Is there a trick to doin good vocal compression with poor acoustics?

     My at2020 is crystal clear and i love it but i moved my equipment to a bigger room for ventilation and i have absolutely 0 sound absorption, every vocal recording has an automatic reverb in it, from the echo in the room. No matter how low i put the signal i always get a rather weak recording, despite the mass reverb, that makes for an overall cheap hollow sounding recording. I will not be able to do some real sound proofing for a while, but have some amazing tracks id really like to get to finishing, and im a novice at best with compression im wondering if theres any tricks to getting rid of the reverb without tampering with the strength of my recording? If not, got any cheap solutions to sound proofing?

You might want to try using the PX-64 Percussion Strip.

You use it on drums samples that have reverb on them to remove the reverb and shape the sound of the kick/snare/tom. Use the 'Shaper' portion of it. If you're input isn't loud enough the controls will have no effect so you'll have to increase it either on the vocal track by raising your gain, or on the PX-64 strip using the input volume slider.

It works great for removing unwanted reverb from processed drum samples, it may work on vocals too ... can't be sure but it's worth a try.

As for soundproofing your room ... I have a small room and I bought a couple of foam mattress pads and cut up in to squares and thumb tacked to the wall and put a piece over the window. Plus I have an odd shaped room so I hung an old heavy bed sheet up to make the room square because the nook in the corner was acting like a bass trap and causing problems. I know it doesn't sound pretty, but if you're on a budget, it does the trick. A queen size foam mattress pad is only ... 10 ~ 15 bucks?

im runnin x1 studio, is the strip only for producer? im fixing to upgrade anyways, how much does the upgrade cost?

Forget those behind-the-mic baffle solutions. They can only offer marginal improvement, and they're expensive. Not a reasonable bang-for-buck investment, IMO.

If your room is large enough to improvise a vocal booth, construct free-standing panels that hold 3 or 4 inches of compressed fiberglass. Make them tall if you can, all the way from the floor to within a few inches of the ceiling if possible. Position them around the vocalist, forming a cubicle. I also added another panel that lays over the top of the cubicle to dampen reflections off the ceiling, and put a thick carpet on the floor.

The booth should be located as far from any walls and windows as is practical.

I've had this setup for several years now, and everybody who's recorded in my home-made booth has remarked on how good the results have been. It allows me to operate my microphone in omnidirectional mode when I want to avoid the proximity effect, something you'd normally only be able to do in a really good-sounding room.

From cheapest to bestest.

Move some furniture into the room.  A couch is an excellent absorber.  a bookshelf absorbs (if it has books) and disperses as well.  If you have ever painted a room and moved the furniture out you'll notice the reverb that furniture removes.

The next thing to do is to isolate the back wall of a corner.  A hung quilt can work, which helps keep room reflections from bouncing back into the business end of the mic you are singing into.

From there you can build gobos.  If you don't know what they are look at bitflipper's description.  Even if you can't build a real booth building a dead corner is a good interm solution and realitively cheap.  Also build some bass traps/absorbers which are a step up, sound wise, from living furniture.

More expensive is treating your room (tho the above still apply, too).  There are kits (look them up) that start about $700 (the NY or London one you find in the mags). 

Each of these steps can help with your sound and you can add a step as time and funds become available.

@

I just read a review of this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Reflexion/

Sorry, don't remember if the review was Sound on Sound or Recording, but the item got good marks.

konradh


I just read a review of this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Reflexion/

Sorry, don't remember if the review was Sound on Sound or Recording, but the item got good marks.

That's the one to go for. Can have a remarkable effect, used correctly in the right circumstances.

Not a miracle cure, mind you.

  Walk in closets can work really well too.

Are KondadH and CJ's music the same person?!

So reflexion filters are worth the buy? a couple hundred bucks is in my budget. Im thinking reflexion filter in the corner and quilt on the wall behind it

ASG


So reflexion filters are worth the buy? a couple hundred bucks is in my budget. Im thinking reflexion filter in the corner and quilt on the wall behind it

I see a lot of expensive solutions but I'll mention my foam mattress pads again. They are roughly the same color as my walls so you don't even notice them. In case you don't know what I'm talking about ... they are roughly 2 inches thick and look like giant soft foam egg cartons.

For $100 you could cover all the walls in a small room.

The Vocal Strip that CJ mentioned doesn't do what the Percussion Strip does. The Percussion Strip was specifically designed to manipulate 'wet' samples in to sounding 'dry'.

ASG


So reflexion filters are worth the buy? a couple hundred bucks is in my budget. Im thinking reflexion filter in the corner and quilt on the wall behind it

Put the quilt on the walls in the corner. The singer faces out from the corner (not into it) and the reflexsion filter is on the outside of the mic. So the order form the corner is  Quilt, Singer, Mic, reflexion filter.
 
Works like a charm or use an open closet packed full of clothes of no corner with quilt available or even inforn of a bookcase filled with lots of books.

Where did you get your glasses at?

SE Electronics Reflection Filter. 
Plus you'll always have a use for it, no matter what the condition of your studios acoustics.  But you will need a strong Mic stand, they weigh a ton because of the cheap Chinese metal.  

Definitely invest in a vox guard (or something similar).

If it's just vocals you record, you can make a cheap dampening box yourself:

http://digitalproducer.di...ewarticle.jsp?id=89503