Need a helping hand to make sure you do it right, first time? Got some good advice to pass on, so no-one makes the same mistakes you did? This is your forum.
A few comments in the last week or two as well as a personal issue of my own has got me thinking about this topic.
Many of of us are home based studio guys, i suppose we are sort of at the mercy of our environment we choose to record in. I know a lot of us take great strides to treat our rooms to be multipurpose tracking / mixing rooms, but it doesn't kill all the other outside noises. Do you all struggle with anything in your environment like air ducts, home heating cooling, PETS outside traffic etc.???!!
Do you try and work around all that stuff? How do you handle it? I have a few issues in my area that i can work around but before going into detail i am curious to know what everyone elses headaches are.
I don't worry about it with guitars and drums because of the volume. I admit to having to do additional takes because of unwanted noise, however. But vocals; I'm still trying to find a sweet spot in the house. Admittedly, I don't end doing a whole lot of recording at home. My space is a finished basement, boiler and hot water tank on one end and a clothes washer and dryer on the other. Oh, and 5 dogs not 20 feet away.
I work around it - I've posted the odd audio clip of some of what goes on around my apartment re. birds and bats... there are also dogs, doors, people generally, and planes and cars to deal with.
So for vocals it's not so bad as it's easy to comp together interrupted lines - acoustic guitar, not so simple. But I'm not doing much of that at the moment so it's OK.
vomitHatSteve wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2019 3:25 pm
A big part of my process is relying on loud signals and dynamic mics that reject quiet/distant noise pretty well.
Same as you. I play reasonably loud and sing really fucking loud all into dynamic mics.
It's not like I live in a city either. But even with the tumble drier on downstairs which is the room below my studio room I've never had noise.
[mention]Bill L[/mention] Dogs are currently my issues. And the furnace kicking in. I have been trying to track some acoustic stuff for like two weeks. (i've also been busy but i would say in total i have spent well over 8 hours trying to get two tracks of acoutic lol) I have sort of tamed and gotten some control over the furnace noise, i just crank the heat up for a half hour before i want to start tracking and then just pause the whole system while i am tracking.
I can't however get a happy medium for my dogs. I should say just one dog. he's a coonhound and man is he ever loud and obnoxious. He will wake out of a dead sleep and just bay at whatever he thinks he heard or was dreaming about. And it's fairly regular. I can throw him outside but he's now figured out when i am recording he knows what basement window to go to to start baying at to get my attention. He's dumb but also not dumb. So i really need to work around him and his bullshit. I love him to death but he's really eating into what already limited time i have to give to this hobby.
That sucks [mention]WhiskeyJack[/mention]
Looking at photos of your room, is the window where the Flogging Molly sign is positioned?
If so maybe you could install some hangers of some sort and use the sound panel hanging on your door to cover the window while tracking.
When you are tracking, use a mic that is directional, mic closely and pointing away from the window.
Just some thoughts. Good luck I know environment can make tracking a bitch sometimes. I remember early this fall it was the perfect day to record one of my acoustic videos in the back yard but I got out there and never realized how loud the damned bugs buzzed, even in the day time.
musicturtle wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2019 6:00 pm
That sucks @WhiskeyJack
Looking at photos of your room, is the window where the Flogging Molly sign is positioned?
If so maybe you could install some hangers of some sort and use the sound panel hanging on your door to cover the window while tracking.
When you are tracking, use a mic that is directional, mic closely and pointing away from the window.
Just some thoughts. Good luck I know environment can make tracking a bitch sometimes. I remember early this fall it was the perfect day to record one of my acoustic videos in the back yard but I got out there and never realized how loud the damned bugs buzzed, even in the day time.
These are all good thoughts MT. I have enough left over materials from making all that stuff i could probably build one that is cut to fit in the window slot?? I need another DIY project like i need a hole in the head but that would be a pretty ok fix. Might also keep this room a little warmer. These old basement inserts from the early 80's aren't the most efficient thermal devices.
