Making your basement tuba-friendly

[chronolith]

Like many players of modest means and at least a few social constraints, I practice in a basement. Not ideal in my opinion but I am thankful to have it all the same. I am wondering if there are any other basement players out there who can offer up some ways to make a basement more tuba-friendly?

I have a mostly finished basement, linoleum floors, sheet rock walls and a drop ceiling to hide plumbing that is fairly low. It's a decently wide space as well, accounting for about 50% of the entire floorplan at that level.

My biggest challenge seems to be finding that magic spot to put the chair where I get to enjoy some of the darker characteristics of the sound without also feeling like I can hear ever mechanical procedure of playing reflected back at me from the ceiling.

Does anybody have an recommendations or tips to offer that have improved the experience of playing in a basement? Should I be looking for more sound absorption? Should I lose the drop ceiling? Carpet?

[scottw]

Not ideal, as you say, but maybe you can do something with it. If it is too lively, carpeting, even a 9x12 or so around your chair will help out, maybe some accoustically-deadening panels on the walls. If too dead already, maybe remove the ceiling tiles in your practice area, in an area without pipes and junction boxes, so you can sheetrock the ceiling in that area. That way, you will get some bounce. With a low ceiling and, presumably, an upright bell, you are sending the air just a short distance before it bounces back or gets stifled.
Unfortunately, that's about all I can recommend to change your situation, other than try to block the sound from the utilities with an insulated door/ wall.
Good luck!

[Ken Herrick]

"Does anybody have an recommendations or tips to offer that have improved the experience of playing in a basement?"

Get somebody like Jake or Harvey to sit next to you...........

[opus37]

I practice in the basement too. I wish I could change my ceiling height because that seems to be have the biggest affect on my tone. My floor is carpeted, but I don't think that makes a lot of difference. Are you playing in a big empty room or a small cluttered room? I think that will make a difference. Good lighting helps. I play next to a south window that gives good light during the day.

[Z-Tuba Dude]

I practice in the basement too. I wish I could change my ceiling height because that seems to be have the biggest affect on my tone. My floor is carpeted, but I don't think that makes a lot of difference....

How about carpet on the ceiling?!?

[Doug Elliott]

I have no idea if this would actually work, but I would try putting a large inverted pyramid or V on the ceiling directly above your bell, to bounce the sound sideways instead of straight back down.

[hubert]

Perhaps a strange idea: would it be possible to make a small sunken sitting area in the middle of the room, just enough for musician and stand? Such an "orchestra pit" would change the whole perspective, I suppose.
Hubert (from the land of the gnomes::)

[Bill Troiano]

Get rid of the oil burner, the copper drain pipe, and the central vacuum unit. When we bought our new house, I established the (unfinished except for carpet) basement as my practice and teaching area. On the first night I settled down to practice, I played a note and someone flushed the toilet sending water rushing through the copper drainpipe - scared me a bit. I played another note and the oil burner turned on. Holy @$@%% !! Then, after another note, my wife decided to try the central vacuum (unit next to my head.) Yikes!!! Since then, I practice and teach in my living room!

[opus37]

Wow! Your house just doesn't like tuba music. I suggest making small modifications to the woodshed out back (in the lower 40). The tradition of woodshedding is based on the principle that woodsheds are friendly to tuba music......

[chronolith]

Actually Doug, that was exactly the direction I was thinking.

[mammoth2ba]

Use your recording bell, and direct the sound down the long axis of your basement instead of at the low ceiling.

[PMeuph]

What I would sometimes do at my parents house (when I was alone at home) was open the door to the basement and practice with my bell facing up the stairs. This way it was basically like I was practicing in a room with a 17 foot ceiling. This might not work for you but I thought I'd share in case you could use it. Otherwise, I know they make plastic/pvc tiles for dropped ceilings. Maybe a couple of those over the spot where you practice would help with the sound.

[Art Hovey]

' not sure that I would seek the most aurally complimentary circumstances for practicing. Now for performing...

Bloke makes a good point. If you practice under a low ceiling in a small, dead room you really hear the flaws in your sound, and you work to correct them. If you practice in a cathedral or Carnegie Hall it might make you sound better than you really are. You go away happy but you don't accomplish so much.

On the other hand, the nicest-sounding basement I ever played tuba in was about 40' long, 20' wide, raw concrete floor and walls, unfinished wooden joists and flooring above, exposed plumbing, gas furnace, and two exposed light bulbs. There was a wooden stairway in the middle. Really nice reverberation down there, and it was cool in the summer.

[sloan]

On the other hand, the nicest-sounding basement I ever played tuba in was about 40' long, 20' wide, raw concrete floor and walls, unfinished wooden joists and flooring above, exposed plumbing, gas furnace, and two exposed light bulbs. There was a wooden stairway in the middle. Really nice reverberation down there, and it was cool in the summer.

This perfectly describes the basement in the house I grew up in. Add a Sousaphone on a Wenger chair and we're good to go.

[Rick Denney]

Bloke makes a good point. If you practice under a low ceiling in a small, dead room you really hear the flaws in your sound, and you work to correct them. If you practice in a cathedral or Carnegie Hall it might make you sound better than you really are. You go away happy but you don't accomplish so much.

On the other hand, the nicest-sounding basement I ever played tuba in was about 40' long, 20' wide, raw concrete floor and walls, unfinished wooden joists and flooring above, exposed plumbing, gas furnace, and two exposed light bulbs. There was a wooden stairway in the middle. Really nice reverberation down there, and it was cool in the summer.

Agreed on both observations. Trying to make a dead room live will usually fail--it will become an echo chamber. Making a live room dead is MUCH easier.

Flat, hard surfaces that oppose each other create more echo than reverberation, and confuse clarity more than reveal it. The big room with the uneven surfaces will diffuse reflections and kill echo, but still provide reverberation.

I practice in my living room, which has a sloped ceiling. It sounds quite good, but nobody can tell the difference between a Holton and a Yamaha 621 F tuba for notes below about Bb (the differences on higher notes are obvious). There just isn't an available long dimension to let the fundamental of that tone develop. But listening for the beauty of the sound isn't what the practice room is for. I've had a number of performers and teachers tell me that sounding pretty up close is not the correct objective, and a sound that is pretty on the back row of the mezzanine might not be as pretty up close. Sound needs direction and intensity to carry, and that may give a harsh impression in the near field. Few have a room of any size sufficient to hear the far-field effect, so the best strategy is perhaps to understand what needs to happen in the near field to create the right sound in the far field. I can hear faults in my playing that I know will kill projection, even though they may not qualitatively undermine the tone in my own ears while playing in my living room.

I played in my basement in my previous house. The biggest problem with that was carrying the tuba up and down the stairs.

Rick "still learning what to listen for" Denney

[chronolith]

Hence the statement about at least a few social constraints. I could bring the horn up to the living room, but it would be an imposition on my wife (not to mention the mother in law who lives one floor up), and I would likely end up peeling the cats off the ceiling each time.

I really do understand the idea that a crappy practice room "builds character". I can get used to it - it's not like I have much of a choice at the moment. That being said, I also like to enjoy the sound my instrument is making as much as possible. I am not trying simulate Carnegie Hall or paint a false picture for myself.

Just looking for heuristics from those who have dealt with the same problem. Right now I think I am going to dump the drop ceiling and look at angling the sound away from the bell.

[Michael Bush]

Bloke makes a good point. If you practice under a low ceiling in a small, dead room you really hear the flaws in your sound, and you work to correct them. If you practice in a cathedral or Carnegie Hall it might make you sound better than you really are. You go away happy but you don't accomplish so much.

I agree completely. I practice in a corner of a finished basement with a low ceiling. It sounds horrible. I hear everything the tuba and I do together, and the regrettable things always are more prominent in my ears. I have to work hard to sound decent to myself. But when I get into a good performance space, I haven't yet been sorry.

(Once in a while, just for a — what, an unreality check? — I go up to the hardwood floors and high ceilings of the living room. Sounds much prettier there, but that renews my confidence to head back to the basement.)

[swillafew]

A company called Ceilume makes some nice ceiling tiles that offer some chance to tweak the reflections. Go to Sam Ash and shop the studio foam, too. Auralex, I think the brand was called. Rugs are easy to manipulate if that isn't enough.

[opus37]

I typed in Auralex in google and got to their website. This was interesting. They will even do a free room analysis. I never knew such things existed for residential applications. Very helpful. Thanks for posting this.

[Dylan King]

This company is about 1/4 of the price of auralex, and basically the same stuff. It has worked well in all of my studios for deadening the sound and getting rid of bounce and echos.

http://www.thefoamfactory.com/acousticf ... cfoam.html