Had to wait until I got home to watch the Youtube videos. That first video with the comparison between the 3--that was perfect. Guy can sing, too. I, sadly, cannot sing like that. But in the right range, with the right song, I can get a nice hot signal, which helps in the signal-to-noise ratio war. I'm going to use both the SM57 AND the 58 together and play with them.

I read through the first three of the Gearslutz threads on my phone over lunch. I learned that there are lots of people using the 57s or 58s, and that the RE20s AND the SM7Bs are indeed sweet-ass mics. True workhorses that deliver, all four of them, although the RE20 is gonna set me back some cash one day probably sooner than later.

My basement is also home to my animation render farm, with around 100 processing cores total that--when all running--are louder than shit (3 desktops, a couple of laptops, and two outright 24-core servers). However, I've gotten into the OpenCL side of the fractal rendering house, and use 3 video cards that exponentially outperform the render farm. So most of that is turned off or on idle, back in a far corner of the basement. That also is a new change to the basement, where I don't have as much noise as I used to.

Sweet! Thanks John and Scott for your feedback, assistance, stories, and advice. I'll update this thread later with my findings (or be back to discuss if anyone else has ideas or comments. I could talk about gear--and recording--all day!)

SS

Steve, why not get some clothesline or rope, string it up to your basement ceiling and hang up some blankets to block out unwanted noise? Can't remember the singer, but I recall a few pros videotaped in studios with blankets hanging up to block unwanted sound. Another alternative is to get background hanging gear from a camera shop.

Blankets from the ceilings is definitely doable. Hmmm.... I'll have to give that a try too this weekend. Problem is that the wife cuts through the studio to get back to the laundry room and blankets would have to come up and down after recording sessions. But that plus the dynamic mics is easier than moving out to the car (and it's winter here in Detroit!) or using the back playroom.

I'll give that a try. I saw a portable shower curtain circular thing on Ebay that was some kind of portable noise cutter that is probably similar proof of principle. I believe a lot of highs--like the high white noise of fans--can be cut by a simple curtain, not even very thick. I'll give it a try!

Hi Steve
This is a good thread, I spent 10 years of my life in studios more or less and built one.
In short I agree With the whole" use a dynamic vibe". There is no reason with some experimentation why you cant get very useable takes With a 57 or 58 . I had a couple of Clients who refused to use anything else though I could offer expensive condensors as options. Endless famous vocals have gone down on 58's.
In your situation , the noise rejection and cardioid polar pattern of Dynamics is your friend so best that Your head is in the dampened corner of the room with the rear of the mic facing the Space for one thing.
All the advice from the guys is great in my humble opinion, use of mics and mic placement is an art in itself.
I reckon With some care you will get some good results long before we discuss preamps, and tracking with compression , EQ etc etc , but you could drop the low cut in straight away if your desk has one since there's not much going on vocally way Down there other than rumble in the room most likely .
Tame the other humans and the extraneous Equipment and you are on the way.
The RE20 is a great mic by the way , fab in front of horns.

Sound is an insidious thing to control sometimes in recording Spaces, hanging up stuff will not really provide much sound proofing but will change the characteristic of the Space around the mic , ie dampen it and knock out a little high end dependent on what you use. Once you start ,it can quickly turn into a big Project!!
Have fun .
Cheers
B

Excellent advice, Bruce, on the mic-to-room placement, and about the RE20, the bass cutoff, and about the dampening. All great stuff. thanks!

My last best attempt at vocals is probably my poppy-rocky song "You and Me," which un-coincidentally is the song I posted this week over at icomposition.com. I'd like to do more of this (as well as learn that new NS/Stick whenever it comes and keep working on the other Sticks). But I can sing with some difficulty and some after-processing, so I should do more of it. Chicks dig it, too (at least, my wife does!).


http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=219965

2014's "You and Me"

Hey Steve, this is a great thread - lots of good info and ideas.

Just in case you haven't heard about this, I'll mention the old "moving blankets" trick. Many records have been made with makeshift vocal coverings using 3 mic stands and a bunch of heavy moving blankets immediately behind and overhead. These are excellent noise dampeners, being very heavy felt of 10mm thick. Here's a blanket booth:

http://californiadingo.com/blog/tag/diy-vocal-booth/

Another variation that also works is to buy 2 reasonably thick sleeping bags from Target, zip them together and hang them like a cone from the ceiling - it doesn't have to touch the floor. Leave the front unzipped and park the mic stand just inside the entrance. This is easy to enter and exit, and is effective at isolating sound. If you're lucky you can find Left hand and Right hand sleeping bags that zip to make a large cylinder. You can take the whole thing down by unhooking from the roof.

Some years back I recorded with a band and our engineer was flexible when we didn't have enough booths for a complex song. He got good vocals nonetheless. It came down to:

what's making the noise? (isolate the computer, not the person)

where's the reflection? (don't sing into the corner, nor near a wall ahead or behind; be aware of the reflective environment)

don't treat it (record dry, without compression; maybe just some protective limiting to avoid clipping if you're gonna yell)

get directional (use the most directional mic you have)

get on top of the mic (sing on axis and near the mic, to get plenty of signal and proximity effect)

get in the zone (perform well)

what can you hear? (often poor vocal performance, including pitch, is related to monitoring levels and the balance with the natural sound - what you can hear)

you won't hear it in the mix (he was right, we couldn't tell)


Some great music has been recorded in bathrooms. One of Seal's songs was produced by Trevor Horn who liked Seal's demo performance so much that he used the bathroom vocal complete with a noisy cistern (I must find out which track that was).

HTH any

Andy

Andy, wow, some excellent advice! I really, really like that "GoBo" as the guy called it, the DIY vocal booth made from 3 2X4 frames and a bunch of moving blankets. I'm surprised that the front end, facing the singer, is completely open.


[Reading the comments, the author is asked that exact question: why nothing in front of the singer? He responds that he uses a home-made filter like the one below from Sweetwater, or that you could enclose the singer on all sides, but the rest of the room is also treated and he didn't want the surround filter to get in the way of filming. So that's still a question.]

I think Scott's point about not wanting to make any permanent alterations to the basement is a good point as well: we might want to sell the house one day. But the 3 frames set up in a corner, with the blankets, seems imminently doable. I like the idea of a semi-permanent place to record vocals that is somewhat isolated from the worst of the basement room noises. He had a fancy-schmancy can mic in his setup, but otherwise, the setup cost him a bit over a hundred dollars.

I was briefly thinking of getting one of these for around $120 from Sweetwater:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ReflexionX


But for that price--and a lot of my own labor, of course--I could make that GOBO "3-frame with moving blankets" setup pretty easily. The two sleeping bags from Target zipped together is another good idea. I'm going to look at the entire basement studio setup as well, and see if I have a good place for a semi-permanent "GOBO" vocal area.

Now I want a bigger basement!


This was all good stuff to think about, Andy, and I thank you!

This guy is very convincing with his high tech sound dampening system: A comforter.

I found it - read on:



From here:

http://www.zttaat.com/article.php?title=48

Andy