Should I get rid of my SE Reflexion Filter? Booth plan PICS inside!

[DJ Hellfire]

Currently I have the ghetto booth going. Got some exhaust pipe bent to my specs and hung a Markertek sound blanket from the pipe surrounding my mic. Before all of that though, I just had an SE Reflexion Filter and have been using the two together for a while. Currently, official vocal booth plans are in the works and have been rendered in CAD. Booth build will likely start around early April. For the time being, though, do you guys think I should bother keeping the Reflexion Filter on in combo with the current ghetto booth?

Here are some pics of the ghetto booth:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/9d7e11a2.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/bbcc32a9.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/abb2e3e0.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/a98a8160.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/2606fbfd.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/87f6b0a8.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/7ae4733a.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/7a68afed.jpg



And here are the renderings of the real booth:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/f1d517aa.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/ad364570.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/c77380c0.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/f5487d26.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/e86d207b.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...d/70be230d.jpg

[DonaldM]

Without hearing anything, I'm wondering what the SE is contributing that the blanket doesn't? Essentially the blanket, because of the small space involved, would already create a dead space around your mic, so it would seem the SE would create a dead space within the dead space...kind of a sonic black hole. What I don't know is what does that actually do to your vocal tracks? It would be interesting to hear what you get with just the SE, just the blanket, and both for the same vocal track and compare. I'd be tempted to run a spec analyzer on all three, too, see what differences in freq response you might be getting. You might even do one with none of the above to see what ambient stuff you're picking up.

Just a few random thoughts.

[albee1952]

Is it possible for you to move things around by several inches so you can end up without parallel walls? That would make a difference for sure. The Reflexion filter may still be handy to keep out reflections off the glass, but angling the glass and proper placement of the mic can also solve that.

[DJ Hellfire]

Thanks guys!

Al, do you mean parallel walls inside the new booth? And the glass will definitely be angled, 2 3/4" sheets.

[Keybeeetsss]

Yeahppp he's meaning the cartoon booth

Glass will help but walls are important as well so u should still hang on to the SE; probably won't get that much for it anyway...

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by DJ Hellfire

Thanks guys!

Al, do you mean parallel walls inside the new booth? And the glass will definitely be angled, 2 3/4" sheets.

Yup. Your new booth is a perfect rectangle, which is NOT perfect for a recording space. Of course, if space is really tight, you make do with what you have. My point was simply to make this change if you can do it(because it will help). My booth has lots of treatment on the long walls, and one end has 6 inches of rock wool in front of a rough stone wall, with a 6" air gap in between(no drywall on this end).

[DJ Hellfire]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Yup. Your new booth is a perfect rectangle, which is NOT perfect for a recording space. Of course, if space is really tight, you make do with what you have. My point was simply to make this change if you can do it(because it will help). My booth has lots of treatment on the long walls, and one end has 6 inches of rock wool in front of a rough stone wall, with a 6" air gap in between(no drywall on this end).

Yeah, space is pretty limited. The room is only 19' x 9'. To still have a decent sized control, that limits me to an internal 3' x 5' space with a 2" air gap! I'll ask my design guy about the non-parallelism though, although this is just concept rendering. I'm sure he knows, though. He's built over 15 studios and booths, even one room with floating floors or something crazy. Thanks!

You have pics of your booth?

[albee1952]

http://picasaweb.google.com/albro1952/NewStudio#
Click on Slideshow to see the whole space come together. I was also working with very tight space and ended up with parallel walls. Lots of rock wool and Owens Corning 703 panels(some 1" and some 2") have things working pretty well. I was able to tune my speaker system to compensate in the CR by adding a sub and a digital crossover(of course that doesn't affect the vocal booth). I place the mic so the singer is not facing directly towards any wall.

[DJ Hellfire]

That looks really good and cozy! How long did that take to build?

[albee1952]

It took about a month, minus the acoustic panels that came a few weeks later. Cozy is a good word. So far, most seem to enjoy the vibe