Where should my mic be when I'm recording at hom, and do I need something behind it?

B

Black Real

New member
I just finished writing all of the lyrics for an album and I want to start recording it and mixing it next. I don't have too much of a fancy set-up, to be honest, but I have friends who have gotten better results even though they only have a $100 microphone, leading me to believe that I need to step up my process from the start! I came across a problem early though... where should my microphone be in the room? I've seen videos of rappers like Wayne and Waka rapping in hotel rooms without what I thought was the standard of some kind of mattress or foam to keep the sounds from bouncing all over the place. I've seen Waka rap with a towel over the microphone (presumably serving as the mattress or foam in that case). For a home set-up, then... do I need to get it in the closet with a shit ton of cup holders? Do I need some mattresses? Where does it need to be?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Right now my tracks sound decent, as you can hear here: https://soundcloud.com/black-real, but they definitely need a little boost in my opionion in the mixing and mastering part of it. That's later though. Help me with the dead start!
 
Cup holders.... lol. Naw, bro. Hustle & Flow had so many people thinking they could just post up egg crates/cup holders to the walls. That won't work. It will just tame your highest of high frequencies and could make your room sound box-y depending on how much you put up. Just Google acoustic treatment... you can either build your own or buy some..... and what you're talking about behind a mic is a reflection filter... they range anywhere from 100 to 300 bucks generally. But a reflection filter still won't help as much as having an acoustically treated room will.
 
Mos def do some research on acoustic treatment. Learn how sound travels. For instance my control room is pretty small so I like put the microphone right on the middle of the room. I do use a SE filter from time to time but like city said it'll be all gravy if you record in a proper room! Good luck with your project!
 
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