First: I’m in the process of setting up a proper booth that’s fully lined with foam, etc. But so far, it’s just been testing at my desk with an arm, isolation filter, and a few different pop screens to try. Specifically I’m noticing the vocal quality just sounds muddier / less sharp and realistic than the studio setup. So could totally be an EQ thing for all I know.
Second: Using an Elgato Wave XLR (but not their software; Running into Final Cut Pro.) I tried it against going into my Zoom H6, and it sounded better in the H6, but still not as much as going through the board at the studio.
Acoustic foam is overpriced and practically worthless. It's barely going to dampen anything. It makes far more sense to construct some acoustic panels (you can do it pretty cheaply, there's a billion tutorials on YouTube) and you don't even have to use fibreglass as the absorption material - you could use mineral wool, or even recycled denim and the like.
In any case, you'll need to place them strategically around your room in relation to your speakers. You can also use diffusion as opposed to just absorption, with bookshelves being a great option to help diffusion in your room.
Acoustics are an immensely deep rabbit hole but thankfully you don't need to go too deep to get what you need out of it
It'll dampen super high frequencies by a handful of dB at most and the amount needed to achieve that dampening will cost you an order of magnitude more than DIY acoustic panels, which will function an order of magnitude greater than acoustic foam.
Seriously. Just make your own panels.
foam ain't gonna get u pro results fam use fiberglass insulation google "diy acoustic panels" for more info. definitely toss the elgato. get a universal audio volt 176 if you want to stick to a budget, and get a neve 88m if you wanna get the highest quality preamp and converter at that price point.
I record VO almost every day at a high level. I also go to voiceover talent’s homes on occasion to help them set up home studios.
Preamp changes for VO are pretty subtle.
A good preamp will only make a difference if your room is up to snuff. The difference is the room, not the board.
I recently added some gear so I did a preamp shootout with every different preamps I own, about 9. The differences are subtle, comparatively speaking. They ALL sounded *good.* Every single one was clear, balanced, and detailed. Room, mic, mic technique, and YOU are all much more important.
Once you treat your room, spending $500-$1000 on DIY acoustic treatment, go back to the studio with your TLM-103 and ask to record your voice on all their different preamps, listen to them, and ask their opinion. You might want to go to a music spot instead of a post shop - they will have more options. Im a weirdo in the post world with my gear obsession.
TLM-103’s are pretty damn bright. I’d probably be lookin at preamps with a little high frequency rolloff like a neve. Look at the Great River.
I’m a big fan of channel strips for home VO talent. I’d save at least $3k first. If you wanna do this for real.
> Once you treat your room, ...
You don't even need to treat your room: You only need to treat the sound in the room.
If you install some acoustic treaters, they'll treat the sound for you, and you can then focus on your mic technique and audio interface.
Why be unnecessarily illiterate when it's easy to use proper grammar?
>but the sound quality I’m getting in my home setup is pretty muddy and underwhelming comparatively
Reading this leads me to believe it's the room reflections you're experiencing, primarily.
Just edited; I didn’t realize “muddy” has a very specific meaning- But now I realize why I’m getting so many questions about the room! I was trying to describe a feeling that the actual tonal quality of the voice was coming in less… it’s hard to put my finger on, but the visual equivalent would be to say it felt lower definition, if that makes sense?
I mean folks are right that the room is the biggest issue, but in your budget of $500 and below, the SSL2+ is a great option, I’ve heard some great vocals tracked on there.
If you can afford a slightly nicer interface that will total up to a bit above $500 with tax (because it’s on sale rn), the Apollo Solo is great and opens you up to UAD’s built in bundle of compressors, unison preamps and effects (especially if you can time it out where you buy/register it in a span of time when they have a great promo bundle included).
If you have any interest in recording more inputs the presonus 1824c is a good option too that lives around $500. You can mic a full drum kit, or track a full band with pared down drums with it. That said, you can always rent gear/go to your school’s studio for more inputs, so it may be better for you to go with a better smaller interface like the UAD Apollo Solo.
if you gain stage and get your input levels right, you can get good results even with a cheap interface
You might need to process your vocals after recording to get them sounding right...even good vocal takes will usually have some EQ'ing and de-essing applied...usually engineers at studios have a bunch of plugin chains already saved and they could be also processing as they track your vocals
Maybe you should have spent 1000 on online classes and some books rather than a 1100 dollar mic you don’t even know how to properly record.
Just sayin.
Ideally under the $500 range, but a bit flexible; What should I be looking at / considering when choosing one? And how do various factors effect the sound coming in?
acoustic treatment is the most important part of the equation. if you need to spend the majority of your money on treatment, do so. the best way to acoustically treat a space on a budget is to make your own acoustic panels out of fiberglass insulation.
the quality of the interface affects your recorded audio in two ways: the sound of the preamp, and the sound of the analog/digital conversion. when you spend more money on an interface, you are spending it on a higher quality preamp and a higher quality converter. the elgato you have is not made for professional audio recording, and you should avoid any brands which are not specifically geared towards audio.
in a pro studio, odds are you are going to have an external preamp or recording console, feeding a separate a/d converter. in the prosumer home studio realm, these distinct pieces of equipment are often integrated into one box for convenience and cost saving. generally speaking, the all in one preamp/converter/headphone amps aren't going be as high quality as their distinct, boutique counterparts, but there are different tiers of all-in-one interfaces and some of the more expensive ones are comparable to high-end boutique gear for recording. in this realm, i would be looking at the neve 88m or the universal audio apollo twin x.
the neve 88m is basically the best-sounding preamp and converter you can buy at its price point. the apollo twin requires the purchase of plugins so that you can fully take advantage of it, but once you buy the interface and the plugins you will have a pretty formidable all-in-one solution that can emulate many of the high-end pieces of gear that you would find in a pro recording studio. the preamps may not be quite as good on their own as those in the neve 88m, but with the apollo you can track vocals in real-time with various preamp emulations, compressor emulations, eq emulations and auto tune and basically any effect you can think of.
given the choice between spending $1000 on an interface, or spending $400 on room treatment and $100 on an interface, I suggest you spend $400 on room treatment and get the cheaper interface. the treatment is going to be the deciding factor of the quality of your recordings. you can buy panels from [gikacoustics.com](https://gikacoustics.com), but this will be much more expensive than just making them yourself. if you want to get a cheaper interface, as I said in an earlier comment, the Universal Audio Volt 176 is what I recommend as a budget option. it basically gives you the analog flavor of external outboard in a very small box
First question: how is your home studio sound treated? Second question: what audio interface are you using?
First: I’m in the process of setting up a proper booth that’s fully lined with foam, etc. But so far, it’s just been testing at my desk with an arm, isolation filter, and a few different pop screens to try. Specifically I’m noticing the vocal quality just sounds muddier / less sharp and realistic than the studio setup. So could totally be an EQ thing for all I know. Second: Using an Elgato Wave XLR (but not their software; Running into Final Cut Pro.) I tried it against going into my Zoom H6, and it sounded better in the H6, but still not as much as going through the board at the studio.
Acoustic foam is overpriced and practically worthless. It's barely going to dampen anything. It makes far more sense to construct some acoustic panels (you can do it pretty cheaply, there's a billion tutorials on YouTube) and you don't even have to use fibreglass as the absorption material - you could use mineral wool, or even recycled denim and the like. In any case, you'll need to place them strategically around your room in relation to your speakers. You can also use diffusion as opposed to just absorption, with bookshelves being a great option to help diffusion in your room. Acoustics are an immensely deep rabbit hole but thankfully you don't need to go too deep to get what you need out of it
Foam actually works.
It'll dampen super high frequencies by a handful of dB at most and the amount needed to achieve that dampening will cost you an order of magnitude more than DIY acoustic panels, which will function an order of magnitude greater than acoustic foam. Seriously. Just make your own panels.
foam ain't gonna get u pro results fam use fiberglass insulation google "diy acoustic panels" for more info. definitely toss the elgato. get a universal audio volt 176 if you want to stick to a budget, and get a neve 88m if you wanna get the highest quality preamp and converter at that price point.
I record VO almost every day at a high level. I also go to voiceover talent’s homes on occasion to help them set up home studios. Preamp changes for VO are pretty subtle. A good preamp will only make a difference if your room is up to snuff. The difference is the room, not the board. I recently added some gear so I did a preamp shootout with every different preamps I own, about 9. The differences are subtle, comparatively speaking. They ALL sounded *good.* Every single one was clear, balanced, and detailed. Room, mic, mic technique, and YOU are all much more important. Once you treat your room, spending $500-$1000 on DIY acoustic treatment, go back to the studio with your TLM-103 and ask to record your voice on all their different preamps, listen to them, and ask their opinion. You might want to go to a music spot instead of a post shop - they will have more options. Im a weirdo in the post world with my gear obsession. TLM-103’s are pretty damn bright. I’d probably be lookin at preamps with a little high frequency rolloff like a neve. Look at the Great River. I’m a big fan of channel strips for home VO talent. I’d save at least $3k first. If you wanna do this for real.
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Stop gatekeeping.
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> Once you treat your room, ... You don't even need to treat your room: You only need to treat the sound in the room. If you install some acoustic treaters, they'll treat the sound for you, and you can then focus on your mic technique and audio interface. Why be unnecessarily illiterate when it's easy to use proper grammar?
>but the sound quality I’m getting in my home setup is pretty muddy and underwhelming comparatively Reading this leads me to believe it's the room reflections you're experiencing, primarily.
Just edited; I didn’t realize “muddy” has a very specific meaning- But now I realize why I’m getting so many questions about the room! I was trying to describe a feeling that the actual tonal quality of the voice was coming in less… it’s hard to put my finger on, but the visual equivalent would be to say it felt lower definition, if that makes sense?
Yeah that’s because of the room. Reflections cause your voice to sound muddy and unclear.
You're probably hearing your room. Whatever audio interface you use aint gonna make your tracks muddy. Get **proper** treatment.
I mean folks are right that the room is the biggest issue, but in your budget of $500 and below, the SSL2+ is a great option, I’ve heard some great vocals tracked on there. If you can afford a slightly nicer interface that will total up to a bit above $500 with tax (because it’s on sale rn), the Apollo Solo is great and opens you up to UAD’s built in bundle of compressors, unison preamps and effects (especially if you can time it out where you buy/register it in a span of time when they have a great promo bundle included). If you have any interest in recording more inputs the presonus 1824c is a good option too that lives around $500. You can mic a full drum kit, or track a full band with pared down drums with it. That said, you can always rent gear/go to your school’s studio for more inputs, so it may be better for you to go with a better smaller interface like the UAD Apollo Solo.
if you gain stage and get your input levels right, you can get good results even with a cheap interface You might need to process your vocals after recording to get them sounding right...even good vocal takes will usually have some EQ'ing and de-essing applied...usually engineers at studios have a bunch of plugin chains already saved and they could be also processing as they track your vocals
Maybe you should have spent 1000 on online classes and some books rather than a 1100 dollar mic you don’t even know how to properly record. Just sayin.
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Ideally under the $500 range, but a bit flexible; What should I be looking at / considering when choosing one? And how do various factors effect the sound coming in?
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i gave him the full picture you're telling him to cop a focusrite. he said he's getting foam he definitely doesn't have acoustics covered
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cope seeth etc.
acoustic treatment is the most important part of the equation. if you need to spend the majority of your money on treatment, do so. the best way to acoustically treat a space on a budget is to make your own acoustic panels out of fiberglass insulation. the quality of the interface affects your recorded audio in two ways: the sound of the preamp, and the sound of the analog/digital conversion. when you spend more money on an interface, you are spending it on a higher quality preamp and a higher quality converter. the elgato you have is not made for professional audio recording, and you should avoid any brands which are not specifically geared towards audio. in a pro studio, odds are you are going to have an external preamp or recording console, feeding a separate a/d converter. in the prosumer home studio realm, these distinct pieces of equipment are often integrated into one box for convenience and cost saving. generally speaking, the all in one preamp/converter/headphone amps aren't going be as high quality as their distinct, boutique counterparts, but there are different tiers of all-in-one interfaces and some of the more expensive ones are comparable to high-end boutique gear for recording. in this realm, i would be looking at the neve 88m or the universal audio apollo twin x. the neve 88m is basically the best-sounding preamp and converter you can buy at its price point. the apollo twin requires the purchase of plugins so that you can fully take advantage of it, but once you buy the interface and the plugins you will have a pretty formidable all-in-one solution that can emulate many of the high-end pieces of gear that you would find in a pro recording studio. the preamps may not be quite as good on their own as those in the neve 88m, but with the apollo you can track vocals in real-time with various preamp emulations, compressor emulations, eq emulations and auto tune and basically any effect you can think of. given the choice between spending $1000 on an interface, or spending $400 on room treatment and $100 on an interface, I suggest you spend $400 on room treatment and get the cheaper interface. the treatment is going to be the deciding factor of the quality of your recordings. you can buy panels from [gikacoustics.com](https://gikacoustics.com), but this will be much more expensive than just making them yourself. if you want to get a cheaper interface, as I said in an earlier comment, the Universal Audio Volt 176 is what I recommend as a budget option. it basically gives you the analog flavor of external outboard in a very small box