Help me improve my setup

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Barry79

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Hi there,

I record myself playing dreadnaught acoustic guitar and singing. My current setup is as follows -

Shure Sm58
Presonus Firebox
Logic Express
Sony MDR-7506 headphones
Samson Rubicon R5A monitors
iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB SDRAM, OsX 10
A living room, 25 x 15 x 10 feet, with a wooden floor and concrete walls.

My understanding is that I should begin by improving my room but I'm not sure how. How can I calculate what improvements are needed and what the biggest problems are?

Any other advice at this stage is welcome,

Thanks,

Barry
 
You might want to look into a Condensor Microphone for Acoustic and Vocals. I recommend the Studio Projects B1 if you're looking for a cheap one, and if you have more money, the Rode NT1A. Improving your room is something you should do if you want to fix some acoustical problems, but you could get away with leaving it untreated.
 
Barry79 said:
Hi there,

I record myself playing dreadnaught acoustic guitar and singing. My current setup is as follows -
Shure Sm58
Presonus Firebox
Logic Express
Sony MDR-7506 headphones
Samson Rubicon R5A monitors
iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB SDRAM, OsX 10
A living room, 25 x 15 x 10 feet, with a wooden floor and concrete walls.
My understanding is that I should begin by improving my room but I'm not sure how. How can I calculate what improvements are needed and what the biggest problems are?
Any other advice at this stage is welcome,Thanks,Barry
Click to expand...

By what you describe for your recording room sounds ok. Did you leave out couch, chairs etc. or do you not have them in there. For stuff like that would help.
And what squibble suggested with a few good microphones won't hurt either.



:cool:
 
fix the room

Barry79 said:
Hi there,

I record myself playing dreadnaught acoustic guitar and singing. My current setup is as follows -

Shure Sm58
Presonus Firebox
Logic Express
Sony MDR-7506 headphones
Samson Rubicon R5A monitors
iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB SDRAM, OsX 10
A living room, 25 x 15 x 10 feet, with a wooden floor and concrete walls.

My understanding is that I should begin by improving my room but I'm not sure how. How can I calculate what improvements are needed and what the biggest problems are?

Any other advice at this stage is welcome,

Thanks,

Barry
Click to expand...

there are lots of books that tell how to build/fix a studio/room

you should read several of them for ideas

then figure out what is wrong with your room
and then decide what you can afford to improve

there are easy fixes and expensive ones depending what you really need. and sometimes both for the same problem.

a wooden floor and concrete walls will be really bad.
especially with the common dimension multiples. everything will be resonating on multiples of 5 feet.

do you have rugs, curtains, furniture, anything to help it?

how much money are you willing to spend on this?
not enough unless you are billyg, for that sort of room.
use rugs , curtains, furniture, and live with it.
 
So long as you have a good guitar, my thought is that the mic is about 80% of the quality while the other 20% is the EQ'ing and other effects.

Large diaphragm mics will perform best for you. Don't be afraid to get a used one. Make sure to read lots of reviews of a mic before putting out money.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for your replies. What other mics would should I consider in the same class as the rode nt1a?
 
really ?

moresound said:
Some of the best recording rooms in the world have wooden floors!!!
:cool:
Click to expand...

and also concrete walls ??

if its a bare room like the OP has, I hope those wood floors are covered with rugs.
 
Walk around your room and clap your hands forcefully and listen for ringing. If you hear a lot of ringing, that's not good, it will mean you'll need some absorbers.

I recommend you ask in the Studio Building subforum for further advice.
 
matttheaxe said:
So long as you have a good guitar, my thought is that the mic is about 80% of the quality while the other 20% is the EQ'ing and other effects.
Click to expand...
As long as you have a good guitar:

65% of the quality is the guy playing the guitar
25% is the recording engineer
6% is the monitoring environment
4% is mics, preamps, interfaces, doodads, outboard widgets, and everything else.


If the player is mediocre or bad and the engineer is great, the numbers will skew towards the engineer, but I'd never credit more than %10 of the sound towards inanimate "stuff".

Recording is the result of human skill.
 
Barry79 said:
My understanding is that I should begin by improving my room but I'm not sure how. How can I calculate what improvements are needed and what the biggest problems are?
Click to expand...

You are correct. Google a guy named Ethan Winter. His page has instructions on how to build bass traps. Bass traps are a great place to start.
 
da room boss da room

Chibi Nappa said:
As long as you have a good guitar:

65% of the quality is the guy playing the guitar
25% is the recording engineer
6% is the monitoring environment
4% is mics, preamps, interfaces, doodads, outboard widgets, and everything else.


If the player is mediocre or bad and the engineer is great, the numbers will skew towards the engineer, but I'd never credit more than %10 of the sound towards inanimate "stuff".

Recording is the result of human skill.
Click to expand...

and his reflective concrete box wont matter at all ?
 
thats 100%

matttheaxe said:
So long as you have a good guitar, my thought is that the mic is about 80% of the quality while the other 20% is the EQ'ing and other effects.

Large diaphragm mics will perform best for you. Don't be afraid to get a used one. Make sure to read lots of reviews of a mic before putting out money.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

so the room is 0% as long as I have LDCs?
that big concrete box wont matter at all ?
 
Chibi Nappa said:
As long as you have a good guitar:

65% of the quality is the guy playing the guitar
25% is the recording engineer
6% is the monitoring environment
4% is mics, preamps, interfaces, doodads, outboard widgets, and everything else.


If the player is mediocre or bad and the engineer is great, the numbers will skew towards the engineer, but I'd never credit more than %10 of the sound towards inanimate "stuff".

Recording is the result of human skill.
Click to expand...

I was only referring to the quality of acoustic GUITARS, not the entire process. The numbers change then.
 
Chibi Nappa said:
As long as you have a good guitar:

65% of the quality is the guy playing the guitar
25% is the recording engineer
6% is the monitoring environment
4% is mics, preamps, interfaces, doodads, outboard widgets, and everything else.


If the player is mediocre or bad and the engineer is great, the numbers will skew towards the engineer, but I'd never credit more than %10 of the sound towards inanimate "stuff".

Recording is the result of human skill.
Click to expand...

I was only referring to the quality of recording a simple acoustic guitar track, not the entire process of a song. The numbers change then.
 
Hi,

Thanks for your replies! I've made a quick recording with my setup (specified in the first post above).

mp3

The recording is dry, but I would normally add a little reverb using Logic's PlatinumVerb. My guitar is a good one. I'm harmless on guitar myself but we're only talking about a hobbyist here and not Eric Clapton.

My ears say that the guitar is ringing a lot and the sound is a little sterile.

So is a Rode Nt1 still my best bet regarding better sounding recordings? What else can I do at this point to improve things?

Thanks again,

Barry
 
Here's a clip with the Rode NT1A on acoustic. It wasn't EQ'd as far as I know. There is a little bit of reverb on the clip though.

Your setup (once you buy a better mic) should be fine.

Also, keep in mind, the SM58 ISN'T A BAD MIC. So many people think you need LDC's when recording vox. A lot of bands use dynamic mics for recording: Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Some other bands :p But condensors tend to give a better sound.
 
matttheaxe said:
I was only referring to the quality of recording a simple acoustic guitar track, not the entire process of a song. The numbers change then.
Click to expand...

That's what I meant as well. Those numbers were for recording a single acoustic guitar track. Or a single anything else track. Or a whole album. Or an entire discography.

I give any and all recording equipment no more than 10% of the credit for the final sound of anything. It's all people.



Say the top guy at Abby Road is recording Bela Fleck on banjo. He is playing something relatively simple.
The sound will drop off much more if you replace Bela with "decent banjo student X" than it will if you replace the mic with some $70 bargain mic.

The sound will fall off a cliff if you replace Bela and the Abby Road engineer with people who are merely decent (only the people changed, same equipment/instrument and room). But as long as you've got Bela and the top engineer, it will be professional greatness no matter what gear is picking up and recording the sound (within reason... and you have to take it to ludicrous extremes to not be within reason).



To look at it from another perspective: You win some sort of bizarre lottery where you can use either a fancy-pants mic and bass cab to record a single bass part you wrote for a song, or you can use Flea to record a single bass part you wrote for a song. You'd be pretty bonkers to pass up on Flea.
 
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