No depth, sounds very flat

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ReddieFreddie

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Hi, Whilst I am not new to home recording as such, I have had a custom built studio in my old garage for the last 3 years, I am having to relocate and this is where I am out of my custom built comfort zone!

A combination of reasons including a PC that went phutt means that I'm having to start from scratch with my space, acoustics and some of my equipment...and this is where I'm left floundering!

I used have an Audio Technica AT4033a via a Behringer 16/2 mixer into the minijack input of a bog standard PC soundcard, and recording onto Adobe Audition at a 44.1 bit rate on a very slow Windows XP desktop. The studio had a great acoustic as I'd put sound baffles (carpeted frames) on all the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately the PC finally went to visit the great engineer in the sky and coupled with having to move out of there, I decided to take the plunge and do it all in one go.... so....

I'm now using my Audio Technica AT4033a microphone via a Presonus AudioBox 2x2, from there into the USB of my Macbook Pro and recording onto Adobe Audition, again at 44.1. In terms of the acoustic, I have created a soft furnishing wonderland inside the open doors of my wardrobe and have filled in the "roof" and fourth wall with a blanket.

The problem I am getting is that even though the acoustic is great, the quality of the audio sounds pretty amateur and nothing like the quality that i was getting before. It sounds rather flat, there's no depth and it's coming across a rather empty sound altogether. I can't see what's changed a great deal, other than there being some newer, better equipment in the way.

Does anyone have any suggestions for settings, mic placement, equipment choices that could assist please?

Kind regards in anticipation.
 
So, you have in effect built a "vocal booth"?

This is the catch 22 of home recording. Small* rooms sound dreadful so we kill as much of the coloured reflections as we can with absorbents but then we end up with dead space and uninspiring recordings!

You can of course add some reverb after the event and there are, I understand, some very good software "verbs" about? Many even free or come with a DAW. Needs to be tatefully done however.

The alternative is to hire a hall.

*I will leave it to the professional acousticians here to define "small room" . Obviously it will be different for a Bach trio than for a Berlioz bash!

Dave.
 
I can't tell if this transition point' meant the new hardware, or the hardware and the 'treatments.
Like he mentioned above, in essence our small rooms are tough; Controlled' means cleaner, smoother capture for recording, but for playing enjoyment, a looser room is definitely more fun.

One thing the control or lessening of boxy room problems does do is give you more leeway in pulling your mics back a bit, and that can mean more 'ambient and tuneful options.
 
What your 'treated' room does is absorb the highs, but none of the low-mids or lows, leaving the recorded sound, most times, very muddy. Proper bass traps (rockwool) will provide a more uniform frequency response in the room, so that adding 'ambience' via reverb and/or delay will have a better effect overall.
 
What instruments are you recording? How are the mic(s) setup/utilized? I record in a mostly untreated (but furnished) space with no issues like you describe, but I tend to record close to the mic and add the reverb I desire later.

As long as it's not boomy as mjb describes, the 'flat' recording could be a good thing. You get to do what you want with the track (control) instead of trying to fix it.
 
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I'm recording voice over only.
Perhaps flat is the wrong word, empty may be better?
 
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