Recording in an Anechoic Chamber?

[bionic brown]

I've never been in an anechoic chamber, but from what i've heard, it can sound unnatural and makes some people feel uncomfortable.

But if most performers use headphones to monitor when they record, and many singers request artificial reverb in their headphones to have a "vibe" while recording . . . then why is it deemed such a terrible idea to record in an anechoic chamber?

[matt thomas]

if you want the sound of a room then its a bad idea

if you want no room sound then its a good idea, although most studios don't have true anechoic chambers, but rather they may have a quite dry room.

narco

[bionic brown]

Originally Posted by narco

if you want the sound of a room then its a bad idea

if you want no room sound then its a good idea, although most studios don't have true anechoic chambers, but rather they may have a quite dry room.

narco

Yeah, on the Altiverb website i believe I remember seeing a clip where they recorded an orchestra in an anechoic chamber and then applied a convolution hall reverb to show how realistic the reverb could be. It got me to thinking . . .

[malaclypse]

no room vibe, man!
the resulting recording would be disembodied, and would be hard to mesh together with other elements in a mix. might be cool for a specific track for effect, though.
i've never recorded in a true anechoic chamber, though. but i remember recoding some vocals for a demo long, long ago at some guys house, and he converted a walk-in closet to a vox booth. he foamed it really heavily and it was completely dead in there as far as i could tell. those vocals just sounded very unnatural(even with some verb on 'em).

[bionic brown]

Originally Posted by malaclypse

no room vibe, man!
the resulting recording would be disembodied, and would be hard to mesh together with other elements in a mix. might be cool for a specific track for effect, though.
i've never recorded in a true anechoic chamber, though. but i remember recoding some vocals for a demo long, long ago at some guys house, and he converted a walk-in closet to a vox booth. he foamed it really heavily and it was completely dead in there as far as i could tell. those vocals just sounded very unnatural(even with some verb on 'em).

Yeah, I know how some peolpe feel about their rooms. And I wouldn't use an anechoic chamber because honestly, I can't afford that shit . . .

But if you were to use one, I just don't see or understand why it would be so terrible. I've recorded people in really dry rooms before and then added reverb later with great results. Seems like you have more options st the end of the day recording in a dry environment.

[Chaellus]

the last thing youd want to do is record in an anechoic chamber unless its for effect..otherwise bad idea.

[colinmiller]

I think it would also be difficult to record some things since everything becomes so directional. I mean if someone is talking to you and then turns away it becomes harder to hear them. I imagine this varies with different sources as some will be more directional than others.

[bionic brown]

Originally Posted by Chaellus

the last thing youd want to do is record in an anechoic chamber unless its for effect..otherwise bad idea.

why?

[malaclypse]

Originally Posted by bionic brown

Yeah, I know how some peolpe feel about their rooms. And I wouldn't use an anechoic chamber because honestly, I can't afford that shit . . .

But if you were to use one, I just don't see or understand why it would be so terrible. I've recorded people in really dry rooms before and then added reverb later with great results. Seems like you have more options st the end of the day recording in a dry environment.

well, my experience with a dead room was in the early nineties with crappy gear- some guy's cheap little digital eight track, and god knows what kind of mic we used.
good verbs probably sound decent, though

[Fibes]

Originally Posted by bionic brown

why?

Everyone knows that if you do you'll go back in time.

See you there.

[bionic brown]

Originally Posted by Fibes

Everyone knows that if you do you'll go back in time.

See you there.

lol

Altiverb 6 the movie

the 13:34 mark . . .

[AnthonyRochester]

Originally Posted by bionic brown

they recorded an orchestra in an anechoic chamber

really? It must have been a huge one, I didn't know they ever made them that big!

[DesertDawg]

I wouldn't want to do it.... there was a band I was in when I was much younger where we tried to soundproof a practice space without really knowing what we were doing - well, actually, it turns out we DID know what we were doing, since we overdid it to the point where it was SO soundproof, it was probably the closest thing I've ever come to being in an anechoic chamber, apart from an audiologists' booth - or maybe even worse than that. It was really weird, actually... the moment you shut the door, it was like a vacuum had just sucked the sound from your ears. The first time, we had to open & shut the door a few times, just to get used to that feeling. At first we were all high-fiving each other & laughing about how a snare drum strike just seemed to cut off like it had a gate on it (not that we knew what a gate was at the time, but you get the idea), and when you'd hit a guitar chord it just sounded like a big BLAAT!!!<then nothing>, but the room ultimately turned out to be totally useless in that state. EVERYTHING seemed louder than it was, because relative to the near-absolute silence of the space itself, it WAS loud. Sometimes breathing sounded just as loud as talking; sometimes you'd feel like you ought to be whispering to each other, and sometimes you'd practically be screaming, and you felt like you couldn't hear yourself... it was just freakin' weird - our ears could never really adjust to it, I guess, 'cause it was so unnatural/so removed from what EVERYTHING in the real world causes our ears to adapt to. We'd end a song and would just kind of stare back & forth at each other for a few moments to give our ears a chance to recover before we could even communicate with each other about how the take went... and then when the "compression" stopped (that's what it felt like - unbelieveable compression), your breathing would sound as loud as a semi-truck, and you'd swear you could practically hear your blood pumping through your veins. Totally freak-out unnatural environment.

Would certainly not advise that for a recording environment that a human being had to step into... an amp maybe, in an iso-cab or some such thing, I guess could work, sure... but not any kind of DNA-based entity, wearing cans or not.

[MarkRB]

I've been in one and it is a very, very weird experience.

You suddenly hear nothing but the noises your body makes, like your breathing and your heartbeat.

You can shout as loud as you possibly can and you get absolutely NO reflections. Damn freaky and totally unnatural.
I couldn't spend very long in there.

[Mr.HOLMES]

See this you have to record air with it. This makes it sound real and good.



Today most people record close to the microphone what is in my opinion just boring.
I can tell you today I hate all my closed miced tracks of the past.

Room reflections and the air where sonic is vibrating in is very important to make it sound realistic because in the nature there is no sonic coming into you ear without reverb parts.

In such a chamber some people get dizziness.

[bionic brown]

Originally Posted by MarkRB

I've been in one and it is a very, very weird experience.

You suddenly hear nothing but the noises your body makes, like your breathing and your heartbeat.

You can shout as loud as you possibly can and you get absolutely NO reflections. Damn freaky and totally unnatural.
I couldn't spend very long in there.

lol, yeah that would be pretty weird. Well, for me, an anechoic chamber is extreme, but a room with heavy absorption on the other hand, seems ideal to have, especially when dealing with small room acoustics.

[bionic brown]

Originally Posted by colinmiller

I think it would also be difficult to record some things since everything becomes so directional. I mean if someone is talking to you and then turns away it becomes harder to hear them. I imagine this varies with different sources as some will be more directional than others.

Well, yes. But sound will still radiate from the source in the same manner, regardless of the source's environment.

[Berolzheimer]

Originally Posted by bionic brown

I've never been in an anechoic chamber, but from what i've heard, it can sound unnatural and makes some people feel uncomfortable.

But if most performers use headphones to monitor when they record, and many singers request artificial reverb in their headphones to have a "vibe" while recording . . . then why is it deemed such a terrible idea to record in an anechoic chamber?

Acoustic instruments (and tube amps and speakers for that matter) interact with and respond to the room they're in, the vibrations from an acoustic guitar or a drum come back off the walls & re-excite the instrument. In a room that's too absorbent the instruments themselves become much less lively.

[confooshus]

Originally Posted by DesertDawg

I wouldn't want to do it.... there was a band I was in when I was much younger where we tried to soundproof a practice space without really knowing what we were doing - well, actually, it turns out we DID know what we were doing, since we overdid it to the point where it was SO soundproof, it was probably the closest thing I've ever come to being in an anechoic chamber, apart from an audiologists' booth - or maybe even worse than that. It was really weird, actually... the moment you shut the door, it was like a vacuum had just sucked the sound from your ears. The first time, we had to open & shut the door a few times, just to get used to that feeling. At first we were all high-fiving each other & laughing about how a snare drum strike just seemed to cut off like it had a gate on it (not that we knew what a gate was at the time, but you get the idea), and when you'd hit a guitar chord it just sounded like a big BLAAT!!!<then nothing>, but the room ultimately turned out to be totally useless in that state. EVERYTHING seemed louder than it was, because relative to the near-absolute silence of the space itself, it WAS loud. Sometimes breathing sounded just as loud as talking; sometimes you'd feel like you ought to be whispering to each other, and sometimes you'd practically be screaming, and you felt like you couldn't hear yourself... it was just freakin' weird - our ears could never really adjust to it, I guess, 'cause it was so unnatural/so removed from what EVERYTHING in the real world causes our ears to adapt to. We'd end a song and would just kind of stare back & forth at each other for a few moments to give our ears a chance to recover before we could even communicate with each other about how the take went... and then when the "compression" stopped (that's what it felt like - unbelieveable compression), your breathing would sound as loud as a semi-truck, and you'd swear you could practically hear your blood pumping through your veins. Totally freak-out unnatural environment.

I've always wondered what could be so bad about it, but reading your description, I actually started to get really uncomfortable. Excellent narrative...

[joeq]

Originally Posted by beebay007

really? It must have been a huge one, I didn't know they ever made them that big!

I think this one is in Japan owned by Sony
that's not a floor - that's a grate- the floor is 30 feet below where she is standing.

[plexisys]

I was in one at Hughes Aircraft. It's big enough for a jet plane. Used for scientific research by Hughes and NASA.

One thing that I learned, that I found the most interesting, is it's near impossible to tune an instrument by ear in a chamber. Since there are no reflections there is a lost of all harmonics. Apparently without those harmonics most people can no longer tune their instruments. Very cool.

[malaclypse]

Originally Posted by DesertDawg

I wouldn't want to do it.... there was a band I was in when I was much younger where we tried to soundproof a practice space without really knowing what we were doing - well, actually, it turns out we DID know what we were doing, since we overdid it to the point where it was SO soundproof, it was probably the closest thing I've ever come to being in an anechoic chamber, apart from an audiologists' booth - or maybe even worse than that. It was really weird, actually... the moment you shut the door, it was like a vacuum had just sucked the sound from your ears. The first time, we had to open & shut the door a few times, just to get used to that feeling. At first we were all high-fiving each other & laughing about how a snare drum strike just seemed to cut off like it had a gate on it (not that we knew what a gate was at the time, but you get the idea), and when you'd hit a guitar chord it just sounded like a big BLAAT!!!<then nothing>, but the room ultimately turned out to be totally useless in that state. EVERYTHING seemed louder than it was, because relative to the near-absolute silence of the space itself, it WAS loud. Sometimes breathing sounded just as loud as talking; sometimes you'd feel like you ought to be whispering to each other, and sometimes you'd practically be screaming, and you felt like you couldn't hear yourself... it was just freakin' weird - our ears could never really adjust to it, I guess, 'cause it was so unnatural/so removed from what EVERYTHING in the real world causes our ears to adapt to. We'd end a song and would just kind of stare back & forth at each other for a few moments to give our ears a chance to recover before we could even communicate with each other about how the take went... and then when the "compression" stopped (that's what it felt like - unbelieveable compression), your breathing would sound as loud as a semi-truck, and you'd swear you could practically hear your blood pumping through your veins. Totally freak-out unnatural environment.

Would certainly not advise that for a recording environment that a human being had to step into... an amp maybe, in an iso-cab or some such thing, I guess could work, sure... but not any kind of DNA-based entity, wearing cans or not.

yeah, thats the way it felt when i did those vocals in the dead room. you can hear every rustle of your clothes. every movement you make is very audible. it's really hard to do a vocal take in that environment. it just sounds so naked.

[Corran]

Wow reading these descriptions I would love to go in an anechoic chamber once to hear the strangeness of it. There was one green room in an auditorium that I was in and it was very close to soundproof. Sounded neat.

[EstateMatt]

Theres one in NJ near my studio. I called the dude up and they refuse to let me rent an hour with it! I don't know why!! I just wanted to go in there, record some stuff on my laptop and leave!

[EstateMatt]

ps.

anyone else read haunted weather?

[MichaelMackie]

Sounds creepy.

So it's pure abortion in one of these chambers? No diffusion at all?

[Chaellus]

no reflection of sound what so ever.

[brian_delizza]

Never been in a "true" anechoic chamber myself.

I have heard though that you start to hear your body make sounds that you didn't realize it made and that is part of what freaks out a lot of people.

[geeek]

I've been in one..

They had one at my university..

It was a really strange experience..

It makes balancing really difficult, and messes with your head, as there aren't any reflections to aid balance.


You should visit one tho.

[thenoiseflower]

Originally Posted by DesertDawg

I wouldn't want to do it.... there was a band I was in when I was much younger where we tried to soundproof a practice space without really knowing what we were doing - well, actually, it turns out we DID know what we were doing, since we overdid it to the point where it was SO soundproof, it was probably the closest thing I've ever come to being in an anechoic chamber, apart from an audiologists' booth - or maybe even worse than that. It was really weird, actually... the moment you shut the door, it was like a vacuum had just sucked the sound from your ears. The first time, we had to open & shut the door a few times, just to get used to that feeling. At first we were all high-fiving each other & laughing about how a snare drum strike just seemed to cut off like it had a gate on it (not that we knew what a gate was at the time, but you get the idea), and when you'd hit a guitar chord it just sounded like a big BLAAT!!!<then nothing>, but the room ultimately turned out to be totally useless in that state. EVERYTHING seemed louder than it was, because relative to the near-absolute silence of the space itself, it WAS loud. Sometimes breathing sounded just as loud as talking; sometimes you'd feel like you ought to be whispering to each other, and sometimes you'd practically be screaming, and you felt like you couldn't hear yourself... it was just freakin' weird - our ears could never really adjust to it, I guess, 'cause it was so unnatural/so removed from what EVERYTHING in the real world causes our ears to adapt to. We'd end a song and would just kind of stare back & forth at each other for a few moments to give our ears a chance to recover before we could even communicate with each other about how the take went... and then when the "compression" stopped (that's what it felt like - unbelieveable compression), your breathing would sound as loud as a semi-truck, and you'd swear you could practically hear your blood pumping through your veins. Totally freak-out unnatural environment.

Amazing
Scary.

I got to go in one in one and heard a speaker in it playing music. Felt & sounded like I was in a scary video game walking twards the back of a radio. (resident evil...ish)

once the music stopped it wasn't so bad. as expected really, and yes uncomfortable.