New Real Traps product announcement:

[Zooey]

This is usually what you want for vocal recording.

 

Um, no.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Um, no.

 

 

I agree - and I disagree.

 

In general, I hold to the theory that the smaller a room is in terms of cubic volume, the drier / deader it should be - not just HF absorption, but broadband.

 

I also like natural room ambience, but only if it is a good sounding room, and only on certain instruments - not all over everything. If the room is dreadful, then I'd rather kill it and its effects and add my own ER and verbs via boxes and plug ins later than have to deal with too much of a bad thing printed on the tracks due to the poor acoustics of the room.

 

IMO, Ethan's correct if he's saying that most home studio rooms - small converted bedrooms, etc. - should be fairly dry. However, if you have the room to do it up right, I think a well balanced room with a bit of ambience is better than a dead dry room - you can always dry it up more with goboes and so forth as needed... When vocals are done in large commercial studios, it's not uncommon to build a vocal "booth" out of goboes and moving blankets to dry things up. In general, I do not want a ton of room tone / ambience on my lead vocal tracks, although I might want a bit with BGV's, depending on what we're after.

[Ethan Winer]

Phil,

 

 

Right. As I always say, "Small room ambience is always bad ambience."

 

--Ethan

[alphajerk]

i have a small room that sounds AMAZING, so much so i have contemplated sampling it for convoverbs.

 

but i agree with ethan, as i LOVE to record vox dry as they can be. doesnt matter what room really im in, i even make this glorious sounding room dry as can be around the mic [doesnt mean i dont set up a "wet" mic]