The Song Fight Bulletin Board

It's August in Tejas here, and I've got a couple of problems.

Even when I lived in Cleveland, on a cold day in November with the air conditioner on, I always work up a good sweat when recording. It doesn't even seem to matter whether it's guitar, vocals, harmonica, or keyboards. The energy of recording a song burns up calories and makes me sweat.

My current recording setup is in my bedroom, which has a picture window. About two feet outside that window stands our air conditioning unit. When the AC is on, the unit makes a lot of noise right outside the window. This noise has a habit of showing up in recordings, so when I'm recording guitar, vocals, or anything requiring a microphone, I've made a habit of turning the air conditioning off. I also have a ceiling fan that generates a surprising amount of noise. This too goes off when I'm recording.

Thursday, the high was 105°F (that's 40.6°C), and with the activity of recording a guitar part, as well as with the AC and ceiling fan off, I was positively dying. This, sadly enough, also had an adverse affect on my performance, which made the whole process take longer, which made me get even more overheated.

Staying hydrated is a must, obviously. Do the seasoned veterans have any other tips for keeping cool while recording (especially in these hottest summer days)?

I'm also concerned about the temperature of my computer. If it's 105° and I'm not using AC or ceiling fan, and the computer is using a decent chunk of its processing power to record a song, that can't be good for it, can it?

Record in the basement. Less noise, less heat.

I live in central Texas. Pretty much no basements around here.

Also, I live in a condo.

How careful are you with mic placement? Maybe you could be sure to put all your noisy elements in one place and then make sure that spot is in the null of your mic? The bottom line is that if your back is to the window and your mic is pointed at you, it is also pointed at the air conditioner. If you turn that around, and are using a cardioid mic then the back of the mic is pointing at the ac and will pick up less of it. Another way to do this would be to use a fig. 8 mic and and record with the mic perpendicular to the noise. That way it is in the side of the mic and should have good rejection.

Also, record louder! The more noise you make, the quieter your ac will be in relation to that and the less you will hear it on your tracks.

You could also try Andy Hong's technique to use phase cancellation trick where you record the a/c on it's own track with the same mic in the same place, invert the phase on it and then it should cancel out on your other tracks. I'm not sure how well this would work, but it is possible...

Anyway, overall, you should just deal with it. Embrace the sound of your space.

ken wrote: You could also try Andy Hong's technique to use phase cancellation trick where you record the a/c on it's own track with the same mic in the same place, invert the phase on it and then it should cancel out on your other tracks. I'm not sure how well this would work, but it is possible...

Well, what about FFT noise reduction? I tried recording one track of "silence" with the AC and the fan going on full-blast and using that as sample to grab for the noise reduction plugin. It sounded okay to my ears, but there's still a noticeable difference when the AC clicks on after being off, and vice-versa. And even if I manage to grab a take without the AC noise changing, even though it sounds good to my ears, I worry about over-relying on noise reduction.

Record nude. Bodily fluids are your friends.

Caravan Ray wrote:Record nude. Bodily fluids are your friends.

It! Doesn't! Help!!!

Turn your Air Conditioner temp down lower than it needs to be so it doesn't click on/off during takes.

Maybe you should get some heavier/bigger curtain for the window. It could help keep the noise out and the cool in.

Ken

Ken might be on to something, but instead of (or perhaps in addition to?) placing barriers on the inside, why not try to create some sort of noise barrier outside. Grab some cheap particle board panels (three?), bind them with hinges, then place your impromptu "noise screen" between the unit and the building. This should deflect/absorb a lot of noise. Some plants might help to diffuse it as well, if that's possible.

As for fans, I'd suggest get a really good quality one. Don't go to Home Depot or Lowe's or those kinds of stores. Go to a high-end lighting store and get a nice fan. They're pricey, but they're worth it. (As in, they run almost silently and they'll last forever.)

nyjm wrote:Ken might be on to something, but instead of (or perhaps in addition to?) placing barriers on the inside, why not try to create some sort of noise barrier outside. Grab some cheap particle board panels (three?), bind them with hinges, then place your impromptu "noise screen" between the unit and the building. This should deflect/absorb a lot of noise. Some plants might help to diffuse it as well, if that's possible.

As for fans, I'd suggest get a really good quality one. Don't go to Home Depot or Lowe's or those kinds of stores. Go to a high-end lighting store and get a nice fan. They're pricey, but they're worth it. (As in, they run almost silently and they'll last forever.)

These seem like really good suggestions.

Also, someone said "record louder" to which I would suggest the alternative "record closer"-- stick your face/guitar up to the mic more and turn the mic gain down. Get more bass in your voice that way too via proximity effect.

Also, you could just put a gate on the tracks, so only sounds that are louder than the background noise are played. That's typically how something like this is mitigated. Not perfect but it helps.

ken wrote:Maybe you should get some heavier/bigger curtain for the window. It could help keep the noise out and the cool in.

Ken

Hm. I have a distinct memory of writing in this forum that I was planning on doing exactly that. And yet, my post isn't here. Clearly, I'm going crazy.

Yes, the window currently has no curtains, but we've got "put curtains up" on the to-do list.

njym and jb, great suggestions. There's no room for plants, but a particle-board sound shield might be a good idea. Especially if I line it with acoustic foam!

Can't replace the ceiling fan because I rent. Good suggestion, though. I might see if I can't oil the joints or something to keep it quieter.

I recorded a song a few days ago without turning off the AC or the fan. It's rough around the edges (written and recorded in about 70 minutes, per a challenge issued by Mark), but I'm going to clean it up a little and post it as an example track. Then I'm going to FFT the bejesus out of it and post that as well.

With all this talk about the room, maybe a couple of recording products would also help:

The SE Reflexion fliter is supposed to take the room out of the mic, or at least block the room sound from entering the mic: http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=270353

Or the Frankie Big Face endorsed Portable Voice Over Mic Box: http://digitalproducer.digitalmedianet. ... p?id=89503

Ken

ken wrote:The SE Reflexion fliter is supposed to take the room out of the mic, or at least block the room sound from entering the mic: http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=270353

I think Albatross has that (or the other one like it). Pricey, but it helps out.

Instead of taking the room out of the mike, have you tried taking the mike out of the room? Before I piled the studio with all sorts of crap to change the sound of it, I'd put the mike in the next room (where the bookcases break up the room sound nicely), hit record, and run! This does involve putting an extension cable on your headphones, though.

yeah I used to do that too. I recorded "Feel Things Deeply" using a Red Rover remote for Cool Edit Pro, attached to my computer via a 15-foot USB extender so I could have my microphone in the next room away from the noise of my computer. It worked, but the extender caused some data glitches that I had to get used to.

Then I got a Frontier Tranzport wireless remote, and that worked really nicely although I haven't used it for much. You've still gotta string your headphones and mic cables into the next room.

Sweetwater and Musician's Friend don't seem to carry them any more, but it *looks* like you can still get them from Sam Ash: http://www.samash.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... -FTRANZPOR

jb wrote:Then I got a Frontier Tranzport wireless remote, and that worked really nicely although I haven't used it for much. You've still gotta string your headphones and mic cables into the next room.

Wow. That looks pretty cool.

Rabid Garfunkel wrote:I think Albatross has that (or the other one like it). Pricey, but it helps out.

This is what I have. It seems to work pretty well, although I reckon someone who actually CAN sing could make better use of it.

Other products to consider:

Expensive:
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=472439

Not quite as expensive:
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=472411

Cheap:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AuralXpander/

Here is another product you could try:

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