getting reverb when recording
I have a cabin, an outhouse, where people sit in and record a statement. Listening back to the recordings, there seems to be a very irritating echo. The cabin walls are covered with velvet and you do not get reverb when inside, only on the recordings. Is there anything I can do to diminish the reverb?
i know this sounds crazy, but i was living on a noisy street and had no way of putting up ample sound-dampening on the living space, so i thought instead of the immediate space around the voice and ended up taking 2 layers of thick bed-comforters, draping it completely over myself and the mic, and when i listened back, it was almost like what you'd expect from an isolation booth(no reverb, very little noise).
It will be very hard to remove any reverb that is in the recordings. You might try fiddling with EQ, Gating and multiband compression, but don't expect any fabulous results.
Doing stuff to the room and re-recording is probably the best option. Putting a matress upright in the room might help (on the back wall, the one the subject is facing so the mic is in between the person and the matress), blankets and pillows or other voluminous, fluffy stuff too.
Ok, so I will see what I can change in the cabin.
@Noob4life: indeed it sounds crazy but if it works, why not use your method?
i have been following this thread, and thought i would give my two cents on this subject, since i do recordings [both outdoor & indoor] pretty much everyday.
you do need to do the recordings again. much like recording anything, if it sounds really good beforehand, it will sound good on the recorded data.
it is a fag that you will have to do it again, but that is the flaws of recording, you have to keep doing them again and again until they are perfect. much like if you were to record drums, or a guitar. if it sounds 'ok' at first, then your mix will sound 'ok'. but if they sound great or good before you click the record button, then your mix can great.
even the simple act of using bed duvets, hanging from the wall will help out a great deal. you can find [or at least in asda supermarket], cheap, thick bed duvets for around £5-£10. have two of those in each side of the cabin [or two on top of each other at either side, so four in all], and you will hear a difference. it wont solve your problem to make it ultra quiet, but will help out.
a good way to test your room sound, is go in, close the door and clap your hands, if there is much reverb/tail on the hand clap, then your room is too echoey. then you can sort of work out what you need to do. you need the room to be quite dead. not having a tail on the hand clap.
but all in all, dampening is always a good idea in the long run.
hope this helps.
lewis edwards
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smokingbunny.co.uk
i'd like to see the cabin