The mouse was to blame.
For four years I was reasonably happy with a hybrid acoustic setup consisting of a suspended ceiling with multiple layers of Basotect and about 30 HOFA-acoustic modules. Then a little mouse died somewhere in the ceiling, untraceable between the layers of Basotect. Anyone who does not know how that smells can be considered lucky.
As I was only “reasonably” satisfied with the setting in Controlroom B, I decided to redesign the acoustic setup in order to be much more flexible. This is due to the fact, that I prefer recording in the Controlroom and use our recording rooms only for the big stuff like drums or bigbands.
So, why preach wine and drink water?
About 35 frames, 50 absorbers, 20 diffusors and 16 basstraps later, my “acoustic world” was as right as rain. Finally I had what I wanted: a perfekt link of midrange and high end via well dosed high mid frequencies.
For mixing I use the same setup as for vocal recordings. When recording guitars or percussion I simply replace 5 or 6 absorbers with diffusors. So I get euphonic recordings with the right ambience and scarcely use EQ or FX.
A few words of advice:
- Horizontally installed frames are more practical, because modules can be changed seperately. With vertically installed frames you always have to remove the module on top first.
- Horizontally installed frames offer more useful “shelf-space”.
- When your place your bits and pieces like adapters, tools or picks on those “shelves” they are always at hand.
