Acoustic Room Treatment Questions Help?

[RockinB23]

Unfortunately I know a lot more about guitars and playing them than I do about recording. I am recording in a very small studio right now the room is 7' by 13' or so. I use a corner desk with my Apple IMAC Logic 9 Pro. I have a Presonus Firewire Audio interface with a couple MXL Mics 550 and 551. I think one large and one small diaphram. I also have a pop filter. I use the 2.1 Blue Sky EXO Studio Monitors.

I only use the mics to recorded vocals, acoustic guitar, and occationally upright acoustic bass. I'm curious if the sE Electronics Reflexion would be a good purchase for me or if it would be more benificial to treat the corner walls behind my computer desk. Has any one on here used this sE Electronics Reflexion device?? Is it worth the money?

I'm not too happy with my acoustic guitar recordings of late and I think I can get a lot better. If you want to have a listen the top song on here is one I recorded earlier in the week www.myspace.com/bobbyswanson it has two acoustic guitar tracks, 1 vocal track, electric bass guitar and drum loops.

I'm curious if I should upgrade my mics or just treat the room or do both. Also I've gone back and forth on using small diaphram vs. large on my acoustic guitar recordings.

Thanks for any help in advanced!

 

[Bix]

Acoustic treatment is often cited as the best thing you can do in a tracking / mixing room. Given that, check out the threads here for all the info you could ever want... http://www.gearslutz.com/board/studio-construction-acoustics/

Using the info available there I treated my room in the fall, 12x13 room with a dozen bass traps / absorbers. I had about $300 in the materials and built them myself, it's not too hard to do, just takes some time, and it made a significant difference to my rooom. To boil it down for you, you want to treat the corners, first reflection points, and put an absorber over your mixing position, called a cloud. While the mics you have could certainly be improved, the acoustic treatments will help both your tracking and mixing, and is one of the best investments you can make, although it's not as sexy as buying cool new gear! Anyway, good luck, and enjoy the link, you will learn a lot about what you need to do.

Bix

 

[RockinB23]

Thanks for the link I spent some time on that site. I was hoping to hear from anyone that has owned or used the sE Electronics Reflexion Filter either the small or large one.

 

[chrisgraff]

It does help, but it in my opinion you'd be better off treating the entire room.

 

[meterman]

I've read pretty mixed reviews on the Reflexion Filter thing, was looking at one myself a while back but decided against it. There was a thread on Gearslutz I think about how to make yourself a collapsible "vocal booth" using PVC pipe for the frame and heavy packing blankets that I think would work better for you and cost less.

 

[re-animator]

i remember watching an MTV cribs of some guy.... can't remember who but he was part of a major label group.... and he showed that they built a "vocal booth" by just using some mattresses.

 

[blueprint]

Plenty of infos here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

 

[ganttmann]

Also:

http://malcolm.bignoisybug.com/rsdp/

Malcolm Chisholm was an amazing guy. This stuff is worth wading through!

Plenty of infos here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php