General recording questions (vocals)

[crimsonhawk47]

So, if some of you have seen my studio redesign threads, I have a closet I sometimes record in that is close to 3 feet long and wide, and 7 feet tall, and padded to oblivion. I think I heard a couple producers cringe.

I don't have a well suited recording environment. I have the studio which is barely a mixing environment, and I have that closet. I use a Rode NT1A. So my question is, do I even want to try recording in that booth? Or is it better to have an environment with more room. The room itself isn't even big, I think when I measured it, it was around 10 feet by 13, with the booth taking up one of the corners.

If you were to recommend I record outside of the booth, there's another problem. My speakers are suspended from chains on the wall. I may need to occasionally have the speakers up so that people in the room can hear. But I don't want to have to move the mic away every time the speakers are on due to feedback. Nor do I want to turn them off every time I'm going to record.

So if I were to watch a tutorial that helps me set up my speaker output, will there still be feedback when I turn the speakers down on the DAW but they are still technically on?

 

[bandcoach]

I voiced my opinions abut this before in one or more of those threads you have alluded to - do not use it for vocals

stick your guita or bass amp in their and record that no problem

your solution is that you can drop the level sent to them because you should be using your control room output in your daw not your master output and you should invest in a headphone amp for singer/rapper to use

 

[crimsonhawk47]

Is there a reason a guitar amp is fine in there?

Also I'm not sure what you mean by using a control room output in your DAW. Do you mean to say I'm turning down the master fader to turn the speakers down?

I did mean to set up a bus for the output to the speaker, not the DAW. I Just don't know how to do that so I have to do some research. But will that fix feedback from the mic being too close/sensitive?

Also what would I need a headphone amp for?

OH yeah one more thing. How big is the detraction in the closet? My real concern is I'm living with people and if the downside to that closet is a reduced frequency I might have to take the trade-off, as I am a loud vocalist.

 

[bandcoach]

the guitar amp is usually going to be close mic'd so not a problem in terms of room impact on frequency response/resonance

3'x3' is really small for a vocal booth - I am more concerned about you being able to breathe if it is properly sealed

the resonances of that space (without taking into account any loss of width or depth due to foam on the walls) is

80.71Hz, 188.33Hz, 188.33Hz, 204.90Hz, 204.90Hz, 266.34Hz, 278.31Hz - most of it right in the meat of a baritone voice

as notes they are, 80.71 E[sub]1[/sub] + 36.7 cents, 188.33 F#[sub]2[/sub] + 30.3 cents, 204.9 Ab[sub]2[/sub] - 23.6 cents, 266.34 C[sub]3[/sub] + 30.3 cents, 278.31 C#[sub]3[/sub] + 6.8 cents

the doubled freqs are due to two dimensions being the same; this means that the resonance is more pronounced at those frequencies

headphone amp so that you can share the headphone feed with others in the room, whilst not having to have the speakers up

 

[crimsonhawk47]

Oh Well that's thoughtful. It's not sealed like that. I'm more concerned with frequency issues like thin vocals.

With regards to the headphone amp, wouldn't it be easier to set up a bus to speaker/headphone output? That way the performer could record in the room while the speakers are down and then I could turn them up later.