Choosing equipment for friend

[LRA]

Hello,

I have a friend that wants to start recording a bit of singing. She got this:
Scarlett Solo Studio | Focusrite

Well, she still needs a mic stand and the room isn't a studio for recording so I was looking at options.
I was considering something like this (but the NW-6 which sold out...)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07143T...olid=1OVBGPC8XRNKG&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

The thing is, I don't really understand or know that much about this type of equipment.
The idea was to reduce a bit of the echo going into the mic since the room isn't prepared for it.

Any advice is welcome.

 

[JonSnell Electronic]

To reduce natural reverb and echo in a room, use lots of soft furnishings, thick carpet and curtains etc.
Add baffles like egg boxes on the plain walls to absorb sound.

 

[PRR]

...to reduce a bit of the echo going into the mic since the room isn't prepared for it...

Music *wants* some reverb, room sound.

Most singers sing better when the room brings their voice back to their ears.

Singing well under headphones is a skill that takes time to acquire. Yes, that's what you see the 'professionals' do, but they stumbled their first time, and the headphone signal is usually somewhat processed (reverbed) for a more natural fold-back, and that needs skill and experience from the studio engineer.

Most home living and bed rooms have "low" reverberation which is not a problem. The room I am in is typical and I hear 0.3 seconds after a clap. Concert halls run 1 to 2 seconds. Reasonable reverb for most vocal music is 0.5 to 1.5 seconds. Reverb is often added in the mix-down.

Rooms in affordable houses do not have "echo(echo)(echo)", or not much. Echo needs a total bounce path over 35 feet/10m.

In days before good cheap artificial reverb, it was fairly common studio practice to record small groups "in the men's room"- all hard tiles, no soft fluff, with substantial reverberation.

The room reverb of most living and bed rooms is appropriate for most styles and most singers without extended studio experience.

If you truly want a DRY recording, put the mouth close to the mike. The ~~0.5 second reverb of a large domestic room acts-like 0.05 seconds when mouth is 4 inches from the mike-- that's nearly zero reverb.

Start with any medium-size "nice" room the singer is comfortable with. My singer likes her bedroom, and my (poor) ears agree it supports her pitch and balance without detracting from the sound for mike at arm's length.

That's assuming you really mean reverberation. If the problem is the trucks outside, the washer/dryer, the neighbor's kids, that's different. Blocking external sound can be VERY expensive, needing high-mass walls with zero cracks.

 

[Enzo]

One old trick used by many in radio and elsewhere is to wear the phones but slip one off the ear, listen on one side. We have talked on the phone with one ear all our lives, listening to your cue track on one ear should not be a stretch.

I agree, a touch of reverb livens the sound, but that empty room sound is not reverb. You can hear the empty room, so you need not make it a soundproof room, but you do want it to sound more like your bedroom than an empty room.

Can I suggest starting simple? If one decides to start bicycling, one gets a bike and starts pedalling. One need not start out getting special biking clothes, subscribing to biking magazines, joining bike clubs, and on and on. I suggest getting a mic and a recording unit of whatever sort, and try recording something. Don't worry about sonic improvements to the house, not yet anyway. Find out if we have difficulty singing wearing phones. (Call them "cans" if you want to be retro hip) Find out if your recorded results sound "off mic" (ie you hear the room) of not. If your room sounds OK on recordings, no need to worry further on sound proofing.

I think a condenser mic is probably good for you. I like a dynamic mic myself, so I can "work" it. But a condenser is less sensitive to proximity effect, you won't need to deal with vocal control up front. Time to delve into that is later in your learning curve.