Improving Acoustics, do you think this idea will work?

[arkitech]

Howdy mates,
I have a large bedroom (where i do my recording) and as you enter the door there is a wall right infront of you then you walk into the rest of the room to the left. i have attached an image of what it would look like birds eye view,
down the bottom right hand corner is what im talking about.

Now since i have no cash whatsoever to buy any foam or anything i was wondering if it would do the job to use a normal bed matress to block off the open end of the cubicle. and use thick bed quilts to hang on the interior walls of the cubicle. and to cover the door. Would this improve the acoustics do you think. I set it up earlier with just the matress blocking off the open end and it seemed to help out a bit but yeah what do you guys think?

 

[Outlaws]

Since you are broke I would suggest the bathroom. Try different places. If its a tub/shower then you can even try standing in there or half out or just sit on the can and do your thing.

The acoustics will much likely be better than your room.

Oh...and what are you trying to record?

 

[arkitech]

i may do the shower idea. But it seems very echo'y in there. I will be recording hip hop vocals

 

[Outlaws]

I wouldn't really suggest in the shower unless you want the reverb. Just in the bathroom will be a bit less. The kitchen is another place to try...or if you have tile anywhere else.

 

[ecktronic]

What mic you using? ive recorded vocals in my room before with good results. I suppose my room is pretty small but i have a main road next to it and a big velux window! What i did was use a dynamic vocal mic and put a bit of compression and a de esser on the input and i sung right up close to the mic very nearly touching it at times with my lips. I then added more compression to the recorded track and carefully applied small amounts of eq just to beef it up a bit. Then i added a vocal enhancer to the recorded track and boosted at around 2 kHz, but not too much or it ends up sounding fake. Oh yeah, i also added some room reverb effect, quite alot, but not so much that it sounded like a pink floyd vocal. So it sounded naturallish.

Hope this is of any help atall. Close micing eliminates alot (sometimes all) of room ambience, but make sure you have the right input level from the mic, as it might need to be set quite low to use close micing.

 

[HangDawg]

I put my guitar amp in the shower one time and I got some really nice tracks.

 

[bucchild]

Do you intend to try recording the vocals in that cubicle area? If so, what you're saying sounds like a pretty good idea....if you want your vocals to come through dead. The shower/bathroom suggestion is a good one for natural reverb, but if you intend to add reverb, you could find this a nuisance. If the 3 walls of the cubicle are deadened well, and the mic is right in the middle, then the mattress may not even be necessary....you shouldn't get much reflection from the wall in front of you, therefore not enough to reflect all the way back to the mic from the wall behind you.

 

[arkitech]

Thanks from all the replies guys, Ecktronic, What you said sounds like a good idea, If i didnt have this cubicle available i would most likely use that method. But since the cubicle is available, I have put picture hooks on each corner of the open end of the cubicle and sewn 2 loops on each corner of a thick doona so i can easily hook it up anytime without bothering moving the big matress, I have also put hooks above the door to cover it with another doona.