Need help making my office audio recording worthy

Steve Honaker

New member
I'm looking to do some basic room acoustic treatments to help with audio quality(Regular speech, no singing, yelling, or instruments), trying to keep it under $1k, recording location is that blue yeti on the desk behind the pop filter. As you can see currently the walls and ceiling are bare and I'm getting a pretty large amount of sound reflection.

All directions are based on sitting in front of the computer looking at the monitor.

My original plan was to put up 2 4x2 panels in the corner where the computer is, a 4x4 on the wall to my right and a 4x4 on my back wall all the way to the left and maybe a 4x2 or another 4x4 on that back wall all the way to the right by the door, these all being acoustic absorption panels. The more I read on the topic the more I wonder if I am missing things. Do i need a panel on the ceiling above where I am recording? Should I be using diffusers in some of these locations instead of absorption panels? Maybe recording into the corner like this isn't ideal? Any feedback would be appreciated.

If it's helpful I can make a recording with the yeti so you can hear the acoustics, perhaps someone with a better ear and more experience than I can determine what I really need and what would just be a waste of money.

Room Dimensions: 13'6" from computer wall to back wall x 10' 5" between side walls x 8' ceiling
View attachment PANO_20191025_200316.jpg
 
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Oh man, that's like finding out that Charlie Watts didn't play the drums on "You can't always get what you want."
Oh well !
At the school I was at in '77, to take a photo of the entire school {489 of us}, the photographer used one of those cameras. We dared my mate Simon to stand at one end and be photographed then sneak off behind everyone and run to the other end so he'd be in the picture twice. But he'd done it the year before so the teachers were wise to him so they were laying in wait. So what Si did was to move his head across two or three people so that it came out elongated but side to side. He looked grotesque. It actually wrecked a good photo.
 
First, get the mic off the desk - it is reflecting the sound waves first. If you can set up the mic on a stand facing out into the longest direction of the room and have some absorption behind you, you may find its all you really need.
 
My question to you would be.......what do you hear now in your recordings that you don't like about your room? I'm sure there are issues but it might be easier for us to know what it is that the room is doing to your results.
 
How often do you need to record? You might consider some panels, simllar to those used to make cubicles, that you could set up close to you and take down later. That's what I use in the upstairs of my 100+ year old farm house. This would likely work for voice-only, as you don't need room for musical instruments.
 
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