How to Turn a Crappy Closet Into a Home Recording Studio on a Budget
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- My family and I were frustrated with our previous recording conditions, the constant noise and poor equipment.
Poor recording quality lead to editing recordings that was a long and tedious nightmare. We didn't have a big budget but we did have a closet. I borrowed tools and even got some free wood to start building.
Here is what we did about it.
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Here are links to the products I mention in the video:
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Shure SM58 Microphone 🎤:
amzn.to/2Dv55wD
Use that link to get the cable included with the microphone. This cable will plug into the preamplifier below. 👇
DBX 286s Microphone Preamp Processor 🎛:
amzn.to/2PVqvsE
You will need to buy a cable to connect the preamp to the USB interface:
amzn.to/2qFDmAW
Focusrite Scarlett Solo (2nd Gen) USB Audio Interface 🎚:
amzn.to/2RNQ7F8
The Scarlett Solo comes with the USB cable you will be plugging into your computer.
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Other Items In Video:
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Light Socket Outlets 💡🔌:
amzn.to/2yZhuF6
Mouse Pad on desk 🖲:
amzn.to/2Fgn9w2
If you're interested in sound dampening panels that I had on the ceiling:
amzn.to/2RJ2HoQ
Microphone Pop Filter:
amzn.to/2yZhZyY
Microphone Boom Arm:
amzn.to/2RP3q8d
Dimmable Lamp with USB Charge Port :
amzn.to/2qGy4Vv
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Blue USB Microphones:
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Snowball 🎤:
amzn.to/2qE9rc8
Yeti 🎤:
amzn.to/2Dbteat
Another option is the Spark 🎤 which got a lot of really great reviews:
amzn.to/2qHdvbv
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Topics Covered:
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- Location
- Closets
- Sound proofing
- Sound absorption
- Echos
- Vibrations
- Insulation on desks
- Microphones
- Microphone placement
- Cable management
- Preamplifier (preamps)
- USB Interface
#recordingstudio #soundstudio #homestudio
When i finished installing all of my materials, I sat in my closet for a moment to gauge the noise level. I experience a weird phenomenon whereas I wasn't hearing anything and it seems like my ears where making up sound to fill in the void. Kind of a tinitus, but not. It was weird. I'd notice the quiet. Then hear "noise", then it'd get quiet again, then "noise", then quiet. It took several moments for my ears to settle into the quiet of the room. I"ve been in big empty rooms before without experiencing that, I think it was all of the sound absorbing material around me making the difference. I had forgotten about that until you mentioned that "going under water" sound pheneomenon.
This should be good! I had to do an “emergency voiceover “ for a project and converted my bathroom closet into a sound booth - wife and kids thought I was insane, but the VOs are in production!
Ha ha, nice! We can compare notes.
Mark, it was very nice of you to show us ur house and private life. Thank you!
You're welcome, Andre! 😃
I didn't know about the 90 degree angle/reverbe thing either. Great tip
I looked at a number of RUclips on this subject and yours is the best, by far. Thanks so much.
Omg... Thanks a lot, mate! THIS is the clearest ever explanation I’ve ever heard and the most helpful video I’ve seen. It has given me more than just tips- but easily understandable explanation on what I need to do to turn my own closet into a studio but more importantly WHY I need to do it! Thank you :D
Wanted to drop a comment to say how much I appreciate this video! I've already made a lot the same decisions based on information found elsewhere, but I wish that when I had started this process I had found a video like yours that made all of this information so accessible and easy to digest. Hope the new studio is working great for you!
This is very helpful!! Even for someone with a larger space, these tips really help to bring my studio to the next level!
Thanks for sharing this so graciously. You inspired me to share my whacky DYI. I asked the refrigerator delivery guys if I could have the shipping box. I bought about 60 acoustic pads foam online - double sided mounting tape . The flaps on one end of box were already cut off and I taped the flaps of the other end up so it would be about 7 feet tall (cover that with 2 Nath sheets and 3.5 by 3.5 feet. with a narrow folding panel/door. I bought an accent rug for under the box . There's room for a mic stand which has a iPad holder attached. and a small table for a small led lamp and a water bottle - I plan to perform my project standing -- for that kind of energy. I'm going to start testing it out this week and see how long I can handle breathing and talking in there. Just outside the box is my audio interface/mixer/recorder - the xlr cable slides under the box where the cardboard was already split. It's been standing for a couple weeks the foam pads have not fallen. I'll start recording this week if the results are decent I will make a YT video on it. If it is too small for me to work- or the cardboard starts to buckle - I'll cut up the box into panels and try my closet -- but it's sadly not much bigger.
This video is great! Love the positive energy! Thanks so much.
You're welcome! I love my patrons and Pluralsight for all their support and help. 🧡
Best video Ive seen on recording vocals, and believe me I have seen MANY! Learnt a lot. Cheers.
Great content Mark. Cannot wait to see what your gonna great with this mate...👏
Thanks for hanging out, Steve. It was fun!
Thanks for sharing. Was very informative and didn't realize all the aspects and considerations of recording.
Thank you for all the details! This is exactly what I was looking for and more!
That's awesome! Good luck with creating a great home studio!
Thank you so much for explaining this where I could easily understand. And thank you for the links!!
You're welcome!
Well done Mark. Didn't get to see it live but you've done a top job with that. No question that it will make a difference.
Thanks, Chris! A lot of research and work went into setting up this space. We think it's a worthy investment that will serve us well.
chrispy_wa I
This actually makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much.
Thanks for thorough video, Mark! You have a nice studio there kinda cozy too.
You're welcome, Simon. We joke around that we're going to use it as a guest bedroom since it's so cozy. Ha ha.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the money saving idea at 3:33. I've been contacting electricians to see how much it would be to install an outlet in my walk in closet (my set up is very similar to yours). The quote I got was $200! All I need to connect is my laptop and maybe my phone. This is a much more affordable idea. Thanks again. P.S. I used moving blankets, and an egg carton mattress topper for my main materials. The floor is already carpeted. I draped another moving blanket and that mattress topper on the top shelves overhead to complete the setup. My son says it looks like I made a fort. The sound floor is very good now. But your lightbulb outlet tip just put me on the next level!
That water running is so calming
This was so helpful. Thank you so very much. I am using a closet to make my studio
Oh that's good, glad it helped!
great video sir! I learned a lot. You had a lot of great ideas.
So happy to hear that, John!
Thanks for sharing your cool video! One issue you might discover with your setup is that your computer fan will get really noisy and the mic will pick it up (speaking from personal experience :) I ended up leaving my computer, studio monitors, and DAW on the opposite side of the door and ran the Headphone & Mic XLR cables underneath into the booth. Next, I set the song on a loop cycle and bring my blue tooth enabled "Apple Magic Keyboard" into the booth with me, press record and sing five or six takes in a row. Lastly, I comp down all my vocal takes into one take that I like. I only just discovered this process today and it seems to work like a charm.
Thank you man, This was really helpful. Much Love
Great information. Very helpful. Thank you!
Awesome video!! Thanks for the information!!
Any time! Hope it was helpful. 😃
Very well explained thanks
Beautiful home 🥰. Thank you for sharing information 👍🏽
Excellent Mark.... Very helpful!!!
Thanks, Paul. Glad you liked it! 👍🏼
@@bigmtnstudio If it helps, I am a professional iOS developer and I find your tutorials very informative. You enable developers to focus on improving the user experience by adding those important finishing touches. I admire your work greatly.
Thank you so much for making this video!
You're welcome!
Great vid man making mine now during quarantine since the studio is closed for now
Wow, your house is beautiful and the view is too! Future life goals
Thanks, Haley!
awesome work!
great video! very intuitive
Thank you sir! Glad you liked it. 😃
Video is informative but I love that his first "option" was to move to a quieter neighborhood! Not an option for some of us!
Oh yeah, it took a long time for us to finally move. What did it was when they were doing construction next to us. We would hear jackhammers all day. We finally decided we had to get out.
Nadia Akhtar Sim came here to say this.
Thanks, I think I'm going to try to start doing professional voice-over work soon, so I'll probably need to rig up a quiet recording area like that.
I like how he said "i like you cant hear any sound" -----waits for you to hear sound inside of a Closet.
Like,
"you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Nothing"
Ha ha ha, thanks man
Thank you for helping me feel more confident to use my clothes to better the sound. Will the metal hangers have an effect? Also wondering if I put insulation behind a deep canvas (that I can also paint), would that serve as an acoustic panel?
Thanks again!
Thanks a lot!! I am trying to make my own booth for remote interpretation. I am not sure how to deal with all of the external noise, is there a way to do it without buying all of that equipment? Any suggestion?
Great job
Thanks, Luis!
Thank for the tour Mark. Going to look into adding blankets to my office to help with noise reduction.
One problem that I have is that my office gets super hot during the summer and turning on the AC makes it impossible to record.
How do you get around your record room from getting to hot?
When I recorded in a super small closet I would "pre-cool" it, then turn off the AC and jump in with just shorts on. I could last about 45-60 mins.
This room in the video is on the north side of the house and stays pretty cool. I honestly don't know how hot it'll get in the summer. But I have been looking into soundless ventilation.
Mark Moeykens yea that’s what I would do too, and when I batch record I’d turn the ac back on between shoots. Let me know what you come up with. 👍🏽
Maybe something like this at the entrance where the outlet is will be enough: amzn.to/2T8i5wu
Good tour. Would be awesome to include an example of the VO it produces!
Oh man, why didn't I think of that?!?!
When you realize, Mark Moeykens has the exact same mousepad as you have :)
Ha ha, awesome!
Mark, great video. I got all of these components recently. I have a question. Once you've adjusted your pre-amp levels (I got the same pre-amp as yours, the dbx model) to your liking and the signal then goes to your usb audio interface, there's a gain on the Interface. What do you set the gain on the audio interface to? Is there a neutral position? I have the Rode AI-1 and there are two dials, one on the right for the headphone volume, and the one on the left, which I assume is some kind of gain. Any info would be appreciated! Thank you!
Yeah, I just checked my USB interface and it's nearly at zero, almost no additional gain.
Your video microphone definitely picked up the difference sound your absorption sounds great
Thanks!
You're welcome I'm a producer myself and I've been considering using one of my closets for my studio I was going to stick some 3.5 inch monitors in there and produce some tracks try to isolate myself from the rest of the house LOL
It is really a great home-made sound recording setup indeed! 🎙 All I did in my case is to purchase a Shure MV88 for my iPhone which with I am able to record decent sounds in stereo as well. 👍Please keep up the good work Mark. Looking forward for another tutorials from you. Cheers Robert from EU!
Oh wow, that mic looks really cool. Do you use it just for videos or do you use it for voice work?
Both for video recording and sound recording. Did you know that before iPhone XS the iPhones' build-in camera could record in mono only?
Shure has got a great iOS app as well.
Yeah, I went and looked at that product after you told me about it and the app looks really cool. I didn't know about the mono/stereo on the iPhone. I like to record intro videos and I'm thinking this mic could be useful. I'll have to see what the wife says. 😃
@@bigmtnstudio Perhaps you might be interested in this real life review of the Shure MV88 mic: ruclips.net/video/U1YNN01BYO4/видео.html
What about perforating the desk with 1-inch holes to reduce reflections. And adding insulation beneath it.
Your room treatment is quite good, you can really tell from the video recording. But I think it's overkill for a SM58 since dynamic cardioids only pick up nearby sounds most of the time, it's not as sensitive to reverberation as condenser microphones.
That's true. We first started putting together the studio before we had the equipment you see in the video. I had a Blue USB microphone and I still wasn't getting the sound quality and levels I wanted. I thought the sound treatment would be a cheap way to help with this but when it didn't, my wife and I talked about it and decided to research and upgrade our equipment.
if i am using this for vocals can i just get the usb interface with a mic preamp built-in together?
Thank you
Hey i’m Mark Moeykens and welcome to my studio!
Another newbie Q: what did you use to hook up the dbs to the scarlett? And what is the black cord coming out the front of the scarlett?
“Luckily, a lot of closets will not have power”
Say what now
i have some program question where can i post it MR :)
Amazing the amount of small details to perfect something. Great info. I always thought it was easy, and that of course indicates that outsiders think simple. The other day I was showing a client a prototype of an app, he said how did you do it with Microsoft Access? hehe really!?
Ha ha ha, nice. Back in the 1990s I made an app in Microsoft Access for a bank.
Makes me wanna create my own haha! Not for recording but just coding in peace. My problem so far are the ants :(
Ha ha, ants?? What do you mean?
Meanwhile all the music we love and listen to most is covered with tape hiss and significant backing track bleed through the vocal tracks. Some of the Soundgarden isolated vocals you can hear people moving around the room, the headphones bleeding right into the recording, yet once in the mix it all gets lost.
Interesting! Thanks for the video! I am planning to do this to a walk in closet, exclusively to mimic a soundproof phone booth for making private calls. No recording at all. I will be using padded moving blankets around the walls. Is it also necessary to get some of those foam tiles for the ceiling as well? Thank you!
BTW-Do you have any ventilation in yours? Not too stuffy? Just curious. Cheers!
Hey, Bob, probably not necessary for the foam tiles on the ceiling for what you need it for. You could extend the blanket to the ceiling as well.
Does it get stuffy? YES. I do lack ventilation and in the Summer when I record, I actually have a whisper-quiet fan with the door cracked and it's still great sound quality.
@@bigmtnstudio Great. Thanks I'll give it a shot. I was planning on purchasing a 6pk of heavy duty blankets from Amazon and use tarp clips to secure in place with anchored screws into the plaster. I guess I can drape the blankets to the middle of the ceiling and have them hang down a bit. Seems like that could work. Thank you kindly!
Like that linked tower fan. Whisper quiet is key! Cheers Mark.
Nice video. Do you field questions?
I'm in the early process of getting together equipment for a home studio. Do I need a dbx or not?
Dbx products can be an excellent value. The exact unit he shows the dbx286 is dollar for dollar about the best you can get in an entry level price. Other companies do make products with arguably "better"/different tone quality or more sensitive feature sets (like the "gate/expander") with more adjustability/flexibility, but they come at hefty price tags that are really prohibitive for the casual consumer or the beginning/intermediate voice over or recording artist. Get started with this unit and work on your technique to develop your own process. It's likely this is all you'll even need, as it really is a good product. If you're a recording artist that plays very dynamic music, you may benefit from "higher quality" components. That said, you'll always have your dbx to fall back on or for adding an additional simultaniously recorded track (though you'll then need a multichannel interface as well). High end or "Legit pro audio" gets stoooopid expensive in a hurry. In my view, as an independent professional live musician & recording artist, Mark has really knocked it out of the park with his setup. For the relative small amount of money spent, I expect he gets good results and should be very proud of his efforts!
Newbie Question: My closet studio only has a single two outlet plug. I need a surge protector. What kind would you suggest?
Oh, sorry, I don't know a lot about surge protectors or which one is better than another. 🤷♂️
2 years in after posting, have you made any changes to your setup? If so, what was the most necessary Improvement?
I am in a strict Japanese apartment. There is a walkincloset but hubby/landlord will not let me put panels/blankets with glue or tacks all over the wall. Maybe pvc frame with moving blankets over the table with mic?
In Japan there is big danbocchi cardboard box but people say it wil sound to cardboardy. Cant I add the blankets and boards inside that?
Yeah, that should be enough to prevent any echo and dampen outside sounds.
The DBX 286S Microphone pre-amp is a very good choice. I'd opt for a better microphone though. 10:52 - I don't think you have a very deep voice at all. A much better choice in microphones would be the $449.00 Electro Voice RE20. I think that even the $99.00 Rode PodMic would have been a better choice than the Sure SM58. The Sure SM58 is more suited for a stage mic. 13:07 - You can use a $149.00 Cloud Lifter to pump up the mic volume. Personally, I'd have opted for moving blankets for the walls. They're very cheap on Amazon. Your home built recording booth is a far more cost effective solution than a $5,000.00 Whisper Room booth, that's for sure!
Interesting recording studio...kinda bummed I missed the live stream
I may be doing others in the future. Stay tuned!
Interesting!
You literally can hear the sound difference when the camera moves closer to show the room from the echoey house to practically no echo even without going into the room
My mic is behringer c-1u kinda good
What if anything did you do for ventilation?
I have a whisper-quiet fan with a remote control that I keep in the room. Besides that, I limit the time I spend in there to like 30 mins or less. It will get stuffy in the summer but I'm too lazy to start drilling holes and installing a ventilation system for it. 😃 In the Winter it's fine.
What do you do for oxygen when the closet door is closed to avoid affixation? lol
Ha ha, great question! I have a whisper quiet fan and I crack open the door and it blows in fresh air from the kitchen. Still quiet enough without suffocating! 😂
@@bigmtnstudio thank you so much!
I always thought my recordings were too quiet and tried to turn up the volume until eventually it started peaking and getting distorted
Are you referring to recording inside a closet that may have caused this?
yes totally notice the difference
I think they need to finish painting the roof that nice gold leaf color... lol.
You sound like Jim Halpert
Mark ! the sound pannels are only like a dollar each
Dude, try to tell my wife that. She controls the money in the house. 😃
He bold to leave his bike outside now and days people is on madness with stealing bikes
Ha ha, that's my daughter's bike. We told her to get a lock and lock it behind the house. She never got around to it. It was gone in 3 weeks. Life lessons.
Hi Mark, you had said that your wife does voice over? I have an app on the App Store called Alphabets and More. I am looking for someone to add viice to the app. It has sound effects to it but its not great. its actually my voice am just looking for someone what better quality. Wonder if yoy can help me? I will pay for her work.
Thanks,
Rogelio
I'll let her know. She does mainly Portuguese and Spanish but some English.
Crappy Closet, lol. Here in LA that would be 950 a month.
Ha ha ha, I don’t doubt it. 🤣
uff.. sounds a bit boxy. There is a way to deal with that but i imagen the hassle with EQ later.
Ive been in many German studios now and even a budget one from a friend to record for company's.
Most of them don't use ripple padding. Just flat THICK foam panels with a wood frame and stuffing inside plus some base killers.
Alsooo! i would really, really, really think about putting the laptop somewhere else, because of the Fan, Disturbing frequencies, electric static and because of the paddern your mic has. If you have an Ipad or cheap Tablet, USE IT!! ^^.
Cool that you have a preamp or mixer BUT, you should not use the filters and/OR edit the sound when doing voice over professionally. Keep it natural and just do basic grade later IF the director wants you to.
Holy banana, no! dont get a Yeti. Get An audio technica or a Rode if you wanna go USB.
Normally id switch to my voice over account, because with this childhood account, nobody takes me seriously, but i am a voice actor and i do also do my own home recordings. (i put a bunch of cheap thin but long baby mattresses on the wall if i dont have my space available)
Edit: Best wishes! ^^
PS - Nice gains dude. You LOOK RIPPED.
try the fifine k669 it's a good microphone but it's usb tho get an adapter too because the mic is only $30
Oh man but now hearing from police and firefighters shouldn’t do making home studios in apartment saying get a huge fine and cause fire hazards. I really don’t get it
Woodglut is a solid company with the best woodworking plans.
How did you glue the acoustic foam to the ceiling?
"With glue."
Hahhaa!
Actually, there is some spray adhesive that is great for this. Look for 3M brand spray adhesive.
Perhaps you can use "Green Glue" in a calking tube made for panels.
3M 77