BRIEFCASEMANX said:
I don't think a tube LDC is going to do crap about fixing the room. Reflexion filter with blankets on mic stands sounds like a good idea. I also agree that an LDC will sound better with a not so great pre. The reflexion filter will take care of a lot of the sound from behind, not to mention a cardioid mic picks up way more sound from in front. I've had better results hanging blankets behind the singer. So yeah, try using reflexion filter behind mic, and blankets behind you. Also set up the mic stand somewhere closer to the center of the room, not near a wall or corner.
I'm going to disagree on several of your points. To minimize the effect of room sound, your goal is do minimize the level of first reflections relative to the direct sound. The middle of the room isn't the best spot because most sound sources are
not omnidirectional except at very low frequencies. With vocals (and almost anything else other than drums, strings, harp, and possibly acoustic grand piano), you will
never have problems from rear reflections; the amount of sound a singer projects backwards is inconsequential, and thus having a wall behind you should have little to no discernible effect on first reflections.
IMHO, your best bet is to set up the mic close to a wall, pointing towards the wall, fairly close to the middle of the wall. Most of your sound as a singer is projected forwards. By putting the singer facing outwards near the middle of the wall, the vast majority of the singer's sound has to go as far as possible before it reflects back. By placing it in the center from left to right, you also maximize the distance for side reflections. In so doing, you are also maximizing the signal (voice) to noise (reflections) ratio for your through-the-air pickup.
In a small room, mid-wall placement can make a big difference. The place I notice this most is when recording trumpet. Room reflections in an untreated room will utterly kill a trumpet recording if you put the mic in the middle of a room that size. Moving closer to a wall so that the reflections are coming from twice as far away significantly improves the sound without touching the room at all.
As for cardioid mics, IMHO, that's also backwards unless you're trying to eliminate some outside source of sound (e.g. a refrigerator in the next room). What you really want is an omni mic. It's counterintuitive, but hear me out. By using an omni mic, you can get very close to the mic without proximity effect. The closer you are to the mic, the stronger the voice is relative to the room. A cardioid mic is exactly what you don't want because it forces you to keep your distance.
The reasons I suggested a tube mic is that A. most have variable pattern, so you can use an omni pattern or figure-8 pattern and get much closer to the mic without too much boominess, B. the perceived "room problems" from recording with LDCs are probably not room problems at all---a 13'x13' room is not a small room, and should be quite reasonable for vocals by comparison with the rooms a lot of folks here record in---but rather, more a case of the original poster's aversion to the naturally harsh, brittle tone of a lot of FET LDCs, which can be tamed a lot by a proper tube circuit, and C. they aren't muddy like dynamics, which is what the original poster was complaining about.
Using a dynamic to "reduce room noise" won't work unless you're singing straight into a wall and getting comb filtering in the high frequencies or something. For a 13 foot room, if you're in the middle, the first frequency that will get boosted perfectly is a 6.5 foot wavelength, 171 Hz (give or take), then every octave above that---342 Hz, 684 Hz, etc. You're going to have peaks and nulls all through the spectrum, and the only ones a dynamic is likely to really help with are the ones at the high end.
Likewise, a reflection filter and/or blankets are only going to significantly help with the high frequencies, while in reality, the entire frequency range needs treatment. Thus, I'm not convinced that those will give the desired effect, either, though they will probably help somewhat. To me, the original post clearly screamed "cheap chinese mic is too bright, dynamic too dull, need a mic suggestion".
If I could suggest only two room treatments, it would be this: 1. isolate the mic stand from the wooden floor. Completely. Use a shock mount and add a rubber mat on top of the floor. That will remove a lot of muddiness. 2. Add bass traps in the corners.
