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Originally posted by cryophonik Agreed. I have one and it makes a pretty big difference. The acoustics in your room will probably have as much or more effect on the quality of recordings (i.e., the tonality of the sound) as the character of the mic will. The Reflection Filter helps to reject a lot of the reflections that can change the sound. There's always the old hang-a-duvet trick as well. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul...es/qa0705_5.htm

This touches on something I've been discussing with a mate lately.
There are lots of example of fantastic tracks down the ages being in large part down to the sound of the room.

The producer of U2's Joshua Tree albumn says the sound was down to the Castle in which it was mainly recorded. Bono says he'd been after this sound for years and no one had managed to deliver it until then.

SO our discussion has been around this seeming conflict between that standard recording 'lore' that urges a room is as damp as possible and on the other hand those that claim they want as much of the room captured as possible.

Of course I understand why it is standard procedure to dampen the room so that the recording is as unadulterated as possible, but then I wonder how it is some engineers deliberately turn this on its head and seek out the room signature in all its glory.

I have tried both in my own room and have to say I tend to prefer the wetter more room sound over when I record wrapped in a carpet, lol!

WHAT DO YOU GUYS RECOMMEND IN TERMS OF RECORDING PROXIMITY TO BEST CAPTURE VOCALS?
WHERE DO YOU FAVOUR THE MIC - ABOVE THE SINGERS MOUTH?

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The thing about the room is that if it sounds good and that's the sound you want then great.

If it doesn't, it's still pretty much impossible to take the room away again.

If on the other hand your room is pretty dead then you always have the option to add reverb afterwards. Reverb being little more than simulated 'room'.

As for positioning, it's really down to trial and error and even vocalists preference. There will be differing pickup points for each mic and on some mic's the pattern switch it's set to.

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[i][b] WHAT DO YOU GUYS RECOMMEND IN TERMS OF RECORDING PROXIMITY TO BEST CAPTURE VOCALS? WHERE DO YOU FAVOUR THE MIC - ABOVE THE SINGERS MOUTH?

Standard practice here is to place the mic at, or just slightly above, the singer's mouth and about 8 inches (+/-) from the singer's mouth. If you place the mic too low or too high, the singer's posture gets thrown off and she'll either constrict or over-stretch her throat. Distance from the mic usually depends on the mic and how loud/dynamic the vocalist is. If I'm using a condenser with a strong proximity effect, I just try to find the sweet spot, but ~8 inches is usually a good starting point. If the singer has a wide dynamic range, I try to encourage good mic technique/"working" the mic (i.e., leaning slightly away from the mic during loud passages, and toward the mic during quiet passages). Also, with condenser mics, it's a good idea to keep the capsule slightly off-axis to reduce excessive sibilants ("esses") and plosives.

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