Tips On Recording In A Low-Cost Setting?

[AnotherLostKing]

Notes:

I currently have my PC set up in the main room of my house. I usually record after everyone is asleep.

I will be moving into our concrete basement soon.

 

Hardware:

My microphone is a Blue Snowball; I use a circular pop filter with it.

 

Concerns:

In the main room, the mic picks up a small bit of noise from the air vents and cars outside (but a noise filter usually helps).

In the basement, the mic will most likely pick up every floorboard creak from upstairs.

 

I was told the Blue Snowball is a great microphone for game commentaries, vocal recordings, etc.

But I understand it is nowhere near as good as a studio microphone.

 

Questions:

I am looking for low-cost or no-cost (i.e. household stuff) ways to improve my vocal recordings.

I want rich vocals with little to no background noise.

 

Bonus:

After I finish building my new PC, I will start investing more heavily into my musical passions.

Ignoring price-tags, what microphone would you recommend for a studio setting?

What is the best USB mic and non-USB mic?

Edited July 7, 2013 by AnotherLostKing

[AnotherLostKing]

I forgot to ask cheap ways to soundproof the inside/outside of a room to keep my sound in and other sounds out.

[AnotherLostKing]

Nobody?

[john]

A great vocal mic is the Rode NT 2, in fact any Rode is a good balance of quality vs price. One point is that most decent vocal mics need external (phantom) power. This external 48 volt supply is usually supplied by the mixing console. note, cheaper low end consoles may not do this.

I imagine another source of noise in the basement cold be air conditioning / heating system.

Other issues I can foresee would be standing frequency "hot" frequencies due to boxy nature of most basements, and issues with natural reverberation in a concrete environment. Both can be improved with relatively low cost acoustic treatments.

creaking floorboards can usually be reduced by fixing the worst offenders and using some form of sound damping . You are likely to encounter issues with water noise (toilets flushing, faucets running ) also water pipes knocking.

You will probably also find issues with electri spill so you will likely need some power supply conditioning and isolation for your gear. common causes are spill from poorly earthed electronic gear and power spikes (clicks) from light switches and timed heating / aircon switching on and off.

In all cased reducing environmental noise will improve quality. By careful use of materials you can also warm up or cool down the natural vocal tone.

Rig up a pop-blast screen too and avoid using the mic mufflers that reduce pop (the black foam mic sleaves).

Thee other aspect worth really considering is noise reduction regarding your voice leaking outside your studio to sleeping people! That wouldn't make you popular. So some effort will likely be needed to reduce sound spilll.

[john]

luckily you can do lots of this for little money though it will likely take a fair amount of effort.

One other common noise source... your computer, especially cooling fans and noisy hard disks. If it is a desktop you can buy low noise fans and "silent" bay enclosures.

All in all it may well be cheaper to create a vocal booth to record in, although you will still likely need some general acoustic treatment. A vocal booth will allow you to focus most effort and expense to a smaller area.

[Rudi]

I agree with John's recommendation of the Rode NT 2. I use one. It is vital though to use a BALANCED LINE cable/lead for a weak signals on a condenser mic. A regular shielded cable may still allow some 60Hz cycle hum inside. 

 

A balanced line works like a humbucking pickup (according to Karl Coryat author of 'Guerrilla Home Recording'). A Balanced Line cable carries 2 copies of the signal, so if any 60Hz hum escapes the ground, it is completely eliminated by the 'mirror-imaging' of the doubled signals which cancels it out.

 

I tried a regular cable in the past, and trying to drive the noise out drove me nuts.

 

Sound baffles: I bought 4 cheap double duvets to cover the walls and ceiling. I already have a carpeted floor. I ended using 2 only on 2 walls, because I found that all that sound absorbance a bit too sterile. So the ceiling and 2 walls are mostly hard surface. The point is, you need to try it and see how it sounds.

[AnotherLostKing]

So this is what I am taking from these replies:

 

Soundproof the walls of my room in the basement or create a booth to record in and soundproof that.

Get a Rode NT 2 microphone (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006ML3N0).

** What cables come with the NT 2? Can I plug it up to my computer and use it as a normal mic, or is there more I should do?

Remove sources of noise (my PC has a great power supply and is nearly silent).

 

Questions:

 

What is phantom power?

What is sound damping?

Would I be fine with just getting the mic and soundproofing my room (filters can do wonders)?

 

Sorry for sounding really inexperienced, but the truth is that I don't really have a history of recording vocals or outside instruments. I mainly produce music (DAW), not record it.

[john]

A Rode NT2 connects to an audio mixer. The output of the mixer then connects to your computer, the exact method depends on if it is a seperate mixer that connects to the audio line inputs of your sound card, or if it is a sound card with a Break Out Box (BOB) ie an external box that connects to your computer sound card (often via USB2 or firewire).

 

Phantom power is 48 volt power supplied by either:

 

• A special power supply
• By an audio mixing desk
• Your BOB (external audio inputs box that connects to your computer soundcard)

In all cases you need to check that the mixer/BOB can provide phantom power (it may or may not be called that).

 

Sound damping is any material that reduces or conditions sound mechanisms, in this case simply some material(s) that reduce the creaking of the floorboards. Different materials are better at reducing different frequencies of sound. You might find that other mechanical means can be used to reduce the creaks. Creaks come from movement, so reduce the movement you reduce the noise. Add in the damping to further reduce the amount of creak that spills into your studio space.

 

Better to never have the noise on your recording than to try and rely on a filter to strip out noise. I've seen way too many great takes ruined by noise. For example when you strip the noise some will be left, plus the character or color of the recording can be changed as signal you want to keep can also get stripped along with the noise.