Does my room sound bad?

K

kaseli

New member
Hi all,

I am recording my own songs at home and am somewhat of a beginning in audio engineering. I am starting to record vocals for a song and I'm wondering if the room I'm recording in sounds bad. Currently I don't have any room treatment, but I'm thinking maybe the room is still ok. It's not a square room. It's a rectangular room and I am recording vocals at one end, facing the other end. I'm also thinking because the ceiling is not perfectly flat, there are a couple open doorways to other rooms, and there are those shelves in the walls that it might create enough diffusion to avoid unwanted "boxy" reflections. To me, the dry vocal recording doesn't sound bad. You can hear the natural room reverb, but my ear isn't trained enough to know if this will end up sounding bad in a finished mix. I want the songs to sound really polished and professional.

What do you guys think? Do I need to treat the room? Any specific recommendations? Do you need to hear it in the mix with the other instruments to better say?

Edit: welp can't post any links or attach a sound file directly apparently so thanks for nothing I guess. Dunno why every forum is so hard on new comers. My post either gets deleted or is so restricted that I can't ask for help. Great way to entice new people to join the community...
 

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Welcome, kaseli!

You must make a certain number of posts before being able to post links. Just make 5 or 6 more (unsure of #) "Hello" posts here and try again.

Until then, you could add your clip to Soundcloud or another host site and post the address here, then we can go there and have a listen.
 
Are all you are going to do is record vocals? What mic are you using? How far from the mic are you? I have an untreated room and have no problem mitigating that factor in my recordings.
 
The room I do most of my recording in sounds like an elephant's colon. An elephant that has swallowed plywood covered in egg boxes. And is now constipated.
But I've learned how to make it sound reasonable, sometimes.
I'm thankful for artifice.
 
grimtraveller said:
The room I do most of my recording in sounds like an elephant's colon. An elephant that has swallowed plywood covered in egg boxes. And is now constipated.
But I've learned how to make it sound reasonable, sometimes.
I'm thankful for artifice.
Click to expand...

Ha! I am sure there is a niche for those that live their whole lives in the bowels of an elephants colon... :)

Within those bowels of reality, there is ability to create worthy recordings without acoustic treatment. Not to say that it will not be better with proper treatment, because it will be better. 'BUTT': <see what I did there?

For a recording environment, all is fair game. That is because the room does play a role in the sound of what you are recording. Any room that an acoustic instrument is played in, is directly relative to how it will sound in that particular room. Good or bad, it is a part of the sound. Add the variables of instrument, microphone, it's placement, and good lord if we go into boutique preamps... and whatever else on the way in...

In a mixing environment, the basic needs of controlling frequencies that the room and monitors are of utmost importance and is a completely different animal. Likely more like a less gaping anus of a feline. Maybe a cheetah? LOL
 
jimmys69 said:
Ha! I am sure there is a niche for those that live their whole lives in the bowels of an elephants colon... :)

Within those bowels of reality, there is ability to create worthy recordings without acoustic treatment. Not to say that it will not be better with proper treatment, because it will be better. 'BUTT': <see what I did there?

For a recording environment, all is fair game. That is because the room does play a role in the sound of what you are recording. Any room that an acoustic instrument is played in, is directly relative to how it will sound in that particular room. Good or bad, it is a part of the sound. Add the variables of instrument, microphone, it's placement, and good lord if we go into boutique preamps... and whatever else on the way in...

In a mixing environment, the basic needs of controlling frequencies that the room and monitors are of utmost importance and is a completely different animal. Likely more like a less gaping anus of a feline. Maybe a cheetah? LOL
Click to expand...

Yeah, an untreated room doesn’t have to be so bad in tracking. That’s why I asked the questions I did. I’m pretty damn close to my vocal mic and I use a 57 on my classical guitar as it just sounds pretty dang good. With my methods of tracking, room sound isn’t an issue. But mixing is unavoidable in terms of the room.
 
CrowsofFritz said:
Yeah, an untreated room doesn’t have to be so bad in tracking. That’s why I asked the questions I did. I’m pretty damn close to my vocal mic and I use a 57 on my classical guitar as it just sounds pretty dang good. With my methods of tracking, room sound isn’t an issue. But mixing is unavoidable in terms of the room.
Click to expand...

I just listened to your stuff Crow. I really like the straight forward approach to your recordings. I found it quite refreshing actually. Props man! :)
 
Actually, I would love to have some fun with 'throw That Cat Away'. It has meaning to me.

Do you have the raw tracks still on your drive? I think it could be fun to play with. Not a fan of the out of time claps, but I have another idea... Just throwing it out there...
 
jimmys69 said:
Actually, I would love to have some fun with 'throw That Cat Away'. It has meaning to me.

Do you have the raw tracks still on your drive? I think it could be fun to play with. Not a fan of the out of time claps, but I have another idea... Just throwing it out there...
Click to expand...

Thanks! Unfortuantely the tracks are on my old computer. Didn’t you participate in the Mix This! when I submitted Throw That Cat Away several years ago? I think you did lol
 
CrowsofFritz said:
Thanks! Unfortuantely the tracks are on my old computer. Didn’t you participate in the Mix This! when I submitted Throw That Cat Away several years ago? I think you did lol
Click to expand...

Maybe that is why I remember it? It could be.

Years have gone and times have changed. Like sands through the hourglass... So are the days of our lives...

LOL
 
jimmys69 said:
Maybe that is why I remember it? It could be.

Years have gone and times have changed. Like sands through the hourglass... So are the days of our lives...

LOL
Click to expand...

I’ll look through my old posts and see if I can find it. I’ll send it to you as soon as I can find it. If you sent it as an attachment, do those things expire after a certain amount of time?
 
CrowsofFritz said:
Yeah, an untreated room doesn’t have to be so bad in tracking
Click to expand...
True. I notice it more when it's vocal recording. That's the one time I'm liable to be able to "hear the room." That can be both a positive and a negative.
CrowsofFritz said:
But mixing is unavoidable in terms of the room
Click to expand...
Treating any room in our little house is impossible so I have to compensate by mixing fairly quietly and relying on a room that is naturally diffusive and absorbing. That's one of the benefits of untidy kids !
 
Hmm, yeah I also had my problems with my room. But when I record I try to tell everybody to be quite!
 
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