Recording Vocals (In Noisy Studios)

I have a music studio in the basement of the house, and normally, almost everything I do in recording is recorded direct into the board (including my acoustic guitars, which have pickups and direct mikes). The basement has the heater and air conditioning units, and also the fan that drives both of them, and is a noisy place to record with a microphone. When I record vocals, I use a ground floor back room that used to be the kids' playroom (and is still stuffed with bin after bin of their stuffed animals and kiddie toys). But I have to actually move a mixing board and a computer (usually a Mac Mini and Focusrite interface), mikes and stands and pop filters and all that up from the basement, into the playroom, and set it all up and then tear down when complete. Oh, and the family should hopefully be out of the house when I do all of this.

So recording vocals for me is a huge pain in the ass, not to mention, it's not one of my more natural talents. I really have to work hard at singing, and have lots of takes, and lots of warbling and grunts on the way to singing success. All the more reason to make sure the family is away--particularly if I want to rap or scream or yell loudly into the mic in a most embarrassing not-cool Dad way.

But I've been reading about "Vocal Isolation Booths," and I even spent $40 on Ebay to get a small box with four acoustic-foam cushions in it that a mic sits in and you yell into the box to record vocals. I'm testing that out this weekend.


But what I really would like to build is something like this:


[I'm curious as to how this is (quietly) ventilated, by the way!]

I learned a lot on reading this article lately:
Sound on Sound (SOS)
How Effective Are Portable Vocal Booths?
http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/how ... cal-booths

I haven't done a whole bunch of research yet on building a vocal isolation booth, and it's probably more of a side project for this summer. But I was curious as to a couple of things:

1. How do YOU record in an otherwise-noisy environment?

2. Some of that is of course better soundproofing, but the entire basement would have to be redone and I'd rather put my re-furnishing money into making a smaller, isolated booth. Any thoughts on building/making one?

3. Possibly a certain mic may work better in a noisy environment but I have several good mics I like and don't need a new one. Unless it's MAGIC!

Your thoughts, suggestions, experiences, and opinions are very much welcome! Thanks!

Screaming and rapping and warbling Down in Fractal Rock,
--Stevie "Look, Ma, I can sing!" Sink

Wow, a little more digging around Sound on Sound (which is one of my favorite audio/music/studio publications, by the way), led me to this bigger article:

Studio SOS: Building A DIY Vocal Booth

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/ ... ocal-booth



Pretty much what I'm looking for, although a bit bigger than I wanted to go. I'm looking more closet, and less full-sized-room, for my vocal isolation booth. But this is the right idea!

A dynamic mic like the RE20 or SM7 will solve your problem. No booth needed as long as the noise around you isn't super loud.

Hmmmm, I have both an SM57 and an SM58--they're my main go-to mics actually. How do they compare to the SM7?

I haven't done a lot of vocal recording in the basement, just assuming that the fan noises would bleed into everything. I've always just moved everything upstairs where it's quieter.

It's not THAT loud in the basement. Are you telling me that it shouldn't be much of a problem with a good dynamic mic? I'll have to do some serious testing this weekend. Perhaps I'm looking for the solution to a problem that I don't really have!

Thanks John for that. By the way, this short list of good dynamic mics here:

http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/dynamic ... icrophone/

...has the SM57, SM58, SM7B, and the RE20 as the first four mics on the list!

Dynamic mics, by their nature, pick up only what's right in front of them. Background bleed is minimal. A condenser mic picks everything around it.

http://homerecording.about.com/od/micro ... _types.htm

Try your SM58 and 57. They are more commonly used onstage -- 57 for amps, 58 for vocals -- but you can use them in the studio too. I think the 57 actually makes a fine vocal mic for certain types of voices (but not all). On mine, it's actually very similar to the SM7.

I use the RE20. It's the standard in radio for spoken broadcasts, but for me, it happens to work great for singing as well.

You just have to find one that works well with your voice.

Excellent advice, John, thanks so much! The SM57 is what I like the best of all my mics, and my voice seems to match nicely with it. Prince wouldn't use anything but an SM57 and I've heard that Chris Cornell would often overpower almost every mic put in front of him except the SM57. Hey, if it's tough enough to mic that guitar amp, it can handle Chris Cornell! My voice has been described (at least by people that have also slept with me!) as a "deep, sexy radio voice." The SM57 works well with me. But it's not the mic's fault that I have shitty pitch control!

The SM 58 really just has a different grill, so you can get up on it closer, but otherwise has the same electronics as the SM57 (which I just learned from the SOS article on dynamic mics!). I've used it as a backup vocal mic, and really couldn't hear much difference between the 57 and 58 (but I've always liked the 57 for some reason.)

I really want an RE20 after reading the mic reviews and hearing you talk about it. About $400 or so, so that'll wait for a long time. But that'll probably be my next mic purchase. And maybe I can get one cheaper from Ebay or wherever.
So, with that advice in mind, I'm going to try some recording with each of my main mics, and in the little $40 vocal isolation box I bought, and without. And then maybe contrast it with similar vocals recorded in the quieter playroom and see how it all matches up.

If I can record decent, high-quality vocals in the basement studio, that'll be a HUGE increase in efficiency and in making songs with vocals. Truly a big changeup to my creative output. And maybe I can start taking on some podcasts too, and get that sexy radio voice working.

Thanks again for the help and feedback, John! You rock!

Steve "Pavarotti" Sink

Steve, you should be fine with a '57 or a '58. Three main factors here to consider before you go spending a lot of cash on mics and preamps and room treatment stuff.


1) Environment is a big deal, bigger than you might think. Not only does the type of room you have colour the overall tone of what it is that you do, but if you don't know what you are doing and what you want to achieve you still might be unhappy with the results. For instance, I find that it sounds weird when guitars are direct recorded, bass is direct recorded, and drums are software synth and then the vocals have a "room flavour" when nothing else does. Personally, I will take a miced Amp over Amp sims any day. And I absolutely hate programmed drums... Almost as much as I hate a midi kit, lol which is my current drum set haha. I would rather hear a poorly recorded band that just cooks, brimming with talent, as opposed to a melodyned, pitch and rhythm corrected, sterilized musical figurehead.

My basement is unfinished, and I have to choose the times when I record carefully. There are two noisy kids, and an even noisier wife who does WHATEVER THE FUCK she wants, when she wants, where she wants! I also share space with a washer and a dryer and a furnace. There is a very audible dishwasher, and one can hear the upstairs TV pretty much anywhere in the house.

I could finish the basement, but drywall and flooring will actually add more reflections. I have a concrete floor, but a couple of throw rugs had a miraculous effect on the tonality when dealing with mics. I actually created a small, portable recording rig so that I can go and record in two of the quietest spaces in my house: 1) My bedroom. 2) My car. Sounds crazy, but both are very effective, isolated and for the most part extremely quiet. If those two places are too noisy, I will go drive to a family acreage where I know it is quiet, park the car in the shop, and record in my car. I usually don't have to do that. I can usually find a time where I can do what I want. Sunday afternoon is the best...
A Rock Wool curtain or 3 or 4 can do wonders for dampening...

2) Rehearsal. I get some folks coming in who don't really have their parts down wishing to record, and just kind of make their stuff up as they go. A little bit of that is fine, but consider this; if you have good pitch already, you won't need pitch correction. If you have good rhythm, you won't need rhythmic correction. Practice your damn parts, do whatever it takes to get them pitch/rhythm perfect, or as close as you can, and memorize your lyrics. Then, when you record your stuff it will not only sound better but the act of recording will be much faster and more efficient. Most people waste a gross amount of time WRITING and BRAINSTORMING when in reality, those processes should be already taken care of by the time you get around to wanting to document your works in your home studio. Now, if you have the place totally soundproofed, etc, etc, then you have the flexibility to be creative, lounge around and just make stuff up, rehearse vocal parts as you record, etc.

3) If you throw enough money at something, it can make a problem go away. Lol The trouble is... there is always troubles, always challenges, always weird situations. Try to solve the issue as best you can with what you have on hand before you go and spend some cash on a portable booth, bass traps, etc etc. It's really important to have a full understanding of the issues, and positives as well as negatives, before "solving".

That EXACTLY describes my basement studio and house and life setup, down to the two kids and the wife who does whatever the fuck she wants whenever. To include running the washing machine right next to me while recording!

I just read that the car is the perfect place to record, since it's isolated and dampened and on suspensions, and is usually designed to be an optimal listening and recording environment (as much as a working moving vehicle cabin can be optimized for sound). My Ford C-Max has a standard 110 plugin too, so I can move the Mac Mini and an interface and a mike on a boom into the car very easily and record that way. It's also in an attached garage, so there's no house noise and no nosy neighbors wondering why I'm screaming at my steering wheel while parked in the driveway. I can also do that when the family is home without them hearing or seeing me.

But you have to be sitting down. And it is a bit of a pain lugging all the equipment out to the car (hypothetically. I haven't tried it yet.)

But your setup in the basement looks and sounds like mine. I bet that our setup is fairly common among musicians these days. If you don't have your own home studio, it's because you don't want one, not because you can't afford it or need some specialized, unattainable skill sets or prohibitively expensive equipment.

Excellent thoughts and suggestions and info, Scott. Thanks so much!

Yep. I guess that the purpose of the recording space is another factor to consider; I mean... I may wish to sell my home and move in the future, so that means that having a dedicated constructed recording studio in the basement might not really help in that respect! lol
I can do very decent sounding demos out of my home studio. If I need world class fidelity, well I will go to a world class studio I guess. I am way more interested though in using my space as a means to document and foster my own musical growth, if that makes any sense..?
Also, I don't like having random people come through my house and into my space any more than I already do. If I had a real room I am sure that I would get a lot more traffic, which the boss of the place would not be cool with. It's a family space, and although music is a huge part of my life it can't take over my life, if that makes any sense?

I had a decent thing where I would use an Ipad, and a Line6 SonicPort VX as my portable recording rig. Also, it wasn't bad as a kind of practice rig too. BUT I wanted something that sounded a lot better, had a lot less wires, and tracked more nicely that I could plug a stereo instrument into at a seminar or something, or record vocals in a car, or record my drummer's drums at his house to a click, and also use for my guitar and Stick videos; After a good 6 months of research, and two months of testing out a friend's I bought this; ZOOM H4NPro. Awesome piece of kit, this thing is excellent. Extremely portable, onboard mics sound great, and I can use two different ones if I want... SD card and USB interface makes it easy to get the files to other computers... Ipad audio transfer is not always all that fun... lol

I think that yes, we are in similar situations, but everyone is going to have different musical values as to what their goals and tastes are. My posts are just my own opinion, applicable to me.

Check out these threads on Gearslutz:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=sm ... rslutz.com

SM7B vs. 58 vs 57

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_IcAGQmKM[/youtube]

SM7 in action

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YkxBEq0wBY[/youtube]