Studio Booth making boxy vocals

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I was tracking a poet the other day and She was reciting poetry (obviously) but there was no music behind it, just her voice. As I listened it sounded really boxy. we have a professional sound booth and a majove mic inside it, with a headphone amp.

I never noticed it before probably because there is for the majority music behind the vocals. There are two large sheets or auralex foam on the left wall and the front wall. The mic is facing the front wall, so the artist back is to the door and the right wall is bare.

Any suggestions as to why it sounds like this now or tips to fix it to a degree. (I didnt build the booth, its school property with additional foam)
 
So is it a real pro booth or just a rectangle (walls make four right angles in the room) with some treatment?

If the the former then get the acousticians in (school should want this fixed)

If the latter, and from the description it is, then not much short of making up some baffles that can change the wall angles slightly - you're not going to be able to do much if you can't change the structure itself.
 
its a four walled booth. I forget the company that made it, Whisper room is the company. Theres the booth and then the control room directly in front of it. The walls in there are padded as well. But there a thicker type of soundproof material.

So if you were looking Left to right its......C24/Monitors/etc......space..............Booth. No we cant change the structure, i was def. going to try out some new arrangements with that foam just to try and get some kind of different sound.
 
Could you show us a sample of the vocal so I can know what you mean by 'boxy'. Different things sound different to everyone.
 
Record the vocals in a large room and place gobos to control reflections .

The booth will never sound good IMHO , whilst some reflections can be tamed , there's always enough to cause comb filtering .
 
Foggy said:
Record the vocals in a large room and place gobos to control reflections .

The booth will never sound good IMHO , whilst some reflections can be tamed , there's always enough to cause comb filtering .
Click to expand...

What are Gobos? unable to look up at work. We simply dont have access to a larger room. unless we took the mic out the booth and recorded directly in the control room.
 
Gotcha. When you say boxey I think of a "dead sound". The best way to avoid that is to have a setup with enough space. Honestly, I think too many people record in too small places and just stuff it with pads and foam, bc thats what they think is going to yield a good sound. Based on my research, the more space you have in the booth, the better... hopefully it's 6' x 6' or more. If not... that may be contributing to that dead sound.

I personally wasn't able to get a 6' x 6' booth to fit in my space, but i found a decent way to counteract it, and it's yielding some good results. If you want a good sound.. you ultimately need to make sure your booth isn't soaking up too much sound. Some of the sound HAS to be reflected back into the booth. Especially the highs. I think foam does a terrible job of reflecting/bouncing back the highs. It's great for controlling the lows and mids though.

In my personal booth, I went to home depot and somebody recommended to me this pink plastic-type foam substance lining. I can't remember exactly what it's called, but i'll try to find a roll of it when I get to my lab this weekend. My booth is 4.5' x 4.5', double walled**, garbage bag plastic lining to help make it airtight as possible, old foam that you find under the carpet lined inside it, and the special pink reflection plastic on the two walls behind the mic. It's a ghetto marvel lol. Not the best materials of course, but i researched sound and applied the theories the best way i could implement them. Very satisfied with my sound. It has a natural "life" to it. I actually record poets as well... so I know exactly what you're talking about.

So yeah.. if you can find some plastic/foam reflection substances... that may help keep the life in the vocal capture. Hopefully that will counteract your "boxey"ness though... if you meant a "dead" sound.


** PS.. a double walled booth is so important. I don't know how good you can get the sound to be without it being double walled. You need at least 3-4" of space between the walls to keep sounds from traveling through too freely. Hopefully the company double walled it for you.

---------- Post added at 12:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 PM ----------
Trill The Beatmaker said:
unless we took the mic out the booth and recorded directly in the control room.
Click to expand...

Honestly that might be your best bet, depending on the size of the control room. Just make sure no computers are running, nobody's chewing gum, nobody's walking by... etc lol. If you have people well behaved in the control room... i'd try that before trying to adjust the reflections.
 
@Cphoenix a ghetto contraption. lol Thanks for the tips. I understand what you mean though, unfortunantely schools dont truely understand everything thats properly needed. This booth cost a lot already so they may say "why should we buy another that LOOKS the same?!" lol As far as foam and stuff, it was already placed there, ill try to take it down tonight and see if that does anything. Im not looking for a DEAD sound, but that boxyness was what caught me offgaurd. it was like i could literally hear a box around her voice. As far as double walling....hmmm unless they were thin walls then i dont know. its just a big box.

I would try to track in the open space because the comp. and monitors arent going to reach the booth since there connected to the C24. and the cords arent as extended. But ill def. try to see how it sounds recording in the open, just have to refrain to clicking on the mouse and breathing. lol

---------- Post added at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 PM ----------

@Foggy those were nice, we have a few spaced out in studio B. And I think our walls in Studio A are covered with a thinner version, if not the same size, with that product.
 
Foggy said:
What about putting the computer and monitors inside the booth , then moving the singer outside into the big room (with gobos)?

Might sound crazy , but others have a similar approach !
Michael Jackson recording We Are The World in the Studio. - YouTube
Click to expand...

The prob. with that is we would have to write a proposal to the school and ask them to buy those materials and why. Its not the best enviornment but its suitable and gets the job done. I know for a fact the computer wont extend all the way into the booth and the monitors can always have longer cables.

You think setting up a gate would work to a degree?
 
A "boxy" sound tends to fall between 400Hz and 600Hz, you could try killing it by EQing it out (sweep between the frequency range till to get it or mess about with some wall, floor and ceiling materials. Try refering to an absorbtion coefficiency chart and see how it relates to your situation....
www . phy.davidson.edu/fachome/dmb/py115/ReverbCalc.html
 
RammAudio said:
A "boxy" sound tends to fall between 400Hz and 600Hz, you could try killing it by EQing it out (sweep between the frequency range till to get it or mess about with some wall, floor and ceiling materials. Try refering to an absorbtion coefficiency chart and see how it relates to your situation....
www . phy.davidson.edu/fachome/dmb/py115/ReverbCalc.html
Click to expand...
Alright thanks! Will try that out as well. That chart was....dope! Dont understand those equations, but the reading was nice. lol
 
My suggestion is to perform the following tests and note the sound in difference:
#1 change the microphone angle (slightly). ...if that solves your problem stop here, your done.
#2 change the high & distance from the wall (behind the mic)
#3 Errect fome kind of foam/down/pillow/towel thing behind the mic. (staple, nail glue if needed).
#4 (only if none of the above don't improve things) Get some foam bloaks and place them around the box randomly you will need no more than 6 - stick one in a corner, a couple on walls one on the roof etc).
#5 examine the audio signal route ...if you still hear no change there might be something wrong with your mixer channel or microphone's diaphragm. ..or you may have a damaged cable (one time I had a mic that was acting strange - turned out I had used a cable that had been wired to that phase would reverse).

- If however the dead sound is referring to the 'dead air' sound or back ground noise, there are only 4 options
#1 minimize sound by turning things of if not in use while in record.
#2 Add further insulation to your booth (inside and out if needed
#3 Ensure the mixer, monitors, recording device etc are all being powered from the same source - in some cases one side of your house is getting electricity from a completely different side of the grid (i hope that translated well) than the opposite wall so when combine them by way of hooking things up to the to the mixer it causes noise to occur).
#4 Remove or turn off any strip lighting or high frequency equipment. Strip lighting is a bugger for creating noise, not just the audible buzz that will be recorded the other stuff that causes the speakers to buzz. grrrrr'
 
I don't think a gate will help .
Laying on reverb might "cover up" the negative effect .

What Ramm might be getting at , is the expression "boxy sound" tends to be apparent by a large proportion of the interacting energies occupying that band , and that absorption of those freqs tend to require a much denser material , not your usual vocal booth material .
For instance I did see a vocal booth project that had a suspended sheet of thin lead for this reason .

An interesting suggestion (Ramm's), I'm not sure that the problems exist in only that bandwidth .
Give it a try and see !
 
Here's the reverb calculation link

ReverbCalc

Looking at the catalog, I'm convinced that nobody bothers to determine if a product is suitable for the job - everything I have have ever read or discussed about studio design says do not use walls that are perpendicular to each other or walls that are parallel to each other or in fact any surface that is parallel or perpendicular except for the floor to walls, even floor to ceiling should be non parallel surfaces if it can be done.

Anyway, it sounds boxy because it is just that - a big box with some sound dampening material in it.

As for gobos, surprised to read that term in relation to baffles as they are the standard name for a lighting effect consisting of a cutout in a square or circular metal plate placed in front of a light source so that it create a chiaroscuro (dancing shadows) effect in theater lighting.
 
Alright thanks for the insight. I rearranged one of the sheets of auralex pads at first and tracked a couple takes. Adjusted the mic slightly, not to much though. Then after that, I took the mic out of the booth and recorded direct in the control room. It sounded MUCH better. I did this a few times. But i think i would only do this type of tracking of singers (which she was). Just to create a natural ambience. The problem is the size and of course how it was designed; box. The mic stand is one of the medium sized boom stands. Taking into account the size of it plus mic and pop filter, theres about 16-20ft of space until the wall is met.

But again, thanks for all your insight. Its greatly appreciated! #Trilltrax #WxW
 
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