Does anybody here record vocals in their bedroom / small room?

[kanoharuayu]

I'd like some advice on how to get a "dry" recording that sounds "good". I have an AT4040, hooked up to my interface. My room sounds like giant echo space. it's 14x14 feet long and wide, then 12 feet tall.

What are tricks you do to have good vocal takes? Right now, the only thing I can do, is lower the "gain" all the way down to low, then put a gate and noise suppressor on my vocals, it sounds 'ALMOST OKAY' but its obvious I have a gate, and im losing quality from noise suppressor...

I tried asking in gearslutz, but they just tell me to buy 2000$ in corningwell panels and put them in my room

I'm just a hobby produser, there must be a cheaper way to get a "decently dry, not suky" vocal recording, for 200$ lol

I was thinking of using moving blankets, or reflektion filters, but I got told "haha noob, moving blankets suck up all the high and mid range, your recordings will sound bassy and muffled and shit. Reflektion filters LUL, those cause combing FX and dont do shit" I then tried looking up about a DIY vocal booth with fiberglass but was met with "All vocalbooth recordings SUK, bro u need a giant open room with 2000$ in corningwell panels"

What do you guys do? Any none millionaire produsers here who rekord vokals?


so I got all these info, I dunno wat to do, I just want to sing for my song and have it dryish so I can apply reverbs, delays, and also have a "dry" singing part in the song

Any suggestions?

[poonna]

Square room like that is bad for acoustics, but I understand having to make do with what we have. I have a small room, too. I treated it with DIY panels, and they don’t cost $2,000, more like $300-$400.

You don’t need to get it all perfect at once (it’ll never be though). Some panels at critical points and some bass traps for the start. You can build more along the way as more money is available.

[yellowmix]

Record under your bedsheets/blankets.

[TheSynthScientist]

Record under your bedsheets/blankets.

Vocals?

[yellowmix]

Yeah, if they're going to add their own reverb and other spatial effects, may as well record it as dry as possible.

[BertKoor]

The "ghetto" vocal booth: hang up a duvet with some coat hangers.

[lajosuti]

+1 for the "ghetto" vocal booth, we also did that using a mixture of cardboard and some duvet. Also we have noticed that in this scenario a simple dynamic microphone yielded better results than an LDC.

[morelia]

How good are things like this?

https://isovoxbooth.com/
https://www.seelectronics.com/reflexion-filter-pro/
http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php/en/ ... /mic-thing

I have the Mic Thing. I suppose it does something. Not particular impressed but I use it as that is all I have.

[biomechanoid]

https://www.astonmics.com/EN/product/halo

[V0RT3X]

I’m thinking maybe this is a troll thread

[thecontrolcentre]

Try using a dynamic microphone instead. It'll pick up less of the room. Or sing more softly and close mic your vocal.

[RichieWitch]

Run a long microphone cable into the closet, face the clothes, the close the door behind you.

I've also had good luck with folding canvas screens. I use six of them in a hexagon around the vocalist. They block out the sounds of air conditioning and computer noise without putting the singer in another room. You can close the sides up a little more once they get inside. That's a moving blanket on the floor.

[jochicago]

I record at my home studio and I'm happy with the quality I get out of my inexpensive setup. I described it here
viewtopic.php?f=180&t=505004&p=7254154#p7254154

Basically fabric will stop sound if you have enough of it (density). The problem is usually that you don't use enough, so you end up filtering frequencies instead of killing them all, turning your room into a giant eq that's ruining the sound. But if you use dense enough material you can eventually kill most of the sound if the stuff is thick enough. That's why the closet thing works, sing into all your clothing and it will absorb nearly all the spill.

I use a combination of inexpensive foam panels and bed comforters. Also having furniture in your room helps break up the sound. Your comment suggests that your room has tons of open walls for sound to bounce around. Bookshelves, desks, carpets, thick fabric curtains, all this stuff helps reflect and absorb some of the sound as it bounces around the room.

I also cheat with the microphone. I'm using an SM86 for vocals. It's a small condenser stage mic, so it has a lot of the heavy lifting built in to reject sound, pops, etc. The compromise is that it doesn't sound as pristine as a large condenser, but once you are in the DAW with eq and effects, it's hard to make a case against it. Although, if I had a real studio space I would definitely upgrade the mic. I can definitely hear it's profile and I would prefer something more studio-like. But I accept the compromise because if I upgrade the mic I would probably have to double the padding in my room.

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

I just have one of these between my mic stand and microphone. Gives me decent enough recordings.

[Septimon]

If your budget is limited, just one very general advice i once got: everything that keeps sound from bouncing from one wall to another helps. Curtains, a bookshelve filled with books, everything that leads to diverse reflections. Worst case is two parallel Walls. Start with what you got and add panels later if you need.
Also: Mathew Herbert once Said in an interview: a room‘s natural reverb is not necessarily bad. Give it a try.