Mics in a 'hard' room (engineers out there?)

A

ashulman

New member
I have a midrangy voice that, when picked up by my Behringer B-2, occasionally sounds harsh at high volumes. I'm sure the mic has something to do with it but I wonder if my recording conditions have an impact. I am recording in a relatively small room with hardwood floors and exposed walls and two windows. Could the reflections be causing some of the harshness?
 
4-5 boomstands
3-4 packing blankets
set the mic up
put 2 stands up high and turn the booms to where the two ends touch (spring clips lock them together well if you have any)
drape a blanket over it

you now have a wall

now use another stand in the same way, and make a wall to the left, using the other stand as a support at the end of the boom
then the right side
you get the idea
you will quite often get better vocals if you can get a foot or so away from the mic without getting some room, and then you can work the mic better too during loud and soft passages.
There is something to be said for knowing how to work the mic. Its not easy.
Enjoy.
 
until my studio is complete,i am stuck in the spare bedroom so
i know what you are talking about.one thing i have discovered that helps a lot is to leave the door open and position the mic between the door and myself.this lets the sound travel and cuts down on those nasty little echos.
 
Take all your winter coats and hang them from any available hook in the room; Find blankets or comforters and roll 'em in a ball; set 'em on a chair and so forth. The idea is to frustrate standing waves and reflections. This approach is free and it WILL change the sound of the room. Whether enough, or to your liking, who knows. A friend of mine tried it in a bare room with a guitar and his MXL V67 - piled clothes (had a rollaway with down jackets and such) around where the guitar / mic was - and lots of those problems went away.

Are you using an outboard preamp? That can have a big effect on the sound as well. A Blue Tube preamp allows you to dial in "tubeyness" (tube distortion) as well as gain. A DMP3 preamp is very clean, but doesn't seem to have any harshness. Mixing board preamps (Behringer mixer, perhaps?) can be pretty sharp edged unless you have a pricey board.
 
That's likely to be as good as anything I have; The mic is probably an issue, but the room is certainly the obvious thing to work on. Try a cheap fix first (hanging stuff) and see if you can tell a difference.
 
Do what radio stations do with their (typically) less than ideal
acoustics, and try a dynamic vocal microphone like;

Electro-Voice EV RE20 (or PL20)
Sennheiser 421 (NOT MKII-only prior models)
Shure SM7 (or SM7B)

That's if you want to lessen any need for room treatment
the easy way...

Chris
 
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