[Harp-L] Inexpensive alternative to treating your room for recording

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Many of the people reading this occasionally record harmonica at home.  A significant issue for acoustic harmonica (or any acoustic instrument) is that most home recording studios operate from untreated rooms that introduce very audible frequency peaks and troughs into the signal, not to mention unwanted echoes.  

One solution for a bad room is to use a mic like the Audix Fireball, which produces a very nice "acoustic" harmonica sound when hand-held.  Hand-holding the mic excludes reflections from the room, so you get a clean acoustic sound.

But what if you're recording vocals, or prefer to use a mic that's not easily handheld, like a large diaphragm condenser mic or a ribbon mic?  For players who prefer to play in front of the mic, there's a useful and relatively inexpensive alternative to treating the room (which can easily cost a thousand dollars or more).  This Christmas I treated myself to an sE Electronics Reflexion Filter.  This device costs about $120, attaches easily to a mic stand, and does a lot more than I expected for the price to isolate a microphone from room reflections.   

The device basically surrounds the mic with a semi-circular frame containing a clever arrangement of foam plastic that prevents room reflections from the back and sides from reaching the mic.  You can hear the difference as soon as you step in front of the mic with the device in place; the zone right in front of the mic sounds utterly echo-less, while stepping to the side for a moment reveals all the reflections that the filter has eliminated.

This thing is a very useful and reasonably priced way to improve the quality of "acoustic" harmonica tracks and vocals, and if you're having trouble getting decent sounds in your home studio, you might want to check it out.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ReflexionX

regards, Richard Hunter

author, "Jazz Harp" (Oak Publications, NYC)
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