From the course: Music Studio Setup and Acoustics

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The curse of low ceilings

The curse of low ceilings

From the course: Music Studio Setup and Acoustics

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The curse of low ceilings

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Low ceilings can be a real problem when it comes to the sound of a room. While a ceiling of nine or ten feet isn't that much of a problem in a control room, it's a different story when it comes to a tracking room for a couple of reasons. First of all, the sound from most of the drum kit projects upwards and splashes off the ceiling down toward the drums. This causes some frequency cancellation, and alters the sound of the drum kit. Secondly, a low ceiling is a sworn enemy of overhead mics. This is because, with the room that has something like a nine foot ceiling, you frequently can't get the mics up high enough to capture enough of the kit. As a result, the overhead drum mics are relegated to being symbol mics. Although this might sound okay under the right circumstances, if you raise the mics up near the low ceiling, you may capture more of those unwanted reflections, thereby altering the sound of the kit. Ceilings of at least 12 feet or higher eliminate these problems. That's why…

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