Tea break acoustic question

[Johnno]

In a school hall if you wanted to record someone singing would you be likely to get better results by having them sing facing closed tabs (back to the audience) than by the more normal way of using a stage with tabs open and performer facing the audience? (No audience present in either case and bare acoustically untreated surfaces everywhere). I'm wondering about the curtains damping some of the sound that misses the mic.

[Pete]

I new I read sos for a reason...

 

Back to closed tabs,If using a cardoid mic at least

[Bobbsy]

Back to closed tabs,If using a cardoid mic at least

 

Yes. Now who can explain why? A week's exemption from the Crew Room tea rota for the first correct answer posted.

 

Bob

[Simon MFR]

Presuming the curtains are floor to ceiling and cover a majority of the walls/windows/doors/whatever perhaps experiment with curtains slightly pulled. Maybe not all the way or you'll deaden the live space. We recently had some curtains installed in a very live room at work, and even with the curtains fully open, the natural space of the room is somewhat less pretty than it was...almost a shame really.

 

Bob...you dont know your cardiods from from your omni? :(

[Bobbsy]

In this case from the wording of the question and the OP's profile, it's a pretty good bet that we're talking about a typical hard-walled school hall/auditorium. These are typically not a very nice "live space" and, in my opinion, you're better off getting the recording as dry as possible, then adding effects later as appropriate. Not every vocal sounds good with a "grand canyon" acoustic! I see where Simon is coming from, but in my experience very few rooms (as opposed to studio spaces which are properly designed) add anything nice to recordings

 

Using a cardioid and putting the "deadest" part of the acoustic space behind the singer is a technique I often use: my lounge at home (often pressed into service for recordings) has a wall of thick curtains (covering some patio doors) and I tend to get best results putting singers a few feet out from these, backs to the curtains.

 

Considering the pattern of the mic, there's a good theoretical reason for this too...however, rather than do a "me to, know it all" post, I thought I'd see if I could provoke some discussion on the "why?".

 

...but I'll tell if you want to let ME off the tea making rota!

 

Bob

[Just Some Bloke]

Bob...you dont know your cardiods from from your omni? :D

I think Bob knows perfectly well the difference between the two!

 

If he'd been thinking of an omni he would probably have suggested pulling curtains over all the walls, not just the one behind the singer.

 

As I make a horrible cup of tea which you wouldn't want forced on you, I'll take a stab at the reasonings behind his advice.

 

A cardiod mic picks up sound mostly from in front of itself. It gets pointed directly at the singer, so will pick up the sound of the singer and anything behind them. If the background were reflective, that part of the vocal sound which finds its way backwards, would be reflected back to the mic again but with a short delay. In order to get a nice crisp sound this needs to be avoided. By having a non-reflective background (like curtains), you are getting the sound of the singer and nothing else. Very crisp and tidy.

 

If you then want to add a nice artificial reverb, it's very easy to do so when mixing.

 

Right then - do I get off the tea duty? :(

[Mr.Si]

Sounds about right to me JSB. :(

[Bobbsy]

Actually it was Pete (quoting Sound on Sound) who actually gave the advice...I just agreed!

 

(Shuffles off to make a tea for JSB 'cause his explanation is what I was thinking of...any sugar?)

 

Seriously, because a cardioid mic has good rejection to the rear, reflections coming directly off the back wall of the stage should be minimised, and the curtains (coupled with a big empty space behind them) should minimise anything coming from that direction. It's certainly worked well for me, both in my own lounge but also when asked to "do a quick recording" of a pre-show announcement or something when in the theatre.

 

I can see where Simon_MFR is coming from. The classic way to record vocals in a nice sounding room is to actually use the room effect. If I had a great singer in a cathedral I wouldn't want to record him/her dry then add an artificial 'verb! However, as I said, nice rooms are rare and, in any case, quite often for theatre work you don't want to double up on the room effect; a dry recording can be more useful.

 

Bob