THE BARE BONES HOME STUDIO (need advice on getting better quality)

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Permalink Reply by John Taylor on June 28, 2009 at 11:32am

Here's an experiment.....Try putting the car in the garage......then record your voice track inside the car's interior. The acoustics of car interiors are really excellent. Lots of curves, no perpendicular angles, you may be surprised by the results.
Plus the car will shield you from annoying outside noise. Joe Cipriano had a video up last year when he was on vacation, doing national Fox TV promos from the back seat of a rental car. I have done spots from car interiors on more than a dozen occasions while on the road to good effect. Give it a try.

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Permalink Reply by Ed Sylvain on June 30, 2009 at 11:44am

I have actually recorded in my car before. The audio was good. But I guess I figured I'd make use of this garage, since we don't park the vehicles in here.
I will be adding some acoustic padding to my little corner, hopefully that will work. And I will be visiting my car studio once again.
Thanks JT!

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Permalink Reply by Jon Bailey on January 28, 2010 at 1:08am

i've done the same thing. recording from a well insulated vehicle in a quiet place is really good. have you thought about investing in a soundproof booth? you can buy one and assemble it yourself from around $2800-$13000 from whisperroom.com.

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Permalink Reply by Russ Riba on July 14, 2009 at 11:59am

I have a home studio in which I used a case of square ceiling tiles from Home Depot... wrapped them in fabric from Wal-Mart (to match the room decor) and nailed them to the walls. It is a very cost effective way to deaden a room. At my office, I got three dollar curtain rods from Ikea and draped each wall with ceiling to floor curtains... works perfectly.

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Permalink Reply by Johnny Heller on January 17, 2010 at 7:49pm

Make or buy some gobos - basically thin wood covered with acoustic foam or "sorbers" or soundproofing material which you can easily google and buy on-line or at a store near you.

Picture rectangular boards or "cushions" that are freestanding or easily propped up that extend from the floor to whatever height covers your recording set up. Velcro strips (avail at home depot or a haberdasher) can be affixed to the gobos so they fit together preventing sound leakage. It's kind of like building a tent out of couch cushions when you were a kid but instead of cushions you use acoustic materials. If you build it hight enough you can put a sound proof blanket over the top (or another gobo). Also put some rugs or blankets on the floor. Any or all of this can really help your sound.

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Permalink Reply by Marty Daniels on July 19, 2010 at 2:59pm

In my garage I walled off a corner and put my studio inside. I have hung fabric like baffles on the ceiling and I covered the walls and floor with carpet samples I got for free from a carpet store a couple blocks away and the room sounds pretty darn great. My equipment is not TOP OF THE LINE and some may laugh at my studio but for under a hundred dollars I have a pretty tight little room.

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Permalink Reply by Duane SoundEngineer Richard on July 21, 2010 at 12:00pm

The first thing to do is trap all of your corners. this will kill the 80% of the unwanted reverb.
you can build a basic trap by using wood and carpet.Make a basic frame and staple the carpet around the frame.
then place the frames in the corner.


and equipment wise:
All you'll need is a used mac book pro, a pro tools mbox, and a akg c214 and akg headphones (K-series) headphones.

You can buy used macs from www.macofalltrades.com

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Permalink Reply by Douglas K on July 24, 2010 at 7:24pm

Some really good ideas here (i think).

Perhaps photos would be quite helpful.

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