How Should I Prep Room Or Closet For Vocal Recording

[J-Cal]

How Should I Prep My Room Or Closet For Vocal Recording !
I Heard That Padding My Closet Would Help
But What Exactly Does That Do ?

 

[Dani Pace]

Padding (treatment) helps to deaden the room/closet so you don't get as many reflected sounds. It will make the space less "boomy" sounding. It also absorbs certain frequency sounds to help make everything else sound a little clearer.

 

[TimOBrien]

If its a big walk-in closet, just leave the clothes in.

Thats just the type of absorbent mass you want....

 

[Massive Master]

Put the noisy gear in your closet. Although there are some "vocal booths" that are shaped like closets, a closet generally makes a terrible vocal booth (except in the movies - where a closet filled with cup holders is perfect).

Throwing foam all over it kills the ambience and leaves the low end problems (typically in the baritone range) to take over.

 

[danny.guitar]

It's good to see a newbie asking about room treatment before asking about other things.

From my experience recording acoustic guitar, a decent sized closet makes a great recording booth. It's hard to treat such a small space for bass frequencies even with thick absorber panels, but most vocals don't have much energy in the bass range.

A bunch of clothes hanging down behind the mic is usually all the treatment you'll need for vocals. But using 2" absorber panels will make even a bigger difference and will produce a very dry vocal recording which you can add reverb, etc. to later on in the mix.

About how big is your closet? I have one that's 2ft' deep, about 8ft' ceilings, and about 4ft' wide. Not very big but big enough to stick a few absorber panels in there and record.

I'd buy a few of these:
http://www.atsacoustics.com/item--ATS-Acoustic-Panel-24x48x2--1001.html

And maybe some of these smaller ones:
http://www.atsacoustics.com/item--ATS-Acoustic-Panel-24x24x2--1000.html

I own the 4" thick ones but that would be overkill for vocals in my opinion.

Using these, you don't need any clothes in the closet at all if you put enough in there. But mounting these panels on the walls + having a bunch of clothes in there will be perfect and it will still function as both a vocal booth and a place to put your clothes.

 

[mikeyhasnobones]

well, really it just depends on what type of mic you are using. IMHO i think that if you are using just a dynamic mic for like vocals, and acoustic guitar then the room really doesn't need to be treated at all, at least that's been my experience