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Post by tiggerdyret on Oct 25, 2018 12:21:44 GMT
I built a vocal booth a few years ago, but reading through Michael White recording blog, using my ears and just from gather other people opinion on vocal booths I'm starting to doubt the quality I'm able to get in that space. The thing is that I love using it. It's a great working space where I don't feel self conscious or annoy my neighbors. And while the sound quality is not the best my performances has gotten way better and I feel very comfortable and focused working in there. First you can check out my recording, then I'd be glad to hear what your thoughts on it are and maybe give me some suggestions on how to enhance my quality. Here is a recording from my booth with a completely dry mic: 1drv.ms/u/s!Augsfv7DlAXP8xguT_yPaK6RjcFj My recording setup: My booth is diamond shaped the 90 degree angled sides aligning the walls are 155 cm long and then the diamond shape grows out of there, so it is fairly big compared to many other home studio booths. I've put mattress foam (I know it's bad, but it was better than nothing) on the walls in a checkered pattern, in the center of the wall, but it is only covering about 50%. I've also made shitty bass traps out of the foam and placed it on all sharp corners on the ceiling and walls. I have guitar amps, shelves and a lot of things in the room, so it's not just an empty reflective space. I'm using a Røde large diaphragm tube condenser and I'm generally recording 8-12 inches away. The mic is placed fairly close to the only sharp corner and facing the diamond wall at an angle. Fixing it: Acoustic treatment and diffusers. I'm on a budget so I'd probably need a DIY solution. The downside here could be that it is hard to kill the correct frequencies and it might make my booth feel a lot smaller. Another option would be to sell my mic and get an SM7B instead the downside to this is that it might not working for the stuff I make, since I generally use soft vocals. TLDR: Is my vocal recording really bad and how do I fix it if it is! Cheers and thanks guys. |
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Post by Michael Lawrence on Oct 25, 2018 15:12:43 GMT
Hi tiggerdyret-
Welcome. I'm not near a good-quality monitoring setup at the moment so I'll have to wait to listen to your recording, but let me ask you what YOU think the current issue is. You mentioned that you're comfortable recording and working there, which is probably the most important factor. Basically, what do you feel needs to be improved about your current situation?
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Post by tiggerdyret on Oct 26, 2018 7:21:58 GMT
Agreed a good workspace and good performances are way more important that audio quality. I fear that my recordings suffer from a comb filtering effect and that the room is too loud and boxy making the vocal washy and undefined when applying more reverb.
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Post by rock on Oct 26, 2018 13:06:06 GMT
I thought it sounded a little boxy. I general small iso booths will sound boxy and you need lots of thick absorption to fix it. I prefer, if I don't need the isolation, to record in a larger treated room. If however you're tracking along with other instruments or you have other noises you need to block out, you're stuck needing the iso-booth.
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Post by Hexspa on Oct 27, 2018 1:52:54 GMT
If you feel self conscious singing, you can also try using ear plugs. Of course, it doesn't help your neighbors but I doubt they care that much. For some reason, hearing myself less helps with feeling like I'm too loud/suck/should quit.
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Post by rock on Oct 27, 2018 3:40:04 GMT
Or just hire a vocal coach...The right teacher can really help you improve with a few simple techniques. With practice, it can really refine your pitch, increase tonal support and range as well as boost your confidence. Some can do this on their own but for most of us, we need professional help!
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Post by Hexspa on Oct 27, 2018 7:24:06 GMT
Tell 'em ROCK sent 'ya  |
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Post by tiggerdyret on Oct 27, 2018 11:00:05 GMT
I'm conscious of the fact that my neighbors can hear me... Not even that I sing badly, just that it is annoying. I'm also one of the people who have massive volume on my vocals. I've been told this when I sing in my choir, that whenever our leader tell us to sing loud it doesn't apply to me. On one occasion where we had a part, where we were told to sing as loudly as we could my and family thought I had a solo. They were so proud  I auditioned to be in this choir, so it's not that I sing that badly  Another reason why I prefer my booth is the fact that everything is set up and ready to go. If I'd use my living room (which is very small too) I'd have to do the whole setup every time I want to record something. I do fairly short 30 minute recording sessions, because of my schedule. My living room is also not treated anyway and I'm kinda against treating it since it is my living room. If I'm treating a room I'd prefer it to be my booth. And lastly it's a good work space for me. Psychologically we actually work better in spaces which we only use for work. It is also harder to sleep in a room where you work. All I can say is - I just like working in there. I listened to some mic shootout and the SM57 did pretty well actually and I already own one, so that might be the way to go instead of a condenser. And than with time I can save up for something better. And maybe use my condenser sparingly for close-up performances with little instrumentation in my living room. So the question is. How should I treat my booth and how do you suggest I do it? Is it a waste of time? What are the cheapest solutions for treating a booth without. I'd prefer to keep it under 10/4 inches, if at all possible. I could live with 15 cm/6 inches tough. Any DIY panel and bass trap builds that doesn't break the bank? What about diffusors under 6 inches? So given that I'd prefer to fix my booth what do you suggest I do to fix it? |
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Post by rock on Oct 27, 2018 13:14:24 GMT
OK, so you NEED the vocal booth, cool. My suggestion is to cover 100% of the walls an ceiling as thick as you can with absorption. I think the room is too small to use FRK or similar panels as corner bass traps. My thinking for no FRK bass traps is that anywhere you put them, they will reflect mids/highs back into the mic. (Maybe there are some spots you can put them like in the floor/ceiling corners or only 3ft or so up the wall/wall corners.) So maybe just use un-faced panels in the corners instead of FRK. What I'm going for is a completely dead room, anything else will just sound boxy. And remember that spacing off the wall will increase LF performance, but the trade off is your room gets smaller inside.
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Post by tiggerdyret on Oct 27, 2018 14:03:47 GMT
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Post by rock on Oct 27, 2018 17:13:39 GMT
Right, Rockwool or mineral wool is comparable to rigid fiberglass. The other products may be comparable too but don't have enough data. From what I can tell, they are only 20mm and 25mm if I read the specs correctly. To get broadband absorption, you really should be looking for thickness of 100mm to 150 mm and if you add up to the same thickness spacing behind the panels, so much the better. If you read Ethan's "Please read this first" I'm pretty sure the absorber thing is explained.
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Post by tiggerdyret on Oct 28, 2018 8:44:24 GMT
Nice, thanks you have been very helpful. I found a danish forum, so it's a bit easier get a list of the materials. Only thing is that the guy there was very adamant about the fact that using only 15 cm of rockwool wouldn't be enough and would only give me more issues, but he also had a very "I know all the secrets of the universe" kinda vibe to him. So I'm a bit confused... I guess it's one of the topics where everyone seem to have an opinion... Before asking here I trying to find decent tutorials and I found guides with where people use everything from towels to rigid fiber and mattress foam, so it's safe to say this topic is a jungle of misinformation |
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Post by rock on Oct 28, 2018 15:55:46 GMT
It's not clear to me if you did actually read what Ethan has written on this subject; you really should. I believe if you did, you would not be so confused. What were the problems "the other guy" said you would have with 15cm? This isn't rocket science...but it is science. Since your booth is a diamond shape, it's not clear to me the exact dimensions and corner angles of your booth. Please post a sketch of your floor plan to give me a better idea of your situation. If the ceiling is flat, just note the height. Here's a few links: (but there are many more!) ethanwiner.com/basstrap_myths.htmrealtraps.com/art_booth.htmrealtraps.com/quarter_wave.htm |
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Post by tiggerdyret on Oct 28, 2018 18:45:09 GMT
Well, that it would only remove the high and high mids and leave a muddy bottom-end. Also that apart from the thickness of the material it would also need space between the wall and the panel. I took a look through the things that I found relevant, mostly the stuff about absorbers, but I'll read it back to back, when I get the time to do so. Here is the sketch: www.dropbox.com/s/idrfwca4xf809gn/IMG_20181028_193101.jpg?dl=0There is also a guitar stack, a guitar board, some percussion stuff and a shelve with a pc monitor in there too. Just so you know. |
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Post by rock on Oct 28, 2018 20:52:30 GMT
Thanks for the floor plan. You'll see I added 100mm (4" thick panels) with a 100mm space to your plan and it does take up a lot of your space. tiggerdyret Booth.pdf (577.76 KB) But in my first reply, if you remember, I recommended you avoid a small booth altogether but that's apparently what you need/want. It's never going to be optimum and the best you can do to make it work is with 100% absorption coverage as thick as possible and/or space off the wall/ceiling and use FRK in the corners waist height down. |
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I auditioned to be in this choir, so it's not that I sing that badly 
