Mic placement and background noise

[stanfan]

Hello everyone,

Here's my situation......I have a Boss BR1200 set up in an unused bedroom of my house. I tried recording last night and though the recording quality of the guitar was ok (still have to experiment with mic placment-my Martin is a little boomey on the bottom end), but when played back, I could hear background noise. Is there any cheap/practical ways of trying to soundproof the area. I'd also like to hear ideas on mic placement and distances.  I'm using Apex 2021 mics to record with.

Thanks,

Rob

[tony]

I don't know a great deal about this stuff but when I faced noise problems at home a sound engineer friend said that whatever I did, I shouldn't forget the floor.  He reckoned that carpet was the first thing he would put in place (I have a concrete floor in my room) because whatever noise gets in the room, the concrete floor just bounces it all around. 

I'm sure he would have had things to say about the walls and ceiling but he got distracted then and wandered off the topic.  I was stunned because I had never thought about the floor so I forgot to ask anymore.

Floor, that's my advice.  For what it's worth.  Because I don't know a lot about these things.

[SteveB]

SFN - Hello there and welcome to the Forum. Have a listen to Pinedog and Bluesberry's recordings from the BR1200 thread, and then also look in the thread 'What does your Home Studio look like?', because both of these fine Composer/Musicians have overcome whatever practicalities needed to be overcome to produce stunning, noiseless recordings. Yep, and definitely think of the floor. Bare floor bounces everything back (or around). So, blankets, carpets, cardboard, paper etc, all can be used to deaden extraneous noise. Good luck.

[dog2000x]

Here's a solution that I used for quite a while. Back when I used to be married, I would only have time to write and record late at night. I would take my combo amp, put it inside my truck in the garage, and mount an SM57 on the dash. I would then open the driver's side window just slightly, run the cables through that small opening, stuff foam in the remainder of the small window opening and close the truck door.

The result is an almost sound-proof guitar booth, with an awesome tone and sound pressure level and freedom from background noise as well!

[Vanncad]

Wow dog2000x,

I have never heard about that technique.

That's an awesome tip!

 - Vann

[Pine]

SFN...all the suggestions you have gotten are good ones. I assume your mics are condensers, which most evrybody feels capture the acoustic sound the best. Dynamics will eliminate all that background but you need to like never move as you play. Not easy or practical. The "acoustic" patches in your COSM effects library of the 1200 can do a pretty nice job if you have an acoustic/electric guitar..and eliminate all outside noise of course and restore some of that crappy "nasal" sound that AE guitars always seem to have when dl'd...imho. If you are determined to record a plain acoustic with condenser mics, you have no choice but to soundproof your environment. Pro studios spend hundreds of thousands on this...starting with rubber mounted floors. More financially accessible are carpet remnants, old egg cartons on walls, foam sheets, unused mattresses, old blankets, etc. Try to keep the area small. I personally don't know any rich musicians...except a few that made their money as non-musicians  Experiment. Listen. Experiment. Listen. Be patient. It can be done.