What's the reason for a vocal booth?-or- Live room vs dead room

[Muddy T-Bone]

Newbie here.

Im trying to get understand the reason for using a dead space as a vocal booth. The isolation part of a vocal booth i get completely.

I think I'm getting it now as the last recording I made, I sang the vocals in a beautiful sounding room. Large 20x30 with 14' ceilings. Same room that I record instrumentation in. I'm having a very difficult time getting the vocals to sound right in the mix. The major problem seems to be that whatever verb I choose to enhance it just doesn't sound good. In fact vocals dry just don't sound that great either.

Perhaps the verb fx are interacting with the natural verb of the room, making it sound funky?

On previous recordings, I would track instruments in the room above, and record vocals outside my "studio" in a smaller very dead space. The vocals seemed to be much easier to manage from a mix perspective than this last one in the larger live room.

So my experience now indicates that a dead space for recording vocals seems to better than a live space. Why do instruments sound better tracked in the larger live room, while vocals seem to work better in an acoustically deader environment ?






I've just completed a recording that I'm

 

[witzendoz]

I think of the ideal vocal room being neutral, not dead but having no problem reverb.

I record all the vocal in my studio around the middle of the recording room and never have a problem with the vocal sound. However, I usually have a reasonably dead surface behind the singer, so I record the singer facing across the narrow part of the room, with their back to either a broad band absorber or the doubled up theatre curtain I have along the other side wall (with some heavy absorbers behind), both work well.

Other engineers that use the studio often make up a temporary booth out of gobos that they put around the singer, I don't bother unless tracking other instruments live with the singer, but both approaches work, so if your room is live try the gobo approach to fine tune the reverb out.

Alan.

 

[Muddy T-Bone]

I think of the ideal vocal room being neutral, not dead but having no problem reverb.

I record all the vocal in my studio around the middle of the recording room and never have a problem with the vocal sound. However, I usually have a reasonably dead surface behind the singer, so I record the singer facing across the narrow part of the room, with their back to either a broad band absorber or the doubled up theatre curtain I have along the other side wall (with some heavy absorbers behind), both work well.

Other engineers that use the studio often make up a temporary booth out of gobos that they put around the singer, I don't bother unless tracking other instruments live with the singer, but both approaches work, so if your room is live try the gobo approach to fine tune the reverb out.

Alan.

I will be building 3 PVC pipe gobo stands next week from a plan I got on this forum. I have the movers blankets to hang on them.

My question really is what are the physics behind recording vocals in a neutral space, while tracking instruments usually sounds great when recorded in a "live" room.

My experience shared above demonstrates that I have discovered the need for neutral vocal space, since I just cant the vocals right in the mix. My usual favorite verbs all sound bad. Is that because the FX verb is interacting too much with the recorded room verb?

 

[ashcat_lt]

I don't know what's going on with your particular issue. Hearing it might help diagnose, but I think it's something individual to you.

Pretty sure that the big reason vocal booths are traditionally pretty dead is that they are usually very small rooms which just can't really sound good unless heavily treated.

 

[witzendoz]

I will be building 3 PVC pipe gobo stands next week from a plan I got on this forum. I have the movers blankets to hang on them.

My question really is what are the physics behind recording vocals in a neutral space, while tracking instruments usually sounds great when recorded in a "live" room.

My experience shared above demonstrates that I have discovered the need for neutral vocal space, since I just cant the vocals right in the mix. My usual favorite verbs all sound bad. Is that because the FX verb is interacting too much with the recorded room verb?

I think my interpretation of a neutral room is some peoples interpretation of a live room. A lot of people build a room with tons of acoustic material that suck out every reflection in the room, when you walk in there it is like your ears are sucked inside out, there is no character to the room. Others think that a live room is full of reverb and slap back, well it may have some reverb and slap-back but in a controlled way or the sound in there is a big mess, like playing with a band in one of those big old halls made for a piano and singer with no PA. A neutral room in my opinion is a room with a character that is not dead and has a nice openness without being full of uncontrollable reflections.

Alan.

 

[JuceBachs]

Also I would say that the situation varies on the type of music or sound you are going for. Dead rooms are awesome to Voice over and Hip Hop application, but if ur doing acoustic pop or anything of that variety you often need a bit of "space". The inverse obviously can be detrimental when to much of this "space" in given. I've recorded vocals in Bathrooms and sound treated cathedrals... I've learned that if you have a sick mix engineer in your back pocket... Nothing can't be saved!

 

[Muddy T-Bone]

I don't know what's going on with your particular issue. Hearing it might help diagnose, but I think it's something individual to you.

Pretty sure that the big reason vocal booths are traditionally pretty dead is that they are usually very small rooms which just can't really sound good unless heavily treated.

It's not me in this case. This vocal had different mic placement, above the nose pointed down, and in the large room. Prior I had always tracked vocals on axis at 8", and in the smaller fairly neutral room outside of my studio. So I think it's a combination of mic placement and room.
I will go back to the way I've done it before, and build those gobos.
I'll record another lead vocal, and keep the one I have as the double.