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Old 09-23-2009, 07:21 PM
MattM MattM is offline
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Default Best flooring for an acoustic music room?

Well, my new home is almost done, so I am down to a few (almost) final decisions, one of which is whether to do really nice laminate flooring in my music room, or boring old carpet. It is a 10 x 13 room with an 8' ceiling. It will house my acoustic and electric guitars and our piano, and I don't currently record, so I'm primarily interested in the acoustics of the room for live playing. I would go for the hard flooring in a hearbeat except that the only piece of furniture in the room will be a chaise lounge for my wife, so I am a little concerned about too many hard surfaces bouncing sound around. The room is also very visible to guests, so my wife is not crazy about a lot of odd looking "acoustic treatment" on the walls.

Last edited by MattM; 09-23-2009 at 07:30 PM.
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Old 09-23-2009, 07:48 PM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Originally Posted by MattM View Post
Well, my new home is almost done, so I am down to a few (almost) final decisions, one of which is whether to do really nice laminate flooring in my music room, or boring old carpet. It is a 10 x 13 room with an 8' ceiling. It will house my acoustic and electric guitars and our piano, and I don't currently record, so I'm primarily interested in the acoustics of the room for live playing. I would go for the hard flooring in a hearbeat except that the only piece of furniture in the room will be a chaise lounge for my wife, so I am a little concerned about too many hard surfaces bouncing sound around. The room is also very visible to guests, so my wife is not crazy about a lot of odd looking "acoustic treatment" on the walls.
Matt,
Hardwood and a couple of good rugs that you can move as needed to adjust the room.
HE
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Old 09-23-2009, 07:52 PM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MattM View Post
Well, my new home is almost done, so I am down to a few (almost) final decisions, one of which is whether to do really nice laminate flooring in my music room, or boring old carpet. It is a 10 x 13 room with an 8' ceiling. It will house my acoustic and electric guitars and our piano, and I don't currently record, so I'm primarily interested in the acoustics of the room for live playing. I would go for the hard flooring in a hearbeat except that the only piece of furniture in the room will be a chaise lounge for my wife, so I am a little concerned about too many hard surfaces bouncing sound around. The room is also very visible to guests, so my wife is not crazy about a lot of odd looking "acoustic treatment" on the walls.
You are probably right. A hardwood floor in a hard room could be a problem. Get some sound absorbing panels on the walls and roof and then hardwood floors would be fine.
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Old 09-23-2009, 08:43 PM
Aaron Smith Aaron Smith is offline
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It probably depends a lot on the size and shape of the room. If it's small and rectangular, you probably want to deaden it a lot with sound absorbing materials. If it's bigger and has irregular geometry, it will probably sound pretty nice if you leave it reflective.
You may also want to think about the people outside of the room, and how isolated the room needs to be acoustically. Totally different situation- but heavy doors, double-hung drywall, and a floating floor can work wonders.
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Old 09-23-2009, 09:02 PM
denny1948golf denny1948golf is offline
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I've noticed that most of the high end Acoustic rooms in the better music stores have hardwood flooring. That coupled with all the acoustic guitars hanging on the walls make most guitars sound better than when you get them home. I took out the wall to wall carpet in my music room and installed a oak hardwood floor. The room is 18'x14' with 9' ceilings. It made big difference for the acoustics, but it's not as good for the electric guitars. I've since set up my electric rig in our much larger family room with carpet. I think the biggest problem with my electric rig was the room was to small.
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Old 09-23-2009, 09:12 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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Quote:
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Matt,
Hardwood and a couple of good rugs that you can move as needed to adjust the room.
HE
Matt,

I like Howard's suggestion. My studio has carpet with some absorbent stuff on the walls, and while it's good for recording, it's pretty dead for playing acoustic instruments. As Denny above noted, the absorbent stuff is much better for electric guitars.

These days I play my acoustics in the house in the kitchen with a hard wood floor for as much timeas my wife will put up with (in general, she likes it).

Thanks, Glenn
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Old 09-23-2009, 09:39 PM
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Hi Matt...
We moved into a home with a large living/dining room where I teach and they were fully carpeted with hard walls and oatmeal ceiling, and the guitars sounded really nice

...then we decided to refloor the connected living room/dining room in hardwood, and it improved the sound and enjoyment of playing the guitars a major amount. We will be either shopping for wood floors in our next home - or putting them in.
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Old 09-23-2009, 09:55 PM
OMorsmaller OMorsmaller is offline
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Hardwood, always, Hardwood
but with one or two rugs to dappen some sound expecially under the mics if you record. but i'm not an expert, just my preferences
John
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