I just recently set up some acoustics in a corner of my room, and I'm hoping somebody that has better ears than I do are able to listen to these and tell me which vocal sounds the cleanest.
I did two tests, both are on the same .wav file. The first time you hear my voice, I'm facing the acoustic foam I put in the corner of my room on my wall with my back turned to the open area of my room, and the second time through I have my back turned to the foam and I'm facing the open area of my room. this is also without any vocal editing done. i just recorded and exported.
http://anonymous-music.com/mic test with foam.wav
that's the way I have it setup.
Hi C-Slikk,
First of all, thank you posting this test. I am no expert and am learning, myself. I also will point out that I am very VERY hard of hearing. That said allow me to offer what I can from an "amature with hearing disability"'s perspective.
I opened the wav file in my Window media player and found the audio was not loud enough for me to hear. Therefore, I had
to open up my daw and record the file, copy that recording and paste into a second track.
Track 1 recording of your original file.
Recording of the original file - self-explanitory
Track 2 copy of track 1 1.
a) I needed to normalize the level to be louder. I generally cannot hear anything intelligably at levels below -10 dB (ie -10 dB to -90 dB):
b) EQ Setting modification to bring room ambiance to my hearing ability:
During your speech about both mic orientations, this track's master out peak levels are set at -10 dB to -3 dB with Mid LowL @ 20dB and Mid High @ 20 dB.
MY Observations:
The room ambiance appears to be more pronounced when you are facing the foam and the capsule is facing the room.
The room ambiance appears to be less pronounced when you are facing the room with your back to the foam.
The difference is very subtle but still noticeable to my bad ears.
MY Speculations:
I am assuming that when "you are facing the foam", the mic's capsule is facing the room, therefore, the mic is picking up room ambiance behind your voice.
Also
I am assuming when you are facing the room ("back to the foam"), the microphone (and thus capsule) was rotated 180 degrees and was now facing the foam.
The result of YOU facing the room (back to foam) and the MIC facing the foam, appears to yield a slightly quieter room ambiance
with your voice being a slight bit louder in the peaks - (of course your voice level and distance from mic may have differed slightly between the two orientations).
With the EQ levels set back original non-adjusted setting, the sound difference is extremely hard (for me) to distinguish the difference but after listening to the clip loop over and over and over for about an hour, I must conclude that when your back is
to the foam, the overall sound is slight bit warmer/bassier and quieter than otherwise when you are facing the foam.
So.... if Quiet = "cleaner" to you, then I would say that the "back to the foam" sounds cleaner. If you want a smidgeon of room ambiance, then face the foam.
Conclusion:
For my ears, if I wanted to hear the difference, I would need to boost the mid lo and mid hi EQ some 20dB to actually hear the difference. However, that boost most likely would equate to a very bright harsh treble heavy sound to other people with much better hearing or normal hearing.
Back to foam sounds cleaner/quieter (to me)
What would be interesting is an identical test WITHOUT the foam, so we can hear the difference between foamed and bare wall
situations.
