Needing some help on my first-ever setup...

[Scorpio Moon]

Hey guys,

Here's my (brief) story:

A year ago, I started doing a Web talk show. (The URL: http://www.nlexp.com)

The interviews I do take place over the phone. As time went on and I learned more about audio recording, I bought a Behringer Eurorack MX802A mixing board. I had one end of my phone patch plugged into the phone, the other end plugged into the mixing board and, obviously, the mixing board plugged into my computer.

Over the months, I was more concerned with learning audio editing. (I use Cool Edit Pro.) I cared how the telephone recording sounded, but I didn't put a lot of thought into how I sounded. I bought a $30 headset mic at Radio Shack, plugged it into my soundcard mic jack and used it. At the time, it seemed fine to me.

Recently, I began reading about doing voiceovers. I realized this is something I'd like to try. After doing tons of research, it became apparent I deseperately needed to get a new mic and learn about recording.

I went out and bought a Rode NT-1 and a mic cable from Radio Shack.

My problem:

I live in a relatively small, one-bedroom apartment. There's no extra room I can use solely for recording. So, I was thinking of doing this:

I have a bedroom closet. It's about 5 feet long and 2 feet deep. As with most closets, it has a shelf above the clothing rack.

It's about 2/3 full of clothes. I was thinking of parting the clothes on either side (to use the clothes as soundproofing material) and having space in the middle. I was going to tape the mic cord to the bottom of the shelf and have the NT-1 hang down from the shelf near the opening of the closet. I would have the closet doors open somewhere between a 45-90 degree angle with me standing in between them--in front of the mic.

The bedroom window is across the room--about 12-14 feet away.

My question is, could this minimalistic setup work?

I'm not opposed to buying a mic stand. It's just that, I'm not sure where I could place it to acquire the best aucustics.

Also, when I was using my mixing board with my phone patch, I experimented with various settings and found what worked best with the telephone recordings I was doing. But I have no idea how to get a decent sound out of a condenser mic.

Is there any suggestions anyone can give me--which areas of the mixing board I should be focused on to get decent voiceover recordings and which parts of the mixing board I should leave alone?

I know I can learn a lot simply by trial and error. I'm just asking to, hopefully, save myself some time.

Thanks.

 

[Ed Dixon]

If I understand, you are making calls and recording both ends. You later use that on your web site. You not want to add some addiitional voice info to the record call data.

One option is to get a good headset and use it for both the calls and later voice overs. That way the voice data from you will sound the same in both cases. Most headset mics are fairly localized and you many not need to do the closet thing at all.

Would that work for you?

Ed

 

[Scorpio Moon]

Hey Ed,

I should have done a better job at clarifying.

The phone recording setup I use is fine. I mentioned the phone recordings to explain how I came about acquiring the equipment I currently use.

I want to go beyond doing interviews and do voiceover work--commercials, narration, etc, etc. The thing is, I have a very basic setup and not a primary place to record.

I'm wanting to know if I can take the equipment I currently have and record in my closet and possibly get results I can use for a voiceover demo and, eventually, product I can sell to clients.

 

[Ed Dixon]

OK.

A closet has lots of padding, so the sound should be dead. A closed door will filter out most outside noise. the next thing is to just try it. Just haul the gear in and see how it goes.

Ed