Room Treatment on a Tight Budget

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Robert27191

New member
Hi All,

I'm looking for advice on how to get the best out of untreated (and I mean very untreated) room, used a studio, for recording vocals.
Firstly, is it worth me investing in a Sound Reflection Filter for the microphone? As I understand it, yes it would be, but I have heard opinions that say they are a waste of time.
I know about putting up duvets behind the singer, but are there other tips people could share for me to learn from?
Many thanks.
 
To me, for about the same money and just a little time, you can make sound treatments to get the room under control. You may want some life in the room, and more importantly, you want the room predictable. Also, if the same room will be used to mix, you may want to do a full treatment. Price is still reasonable if you do it yourself.

You can either use the Rock wool or the Corning 703 fiberglass or similar (it is rigid fiberglass). Frame it and cover it in fabric, then you can hang where needed.

Best way to start out for treating a room, create bass traps (if you are going to mix in the room) for each corner, top to bottom, build about 4-6 room reflection treatments. Then to a test run see what you are hearing in your recording. If you have a hard floor, maybe a throw rug to help keep things tamed.

The further back you are from the microphone, the more the room will play into your recording. There are plenty of posts on the board on how to do this and others (read here experts) will have more to input. But this should at least give you an idea it is not as hard as you might think to treat a room.
 
There is so much info on this subject here and on google, its insane. You shouldn't have any problems at all finding budget friendly projects.
 
And a lot depends on the room itself. If its filled with other things (like your bedroom - bed, furniture, etc), then room treatment becomes a matter of compromise of space vs results. Size, windows, type of floor/wall material, type of mic being used ....
 
Robert27191 said:
I'm looking for advice on how to get the best out of untreated (and I mean very untreated) room
Click to expand...

This will get you started:

Acoustic Basics

is it worth me investing in a Sound Reflection Filter for the microphone? As I understand it, yes it would be, but I have heard opinions that say they are a waste of time.
Click to expand...

Small reflective "filters" are a waste of time and often make vocals sound worse, but large ones that are absorbent work very well.

--Ethan
 
Wow. Thanks Ethan, that's a fantastic demo.
I'm intrigued as to what good the SE Reflection Filter will actually do in that case!
With a fairly tight budget, I cant see myself getting anywhere near a protable booth..
 
Ethan. Is the portable booth just a cut in half 703 panel in a nice aluminum frame?

Seems well built I was just wondering if you used fiberglass or foam since it's designed to be portable.
 
I was looking at the prices for the portable booth, seems competitive to the sE. Most of them run about $299.
 
well the cheapest room treatment I did was this:

get some shag carpet remnats cut 6-8 ft by 3 ft lengths then go from ceiling to wall to form a triangle tunnel behind. take 2 ft x 6ft strips of velour blanket drape ofer the openings of the crapet traps back to the wall stapled 3 ft away from the wall on the cieling and tacked halfway down the wall.

also do this leaving about 6" to 1 ft openings on the corners of the walls.

area rugs on the floor and more shag carpet remants on the bare walls. for windows, take some light color valour blanket and go 1 ft tack on the ceiling and tack it below the window.

get a 3-5 section free standing screen and drape some fuzzy blankets over each section.

also its great if you have a carpet layer to befreind to get install scraps, and of course dumpster diving is a cheap way to get carpet too.

thrift stores if you don't want to spend a lot of money on blankets.
 
Guitargodgt said:
Is the portable booth just a cut in half 703 panel in a nice aluminum frame?
Click to expand...

Our PVB is made from two 2x2 foot MicroTraps, joined together with a piano hinge. We do not use foam! Everything we sell is made with rigid fiberglass, which is a better material that doesn't crumble over time and is Class A fire rated.

--Ethan
 
If you have a DAW in the room, be sure to try and silence it. Better still, move it out of the room. Fans are noisy!!
 
Ethan Winer said:
Our PVB is made from two 2x2 foot MicroTraps, joined together with a piano hinge. We do not use foam! Everything we sell is made with rigid fiberglass, which is a better material that doesn't crumble over time and is Class A fire rated.

--Ethan
Click to expand...

I figured as much. Do you just seal it from the fibers irritating anyone skin or is the fabric you put over it good enough?
 
I was only asking because I did notice some irritation handling some 703. It's not nearly as bad as dealing with fluffy crap but it was there.
 
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