Mic sale... which to choose?

with industry Pro, Nick Batzdorf

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53mph
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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by 53mph » Tue May 30, 2006 5:47 am

Thanks alot Nick,I too don't like overly dead rooms. I've been using a small corridor space between my living room and bedroom to get a nice sound. It's like how you said, short reverb time with enough coats hanging on one wall to deaden the sound a bit witout making it dead.Are these max panels basically the same as foam padding? I might try to knock some up (DIY style) at home and see what I get.I did a voice over in a studio in Milan recently. They had geometric wooden panels on the walls which are means to break up the reflections of the sound. They look beautiful but I don't know how effective they are. in reality. They're probably just like fancy egg boxes Dave, I think the egg boxes work by reflecting the sounds in all directions because of their undulating shapes, so you don't get direct reflections of the sound coming back in straight lines creating echo. I don't know about the bass, but I've read in bulding manuals that carpet is very good at reducing bass frequencies so maybe that's what it is Nick correct me if I'm wrong but don't bass frequencies tend to drop down over long distances where as trebly ones rise? I can't remember where I heard that one...might be bull****?

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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by ernstinen » Tue May 30, 2006 6:13 am

I built a vocal booth to record singers, and it has a combination of reflective surfaces (solid core door, double pane glass) and absorbing surfaces (carpet, foam). It's fairly dead, but I think it sounds great.I record my own vocals in the control room, and have a variety of stuff on the walls. The booth wall and floor are carpeted, the ceiling is not. The side wall has a rectangular piece of acoustic foam on it, while the other side is open.My favorite treatment, though, is a little invention of mine that works great. I built a frame out of 1x2's that is about 4 feet by 6 feet. Then I went to a fabric store, and bought a large sheet of fabric that has a pattern that looks like modern art. I stretched the fabric over the frame, and stapled it to the frame on the rear side. I hung it on the back wall on two large nails near the upper corners. Voila!Now if I could only get rid of the damn moths that drown themselves in the toilet. Ern

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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by andreh » Tue May 30, 2006 7:46 am

I prefer a completely dead sound in a small recording space (under, say, 20'x20'), since the reflections are so short they tend to cause some frequency cancelation and/or build-up.In the mix or control room, I like some absorptive material on the side walls at the 1st reflection points (where the sound from the monitors bounces off the walls and can reach your ears; think about a bank shot on a pool table), since this can also cause frequency cancelation/buildup.You can treat rooms acoustically and economically with fabric-wrapped pressed fiberboard, which is sort of like really skinny, really dense insulation. Check out this site for some great info on the subject:http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ulti ... une=0Andre
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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by edteja » Tue May 30, 2006 9:27 am

Nick,I agree that the egg cartons are not absorbent. The idea is, as 53 pointed out, that it eliminates parallel surfaces that produce echoes. So the room isn't dead, just slightly more anechoic. It's why some restaurants used to use it to cover high ceilings. It breaks up the sound reflections. But acoustic foam certainly is effective. Under the speakers, again it isn't that it absorbs sound, but reduces the transmission of sound from the monitors to the other surfaces. In one case it eliminated small harmonic buzz that was driving me nuts (since it was intermittent it was troublesome). Ern your idea sounds like some baffles I saw in a studio up in Seattle a number of years ago. They used acoustic ceiling panels and fabric though.
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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by ernstinen » Tue May 30, 2006 10:23 am

I've done the egg carton trick before, and it does work. One thing to be aware of before raiding the dumpster at Denny's: They are extremely flammable! If you guys use 'em, they really should be treated with fire retardant.Also be aware that egg cartons do next to nothing in the way of soundproofing, i.e. keeping sound from going through the walls. I learned this the hard way when the neighbors of our "band house" kept calling the cops! Ern

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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by nickbatzdorf » Tue May 30, 2006 11:12 am

Yup, egg cartons do offer some high-freq diffusion. That can certainly be a good thing in the right places, although I like the idea of the wooden ones more since they operate over a broader freq range.53, carpet is only good for bass trapping if it's rolled up. You need big stuff for bass freqs, which are really the biggest problem for mixing in small rooms. I haven't heard what you're saying about bass freqs dropping down over long distances, and I'm not quite sure how that would affect studio acoustics. High freqs get absorbed more quickly and therefore have shorter reverb times, if that's what you're getting at?andreh, Ethan Winer...never mind. He's a nice guy, and his bass traps are good.This is my room, by the way:http://homepage.mac.com/virtualinstrume ... lbum9.html(The pic on the right.)I have some of an ASC Mix Station up, but my speakers are in front of the baffles on the sides, and they're pointed in - as I said, muffling on the side is the conventional wisdom and it's not a good thing. You may not be able to see that I also have bass traps in the front of the room.My room is really set up for mixing, not recording, by the way. But I do use the Auralex stuff when tracking, which to answer the question *is* foam, it's not just like it - I believe 4", dense foam. And the stands really are mic stands.

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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by andreh » Tue May 30, 2006 12:27 pm

Quote:andreh, Ethan Winer...never mind. He's a nice guy, and his bass traps are good.Sorry Nick, you're not getting off that easy! I'm not encouraging you to bash anyone here, but is there some particular information on the site I recommended that you would dispute? I'm not stuck in my ways, and I like to hear other informed perspectives that might cause me to re-evaluate and possibly alter my owen.Respectfully,Andre
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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by nickbatzdorf » Tue May 30, 2006 1:33 pm

It's not a matter of bashing him at all, it's that he has really strong opinions about a lot of things that are just that. Ethan is always trying to debunk audio BS, and I don't always find his arguments 100% convincing.All I meant to say is that I take his opinions with a grain of salt. You should take mine the same way.

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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by ernstinen » Tue May 30, 2006 5:38 pm

Quote:All I meant to say is that I take his opinions with a grain of salt. You should take mine the same way.Oh I do, I do, I do! A grain of salt is taken with ol' Nick B. Just kiddin' --- Nick is da man!Ern

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Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by nickbatzdorf » Tue May 30, 2006 6:22 pm

Come on now, ern, I didn't say a salt block, I said a grain...

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