Vocals sound muffled in booth

I think I priced the ones the Army Band used near $4K in 1990-ish dollars. Some of the booths appeared to have A/C units on their sides. Not that they were ever used (rooms inside a room). It's not so much that they were the way that they were. It's that they got hot and humid. And since the door was air tight and auto-closed. They always smelled moldy. Ventilation helps, but it only does so much as you have to turn it off while tracking. And the space inside was pretty dead, even to the performer. You want some reflections or you the performer will play louder than you rehearsed just to get a similar feel. Which means that you'll be spent that much quicker. Given that most of your rehearsals are shorter than most recording sessions... Not a very efficient use of talent and time.
 
bdenton said:
It appears that the consensus on this thread is that if you can't manage to have an acoustically perfect 20' x 30' space you should just totally give up the idea of recording any vocals.
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How do you get from NOT having a 20' x 30' space....to a need for a 4' x 4' booth as the only other option? :D

Most people live in rooms bigger than 4'x4'...they just need to do a little treatment in those rooms. If you are going to drop $2500 on a booth...spend that same money on some acoustic treatment for a typical 12 x 20 bedroom, and you'll have a much better recording space than a booth.
 
Que ?

Armistice said:
I don't know where this fetish for vocal booths comes from
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RAMI said:
I also don't know where this "vocal booth" fetish started.
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witzendoz said:
Can we start a sticky, "BAN THE VOCAL BOOTH".

What is this fascination with vocal booths,
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It's subconscious memories that lay deep in the unreachable recesses of the human mind, ever reaching for that period in the womb, when all was comforting and good and the pains and realities of tracking, mixing and the world about us had yet to encroach upon our beguiling yet oh so becoming quilibrium........
 
miroslav said:
How do you get from NOT having a 20' x 30' space....to a need for a 4' x 4' booth as the only other option? :D

Most people live in rooms bigger than 4'x4'...they just need to do a little treatment in those rooms. If you are going to drop $2500 on a booth...spend that same money on some acoustic treatment for a typical 12 x 20 bedroom, and you'll have a much better recording space than a booth.
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Start with the first post...the poster already has a 4 x 4 booth; he was trying to make it work better, not build or use some other space.

And I would really like to know in what part of the country a 12 x 20 bedroom is "typical"...
 
bdenton said:
It appears that the consensus on this thread is that if you can't manage to have an acoustically perfect 20' x 30' space you should just totally give up the idea of recording any vocals.
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No, you are mistaken.

there are several companies that are selling a lot of 4' x 4' x 6.5' booths with the insides completely covered with acoustical foam. And since they start at about $2,500 I don't think they'd be selling them if they didn't work pretty well.
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They don't.

I don't yet know a whole lot about this
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Lurk moar here: https://homerecording.com/bbs/general-discussions/studio-building-display/

A lot of great music has come out of totally crappy recording spaces. And while most of us would love to have totally great home studios, most of us in fact have to live with what we've got...
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Are we supposed to advocate recording in crappy spaces just because some people can't afford to build "totally great" home studios?
 
bdenton said:
Start with the first post...the poster already has a 4 x 4 booth; he was trying to make it work better, not build or use some other space.
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I was responding to your post...not the OP's. :)

And I would really like to know in what part of the country a 12 x 20 bedroom is "typical"...
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I dunno...my bedroom is almost that big, and at least 3 other rooms in my house are that big. I didn't build the house, but it's pretty typical.
Point being...there are MANY rooms/spaces in MOST typical homes that are quite larger than 4'x4', so for anyone besides the OP...consider treating one of those spaces rather than building a booth IN one of those spaces. ;)

AFA the OP...a hammer and crowbar will get the booth apart quick enough, rather than wasting any more time/money trying to "improve" it....
...but hey, anyone that likes singing/playing in a small, dead "closet" space instead of a ROOM...ignore what I said .
 
Massive Master said:
No - Keep the "booth" for noisy gear and computers. That's what they're good at.
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So true...

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I don't think anyone advocated a large room with those large dimensions. Most rooms I've had to live in were at least 10' x 10'. Although in the Army that was for two beds and two occupants and included a mini fridge and whatever passed for a kitchen (microwave / toaster oven). A full bed is what 76" x 36" or 6'4" x 3'? I pity the bedroom that doesn't fit a bed...

As I toy with my carpet scraps. And I notice a stark difference between bare room and chamber inside of room that is merely a tube of carpet wrapped around me. At a minimum it does wonders for the perceived noise floor of my mics. And the noise removal software seems to actually work on the results of said chamber, but not on the results of said room.

You could always tune your space. A full length mirror on top of the foam to liven it up. Ceramic tiles, wood tiles. Hang them from a mic stand with a string or other temporary means to an end. Make sure that they wont be clanking around and making noise, various ways to adjust a space. Foam by itself does next to nothing IMO. Baring the dense acoustic foam. But foam with a piece of carpet in front of it. Or a comforter. Use your ears, what do you like / not like about your space? What can you do to change that? As long as you're dealing with cheap and temporary solutions you can do pretty much anything. Within the confines of your space.
 
Just something I threw together with carpet scraps and an sE reflexion filter. I paid near $150 for the filter (used on craigslist). The carpet for the whole house was $3K-ish (home depot), and these were left over scraps. A couple clamps $0.99 each from home depot. And the rest of the recording chain I already had.

soundproof.gif


I'll probably do some better testing later today. But so far the results have been promising. Most notably on the noise floor in the resultant wave forms. Not so much in the sound. I tend to get too close to the mics by default, so anything other than noise floor / average ambient noise is not that noticeable IMO. Just a concept I had, and had intended to do eventually. The foam is left over from an outdoor bench that we had done. But it's acoustically transparent IMO, and serves for little more than to help keep the shape of the structure on the desk. Not readily seen are two other pieces of scrap carpet behind the big piece before you get to the wall. Kind of interesting at how different the sound is in that little space where the mic sits. Not really suitable for anything but voice over or bell front instrumentalist in this config, but interesting.
 
If only for grins, a quasi test of my quasi booth, versus the center of the same room. A typical bedroom IMO, baring all that recording stuff in the corner. And a stack of old computers and instruments in a different corner.



The only significant edit was adding 6dB gain to the result. And cut and paste, cut and paste for all intents. A little festival synthesis too (text2wav). Otherwise a bunch of short segments stitched together. Kind of hard to hear the little differences on typical speakers, but it was noticeable enough on my headphones. Perhaps some instrumental (brass) side by side later. Not that I've actually practiced in a good long while. But it should sound better than my nasal-ish voice.
 
I will say that, since for me, recording is a hobby.... I like simply trying stuff out and seeing what happens.
I've recorded vox in a closet full of clothes before ........ got decent results ...... I don't bother with such stuff anymore but I'd probably prefer a room with carpet on the walls to a live room.
I like a really dead recorded sound that I can add whatever I want to.

No, it's not the current accepted practice but it once was and I just do this for fun ....... I don't really care about all the angst people go thru trying to do the 'right' thing.

You can get good results LOTS of different ways.
 
The actual recording chain was:

MIC - AT3035
audio magic extreme cable
PREAMP - SD MM-1
mogami quadcore cable
INTERFACE - M-Audio Mobile Pre
USB cable
Compaq presario laptop (vintage aka v5305wm / circa 2006 / 2GHz 32 bit CPU + 0.5GB of RAM)
- Audacity to edit and record (16bit/48kHz)
- Sox to stitch
- text2wav to synth

The vocal part done in one take with the mic moving locations during the take. But only similar content elements extracted. And the mic set down during that element to avoid any handling noise issues that might influence the test. Booth as previously pictured.
 
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4X4 recording booths must work (otherwise I wouldn't sound so wonderful in the shower). Now I just need some waterproof microphones:)
 
Woah sorry I havent been on in awhile. But thanks for all the responses. I forgot to mention I made the vocal booth so I wouldnt disturb my family members when I record. I read that putting cd's on the booth walls would help with the highs. Is that true?
 
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