Hello sound lovers!

I set up my home studio about a year ago and I am getting better and better with my mixes, that's good. But I feel like what prevents me to get even better mixes is the acoustics of my 'room' that make my vocals very boomy. My vocal booth is a tiny room/closet with dimensions 3 m (length) x 1.05 m (width) x 2.70 m (height). Since it is a closet, there are a bunch of stuff (clothes, sheets, bags ..) on the shelves. I covered the walls and the ceiling with 80 acoustic foams (30 kg / m³) link here and two bass trap that I put on the floor at two angles of the room. Since there is a wooden floor, I also put a thick carpet on the floor. When I record, I usually put my pop filter 5 cm away from my mic and put myself ~9-10 cm away from the pop filter.

My hardware chain is: pop filter -> RODE NT1-1 -> Golden Age PRE-73 Jr -> Klark Teknik 76-KT -> Focusrite 2i2.

Here are some photos of my room:
https://imgur.com/a/q2UDLKO

And here is a snippet of my raw vocals


As you can hear the vocals are very boomy with a awful dominance of the 100-300 Hz frequencies. I know that the RODE NT1-A has a boost in this frequencies but I still believe that the acoustics of my room has a big role to play in this. The problem comes in the mix: I have to make a drastic bell cut in this range to make the vocals sound less boomy. But the cut is so drastic that the vocals start to sound harsh and so I have to cut some high frequency etc.. It very quickly becomes a nightmare.

I would love to get insights from you guys about how to improve my room acoustics.

Best,
Izem

 

My room:
A lot of Rockwool panels with 3 types of density (about 45, about 65 and few pieces of 100-110) - walls, corners (wall/wall and wall/ceiling) as bass traps, and extra rockwool cushions, + full ceiling with pyramid 4.5 inches acoustic foam, + floor carpet, soft toys, sofa, clothing, bed cushions and other rag sh"t. 97% deaf room with almost no reflections. Room is small, about 11 or 12 sq meters, 2.5 meter height.
I have rode nt2-a, 2 interfaces. Usually i use cardioid type than omni round, but both sounds great in my room.
Sometimes it is bassy and muddy in lowmids, it is so because you are too close to mic (try 20-25 cm or even 30). Usually mic should be in front of you, at the level of mouth, not at level of throat (more bassy) or eyes. This may help you, maybe improvements in 30-40% or even more. Also i heard that it is better not to record at the centre of room, but slightly closer to wall. Cardioid pattern shouldn't capture roomy sound, only your vox; more room for omni round patterns or figure 8.
Preamp settings, equing.
Many other factors as well.
By the way, your room is weird, but there are lots of absorbing materials) try more distance, to be far from mic, 20-30 cm. Closer to mic - mooore bass and boominess. Try extra material in the corner, more traps etc. Maybe corner adds some xtra bass reflections, i dontknow) difficult to say.
And remember, foam is good for highs, mid highs, some reflections, not for lows/mids absorptions. Foam is just an extra. Buy a rockwool with more density (40-80, or so, not more, maybe 100kg/m3 is also ok but it may give you some reflection, instead of useful absorption, because it is too dense, rocky, not to soft...), so use density more than soft and more than foam, and less than too dense. AND try 2 or even 3 layers of rockwool. More traps in corners. Corners are source of boominess.
Rockwool is also way cheaper than foam and waaay more effective.
Don't want to do panels? Make several rockwool cushions, wrap into cloth, rags and staple them. A lot of variants. You can use foam above your rockwool hahaha)

 

Last edited: Jul 22, 2020

Also, watch this video made by some guy. Comparison of no treatment vs rockwool vs rockwool/acoustic cloth vs all this stuff with foam, traps, then with carpet. Good vid.
Also rode, but same model as mine.