TC 300 vs dbx 166XL?

[jjones1700]

I'm torn between the two models for my vocal (speech & talking, no singing) needs. I'm doing some recordings and when I listen to them, I can hear EVERYTHING going on in the background. I don't have the luxury of having a sound proof room. The house is all tile floors and I don't have an area rug to throw down (yet).

Between the two, which would be the best bet for eliminating some of the excess noise? I'm familiar with what compression and expansion does, but I'm new to the gate/limiter side of the equation. Any suggestions??

 

[MOFO Pro]

Niether... gating will be distracting and obvious if you're gating the only source of audio... with nothing else filling in the gated signal, you'll lose the ambient room noise, all of it, and it will sound literally distressing...

I'd pick up an sE Reflexion Filter (google that, or something like it)... and set it with your back to a open closet full of clothes...

You'll be sorely dissappointed with a compressor for this purpose

 

[Big Kenny]

What kind of mic?

 

[jjones1700]

Niether... gating will be distracting and obvious if you're gating the only source of audio... with nothing else filling in the gated signal, you'll lose the ambient room noise, all of it, and it will sound literally distressing...

I'd pick up an sE Reflexion Filter (google that, or something like it)... and set it with your back to a open closet full of clothes...

You'll be sorely dissappointed with a compressor for this purpose

I figured a compressor would be ideal for vocal recording. I didn't want anyone to get excited and interject a comment, and end up distorting. There will be some music thrown in from time to time of some various bands and such, but most of it will be a dialog between a couple of folks.

What kind of mic?

Nothing spectacular by any means. Shure AXS-1 and Audio Technica ST95 MkII. If things progress, I'll think about getting a pair of SM7Bs for an upgrade.

 

[MOFO Pro]

I figured a compressor would be ideal for vocal recording.

It would absolutely... I wouldn't even consider recording spoke voice without one... but it would probably contribute more than help with your stated problem...

And yes a SM7B is a well proven workhorse for this type of work and may actually help out with your ambiant noise issues too...

 

[mixsit]

...I can hear EVERYTHING going on in the background. I don't have the luxury of having a sound proof room. The house is all tile floors and I don't have an area rug to throw down (yet).

As MOFO pointed out this is a signal to noise problem. Get the mics closer, set up some homemade (if need be) baffles (string some very heavy fabric..?)
As far as the occasional/general/unexpected peaks, dbx does a nice fast auto gain, but perhaps expect to have it set to only hit peaks. As soon as you go past that the sig-to-noise thing gets worse again.
The 166xl gate has release speed which is good, but at best you'd want something with very low ratio and depth control here -not 'on and off'.

Don't know TC
...unless you want to talk break open single shot mags..

 

[Richard Monroe]

A noise gate will not help. A gate eliminates noise below a given threshold *until* that threshold is exceeded (in other words, as soon as you open your mouth). As soon as you speak, the gate opens, and the background noise is there. One or two SM7's may help somewhat, because they are simply not that sensitive. The good news is they are *very* good mics, and if you are doing voiceovers, they will never become useless. Depending on what kind of background (ambient) noise you are dealing with, a noise reduction software program, or filter, may help *somewhat*, particularly if the noise is in a different frequency range than the human voice. The ugly truth is that mics pick up sound, and recorders record it. If you are recording where there is bad sound, you are going to have a recording of bad sound.
I would suggest you start building a vocal booth.-Richie

 

[jjones1700]

Cool. I appreciate all of the replies and helpful info. I bought the C300 to try it out. I used it once inline to the reel to reel and I didn't like the results much. That was with the compressor feeding into the gate. I did another recording without the C300 in the chain. Instead, I used the compressor (lightly) when running the tape onto the computer. Much better results than what I've had before. I think the gate is definitely not useful for me...........at least not for this type of project. What can I say? I'm slowly learning how all of this stuff works and loving every minute of it. Thanks again for the great info!

BTW, after listening to the playback on a set of speakers (vs. my headphones with the gain turned up a bit), I couldn't really hear all of the stuff in the background. What little I could hear...........................I write it off as to giving the recording some "character". It's for a podcast experiment so I'll see what kind of feedback I get from people on it.