Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Last week I was recording a song here at Epic Sounds that was just acoustic guitar and vocals. It felt a bit empty in parts and we had plenty of time to experiment so that’s what we did.
The perfect $1 shaker
First we looked for a shaker sound, not having a real “store bought’ shaker wasn’t an issue because my kitchen has a cupboard full of spices and other things to shake. My favorite shaker turned out to be sesame seeds in a plastic jar. I believe it came from the dollar store. Depending on what the song needs, try peppercorns, rice, sugar in plastic or glass jars.
I recorded the sesame seed shaker with an XY spaced stereo pair of AT 3035s with a pop filter in front (highly recommended). For processing I used BX solo with the width at 300%, a bit of EQ to take off the lows and very top end, then sent into some reverb. It was a great sound, but it didn’t make the final mix.
Cardboard percussion
Another thing we tried was a cardboard box hit with drum sticks. It was cool but needed a lot of processing to make it fit with the acoustic guitars and shaker so again it was scrapped to give us more time to focus on vocals. You should definitely try it, it costs nothing but a bit of your time.
Guitar case kick
And finally a sound that did make the final mix. We wanted a sort of deep drum sort of sound, but without a kick drum around or digging into the sample library we found the perfect thing. The acoustic guitar case! We laid out a thick blanket on the floor, turned the empty case upside down and tapped the top until we found the ideal spot (there is a ton of tonal variations on a guitar case believe it or not) and marked the spot to hit. To fake a soft mallet I wrapped the end of a drumstick with a guitar cleaning cloth and secured it with a twist tie. Recorded it in mono, did the typical kick drum EQ stuff and had a cool sound that worked really well for the final climax of the song.
Just do it
So the point I’m trying to make…try anything! Your favorite shaker of all time might already be in the spice rack, mine was. If not go down to the dollar store and try things out, guaranteed you’ll find something you can use.
Have a listen to what we accomplished in that afternoon.
Killer Green - Fly:
Download
Posted in DIY, Gear, My Sessions | 4 Comments »
Monday, July 20th, 2009
Today I went to IKEA and picked up a cool inexpensive laptop stand for a great price. I’ve been meaning to write an article about all the stuff IKEA makes that inadvertently is great for recording studios, well today is the day. Some of the stuff in the list is modified and some is just the way it is.
DAVE – Laptop stand
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00120818
You can of course use this as a laptop stand like I am now as I type this, but I think it would also be good for a drum machine, Monome, MicroKorg or other small lightweight electronics. I’ve bought sandwiches more expensive and less satisfying than this table. At this price there’s nothing to complain about except the surface is quite slick. If your laptop (like my MacBook Pro) or other device doesn’t have rubber feet it will slide around, or in the angled position it might slide right off the end! I’ve got some rubber drawer liner stuff that is indispensable (that means essential) for these situations.
(more…)
Posted in DIY, Gear | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Apartment buildings are not the ideal place to have a home studio, the main problem with them is the acoustics are terrible. My ’studio’ has painted concrete walls, huge windows across one side, and is a L shape. This results in a very uneven frequency response, and ridiculous flutter echo.
For not a lot of money I made a big improvement to this situation. Rigid fiberglass is the most cost effective way to acoustically treat a room. Foam only really makes a difference with mid and high frequencies, the panels I made are effective down to about 125 Hz.
The Womb
(as it is today)
(more…)
Posted in DIY, acoustics, tutorial | 10 Comments »
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
The other day I was browsing and I was quite surprised by the amount of audio related projects there were. Here are just a few of the cool ones I saw.
Check them out!
Posted in DIY, Gear, tutorial | No Comments »
Monday, February 18th, 2008
Problem: Your recording room is too large or not properly treated for vocals, you need some way of reducing the room sound before it hits the mic.
Solution: A device that helps to isolate the room from the mic, that’s much more sophisticated than making a fort out of blankets to record in.
There are several companies making room reflection reducing solutions, each with their own take on it.
1 -SE Electronics – Reflexion Filter. (List $399) The most well known out of the bunch. Expensive and heavy, but seems to work surprisingly well.
The Reflexion Filter is basically a portable device for recording live sound sources with reduced room ambience. It is an advanced composite wall which is positioned behind any microphone by means of a variable position stand clamp assembly which ships with the product. The main function is to help obtain a ‘dry’ vocal or instrument recording. This is especially useful in studios without proper acoustic treatment, but can also be used to help record takes in control rooms, where the performer also has to operate the recording device, or in rehearsal studios to reduce ambient noise.
2 – SM Pro Audio – The Mic Thing. ($319) Not quite as professional looking, but lighter and is adjustable. Available in Black or White.
The Mic Thing is a portable multi-purpose acoustic treatment panel suitable for minimizing room artifacts and improving separation during microphone recording sessions. Great for a range of applications including helping to control room ambience, minimizing spill from instrument amplifiers, or even creating temporary control rooms the Mic Thing is certainly one handy thing!
3 – RealTraps – Portable Vocal Booth. ($299) Lightweight and XL size sets this one apart from the rest. See site for a comparison with the Reflexion Filter.
Since the RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth is larger than competing products, it blocks unwanted sound and reduces room ambience much more effectively. As you sing or speak into the booth, it prevents your voice from getting out into the room in the first place. This is far more effective than trying to block room ambience and reflections after the fact.
4 – ModTrap. ($99 small $149 large) A newcomer to the market, they come in 2 sizes, and are the most affordable.
The most versatile acoustic panel in the world. ModTrap acts as an absorber to tame unwanted room reflections, and as a tool to shape your sound. What makes ModTrap so special, is that it fits directly on to your microphone stand, enabling you to place it where you need it most.
5 – DIY Vocal booth ($235) An example of what not to do, not only is it huge and bulky, it will likely increase reflections to the mic.
4 x 100 cm x 100 cm cheapest acustic foam = 10X4 + 10 (from germany) euros = 72 USD
8 x 200 cm x 50 cm wood panels = 8 x 8 euros = 93 USD
furnitures +/- = 16 + 2 + 30 (scratch) euros = 70 USD
so it’s 235 USD and 2/3 hours of “work” taking your time.
I think the both the RealTraps and ModTraps are an excellent value. They are large enough to work well for vocals or to improve isolation between instruments, they are lightweight and portable, and they are both USA made products.
Posted in DIY, Gear, acoustics | 2 Comments »
