…booth, as in recording booth. Actually, if I’m honest, that isn’t one of the B words on my mind right now. They’re all expletives, as the PC I use for my audio work died a horrible death yesterday evening and I have wasted hours and hours buying a new one and trying to get it all set up as a replacement. Not a happy bunny.
But I need to be positive here, and have faith that once my external drive has copied over the files I can troubleshoot the sound level differences I’ve detected with my test recording and get going again. So today, I’m going to show you my marvellous audio book recording booth, made out of recycled materials by my very clever Step-dad.
When I decided to go pro with the audio book recording, I knew that I needed to get a pro mic, and there would probably be egg-box foam involved somewhere. The mic was easy enough to source and get, but it picked up every tiny sound I was unaware of using the rubbish USB mic I had previously. I needed a booth.
I salivated over various set-ups online (including that funky foam), but all were way out of my budget, so I went and spoke to my Stepdad about what I needed and he designed and made this:
Naked recording booth
Yes, those are two old wardrobe doors, made into a booth shape with two detachable frames (my office doubles as guest bedroom, so it needed to be able to cope with occasional dismantling). Recycling at its best.
Of course, it would be an absolutely appalling recording booth in this state (all those sound waves bouncing around like billy-oh), so here it is modestly dressed in velvet:
Dressed in its beautiful velvet garb
Not only does velvet soak up those sound waves beautifully, it also looks lovely, was free as I have had it lying around for years (I must make a dress out of it all one day) and has the added benefit of making me feel like I am stepping into a fortune teller’s booth every time I record.
Mic and e-reader goodness
So there you have it, my little recording booth. Hopefully I’ll be recording in it later on, the memories of recent tech hell fading rapidly… fingers crossed!
Oh! B is also for back-up, thank goodness I was pretty obsessive about that and actually have the files on an external hard drive.
Wow, it’s great to see the background that goes into the recording work.
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Hmm. I was thinking of going into a walk-in closet, to let the shirts and slacks absorb all the stray sounds.
Love these pics, Emma.
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That may well work, for the same reason! Glad you like the pics
love the velvet – since a child it’s been one of my favourites
Whatever works for you, is what you need, but I must admit I take a very different route to my audio recording.
A few years ago, I was shown around a community radio station and they had a very well sound-proofed booth. It was so well sealed in fact, that I was told that you couldn’t record anything longer than about 15 minutes (without splitting it up), because you’d run out of air!
I immediately looked at recreating something similar, but it’s very tricky. The more sound you cut out, the more air you cut out. Add air back in via a fan or something, and you add noise back in. Professional recording studios must spend a fortune on air conditioning units.
I’ve used hospital and community radio studios for recording (a lot better sound proofed rooms than I currently have), and looked at a lot of electronic gizmos, and USB-powered microphones, and what I discovered is that it’s easier to stay analogue. Some USB microphones have great reviews, but they’re designed for one person to use – and my recordings often have two voices on them. Nobody seems to have come up with an easy way of linking two (or more) USB microphones yet.
So for my setup, I bought two standard condenser microphones (about £35 each), and a small powered mixer (about £50). I can get a standard 3.5mm connection out of the mixer that will connect to anything (minidisc, laptop, anything!) with no concern for future compatibility. The microphones require XLR cables (~£8 each), but that’s the same standard that has been in use since before I was born.
The mixer means I’ve got an individual adjustment of the level of different microphones, and have a visual display (albeit a crappy LED one) of the sound going through it (although I tend to connect it to a laptop, so I’ve got a visual display in my recording software, that is more accurate).
Far from picking up everything, my microphones pick up just the sound I want, only from one side of the microphone, and only close up. Granted I have double glazing, but I’ve recorded with cars driving past right outside, and they’re not audible at all on the final recording. The voices I record have never sounded so clear/good, and as for sealing…well…I’ve got a microphone stand in the middle of my living room
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Thanks for sharing your booth Em… I’ve often wondered (as you know where my mind wanders and wonders!) And it is perfect… that velvet must make it the best looking and best dressed booth in all of the UK.
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And we can expect to see Fortune Telling Podcasts to begin appearing in your feed… when, exactly?
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