Optimizing your room for recording vocals or acoustic guitar?

W

Wardove04

New member
I've been recording music in my basement for about a year now. I don't exactly have what most would call a studio. My basement is a finished basement, in which consist of a family room / my music equipment. The basement has a drop ceiling (8.5 feet), and carpet throughout.

My question is what can I do with my space to optimize my recordings (mainly worried about vocals). In my past experience all of my vocals sound transparent and hollow. Here are some of my equipment specs.

MXL 990 Condenser Mic
I run Pro tools LE 8.0.4
Windows Windows 7 64 bit Professional
HP Dual core


I've recording in the Bedroom which square and is smaller (15x15 feet) and in the family room (20x20) which is more shaped like a hexagon. Which room is better. What can I do to make my vocals have less room in the recording?

I'm new to this aspect of the game (I'm a guitarist) who never really thought about these topics until a year ago. Please don't verbally beat me down (the only stupid question, is the one you don't ask). What kind of low budget fixes have people made to improve their quality recording experience? I have a space (15x10) I can build with, but would like some helpful tips and experiences.

Sorry if this is too long-winded, but I wanted to include as much info as possible. If I left anything out, feel free to let me know, or just ask.

Thank you to everyone that takes the time to help a fellow musicians out.
 
Try a noise gate in your DAW to see if that fixes anything initially.

Other than that you're going to need the usual foam/fibreglass panels on your roof/walls/other reflection points etc.
 
If your options are only existing rooms in your house, try the biggest room with the least geometric design, the highest ceiling and the most furniture and soft things around. Don't sing at right angles to a wall, and have as long a distance from the mic to the wall as you can, whilst not being close to the walls behind either....curtains are good, windows and hard surfaces bad.

What you're trying to do is minimise the reflections of your sound source (voice / acoustic guitar) bouncing back and being picked up in your microphone. Most rooms in houses are not suited for this purpose, but with a bit of thought you can do a lot to enhance them.

There are a number of other variables here too - this will be more successful if your style of music involves singing at a lower volume rather than a higher one etc. etc.

Get the picture?
 
Probably not something you'd be willing to do, but getting rid of the carpet would help. Also, forget about foam. If you're going to spend money on something, look into rigid fibreglass for your corners and ceiling. Other than that, Armistice's tips in the previous post are very helpful.
 
Thank you everyone for your helpful information and opinions. I will start experimenting, and see what I can come up with.
 
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