Genaral Information for New Member

[howard.a.s]

Hi all,

I have just joined this forum as a new member, the purpose of which is to learn more about what is required in terms of materials and equipment in order to create a simple home recording studio for my wife, who I think has a great voice, but has never had the confidence or facilities to experiment properly with it. I think that it would give her great pleasure and a real sense of self-worth if she were able to progress with her love of singing, and I'd like to do what I can to help make this happen.

I am pretty good with DIY and have quite a good grasp of electronics, but could really use some advice in several areas before attempting to progress with this project.

From research that I have already carried out on the web, and because neither my wife or myself can play an instrument, it seems as though what I need to create is known as a singing booth.

Now I realise that I should perhaps be breaking this question down into several parts, posting each one in its appropriate section, but for the purposes of getting started, perhaps I can just push ahead and ask what I need to right here?

To begin, here is a list of the equipment that we already have:

* Microphone stands

* Reasonable quality microphones

* 6 channel soundlab mixer with built in graphic equaliser and multi-function reverb effects control

* Windshield screen for the mic

* PC with audigy soundcard

* Twin deck cassette recorder

* Amplifier and speakers

* Headphones

* Cool Edit / Audacity / Magix Music Studio 2004 Gold software

The mixer mentioned above does have a phantom 48 volt mic supply, but also allows for a standard non-powered mic to be used, which is what we currently have. When using a standard mic, it doesn't seem possible to get enough gain and it's necessary to almost 'eat' the microphone in order to get a decent level. The only other option is to set the sensitivity level to very high, only to find that the background operating noise of the mixer becomes very noticeable..... I suppose this is the drawback of using lesser quality equipment?

Question: Most of the above is fairly domestic stuff, not exactly professional, and I do realise the difference between a 6 channel mixer and a proper sound desk, but would it do for now?

Question: Is there a benefit in paying for a 48 volt powered microphone? Would it be more sensitive and pick up better?

Question: Can you point me toward any simple singing booth designs that cost little in terms of time, materials, and cash? Any design doesn't have to take up an entire room, perhaps just a corner.

Question: Could I use materials other than specialist ones as soundproofing? How would I add ventilation without degrading the soundproofing?

Question: As for equipment set up, would it be best to record by means of the PC, or onto tape?

Not understanding the basics of how to set up the whole bundle bothers me enormously. I mean, if only one person is present, that being the one who wants to record their voice, how can they be in the singing booth and be able to adjust levels on equipment situated in the room outside? Also, how do they best supply themself with a sample of backing track, together with a sample of how their voice sounds whilst singing?

In a nutshell, can you explain in simple terms exactly what is and what is not necessary or required, and how best to provide it?

That's probably enough to get going with. Hope you can help and don't consider me too much of a dufus for asking.

Any advice gratefully received

 

[kcearl]

A condenser would be a more sensitive mic..its not to say a dynamic mic isn't an all in one solution but yes you do have to "practically" eat it to get the volume if your voice isn't strong enough...that's why they are very good for the rock or punk genres..I use both depending on the song and/or the instrument being recorded..

There's a great thread on "cheap" mics in the mic forum that's may be worth looking at..Id advise buying the best you can seeing your wife's voice will be your only instrument...Id also suggest a separate mic pre-amp..this can give you the a better sound than the pre amps in a mixer...but I wouldn't say its a priority until you're up and running though..

If your mixer is non USB then a small audio interface would provide the pre amp and a means to record onto the PC, they also generally come with good software bundles, Line 6 interfaces come with software amps and effects for guitars and voices..and you already own sequencer programmes

from the PC you can edit the singing...remove the breathing, crackles, the pppppp and sssssss sounds (you'll need a pop filter for a condenser mic) etc etc software like sony soundforge is a great programme for this (does cool edit do this? )...you can also combine multi takes into one good one with the software you already have..you may also want to consider a pitch corrector like melodyne in the future..depending on where you go with this..


Others will chip in as well, cant help you with soundproofing..I hang a quilt over my multi gym and put my mic in front of it...that's how professional I am lol

here's a good link on recording vocals (I show everyone this )

http://kimlajoie.wordpress.com/tag/vocals/

 

[howard.a.s]

Thankyou, Thankyou

Thanks for taking the time to post a response to my earlier message. I have noted all the points you make. The mixer I have here is not a passive mixer, as I believe they are known when no preamp is built in. This mixer connects to the mains via a 16.5 vac adaptor and has quite a few bits and bobs like master volume, phones volume, 16 different reverb settings, master out level, vu meters, and has a record out, master out, etc. I have had it connected to the PC previously and seems to record fine into various programs.

All the information you have given is great and I look forward to further posts from yourself and from other members.

 

[miroslav]

Since neither of you play instruments...where will the backing tracks come from?

AFA a vocal booth...I wouldn't worry about that too much unless you are in a very noisy environment, or your wife plans to sing while other players/instruments are also in the room.
In most cases...you would track the instruments first anyway...and then lay down the vocals by themselves...which means you don't really need a vocal booth.

 

[mixsit]

Hi all,
I have just joined this forum as a new member

Well that was your first mistake.


Really though, welcome to the tribe.

From research that I have already carried out on the web, and because neither my wife or myself can play an instrument, it seems as though what I need to create is known as a singing booth.

* Reasonable quality microphones

* 6 channel soundlab mixer with built in graphic equaliser and multi-function reverb effects control

When using a standard mic, it doesn't seem possible to get enough gain and it's necessary to almost 'eat' the microphone in order to get a decent level. The only other option is to set the sensitivity level to very high, only to find that the background operating noise of the mixer becomes very noticeable..... I suppose this is the drawback of using lesser quality equipment?

if only one person is present, that being the one who wants to record their voice, how can they be in the singing booth and be able to adjust levels on equipment situated in the room outside?

To chip away at least some of this..
A closed booth may not be needed. That would be good if complete isolation is needed. Otherwise we would just as soon sing in a quiet room with enough absorptive control in the room that is appropriate for the sound and music we’re doing. More importantly, and for us home recordists in particular is control and reasonable quiet around the mic area.
We are considering the balance here between the needed level of perfection and practicality, also recording and music style.
It could be as simple as some home made covered fiber panels to mostly surround and above the mic area.

What mics are they? The typical ‘hand held ball mic is made for noisy environments by being tone tailored to sound best up close, but ‘close can sound wrong in many (most) voice recording. There are good exceptions though.
The noise may be partly gear quality but it may also be background noise the mic is picking up.
As far as the gear is concerned the good news is minimum ‘stuff in the chain is also the easiest path to quality. It may well be you would want to skip the mixer altogether.
With a decent mic, preamp and /or preamp computer interface, at 24 bit, once you get all your recording levels dialed with a normal amount of headroom below clipping there won’t be much left to control (unless the song/setup changes) than ‘record/stop. Control can be done remotely if needed.

Hope you can help and don't consider me too much of a dufus for asking.

Mmmm.......... nah.

 

[gecko zzed]

Question: Most of the above is fairly domestic stuff, not exactly professional, and I do realise the difference between a 6 channel mixer and a proper sound desk, but would it do for now?

Yes, it will do for now.

Question: Is there a benefit in paying for a 48 volt powered microphone? Would it be more sensitive and pick up better?

Yes, it is generally better, but what you've got will probably be ok

Question: Can you point me toward any simple singing booth designs that cost little in terms of time, materials, and cash? Any design doesn't have to take up an entire room, perhaps just a corner.

This, at this stage of your recording adventures, is the least of your problems.

Question: Could I use materials other than specialist ones as soundproofing? How would I add ventilation without degrading the soundproofing?

See above

Question: As for equipment set up, would it be best to record by means of the PC, or onto tape?

The choice is yours but recording to PC will give you better quality than recording onto cassette

Not understanding the basics of how to set up the whole bundle bothers me enormously. I mean, if only one person is present, that being the one who wants to record their voice, how can they be in the singing booth and be able to adjust levels on equipment situated in the room outside? Also, how do they best supply themself with a sample of backing track, together with a sample of how their voice sounds whilst singing?

If you go to the sticky at the top of this forum, there's a whole mess of good starting up information. Browse through that.

 

[Kingofpain678]

as gecko said a vocal booth is the least of your problems right now but something you might wanna try (since its free) is clean out a closet, hang some blankets on the walls and set your mic up in there. just something you might wanna try out before you go off and build a pro booth. i use my closet with some auralex acoustic foam and it does the job alright (for me at least).