Welcome to Krazy Monkey Music.
Thank you for being here.
Alright, you just spent $500 on the best modeling mic you could buy, everything you record will just magically sound perfect, right??? No. The room you’re recording in is just as important as your mic. If you have a great mic but the room you’re recording in has a bunch of hard flat surfaces anything you record will probably sound horrible. There are studios that are designed to have natural reverb and delay qualities but your basement isn’t one of them. So, what do you do? Well if you’re me, and I have to say it’s a really dumb idea and you will die if you do it, you put blankets, curtains and rugs all around the room. Seriously though, fire is a real issue so do what you want but I don’t recommend it.
When you make a sound not only will that sound go into the mic but it also radiates in all directions. When the sound reaches the walls, ceiling, floor, computer monitor, literally everything in the room it will reflect. In fact you can use mirrors to help you treat a room because light and sound act very similar in this regard. But Wait! There’s more! The reflected sound not only bounces back and hits the microphone, most of it passes the microphone and hits the opposite wall and bounces back to the microphone again, and again, and again… Now like I said, you can design a room so that the echos enhance your recording but if you don’t have the expertise or money for that, a good solution is to eliminate the echos and add reverb and delay later.
You may look around and see special panels for room treatment and such, and while they might look cool and do a good job, they can be expensive. So if you don’t have a lot of money, old blankets, curtains, rugs, afghans, literally any soft material will work. If you can’t leave them up all the time like I do, you can just put them up while you’re recording. So that’s what I’m going to show you, How to Build a Vocal Booth for Cheap or Free. Again, fire is an issue so be careful and take every precaution, including fire retardant.
Here we go: How to Build a Vocal Booth for Cheap or Free.
If you’re ready for more, check out:
Advanced Audio Mixing (the Art and Science)
