Recording Vocals In Untreated Rooms? 

What is your vocal recording chain?

As someome who has recorded in untreated rooms for over a decade, I strongly recommend thick blankets & using old bed frames to hang them on. It can be dangerous if someone bumps into the bed frame lol but other than that you can buy portable clothes hanging racks(itll be bigger though & cost more than taking someone's old bed frame as free junk). The worst offender in most small rooms is the ceiling btw...so many unwanted reflection bounce off it more so than walls(often blocked by shelves etc) or the floor(usually carpeted) in most cases. So yeah you can get a real nice dry recording if you find a way to shield reflections from the ceiling. Next time you see a garage sale, buy all their blankets, wash them at a laundry mat, & store them where they can stay clean & ready for building your "vocal tents". Its kinda fun recording solo in a tent/fort lol.

Love that he actually teaches rather than just show off and say to spend a bunch on equipment. He has taken my mixes to another level. Thank you seriously.

I used to take a thick blanket, spread my arms and sing like a Halloween Phantom in my stupid concrete squary little room

Funny thing. Once I had to record vocals at somebody's house in an untreated room and I was so surprised when it turned out that these recorded vocals sounded really outstanding. It had some natural reverb, what pretty well suited to the record. So... Sometimes some experiments are good;)

When I listen to modern songs on the car radio for some reason I can almost tell they are in an enclosed space or vocal booth. I don't know if its the car sound environment but maybe too much dampening in the vocal booth makes it dry

My ex-girl friend grew up in Tehachapi, CA with Dwight Yokum. she said that he and his band packed a garage full of old mattresses to sound proof.

I once stacked boxes and covered those with blankets, and had the singer's back to that, and placed the null of the mic into the room. It came out great. Also, I mix in my "office" room that has a wall to wall bookshelf lined with books. That works well, too.

You’re the man Warren I love these little clips

A friend of mine used her long closet to record some vocals and they turned out really well! Plus you could check out all her clothes while singing.😅

Blankets, towels and carpets. The thicker the better. Just like as we were kids building pillow castles. 😂

You could use a Shure SM7B too, those things pick up hardly any room reflections and sound pretty darn good a lot of the time

More important than any of that... get close to the mic! Every time you half the distance to the mic you will get 4:1 (6dB) reduction in room reflections.

Boom stands and shipping blankets make great modular vocal booths. Done it a hundred times.

Excellent tips Warren! I used to use my walk-in closet for guitar cabs and vocals. Worked great! Cheers! 👍🏻

The 'surround blanket' trick is an oldie but a goldie. It works very, very well today. Costs nothing (appart from a few blankets/towels/duvets) and gives you a near pro-level result. Would be good if Warren could maybe do a little piece on this technique in the future, and how to transform the vocal capture into a great end result (reverb etc).

What I also appreciate, a part from your competence, is your honesty! Thank you very much.

Lots of good advice in these short clips. Thanks.

It’s amazing what can knock down sound. We had a room with a bookcase in it, and we moved the bookcase out and suddenly the room sounded like a concrete box.

I had a music stand with the lyrics and a wireless keyboard, the mic, a small lamp and a comforter over my head and equipment to record vocals. I later used a closet and stapled mattress pads over the walls and ceiling and created an amazing dead room.

We did this very thing just two weeks ago. Mic boom stands and some packing blankets to make a make-shift vocal booth. We even hung some white Christmas lights in there for some ambience. It actually worked much better than I anticipated. I'm very pleased with how our first vocal session turned out.

Thank you very much. You spend a lot of time explaining a lot of recording techniques and giving monitor reviews / comparisons. Very much appreciated.

Saw an episode of MTV Cribs, Lil John had mattresses up, to make a booth.

Wardrobe!

I’m guilty of using the couch method many times! Also found a lot of things in the couch I thought lost!

Great advice as always Warren! My room is treated but in the process of learning about my room, I have found that just like you said, using any combination of blankets cushions or anything of the like is often times significantly more effective than low or even mid tier acoustic treatment. You can have some pretty crazy looking home recording set ups that actually sound great in the end. If it works, it works!

made a whole load of mixes that have done really well with the bedsheets and wardrobe combo. our pop shield started as a pair of tights on a coathanger. iv now played at every major rave in the uk and done gigs abroad. seriously underrated not about your kit, it’s about the will to succeed 😎

I made a very affordable vocal booth with blankets and pillows and plywood from my local hardware store and it’s amazing! Would love to share! I also added some lights and a laser show on the ceiling 🎉

Wise man! I have been doing that since 1975!

Use a good dynamic instead of a condenser. Record in the closet with your back against the clothes. Those two things will get it done. FYI Deftones white pony album was an SM58 in the live room using speakers not headphones. So using the right mic is very important. I like my RE20 the best. If your recording live band in the same room. Youll have bleed on everything so mic the room as well if youre doing everything live 8n the room. Dont use a condenser. Nothing wrong with a dynamic for vocals. Its totally fine a lot of people really like an SM7 its also a good choice. I like the RE20 best though. Good question!

Also, use a dynamic mic, like an SM7b, rather than a condenser.

My friend always uses a sm7b, works really well.

Great, practical advice from Warren here. Do whatever works to control the echoes bouncing around. Also, you could try an isocube. Not used one in a completely untreated room, but it works great in mine. Also Sonible smart:EQ will help clean up a vocal recorded in a not ideal room.

Waves NS1 is perfect for an untreated room. It gates any un wanted noise, reflection, or room noise. You just have to find a balance and have a good pre amp/emulator to make up for gain. But my chain right now = Preamp>NS1

All reflection filters are NOT created equal. Get the SE “space” filter. It’s amazing and doesn’t add too much woof to the vocals. Most important place to treat is always the sound coming from the vocalists mouth. Which is the energy that will make reverberation. That’s why the shields work. Your face and head will diffuse and absorb some the opposite direction. Cardioid hears only close to the mic anyhow not 20 ft away. Hence, cardioid. So no worries there. The shields are wonderful. Any engineer that doesn’t understand why, simply doesn’t understand why. They’re great.

Awesome Tip

I used the blankets on instinct. It does work well

Or purposefully make the room more echoey for that classic reverb 🤣

I just book out my community hall when it matters. Untreated but amazing large room sound. Booths sound boxy because they are boxes😅

💯💯💯💯

thank you sir!

I’m doing the blanket thing. I have about two hanging up like curtains in my room.

Use a dynamic mic in the centre of the room. That's is other advice I've heard that seems to work well.

AT4050 LDC (set cardioid, no pad); Black Lion B173 or UAD 4-710d; into Presonus StudioLive Pro (full, recent); (following plugins are always approximate): Presonus’ own in-box parametric EQ as a “problem solver” (if needed); a multiband dynamic EQ just to tame errant “freq-peaks”; 2 comps, one high-ratio, high-threshold, one low-ratio, low-threshold; then a nice EQ like a Manley Massive Passive to sweeten it up. Other effects depend on the track. Sounds excessive in theory, but sounds great in the mix. None of these are used very heavily, if possible.

Yep... Blankets. Throw blankets. Even towels can work. I've even used styrofoam & that plastic-y type "foam" sometimes used for packing packages for shipping when I've had enough of it lying around. There are quite a few things that, while they might not be pretty, can work. Improvise & experiment

Is there a website where learning engineers can try a mix on various consoles just learning purposes and maybe building a mix template for live events ?

Yup, ..and use a dynamic microphone to pick up less room sound/reflextion, instead of a very sensitive condenser mic.

To be honest, I have a lot of shelves full of weird decor and stuff around, but no room treatment at all... I just use primarily dynamic mics. I do mostly rock, punk, blues, etc. so I don't know if it would work as well for a pop vocal, but I've still yet to get a studio vocal recording that I actually liked as well as the recordings I get in my untreated living room/studio.

Can we do this for drums? And correct chain before sending to the drum bus?

What about the Waves plugin that will remove the reverb in the room.

Upside down table, thick blanket, million dollars studio

In a pinch you can just stand in your closet. The hanging clothes make it pretty dry.

kaotica eyeball!

Waves dereverb seems pretty good in hotel rooms he he

I did one thing that actually worked great: I have this armoir filled with sheets and towels all folded. The person recording would be facing the open armoir. I have The fortune of having single size mattresses!! One mattress on each side as walls, and finally a few blankets on top for the "ceiling". Dry AF!!!

I’ve been using an sm7b into an 18i20 and using UAs new native plug ins it’s been playing in an untreated room but I want to expirement more. I grabbed some warm audio preamps and want to get a better mic something brighter but the room treatment is holding me back

Fenna try using a couch

I've recently discovered my refrigerator has great "room tone" for recording male vocals - unfortunately it's too noisy...

A good o pillow does the job for me in untreated rooms

I turned a big box on its side and stuffed two sleeping bags in it. Then I made a cave and stuck a mic in the back. I twisted it around until I found a dead spot, and there it was. They were cheap sleeping bags, if that counts for anything. I have had good luck with closets, too. (:

This may sound stupid but I recorded without any acoustic treatment in my room. I put a lot of work into this and I don’t know if any room killer plugins exist or I need to re-record it.

For starters we can use good dynamic microphones instead of using a condenser one for an untreated room.

just sit in the middle of the room with a towel over your head , make sure to cut out the clipping before you start your recording don't bump the mic, but sometimes a little verb is good, you always fix an audio clip even if its reverby, bathroom is reverby if that's what you like, a good size living room or room with carpet should be fine

purely untreated (as in, zero hope of treating it and you need the product RIGHT NOW) > record in your closet, or put a thick blanket over your head. Don’t move and don’t fuss about the heat Some effort > a carpet goes a long way, and hang up dense blankets in the room.

U87ai into A-Designs Pacifica; in the middle of a very big room, early reflections are not that early - for me it works well...

Get a massive lampshade and deck it out with pillow fluff

Brilliant Question. Just what we all need as Home Producers. Even doubts and concerns arise imagined or real I has cross vertical ceiling beams. I will work out a "Curtain System" Whats your view on the opposite approach like Crowded House did an album in a Victorian House using Floor boards big ceilings and the Bathroom. Tim Finn talked about it so..Im asking Insulate to Dead or use a Bathroom. And dont be in the Middle. And Nothing inbetween?

Heavy blankets and bookcases for absorption and diffusion. Or, don't use a condenser mic at all, use a dynamic mic instead - sm7b

It’s not rocket science guys …okay well maybe it is but the more furniture 🪑 you have in your room the better. I have foam mattress pads in the corner where my mic is. Then I have a bed loft close to that corner with a blanket on the end that creates a kind of booth like space. Then across from that corner I have a green screen on one wall, huge curtain drapes on one wall and a book shelf and a huge shoe rack on another wall so it’s virtually impossible for sound to bounce around and I get professional studio recordings on both my AKG 214 and Shure SM7B🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Closet, 😊

SM57

Also, if you REALLY want to or have to record vocals, maybe think of spending some money on buying or (even more economically) making yourself some acoustic panels, and read about where to hang them around your room, and look into using dynamic mics - having a dreadfully slap echo refelctive untreated roon but buying an expensive studio condenser mic and preamps etc because you think you have to or it looks cool is absurd. 🤷🏼‍♂️

A 57!

Use dynamic mics instead of condenser mics.

Don’t use the Kaotica eyeball at least for me and my room - it colored the sound wayyyy too much!

Or swt up your mic in your wardrobe;)

Bed Duvets with three Mike stands in a triangle shape ,

Closet!!! with all or most of the clothes still in it! Super cheap and super easy solution. Very, very dead sounding.

Just use a 58 simples

Don't do shields they make horrible comb filtering

Use a closet with clothes. A walk in closet is better. Costs you nothing if you already have it.🤔

why not pull a blanket over your head

I never use booths or anything close to one. I record vocals in a treated room right smack in the middle making sure to cover any glass or smooth reflective surfaces and take advantage of the whatever natural air and reverb there happens to be. It always comes out better than getting a signal in a dead space and having to add too much reverb in later.

I'm surprised you didn't say use a sm57 or sm7b they are not picking up as much of the room. Since i got my sm7b i record wherever whenever and usually i get pleasant result, but maybe that's just me!

It's funny people take out all the reverb with a soundproof booth only to add it back later with a plugin

A small room that is acoustically treated is really the way to do it for vocals. Closets don't work, and big rooms will give you problems too.

I honestly don’t get it. Jimmy Page wanted to capture “the air” between the mic and the instruments or Plant. Let’s have no room sound…. Then add a plugin later with a room sound. Then you add ten layered vocals, drench them all in effects and ketchup - I just don’t see how it matters. Am I nuts? 😅 👂 💩?! I’ve been recording for years and never treated anything. No one complained about the room. They just complained about my singing.

why do you never talk about using dynamic mics? best way to start is a cheap interface and second hand dynamic mic. no need for acoustic treatment, still great quality. plenty of pros that record with an sm58, even for studio recordings

idk what the obsession is with having the driest vocal possible. i always put up room mics no natter what room it is and it sounds a lot more natural. you dont listen to someone speaking to you with your ear right up to their mouth. you hear their voice and you hear the sound of that voice in the room. so why would we record vocals in such an unnatural way

Best advice I ever got on this topic is record in your closet. The clothes hanging up are an excellent sound absorbing barrier