This kind of room reminds me my time in college... with all the respect, I feel there is a lack of perspective with most of the advice posted here...They are all good but...

I assume this is where you are living at the moment... It is a small room (no echo!!!).

The first thing that comes to mind when watching the video is how dry or empty the room is. The walls, window and wood are going to reflect the sound. The mattress is the only thing that absorbs the sound.

- get a curtain that covers the window or the entire wall, that opens to the right and left,
- get a carpet.
- get a Aston Halo

Be creative...(with what you have!)

- I assume you have your clothes in the wardrobe...open the wardrobe doors, so the clothes and things can absorb and diffuse the sound...
- Put something in the spaces between the ceiling and wardrobe, like pillows, cushions or blanket,
- Put a panel, a picture or some kind of absorber in front of your desk and on the wall opposite the window (bookshelf)
- You can place your mattress vertically in the room wherever you like...(booth, when recording)
- You can hang a decorative cloth in the ceiling...

Make this room as pleasant as possible for you!

 

Last edited: Jan 3, 2026 at 10:00 PM

I've heard the Halo in action. It almost sounded like I was in a vocal booth and canceled out 95% the room out of the equation. Other shields I've demoed sounded phasey and the room intruded in the capture. I don't remember trying out your example and can only speak of my experience

 

In that case: Lois Lane, post #17, end of discussion.

 

If the only thing you want to treat your room for is recording vocals, I agree with what has been said before, start with getting an Aston Halo. You will probably be good already. Only if this will not do the trick, start looking into absorbers to put on your walls, etc.

 

The Aston Halo looks great, but I say leave uncle Bob out of it. I have an uncle Bob and he's useless.

Many of the tips here are aimed at eliminating problems for speaker reproduction.
If you are going to use headphones and only record vocals the basics still apply, as the voice is a speaker, too, obviously.
But the aim is not necessarily to eliminate all the character of the room, if it is impossible to do so.
Once you do some basic treatment to avoid the worst, experiment to use the room's character in the best way possible.
Put on the headphones and walk around the room singing into the microphone until you find the best places where it sounds good (or has fewest problems).
Some things are problems, but for vocals...
Well, if reflections are that much of a problem, no one would sing in the shower.

 

Last edited: Jan 4, 2026 at 5:20 AM

I have stumbled upon the following review (timestamp is 8:05)

Either this person is doing something incorrectly (mic he uses is "Aston Origin") or I was baited into believing it was a miracle — from this video it seems that Aston Halo is not removing the noise but instead decreasing it, slightly.

...it doesn't compare to treated rooms

 

Recording Vocals
Vocal Tracking Tips By Matt Houghton
www.soundonsound.com/techniques/recording-vocals

Controlling The Space
You can also manage the dry/wet balance of a voice by manipulating the recording space’s acoustics. First, it makes good sense to choose the best space you have available, and which one that is might not always be immediately obvious. Small box rooms (even with foam on the walls!) or clothes closets may have similar inner dimensions to a professional vocal booth, but they’re not ideal: untreated, they’ll sound boxy and, since there’s only space for minimal treatment, the ‘treated’ space will still have natural reverb skewed towards the low end. This makes it hard to balance the captured sound without artificially adding back in a good chunk of reverb back in higher up the spectrum.

It’s better in my opinion to use a larger space and put some effort into controlling the acoustics. Rather than attempt to build a booth in my 6x5m home studio, I just make sure both the mic and my back are facing something absorbent (usually a bass trap or acoustic panel) and that the mic isn’t picking up any horrible noise or reflections to the rear, and if I really want to dry things up I might have an absorber suspended above the singer. If you have acoustic treatment, it’s usually fairly easy to arrange the panels differently for the mix and recording sessions, but I realise not everyone has a dedicated studio space. A cheap but reasonably effective alternative is to erect a sort of temporary ‘booth’ out of duvets: drape them over mic stands, or anything else you have to hand — I’ve used a long‑handled brush mounted on two shelving units before!

 

Looks like the fellow isn't using the Halo correctly as it seems too far out of the enclosure as well as he has set up the demonstration really, really close to that reflective wall close to his back. Good catch and due diligence! I don't believe such a horrid result would be found in 99.9% of the spaces one would actually record a vocal in.

 

If y'all want to see my wardrobe there it is:

Same thing happens here: (timestamp 0:26)

Again it does reduce noise but only a bit — it can be excused by testing in a large room and if I knew how I would estimate the efficiency of such product in my room. By raw hearing though, I dare say that it COULD help, but not like treating the room. I just think that's not worth it for my wallet.

I also noticed that Aston Halo is nearly always reviewed inside treated rooms, where it somehow sounds great.

Eventually I could consider the following option:

 

Last edited: Jan 4, 2026 at 2:38 PM

I also did an experiment with my wardobe — I opened the doors while recording and, to my surprise, the reflections were even stronger

 

We're moving in six months and my new room will have newly plastered walls which I might not be able to fudge with, ie glue or drill up with mounting screws. If that's the case I'm going to get a Halo, definately damn the torpedoes and install a large cloud over my desk and use gobos to create a recording space and make a go at it for mixing. Bass traps I'll figure out when I get there. Not quite a room within a room, but it will be controlled to an extent. Molton curtains at the widow are a go.

The room right now, LOL.

 

I have recorded 2 videos with me clapping, as you never heard my room actually. I dare say clap is potentially good example to showcase the room acoustics. I know you do it too

Embedded audio is 320k/bs 48 kHz, unless Vegas Pro or Streamable broke something.

XY:

MS:

 

Add a small rug for the floor and a 1x1 meter absorber to the ceiling!

 

Flat or very fluffy?

 

Which one? Pyramid-coned, flat or rowed?

Damn there's so much to debate about

 

Perhaps the doors of the wardrobe created a nice bouncing of sound between them and were shot back into the room.

The fellow in the video wayyy overpaid for the Halo he bought. I can get one here for like 220 bucks including tax. https://www.musicstore.com/de_CH/CH...Mgli41knOZS4gJw41x-z2l8yELY1xFNkaAhLwEALw_wcB

If you spent maybe 400 you could control the room and wouldn't need the Halo.

If you live anywhere near me my choice of sound absorption material would be something called Top Phon Whisper. It's rigged, won't mold and hold on to moisture and can be handled easily. It's also much less expensive, also works like a charm. Here's the numbers which are stellar.


Everything is kinda up for grabs right now, my number one choice is to pick up the 5 cm thickness 1200 x 400 cm and attach them in strategic places with 5 x 5 x 250 cm strips of wood. By doing so it creates a dead space between the wall and the Whisper which adds to it's working numbers.

 

HOFA Absorber Natural - 95,00 €
https://hofa-akustik.de/en/shop/studio-line-en/absorber/

casa pura® Barcelona Shaggy Stair Mats Protection for Steps Soft Deep Pile GUT seal and Blue Angel Half Round Single or as a Set Many Colours - 21,90 EUR
https://www.amazon.de/casa-pura-Fla...43599&sr=8-5&th=1&language=en_GB&currency=EUR

 

DoubleTake has a point, what is it you don't like about the sound in the room when you record?

isToo much reverb?
Loud echo?
Just generally cold sounding?
Noise from outside?
Unknown hum?

You're not just acoustically treating the room just because you heard that's what people do are you? That's a good way to waste money.

 

Good idea, except you're pointing the mic at two solid walls, which is bad because solid walls are where the reflections will be coming from even if you absorb a lot of them, and even if you're singing away from it (up to around 1khz at least), and also because pressure tends to build up in those areas, and depending on the actual distance you may begin to hear dips and peaks on specific frequencies. If it was the other way round though....That's why i suggested free standing pannels, so you can put them directly behind you while at the same time being away solid walls.

Yeah, that works better the more stuff you have inside it.

You'd need an omnidirectional mic in a few different positions for that to give up any relevant data. That, or use the mic you record vocals with, in the same position you'd use it when recording vocal (which will only showcase that specific point and position for that specific mic).

Goddam Europe always gets the nice stuff. All i get is carton eggs and dog fur.

 

What do you think about the following scheme?



White squares are 3cm 25kg/m³ absorber panels

Black strokes are 6cm (couldn't find thinner in price/size ratio at my local seller) foam bass traps

Back is untreated as I don't want to mess around with my wardrobes yet

I also share original image if you want to draw since I act like 5 year old