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A space to record vocals?
Hi Everyone,
So last year, I moved to an apartment. If you recall, a lot of the tracks I released had me singing on them. However, the apartment I moved to doesn't allow singing (it actually specifies so in the lease agreement). I used to record my vocals in my bedroom back at the condo.
I know I could rent studio time and have my vocals professionally recorded, which at $60/hour with a 2-hour minimum is pretty affordable. Cost is of no concern but rather my usual method is to just record one song at a time, and recording the vocals for one song doesn't take me more than 30 minutes.
So say I want to just wing it on my own. What would you recommend as my best option for a quick and easy recording space? Would my car work as a "quick and easy space"? If that would work, where would be the best place to park it so I don't get strange stares while singing into my iPhone? 😂 Or are there other options? Or is simply writing more songs and singing all of them in one go at a professional studio within 2 hours the best option I should use?
Comments
Car would be very reflective with all the glass, probably end up sounding pretty boxy. Does your apartment have a shared recreation room you can rent? I've had a few friends do that for short recording sessions when they didn't want to bother the neighbors.
Yolo…stares and all…I’m sure the people staring have seen things far more scandalous.
…Or a nearby park
…or change to a breathy whisper style vocal genre
Not even in the shower? Barbaric.
They do have rooms available. I'll have to write management to see what can be done.
LOL! Nearby park might work, especially during winter.
Right, OMG! I used to be a notorious shower singer. 🤣
I’d just go for the car and get some acoustic foam if you’re worried about boxiness
I'll look into acoustic foam them! Thanks for the tip. 🙂
Late in car is not a bad option, if car has cloth covers it will absorb some reflection
Best would be to do some 3 takes on different days in different spots and check the results and watch out for those comb filtered resonances ( which are difficult to remove )
If you get those nasties, I guess it ends there , most likely in a sedan
The challenge however is that , there’s no way AC can be on and also due to the UN-optimum position, high scales in chest voice is limited
Songs with range from B (guitar 5 string ) to E (1 string ) are very doable
Don’t get foam - get earthwool. It’s made from recycled bottles and is non-itchy. It will make a huge difference to any space by absorbing heaps of frequencies (not really low end but great for vocals). Then you’ll have a controlled space. Put it behind you mainly to reduce ambient sound going into the mic.
I recently made a bunch of panels using it and it’s amazing.
If you have any universities nearby, check with the music dept to see if they're trying to get rid of some isolation booths. Or build or buy a vocal booth.
If you're building a full isolation booth, don't forget to have it 'float' above your apartment's floor. Same goes for guitar amp cabinet isolation booths. It's not so much the sound volume, but the vibrations, which floors and walls amplify and reflect.
In your car ?
"I bet they allow guns though" was my gut reaction to this (along with a mental image of that famous banned kinder egg ad), which I do realise isn't helping. 🤷 I have no creative ideas, so I'm just here to say I hope you'll find a way, because I like your songs and I hope there'll be more of them coming.
I love this @qryss. Can you offer any guidance on getting started on this project?
Sure! I have all the tools and so on already so it does make this kind of project easier.
I bought 90x20mm pine and routed a small bevel on one side just to make the panels look nicer.
Then I cut the pieces to size and used pocket holes (using the Kreg jig) to join the pieces. This is way easier than doing mitres and is really strong. I used PVA glue as well, though.
Then I bought calico and fixed it tightly around the frames using a staple gun.
I got a pack of earthwool from here but there must be other suppliers of similar products around the world. They batts are made from recycled glass and are very much non-itchy. I’ve used rockwool before and that is horrible to work with. I went for the maximum sound absorption capacity: 27kg per cubic metre.
The batts fit snugly into the frames and don’t need any further fixing. You can cut them easily with a craft knife where needed.
I fixed the panels to the wall using short boards screwed into plugs in the brick wall on which I made a little ‘shelf’ that slides inside the edge of the frame. I tried to get cute with little dowels and holes so the panels could be easily lifted off again but this didn’t work out so well (hard to align properly) so some of them are fixed to the little shelves with velcro tape. The point is though - you can’t see how they are fixed to the wall once they are up - but I an easily take them down when I move house. That makes me happy.
Total cost around AU$250.
This photo shows the wooden frame (but it’s for a panel mounted on thick dowels that goes behind the monitor).
And this shows the bevel a bit better.
I came here with suggestions but wasn't prepared for the inhumanity of today's landlords. This one is out of my league.
Get towels or blankets and wind the windows down a tiny bit, insert the towel or blanket, and wind the window up to hold it in place. Don't do this technique when the car is in motion
I totally did this!.😂 I made this record in my room and there’s no shouting or high vocals, every vocal is neighbor-friendly.
In my case there’s no rules against singing (wow, that’s harsh) but I’m extremely and stupidly shy and self-aware about neighbors hearing me.
Joking aside, it’s not a bad exercise!. It pushes you to explore new registries and ways of singing, you actually learn stuff. In the record I mention above I also ditched the electric guitar in favor of acoustic and “real drum” samples for machines, because they reflected the “bedroom” situation and singing style better, more cohesive. If you’re doing something quietly in your bedroom, maybe you shouldn’t try to make it sound like stadium rock, make it sound like someone singing from their bedroom.
"I bet they allow guns though" … I laughed at first, but my stomach didn’t think it was funny. My stomach is smarter than me and saw some feasible reality behind the comment.
I wish they also included a “no arguing” clause, that’d be handy. No farting?. Man, is it even legal to stop someone from singing?. I mean as long as you don’t go over the legal decibel stuff, depending on the hours…
And very good it is too
I added to my Spotify collection some time ago but this post prompted me to listen back to it again, it's a great album 👍
How weird. Are you allowed to play records of singing? A ccappella tracks?
The car with some sheets or any other type of foam or wool as recommended can help. Just make sure the temperature is ok.
I recall one day at my previous job that we needed some narration and had no studio available and the acoustics sucked.
I went to my car to record.
It was basically a sweat lodge. Came out allucinating and sweating like a piece of bacon in the desert.
Move apartments
Thank u Richard! 🙏
In the car with Brusfri.
Not an easiest solution, but the most rational. I mean not buying it, but making it yourself with materials from nearest building store and some sound blankets. Relatives are happy, neighbors are happy and, most important, you are happy, because there will be no unwanted reverberations in your recordings.
I think I’ll try to reproduce this thing in 2022
The only solution that will work in the sense of reducing enough loudness to hide vocals from neighbours is the room in room construction.
In fact you may score such a thing from a music school. A friend got one for about a quarter of the original price, enough soace for 2 persons inside (he‘s a professional teacher).
The sound is as good as can be in such an environment, but it‘s an (acoustically) inconvenient experience.
Air condition is a real problem... that room is closed... in the true sense of the word.
That unit had a 5fig suggested retail price and weighs about 3 tons. Physically, not literally...
To improve room response like in the video above you can built moveable panels (with minimal effort) from either acoustic foam (Basotect is a brand, expensive), or use open pore PU material.
I have the latter in form of 2 foldable matresses (3 sections each), sold as guest/reserve beds in the 30€ range, positioned strategically in the room.
I‘m not 100% sure about the material, but they suck so much noise out of the room that they can be considered acoustically active in the desired sense. Not dull or muddy at all.
Can a space be too dead? Like sitting underneath thick blankets with a light and mic? I know I've done that but can't recall the results.
I think the car would be the easiest choice. Surely a few blankets could be rigged up to seal out the stares and alter the acoustics.
Apartment living is a tough one to get around noise restrictions. I’m almost always wearing headphones and if I need to listen to mixes at full volume, I’ll usually test in the car. Recording vocals is a no-go for me these days.
Yeah, that's the problem. And a lot of these solutions are amazing, but I forgot to mention that my apartment is a studio efficiency. meaning one decent-sized room with a bathroom attached. It's comfortable.
But anyways, I think I'll simply do the car solution for now since it's colder out. Perhaps I'll hire vocalists here and there via Fiverr or some other site. Or I can simply speak a couple of sentences while in the apartment since low talking is not uncommon during the day.