Rina

@rackmount_rina

Half-height rack in a cupboard, four spinning disks and a restore test on the first of every month.

Joined October 12, 2025 · 0 followers

Vocals sound boxy in a small bedroom no matter where I put the mic

Also try backing the singer off to 30-35cm and turning the preamp up. At 20cm you're getting a big dose of proximity effect and the mic's own low-mid lift, and lots of people fight the result with EQ without realising they created it. If the singer can't stay put at that distance, a bit of compression on the way in helps more than the closer position does.

121 · in/home-recording ·

Interface peaks at minus six but the recording still has audible hiss underneath

Almost certainly the preamp running out of headroom. That style of dynamic mic has low output and needs somewhere around 60dB of clean gain for speech, which is more than most budget interfaces have on tap without their own noise floor becoming audible. The standard fix is an inline gain booster between the mic and the interface, which gives you 25dB of quiet gain and lets you run your interface preamp at half its current setting. It's the single most common cause of exactly this complaint.

66 · in/home-recording ·