Help me build a recording spot

[chrisjames105]

Ok so I love making music. I am very new to home recording and Im going to attach some pics of my apartment and ask all you experts what you think would be my best approach for setting up a vocal recording spot. Ive seen people hang up those "foam pads" and even some who put up mattresses around there mic stands. Like I said Im a newbie so I have no experience with vocal recording but I know I have to do something more than just placing my Bluebird mic in the middle of my living room and pressing record.

Here are some pics of my place from the front door. As you can see its all open theres really no enclosed area unless I go into my bedroom and close the door but I wanted to somehow record in the living room because thats where all my equipment is.

All advice is appreciated!

 

[guitarguy101]

Please say exactly what you're trying to mic. A full drum kit will require a lot more thought than the acoustic guitar you have pictured.

 

[arcadeko]

for recording - try recording and see how it sounds. if you have too much ambient noise you might want to experiment with different mic's - your best bet would be to get some uni-directional cardoid mics like sm57's pointed at the sound source.

Panels can help tame reflections and the room reverb, but most acoustic treatment described in this forum is concerned with hearing an accurate mix when you playback your recordings through studio monitors.

 

[chrisjames105]

I want to record vocals, the guitar is recorded through an interface. The mic was bought for vocals but when I record vocals and play them back, they always sound sooooooo separate. Theres no unity in the track, you can totally hear the separation between instruments and vocals. Im not sure if reverb and/or any other effects will help me but Im getting frustrated.

 

[guitarguy101]

First of all, I would mic the guitar instead of plugging it in. Unless you have a really high-quality interface, (I don't,) it will sound significantly better. You may lose fidelity, but I'd consider getting a second mic for acoustic (small condenser?) and recording while you play guitar.

 

[chrisjames105]

Really? I think my guitar sounds great through the interface... heres a clip of me playing rhythm and lead over it.

Sunday Demo by chrisjamesmusic on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

 

[Seeker of Rock]

Really? I think my guitar sounds great through the interface... heres a clip of me playing rhythm and lead over it.

Lead sounds good with the spatial verb, but single-string soloing is more forgiving than getting five or six strings to get along strummed altogether. The rhythm sounds like what it is...a plugged in acoustic guitar. What the other poster was saying (correct me if I'm wrong, guitarguy) is that if you mic your guitar, you'll get a much better result of capturing the guitar's natural sonics. It doesn't sound bad by any means, and it just depends on how detailed you want your recordings to be.

And for that tight of a furnished living space, I'd say record wherever you can and adjust it with treatment (maybe gobos if you run into troubles with the acoustics of your space) as-needed from there.