I have been playing with music recording for a couple of years now, and I don’t have much to show for it. I would like to change that. For whatever reason, I have decided to create a permanent setup for recording in my basement. I am writing about this not so much for voyeuristic purposes, but as a method for self motivation and a glorified note taking process. It also gives me something to write about.

During the first half of band practice, we switched the drums’ and guitars’ locations. My goal is to have the guitars and recording equipment housed in a smaller room in the back of the basement, and have the drums sitting out in the main area. The drums sounded quite good out in the main area, but the backroom filled up extremely quickly with sound coming out of both of our amps and the PA speakers. I hope that we can get a handle of this, but I’m a little nervous.

There are some sources that I’ve started looking at for figuring some of this out:

A Primer on Recording Drums at Home
I’ve known about this page for a long time but it is always worth revisiting. I first ran across Andy Hong from his gear reviews in Tape Op, but this article came up first in a open ended Google search for “Recording Drums at Home.” Lines like “You can spend a lot of money on special treatments, or you can use what you’ve got lying around the house. Let’s go the cheaper route and save the money for buying more mics.” are refreshing and motivating for an amateur getting his feet wet.

Project Studio Acoustics
On the same site as “…Recording Drums…” but I clicked it for the first time today. I haven’t digested this yet, but if it is anything like the other article, it will be an excellent kickoff for tackling a room’s sound.

Build This Workstation!
Although I’m looking to use a small computer desk for the music gear, there are a few other interesting projects on that site that could be practical for setting up something more long term.

RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth
I’ve run across recommendations for these. The Youtube video that demostrates the differences between an untreated room and the PVBs is convincing enough (and a little humorous at the same time). If the room isn’t working, perhaps these might solve our problems.

The limited battery in my notebook quit out while writing this, which I will take at as a good sign for wrapping this post up. I’m sure there will be more to come.