*Home Vocal Booth - DIY vs. Manufactured

[ernstinen]

Quote:In the words of the great Ray Charles, "but what does it, sound like -baaby!?"Ray also said "If I don't hear distortion, there ISN'T ANY!" Ern

[southpaw]

Quote:Ray also said "If I don't hear distortion, there ISN'T ANY!" Ern {Chuckle} I was just making generic observations ern!

[chriscarter]

Mar 31, 2009, 11:05am, southpaw wrote:On another note i have decided to add some more treatment by building some absorbers/gobos and bass traps to flatten out the room a bit more. For those of you that have done this using rigid fiberglass or mineral/rock wool, what kind of material did you use to cover + construct with? Why did you choose that, if you dont mind as well...Frames (backing structer) built with 1x2 pine. Backside covered with weedblock (little tip I got from someone). Front side is covered with Muslin. The bass traps have a layer of 6mil plastic glued onto the face of the 703 (so it's 703 / plastic / muslin).

[t4mh]

I live in an antique victorian house (c1893) with plaster walls. I can tell you plaster causes extreme reflections and standing waves to say the least. However, I didn't want to booger those walls by sticking up foam and so forth. I built up 1x2 frames and loaded them with simple fiberglass insulation. I looked for the mineral wool stuff but the lumber yard didn't have any (small town). I covered them with low thread count bed sheets. The kind of stuff that you can see through when you hold it up to a light. I made 6 of them and hung them on my walls. Talk about a difference! The room is pretty dead now. I also made 2 - 32" square frames (1x1), covered them but with no insulation and hung them from the celing for those reflections. I could probably spend a lot of money and do this better by purchasing the real pro stuff but I think it would only work slightly better. I guess I can always recover my frames with a better/coarser cloth if I need to and knock down even more reflections but I'm pretty happy with the room now.When I record a guitar amp I just throw a light blanket over the whole thing (mic & amp) but vocals has presented a bit of a challenge in that none of my other rooms are acoustically treated at all. The hanging something in a V from the ceiling idea seems like a really good deal and one that I can put together quickly as I need it. I will give it a try.Keith

[billg]

Here's another solution just for vocals . . . .I have needed to treat my room but we've been trying to sell our house (ha!) so can't. I've also been in perpetual mic shopping mode because I haven't liked anything that I've tried (ie affordable "cheap" large condensors). A producer friend told me I should check out an EV R-20 for vocals. You've all seen these and if you're like me thought of them as just "old-timey" broadcast mics for VO etc. My friend told me that this mic has been used in recordings for vocals by McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Coldplay . . . and others. PLUS it almost completely takes the "room" out of the equation. He brought one to my house and left it for me to check out for a week (no, he's not selling it! it was just a favor). If I get a chance I'll post some vocals with this thing, it's VERY good. All of the tired adjectives come to mind . . . warm, smooth, etc., and it does reject the room reflections! My room is like a little "turret" that sits on top of my house so it's sort of like trying to record vocals in a parabolic reflector . . . not good! It seems as though this mic rejects all of the bad reflections. Duh, after reading up on it it seems as though this is what it's been famous for for nearly 40yrs!Of course vocal mics will be different for different singers but at $400 new ($250 used when you can find them) I think it's quite a bargain . . . eliminates the need for a vocal booth or vocal treatments and give you another mic for your collection (although it's ugly as hell!).you can google Electrovoice RE-20 and get plenty of info.

[rld]

Quote:PLUS it almost completely takes the "room" out of the equation.He brought one to my house and left it for me to check out for a week (no, he's not selling it! it was just a favor). If I get a chance I'll post some vocals with this thing, it's VERY good. All of the tired adjectives come to mind . . . warm, smooth, etc., and it does reject the room reflections! My room is like a little "turret" that sits on top of my house so it's sort of like trying to record vocals in a parabolic reflector . . . not good! It seems as though this mic rejects all of the bad reflections. Duh, after reading up on it it seems as though this is what it's been famous for for nearly 40yrs!I wonder about this Bill...I don't doubt that the mic sounds great, but its a cardoid mic so it will reject from the back, but it can't "take the room out of the equation" or "reject all of the bad reflections".That may be your impression cause it sounds good, but does it really do what you described?

[billg]

I know it's been used as a floor mic for vocalist singing with an orchestra in recording situations (here's a photo of McCartney at RCA studios where I believe it was used in that situation http://beatlesnumber9.com/ram.html ). I say "almost" takes the room out of the equation because i guess there has to be some reflections, but in my testing of the mic I don't hear any from MY room . . . which is usually horrible.From a site called AudioAnalysis about the RE 20 " . . . no off-axis coloration yet providing greatest possible rejection of unwanted sounds." from TweakHeadz "Even at +66db gain, it does not pick up a lot of room sound." I can honestly say that in my test singing 3" from the mic I couldn't hear any room reflections and although I'm sure some had to be there, this was insanely different from the LDC mics I've been trying out.I have a teriible "pinging" in my room at around 5k. That's usually caused by glass or metal but in my case I think it's because the room is semi-circular with a straight perpindicular back wall. The ping is not there with this mic. Like I said, I actually don't hear any room at all as strange as that seems.I think it could be a big help to anyone who has a problem recording vocals because of a "bad room", at least it's worth checking out.Now if you don't like the sound of the mic, or if it's not right for your voice then it's moot even if it does reject unwanted sounds. I suspect the mic might be considered to "dark" by some but it doesn't sound that way to me.

[mojobone]

RE-20 is a great mic for anyone with a vocal sound that could be described as 'raspy', also. Condenser mics are jes' generally a PITA in bad sounding rooms; they have more reach than dynamics, so it makes sense they'd pick up more of the room, good or bad. The EV RE-20 is also great on kick drum, btw. Another dynamic mic that's relatively flat and great on a wide variety of voices is the Shure SM7B.

[ernstinen]

Apr 1, 2009, 12:31pm, mojobone wrote:RE-20 is a great mic for anyone with a vocal sound that could be described as 'raspy', also. Condenser mics are jes' generally a PITA in bad sounding rooms; they have more reach than dynamics, so it makes sense they'd pick up more of the room, good or bad. The EV RE-20 is also great on kick drum, btw. Another dynamic mic that's relatively flat and great on a wide variety of voices is the Shure SM7B.Yea, I agree with Mojo --- The RE-20 is a great dynamic mic. I once recorded a female vocalist on one, and it sounded fantastic.After the tried-and-true SM-57, the RE-20 would be the next dynamic mic I would buy, and then maybe a Sennhieser 421. All of these are great on drums and guitar cabinets.You see RE-20's in almost every radio station as well. They're a real workhorse.FYI, my band did a concert awhile ago in a big stadium, and EVERY mic they used were 421's, except maybe for drum overheads. I was surprised how good they made my vocals sound. --- and a 441 has more bells and whistles, but I'm not sure it really sounds any better --- just more options.Ern

[billg]

Wade and I are working on Blackbird for the classic covers thing and I just laid down the vocals using the R-20. Blackbird is waaay out of my vocal comfort zone but it was cool how that mic smoothed out my crappy raspies. And it sounds dry as can be without a hint (to my ears) of my room. I'm diggin' it, now just need to scrape up some bucks.