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The music project I do has just finished recording an album (well, I'm currently mixing it). I recorded the drums in my garage which is bad for two reasons; acoustics and neighbours. I can only really do an hour or so a day, and obviously that has to be around the middle of the day, which then excludes weekdays since I'm being a mechanic on those...

Next time I'd like to use a space for a week without such limiting factors.

Not a studio, just a space; I have recording gear, albeit not fancy.

I was wondering if anybody has done this done this, and if so how? I guess there's a possibility of just renting a secluded holiday house/cottage but that seems extravagant and possibly problematic for other reasons...although maybe not.

Just looking for any crafty tips/'outside the box' pointers.

We may be past this point, but music venues around me were.. um, getting 'creative' this winter, offering to rent out their spaces along with a staff member/bartender as long as it can be done in a safe and limited way. It occurred to me a few times that I could probably cheaply rent a stage on a Monday morning/afternoon and bring along my recording gear, which is essentially mobile. Tell the bartender they can balance their books or whatever while you're doing your thing. The one concern that kind of stopped me is live venues are obviously loud, and don't even try to dampen the HVAC noise or block street noise and whatnot, which I guess isn't any worse than recording in a practice space. So yeah.. maybe there are some rooms in your area that could still use some Covid-era business?

Hadn't thought of pub/venue function room! That's a neat idea, although as you say might be scuppered by noisy aircon/bottle banks etc. Excellent!

Are you going for a dry drum sound?

A Catholic Church will take money from anyone. Maybe better than the garage/neighbour situation, but could present you with a different set of acoustic challenges.
That may be the same with an empty bar or whatever. These spaces are really only acoustically decent when packed with bodies.

Adam_I_III wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:20 am drums in my garage which is bad for two reasons; acoustics and neighbours. I can only really do an hour or so a day, and obviously that has to be around the middle of the day, which then excludes weekdays since I'm being a mechanic on those...

Many years ago a friend and I recorded drums in his garage and everything else in other rooms of his house. We built some gobo that where about 2 feet deep and that really helped low end from spilling out beyond the garage door. that might coast a little so looking around for another space like everyone is saying might be a good idea. VFW hall in the middle of the day maybe?