DIY mic shields - any thoughts?

cashcohen

cashcohen

Jewnior Member
So, I want to record some vocals and acoustic guitar. Problem is, my recording environment is a big, echoey garage that makes everything sound like crap (tinny reverb, muffled sound in general).

I've been talking it over with an experienced recording engineer, and he says I should be able to make sound shields for my mics using fiberglass pipe insulation. Apparently, fiberglass is excellent at absorbing sound, and pipe insulation comes in a nicely curved shape.

Does anyone have experience with this? Thoughts? Or should I go for something commercial, like the EditorsKeys Portable Vocal Booth (http://www.editorskeys.com/portable-vocal-booth-home-version-soundbooth.html)?

Any other ideas you have for getting cleaner sound in a horrible environment? The more, the merrier. :D
 
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cashcohen said:
Any other ideas you have for getting cleaner sound in a horrible environment? The more, the merrier. :D
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I know you're keen to diffuse in the garage, but you might be better off moving somewhere else altogether. My control room is a large conservatory with wooden floors - nice for drum tracking, pretty poor for everything else. I just use a 30 ft mic cable and track acoustics in my bedroom. Again, I know it's not what you had in mind but it may prove a more efficient solution.
 
Just get some heavy moving blankets and hang them up and make a "room within a room" and you shouldn't have any problem. Even regular blankets would work - whatever you have really. You could run clotheslines (some rope) and use those big black plastic clips (or even just clothespins) they sell in hardware store to hold the blankets up .

If it's too dull maybe make a small section of wood flooring.

You don't have to spend a lot and I'd avoid any store bought booth bullshit.
 
TelePaul said:
I know you're keen to diffuse in the garage, but you might be better off moving somewhere else altogether.
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I can probably do a fair amount recording in my bedroom. It's much smaller, shorter, and more rectangular, with fewer weird nooks and crannies.

When I return to college in the fall, I'll be recording out of my bedroom exclusively, so I won't even have to worry about garages....just noisy housemates. :rolleyes:


dintymoore said:
Just get some heavy moving blankets and hang them up and make a "room within a room" and you shouldn't have any problem. Even regular blankets would work - whatever you have really. You could run clotheslines (some rope) and use those big black plastic clips (or even just clothespins) they sell in hardware store to hold the blankets up .

If it's too dull maybe make a small section of wood flooring.

You don't have to spend a lot and I'd avoid any store bought booth bullshit.
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I'll try the blankets idea before I do anything else. Clotheslines/pins is a good idea. Thanks!
 
What I like about that is you can move it around for different setups.
 
You also would want other things in your garage as well like a big couch or two,some book shelves,a few throw rugs on the floor to go with all those blankets you are to hang up.
Anything to stop that open garage sound.




:cool:
 
moresound said:
You also would want other things in your garage as well like a big couch or two,some book shelves,a few throw rugs on the floor to go with all those blankets you are to hang up.
Anything to stop that open garage sound.
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My garage is full of junk....there's one big sofa, and a few dozen moving boxes, as well as an assortment of tools and miscellaneous knick knacks. I'll try to cram some more stuff in to fill up the space. I guess what I'm most concerned about is how high the garage is....I don't know anything about room acoustics, but I imagine some sound can get lost that way.

I will be sure to put down some throw rugs once I get my equipment set up. Hurry up, UPS! I'm bursting with excitement here.
 
One thing I would say is don't fall into the trap that "dead is best". The room doesn't need to be perfect. If it's all padded and dead as can be you'll find that it will wear you out just being in there.

These guys get a hell of a pro sound and from what I can tell it's mostly 1 mic, hardly any room treatment and a huge amount of creativity.

[video=youtube;LNpwBpZUrzk&feature]video[/video]
 
^^^

Whoa, that vid kicks ass! The singer has a beautiful voice....I find it hard to even pay attention to the recording quality, but yes, I agree, the sound is excellent.

I appreciate all the advice! What I plan to do is set up my equipment, have an initial go with no room treatment, see how it sounds, and then I'll have a better idea of what needs fixing. I'll tweak my garage bit by bit and see what kind of a sound I get with each tweak.

All of the suggestions here are a big help. :)
 
dintymoore said:
These guys get a hell of a pro sound and from what I can tell it's mostly 1 mic, hardly any room treatment and a huge amount of creativity.
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Creativity is an understatement. I'm spooling all their videos to mp3's right now... previewed a few of them... wow.
 
frederic said:
Creativity is an understatement. I'm spooling all their videos to mp3's right now... previewed a few of them... wow.
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To me Pomplamoose is off the scale - it's home recording folks!

If you haven't checked it out, their recording of "September" is phenomenal.

Their version of "Mister Sandman" was used in a Toyota ad. I really, really like their version of Lady Gaga's "Telephone". It doesn't hurt that the girl is so easy on the eyes AND a hell of a bassist!

What I'd like to know is: is it for real? Is someone at Sony taking their home tracks and tweaking them? It just sounds too fuckin' good. If I'm not mistaken she's using one of those $900 TLM 103's - I could be wrong on that, but the sound is almost too pro to be credible.
 
dintymoore said:
What I'd like to know is: is it for real? Is someone at Sony taking their home tracks and tweaking them? It just sounds too fuckin' good. If I'm not mistaken she's using one of those $900 TLM 103's - I could be wrong on that, but the sound is almost too pro to be credible.
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I assumed they were pro or close to it and using you-tube as a way of promoting themselves. It sounds as though they're using pro gear despite what we see in the videos :)

Then again, way back when I had a pro studio 'for rent' once in a blue moon a band would come in with a demo tape made on a basic four track and I and my partner would scratch our heads wondering why they walked in the door - the demo was that good.

Situations like that remind me that often times we get "into" the gear and technology so much that we can lose sight of the "craft" or "art" aspect of recording. I still remember the days when I could slice a track lengthwise out of a 2" tape and splice another one in it's place to avoid another bounce - my hands aren't that steady anymore, not even close! Now I push buttons :)

Sometimes we get into the tech because we can, and for no other reason. We car guys call this 'wallet wrenching'. A couple of weeks ago a good friend of mine showed up with four titanium cylinders and a drawing - pistons - "can you make me four of these, out of these?" Sure, but why? Titanium is strong yes, but it's also very brittle and do not like shock loads. The little explosions inside engines produces really big shock loads. His response? "The titanium was free and I want to try it." So I gave him a price and I made him four pistons to match is lousy little drawing.

It's all good.

And you're right, Telephone was awesome, as was their sound of music layered-vocal one. I saved them all. If you're interested, I use "freecorder 4" for this - it's a plug-in that runs in IE 6, 7 or 8. saves video, audio, and converts to boot.
 
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They say that nothing in the sound is hidden, that every instrument and track used in what you hear is shown at least at some point in the video. That's what they claim. There doesn't seem to be much room treatment going on, maybe a sheet on a wall here and there. They do have those old San Francisco house high ceilings.

It sure is slick though, the playing, mix... everything.

What I wonder is if it's some major company trying to appear like it's done in someone's bedroom where it is recorded there but mixed and mastered by someone at Abbey Road. It's hard to swallow that they can do all that by themselves. I see $3,000 worth of gear and it sounds like $300K worth. :confused:
 
frederic said:
... once in a blue moon a band would come in with a demo tape made on a basic four track and I and my partner would scratch our heads wondering why they walked in the door - the demo was that good.

Situations like that remind me that often times we get "into" the gear and technology so much that we can lose sight of the "craft" or "art" aspect of recording...
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Amen Brother.

frederic said:
I agree, hard to swallow, but it can be done.

Some people just can do it. They're artists :D
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That's what I want to believe it is. :)

It's like when the song, the arrangement, the tuning, the singing & playing is all so good that what happens after that is very secondary. You could record it on a cheap cassette and end up with an impressive end result. Neil Young is like that to me.
 
dintymoore said:
That's what I want to believe it is. :)
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Then believe. It's AOK.

dintymoore said:
It's like when the song, the arrangement, the tuning, the singing & playing is all so good that what happens after that is very secondary. You could record it on a cheap cassette and end up with an impressive end result. Neil Young is like that to me.
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There are many aspects that contribute to the quality of a recording, and it isn't all technical. We focus on the technical here because that's what this forum is about, but obviously if you record six puking cats with the very best equipment (or a cheap 4-track and a radio shack microphone) most people aren't going to want to hear it regardless what it was recorded on.

There was a thread on that recently actually, though I don't remember which one.

Glancing back to the original topic, that sofa in your garage might be useful. A friend of mine records in his basement which has a big poofy hand-me-down sofa and he turns it on it's end so it almost reaches the ceiling, and sets the mic up in front of it, and faces into the cushions when he sings. Well, tries to sing. I keep telling him his four-note range isn't going to sell his songwriting, and his songwriting is where his particular talent is.
 
frederic said:
There are many aspects that contribute to the quality of a recording, and it isn't all technical. We focus on the technical here because that's what this forum is about, but obviously if you record six puking cats with the very best equipment (or a cheap 4-track and a radio shack microphone) most people aren't going to want to hear it regardless what it was recorded on.

There was a thread on that recently actually, though I don't remember which one.
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I think it might have been this one;
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=304459
 
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