Which room do I record in??

[rgraves]

Hi everyone,

I am getting ready to track in my home studio and I am trying to figure out the best room(s) to use (considering my low quality home set up of course).

So I have an EMU 1820M and I'll be renting some nice condenser mic like neumann U87 and a couple nice AKGs etc for vocals.

Now, after researching a bit it seems a lot of pro places use a smaller room for vocal recording...

well anyhow, here is my question: I have 3 rooms in my basement for recording, the first is a living room type area which is about 8 feet by 20 feet, the second is a empty bedroom which is about 8 feet by 12 feet and then lastly is a oddly shaped closet at about 2 feet by 8 feet.

I know I have heard of many people recording vocals in their closet, and I haven't ever done that before...just from the dimensions of the rooms which is the best tracking room??

Also, could you tell me the best room for recording acoustic steel string, classical nylon string and then electric guitar for super heavy distortion and clean tone (if they would be different for each)

Thanks everyone!!

 

[Monkey Allen]

I reckon you should do a little demo for each instrument, with each mic, in different locations of each room. Serious...if you have the means to carry out some tests then you can decide for yourself what sounds/ combos you like the best.

 

[bennychico11]

no one here can tell you which room will sound better...it'd be a huge guess. You're the only one who has been in each of them. Do what Monkey suggested, test them all.

closets sound like crap, IMO though.

 

[rgraves]

Oh...I see, I thought it was just a "generally this type of room is used for" type of thing...I don't really have a means of testing it out a whole lot since I won't be tracking for me, but rather someone else coming in from out of town...

Now from what I've seen, it seems that vocals are not recorded in, say, the largest room in the studio...should I apply that same principal and not record in the living room area, but maybe try the smaller room? Or are both the rooms small enough to where it's better to just take a scratch track of each?

Thanks again

 

[littledog]

I disagree strongly. I would try to record vocals in the largest room (and highest ceiling) that you have. The smaller the room, the bigger the ratio of early reflections off of the walls and ceiling will be to direct sound, often introducing comb filtering and undesireable artifacts.

The reason why you hear about people recording in a closet is because they are trying to isolate the voclaist from other instruments. If that isn't an issue, use the biggest room available.

On the other hand, just because you are recording someone else still doesn't mean you can't do a quick test of their voice in each of the three rooms. Then both of you can listen back and decide which room sounds best.

 

[Massive Master]

I'd go with that - The largest usable space. If the largest space is far too ambient and bright and you need a darker, softer sounding space, then maybe the smaller room is the largest usable space. The opposite may also be true.

And keep in mind when you start treating the rooms - Start with the LOW end - Not with a foam party. "Dead" rarely equals "good" - especially if the low end is taking over.

 

[mixsit]

I disagree strongly. I would try to record vocals in the largest room (and highest ceiling) that you have. The smaller the room, the bigger the ratio of early reflections off of the walls and ceiling will be to direct sound, often introducing comb filtering and undesireable artifacts.

Same here. I'd always want the option to vary and control the reflections in either case to tailor the depth effect on various tracks (I don't know about the percent of reflections part of big Vs small), but in general you can always choke it down, get dry' and eliminate the room for the most part. But only having small' reflections are less flexible lets say.
Just a theory, but think Hass effect. Anything under about 12-15 ms is color 'attached' to the source.

I think in either case it is perhaps more important to pick when and where you're letting the room in.

Wayne

 

[littledog]

(I don't know about the percent of reflections part of big Vs small)

I realize we are in agreement, but just to elaborate:

If a room boundary is very close to the mic, any reflection will not only be much shorter (resulting in a phasey rather than echoey effect) but will be closer in strength to the direct signal than a larger room where the reflection has travelled much farther (and therefore lost more energy).

If you extrapolate to the extreme and put your head and the microphone in a small box just large enough to contain both, the reflections wil be almost equal in strength to the direct sound, and the result should be pretty horrible, unless one was going for a weird special effect. (In which case, the results might be pretty wonderful!)

 

[XLR]

For tracking acoustic and classical guitar all of those rooms are so small you're likely to have problems with boominess and HF reflections unless you treat them very carefully. When you record a guitar you're really recording a larger composite instrument made up of the room AND the guitar. And the right room can really make a guitar's tone blossom. I prefer a large room with mic's back a bit, so if it were me I'd run mic cables from the monitoring room to a larger room upstairs, especially if there's one with high ceilings. But a small space that's treated well can get a good basic sound, even if lacking in natural room ambience.

Tim

 

[mixsit]

If a room boundary is very close to the mic, any reflection will not only be much shorter (resulting in a phasey rather than echoey effect) but will be closer in strength to the direct signal than a larger room where the reflection has travelled much farther (and therefore lost more energy).

I see where you're going. I wasn't connecting the dots very well last night.


'Fact several were completely missing..

 

[sjjohnston]

A contrary thought, different from those above, but agreeing with something littledog said:

In a "real" recording studio, you've got tracking rooms and control rooms. The former are where you record stuff, the latter is where you monitor and mix. I'd worry more about the latter than the former. In other words, your first task is to find a room where you can set up your recording equipment and monitors and be able to monitor reasonably well. It's obviously not going to be the closet. Which of the other two works best depends on stuff you can't (or I can't, anyway) really tell just from the dimensions.

From there, depending on who/what/how you're recording, set up the other two rooms, or the same room, for recording.

For tracking:

- A real recording studio has at least one (usually several) "great sounding rooms."

- A home recording studio usually doesn't have any great sounding rooms. If you don't have any, the best approach may not be to worry about which is the best bad-sounding room, but to use techniques to avoid room sound altogether.

- One characteristic of great sounding room seems to be high ceilings. You're unlikely to have these in any basement.

- Some other variables to consider in basements: Where is the furnace? How about noisy ducts? Any windows with neighbor's windows nearby?