VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

DougVox · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 8:27 am Post subject:

But seriously, that's about as unfunny a bit as I've seen in a long time.

(Admittedly, the 'adoption' comment turned me off right away, but still...)
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paulstefano · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:12 am Post subject:

Mike Harrison · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:59 am Post subject:

That MAY yield somewhat better results, but do keep in mind that footsteps (especially when running) are impacts that create structural vibration. And, in a typical home, that vibration travels extremely easily from the floor on which the footsteps are impacting to the walls... and including everything – downward and, yes, even upward – connected to them. Low frequencies travel much further than high frequencies, especially through connected structures.

These structural vibrations are the reason professional studios often have floating floors and walls: they are either not connected to each other at all, or are isolated from each other using dampening devices made of rubber, etc.

But go ahead and make some test recordings upstairs to see. Maybe we'll all be pleasantly surprised.
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paulstefano · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 2:37 pm Post subject:

Here's some files.

The first 2 are 10 seconds of dry room tone from my basement, 1 with nobody moving, and the 2nd with the kids running around like crazy.

The next 2 are dry room tone from my 2nd floor office, same 2 scenarios.

In case anybody hasn't read everything in this thread, my main goal, one again is to see if dropping a pre-fab booth in either of these places, would be sufficient enough to filter out the "herd" rumbling. Thanks for looking

https://www.dropbox.com/s/123fgichqzwbi70/noise%20test.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h1hdj3ab256qn2e/the%20herd%20from%20downstairs.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qleapaip3lwgp91/noise%20test%20upstairs.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fqjpt3ziwjqoj3w/the%20herd%20upstairs.mp3?dl=0
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Mandy Nelson · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 6:25 pm Post subject:

SkinnyJohnny · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:19 am Post subject:

The kids aren't as loud when you're upstairs, but there's some "electrical" noise issue up there. I think you'll need to correct that before making a decision.
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:33 am Post subject:

What John said.

To me, that "electrical noise" sounded as though the recording was being made through a software plugin that was altering what the mic was picking up. Whatever it is, even without the footsteps, the noise present in that recording needs to be identified and considerably mitigated for any serious recordings.

The screen grab below (from Adobe Audition) shows – apart from frequent momentary spikes that reach well into the higher frequencies (although not very loud) – pretty much constant noise covering from 20 Hz to about 150 Hz, where it begins a slow ramp down, finally ending as high as 2 kHz. From about 50 Hz to that point is well within the range of the human voice, so attempts to filter the noise out will also affect the sound of your voice.

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paulstefano · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:47 am Post subject:

Thanks for the replies. I don't know where that electronic noise came from. Its never there in my normal recordings. I'm going to try again to see if I can post a clean file with just the floor bumjps of the running kids.
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paulstefano · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 3:44 pm Post subject:

Here's new file without the electronic noise. Not sure what that was all about first time I've heard that.

I'm upstairs and all 3 kids are running around downstairs and yelling. The vibrations from the footsteps don't seem that bad. I'd appreciate any thoughts on whether you think its possible to stop them from getting into to booth options, like Whisper Room, Clearsonic, or DrumPerfect.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jr49roqiv8h4oe5/noise%20upstairs.mp3?dl=0

BTW, if anybody want to buy an Audiometric Booth, there's one for sale on Craigslist NJ. I am still considering it myself, but its the tiniest model, pretty much a coffin. 33 by 23 inches.

thanks again

Paul
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:38 pm Post subject:

It really is hard to say whether a Whisper Room will completely stop the footsteps from getting inside. Because it would be sitting on the floor, any vibrations in the floor will travel to the booth, unless there is sufficient dampening material to isolate it well enough from the floor.

Footsteps aside for the moment, you should do another test upstairs. This time, when it is quiet downstairs, record yourself reading some text as you normally would. There is still pretty constant noise of some sort, from 2 kHz and below. In the display behind the graph in the screen grab, the brightest colors show the highest and the darker colors the lowest amplitude (loudness). The yellow portions are the footsteps. The purple-ish portions mostly seen above 2 kHz are the higher frequencies of the kids' voices getting to the mic. But the rest of what is seen – the almost continuous red – is what's unknown. If it's not room ambience of some sort, then something in your audio chain is generating it and recording your voice without the noise from downstairs will enable us to determine whether it will require attention, too. (a bit more text under the screen grab)

Again, the Clearsonic and Drum Perfect (and even the Whisper Room) are not designed to keep outside sounds from getting within; they are to minimize (not prevent) the escape of sound created within.
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paulstefano · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:52 pm Post subject:

Thanks for looking again. That constant noise in interesting. This was my backup mic, a cheap condenser that came with my focuserite 2i2. I appreciate the effort but I can't move my at2020 right now. It's setup in my recording space and tuned just right at the moment. I'm in the middle of an audio book and I am hesitant to change anything until I'm done.

Maybe I can revisit in a week or so before I go and buy something

Thanks again
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vkuehn · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:46 pm Post subject:

Here is another graphic that gives you some idea of the frequency distribution of your studio noise:

***Sorry: I'm too thick-in-the-head to get the image to display on it's own. if you will right-click the little tiny box, it will give the opportunity to "view the image"***

This curve is rather typical of this graphic view of sound as measured and displayed by Adobe Audition.

Assuming you made this recording at your normal gain settings, this noise is somewhere around -50 dB. It would not take heroic noise reduction process (via software) to get rid of most it.... maybe get rid of enough that the recording would be useable.

Here is the good news: It does not take construction akin to building a bank vaults to get your studio noise down by 10 to 15 dB. An extra later of drywall stuck to the walls of a closet or small room and the back side of the door might give you 6 to 9 dB of loss. Maybe a similar effort in the space where the children play could give you 3 to 6 dB of noise loss on the other end of this transaction. This is something you can do with materials from Home Depot or Lowes... no need for two tons of some foreign object called a 'recording booth'. And you don't have to use a shoe-horn to get inside a coffin-sized/shaped abomination.

ADDENDUM: I went back and looked at a graphic of the noise level and there are peaks when the children "shriek" where the level gets up to -32. That is a little tougher to isolate than the -45 to -50 dB steady noise between the 7 or so peaks.

paulstefano · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 7:57 am Post subject:

Thanks for the effort Vern.
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