Question abOUT Vocal recording and ambiant background noise!!! HELP!!!

[Wonder]

i Need some help on finding out how i can initially get the a good vocal recording.
i'M not as fortunate as some to be able to acoustically treat my apartment in order to get little or no backgroud noice....when i say backgound noise i don't mean electrical hums and those mechanical things. what i mean is i don't want my vocal recordings sounding....well....like they are being recorded in my bedroom!!!! i don't like that backgoud ambiance of a 3rd story one bedroom apartment..if you know what i mean.....can anyony give me any tips on methods, techniques and/or cost effective equipment (Mic, compressor) or softwere (plug-ins) that may anr some how cut out or even minimize that (one bedroom apartment) ambiant backgound noise at the innitial stage of recording or right after????
I stress the cost effective part cause i'm on a budget.....but i do have programs like sound forge, cool edit and CUBASE VST (which i use for vocal recording)!!! are their any plug-ins that can help minimize that ambiant sound.

ANY HELP AND SUGGESTIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRICIATED.

tHANKS,
Wonder

[Queue]

You need to try the Boom stands and Blankets trick (makeshift vox booth.)

Plugins aren't too good at removing ambience. Great for adding it...

Queue

[Gidge]

...or record vocals in a closet like I do.....but then again in an apartment, your closet may be right next to the neighbors bathroom, in which case that wouldnt be a good idea...unless you rig up a recording light that flashes "RECORDING-PLEASE DONT FLUSH" on their side.......

[TimOBrien]

And you know how good you sound singing in the shower??? Don't laugh but it's not unusual for people to set up a mic in the shower as a vocal booth (DON'T TURN ON THE WATER THO!)

[darrin_h2000]

Use a mic with a tighter pickup pattern like an sm57. and It still doesnt hurt to do the blanket thing.

[incursio]

Just to build on the shower approach a bit - depending on the type of shower you have, you might be able to rig up a quick vocal booth by throwing some blankets or what not over the rails - and maybe tacking some up on the wall inside the shower - helps to deaden the sound.

Another cool trick is to build a makeshift bi-fold vocal booth - it can be as big as a 2 wooden doors hinged together, or as small as a couple of coffee table books joined together. A large box works great, too - just fold it in half, and affix it behind your mic, open to face the singer.

Cheers.
Scott

[Seanmorse79]

Keep in mind too, that a little EQ goes a loong way with vocals. If you're using a decent mic and have a fairly dead sounding area, find that upper frequency that your vocal intelligibility lives, and give it a little boost. I've known people who had killer equipment and recording space, but their stuff sounded awful because the mix wasn't right. ...just food for thought

[MASTON]

One of the noise removal plugins (the more complicated one, can't remember the name of it) in cool-edit pro worked wonders on a noisy track I had, it just completely removed the noise and left the signal virtually intact. You'll need to have a recording of the noise by itself though, and then get the settings right for it to work.

Maston

[thornapple]

With 3 6x6 office dividers that I bought used at an office furniture store for about $10.00 each. I am able to cut my 16x20 room down to an intimate 6x6 or smaller depending on what the song calls for. I put theese around the vocalist with the mic at the open end. Be creative. Lots of good ideas that have been tossed your way.

[Heezzi]

Would a Noise Gate Help?

[Seanmorse79]

Thornapple, that sounds like a great idea (can't believe I never though of that). Does that work for isolating drums or amps, or just for creating a dead sounding area?

[Queue]

Sean,
I suppose it would depend on the quality of the dividers you got. I know they have some sound deadening/isolation qualities and the more you pay, the better they are in that regard. So the answer is:

YMMV

Queue