Big studio with reverb issues

[Don Xaliman]

Would applying this substance to a black cotton backdrop increase the reflective quality?
Presently the black eats the light and has no reflections.

[Kevin Lewis]

Depending on what type of mic your using, you may not have to sound proof the whole room. For instance, if you are using a shot gun mic, you may be able to get away with just outting th mic as close to the subject as you can, and just surround them and the mic with moving blankets. Kind of box them in.

[Jim Andrada]

Haven't tried it myself - the problem with this kind of stuff is that you never know if it works until it's too late - sort of like having a leaky lifeboat or a defective parachute I guess. And it's as they say say it's a retardant, not a preventer

[Andy Balla]

Kevin, that was my plan exactly. I'll be running a Rode NTG 3 on this shoot, which is supposed to be delivered on Monday. Fortunately, I have two other shoots before this one to get used to the mic, as well as testing it out in the actual studio space when we hold auditions there in a few weeks.

[Jon Fairhurst]

If the NTG-3 still has a hollow echo sound, try renting a Sanken CS-3e. I tried one at NAB last year and then went straight to the Sennheiser booth to try the 416 (which seems to be the design target of the NTG-3) and the difference was amazing. The 416 had a constant boomy noise from the show floor while the CS-3e background was evenly suppressed with a fairly flat response. The difference was night and day.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/all-thin...magic-mic.html

If you control the reverberation reasonably well and get the NTG-3 close to the talent, it should sound great. No need for an upgrade. But if the echo is boomy and problematic, check out the Sanken.

One difficulty is that the blankets will reduce the highs and mids, but it's the lows that can make the echo sound weird. To kill the lows, space the blankets from walls. If you have bookshelves on the set, pull them slightly from the walls. Pull the books toward the front of the shelf, leaving space behind, making poor man's bass traps.

[Andy Balla]

Well, the NTG 3 IS my upgrade for this shoot! I'm getting more confident after learning more about the set that is going in the space. I will definitely not have blankets on the walls. They will be suspended around the set, well off the walls.

[Bill Davis]

One thing I've learned over the years is that you can only "pre think" sound issues so far.

A good example was the construction of the control room of my studio. I not only built it with non-parallel walls and good isolation, I'd planned on lining the inner surfaces with reailliant channel and using Owens Corning 702 panels (which I scored from a decommissioned studio in my area) for both absorbtion and great isolation.

When phase 1 of construction was done - but before the install of the channel and 702 - I got an "emergency" gig and had to use it before completion. To my astonishment, the space sounded WONDERFUL already. So I sold the rest of the soun treatment stuff, and to this day, a decade later, I'm still using it "half finished.

The point is that The space didn't actually need what I "thought" it would need. It just needed what it needed.

Think, yes. Plan, yes. But don't ever be surprised if the answer is more OR LESS than you thought it would be.

FWIW.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Great point, Bill.

My guess is that the NTG-3 will do the trick - especially with the forethought in this project.