KVR Audio

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:36 am

Lately I've been wanting to do more singer-songwriter stuff with just a guitar or piano and my voice. Now I have my DAW setup in the (quite large) living room so when I record my singing there, there's some ambient noise.

Also sometimes I'd like to sing quite loud and I don't feel comfortable -knowing there are neighbours everywhere around me- so I was thinking maybe I should get an iRig microphone so I can record my voice in my car (in a quiet location) with my iPad.

Anyone knows about the soundquality of these iOS mics and/or has any experience recording vocals in his/her car?

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 8:46 am

Spiritos wrote:Lately I've been wanting to do more singer-songwriter stuff with just a guitar or piano and my voice. Now I have my DAW setup in the (quite large) living room so when I record my singing there, there's some ambient noise.

Also sometimes I'd like to sing quite loud and I don't feel comfortable -knowing there are neighbours everywhere around me- so I was thinking maybe I should get an iRig microphone so I can record my voice in my car (in a quiet location) with my iPad.

Anyone knows about the soundquality of these iOS mics and/or has any experience recording vocals in his/her car?

I don't know about IOS mics but I regularly use my Blue Snowflake with my iPad and the camera adapter. I like to record my voice with my guitalele. For what it cost me, I'm fairly happy with the results and it's MUCH better than the built in mic. That said, I don't really have anything online, that I also want to share with KVR, so, unfortunately, you'll just have to take my word for it, heh! I mostly just use garage band, I don't take my iPad music too seriously. I haven't recorded in the car, but, I might give that a try as well. My voice is often "warmed up" after I drive to work and that would be a good time to lay down a couple of quick tracks.

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 7:38 am

Thanks! I really haven't researched all mic options yet but this looks promising.

In general I was just wondering how people record their voice if they don't have a booth or a treated room.
I figured a car would do as it is in some way 'treated' and while I could get a laptop and proper audiointerface to go I thought an iPad/iPhone would be more convenient for initial recording.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 8:56 am

Spiritos wrote:Thanks! I really haven't researched all mic options yet but this looks promising.

In general I was just wondering how people record their voice if they don't have a booth or a treated room.
I figured a car would do as it is in some way 'treated' and while I could get a laptop and proper audiointerface to go I thought an iPad/iPhone would be more convenient for initial recording.

I live in a very small open floorplan house and my recording space sounds fairly good. I don't try to fight it. If I'm really trying to get a bit of isolation I'll turn the AC off before I start recording, but other than that, I just don't worry about it. That said, I have the house to myself regularly so I don't have to be conscious of others either being interested, or annoyed, in what I'm doing. For me, this is important because I've learned over the years that, even if they enjoy the first one or to renditions of whatever, others often do not have the same patience I do for that eighteenth or nineteenth take.

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:10 am

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-p ... s-car.html

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:16 pm

ghettosynth wrote:]I live in a very small open floorplan house and my recording space sounds fairly good. I don't try to fight it. If I'm really trying to get a bit of isolation I'll turn the AC off before I start recording, but other than that, I just don't worry about it. That said, I have the house to myself regularly so I don't have to be conscious of others either being interested, or annoyed, in what I'm doing. For me, this is important because I've learned over the years that, even if they enjoy the first one or to renditions of whatever, others often do not have the same patience I do for that eighteenth or nineteenth take.

I live in a flat with neighbours everywhere which makes me rather selfconscious when singing. Also, just recently I asked one of my neighbours to turn down the volume of the TV since she has it on from 08.00-24.00 which -although not thát loud- was driving me crazy as it's all day long... yet another reason I feel somewhat restrained.

So true about recording several takes!

morelia wrote:http://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-p ... s-car.html

Thanks! Hilarious thread! Nice to see though the idea in itself isn't that crazy..

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:49 pm

You could look at the ambient noise as part of the soundscape. I quite like the sound of passing traffic. I'm guessing I'd be less open minded about a blaring TV though, especially when all you can hear is the muffled bass end.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 3:21 pm

no officer im not dogging im recording vocals...

cant see why it wouldnt work, finding the right environment that you can comfortably sing is important, being self concious doesnt help when doing vocals unless you want that kind of atmosphere/emotion on a track i guess.
however singing while seated can be problematic too.
however if it works it works, doesnt the ipad have a built in mic? i know its not ideal but it might be worth testing before spending money on a specific microphone then finding its a wasted product?

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 3:33 pm

vurt wrote:no officer im not dogging im recording vocals...

cant see why it wouldnt work, finding the right environment that you can comfortably sing is important, being self concious doesnt help when doing vocals unless you want that kind of atmosphere/emotion on a track i guess.
however singing while seated can be problematic too.
however if it works it works, doesnt the ipad have a built in mic? i know its not ideal but it might be worth testing before spending money on a specific microphone then finding its a wasted product?

Yes it does, it doesn't sound very good. The little blue mic, which is usb and quite handy, sounds worlds better. Positioning is another problem that's less of a problem with an external mic.

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 3:56 pm

What about recording your vocals at night when everybody is sleeping? I always did that, and I love working at night because nothing confuses me then and there's more space for creativity...

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:06 pm

Sendy wrote:You could look at the ambient noise as part of the soundscape. I quite like the sound of passing traffic. I'm guessing I'd be less open minded about a blaring TV though, especially when all you can hear is the muffled bass end.

Very true! I recently recorded a song idea on my iPad -then when listening back I heard wind and cars in the background and that kinda gave me the idea of using that in the production.

vurt wrote:no officer im not dogging im recording vocals...

I was thinking about that scenario as well..

Living in the city it's very hard to find a quiet and remote kind of place..

Tricky-Loops wrote:What about recording your vocals at night when everybody is sleeping? I always did that, and I love working at night because nothing confuses me then and there's more space for creativity...

I absolutely love the night for making music but alas.. I feel even more selfconscious then since sound carries so much further...

When I do mellow stuff it's doable but I can have quite a loud voice which isn't an option at night.

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:12 pm

Spiritos wrote:I absolutely love the night for making music but alas.. I feel even more selfconscious then since sound carries so much further...

When I do mellow stuff it's doable but I can have quite a loud voice which isn't an option at night.

Are you producing screamo?

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:15 pm

Tricky-Loops wrote:What about recording your vocals at night when everybody is sleeping? I always did that, and I love working at night because nothing confuses me then and there's more space for creativity...

Might not work in a typical apartment/flat (screamo or not... I'm doing my own kinda Trent Reznor myself). I do it in my row house, but on the third floor. Frankly, I hear everyone else's noise all day and it irritates the mighty living piss outta me. When I go to the third floor, it's ever so slightly less noisy, so I assume it's also safer to be loud there. I've no need for further noise citations (admittedly that one occasion was pretty intentional).

I have a room with next to no sound treatment. I'm lucky that it's not a perfect cube shape, and I've recently hung a carpet/rug against a wooden slats kind of half wall at the back, and the rest of the "sound treatment" is open closets and generally a room so full I can barely move (two desks with racks on top of them, surrounding me in a little chair space)... equipment on racks and on desks, full closets of books and other stuff, and sheets covering any gear not being used. With my Neumann TLM103, I've not had a lot of serious room trouble. Output from the speakers, though... Dunno. Surely I'm losing bass down the floor...

I've been amazed at what kinds of spaces people have produced professional commercially sold music in. Sometimes our home studio setups aren't really so bad. But the car idea... that was a new one to me

clever!

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:16 pm

Tricky-Loops wrote:Are you producing screamo?

Acoustic folk-grunt-metal

Guest231427 · Post by **Guest231427** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 7:34 am

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What an excellent thread

Like the OP, I live in a mid terraced house and record vocals. Although I sing in my car whilst driving, I have never felt the need to record in the car

I do agree that my rubbish voice does sound good in the car, probably due to the non square angles (windscreen, dashboard etc) adding a sort of reverb effect.

The approach I use for tracking vocals in the room where my DAW and piano are (calling it a studio would be an bit of an exaggeration, as it is a spare bedroom really) is this:

I have a built-in wardrobe in the room which I use for hanging up coats and as an overflow for my vast collection of clothes and shoes. I open both doors and line the resulting cubical with a king size duvet and some pillows.
I set up a mic on a boom stand in between the open doors. Et voila, a cheap and cheerful, 'dead' vocal booth

Who needs to buy one of these - http://www.seelectronics.com/reflexion-filter-x (http://www.seelectronics.com/reflexion-filter-x) ?
It works for me. Perhaps you could set up something similar using a folding screen.

Sigh; if only I was a proper vocalist and could sing nicely

Recording vocals in room vs car