go about solving the problem.

1. Get a big, live room for drums.

2. Totally deaden everything and use fake reverb. I think this is a
terrible approach but it's the only feasible one if you are forced
to mike in a small room.

My goal is to have a great sounding room for live playing with a 5
person band.

How do drums sound in the main studio?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message ...

2. Totally deaden everything and use fake reverb. I think this is a
terrible approach but it's the only feasible one if you are forced
to mike in a small room.


There was a time in my miniscule career that I thought the 'drum booth'
would be the true cure for all ills. I must admit, for two reasons, that I really
did like the results.... 1). I never again had to deal with crosstalk and bleed
from the drums into other instruments and vice-versa, and, 2). I was then
absolutely *forced* to learn about SOUND DESIGN... how to use processing
and effects to place that drum kit into whatever size room it needed to be in.
The latter has helped me to overcome massive hurdles in recording on all
sorts of instruments and sources. Often, the 'perfect' room for drum recording
is simply not to be found these days.

--
David Morgan (MAMS)
http://www.m-a-m-s.com
Morgan Audio Media Service
Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
_______________________________________
http://www.artisan-recordingstudio.com