Not quite anechoic, but the closest I've been

[b1j]

We're building a casita/cottage/studio building out back, and today they put the insulation in the walls and ceiling. There's nothing but a soft click from a hand clap or a finger snap, no echo.

IMG_7408.jpg

We always think we want to remove room reflections, so I couldn't wait to use this window of opportunity before the sheetrock goes up to get in there and play. I brought my HD-28.

It was a little eerie to not have any (discernible) room sound. Although I could hear the guitar very clearly, I had to put my ear to the sound hole a couple of times to make sure it was as loud as usual. It was.

After a while I discovered the EQ balance is different than I'm used to. Without the usual reflections, the guitar was much closer to being the only sound in the room. Mids were crystal clear in strummed chords. Highs were clean and not drowned out. I was able to play three-note chords on the 4-5-6 strings with no distortion or crowding. When I tuned to drop D, the HD startled me with its authoritative low end. DAD on the bottom strings just bloomed out, and even though it wasn't amplified by the room, it was unexpectedly loud and resonant.

This tells me how powerful the bass is from this guitar. I can only imagine how the bass gets bounced around in the corners of my room. It brings home the importance of adequate absorption to soak up reflections and let just the guitar sounds get to the mics.

If tomorrow comes and goes and no sheetrock, I'll try to bring the rig in and do some tracking in the evening. Folding table, laptop (on battery), AudioBox, headphones, SSD drive, two mics, stands, and cables, tuner, capo, cloth, picks, chair.

If I can do it, I expect it to sound completely different from anything I've captured yet. I'm hoping it will develop my ear to hear the room in the recording. I also bet I can mic from farther away than 10 inches. We'll see.

[Bob Womack]

i love it. I call it "found spaces." I used to take my guitar around and try out spaces to play in - stairwells, auditoriums, outdoors, dead rooms. I adopted a stairwell during college. A photographer friend hung out over the well of the stairs to get this pic:


And, yes, I practiced my electric guitar in there as well to keep from driving guys in the dorm crazy.

We had an absolutely dead recording room in one of our studios here at the studio complex - Owens Corning on walls and ceiling and carpet on the floor and no windows. I know of which you speak with clapping and having it just sucked up. Some people got freaked out by how quiet and dead it was. I usually put a little reverb in the cans to make artists more comfortable. There was a remodel where they added a window and it has never sounded the same since. "You don't know what you've got 'till its gone."

The dead room in my current studio is all Owens Corning covered by speaker cloth except for a three-foot band of sheetrock around the bottom of all the walls just to give it some life. The walls are non-parallel and there is a three-pane window of acoustic glass between it and the control room.



Some folks still get a little weirded out. The live room is right next door if needed.

So, enjoy the moment!

Bob

[zeeway]

[QUOTE=Bob Womack;7260345]i love it. I call it "found spaces." I used to take my guitar around and try out spaces to play in - stairwells, auditoriums, outdoors, dead rooms. I adopted a stairwell during college. A photographer friend hung out over the well of the stairs to get this pic:


And, yes, I practiced my electric guitar in there as well to keep from driving guys in the dorm crazy.

/[QUOTE]

In my first year college dorm (many, many years ago), we used to play guitars in the common shower area which was tiled…great reverb.

[Rudy4]

I love Bob's "found spaces" nomenclature.

I enjoy sitting on the edge of the tub / shower (facing inward...). That's without the water running, of course.

[dnf777]

you know....you could save on dry wall AND room treatments all at the same time....

More realistic, that pic looks like a "caption this" contest!

[b1j]

Originally Posted by b1j

If tomorrow comes and goes and no sheetrock, I'll try to bring the rig in and do some tracking in the evening.

No such luck. The sheet rock crew arrived at 6:50. That’s what we get for having an excellent general contractor.

Loved your comments, folks. I never played in the shower area in college, but I was another Bob in the stairwell.

Recently I put the mic stand in the shower, with floor to ceiling tile and glass door (one open), and tracked three background vocals. They sound fine in the mix with nothing but a little high pass. Soloed, the reverb is — as you’d expect — very natural sounding.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by dnf777

you know....you could save on dry wall AND room treatments all at the same time....

More realistic, that pic looks like a "caption this" contest!

Actually simply putting up cloth rather than sheet rock could make that happen
You have some absorption and diffusion all in one fell swoop