Cleaner recordings in my studio

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Federation Jack

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So my new studio is open.
I ordered one of those vocal booth kits and... well they didn't really send an actual door, just a plastic drape.

It's a pretty average vocal booth, after draping some extra blankets over it, and a large body pillow against the back of the inside for extra sound blocking, it sounds pretty good.

However the plastic drape does absolutely no good.

My computer is now mostly silent (added silent fans) but there's still the faint noise of it in my recordings.
I use a lot of compression and distortion in my recordings, in some cases that faint sound can become a problem.
Expander/gate vsts still allow the sound to bleed through vocals.

Any advice on things I could do for my booth or recordings would be appriciated, thank you.

I'll get a picture of my booth in a while.
 
tell us more about your microphone(s) and preamps and other equipment. If you're hearing hiss in your recordings, I'd be really surprised if it was the fans in your computer. Are you recording vocals? Loud singing? voice over? How high do you have the gain turned up? A better picture of your signal chain will help! :)
 
Jeff_D said:
tell us more about your microphone(s) and preamps and other equipment. If you're hearing hiss in your recordings, I'd be really surprised if it was the fans in your computer. Are you recording vocals? Loud singing? voice over? How high do you have the gain turned up? A better picture of your signal chain will help! :)
Click to expand...

I'm using an At2020 microphone into a mic mate.

And no It's not a hiss.
It's like ambient noise.

I've recorded in a closet before (w/ the same set up) and had nice and clean recordings that I'm still using. (Recording an album)
 
what kind of music? The only time I've had problems with ambient noise was when I did a folk band where I had to crank the preamp gain for acoustic guitar and banjo and stuff. Preamps make more than just hiss too. Just sayin. If its definitely ambient noise, then you'll have to track down the source(s) and either eliminate them or separate your self from them. Are we talking footsteps from an above apartment? noise from the furnace or a/c? gunshots from the neighborhood?
 
I'm recording alternative hip hop for myself, punk rock or metal for anybody who comes to my studio.

I know the ambient noise is coming from my computer, the CPU fan.
Since I just bought silent fans for my computer (which cleaned up most of the noise) I'm kinda broke right now.
My friend says I should put my computer below my table. (Gonna try to do this tonight)
But I can't tell if that would actually benefit me.
(Just tried getting a picture to demonstrate how far the computer is from the vocal booth but failed)

For vocals I'm a big user of izotope nectar, but not for compression since i don't like the way that sounds.
I use a generic compressor vst with the settings:
>Ratio 7:1
>threshhold 1db
I constantly use distortion, very heavy distortion, to the point where my breath sounds like a heavy wind. Whenever I use compression and distortion the sound I get in the background tends to bother me while I'm mixing. All the instrument sounds in my songs will overpower the ambient noise, but it's still there and i can still hear it when a quiet bridge comes along, or when I do that overused "pause the song and resume for emphasis on a certain rhyme".
Would a recording of the ambient noise help?
 
So, how close *is* your mic to your computer? I do vocals in my open unfinished (but acoustically treated) basement. I have 2 full height gobos that I but together to form a corner and I set my mic stand up in between (picture a 2 sided booth with no ceiling). I'm probably 12'-15' away from my computer desk. Ambient noise is rarely a problem.
 
Throw a blanket over the box during takes. (Don't forget to take it off after.)


lou
 
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