Isolating a Mic at Home?

I wanna start recording vocals at home but since I live in an apartment with thin walls and lightweight doors, outside noise is a problem. I can turn down the gain on the preamp until there's no noise but then I'm forced to scream into the mic and that sounds just as bad. Have any of you ever built some sort of box that encloses just the mic? Realistically I think the only solution is to take it to a vocal booth but I wanted to check here first and see what you have done.

put tha mic in tha closet.

Also learn about noise reduction, recording a noiseprint and reducing the noiseprint inside your vocal wave.

Lampdog wrote:Also learn about noise reduction, recording a noiseprint and reducing the noiseprint inside your vocal wave.

Care to expand on this? I just bought my 1st mic haven't really used it yet. I'm not even a vocalist, but this is stuff I'm going to be learning now.

what lampdog suggested makes sense. i'll have to read up but i believe it has something to do with recording the noise by itself and turning it out of phase 180 so that it cancels out the noise in the vocal track. correct me if im wrong. i guess i can also try to eq the noise out but that might compromise the vocals as well.

recording in the closet wont work. it'll still pick up my upstairs neighbor watching telemundo.

Aerodynamics wrote:what lampdog suggested makes sense. i'll have to read up but i believe it has something to do with recording the noise by itself and turning it out of phase 180 so that it cancels out the noise in the vocal track. correct me if im wrong. i guess i can also try to eq the noise out but that might compromise the vocals as well.

recording in the closet wont work. it'll still pick up my upstairs neighbor watching telemundo.

Every room is different, the good old "packing quilts" technique works well, it sort of condenses external noise.

I have the same prob. (apartment dwelling). My solution was recording in my little @ss bathroom during hours when nobody is in the surrounding apartments or during hours when there is no noise ordinance.

Find the quiet, happy little space within yourself, I mean your apartment.

Sorry, first I should have asked if your recording setup is somewhat mobile.

Anyway, good luck.

Aerodynamics wrote:what lampdog suggested makes sense. i'll have to read up but i believe it has something to do with recording the noise by itself and turning it out of phase 180 so that it cancels out the noise in the vocal track. correct me if im wrong. i guess i can also try to eq the noise out but that might compromise the vocals as well.

That's exactly right. Both can compromise the vocal quality as well but at least you can tweak the noise reduction to a level NOT compromising SO MUCH vocal quality. SF excels in this imho. (I'm a SF junkie if you guys haven't guessed by now). I also live in apartments, even when I close all my doors and windows I can still hear faint background noise so a while back (a few years) I started doing this and I've been doing it every since. You should still though quiet your area as much as you can though. there is a feature in SF that automatically captures a noiseprint for you w/ however many milliseconds/seconds you want. I usually record the atmostphere sounds in my room for 5 seconds and use that as a noiseprint for SF to work off of.

try turning the gain down for the recording process. record ya vocals then hit it with some compression. try turning the gain level up on the compressor (after vocals are recorded) and compress it the best you can until you can bareley hear any background noise. also dont forget about the quiet space (closets, corners, quilts whateva). i use to use this a long time ago when i had a sh!tty mic. what are u workin wit?

GRMM D wrote:i use to use this a long time ago when i had a sh!tty mic.

I STILL got my wack mic I bought at a Japanese 7-11 in 1995 and it still brings me joy. You'd never guess it was cheap though from the songs I make.

Yeah, yeah one day I'll get a real mic, I know, I know.

Lampdog wrote:

GRMM D wrote:i use to use this a long time ago when i had a sh!tty mic.

I STILL got my wack mic I bought at a Japanese 7-11 in 1995 and it still brings me joy. You'd never guess it was cheap though from the songs I make.

Yeah, yeah one day I'll get a real mic, I know, I know.

Now that's Gangsta. IMPROVISE......

Antares Mic Modeler helps me out alot with the vocals. I just plug it into my vocal tracks in Vegas and BAM, instant emulated/simulated expensive mic quality.

Lampdog wrote:Antares Mic Modeler helps me out alot with the vocals. I just plug it into my vocal tracks in Vegas and BAM, instant emulated/simulated expensive mic quality.

um hummm

Lampdog wrote:Antares Mic Modeler helps me out alot with the vocals. I just plug it into my vocal tracks in Vegas and BAM, instant emulated/simulated expensive mic quality.

thats good sh!t

Here's a cheap but incredible solution... plus it's portable... cop the clear plastic drum shields from... http://www.clearsonic.com/cspanel.html (3 panel) ... plus the extensions (angled ones) ... put them up caddy corner in the crib (in the corner of the room)... and drape moving blankets over them.... yeah there will be overhead space... due to the top not being covered... but you have headroom in your mix and you can still compress to your liking (plus the acoustics help)... the only thing you might wanna add is... or fix... is your channel strip... ie... your mic pre's etc...

hope this helps...