Portable vocal booth-do they really help?

[joemardo]

Hi folks,

Just mess around with recording in my living room so dont want to spend much.

I have one of the cheaper shure mics but when recording vocals get some sound reflections, did try a condenser mic but had to send it back as it was a lot worse picking up the reflected sound.

Just wondering are these portable vocal booths any good, or will it just cut down on reflected sound a bit?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-V...0582117&sr=8-1

I have seen a few youtube videos about hanging blankets to ceilings etc but not really practical for me.

One idea did appeal where mic was placed in large box where form was placed in sides, seems ok if it would work (maybe a if pillows were duct taped in there it would work ok as well I don't know)

Just want to have something portable that is easy to put away, and not spend any money if its possible to make something that doens't look fancy ...but still does the job.

Any ideas gratefully appreciated.

Thanks
Joe

[Danny1969]

The SE reflection filter has a good rep but it's a bit more costly. The trouble with trying to make something cheap is you end up absorbing all the highs and upper mid but that tends to accent the lower mid that's left ..... leading to what they call "chest hump". There's a lot of science and material in the SE design

I recently did a lot of spoken vocals for the New Threate Royal and got good results by building a makeshift 3 sided shield covered with rockwool and material. That had less chest hump due to the thicker rockwool absorbing more lower end than a simple foam filter. As a cheap solution (£40 ish) it worked well

[jim_branning]

Hi folks,

Just mess around with recording in my living room so dont want to spend much.

I have one of the cheaper shure mics but when recording vocals get some sound reflections, did try a condenser mic but had to send it back as it was a lot worse picking up the reflected sound.

Just wondering are these portable vocal booths any good, or will it just cut down on reflected sound a bit?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-V...0582117&sr=8-1

I have seen a few youtube videos about hanging blankets to ceilings etc but not really practical for me.

One idea did appeal where mic was placed in large box where form was placed in sides, seems ok if it would work (maybe a if pillows were duct taped in there it would work ok as well I don't know)

Just want to have something portable that is easy to put away, and not spend any money if its possible to make something that doens't look fancy ...but still does the job.

Any ideas gratefully appreciated.

Thanks
Joe

all such screens only reduce off-axis signals, so you need to treat behind where you stand.

[Grunfeld.]

Just want to have something portable that is easy to put away, and not spend any money if its possible to make something that doens't look fancy ...but still does the job.

It's a trade off between what you'd expect in a studio and what's quick and dirty for home recording.

Did this with as DIY set up:

https://soundcloud.com/gr-nfeld/tash-grenade

And while it's definitely not studio quality, for me it's okay for home demo quality, plus it's quick to set up and tear down.

[octatonic]

I occasionally do VO work with an SE reflection filter.
It works fine for what it is.

[thereformant]

We experimented with the SE one a bit. We were already in a very treated studio but we found it actually caused more early reflections than recording in the room. Particularly on screams and very loud single notes which ended up with a very subtle phasing effect

[Szorn]

I recommend these from GIK.

http://gikacoustics.co.uk/product/gi.../#!prettyPhoto

They also give great educational advice on how best to treat your room.

EDIT: Noticed you didn't want to spend much. Hang some blankets from microphone stands into a make shift booth then place a blanket over the top. Most reflections/dampening (if you have carpet) you hear come from the ceiling and floor as that's how are ears determine an acoustic space (our ears are always the same distance from the floor if we're stood up. Carpet absorbs all the nice higher frequencies we want so the subsequent recording can sound boxy and lack fidelity.) If you want you can always place a piece of wood below you or on the side wall (helps best when recording acoustic guitar. Remember not all reflections are bad.) Best bet is to get rid of as much room sound as possible, EQing out the lower mids in the mix should help then add a nice outboard reverb or plug in.