Homestudio: DEAD Sound wanted!

[Chrizcol]

Help! I'm trying desperately to get a dead sound in my room suitable for acoustic guitar and vocals recordings using a cardoid mic.

I'm recording in my TINY home-studio room. Alcove/ bay window area - Thick curtains behind performer with foam all around, HF MiniTraps on either corner. Mic is attached to sE reflexion filter and also has 2 HF mini traps making a V behind it.
Floor is tile carpet. The ceiling has NO foam on it.

HERE is a sample recording (using josephson c42, rode k2 and akg 4000b)
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac..._k2_c4000b.wav

As you can hear.. its still too live for use.. not so much of concern with the aco guitar.. but the vox will need serious deadening.

HERE ARE PICTURES OF MY SETUP
http://chrizcol.googlepages.com/IMG_1687.jpg
http://chrizcol.googlepages.com/IMG_1688.jpg
http://chrizcol.googlepages.com/IMG_1689.jpg
http://chrizcol.googlepages.com/IMG_1690.jpg
http://chrizcol.googlepages.com/IMG_1691.jpg
http://chrizcol.googlepages.com/IMG_1692.jpg

My guess is to line more wall around the area (and ceiling!) with the foam. And also raise the HF MiniTraps up more.

Please help me acoustic gurus!

[Protools Guy]

This is what I put all over my walls:

Welcome to Markertek.com | Call Us @ 800 522 2025

[svart]

call up GIK acoustics and get a bunch of his absorbers(cheap and good) and then put them on cheap mic stands so that you can create a "room" out of them. That's what I did. Once you do this you can configure for anything. It's really improved my work.

EDIT: you don't want to use the foam. it's actually pretty worthless for the real problem frequencies, it just cuts the very high end off but not containing the mids that are likely causing you problems.

[Kiwiburger]

Stack a few old corpses in each corner of the room.

[svart]

Artist: "why do all my tracks sound like there are flies buzzing around??"

Engineer: "Uh.. I..*AHEM*.. dunno....."

Engineer whispering to assistant: "Get the runner in here with a shovel.."

[Chrizcol]

Originally Posted by Kiwiburger

Stack a few old corpses in each corner of the room.

Both loving and hating that comment at the same time..






Or hoho....Im going for that Jerry Garcia sound... extended gtr solos etc.

[A. Linna]

First, good job on posting both a sound clip AND pictures. That should improve your chances of getting a good answer.

I only wish you had posted a pic of the rest of the room. The reason for this is that I suspect that the reverb that´s bothering you may be coming from the parts of the room that are untreated. So, it´s probably not that the treatment you have isn´t good quality, but rather that there isn´t enough of it being used. You probably need to treat the REST of the room with something.

Having said that, I couldn´t hear any bothersome verb or comb filtering when I listened to the audio. But then again, I´m no pro or golden ear, and some things don´t reveal themselves to be a problem until a better solution comes along, meaning I may notice it more if I compare this clip to a clip from a fully treated room, if you understand.

I haven´t tried the sE reflexion filter, but I´d want to double-check that it did more good than harm if I were in your situation. Also, whatever you choose to do, you should probably stick some stuff in the corners to give that lower-frequency resolution a hand. Matresses or traps or whatever you can find that has absorptive qualities. But I´ll let the real experts opine first. Meanwhile, compensate as best you can by way of mic choice/placement. That´s not to be overlooked, IMO.

Oh, and you may want to try increasing the distance to any boundaries (walls/floor) when recording, regardless of whether they´re treated or not. It might work wonders, because there´s only so much traps of that size can do. Try it, at least!


In short:
Move away from the walls, treat more of the room and get anal with that mic placement (not literally, mind you! )

P. S. Your room may not be to your satisfaction, but at least it sounds like you´ve got a killer preamp in your setup - those steel strings are really lively-sounding, from where I´m sitting. That´s good gear!

Good luck!

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by Kiwiburger

Stack a few old corpses in each corner of the room.

Should I stuff them with 703?

[Koed]

Couldn't hear any bothersome room reverberation in that clip.

Like other people said. Foam doesn't do the trick, use panels.
And raise the front panels a bit, this might be an improvement.

But I'm pretty sure that the sound you're not liking is the body of the acoustic guitar and the mic type/placement.

Try a SDC with cardoid or even hyper-cardoid a little farther from the body, this might help fatten up your sound.
Other then that, this is the sound I'd expect from a close mic LDC on an acoustic guitar.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Chrizcol

Mic is attached to sE reflexion filter and also has 2 HF mini traps making a V behind it.Floor is tile carpet. The ceiling has NO foam on it.

I agree with the comment "I´d want to double-check that it did more good than harm if I were in your situation." With all those HF MiniTraps and foam, you don't need anything else. Especially not right next to the microphone. So try it without the Se RF and let us know what happens.

--Ethan

[Chrizcol]

Originally Posted by Koed

Couldn't hear any bothersome room reverberation in that clip.

Like other people said. Foam doesn't do the trick, use panels.
And raise the front panels a bit, this might be an improvement.

But I'm pretty sure that the sound you're not liking is the body of the acoustic guitar and the mic type/placement.

Try a SDC with cardoid or even hyper-cardoid a little farther from the body, this might help fatten up your sound.
Other then that, this is the sound I'd expect from a close mic LDC on an acoustic guitar.

The Mic I've decided (after tests) to use is the josephson SDC c42 (possibly matched pair if I can figure out my config issues.. and I dont mind having one not going through the STT-1)


" Move away from the walls, treat more of the room and get anal with that mic placement (not literally, mind you! )"

ok will do. Gonna go buy some more foam for other parts of the room. Rest of the room is bare walls. The MiniTraps usually sit in the corners unless I'm tracking.


Will try without the sE reflexion filter. In fact it was being bothersome the whole session as it wouldnt properly clamp onto the stand and was slipping every couple of minutes! Plus it didnt allow for a tight, no gaps, V behind it with HF MiniTraps.

Ethan - Can you hear room reverberations in that clip? (the first section of it with the C42's specifically)

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Chrizcol

Gonna go buy some more foam for other parts of the room. Rest of the room is bare walls. The MiniTraps usually sit in the corners unless I'm tracking. Will try without the sE reflexion filter. In fact it was being bothersome the whole session ... Ethan - Can you hear room reverberations in that clip? (the first section of it with the C42's specifically)

Not using the Reflexion Filter is a good first start. Also, my wife sleeps during the day so I couldn't play your clip too loudly, but it didn't sound overly reverberant to me. But treating the other parts of the room will help too. Either foam (it has to be thick), or more HF MiniTraps which is even better.

--Ethan

[Chrizcol]

The foam i've got now is 2 inches thick. Is that thick enough... I know im thick enough...
Oh and believe me. I'll be ordering more MiniTraps soon.. even the g/f likes the look of them.

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Not using the Reflexion Filter is a good first start. Also, my wife sleeps during the day so I couldn't play your clip too loudly, but it didn't sound overly reverberant to me. But treating the other parts of the room will help too. Either foam (it has to be thick), or more HF MiniTraps which is even better.

--Ethan