Rehearsal Warehouse

[Mike151]

We rehearse in quote a large warehouse space. It is comparable to the size of most bars in our area.
Metal building, concrete floor, high ceiling.
It is great because we can set up everything just as we would in the club with lights and everything. The problem is with reverb in that metal building. It is not too bad when we play low volume but if we want to practice at normal level, the reverb/echo is pretty bad.
I've been trying to figure out what we can do about that for very low cost. We have carpet under the stage area.
I could put in a drop acoustic ceiling above the band area and wall in our space but that would cost too much.
I'm thinking cheap or almost free.
Maybe some type of curtain material that would prevent the bouncing of the sound.
Any suggestions or experience with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mpm32]

You're missing one thing in that space - people. Bring in a couple of hundred people and that will cut down on the echo.

But if you can't do that, hang stuff on the walls. Carpets, drapes, anything like that you can get for free. That will help too.

 

[Mike151]

You think that a roll of fabric that is really thin would work?
I would hate to go through all that work if I need something more sound absorbant.

 

[Nick Kay]

Unfortunately, good acoustic treatment is not cheap. Throwing blankets and carpets on the walls will cut down on treble-spectrum reflections, but you'll still have problems with lower frequencies. You need broadband absorption panels and bass traps if you want to even the room out.

On the plus side, broadband panels and bass traps are fairly easy to DIY, but with large rooms, the materials can get expensive.