Recording Vocals

Ab$ynth

New member
Hi,

I'm fairly new to this music business and I have set up my mic in the closet thinking I would end up with a better sound. What is the general consensus on this? does it really matter? I do like the vibe of being in a dark closet.

Thank you
 
Where you place your mic only matters if you care about how many hours you want to spend cleaning a vocal with a ton of reflections and tweaking it to get it into the desired sonic space.

Ideally, for recording vocals (especially in hiphop/rap) most people want dead vocals. Meaning vocals with minimal reflections and a high signal to noise ratio. Dead vocals can be sculpted into anything you want in your DAW after recording. Some people like the sound of vocals in a live room and for some projects it is more appropriate.

But for a simple home recording, especially for vocals, the two things you want to avoid most are reflections and background noise (especially with condensers). Recording in a closet is good if there are a lot of clothes in it. If the walls are padded with soft material, even better. Hard surfaces reflect mid to high range frequencies best, while soft surfaces do not do so as well. If it is convenient to so do, then cover reflection points in your studio with stuff like some sort of spongy material. You can also isolate a mic using simple materials as done here: 15 Tips for Recording at Home | Blue Microphones | Blue Blog

Cover your windows with curtains and try to prevent as much leakage of noise from outside into your studio by covering any possible points of entry. One way I like to see where sound is seeping into my room is turning off the lights at night and turning the lights in my house on near my room. Where ever light comes in, sound can enter as well. Dealing with bass frequencies is a different story and I won't get into that right now.

If the closet sounds good then stick to it. Simply do some research on mic placement and a lot will pop up. I am currently watching a mini series about recording and so far its pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jedBTsdXQD0
 
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