Is there an audible difference between a $2000 and $200 audio interface?

JBL LSR305s but i mainly use headphones which are Sony MDR 7520s. I posted pictures to show the rooms I use and accoustics. My understanding was that I should deaden the sound as much as possible so my voice has nowhere to go but to the mic. That is why I chose the closet.
 
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Your monitoring needs to be changed. The LSR305s are ok (I have some), but have a rear bassport. That means that either they need to be away from a wall behind them, or there needs to be a bass trap behind them. In the place you have them now, they are not much good for anything but hearing what you've got - certainly not for mixing or judging the quality of the recorded sound. You might as well stick with headphones for that.
Until you can improve your listening ability, I can't see that investing several thousands in a different interface is really going to help you at this point.
 
I'd think about getting some Roxul Safe'n'Sound batts to put between the studs and then cover with thin plastic (cheapest drop"cloth" you can find) followed by canvas or similar. Get cheap moving pads and nail/hang on the concrete wall, and acoustic tiles for the "ceiling" if possible. That would do a lot to make that small space dead-er, if that's what you're going for, i.e., creating a vocal booth. That space is not going to be usable for monitoring (can't see if there's a different space where the JBLs are at).
 
I pretty much rely on my headphones for monitoring. Is the main room with the JBLs better? Is there a reason to not make the room dead and utilize the existing acoustics? My concern is that there is alot of open space and it the sound has alot of places to go. Alot of "buzz" and ring from random things in the room and the walls themselves but I can also understand that not making the room "dead" could also be an asset. I guess I'll try and go from there.
 
More confusing thoughts ... (purely by a bit of experience recording outside the house and banging my head against the wall repeatedly): Generally, you only want to hear, i.e., capture, the room during recording, and that's only if it's good room, meaning it enhances the sound, usually with some natural reverb, or perhaps supresses bad stuff by virtue of its shape or design. You don't want the room intruding on your later listening.

Most of us do not have "good" rooms at home, though you might for certain applications. Vocals are rarely helped by the room (IMO), so close micing, and deader spaces are usually going to make post-recording work easier. They also make it easier to decide if things like equipment changes are worthwhile, IMO. If you've got a lot of early reflection stuff getting captured, as I would expect in a small, live room, it's going to be really hard to evaluate your capture equipment chain.

When you're monitoring post-recording, mixing, mastering, you want to hear what's been recorded, and not have that confused with stuff the room is adding. That's when treatment, or at least a room that adds very little, is most important. You can, of course, eliminate the room by using headphones, but you also eliminate things that happen when audio waves pass through space and interact, and are at the mercy of the phones own sound/response curve - things which you cannot impact by changing the room or placement, as you might manage with monitor speakers.
 
I got stands for the jbls and moved the hard drives off the shelf because they were shaking and making alot of noise. I went to get the Safe n Sound and the bag was gigantic. I had the make the choice as to whether my daughter would come home with me or the safe n sound. I made the right choice and will be going back for her tomorrow, j/k =0) . If you can see in the photos, there is an area where the ceiling drops and becomes a crawl space. That area goes back pretty far. Any ideas to how I can prevent sound from getting back there? Also the stairs are wood and don't have studs (same area that drops in the back) any ideas of what I can put over that wood? More moving blankets?
 
It's still a bit confusing, but is the closet space behind that wall where the speakers were, and under the stairs? (A rough floorplan sketch with dimensions might be useful at this point.)

Yeah, a dozen batts of Roxul is big. Wait until you slice it open. You should think about making some framed panels for the walls and above your mixing space once you've used some in the closet area.

Depending on what stairs and where they are, they might not be a big problem for vocals - more diffusion than anything, though you might block that area off with either a moving pad if you're talking about the underside of the stairs, or even build movable, framed panels out of some ramaining Roxul batts. Ideally, you'ld make some thick, room-height ones for the corners of where you're mixing, but it's not obvious that you have that space. Too many angle shots in a small space, not to mention attachments nobody can see!

I've got 4 batts sitting in the garage myself and going to build a couple movable panels ("bogos") but the weather isn't coorperating right now so probably going to be another week at least before I can tackle that last bit.
 
Thanks again for your help. I put up safe n sound only to then find out that it uses formaldehyde binders. People on different message board service were arguing whether it was safe or not. I don’t want to take the risk. I’m getting some foam panels but didn’t know if there is a difference between Auralex soundproofing and a no-name brand for half the price. Thoughts?
 
Thanks again for your help. I put up safe n sound only to then find out that it uses formaldehyde binders. People on different message board service were arguing whether it was safe or not. I don’t want to take the risk. I’m getting some foam panels but didn’t know if there is a difference between Auralex soundproofing and a no-name brand for half the price. Thoughts?
Have you listened to recordings done in rooms with foam panels?
 
I assumed most professional studios used them in combination with other diffusers.

Not even close. 'Diffusors' scatter sound in random directions to avoid build up of frequencies in any particular area of the room (mostly your prime mixing spot). Bass traps or full frequency traps literally TRAP (and absorb) the sound so it does not bounce around. Foam ineffectively works with a very limited frequency range.
 
Keep in mind that the frequency range will be limited to the male voice. The foam won't trap typical male vocal frequency range? Approx 800-2500?
 
Keep in mind that the frequency range will be limited to the male voice. The foam won't trap typical male vocal frequency range? Approx 800-2500?
Hmm. Not sure what you are looking at. Male voice fundamental frequencies top out below 1kHz and can go below 100Hz, so you'd only be hearning harmonics in that frequency range.
 
Thanks. I was not aware that this was the range. With this in mind, there are many brands of acoustic treatments. Does brand have any real impact on quality?
 
What matters is how well the treatment absorbs certain frequencies, how much treatment you apply to the space, and where the treatment is applied. Well, and the space itself, of course, i.e., whether it's hard surfaces, parallel walls, etc.

Unless you can find a true acoustics engineer willing to do the job, you start somewhere, and that's with enough treatment to absorb a fair amount of the sonic energy, and placed in obvious locations, like putting bass traps in corners of rectangular rooms, panels at early reflection points on walls and ceilings, if possible, etc. But, the space matters a lot, and your irregular recording space might be easier to treat for early reflections, but a bear to bafflle long ones sneaking into the crawlspace, or whatever. Us HR's just have to treat, record, and listen; rinse and repeat, IMO.
 
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