VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[vkuehn]

I read all the posts here, all the articles on the web I can find, and scan the musicians magazines at the news stand.... related to constructing and tuning a space in which to record.

Last week I viewed the YouTube video of a guy constructing his own version of a booth. If we were handing out awards for the most anal-retentive booth-builder of the year, he would take home a trophy. He had obviously studied all the same articles I read plus all the info on the commercially available recording booths.

So he puts something directly on the concrete floor that was a bit squishy, then a layer of a more traditional absorbtion blanket, and then a floor on top of that made of two layers of plywood with Green Glue in the sandwich.

Then and the end of the video he shows the booth in use and he had just thrown in available "stuff" to get going. His mic was mounted off of a mic stand sitting on the floor.

O.K. I will sit here and trim my nails while you digest that.

So I build Ft. Knox to keep all the noise of the universe out, and then I mount my mic on a device sitting the floor where I am shuffling my feet around, maybe swiveling a chair around and maybe a computer sitting on that floor with a hard-drive doing the boogie.

The Discussion Point: What is your favorite way to mount, suspend, anchor the mic in YOUR recording space? I see a lot of booths with a flexible arm attached to the desk. Some are mounted to the wall. If someone is going to spend $2,000 to $6,000 for a quiet place, how picky do you get with your mic mount?

[Bish]

If we assume that the interior walls are directly connected to the interior floor (rather than floated on yet more sound-absorbing floaty-type material) I am almost at a loss as to where the crime is. Assuming that any recoding is done after you've finished dancing a jig, I don't see that hanging a mic stand from the ceiling or walls is going to isolate you from "movement" transmissions any more than having a good, hefty floor-stand and shock-absorbing mount. The mic has got to be mounted somewhere, and unless you want to add another form of isolation (apart from the overall booth mounting and mic mount itself) ... maybe a rubber pad or booth carpeting... What am I missing? My gut tells me that fixing any kind of hard mount on the walls or ceiling (which, by definition, are less solid than the floor) is going to be inherently more problematic. Just don't dance and talk at the same time. And why would you have a computer with fans and spinning hard-drive in the booth anyway?

I use a standard heavy-weight round-based stand with boom arm. It has three additional bar-weights slid over the stand... the base probably comes in at around 30ibs in total.
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Eddie Eagle]

When I lived in the pacific northwest my recording space was a great sounding small room that was an unfinished part of my basement with concrete block walls. I used to hang my mics from the ceiling.

[todd ellis]

i use some squishy rubber balls between my speakers & stands to eliminate/reduce vibration ... likely the same principal. seems sound to me.






but what do i know.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[vkuehn]

Bish- go back and read my post again. The man built a floating floor on top of two layers of vibration absorbing material. So my curiosity says: Does this floating floor become a bit of a drum-head transmitting a low frequency noise based on his every move. I suspect that after he made the You-Tube video he may have rearranged what he has in the space. And without going back and playing the video again, my memory is a bit fuzzy about how his mic was mounted.

It just raised my curiosity how other people are supporting their mic, and what war stories can people share along the line of: "Whatever you do, don't EVER do what I did on my last project!" and then they share the noise-sin they committed.

I am also amazed in looking at people's pictures and videos how many folks are building a 3x3 or a 3x4' booth and then rather than spend money on a shelf or desk or whatever, they have a music stand in there for their copy and a music-store mic stand in there, and if their feet are a big as mine, where the hell do they stand?

[Bish]

I understood the construction. My point is that if the rest of the booth is solidly built atop the floor, then vibrations on the floor will be transmitted throughout the booth making the walls (or even the ceiling) equally susceptible to transmitting the foot-shuffles or chair scrapes through to a microphone stand. Obviously the floor should be carpeted and equally obviously, no one should be shuffling their feet or pushing a chair while recording. I'm failing to see why the floor should be any more of a problem than the walls... if there is an inherent problem in the booth's isolation and it is "drumming", then the problem will be apparent on all surfaces... not just the floor. The whole booth becomes a drum with no clear option for microphone mounting that is inherently less prone to the effect. If you find the video, please post a link so we can make sure we're all on the same page and not talking at cross-purposes.

As for the "Whatever you do, DON'T..." I would say that my biggest mic-stand related screw-up was buying an articulated desk-clamp stand with the external springs. Those things rang forever... it was like having a set of reverb springs in the studio! If I did a clap test, they'd sound off forever. Also, this happened with a metal trash-can and an angle poise type lamp with a metal shade. A simple clap-test can identify all sorts of "ringing" problems as things get brought into the studio.
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[todd ellis]

i still use the external spring articulating mic stand --- just covered in pipe insulation. works well.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[FinMac]

Vernon,

Though I have not seen the video you wrote about, I was wondering why having the mic on a mic stand should be any more of a problem in a special room built for VO than in any other room?

I have one mic on a mic stand on the floor, and another mic on an arm that comes from the ceiling. Both mics have Rycote mounts that should reduce any problem with vibrations. My habit is to not move my feet around much when standing and recording.

Also these http://www.thomann.de/fi/the_takustik_mic_stand_pads.htm might come in handy. Probably gonna get some later this year.
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www.scottsvoiceover.com - An American voice in Finland

"If you want to get to the top, you have to get off your bottom". (Unknown)