HUGE favor. Really need help. Frusterated.

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live2drill

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Alrite to start. I have mucho experience with mixing and mastering but i think ive met my match. At the same time i cant really identify what my biggest problem is. Doing a little research i realized that foam really isnt the greatest acoustic surrounding for vocals but ill get into that in a minute.

My studio partner and i just built our own vocal booth with no vocal acoustic surrounding knowledge. We took our asses to the nearest Lowes and built a booth out of plywood sheets. the booth is about 7ft tall 4ft wide and 7ft long so its pretty spacy. Its covered with a roof and has a door on one end. obviously were not COMPLETE retards cuz we knew that recording in a hollowed out plywood box with a cement floor would sound worse than recording in the middle of the street. In that case, we had plans of stapling sheets of bedfoam to the walls ceiling and floor to cover every inch in foam.

Anyways, as an upcoming producer, I honestly strive harder to mimic the professional studio sound than the artist i mainly work with. we started doing this recording thing years ago and began to step our game up very very fast as i started with a shitty behringer usb condenser mic and upgraded to the Rode NT1-A just recently. Im now running the mic through a preamp/mixer that works generally great. It was around 300 bucks brand new.

The thing that pisses me off the most about when we record, It sounds like were rappin in a small box. Not so much a "plywood box" but more of a "Small Closet" type box.
Since the box is completely ambient proof/echo proof we are only semi-pleased with the sound result for obvious reasons.

Because of all these problems, At the end of the day wen we are done recording and when i go home to master the tracks, I have a HUGE Weight on my shoulders because i have so much damn mastering to do. Its honestly too much for me. I would like to be able to hear what the track would GENERALLY sound like while were recording. I know its possible with the RODE NT1-A also because ive heard it myself.

heres an example of a pretty well mastered sample we did so i could post this for help... the verse hops in at 30 seconds. http://www.zshare.net/audio/6834505806725017/

Now here is the RAW version/ acapella with no FX or mastering. http://www.zshare.net/audio/683454099eae6961/

By listening to the RAW version you can tell that hes not in a professional studio whatsoever.

Ive spent so much money in building a studio (not so much the booth) that ive realized THE ONE thing i hate more than wasting money is wasting time. especially time that i could be using to record professional quality. So finally im doin what i should of done a long time ago and asked for tips and help on buildin the correct acoustic environment to get that "crisp" beat blending vocal mix that im more than striving to get. like i said, Im very experienced with mixing but this is too damn hard. what should I do? Im open to everything. I would also like to know if i should look into a better mic/preamp such as the Neumann mics or whatnot. Also open to any mixing tips...

Also if there is anything I can do to the inside of the booth to make it more acoustic friendly im all ears... BIG thanks
 
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[SOAPBOX] First - For someone who "has to do so much mastering" you need to learn the difference between MIXING (which is what you're doing) and MASTERING (which is what you're NOT doing). The two are totally different processes that are basically unrelated and have completely different definitions.
[/SOAPBOX]

The "booth" is not. A booth isn't a bunch of plywood with bed foam stapled to it. The concrete floor is actually probably the best part (live floors are generally a good thing). It's not "ambient proof" or "echo proof" -- It's most likely a resonant chamber with a lack of high end (a "mud" chamber).

Put noisy equipment in it. For vocal spaces, unless it's a reasonably treated and designed space (for example: http://www.massivemastering.com/special/SmallVocalBooth.pdf ), you're far better off in a larger room. The bigger the better in most cases. Of course, if the larger space isn't reasonably well-treated (and bed foam has absolutely nothing to do with acoustic treatment), you're still going to have issues.

As far as the recording, it sounds "tiny" - That could be due to any of several reasons. 1) The guy has a "tiny" sounding voice (this one is #1 for a reason). 2) The preamp (or converters, or both) isn't any good. 3) He's singing into the wrong side of the mic. 4) Bad mic technique. 5) Any combination of the above.

Looking into better gear? Sure - Assuming the space you're in is reasonably in order and your monitoring chain is up to snuff - Otherwise, you're throwing good money after bad. The NT1A isn't a bad mic... IMO, it's no SM7b - which is A) one of the greatest vocal mics ever designed at any price (IMO) and is supremely suited to any "up front" and/or aggressive vocal source (such as rock, rap, etc.) and B) far more "bad space friendly" than almost any typical LDC. And as any mic is only as good as the preamp driving it, a decent preamp is a prerequisite.
 
It's all about the space

I have to agree with Massive. If you really feel the need to record in a homemade booth you're better off with a dynamic mic. I give top points to the SM7b through a meaty pre like a Great River. If you prefer the uber-crisp sound of your condensor then consider looking for a more open acoustic space to record in. Maybe try some remote recording just to hear what you get in different kinds of spaces. Truth is you can never get *great* results by "fixing" a boxy vocal. It's got to sound great right from the get-go or it's always going to sound like a pig with lipstick. :cool:
 
Massive Master said:
The "booth" is not. A booth isn't a bunch of plywood with bed foam stapled to it. The concrete floor is actually probably the best part (live floors are generally a good thing). It's not "ambient proof" or "echo proof" -- It's most likely a resonant chamber with a lack of high end (a "mud" chamber).
Click to expand...

ROFL...I was going to post that he'd just constructed a "booth" specifically designed to add boxiness to a vocal track.:D
 
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