Room set up help. Bad sounds being recorded!

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poulsman

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Hi guys!:)
I'm new to this forum. Have read some posts in the past, and I love the place! Very helpful atmosphere.

Here is my home recording situation

I currently record in my bedroom, which is a small two story building separate from the rest of the house. I record upstairs, which has a useable area of about 3.5 metres (sorry, I only know the metric system! Aussie...) by 5 metres.
It's kind of an open plan area...so when you're upstairs, you can still look to the downstairs area. Just separated by the stair rail.

I only record acoustic guitar, vocals and electric guitar.
Use an M-box 2 mini with a Rode NT1-A.

The problem I'm having at the moment is that when I record a guitar track, it kinda sounds like it has some bad flange or phaser effect on it...like it's going in circles.

i have no sophisticated knowledge of this stuff. My only explanation is that the sound is coming out of my amp, travelling downstairs, then finding its way back upstairs all before it goes into my system!!:D

Would a little, home made isolating cabinet of some kind help this situation?

It doesn't seem to make any different to my vocals...just centre-panned guitar.

It really frustrates me, and I'm kinda close to giving up on the home studio thing and just save money for short pro studio visits...but I really don't want to lose the passion!

Any help would be very appreciated!!
Hopefully the description of my environment makes sense...

Thanks!
Jack
 
You may be getting some phasing problems due to your room. I would try covering your amp/mic with some heavy blankets to absorb room reflections. You might also put your amp on a chair or stand to prevent reflections from the floor from causing phase problems. Try a test recording in a different room to see if that makes a difference. Also place your mic off to the side of the speaker cone aimed at an angle and make sure you are not overdriving it. These are the first things that come to mind--hope it helps!
 
This is why pro studios spend millions of dollars on building acoustically engineered rooms.

You might want to pop over to Ethan's acoustic board at www.ethanwiner.com he has a forum and articles devoted to setting up acoustic spaces.
 
just sit facing a different dirrection and move the mic. i seriously doubt it's a phase issue with one mic.
 
ez_willis said:
just sit facing a different dirrection and move the mic. i seriously doubt it's a phase issue with one mic.
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You can have phase issues with one mike when the mike detects the direct waves and the reflected waves (which are slightly delayed) out of out of phase with each other. Moving the mike, as you have suggested, will frequently help, as will blocking or absorbing reflected waves. Raising the amp will greatly lengthen the path of the reflected waves from the floor, so that their effect on the direct waves (if you are close-miking the speaker) is reduced.
 
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clivus said:
You can have phase issues with one mike when the mike detects the direct waves and the reflected waves (which are slightly delayed) out of out of phase with each other. Moving the mike, as you have suggested, will frequently help, as will blocking or absorbing reflected waves.
Click to expand...

throw a blanket over the amp.
 
ez_willis said:
throw a blanket over the amp.
Click to expand...
That's a great solution. Another good one would be to record the acoustic downstairs. With a cathedral ceiling the downstairs room probably sounds awesome.
 
clivus said:
You can have phase issues with one mike when the mike detects the direct waves and the reflected waves (which are slightly delayed).
Click to expand...

...skewing the frequency response of the recording yes, but how can that lead to a "phaser effect"? In this situation there can be no oscillation of this interference that could lead to such an effect, unless the mic, source or room/surroundings (or any combination thereof) are significantly moving! From the sounds of it he's recording a guitar amp with a (presumably) fixed mic... OP, please could you confirm that you are only using one mic?
 
mattr said:
...skewing the frequency response of the recording yes, but how can that lead to a "phaser effect"? In this situation there can be no oscillation of this interference that could lead to such an effect, unless the mic, source or room/surroundings (or any combination thereof) are significantly moving!
Click to expand...

Good point. I was speculating on what could be the difference between miking his voice and miking an amp that would cause sound degradation in the latter but not the former. If there was a significant flutter echo in his room, interfering with the direct waves, could that possibly create the 'sweep' required to cause the phasing effect ?
 
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How about a link to an example so the discussion can center around the actual issue and not theories about what may be happening?
 
Thanks for the responses people! Really appreciated. :)

I am only using one mic.

One thing I've done is lean a mattress against the wall, then swivel my couch so it is 90 degrees to the wall, with the side of the couch touching the mattress. I placed my amp so it was facing directly inwards to the corner, nice and close. The mic is also fairly close, probably only a foot away from the amp. I had hoped this would create some kind of mini deadened area and eliminate whatever the problem I'm having is. It kind of worked. Maybe if I suspend a blanket above this little corner of soft, comfy furniture?
 
Placing the amp on a chair off the floor and turning down the volume may help too.
 
ez_willis said:
agreed, but there is no way that one mic on one acoustic guitar will produce an audible phase affect. it'd still sound good though. :D
Click to expand...

Sure there is. If the amp sound is reflecting off a nearby surface and that slightly delayed sound is leaking back into the mic, it can easily be out of phase with the original signal.
 
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