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Bob,
While I respect your recording background and your success using a noise gate, a noise gate approach on microphone recordings will only take out what shouldn't be there after the vocal or other source drops below the threshold level set on the gate. If you're in a basement with a low ceiling, or up near a reflective wall, those early reflections easily get into the recording while the gate is open particularly with large diaphragm condenser microphones that while advertised as cardioid in response, have a quite broad response pattern.
I close mic, and I use some treatment. Without the treatment, I don't like the sound of the recorded tracks - and I'm not talking noise in the background.
I'm glad your approach works for you. I find that similarly with recording acoustic instruments in a large enough room away from walls and ceiling, I can use a good ol dynamic microphone like the EV PL model that I have and get a very good recording without treatment OR a gated approach. Haven't tried that with vocals yet, but I will be next month.
-Scott
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Journeyman
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I'm not a big fan of gates on vocals myself. I almost always will edit the wave file manually to remove all but the vocal passages.
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Quote:
Bob,
While I respect your recording background and your success using a noise gate, a noise gate approach on microphone recordings will only take out what shouldn't be there after the vocal or other source drops below the threshold level set on the gate. If you're in a basement with a low ceiling, or up near a reflective wall, those early reflections easily get into the recording while the gate is open particularly with large diaphragm condenser microphones that while advertised as cardioid in response, have a quite broad response pattern.
I close mic, and I use some treatment. Without the treatment, I don't like the sound of the recorded tracks - and I'm not talking noise in the background.
I'm glad your approach works for you. I find that similarly with recording acoustic instruments in a large enough room away from walls and ceiling, I can use a good ol dynamic microphone like the EV PL model that I have and get a very good recording without treatment OR a gated approach. Haven't tried that with vocals yet, but I will be next month.
-Scott
Scott,
If I had a proper studio with poured cement, suspended floors and total isolation, I might worry about 'early reflections'. As it is, I'm only making song demos for publishers, and doing it on a tight budget. I spent quite a few years trying to perfect the art of recording, only to find it severely detracted from the art of writing. Now I'm content in having demos that I can pitch. Anything that evokes publishing interest will be re-cut anyway, so these are just sketches.
A properly set up gate can make a great difference in recording audio in a less-than-ideal space. That's where I generally record! 
Regards,
Bob
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If you have a terrible room, try moving the mic to the hallway and open every door in the hallway.
Has worked for me before. If you can get a door directly at end of hallway to leave open it's a plus..
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Journeyman
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Interesting tip rharv ! Don't have any hallways to speak of in my small house but I get the concept.
Going to use three boom stands and drape blankets over them for a makeshift 'booth'. Should be OK for my needs. I'll do something short of room treatment for sure.
Thanks guys !
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Mitch,
I do that using comforters draped over - except I use tall cheap plastic garment racks from Wmart that have wheels and I can easily roll them out of the way when not using.
Josie
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Mitch, do you not have a closet in your recording room? Make sure there are plenty of clothes hanging in the closet, open the door, and stick the mic in the open doorway. Could save you some work. Another trick I've seen used before - if you have sofa in the room, see if you can stand it up on end - instant half-booth. Or make your own GOBO - here's mine - nice looking side courtesy of a throw rug purchased at IKEA - the horizontal one on the wall is an anti-flutter device I made from 1"x2" with the rug stretched over it and stapled to it - hung about 4" out away from the wall. The GOBO is the vertical frame with the same IKEA rug on one side.  Here's the back side with 4" acoustic wedge foam scavenged from the garbage at work.  Click the thumbnails for larger versions.
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