Vocal Booth Help.

[Blindside]

Hey guys. This is a follow up question from yesterday. Today's the last day I have to track vocals for my band's demo. I had no luck at all last night trying to get a preliminary good sound test.

I think the problem is the tiny, ghetto vocal booth we set up. I put 3 2'x4' absorbtion panels on a wooden desk in a half-hexagram shape in this little cubby in the basement. The ceiling is really low right there and I think it's causing some sonic issues.

The vocals just refuse to sit in the mix, until I eq almost all of the bass and treble out of it and give it that lo-fi feel, but that's not all that cool.
I know the SM7 is a good mic and I really think our set up just sucks.

I'm using the absorbtion panels to try and keep reflection down. I have 5 of those 2x4 panels.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to rig something up that will work better? Should there be high ceilings? Wood floors? What is ideal and what can I do in the carpeted, low ceiling basement to make it better.

Thanks guys, any advice at all will help.

[gainstages]

rather than get into a lengthy discussion about acoustics or microphone selection, or vocal technique, i'm going to take an angle that i don't think many people will take..

if the vocal isn't sitting in the mix right, try doing most of the vocal processing first - mute the majority (or even all) of the tracks and work on the vocal eq, compression, and effects, and get the voice sounding as good as possible (keeping in mind you'll have to tweak it more later, so don't spend forever on it).

then, bring in the mix around it, rather than trying to push it into the mix. you'll almost certainly find that you'll need to go back and make more tweaks. After the vocal is tweaked you probably want to bring in the drums and bass, and then fill in everything else around it.

ideally, you'll get a great sounding recording, but if push comes to shove - try this approach. i know of several top engineers who routinely mix the vocals early in the mix, rather than near the end.

good luck

[sneezebomb]

hey blindside,

You're right, those reflections off that low ceiling are nasty and will play hell with your sound. i record in a low-ceilinged room with lots of windows and parallel walls and i have a pretty good notion of what you're dealing with. i just put together the king of ghetto vocal booths for myself and it's making a significant difference. However, i did not have it for the last song i recorded and in the interest of improving the vocal sound, i rigged a kind of tent of heavy blankets around me and above my head. It was the overhead covering that made the biggest difference. (That tent was hilarious btw. i used mic stands and a clothes rack to hold everything up. It collapsed on me during a take. But it made enough difference that i decided i needed to build something more permanent)

If i remember your other post, you're on a time crunch so there's probably not time for you to build a booth, correct?

Ok. Here's a really goofy suggestion. If the guys in your band are around for the vocal recording, you can use them to suspend a heavy blanket over your head to cut out the overhead reflections. Position them so that their bodies act as further baffling to cut out wall reflections. Maybe have them wrap up in heavy clothes as well. They can stand with their backs to you if it makes you less self-conscious while recording.

That really is a goofy suggestion. But cheap. And it might work. But do something to cut out those overhead reflections. Those nasty reflections really pile up when you do multiple tracks.

[Blindside]

thanks guys. I'm having trouble getting across to my band mates the importance of room treatment and mic placement. They seem to think we can just throw a mic in the basement and sing and it will sound great. Obviously not so. The singer was getting frustrated so quickly, it made it hard to get it right. He kept saying "It's just a demo", but what he doesn't understand is how hard I've worked and that I haven't spent $10,000 in the last year to just put out some half ass demo.

The instruments sound great considering the circumstances. We at least need a fitting vocal. I'll definitely try your suggestions. Thanks a lot.

[pkautzsch]

You could also try and use some typical stage mic like SM58 (or whatever you're using live), and keep it really close to the mouth. That will give a live-ish sound, of course, but waaayyy better than a studio mic in a bad room.
Plus the heavy-blanket-over-some-mic-stands thing.

[lordmiguel]

sounds like your deadline has passed, but

the smaller the room dimensions and the harder the surfaces (ie cement basement) the harder it is to treat the room.

if you're using auralex foam type sheets on a cubby hole its probabaly gonna be tough

lots of overage with real traps or diy broadband absorbers (4" rigid fiber rockwool) would work, but if you're on location its not practical to lug those around

or try a lager room further away (upstairs?) and put the preamp by the singer and run a long cable, and "tent" the singer with thick blankets or moving pads

recording in small rooms blows chunks as you have now discovered

good luck