Recording vocals in a one room studio!

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Shack

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Help anyone? I have just a single room as a studio which is small, about 10ft x 8ft. There's alot of stuff in it, so it's quite dense. The plan is to start recording vocals and i've just bought a Neumann TLM 103 and a Focusrite pre-amp/compressor.

I would like to cut vocals as dry as possible and at the moment the room appears to be, but I am not sure if this is enough. The main problem I think will be the humm from the damn computer's cooling fan. Is there a way around this? AlsoI have heard suggestions to put duvets on the walls, will this really help? Also are there any tips on soundproofing the window to cut out external noise?

Help, Help, Help!
 
the good thing about windows is that the sound goes out and never comes back. the bad thing about windows is that external sound comes in.

too bad someone hasn't invented one-way sound glass the way that they have one-way mirror glass.

my one-room studio (my wife took my 2nd room) is 12' x 10'. I have my PC in an adjacent closet (my wife's office closet) with holes in the baseboard for passing the wires. I got a KVM cable extension bundle for around $10 bucks.

i've also got Primacoustic panels up on the walls but that was really done with mixing in mind not for recording.

i'm thinking about building a 3 sided gobo that i can shape like a cone for recording vocals. like auralexx makes.
 
I don't have my control room done yet so I've been tracking vocals in the same room as my PC. I kinda blows but ya know, unless you solo the tracks, you can't hear the noise anyway. Yea I know, but it's still there:D
 
crosstudio

How are you handling vocal tracks in your one room? Do you have a corner set up for this or are you recording in a well treated room? Just curious as I am trying to figure out wether to use my closet as a vocal booth or shove the PC in there and use the room.
 
The room is actually not treated but is very small and cos I have quite a lot of stuff in there, it is actually quite dense. I have thought about moving the computer into my wardrobe but there will be the problem of how I connect all the other stuff that's connected to it, my Digi 001, the keyboard, etc but hopefully there is a way around that. If not, i'm thinking i'll just get a box and putthe computer in it and cover with a quilt, but then i'm worried I might ruin the pc due to lack of ventilation. I really don't know what to do to be honest.
 
You may be able to buy a quieter psu. Installing it ins't much fun if your not a pc wiz and it proabably won't solve the problem all together, it depends on how loud your existing on eis.

I have a one room "studio" much like you described. My pc noses into a shelf about 4.5 feet from the vocal mike (which is facing the other way thankfully). It makes a fair amount of noise but not so much that it's bummed me out. Currently I get as much bleed from my cheap headphones as I do computer hum.

The biggest improvement I made for vocals was getting something (anything) on the drywall cieling above the mic. I used some carpet underpadding that was lying around. It's not great, but I can be more than 4 inches from the mic and not sound totally like I'm singing from inside a tin can.
 
The existing psu is pretty loud. The quieter ones are so expensive and not even necessarily quieter. I'll have to figure out some housing of some sort.

When you say carprt to the ceiling above the mic, do you mean the whole ceiling or just a section above the mic? Is this to do with reflected sound? Did you affix with glue? Sounds like I would try that.
 
I did a pretty low tech solution just to get the edge off. I used some underpadding that was lying around and pushpinned it to the cieling above the mic; something like a 3 by 3 patch. I also have a home made difusor on the wall next to where the mic is , and a couple more in the room, that do a little more than just kill the high end.

I didn't want to hang anything on the cieling that was too heavy, i just wanted something to make a difference and cut that first treble bounce, so ya it has to do with early reflections AFAIK. It seemed to help.

I'm not after a true studio at this stage in the game, but did spend some time trying to make my room a little more sound friendly. If you are singing right next to some dry wall I'd find the appropriate way to try and muffle that a bit. Depending on what level of quality you're after that could be anyting from egg cartons to accoustical foam, to real deal diffusors. If you're really seious you may want to read up on some of the threads and articles they link to concerning studio design and sound management.

Ultimately I'd like to get some real tiles on the "live" half of the cieling.
 
the new pentium IV stock fans are extremely quiet. not sure if that is an option for you, otherwise look into putting the pc in another room, it's cheap and very effective......or spend 800 bucks on an isoraxx unit.....or someone in this clinic posted specs for building your own iso computer box. can't remember who. do a search.

see the thing is, once you quiet down your processor fan, then you're gonna hear your hard drive, etc. computers are a never ending noise problem.

i currently have a similar problem with a much larger fan.......my furnace!

with the help of many intelligent guys around here, i'm building an iso room for vocals. halfway done!
 
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