I agree...though I don't think he is planning to do any treatment at this time.
I've seen some home studios where they look like a bass trap storage facility.
I mean, if your spoken voice seems like it's dying off 2" away from your mouth as you speak....maybe the room is too dead.
Ya...you can dump a ton of money into room treatments...and if you aren't savvy about what you're after...you can dump even more. Listening to a lo-freq generated tone and walking around in your room is free though...and illustrates the issue to people. You can almost "see" the standing waves and resonate peaks when you walk through them.
Without spending a dime....putting the mic stand outside of a resonate peak is going to go a certain way to managing problem frequencies when recording. It's harder find an ideal mic placement as the room gets smaller...but worth considering in a larger space where you have more options for mic placement...and more reflective surfaces. You can also do the math if you like...which would more precisely quantify this stuff but this experiment makes it real.
In my untreated room (in the process of getting there) there is a 32" difference between the resonate peak and the node of phase cancellation along the long wall...and that's just considering lateral movement. The potential amplitude differential of 300hz, depending on height, azimuth, and x/y lateral position is quite stunning. Turning your head changes everything. Bobbing your head up and down changes everything. At the end of doing this is it's pretty hard NOT to see mic placement as having a large impact on tone in an untreated room.
I've seen some home studios where they look like a bass trap storage facility.
That was my first attempt (about 30 years ago). That room was as dead but it was my first "space" for music...so it had it's value. My current room has just been converted from an office. I'm about to spend a small wad of money on treatments myself (Owens Corning 703 and other building materials). Strategically placed absorbent wall panels and bass traps are going to go a long way in this room to deal with its resonate peaks. I'm curious afterwards how critical mic placement and azimuth angle are going to be.
Right now, in my room, mic placement makes a night and day difference. I don't have a db meter, but moving 32", I'd guess it was a 15db difference at 300hz and a fair volume.
When you can identify where the standing waves are in your own room you still wont be able to perfectly "see" what's happening because the space you're in is three dimensional. Floor and ceiling play the same role as walls. What you WILL know is about how far to move a mic stand to get a fundamentally different result. In this currently stupid room, for lo-mid control, the sweet spot is 16" from a bad spot. Knowing this adds a degree of control that before...I didn't know I had.
After the treatments I believe that my 16" mic movement position will still exist for 300hz and there will still be mic placements considerations. I just expect the amplitude difference to be quite a bit less for a lot of frequencies. I'm going to be guessing about the position of each panel but I'm pretty sure that where precisely to mount them will involve doing more of this right along the walls of this room.
I'll take the mixes out to another room next week, thanks for the help
