recording vocals in a room with drums

T

totherambler

New member
i have a room (~30ft / 12ft) , concrete floor, wooden walls, and a vaulted wooden ceiling (8ft at lowest point / 12ft at highest). I imagine it would be a great room to record in if it didn't have 12 shitty windows to leak sound, but i was also concerned about the drums in the corner while recording vocals. whenever i sing at a certain pitch, they can resonate pretty clearly.

so due to the thin windows and vibrating drum kit, i threw up a frame in the corner of the room and nailed up some new, thick carpet left over from last months remodel. the walls and ceiling are all carpet, the floor is still concrete however.

From the searches i've made from previous posts regarding booths, my understanding is that, unless its completely dead or professionally constructed, its almost useless.

my question is, with the thin windows and drums in the room, should i just work on making the booth a little more dead, or should i throw towels over the drum kit and just deal with the terrible windows?
 
** regarding the booth, not necessarily "professionally constructed" but built with proper materials, techniques, dimensions etc.
 
Carpets on the wall is not the answer.

As far as the drums go, just throw a few blankets over them. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
 
If you have a closet (which I assume you do) go to it and sing directly into the cloths. Put blankets behind you and above you (if it is two door swinging out) now stuff a ton of pillows for bass traps. Now you have absorption.
 
Yeah, get rid of the carpet. The windows are of no consequence. Just turn off the snare spring and you should be fine.
 
Start by tossing a few blankets over the drums, this should eliminate enough ringing to solve that part of the problem. While glass allows a lot of sound to pass through it, it is also a reflective material. Heavy curtains or drapes over most of your windows can help a lot. Concrete floors are reflective and can make recordings sound harsh, carpet or throw rugs can help. Carpet on the walls and ceiling is not a good idea, absorbers, diffusers and traps are what you really need. You might want to try recording the vocals in a different room, closets, bathrooms, hallways, stairwells and other (seemingly) odd places are often used to record vocals.
 
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