Author Topic: Where to get a quiet environment?  (Read 1338 times)

Brad Carpenter

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Where to get a quiet environment?
« on: February 02, 2018, 07:01:51 pm »
Hi, I'm having difficulty trying to find a quiet place to do a podcast from.

I live in an apartment which is too noisy most of the time to do a podcast from. There's just too much commotion around me.

My plan is to do remote guest interviews using zencastr or ringr. These requires a strong internet connection. I contacted my local library about booking meeting rooms, but their internet connection in meeting rooms are wireless. I'm not sure if wireless would work.

Short of building my own isolation booth, can anyone suggest any other possible venue of getting a quiet place? Could I rent a recording studio? How much would that cost?

Thanks for any advice.

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Where to get a quiet environment?
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2018, 07:09:17 pm »
What kind of noises are you having trouble with? Is it stuff like trains, planes, cars, etc.? Or is it people in neighboring apartments? Something else?

Brad Carpenter

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Re: Where to get a quiet environment?
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2018, 07:15:13 pm »
Interior noises.

I live on a quiet street in a quiet area. But it's things like heavy footsteps on the ceiling above me from upstairs neighbor, flushing toilets, showers, and coming/going through hallway door.

Most of these are low frequency sounds, which I fear would be picked up, even by a dynamic mic.

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Where to get a quiet environment?
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2018, 01:53:11 pm »
My mixer has a built-in noise gate and I've had good success eliminating many "ambient" sounds around me. I don't live in an apartment building but most of my neighbors are not far away. The gate helps to cut down on noises from outside. I record in the same room with my refrigerator, and I no longer feel the need to unplug the fridge, thanks to the noise gate. The gate can even block out the noise my furnace makes when it comes on. However, the gate does nothing for louder sounds like cars, planes, and trains. All of which can be present in my area. Most DAWs come with noise gate plugins you can experiment with to see if they help.

Building an iso booth may help. In your case, you're looking to keep sound out, so you'd want to make sure the booth has walls that are somewhat thick. The key to keeping outside sounds from being picked up shaving enough mass between your recording area and the outside world. Just building a box and soundproofing the inside of it may not be enough.

Brad Carpenter

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Re: Where to get a quiet environment?
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2018, 06:14:46 pm »
Thanks.  How does the noise gate work if you are speaking into the mic while there's background noise? How does it distinguish between your voice and background noise?

Is a noise gate common on most mixers, or only the more expensive ones?

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Where to get a quiet environment?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2018, 12:48:44 pm »
I wouldn't say noise gats are common in most mixers. The mixer I have is a Behringer X-18 and it has a number of built-in effects, including a gate. Still you can always take an existing recording with some of the problematic noise and use a noise gate plugin within whatever audio-recording software you're already using.

Noise gates sorta work like windows. The more you open a window, the more air will come thru. The wider you open a noise gate, the more overall sound it lets pass thru. You'll be closer to your microphone than the background noises you're trying to eliminate. You set the sensitivity level of the gate while talking into it. Once you hear your voice starting to cut out, you've set to the gate to high. At that point, you turn the gate down and you can see how well it works to cut out background noises. If the noises are really loud, it won't help. But it still may block some of those unwanted noises from making it to your final mixdown.