How to Isolate Sound in a Home Recording Studio

Isolating sounds in your recording studio results in clean tracks that are easier to place in a mix. Unfortunately isolating sounds is difficult to accomplish, especially in the home studio. Here are some easy and affordable options to help you isolate sounds in your home studio.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Use different rooms. The easiest way to isolate instruments in your home studio is to place them in different physical locations. Bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens and hallways can all be good tracking areas. Make sure that whatever you are recording sounds good in the space. Also make sure any family members or pets are out of the way. Beware of the many limitations with using different rooms, though, such as cable length and external noise like HVAC units.
2. Build or buy some barriers. Sometimes called baffles or gobos, these barriers can create little rooms inside of a bigger room to increase isolation. The size of the barriers can vary; just make sure they are big enough to separate instruments from each other. Also, try padding one side and using a hard surface on the other so you can have options for a deader or more lively sound.
3. Place carpet or risers under instruments to isolate floor vibrations. This tip is especially useful for recording drums. Vibrations that travel through the floor can cause vibrations in the other microphones in the room that will create a low rumble on the recorded track. Placing your drums on a rug will help absorb some of that vibration. If you can get the drums off the floor even more, you can increase the isolation. Remember to use shock mounts on your microphones to minimize rumble.
4. Position your mics so they don't pickup other sounds. Uni-directional mics, such as cardioid mics, can help you achieve isolation. Position your instruments so that you can place your mic with its null point facing toward other instruments. Be sure you know the polar pattern of your mics well so that this technique is useful.
5. Record instruments separately. This is the best way to achieve isolation but it may diminish some of the live performance quality of having the entire band track at the same time. Try tracking drums and bass with a guide vocal and guitar. Then come back and overdub the rest of your tracks. If you can pull this method off while maintaining a good performance from your band, the mixing stage will be much easier.