Would switching from a hypercardioid shotgun to a cardioid pencil mic help reduce room reverb/noise?

[paleblue]

I think the best advice is the thing you mentioned, hang some blankets or duvets. We know they are ineffective at LF but the noises causing grief here are managed very well by soft stuff.

my video studio was never intended for recording audio, but I’m a lazy devil. I hung some black drapes for one project. Then the next one needed green screen, I hung them over the top. The. Instead of putting those back in the flight case, I pulled out another set of blacks, hoping to get the creases out by hanging. It was then I realised that now the video space sounded so much better for voice. Three layers of hung cotton fabric do a really good job. Until I did it, my assumption was it would not be this good!

I've heard about the multi-layer benefit! Were all of yours the same fabric or were there any differences in thickness or density/weight? I'm curious if different characteristics would help absorb different frequency ranges.

I'm planning a slight different tactic. I got some moving blankets with grommets and plan on hanging from the ceiling .... somehow. But hanging multiple in parallel would be a pain. So I got enough that I could bunch them up (like opened curtains) and make them 'deeper' for hopefully a similar effect. Or kind of like having both blankets and grooved foam at the same time?

At least, the blankets I found on vocalboothtogo.com listed an 80% noise absorption if mounted flat, but 95% absorption if mounted in a pleated fashion. I assume moving blankets would see a similar effect.

 

[rob aylestone]

Two of them are cotton twill - so a little heavier than typical cotton sheets, and one is lighter with some man made fibres. I'm not sure if you use the same stuff in the US - bolton twill here is heaviest - which is what we use on pipe and drape systems we use for lining bigger venues