Dealing with a lousy room...

  • Thread starter Thread starter sbenak1@mac.com
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sbenak1@mac.com

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Ok, I know some of my problem is my gear, but until three months ago, I was recording in an full carpeted attic with a bunch of couches and a ceiling that angled to the floor. I made some decend recordings (vox and ac guitar) with my cheap Beri B-1 condenser. Not pro, but it was pretty clean. Moved. New room - square, 9-6 rug instead of carpeting, less furnature. When I use my B-1 on anything, especially ac guitar, I'm getting mud. I've been sketching with my Senheiser e835 to much better results in that room, but it's not as good as the B1 in the old room.

Should I give up trying to use the condenser until I can deaden the room (I've seen other posts and read about ways to do that)? I can work on the room eventually, but not overnight. Are are ways to deal the the room by mic placement, furnature adjustment or whatever to be a bandaid solution? I have a laptop, so I can potentially record vox someplace else and import the .aifs, but that's annoying and time consuming.

All feedback appreciated, including "don't waste your time until you fix the room." If I get enough of that, it might stop me from trying to force the issue.
Thanks.
 
sbenak1@mac.com said:
Ok, I know some of my problem is my gear, but until three months ago, I was recording in an full carpeted attic with a bunch of couches and a ceiling that angled to the floor. I made some decend recordings (vox and ac guitar) with my cheap Beri B-1 condenser. Not pro, but it was pretty clean. Moved. New room - square, 9-6 rug instead of carpeting, less furnature. When I use my B-1 on anything, especially ac guitar, I'm getting mud. I've been sketching with my Senheiser e835 to much better results in that room, but it's not as good as the B1 in the old room.

Should I give up trying to use the condenser until I can deaden the room (I've seen other posts and read about ways to do that)? I can work on the room eventually, but not overnight. Are are ways to deal the the room by mic placement, furnature adjustment or whatever to be a bandaid solution? I have a laptop, so I can potentially record vox someplace else and import the .aifs, but that's annoying and time consuming.

All feedback appreciated, including "don't waste your time until you fix the room." If I get enough of that, it might stop me from trying to force the issue.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem, kept getting a huge boost in the low mids especially on notes played on the low E of my acoustic. I got around it by moving around the room until I found the best sounding spot and hangin a few quilts/comforters on the horizontal booms of a few mic stands. Not perfect but reasonable improvement without permanent alterations to the room.
 
Auralex has been my life saver and it does not have to be permanent. I used some tape and a few nails to keep up my studio foam. You can get packages of 100 1'X1' pieces anywhere for really cheap, even cheaper than the crappy comforter way (no offense rshp1 I like to put a huge comforter right behind my vocal mic to stop those early reflections.)

Then you have to work on mic placement. I will spend up to 30 minutes or more if needed making sure my mics are in the right place before I even start to record.

I also found carpet is very important. If you can get as much heavy carpet on your floor as you can.
 
Thanks for that forum link...that will be useful.
 
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