The garage has a cement floor, coated with an industrial epoxy paint (the paint is poured on, rather than brushed on). The coating is ideal for working on cars, as it is tough, cleans easily, and looks neat for a shop. Here is a friend’s Westfield Eleven off the floor for servicing some time ago (Lotus models used to be referred to by their model numbers, the “Eleven” being the 11th model produced).
However, for a studio, a hard, shiny, unyielding floor has its drawbacks. When I finally cleared the workshop and set the amps in the wire metal racks, I began to notice that the note E on the 5th string became much louder than the other notes. The dominant note was the note the room was resonating with and emphasizing – the room mode. The dimensions of the room were such that it was in phase with the E note, the peaks of the note’s sound wave coinciding always and therefore sounding louder – a standing wave phenomenon.
The shiny floor and cement walls and ceiling made for a reverberant room with a clear “room mode,” and the note that the room chose to emphasize was that E note on the 5th string. I noticed it in pieces such as “Savage,” but especially so in quieter pieces such as “Blue Star,” when that note would boom. Octaves of the note would be emphasized as well, of course, but it was on the 5th string that it was loudest.
I am writing this down to set out my own layman’s understanding of the black art of room acoustics (which may be and probably is completely wrong!) and hope it will be useful to some of you who might face the problem in the future.
Best,
Andy