Quiet Time for Recording

[islandguitar]

As with others, over the years, I've also had to contend with this issue. Given our neighborhood....especially busy in the summer along with heat/humidity, I've given in to recording in cooler weather and less active neighborhood activity and that seems to work. My set-up is in our dining room, which is not used a whole lot in the off season and I leave it set up for periods of time in fall, winter and early spring.
recording is usually in the evening, to late evenings when things have quieted down and my wife heads to bed early. I'm one who kind of "builds" to getting recording done.....tapping into energy and the "itch" to make something happen that I've been working on and practicing intently.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by johnnydobbers

How to you find it. How do you deal with the interrurptions of life?

Much like anything in life, you have to make time for it if it’s important to you. Set a time to do it & don’t let other things encroach on that time.

[Glennwillow]

When I finally built a separate studio outside of our home, that helped a lot both in allowing me more quiet and not exposing the rest of the family to my noise. A separate studio is a huge step.

I am retired now so I can record whenever I feel like it. But when I was younger and working full time, I tended to stay up late into the night to get things done. I was tired a lot at work, but I still managed to do a good job. But... I was a whole lot younger then. I also did a huge amount of recording over the weekends.

- Glenn

[johnnydobbers]

Thanks for all the replies.

My wife is gone for a few weeks on work related travel, and I figured it would be the perfect time to hammer out some serious recording.

Not so! At first it was the random delivery/garbage truck noise, neighbors doing yardwork, car alarms going off, or dogs barking in the daytime. So I shifted my schedule a bit to spend time in the studio after hours. And now my 2 cats won't stop yowling and trying to get into my studio room, and there have been sever thunderstorms 3 nights in a row. I also get pressured by family to leave my phone on for texts/calls which is distracting.

Yep, a seperate studio is the final step.

Vent over haha

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by johnnydobbers

Thanks for all the replies.

My wife is gone for a few weeks on work related travel, and I figured it would be the perfect time to hammer out some serious recording.

Not so! At first it was the random delivery/garbage truck noise, neighbors doing yardwork, car alarms going off, or dogs barking in the daytime. So I shifted my schedule a bit to spend time in the studio after hours. And now my 2 cats won't stop yowling and trying to get into my studio room, and there have been sever thunderstorms 3 nights in a row. I also get pressured by family to leave my phone on for texts/calls which is distracting.

Yep, a seperate studio is the final step.

Vent over haha

You could always rent some studio time. You're likely to get much better results with a pro engineer working your recording. Plus, the room & mic collection will be much better than you'll likely get in a home setup.


People are so focused on the DIY method they forget that this is an option.

[Doug Young]

My studio space is fairly isolated from outside noises. We originally built the space - a "room in a room" in the garage, so it's double insulated - for my son's punk band to practice in. Somehow our neighbors didn't appreciate a garage full of half-stacks blasting away. Once built, you could stand outside the house while they were playing, and barely hear them. That works in reverse as well, so I don't hear much, unless gardeners are using leaf blowers right up against the house. Sounds from inside the house is another matter. If my wife is doing laundry, I'm sunk. I mostly record at night, once the house is calmed down, the air conditioning isn't going to be running, and I give my wife a heads up that I'll be recording. Mostly works out.

I shoot videos in a totally different situation, just a spare bedroom, no soundproofing, no acoustic treatment. There, I hear traffic, airplanes, etc. Just usually shoot late at night, and try to dodge the noises. You can always do another take.

[turtlejimmy]

Originally Posted by johnnydobbers

How to you find it. How do you deal with the interrurptions of life?

It can be a problem even with a mostly soundproofed space. In my last "studio" I was keeping out just about everything, right in the middle of a song, when a helicopter flew over. I can't keep that out, or small planes, or my neighbor slamming her door. It happened so often with my neighbor that I considered buying her some therapy sessions.

The middle of the night? That can be a lot quieter, depending on where you are.


Turtle

[raysachs]

The photo below is both where I play 95% of the time and where I record. My recordings are sub-demo level recordings to begin with so I'm not too anal about minor traffic noise or neighborhood sounds. We live in a condo in an urban area, but a little bit off the road, so it's not typically loud here. If there are people maintaining the grounds using leaf blowers or mowers or my neighbor is revving his Harley before he takes off on it, or if an Amazon truck has it's back up beeps going in the driveway outside the window - IOW if things are REALLY loud, I'll just wait them out. Short of that, noise isn't typically a problem. I have some recordings where the music will drown out any background noise, but right when I finish, there may be a second or two of neighbors conversation outside the window if it happens to be open. Also, I'm retired, so I can record more or less whenever I want. My wife is usually around when I'm playing or recording, but if she's watching tv or listening to the radio or one of her audio books downstairs, that never seems to bleed through.

In short, noise isn't a big problem, audio quality isn't a big concern, and I can record whenever I want, so occasionally I'll get some background noise on a recording, but not the level that it's a distraction or problem.

IMG_3134 by Ray, on Flickr

-Ray

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

When I finally built a separate studio outside of our home, that helped a lot both in allowing me more quiet and not exposing the rest of the family to my noise. A separate studio is a huge step.

- Glenn

We are contemplating building a second residence on our property and if we do both my wife and I will get dedicated studios (Art for her) (Music for me )
Thats the good news, the bad news is it will not likely happen until spring 2024

[Silly Moustache]

A dog! barks all the time. These people held onto another dog which howled in pain for months before it died.
now they have another.

They are cruel idiots. I've reported them to noise pollution office - no response.

It has caused me to restrict my playing for fun, and my recording for you tube.

I can't tell you how many takes have been ruined by their dog and how many sleepless nights!

This is possible one of my last summers and they've ruined it.

[Joe Beamish]

The dog needs to vocalize its sufferings for all to hear. A basic right.

[Alter]

My solution has been to record direct, and use IRs. Not as good as mics, but good enough. My house is quiet, but I have to setup the mics to a separate room, or use a laptop, or the mics do pick up the PC noise (just a tad!). Too much carrying...!

Here's some results of this (with my very mediocre mixing skills), all recorded direct to soundcard at home. Not too bad for YouTube, and certainly free of piezo quack (all these guitars use just a piezo).

Acoustic:



Classical:



And a live gig where I recorded both guitars direct from the amps outputs, hard panned to a ZOOM H-1, and then mixed them using IRs on Reaper: