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Post by bbbguest on Jan 31, 2017 18:41:45 GMT
Hi Ethan I wanted to ask your advice on recording singing vocals in the car in terms of the acoustics. I was thinking of this because of soundproofing issues at home due to scheduling recording needs. I know it's not common but it has been done before by several artists in a pinch. From what I read someone compared it to having a small booth, except you don't have perfect parallel walls so I don't know if room modes would actually be decreased. I actually have panels that are 2 inches thick that I can tripple up to create 6 inch bass traps. They are small enough to fit in the car front and back seat and I could work something out for the sides. Car is already dead sounding because of cloth seats. The windows could be covered with something if needed to not have reflections if this is a good idea.
I wanted to ask what type of sound acoustics could I realistically expect with this in comparison to a well treated bass trapped 4 X 4 x 6 vocal booth? I read Rod Gervais' book and it was really good but a little over my head in terms of execution and its important to have a pro studio designer who understands proper isolation needs to design it and a carpenter to execute according to plan, unless instructions are plain enough for me to do it, lol.
This will hopefully be a quick project that I'm trying to record so if the car could be the way to go this is fine. Please do let me know your thoughts with everything either way.. Thanks.
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Post by Hexspa on Feb 1, 2017 3:50:52 GMT
Could you bring your panels to a friends house? Maybe work something out with a local school or small business owner? Library?
-m
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Post by bbbguest on Feb 1, 2017 14:49:25 GMT
Hey thanks hexspa, at one point I did consider using a space somewhere else but I think it's better for me to have access to my own space so I can take as long as needed and have some degree of flexibility when it comes to schedule.
I'm thinking the car could work I just wanted to still be able to have it sound professional and wanted honest advice in terms of how it would sound in comparison to a small booth if I bass trapped it sufficiently? The main difference is the ceiling is a little lower but most things are covered in cloth material and are dead sounding. I guess another difference is normally you'd have studio foam flesh up against all parts of the booth instead of a thin layer of cloth, dashboard and bass traps that are approximately covering most surfaces. But with broadband bass traps I didn't know how effective they could work in terms of keeping the frequency response even and not boxy sounding in something so small and that's sort of simi-treated because of the cloth seats and floor/ ceiling?
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Post by rock on Feb 1, 2017 21:49:12 GMT
I don't see why the car won't work like a tiny iso booth. The closer you are to the mic, the less the influence of the "room". The thing that is not great is that I think standing is generally better for singing...but hey, go for it!
Cheers,
Rock
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Post by rock on Feb 2, 2017 1:45:11 GMT
I'll add that it sounds like your primary reason for the car is that your home is too noisy at the times you want to record vocals. In that case, I imagine your car, especially if it's in a garage will be a good iso booth. Alas, if it we're not for your noisy family, it would obviously be better to just set up a mic and a few absorbers around you and sing away.
Cheers,
Rock
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Post by Hexspa on Feb 2, 2017 6:06:37 GMT
Hey thanks hexspa, at one point I did consider using a space somewhere else but I think it's better for me to have access to my own space so I can take as long as needed and have some degree of flexibility when it comes to schedule. I'm thinking the car could work I just wanted to still be able to have it sound professional and wanted honest advice in terms of how it would sound in comparison to a small booth if I bass trapped it sufficiently? The main difference is the ceiling is a little lower but most things are covered in cloth material and are dead sounding. I guess another difference is normally you'd have studio foam flesh up against all parts of the booth instead of a thin layer of cloth, dashboard and bass traps that are approximately covering most surfaces. But with broadband bass traps I didn't know how effective they could work in terms of keeping the frequency response even and not boxy sounding in something so small and that's sort of simi-treated because of the cloth seats and floor/ ceiling? The reason I say that is because I've heard it's better to not record in a small both if other options are available. -m |
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Post by Ethan Winer on Feb 2, 2017 16:01:01 GMT
My standard reply when someone asks "What will happen if I ..." is "Try it! And let us know what happens."  The main problem with a car is it's small, and there are reflecting surfaces very close to the voice source and microphone destination. But if you really can cover all of the problem surfaces, I see no reason why a car can't work as a booth. A booth that's 4x4x6 feet is actually terrible because it's square, and even the 4x6 part has 2 as a common denominator. Another advantage of a very small space is the modes are at relatively high frequencies, so you don't need super thick bass traps to kill the boominess. I imagine a VW Beetle is better than a town car that's twice as long. This has nothing to do with the original question, but it's a fun story: When I was around 20 years old my older sister's husband sold me a 1964 VW Beetle. I cut a hole right in the middle of the roof and mounted an 8-inch speaker there! I covered the top of speaker with a plastic bag to keep rain out, but the thin plastic was transparent to bass frequencies. So the bass response was fabulous! It was like a huge speaker cabinet in reverse. Well, it was fabulous for the 1960s.  |
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Post by bbbguest on Feb 4, 2017 13:56:04 GMT
Thanks everyone for the replies. This car thing could very well work better than I expected! lol Either way if anyone is familiar with the design principles in Rod Gervais book well enough to help execute a solid plan for a small Iso vocal booth please let me know. This was an earlier consideration but after reading it I'd feel better about having a design plan drawn up by someone really knowledgeable to in turn have a contractor build it, unless the design instructions are able to be brought down to a near fool-proof level where I can't mess it up. lol. Thanks again.
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Post by Ethan Winer on Feb 4, 2017 15:30:49 GMT
Isolation booths are difficult for two reasons: They sound terrible unless you put in a huge amount of treatment, and it takes a lot of effort / cost to get a reasonable amount of isolation.
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Post by bbbguest on Feb 7, 2017 8:20:12 GMT
Ethan on the treatment side of things how would one use the bass traps to make sure the sound isn't bad? Would using 6 inch thick 2' x 4' panels (one in each corner of the booth "4 panels total") give you a great result in addition to maybe 4-6 inch thick auralex foam covering the entire booth?
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Post by Ethan Winer on Feb 8, 2017 20:45:55 GMT
Yes, very thick bass traps near the corners, then relatively thick absorption everywhere else.
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Post by bbbguest on Feb 14, 2017 1:39:42 GMT
Oh ok thanks for the advice Ethan and everyone, I guess non conventional ideas can actually turn out to be worthwhile after all  |
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