BEDROOM SONICS
Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Doug Eisengrein
There's no doubt that professional recording studios have many advantages to most home setups in terms of gear and acoustics. Yet in many ways, the challenges of getting good recordings in both places involve the same things: great performances (always the most crucial ingredient), some decent mics, proper mic placement and a healthy dose of creativity (assuming you're not trying to sound just like everybody else). Because most pro studios begin with proper sonically treated rooms, creativity takes on an even more critical role when recording at home. This, however, can offer you a unique opportunity for fun and inventiveness.
PILLOW POWER
Before the creativity really flies, you do need a few prerequisites. One, if you monitor in the same room that you track, while recording, you should always turn off the monitors to avoid feedback. If needed, listen through headphones while you record. Two, purchase a few long mic cables, and try recording in different rooms. Don't underestimate how big your house or apartment is — 25 feet of cable doesn't stretch very far. Also, if possible, don't go cheap. Buy good cables, and you should have them for life. I suggest trying every room in the house, as each is likely to inject a different color to the recordings. Beds, couches and other furniture will dampen the sound of a room whereas stark walls and flat, hard surfaces will enhance it and usually add some natural reverberation. Some musicians want to capture the natural sound of the room they are recording in, yet others prefer to retain as close to the original unblemished tone of the instruments as possible.
If you are the latter of these two, try this scenario: While tracking electric guitar or bass, pull a couch a good distance away from the wall (if necessary) and place the amp behind and close to it, with the speakers facing toward the couch's back. If you do not have carpeting below the couch and amp, put down a large towel or blanket first, being mindful to cover the area between the two. Although a distance of 1 to 2 feet between the couch and the front of the cabinet should do, the optimum distance will depend upon the sensitivity of the microphone that you use; some experimentation will be in order. Place the mic close to the front of the cabinet; do a few test runs; and, using your ears as the judge, adjust the mic's distance from the cabinet and the cab's distance from the couch as needed. The couch acts as a huge damper while the proximity of the amp isolates the source from the sound of the room to a large degree. You might also try draping a blanket across the tops of the couch and the cabinet to create a damping “ceiling,” which will further isolate the sound of the amp. If you don't have a couch, the side of a bed with pillows stuffed underneath may do the trick, as well.
THE BATHROOM BOUNCE
If you prefer some room coloration, recording in the bathroom can be an interesting and satisfying experiment. Because many bathrooms tend to be small and their surfaces are typically tile, glass, porcelain and mirrors, a natural, almost metallic-sounding reverb manifests in them. This can be captured to a medium or large degree depending upon your preference, and it can be particularly satisfying on resonant sources such as acoustic guitar, bowed instruments or didgeridoo, as well as sharp percussion such as claves, hand drums or triangles. For starters, remove all soft surfaces such as towels and throw rugs, and try recording close to the source in the dead center of the room. If the echo seems like overkill, replace the soft objects, or try draping a sheet on one wall at a time to dampen things a bit. Next, try moving the mic farther away from the source. You may find success recording ethereal, ghostly-sounding vocals in this way.
Another take on this is to position the source in the center of the room while moving the mic very close to the nearest wall. The mic can capture some of the reflected sound immediately after it bounces off the wall. If you really like the metallic sheen of the bathroom, try setting up in the shower or bathtub with the shower door or curtain closed. Again, experiment with different distances and microphone positions — you might just find the sweet spot that you're looking for with the mic placed at ankle level.
ISO INGENUITY
If all of this sounds cool but you're wondering why, if every professional recording studio seems to have a fully padded isolation booth, you don't need an iso room, there are a few inexpensive ways of approximating one at home. The first, if you're lucky enough to have one, is free: a walk-in closet. All you really need is a mic on a stand and thick, porous clothes, such as sweaters, hanging a few layers deep on either side of the vocalist or instrument. Like with any other room, you can further sonically treat the closet by adding a throw rug and hanging extra clothes or drapery on nails inside the door and on the back wall. Another approach is to get a few Asian-style shoji (those typical three-section fold-out screens); form them into a small square, draping towels down the inner sides and over the top; and record whatever you please inside. Although this might not appear high-tech, it can get the job done quite well, especially if you take good care when draping the clothes and use thick, porous materials such as fleece or wool.
Much more could be said about achieving, in your home studio, the kind of recordings you hear in your head. But suffice it to say, the same creative energy that goes into your music in the first place is the essential ingredient. If you frequent any pro studios and look around or even read some books or articles about sound treatment, you can use some good old common sense to figure out ways to create excellent tracking environments at home.
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