I am designing a vocal booth and one of the people working on it with me wants the room as close to totally dead as possible, with the thought that we can always add on reverb and such later, but we can never remove the artifacts that are created if we DON'T dampen the sound... but I'm wondering, is there any downside to recording this way? Do you lose something by removing any aliveness to the booth?
Thanks for any thoughts....
Any downside to creating a totally dead room?
Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 9026.
Here are my thoughts and experiances.
For vocals and spoken word a dead booth works fine as long as it is not so absorbant as to be anechoic.
For recording percussion and highly transient sounds that have no body ( claps / snaps / shakers) a dead booth makes them sound really small and nonexistant.
A small room needs to be treated at least enough to not add "that small room sound" to a vocal. It is impossible to edit out of a sound.
I agree with that. But it also depends on the size of the booth. Small room ambience is always bad ambience, and risks adding the same bad coloration to all of the tracks recorded there. Good room ambience is better than any artificial reverb, but I don't think you have to worry about that. :) --Ethanone of the people working on it with me wants the room as close to totally dead as possible, with the thought that we can always add on reverb and such later
Always? :twisted:
I would think it would be rear you would ever want the sound of a tiny room and if you did I would just use a tiny bathroom or some other hallway in the studio. GlennAlways? :twisted:
Siobhan,
In general, I agree with the "deader is better" approach when it comes to vocal booths. But, I also think it depends on the size of the booth. A closet-sized booth generally doesn't have a desirable sound. But that's not to say there aren't applications where an artist or producer would want it. Is it better to add that back electronically, or to capture the sound of the real booth? Probably a matter of preference. I was listening to a Lemonheads track this morning - "Favorite T" from Come on feel the Lemonheads - that sounded like it was recorded in a largely untreated small booth or room. It seemed appropriate to me - the "vibe" was that of capturing a spontaneous moment. Whether that was actually the case, or whether the ambience was added back to give the impression of spontaneity, is something I don't know for certain.
I have produced recordings of artists in various sized booths with ample treatment where ambience was added back. I have also produced recordings of artists in untreated spaces - large and small - where the ambience of the space was captured for artistic effect.
My main point is that, while a small booth will generally receive heavy absorptive treatment, there are applications where this may not be desirable. Thus, small room ambience "always" being bad is something with which I cannot agree.
I wish I had a good picture of my booth .
But it is small (5 by 7 with 9 ft ceilings) and on the ceiling and 2 adjacent walls I treated it with permanent 2' mineral wool panels.
but on the other walls I built panels with rear hooks that hang on a piece of conduit mounted o the wall where they lift easily off if I want to change the room sound.
It was actually less effort to hang them that way!
I did it for the rest of the rooms all the way around the rooms!
I had to hang nearly (50) 2 ft by 6 ft panels that way.
Tom
LOL, once when I said that, Fletcher came back with "Led Zepelin recorded the drums for [some song] in a small stone room and it sounded great." Okay, sure, but 1) that small room was probably not 5 by 7 by 9 feet, and 2) you don't want that special effect on everything you ever record. --EthanAlways? :twisted:
The story Philip Newell likes to tell in some of his books is about how the drum tracks for Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" were recorded by accident. The microphones were setup in the drum room around one kit, but John Bonham wanted to try a different kit, which the tech had set up in the hallway outside the drum room. Mr. Bonham was warming up on the new kit in the hallway and tape just happened to be rolling. It was kismet as much as it was good artist/producer work. That sound and "technique" certainly wouldn't work for any song, but it sure worked for that song. :) I'm probably butchering the story - I think it's told in full in Newell's Recording Spaces.
Another "philosophy" one could use to determine treatment for a small booth has nothing to do with acoustics and everything to do with how much space is actually available. If you one have the one small booth to work with, then making it permanently dead may not be wise. Hanging panels or otherwise removable treatments would probably be the best idea.
On the other hand, if you have a certain number of more or less similarly sized booths, there's no harm in making one or more of them dead, leaving one or more of them more live. Granted, that sort of setup is more infrequent, but I have had the luxury of working with a few folks who had this size of facility. It's a luxury, to be sure, but even having just two "booths" - one dead and one not dead - could work out great.
In all likelihood it was done in a totally dead room and the ambience was added electronically. That's usually the way things are done in recording studios. :P --Ethan"Favorite T" from Come on feel the Lemonheads - that sounded like it was recorded in a largely untreated small booth or room.
:lol: Well... Having heard how much crack Evan Dando was allegedly on when he made that record, it really could go either way... Heck, it probably wasn't even in a studio. :shock:In all likelihood it was done in a totally dead room and the ambience was added electronically. That's usually the way things are done in recording studios. :P --Ethan"Favorite T" from Come on feel the Lemonheads - that sounded like it was recorded in a largely untreated small booth or room.
I heard it was done with all smoke and mirrow, oh and a drum machine. :D :DThe story Philip Newell likes to tell in some of his books is about how the drum tracks for Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" were recorded by accident. The microphones were setup in the drum room around one kit, but John Bonham wanted to try a different kit, which the tech had set up in the hallway outside the drum room. Mr. Bonham was warming up on the new kit in the hallway and tape just happened to be rolling. It was kismet as much as it was good artist/producer work. That sound and "technique" certainly wouldn't work for any song, but it sure worked for that song. :) I'm probably butchering the story - I think it's told in full in Newell's Recording Spaces. great.