Figuring out mic placement turned my home recordings around

I was struggling to get my vocals to sound right on my indie rock demos. Everything came out flat and lifeless in my tiny apartment. I watched a few videos but nothing clicked until I tried something simple. I moved the mic to face a corner and stood a bit closer than usual. The next take had so much more presence and energy. It's not perfect, but it feels like a real step forward. I'm stoked to keep tweaking things and see how it goes. What small changes have helped your music sound better?

4 comments

4 Comments

wren5801mo agoMost Upvoted

Hanging moving blankets behind my mic killed weird foam reflections in my closet booth. I used two thick ones on a curtain rod about three feet back. Suddenly my voice stopped sounding boxy and thin on acoustic guitar tracks. That one cheap fix made me actually want to record ideas instead of dreading the playback.

the_hannah1mo ago

Moving blankets actually killed the foam reflections...?

brian_smith61mo ago

Try angling the blankets toward your recording spot too, helps catch those early guitar reflections.

the_tessa4d ago

Actually, angling blankets can sometimes make things worse by creating weird slap echoes off the walls they aren't covering. That setup @wren580 described might just be fixing problems from bad foam in the first place. Throwing thick blankets everywhere can deaden a room way too much and suck all the life out of an acoustic guitar. It's better to learn where your actual problem spots are before just draping stuff around.