How to get rid of the "room" sound. Post your tips.

[Relic]

Bought a nice expensive reflexion filter for my nice pick up everything for 80 miles mic and of course I can still hear the fact the my MC's and singers need a booth.
I dont know how to describe it except that maybe its the reflections of the sound from behind the artists being picked up .

One thing that I have done is turn down the input of the mic, that has helped alot , but as you guys probably know some artists are the "quiet rapper" types like snoop , and when you have the input down they cant hear themselves in the headphones and so suddenly loose their ability to rap completely because they dont beleive they are being recorded or w/e, so this makes me have to turn the input back up both because they are quiet and also because they are neurotic..lol

SO , my problem is that this mic is so sensitive I can literally see my pc fan running on the meters as a small constant sound source.
If I hadnt isolated this I would be thinking that it was a grounding problem because thats what it looks like.

That being the case I am wondering about any techniques anyone may have to combat a problem that many of us probably have considering the amount of home studios out here.
We used to have a walk in closet in my apt that was PERFECT but now that I am in a house the closet is small and sux and no amount of padding can make it NOT sound like a closet so thats out.

No FX can fix this, I have tried, I have this curse of being able to tell where someones vox have been recorded and I hate this room sound on my stuff.

At some point I am gonna buy an actual booth for it but in the meantime... Help.

 

[Fade]

What about heavy blankets on the wall? Like those ones movers use.

 

[Relic]

Interesting idea.. That may screw up my listening environment though.

 

[Kontents]

When is the last time you dusted out the computer? If you can hear your fan running it may need a cleaning.

 

[UNORTHODOX]

Post a clip. The room I record in has a bit of reverb and I yell and it turns out pretty cool still.

Somethting you can do is, mask the reverb in mixing byputting an instrument or an instruments reverb in the same space. Also depends on your rooms sound tho lol

 

[scandal]

If you have a cardioid mic try facing it away from the sources of noise (Computer etc..). If Im not mistaken the Reflection filter will keep most reflections from bouncing back/and shield noise from getting to the mic so even if you have to point the mic at a wall (maybe put up some foam behind rapper) It might not sound too bad if your using the RE filter. I'm not saying it will work but give it a shot.

 

[wrightboy]

i too have the reflexion filter and i think that it works wonders. the only thing that i did was to place the mic as far back into the filter as possible, and have the artist as close as possible without them sounding "boomy". another thing that i used to do before the filter was, i built a "booth" out of packing blankets that you can buy from any uhaul store, and pvc pipe from lowe's. that worked pretty good too. recorded a whole album in that "booth".

as far as the artists hearing themselves...if you have a multiple output soundcard, you can route one of the outputs to the headphones, that way you just jack up the volume on the output of the headphones instead of on the input on the mic.

 

[Relic]

Kontents-- Its brand new Pc ..

Ace- I will post a clip. I have tried putting diff room fx and verbs and to my ears it makes it worse.

Scandal- I will try that

Finnigan- I feel you on the Lowes trip I may need to do that! I have the Digi 003 rack and it has 2 headphone outs and I do crank up the MC set more (dont want to make them deft) but it just makes the overall loudness up and the only way to get THEM up is by turning up the input.Which, like I say wouldnt be a prob if I wasnt such a stickler about hearing the room lol.

All good ideas guys!

 

[skidflow]

A closet lined with mattress foam works pretty good also.

 

[Relic]

Yeah Skid I tried that and it dint work at all, haha now I have this foam lined closet... It just sounded like a foam lined closet it was waaaay worse.

 

[Shonsteez]

Fade gave a good recommendation....Blankets have worked really well for me too.
I have them draped over each accordion door in my studio right by where I have vocalists come lace the tracks in that corner of the room and they really help. I also got really good results after I put some bass traps up in the corners of my room.

If you got any furniture that you can put in there too that can help. I have a futon in my studio and it helps absorb a lot of low freq info and cut down standing waves a little.

 

[Relic]

Word I got a couch, and ish and reflectors and ish..
Think I will pull all the foam off the closet wall and put it around the room to help, I have been wanting some bass traps , but GD they are expensive!

Here is an example..
Sorry to post the whole song but there are varying degrees on this..
The first 2 verses are passable, while the 3rd verse is that turned up sound I was saying, it helps that the artist has to come back and redo it.. Bout the time he says "Pulpit" on the third verse its exactly what Im talking about even w the fx and everything..
Excuse my dirty south. lol

"Roomnoise"--------- https://www.illmuzik.com/relic

 

[Shonsteez]

I have been wanting some bass traps , but GD they are expensive!

Dude I didnt even pay for the quote unquote fancy name brand ones, i just copped mine off eBay from a foam store. Their not the exact same density, etc. but for about $80 bucks I was able to furnish my whole studio with that shit and all i can say is it did wonders combined with the soundproofing blankets. My rooms your standard square bedroom too so its not the best sounding to begin with, but after I set up the foam and blankets the flutter echoes practically disappeared and for the most part the room is fairly dead now...at least enough to track really clean vocals so Im happy.

Here is an example..
Sorry to post the whole song but there are varying degrees on this..
The first 2 verses are passable, while the 3rd verse is that turned up sound I was saying, it helps that the artist has to come back and redo it.. Bout the time he says "Pulpit" on the third verse its exactly what Im talking about even w the fx and everything..
Excuse my dirty south. lol

"Roomnoise"--------- https://www.illmuzik.com/relic

Oh yeah, I hear what your talking about now....it reminds me of when my homeboy used to track in his bathroom....sounds like u got some ugly reflections in there. Dude I bet if you copped like 4 blankets and then drapped them on the walls some how u would cut that down at least 50%. My educated guess anyways.

I honestly cant remember where I order mine from cuz its been so long since i bought them now, but their basically the same as these:
http://www.pro-audio-warehouse.com/6-pack-acoustic-sound-proofing-absorption-blanke.html

But like someone else mentioned earlier, they really are pretty much the same thing as moving blankets too so I bet you could cop which ever's cheaper and achieve similar results.

 

[Relic]

Oh sweet ! Good lookin out on the Link Shon!
That will be the next thing I try and cop then!

 

[Shonsteez]

Hey also, how are you mic'ing your MC? Are you close mic'ing or is he distanced away from the diaphragm quite a bit? Obviously the closer the vocalist is to the mic, the less room your going to get in the recording...just be careful of proximity effect, but that may help too.

And where are you placing the vocalist in the room? You might also try moving him around various places in the room to find where the least reflections occur.

 

[thedreampolice]

To get rid of all room noise



....


go outside

 

[Shonsteez]

HooooooO!!!!!!! Ziiing! lol.

 

[Relic]

lol, yoo air stoopeed.

 

[thedreampolice]

Trust me, it would work!

 

[Relic]

Dude.. If I take the mic outside (and I have actually done this smartass) I would pick up every AC unit within 150 feet as well as cars, kids, planes, dogs,frogs and shit..
So make with the helpfulness!