Hi, Please see attached pic of my recording setup. My recordings sound like crap. I'm hoping it's the room. It's very echoey. I have covering the floor and it's helped somewhat. Would acoustic foam help me out?
Here is a pic of the room.
I also face the window when i record. Don't know if that's a bad thing also?
There is acoustic foam and there is acoustic foam. If you want good studio quality acoustic foam then expect to be forking out some serious dollars.
You can do other things that are somewhat cheaper to try first.
Get a heavy rug or drapes over the window when you are recording, and if you can scrouge up some heavy rugs somewhere, second-hand shop or something, try hanging them from the walls and see if it makes a difference. There is a lot of reflective surfaces in that room. On the upside I reckon you would get a good snare sound in it
There is acoustic foam and there is acoustic foam. If you want good studio quality acoustic foam then expect to be forking out some serious dollars.
You can do other things that are somewhat cheaper to try first.
Get a heavy rug or drapes over the window when you are recording, and if you can scrouge up some heavy rugs somewhere, second-hand shop or something, try hanging them from the walls and see if it makes a difference. There is a lot of reflective surfaces in that room. On the upside I reckon you would get a good snare sound in it
I'd only ever be recording acoustic guitars and vocals in the room.
I'd only ever be recording acoustic guitars and vocals in the room.
Either way, hanging up some thick rugs will help deaden the reflections and is one of your least expensive options.
I did my walls with acoustic foam it cost $600 for two walls (3m Sq) and the ceiling (3m Sq). I had to forgo corner bass traps as I just couldn't afford it.
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Mega cheap way to do it is to buy a large clothes rack & drape a duvet/comforter over it, behind you, then use either another one in front or if you want to splash out like I did, buy some sort of reflection filter.
I was lucky enough to be able to build my studio room as an extension to my house, so the walls ceiling and underfloor are very thoroughly damped, plus I put home-made fibreglass bass wedges floor to ceiling in the corners. That part was really cheap and cleaned the bass end up well. And on the one window I too drape some heavy curtains and when things are getting really loud and nasty, a thick blanket on top.
Heavy stage curtain on two or more walls helps immensely (double the wall length so you get the "folds"). I'm able to record great sounding drums in small bedrooms like that and you can often get it quite cheap. Looks amazing as well.
But that's a very tiny space with an awkward arrangement (desk should be centered on the short wall and monitors should not be so close to the wall). Any acoustic treatment is going to take up some of that precious space. You might consider something like Kaotica Eyeball instead, to minimize the room sound when recording.
Yes, the corner of a room is one of the worst places to set up monitors (sound bouncing back faster from the left, right or back due to the closer wall will skew your perception of the audio). I do see there is a heater there, so it's really not ideal. With such a tiny room you will have a lot of acoustical problems, so close-miking, headphones and mic isolation are probably the way to go.
Would those (not sure of technical name) things you can put on mic stands help him? They are basically acoustic foam on a frame that attaches to a mic stand.
Heavy stage curtain on two or more walls helps immensely (double the wall length so you get the "folds"). I'm able to record great sounding drums in small bedrooms like that and you can often get it quite cheap. Looks amazing as well.
Stage curtains was the first thing that came to my mind as well : ) What a lot of people don't know is that stage curtains, depending, are specifically made to be acoustically useful and flattering, and are a much less expensive way to go than acoustic paneling (if you don't mind, um, bringing a huge theatrical stage curtain into the room). A much better choice than things like packing blankets which will cut reflections well but are more efficient in the deadening of easy reflections (highs) than the challenging ones (lows), so you can end up with a dullish sounding space. Some stage curtains are nearly as acoustically pleasing as rock wool panels and much cheaper if you can get ahold of some being liquidated for visual imperfections.
Don't know how it is in other countries, but in North America in places like Rose Brand theatrical supplies you can go to the acoustic fabric section
What is your budget and how much can you compromise the aesthetics of the room?
You can make that room spectacularly dead for a few hundred bucks by stapling open-face pink fiberglass all over the ceiling and walls, and putting a rug and pad on the floor. It will rival the best dead rooms in any studio, and it will look like a horror movie. You can staple sheets or hippie tapestries over the insulation to improve that somewhat.
Alternately, tons of corner-trapping, and some additional diffusion. Couches with insulation stuffed behind them work great, but you also want to go up the walls and along the ceiling corners. You can buy premade corner traps from Realtraps or similar, or you can just find a way to stuff pink fiberglass in the corners (ideal and cheap), or you can make rigid panels from 703 (more expensive and slightly less-absorbent, but much easier to work with).
RE: acoustical foam, I'm not saying it's useless, but it's close to useless. Treating early high-frequency reflections in a room like that is like putting lipstick on a skeleton.
Stage curtains was the first thing that came to my mind as well : ) What a lot of people don't know is that stage curtains, depending, are specifically made to be acoustically useful and flattering
I'm not kidding when I say that I was about to replace my drum kit until I got the curtains up. Such an immediate and tremendous improvement that it became unnecessary. I've gotten some of the best sounding drum recordings I ever have, which needed very little treatment in the mix. This is your basic, small bedroom; not square but close. The drums edges are warped and some cymbals are cracked, but the room just makes them sound good!
I lucked out in that my town has a stage curtain factory in it and we got ours, cut and with mounting holes for like $100! The good, heavy velvet stuff too, but not quite as heavy and soft as I remember actual stage curtain being.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cranky Emu
Would those (not sure of technical name) things you can put on mic stands help him? They are basically acoustic foam on a frame that attaches to a mic stand.
Maybe a bit, but not enough. The mic's still pointing at a close reflection point (the wall). But those Eyeball things supposedly work pretty well at eliminating the room, but I've not used one myself.
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cranky Emu
Would those (not sure of technical name) things you can put on mic stands help him? They are basically acoustic foam on a frame that attaches to a mic stand.
Ahem! Like I said, a reflection filter!
I bought one of the earliest ones marketed for a song , second hand. Apart from the crap mounting system, it does a pretty good job of giving you a nicely neutral signal which you can add reverb/ambiance/echo/why to after the fact.
And the duvet - behind - you trick alkso works pretty well for soaking up reflected sound from behind you (but, of course, in front of the mic!)
Hi, Please see attached pic of my recording setup. My recordings sound like crap. I'm hoping it's the room. It's very echoey. I have covering the floor and it's helped somewhat. Would acoustic foam help me out?
Here is a pic of the room.
I also face the window when i record. Don't know if that's a bad thing also?
#1 Center your listening-position on the wall, make a triangle monitors-ears
#2 Add medium absorption on 1st order reflection-points
#3 Add basstrapps in all 2- and 3-corners
To make yourself feel good: Measure room after step #1 and step #3
To make yourself feel bad: Measure room only after #3
I'm not kidding when I say that I was about to replace my drum kit until I got the curtains up. Such an immediate and tremendous improvement that it became unnecessary. I've gotten some of the best sounding drum recordings I ever have, which needed very little treatment in the mix. This is your basic, small bedroom; not square but close. The drums edges are warped and some cymbals are cracked, but the room just makes them sound good!
I lucked out in that my town has a stage curtain factory in it and we got ours, cut and with mounting holes for like $100! The good, heavy velvet stuff too, but not quite as heavy and soft as I remember actual stage curtain being.
A stage curtain factory in your town? foxAsteria, that is unbelievable And I thought I was in good fortune to live 10 miles, one tunnel, two bridges and $12 in tolls from a place that sells them. LOL!
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Yea we were getting ready to drop $500 on some used curtain when we discovered it. They hooked us up with the heaviest they had for $50 because they hadn't sold any for a while... Very lucky.
Get a thicker rug on the floor, and thicker curtains perhaps.
The left speaker is very close to a corner. I would put a bass trap in that corner.
You want the room to sound pleasantly lively for good clarity when mixing stereo, not dead; surround mixing you can go for a more dead acoustic that does not suit stereo production.
People play with dealing with early treble issues (because it is cheap) with lightweight affordable off the shelf absorption materials for treble frequencies. typically this makes the balance actually worse if bass problems prevail.
A lot of people probably won't want to hear this but bass traps are generally the only truly significant treatments outside of regular everyday stuff you already have - clutter is good!
The rest can be achieved with regular objects in the room creating diffraction. Rubber trees, pot plants, painting frames on walls, bookshelves, figurines, you name it.
Heavy stage curtain on two or more walls helps immensely (double the wall length so you get the "folds"). I'm able to record great sounding drums in small bedrooms like that and you can often get it quite cheap. Looks amazing as well.
But that's a very tiny space with an awkward arrangement (desk should be centered on the short wall and monitors should not be so close to the wall). Any acoustic treatment is going to take up some of that precious space. You might consider something like Kaotica Eyeball instead, to minimize the room sound when recording.
I would say from looking at your pic that you should concentrate on the floor and ceiling first, because walls are easy and easy to change. A throw rug or a pair of them,; and pin something to the corners of the ceiling to hang something to deal with the ceiling reflections. A velour fabric is better than cotton, like a towel. Make a few squares and get them to be suspended a foot below the ceiling. You can use picture hanging hardware that doesn't harm the wood, with a foot or more of picture wire/nylon string on each for each corner of a square. Put some crap on the walls.
Take the guitar cases out of the room, or put them in a closet. Put some soft things on the desk so it's not all exposed. Put a bunch of stuffed objects in the room randomly. A bare room sounds crappy, no two ways about it. A small square bare room gotta be dealt with
The main thing you need to be cognizant of when treating a space for acoustic guitar and vocals is that most inexpensive options reduce the high end more than you want. Things like cheap moving blankets and etc. are very helpful (I have a ton) but not for being in the critical areas and near the performer. The space has to sound good when you're done or you end up with a more soundproofed and less reflecting but crummy sounding space : ( Use as much treatment that does not kill the highs as you can afford. Also, give yourself the opportunity to try something , record, take it all down, try something else, etc. There is no doubt it will take a bit of trial and error as far as the ratio to the taming of the ambience/what the result sounds like after treatment. But it can be done : )
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The reason rain dances work is because they don't stop dancing until it rains.
I just wanted to report back that I put in 46 12 inch Sq acoustic Foam panels. Some from amazon and some cheapo stuff from wish. I have to say it's a huge improvement over what I had. No longer have that annoying echo anymore and the effects especially compression seem to sound so much better.
If you are in the usa, Lowe’s and home deport are having a price war. 12 piece bag of 15”x47” roxul safe n sound is 60 dollars! That will fix you right up