# How do I find the best spot to record vocals in a room?



## acousticignorant (Oct 29, 2011)

Can anyone help me? What I can do to find the best spot to record vocals in a room. Is there anyway I can use REW and run the RTA to find the best spot? I'm sending my EMC8000 to be calibrated and was wondering if I could use that mic to help determine the best location to record when it returns. I was thinking maybe setting up the mic and have some pink or white noise played into the mic where the vocalist would be standing (and use an SPL meter to set the DB of noise):scratch:. Could I do that and use the RTA in REW to see changes in different locations of the mic? Any help would be great!


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## WooferHound (Dec 8, 2010)

I would record with the mic about 6 inches in front of the persons mouth
The microphone should be an equal distance from the Nose and Mouth
A dead room is best with as few reflective walls as possible
Try to prevent puffs of air from getting to the mic to prevent Popping P's
Adjust the tone controls to provide you with the Clearest and most Natural Sound


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## acousticignorant (Oct 29, 2011)

Yes I've read about keeping 6" from the mic to the mouth. I have 2 pop filters (a small one that came with the Blue Spark mic and a regular mesh pop filter). I have some acoustic panels up in the room(walls,ceiling and bass traps) I plan on recording in. My question is more about the mic placement with in a room. Is there a certain amount of feet from the walls you want to keep it from? Is it like with monitors how you shouldn't have them at equal distances from side/rear walls? How do I find the best spot where the "Room" won't color the vocals as much? I was thinking of playing white or pink noise 6" away from the mic in different locations while running RTA in REW to see if I can find the best spot that way. Any input?


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## WooferHound (Dec 8, 2010)

You seem to be interested in your sound reflecting off the walls and maybe causing it to sound like a vocalist in a bathroom. Running REW will not help, REW is a frequency analysis tool and will not help you an any way to determine how reflections will effect the sound.

The way I would record a vocal is in a totally Dead Room that has No Reflections or color to the sound, Then add effects electronically during MixDown.
Alternatively, you can use Reflections to your Advantage. Put your vocalist into a Space that has a good acoustic sound to it, This may be a Hallway or a Living Room or even something larger like an Auditorium or Gymnasium. Vary the distance between your Mic and the Vocalist until you get the right mix of Lyrics and the Room Acoustics. This method requires a bit of Trial And Error, plus you are locked into the effect during MixDown.


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## acousticignorant (Oct 29, 2011)

The mixing room which I plan to record in is about 75% covered with broadband absorper and there are bass traps in the corner. It defenitly dosen't sound like a vocalist is in the bathroom. So are you trying to tell me I need an anechoic chamber to record vocals in? I've been in some pro studios before and I don't think they had anechoic vocal booths. I agree its best to have a "dead room" and add reverb to the vocals after recording them.You said REW doesn't let you find out what the room is doing to the soundwaves? Are you sure? I have been reading the help files and I thought it was the Waterfall graph that did just that. Here's what it says in the help files signals and measurements." The SPL & Phase and Impulse graphs are the most useful for studying the transfer function we have captured, but there is another graph that gives us useful information about what the room is doing to the sounds we play in it. That graph is the Waterfall." Am I not reading this correctly? Is so please help me to understand this because what I get from the help files is that the Waterfall graph is what I would want to use. I've been reading the help files allot lately because I'm not fully aware of what REW can do for me. Well it looks like I'm going to be doing a bunch of trials of mic locations not matter what. I was just hoping someone had a good starting point for me to go by. Thanks for your help anyways WooferHound. Peace!


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## acousticignorant (Oct 29, 2011)

I was just on looking up this portable vocal booth where they showed graphs on how their vocal booth helped "deaden" the sound around the mic. Please take a look at these graphs on http://www.realtraps.com/p_pvb.htm near the bottom of the webpage . I was wondering how I could come out with my own graph like that to see where the best spot to put the mic would be. Any Ideas? Run white or pink noise or just a basic sweep measurement?


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## WooferHound (Dec 8, 2010)

Before it's all over, you are going to need to Liston to to the vocal and learn what to do to get "The Sound" that you are looking for. If you record the vocal the same way every time then it will All Sound The Same in the end and nothing you record will ever "Stand Out".

Take Chances, Turn the Knobs and push the Buttons, find out how to use the equipment and learn how to use your ears to make Anything sound good. If you are making music that you don't like then you are doing something wrong. Your ears won't lie to you, Listen to it, repeat as necessary . . .


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## acousticignorant (Oct 29, 2011)

I'm on point with you about our ears won't lie to us. I'm familiar with different techniques for processing vocals within a DAW (doubling with fx like deay, or using eq,compression, reverb, ect...). I just never looked into the placement of the microphone. 
Was I wrong about using the waterfall graph to see how the room effect the soundwaves? I'm new to using REW and don't know if I understood what I read in the help files correctly.


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## WooferHound (Dec 8, 2010)

The Waterfall graphs are a measure of the Natural Reverb in the room, or how the different frequencies decay over time. A perfect room would decay all the frequencies at the same rate, which on REW would look like a wedge or knife edge. in the real world we see a waterfall because different frequencies decay at different rates over time. The impossible task that you need to do is make that waterfall look as much like a wedge as possible, and in the shortest time.


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