Close-Up Vocals: Does the Room Really Matter?

[fossiltooth]

767 is super-cardiod, so that makes some sense.

[roscoenyc]

The more you compress a vocal later the more a crappy room can come up and bite you on the ass.

I've found those commercially available "reflexion filters" work very well in cutting down the room.
If you can't afford one of those you can make a "T" with a boom stand and place a blanket over it. Make 2 "T's" and put them in an inverted V ^ then put your microphone in the ^ with the rear of the mic pointed at the center of the ^

[vvv]

I've found those commercially available "reflexion filters" work very well in cutting down the room.

Or, make yer own.

[drumsound]

The more you compress a vocal later the more a crappy room can come up and bite you on the ass.

I've found those commercially available "reflexion filters" work very well in cutting down the room.
If you can't afford one of those you can make a "T" with a boom stand and place a blanket over it. Make 2 "T's" and put them in an inverted V ^ then put your microphone in the ^ with the rear of the mic pointed at the center of the ^

I put the blankets behind the singer and a Primacoustic Voxguard behind the mic recently and it worked great.

[Corey Y]

At this point I pretty always do tracking out and about, renting a space if necessary. My permanent work space is my mixing room at home. So generally I'll have vocalists record there, since I have RealTraps and other various treatments. The room isn't completely dead, but doesn't have any weird nodes and I can always position them near near/between some absorption panels. If they can't handle headphones and want to hear the monitors loud, and it works out with the tone and style, I'll use a Shure SM7b since it's got very unidirectional and has lots of off axis rejection.

Occasionally, if they want a lot of ambiance or natural reverb, I'll have them open the door and step out in the hallway with hardwood floors or down the hall into the bathroom. It's not a solution that works in every instance or for everyone, but if you do your own mixes it's always good to have a properly treated space. So it's just a nice bonus that it makes for handy vocal room as well.

[Corey Y]

The more you compress a vocal later the more a crappy room can come up and bite you on the ass.

I've found those commercially available "reflexion filters" work very well in cutting down the room.
If you can't afford one of those you can make a "T" with a boom stand and place a blanket over it. Make 2 "T's" and put them in an inverted V ^ then put your microphone in the ^ with the rear of the mic pointed at the center of the ^

For years I tracked in an empty warehouse at my office. We had these rolling racks for storing/moving windows and doors and I would drape packing blankets over them and move them around for baffles. Separation while tracking a band live, getting a nice tight dry drum sound, improvised vocal "booth". A little creative improvisation can go a long way.

[Relyet]

Agreed: Some sort of reflection filter + blanket behind the singer works really well. It made a huge difference in vocal tracks for me.

[tombark]

Having a nice mic is always recommended. It's a good idea to have as much isolation from reflections as possible when recording, especially to emulate that Wallflowers sound, you don't want any reflections from your room. So if you're in a small room (or even convert your closet into a vocal booth) you should be fine, provided you pick up a reflection filter with the mic. SE makes a really nice one that I've used myself and highly recommend. I'd say tha'ts much more of a permanent and fiscally responsible route to go over renting studio time.

[stephenbrooke]

For years I tracked in an empty warehouse at my office. We had these rolling racks for storing/moving windows and doors and I would drape packing blankets over them and move them around for baffles. Separation while tracking a band live, getting a nice tight dry drum sound, improvised vocal "booth". A little creative improvisation can go a long way.

I use inexpensive garment racks for this purpose. Available at your local Walmart for less than a mike stand. Actually, one filled with clothes on hangers works rather well too.

[JGriffin]

I was curious...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlrStQ8iAKE
Lotsa clues there...

So the answer is "record it and then stage the video with lots of cool-looking setups that weren't at all how you did it so guys on recording messageboards get bad info..."