Exercise in Futility?

[WCoastCrooner]

Hey All,
I've recently upgraded my recording gear only to find that my room's acoustics suck. Big surprise. So, I'm looking to tame the echos, reflections, and bass reverb as best I can.

The room (aka living room) is 12' by 25' by 9'. Hardwood floors, two paneled walls, two sheetrock walls, three doorways (with no doors), two massive windows with only partial, light drapes (5'x12' and 5'x10'), and misc furniture (but nothing heavy or massive like an overstuffed couch). So, sound currently bounces around quite a bit.

I should note that I only track vocals here, not instruments. And, no mixing gets done here either. I only need to get the room to do this one thing well.

So, I'm mentally prepared to tame this beast but my better half has put the kibosh on my putting covered rockwool panels in all the right places. It seems until my music pays the mortgage I have limited redecorating rights. Truthfully though, she's been fantastically tolerant of this expensive pastime of mine so I shouldn't complain. But this does pretty seriously limit what I can do.

What I'm thinking I can do is put a base trap in the corner behind my gear and daw, and then build gobos similar to the ones that c7sus and VSpaceBoy made. I could tuck the gobos away when I'm not recording so they wouldn't cause a dosmestic disturbance. But I'm wondering if having the base trap and the ring of gobos is enough. Would the results be pretty poor? What can I expect of this type of arrangement?

I appreciate any help or advice you might have to offer.

 

[famous beagle]

Hey All,
I've recently upgraded my recording gear only to find that my room's acoustics suck. Big surprise. So, I'm looking to tame the echos, reflections, and bass reverb as best I can.

The room (aka living room) is 12' by 25' by 9'. Hardwood floors, two paneled walls, two sheetrock walls, three doorways (with no doors), two massive windows with only partial, light drapes (5'x12' and 5'x10'), and misc furniture (but nothing heavy or massive like an overstuffed couch). So, sound currently bounces around quite a bit.

I should note that I only track vocals here, not instruments. And, no mixing gets done here either. I only need to get the room to do this one thing well.

So, I'm mentally prepared to tame this beast but my better half has put the kibosh on my putting covered rockwool panels in all the right places. It seems until my music pays the mortgage I have limited redecorating rights. Truthfully though, she's been fantastically tolerant of this expensive pastime of mine so I shouldn't complain. But this does pretty seriously limit what I can do.

What I'm thinking I can do is put a base trap in the corner behind my gear and daw, and then build gobos similar to the ones that c7sus and VSpaceBoy made. I could tuck the gobos away when I'm not recording so they wouldn't cause a dosmestic disturbance. But I'm wondering if having the base trap and the ring of gobos is enough. Would the results be pretty poor? What can I expect of this type of arrangement?

I appreciate any help or advice you might have to offer.

If all you're going to do is record vocals, why don't you look into building a vocal booth?

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Or, make use of an under used walk in closet or guest bedroom somewhere else within the house and use a longer mic and headphone cable to work in that instead of trying to tame the demon that is your living-room.

Cheers!

 

[WCoastCrooner]

If all you're going to do is record vocals, why don't you look into building a vocal booth?

Hey beagle -
Yeah, I thought about that but it runs afoul of the permanent eyesore problem. Actually more so, as a big box in the living room is a bit more obvious and even less decorative than some tastefully covered panels. I agree that it would be the solution that would give me the best quality though. I wish I could pull it off.

 

[WCoastCrooner]

Or, make use of an under used walk in closet or guest bedroom somewhere else within the house and use a longer mic and headphone cable to work in that instead of trying to tame the demon that is your living-room.

Cheers!

Hey GFM - good suggestions. I've read about people using closets for their vocal work. Naturally, we live in an old, old house. No closets, not a single one. Back in the day they used furniture to hold all their clothes (dressers, armoires, valets, wardrobes, etc). Some people find it quaint, but it's a serious pain to live with.

It's a real small house. The living room, which probably sounds normal sized to everyone, was originally both the living room and the dining room. A previous owner took the wall out between them. Both bedrooms (the "master" bedroom and our kids bedroom) are small cubes, or nearly cubes (11x11x9). Their also lousy acoustically, but not as bad as the living room. I could buy a long cable and try out the master bedroom, but it will need treatment too. Before going down that path, I'd like to see if there's any merit to the bass trap and gobos plan for the living room (which has already passed muster with my wife ). What do you think?

 

[Ethan Winer]

Crooner,

> I only track vocals here <

Then all you really need is to find a quiet corner that's out of the way, and put absorbing panels on each adjacent wall. Put the mike in the corner facing out into the room, and sing toward the corner into the mike.

Unlike drums and guitars and other instruments, vocals are almost always recorded totally dry. You can add reverb or echo or whatever after the fact during mixdown.

--Ethan

 

[WCoastCrooner]

Then all you really need is to find a quiet corner that's out of the way, and put absorbing panels on each adjacent wall. Put the mike in the corner facing out into the room, and sing toward the corner into the mike.

Hey Ethan, would gobos or the like directly behind me be of any benefit in this scenario or is just treating the corner and its adjacent walls enough? Could it be that I'd block any sound reflecting back from the rest of the room before it got to the mic?

I appreciate the help everyone!

 

[Ethan Winer]

A gobo is meant to reduce sound from getting from here to there. Though some have absorbent surfaces on one or both sides. But you want to absorb sound to get rid of reflections, and that has nothing to do with blocking sound.

--Ethan

 

[Innovations]

Hey beagle -
Yeah, I thought about that but it runs afoul of the permanent eyesore problem. Actually more so, as a big box in the living room is a bit more obvious and even less decorative than some tastefully covered panels. I agree that it would be the solution that would give me the best quality though. I wish I could pull it off.

Have you considered perhaps putting the vocal booth in the garage or someplace where the eyesore restriction doesn't apply.

Personally I have been doing my radio features and voiceovers in a treated closet, but the disruption of normal house activity is making me lean toward a vocal booth in the garage.