Need ideas for echo reduction with small budget.

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Defreshed

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Hi, my wife has a problem with echo when recording music on her PC. The house has a fairly high ceiling (guessing 12ft) and 2 of the walls have windows all the way along them, the floor is wood and we are looking into options to try reduce the echo when she records without spending thousands of dollars on magic foam lol.

She records a songs that require a lot of power vocals and the room is obviously bad at echoing unless she sings at a lower volume which loses the impact as it starts to sound uninspired. (Hard to sound convincing as a rapper at conversational level)

Is there anyone who has an idea how we can reduce the echo without breaking the bank? It would be best if it was easily dissassembled or moveable also as the room doesnt have much floorspace to work with and we would rather not have more clutter in the room.

Thanks in advance
 
You can build gobos for not a lot of money if you can DIY it. There is one design that sticks in my head where someone mounted 4" thick OC703 on PVC pipe stands. Not sure if you need 4" thick panels or maybe 2" will suffice.

You can place them in front of one or two walls and leave the other two walls exposed to retain some of the liveliness of the room. Too bad it reverberates too much. A nice big room is ideal for recording, but every room is different and some might not work.

Another idea is to hang moving blankets on portable frames. Again, blocking just one or two walls. Kind of against the common wisdom, but I think you are looking for quick and dirty and cheap ideas.

Good luck.
 
Chili..you are the essence of HR. Kudos on you recommendations.
 
...and for the "portable frames" part of Chilli's suggestion, go to your local plumbing or DIY shop and buy a bunch of cheap PVC pipe and a selection of joints. Make them into a couple of "L" shaped frames to hang the moving blankets from but leave the right angle joints of the "L" unglued so you can take them apart and store them flat under a bed.

Best results will likely be putting the frame/blankets behind your wife and have her stand at or just behind the front edge. If you can find something non-reflective at the other end of the room to point her towards (window with thick curtains or even a shelf full of paperbacks) so much the better.
 
You can just buy the 4 in or 2 in and paste it together. I just got the fabric and glued it. And then lean it against the wall corners. I don't know why people worry about wooden and plastic frames. Buy the fiber glass from insulation distributors. You get like 6 2in rigid fiber glass for like 64 dollars.
 
What are you using for a microphone? In a room with a lot of flutter echo, its better to use a dynamic mic than a condensor, then a little judicious acoustic treatment (blankets behind the sionger, a few traps in other places, can do the trick. Experiment with the angle she faces into the room, etc.
 
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