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So first of all, I record in the corner of a room facing away from the wall. And before I tried doing any kind of sound proofing I noticed in my recordings that I could hear a slight echo of my vocals (it sounded like I was recording in a room, which obviously I don't want, it's rap vocals btw). To prevent this I stacked up three sets of totes about chest high and it's shaped like this: [_]

Now on each of the totes I put one couch cusion in the same way and it closes off all gaps and I can't see anything in front of me (because the mic is obviously IN the little "vocalbooth"). I then put a blanket over the top, and once all of this is done, I clap outside of it, I can hear the echo, then I clap in the "booth" and I hear no echo whatsoever.

So obviously this solved my little voice echoing problem. However, the one thing that I'm wondering is if this will cause any other problems that I'm unaware of. I don't know much about recording vocals as I'm new at this, and I knew I didn't want that echo, but now I'm wondering if this will make it sound any worse.

So far, so good. But I wasn't sure if I'm missing something here and if this is actually hurting me rather than helping me. Thanks for any info!

Comments

IIRs Sat, 02/19/2011 - 03:31

You've got the right idea, although your terminology is slightly off: what you are doing is acoustic treatment, not soundproofing.

So, you've solved your flutter-echo problem by deploying absorption, but from your description this is only likely to affect mid range and high frequencies... the problem you risk is damping down the mids and highs while leaving the low frequencies to bounce around the room uncontrolled. If you notice a 'boxy' element in your recordings you may need to add some bass trapping in the corners of the room to soak up the lows as well and restore the balance. This depends very much on your room however, so don't assume this is essential: if its sounds good as it is now then it is good.

kb7 Mon, 02/21/2011 - 11:25

Thank you for the correction on terminology (last thing I want to do is sound stupid haha). If it sounds good I'll keep it as is. But if I have problems and I don't want to do the bass trapping would I just want to up my mids and highs in mixing or should I lower the lows?

All I know is that there are highs, mids, and lows but I'm still confused as to what they are lol unless it's just low (as in bassy voice) and high as in high pitched?

IIRs Mon, 02/21/2011 - 12:06

kb7, post: 364893 wrote: Thank you for the correction on terminology (last thing I want to do is sound stupid haha). If it sounds good I'll keep it as is. But if I have problems and I don't want to do the bass trapping would I just want to up my mids and highs in mixing or should I lower the lows?

All I know is that there are highs, mids, and lows but I'm still confused as to what they are lol unless it's just low (as in bassy voice) and high as in high pitched?

Its a bit more involved than that! Correcting room mode problems with EQ can be quite tricky. You would need to identify precise problem frequencies for surgical cutting: "Low" and "High" is not specific enough here. Trust me: adding bass traps is much easier, and gives better results as well!

But we're getting ahead of ourselves: if your vocals sound good with your current arrangement you don't have a problem.