@johnebaker

Hi John.

Have you considered an acoustic baffle behind the mic? They can be very convenient and reasonably effective without the need to alter a room.

https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/sE-Electronics-RF-X-Reflexion-Filter-X/OV5?origin=product-ads&campaign=PLA+Shop+-+GENERIC&adgroup=GENERIC&medium=vertical_search&network=google&merchant_id=1279443&product_id=32225d1&product_country=GB&product_partition_id=331487372155&gclid=CjwKCAiAob3vBRAUEiwAIbs5TnnTn5MB1X56MXHB9n5pj13jrMWkg6FShAcR3hmug5HzrEp4InllDxoCZPgQAvD_BwE

Ah! I avoided anything after Win 7 Windows up to the present. I find this whole 'Lets hide everything behind another layer' very aggravating. It's like the song lyric,

'Meet the new boss.

Same as the old boss.

Only fatter'. 😉

Ray.

@browj2

Grief! I don't know when I'm well off 😂

I'm sitting in my room and the loudest thing I can hear is the ringing in my ears. If I want a more lively sound I can go into the kitchen. Dead but not base heavy sound from my lounge, and slight reverb from my bathroom.

Don't know what to suggest short of speaking into a large cardboard box.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

. . . . Have you considered an acoustic baffle behind the mic? They can be very convenient and reasonably effective without the need to alter a room. . . . .

Echo is the biggest problem - there is very little sound absorbing material in the room.

I do not need to alter the room, just dampen the echo.

The main problem is the room is small and whatever I do must not clash with the decor - I have my instructions!!! 😉

After a lot of research, the best way I can do this is with 2 or 3 sound absorbing panels, I do want some pictures I took in Australia printing and hanging up so what better way to make sound absorbing panels and have the panels clad with printed loudspeaker cloth so they will look like pictures when hung on the walls, an optional ceiling panel also with printed front grille can be made as a concealed lighting feature.

Currently they are low priority on my list of jobs to do - getting my workshop finished has top priority, then ..... and ........ etc.

John EB

@johnebaker

Fair enough, I was a bit off topic asking in the first place. We all have 'Priorities' we have to stick to for a harmonious home life. 😇.

Just out of interest, how many of you use NeatVideo? I am thinking I am starting to have need of it.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

. . . . I was a bit off topic asking in the first place . . .

No problem asking - however we can take it off topic - especially if you have other suggestions to get rid of the echo.

I use NeatVideo Pro , needed for 4K video, it is very good at denoising, however it really does kill the rendering speed, we are talking down to rates of 2 - 5 fpseg

1920x 1080 h.264 25fps AVCHD clip 17s:17fr long takes 1m 21s to render to mp4 same resolution and framerate - average render rate 5.45 fps using the UHD 630 iGPU

HTH

John EB

@johnebaker

Hi John.

The most economical way to combat reverb ( I can't believe your room is so large you actually have echo unless you are Lord John XXX with some sort of stately Pile 😁) is to use close microphone techniques. Lavaliere or headphone boom mounted would be the most popular. A close mic means good initial volume and subsequent reflections much softer and less likely to be picked up at normal recording levels for human voice. Just the use of a foam cover for the mike head and placed to one side of the mouth to reduce plosives. Both techniques can produce bass heavy input and breath noise may be increased slightly but overall there are a few good cheap mics out there from relatively new microphone manufacturers such as the Saramonic SR-MX-1, and the Pro JK MIC-J 044 Lavaliere Lapel mics that are good value for money coming in at under £25:00. I also went the DIY route and made my own from an old LED torch and a couple of high quality electret mic capsules from micbooster.com (FEL communications ltd England) and used very low noise, omni-directional, EM172 mic capsules at under £12 each. They can be bought with pre-soldered leads if need be. They also have mic casings, leads, synthetic ears for binaural recordings and specialist mic amps. I have several of these types of mics that are so cheap I take them with me and I don't worry about damage or loss or lack of quality. Wind muff material from Neweer, if you can ever find any, is very good quality at reasonable prices. If not, the Rhode heavy duty fur is next best but pricier.

The guard I mentioned above stops reflections from back and sides. Floor and ceilings could still be a problem but again, with the use of close miking and possibly a spit guard for close up work is quite effective. When I worked in studios, drum booths were always reflective of sound to give a live feel but individual mics had to be isolated from drum to drum to prevent over-spill in a mix. Similar principles were applied.

But if you really want to dull down a room you can't beat thick carpet or heavy floor length velvet curtains. The main problem is parallel walls. Anything large to break up the shape works to a degree and ceilings are not a problem if you have deep, soft floor coverings.

Big sofas,(not leather) large scatter cushions, bean bags, all good.

Anything with large hard surfaces are bad.

Higher frequencies are easy to absorb and low frequencies down to what you can hear are near nigh impossible to preclude unless you happen to have about three feet of space free to load rockwool into. Never get too clinical, really dead rooms sound bad. Voices are presented in a void that listeners find a bit disturbing without realising why. Listen to some TV adverts on headphones to see why.

Things I've done in the past when much younger was to drape a duvet over me. Record voice under the bed covers. Use egg boxes all around the inside of a garage. My friends and I erected an old greenhouse inside a garage to use as a drum booth alongside an old concrete coal bunker to house bass and lead guitar amps into.

But today I have to adhere to conducive harmonious living practices so I have my 'work room'. 😂

I think I would have to go for the pro version of NeatVideo for the 4K but also for the unlimited use license.

How do you think it would cope with this?

[Edit]

Have now changed the video to the one on show. Main changes are audio music clips changed to avoid copyright notices and video track sections altered to fit.

Yes, I did get to record some Dickens Festival. I put the opening of the Christmas Market down on the diary instead of the Dickens weekend. Doh!

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray,

I trust that you kept your pocketbook firmly attached, what with the Artful Dodger an' that.

Last Saturday night with friends, we had planned on each reading a favourite poem or a bit of prose. Since you had mentioned Dickens and with Christmas around the corner I decided to read the first couple of paragraphs of "The Christmas Carol."

Back in the fifties and early sixties, for a couple of weeks before Christmas and after supper, my mother would light a few candles and read a Stave. She had voices for all of the characters. Fond memories. My mother gave me the book in 1995, a 1915 edition of a two-story book for students.

The cover is actually darker than that.

Good video! I didn't see any need for Neat Video noise reduction.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John.

With the amount of security at these events I've never seen even a small 'incident'. Very family friendly, these events. 😂.

That sounds wonderful. You must have great memories from your childhood and that book does look early.

It's nice of you to say but I dislike the patchiness of the colour in that video more than the grain and it's mainly my fault for being lazy. I had plenty of time to sort out a manual record setting for the parade section in particular but left it in auto.

Due partially down to the temperature I was standing in, trying to keep my hands warm and partially down to the really small screen of the camera I took with me to see the settings. I should have locked down the ISO settings and shutter exposure times and then the stray bounced and direct mixed lighting would have not caused all of those exposure changes. For it's size the camera isn't bad at all and shoots really stable footage, but for a sensor that's no bigger than a phone sensor it needs care and attention paid to it in difficult shooting conditions and I just didn't do that. Still, every failure l hope eventually leads to better future footage. The only down side is I now feel a compulsion to try to do it all over again next year. What I was pleased with was the sound from my home made mic that I did bother to use for the parade. Unfortunately with that camera, I can only record mono with that camera but my home made wind shield also seemed to work well. The rest of the shots were with it's inbuilt mics.

The mic cost me about £30 to build. It's stereo and can be used with my larger camera.

This is the lightweight rig (with the above mic) I keep in my coat pockets disassembled for events like this one.

The whole lot weighs less than half a pound.

Still, it's the Santa Fun run this weekend, so no excuses. 😉

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

. . . . I can't believe your room is so large you actually have echo . . . .

Does not have to be large to get echo, it is actually quite small, however there is no sound absorption apart from the carpet, hard walls, ceiling and window.

I have been looking for something like that for several years for my sportscam, however have only found cheap chinesium junk.

Are the mic capsules in the pictures the EM172 you mention previously? I will look up your other suggestions.

For my Sony 4K camera I got the Sony ECMXYST1M stereo mic with adjustable separation, very impressed with it in windy conditions, it plugs in to the Multi Interface Shoe for both power and signal - no fly leads and is isolated from the camera body on a flexible vibration damper between the part that connects to the camera and the main body.

. . . . This is the lightweight rig (with the above mic) I keep in my coat pockets disassembled for events like this one. . . . . The whole lot weighs less than half a pound . . . .

I need to keep the weight down - can't put that kind of load on my head (ski helmet) 😂😂😂.

John EB