People speak of room acoustics being imporant for MIXING, but what about RECORDING?

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atibingler

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Hey so I'm totally confused here

Is sound treatment and acoustic treatment the same thing? Everywhere I hear that acoustic treatment fo yourr room is important for MIXING, but isn't it just as important for RECORDING? I record in my bedroom, no crazy shenanigans, just a mic. I'm very unsatisfied with how my recordings have turned out. If acoustic treatment (having foam panels on the walls, room etc.) is for mixing, then what is it called to find the best way of RECORDING? I use a large-diaphragm condenser mic. I have some pillows and sheets but I have no idea where to place them, or should I possibly move to a different part of the room to test how it sounds. I just want a good sound naturally so I don't have to EQ my tapes to death. So where the hell do I put sound-absorbants if I just want to a recording to sound good, not mixing. It's not like it makes any difference to have sound pads on the walls ON THE SIDE of you when you're singing into the freaking microphone, is it? Why is room acoustics being confused with good recording quality??
 
atibingler said:
Hey so I'm totally confused here

Is sound treatment and acoustic treatment the same thing? Everywhere I hear that acoustic treatment fo yourr room is important for MIXING, but isn't it just as important for RECORDING? I record in my bedroom, no crazy shenanigans, just a mic. I'm very unsatisfied with how my recordings have turned out. If acoustic treatment (having foam panels on the walls, room etc.) is for mixing, then what is it called to find the best way of RECORDING? I use a large-diaphragm condenser mic. I have some pillows and sheets but I have no idea where to place them, or should I possibly move to a different part of the room to test how it sounds. I just want a good sound naturally so I don't have to EQ my tapes to death. So where the hell do I put sound-absorbants if I just want to a recording to sound good, not mixing. It's not like it makes any difference to have sound pads on the walls ON THE SIDE of you when you're singing into the freaking microphone, is it? Why is room acoustics being confused with good recording quality??
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Hi,
Try not to get angry at us. We haven't done anything...yet.

Saying room treatment isn't important because you're singing straight into a microphone isn't the way to look at it.
If you whisper and stay within a 1/2" of the capsule then this may be true, but when you speak or sing normally at a foot distance the mic pics if your direct voice, early reflections and late reflections.

If you record in a church or bathroom it'll sound totally different to recording in a closet or car...Not that either are good.

Early reflections are reflections of sound bouncing off the walls floor and ceiling between you and the mic.
Late reflections are reflections bouncing off the wall behind the mic and back, for example.

That super dry radio broadcast voice sound that you hear is the sound of a room with a lot of treatment.
The sound you hear when your pal puts you on speaker phone is not....see?

Foam and pillows might make some kind of a difference, but really you want heavier materials like 4" or thicker rock wool panels.
 
Go look at the photos of the big studios in the magazines.
They don't spend millions to just look cool....
 
Recording and mixing rooms still have the same issues to be addressed. Though the specifics of each can be quite different.

In a mixing room you are looking to find the best/flattest response without peaks and nulls in the bass response while minimizing first reflections from the position in front of your monitors.

In a recording room, you are not necessarily looking for tuning it to one 'sweet' spot in the room. You want to control the effects of room modes and flutter echo, though you may wish to have an untreated corner for the hell of being able to use that spot for something you would like to have that sound.

JH Brandt actually just suggested that in my recent build of a guitar recording room I am working on right now. The main point he suggested in a recording room is to never have two reflective walls face each other. After that, treat as needed.

For me that means two adjoining walls and ceiling filled with fluffy pink stuff covered with fire retardant cloth. Going to see what it sounds like from there.


So I kinda went off topic here...

I assume that you do not have the ability to tear down walls and such. Usually just building some corner bass traps and some absorbers hung or leaned against walls can work very well. Much better than any blanket or pillow approach though a bit more expensive.

Best to read all that you can on the topic of acoustic treatment. There is much here in the stickies and in other threads.

Your budget and personal needs will determine what is right for you. Knowing exactly what works best and what might work will help you to make the best decisions so that you do not waste money trying to get to what it is 'you' need.

:)
 
And to answer your first question, sound treatment = acoustic treatment. And this does not mean foam. It means bass traps (broadband absorbers).
 
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Hey all,

Forgive me if I sounded blunt, I was just frustrated with the difficulty of this whole thing, not angry at any of you, haha!

Thank you, Mr. Honorary Old Fart, I now understand this better. The mic is going to hear the entire room, not just what's in front of it. Didn't think of that in between you're singing or playing, sound has already reflected a thousand times everywhere in your room and it's affecting the sound of the recording.

Now, this is what I got atm.

acoustics qeustion.webp

Laugh at it if you will!

Guys, I'm really not so into this that I'd start sound treating my room in a serious way. No panels. Just pillows, clothes, sheets. I've been thinking, the most I'm going to do, is to buy some sound-deadening material and stuff it inside quilt covers/sheets, like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np-dyi0wWRQ
Would that be much better than clothes & pillows?

Can you please tell me, for those of you who understand physics and know the technical stuff, WHERE should I place my pillows/sheets/quilt covers with stuff? I don't think what I have right now is optimal? Basically, have I something placed wrong in my current setup that could be placed better?
 
Seems to me that if you're getting a lot of "room" in the mic, try a different mic.
Like a dynamic. Maybe a beta 58. Real tight pattern that will help reject the room.
worth a thought.
:)
 
1. While theres certainly nothing "wrong" with what your doing, it is a very minimal effort, and this will be reflected in your recordings. To me it looks like your trying to make a little isolation booth. The end result will likely have a somewhat more closed sound (better for podcast/speech) and while taming reflections some, the tradeoff will be loss of depth/space in the sound. I doubt the sheet in back has much effect at all.

2. In regards to placement, use your ears. When experimenting like you are with random materials and placement acoustical/industry standards go out the window. It may be cheap, but it wont be easy. To get your best recordings you will have to move things around, record samples, listen, document,. then repeat until you get the best sound for your equipment. There will be no shortcuts in this scanario.
 
Just noticed you posted the same thing a couple of weeks ago and got similar good responses to your question.
https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...-treatment/hows-bedroom-acoustics-pic-373615/

Did you follow the advice you got then? Since your posting the exact same picture I would guess no, which would indicate your not willing to put futher effort into finding the sound your looking for. There is no magic tidbit of advice in the world of sound for placement of pillows that will result in quality tracking.

If Yes, what were the results? If you still didn't get the sound your looking for that would suggest your your bed clothes as room treatment experiment has failed.
 
I tried experimenting with different placements, but I always come back to the one I have in the pic, and even then, I'm not satisfied.

There is a fundamental question that has been left unanswered. Let me quote it below here for you:

Guys, I'm really not so into this that I'd start sound treating my room in a serious way. No panels. Just pillows, clothes, sheets. I've been thinking, the most I'm going to do, is to buy some sound-deadening material and stuff it inside quilt covers/sheets, like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np-dyi0wWRQ
Would that be much better than clothes & pillows?
Click to expand...

I was just looking for an anwer if the set-up in that video would be much better than my pillow-experiment?

That's all, thanks!

EDIT: Actually, I've been getting nice feedback to this exact question in my other thread. This thread can be closed as the title problem has already been answered.
 
If everything you've tried, with everything you have, has failed to give you the sound you want, you've got to try something different...There will likely be a cost...But yeah, if you pick up some Roxul 80 and wrap it in your bedsheets, it will be better than just the bedsheets. Just bear in mind that the stuff is fiberglass and it might make sleeping with those bedsheets a little miserable. :laughings:
If you're not willing to put at least something into getting the sound you want, I'm afraid you're stuck.
 
Hey this is supposed to be a place where you don't laugh at complete newbies. I'm getting an awkward feeling I'm being ridiculed here! :eek:
 
atibingler said:
Hey this is supposed to be a place where you don't laugh at complete newbies. I'm getting an awkward feeling I'm being ridiculed here! :eek:
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I'm not laughing at you or ridiculing you. I'm laughing at what miro said. It's funny because it's true.
 
Greg_L said:
I'm not laughing at you or ridiculing you. I'm laughing at what miro said. It's funny because it's true.
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Really man, it's true that I'm stupid and that is funny? That means you're laughing at me :p
 
atibingler said:
Really man, it's true that I'm stupid and that is funny? That means you're laughing at me :p
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You being stupid very well may be true, I really don't know. I'm not saying that at all. I'm not judging you. And if you are stupid, I haven't decided yet if that's funny or not. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. I was laughing at miro's comment because what he said is true. The best place for pillows and blankets and comforters is indeed on your bed. Or someone else's bed. Any bed. Not on walls.
 
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