People speak of room acoustics being imporant for MIXING, but what about RECORDING?

Alright, the last thread was quite messy with me having too many questions most of which ended up forgotten in the thread and/or people not directly answering the questions. So I think it's best for me to encapsulate everything I have to ask in one single sentence. That's all you have to look at. It's probably a question most of you can answer with either "yes or no". After I've gotten an answer to this I'll be on my way! So without overcomplicating things further, here goes:

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With professional acoustic room treatment not a possible option for me, and therefore ruled out, in the attempt of looking to find the best alternative way of creating the best sounding place for, not necessarily mixing, but definitely for recording acoustic guitar and vocals...

this or this.png

... and if you think that both of these options suck, and you have a better idea, please tell me what I could do to create a good space for, again, recording, and not so much mixing.
 
atibingler said:
Alright, the last thread was quite messy with me having too many questions most of which ended up forgotten in the thread and/or people not directly answering the questions.
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Unfortunately this was my problem with the other thread.
You feel you're not being listened to and we feel you're not taking in the answers.

I know you want a simple "Which one of these two situations will definitely fix my problem", but we, as a forum, have been trying to tell you that the problem you're describing cannot be addressed by either of the two options.

You're saying your guitar isn't bright enough and it requires a lot of eq.
There are fundamental reasons why your approaches aren't really relevant.


  • Adding padding to the room will diminish high frequency reflections and make the problem worse.
  • Having a less than suitable listening environment means you can't tell if your recording is well balanced or not.
  • If the instrument isn't bright to start with, the recording won't be.

Think about it. If you put cloths over your ears, does it make things sound brighter??

My advice is to address these three things, if possible, and regroup.



If you can't, then take the dry recording that you think is best and listen to it a lot on headphones.
Now compare that to other people's dry recordings. Start at the mp3 mixing clinic. Listen on the same headphones.

Honestly, that's about as close as you'll get if you aren't in the position to have a properly treated room.


atibingler said:
After I've gotten an answer to this I'll be on my way!
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People here are keen to help. Meet them half way, please.


I just want to make it public that I have PMd our friend to recommend he try to take on board the advice he's been given, as it was all given in good faith in attempt to help.
I also closed his last thread and PMd again to explain our trolling situation.
 
I really really like the 2nd option. Seems like that would work perfect!! Be sure to post an example when you get it set up!!! :thumbs up:
 
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I wouldn't use either of them scenarios you've posted. You're pissing in the wind with your blankets and pillows and will only end up with pissy shoes. There's a bunch of people here all singing from the same lyric sheet but you seem intent on ignoring them all.

The first thing you want is NEW guitar strings. Then play around with mic placement. Get a mic/boom stand so you can move it around easily and find a sweet spot. In your situation, I would go for low gain, close mic'ing the acoustic and vocals to cut out the room sound and then use reverb to add space.

To quote you from your last thread that I was replying to before it got closed.

atibingler said:
Honestly I don't care what they sound like on studio speakers or other studio gear, I mean people don't go around listening to music with studio headphones. I've never had any problems mixing with just a cheap set of casual headphons/plugs, which are what people actually listen to music with. So as long as it sounds good on what people listen to music to normally, it's fine for me. That's why I dont give a damn about a perfect mixing space
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This is where you've got it all wrong. Do you think what translates in your earbuds is going to be the same on every other persons set up? That EQ'd guitar sounds like shit here. Do you think it sounds good or better than the first guitar sample you posted? It doesn't.

The purpose of studio monitors and a good sounding room is to get a balanced mix over the whole spectrum that will translate equally on all other possible set ups. Trust me, we've all been where you are and spent the time and money to know that we were wrong. You'll learn one day.

I don't expect you to listen to any of this because you seem hell bent on putting your bedding all around your room.

Good luck with that :thumbs up:
 
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Mr Clean said:
I wouldn't use either of them scenarios you've posted.

You're pissing in the wind with your blankets and pillows and will only end up with pissy shoes.

There's a bunch of people here all singing from the same lyric sheet but you seem intent on ignoring them all.

The first thing you want is NEW guitar strings.

Then play around with mic placement.

close mic'ing the acoustic and vocals to cut out the room sound

That EQ'd guitar sounds like shit here. Do you think it sounds good or better than the first guitar sample you posted? It doesn't.

The purpose of studio monitors and a good sounding room is to get a balanced mix over the whole spectrum that will translate equally on all other possible set ups.

Trust me, we've all been where you are and spent the time and money to know that we were wrong. You'll learn one day.

I don't expect you to listen to any of this because you seem hell bent of putting your bedding all around your room.

Good luck with that :thumbs up:
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Please read and absorb. ^ This is great advice.
 
Definatly the 1st option, but I think he needs ALOT more pillows! I bet he could probably borrow some from friends and family. If he got enough he could setup a pillow igloo to place his mic in, I read somewhere on the internet thats how led zeppelin got thier awesome acoustic sound.

RAMI said:
Yeah, but which one's better? :eek:
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Wow....this can is still getting kicked...? :D

To the OP.....
Dude, why don't you just try out a few setups....and decide for yourself if one sounds better?
I mean, the time you've spent drawing diagrams and asking the same questions, while ignoring any suggesations that included more realistic solutions....you could have already tried out 10 of your pillow-n-blanket setups.
How hard can it be to move some pillows and blankets around the room? :)

If everything you try with pillows and blanlets still sucks ass in the end....I think you'll have your answer AFA what you need to do.

You know.....we don't laugh at newbs just because they ask some dumb questions....but we do laugh at newbs when they ignore the best-case answers given, and then keep asking the same dumb questions and expecting some OTHER answers. :p
 
It's been mentioned more than once - experiment - it'll cost you a lot less time than making drawings and posting them here.

No one has asked it, but: how are you miking the guitar? there are a ton of wrong (and right) ways to mike an acoustic (there's a whole sticky thread on it, in fact).
 
Pff. I don't know what part you guys don't understand.

As far as I know, for recording great vocals and guitar, you need a good mic, a good audio interface, a good guitar, and acoustic treatment. I know for a fact I have all but the last. Rode NT1-A, Scarlett
2i2, a 400$ Ibanez guitar. But then I have a crap sounding, untreated room. I'm here because I KNOW FOR A FACT that ROOM ACOUSTICS is the only problem I have. My gear is great, I know
about different mic-placements already and all this basic stuff you've been telling me. And I sincerely appreciate any advice, BUT I have not asked about anything else than acoustic
treatment. I've already tried many different set-ups, but as I've told you 3 times, in my current room, the pillow set-up works best. But logically, something tells me that some pillows around the
microphone isn't ideal. You guys are making fun of me because of the pillows, as if I really was so dumb to think it's the best. So, knowing that my pillow set-up isn't great, I asked if the set-up in the
Rode video is better than my current one? I asked, for basic acoustic treatment in a room, what do I put and where? I didnt ask for extensive explanations on "WHY your current set-up is bad", "why
acoustic panels are better", "how far are you recording from your mic", "what's your guitar", "try and listen". Do you think I haven't tried and listened before asking help in a forum? I've already told
you the pillows sound best. And yes, I have 3 similar threads floating around, but that's because I'm STILL yet to get an answer to the simplest of questions. What do I put and where to improve the
sound of my room? I've gotten very little advice on my question. "Wooden floor panels", "frames with rockwool" and one Dyermaker8's post about covering at least some surface on 3 or 4 walls with
sound-absorbent. But that's all. Nothing about exact placements of these things either. Believe me I've read through each and every post and read all advice, and the reason it looks like I'm ignoring
you is because you're giving me answers of things I never asked about.. And when I repeat my unanswered question, I'm the troll?
 
Jesus Christ. He's been recording a couple of weeks and knows better already. I hope he finds the correct pillow/blanket combination and comes back when he's actually prepared to listen to logic and reason.
 
Mr Clean said:
Jesus Christ. He's been recording a couple of weeks and knows better already. I hope he finds the correct pillow/blanket combination and comes back when he's actually prepared to listen to logic and reason.
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The point here is the fact that the OP created several threads asking the same question over, and over, and over....

When it becomes obvious that a member is not listening to the advice given and continues to argue without acknowledgement of the advice given; well it becomes time to take a time out.

Done.
 
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