Regretted buying a Reflection Filter?

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MrFigg
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05 Oct 2019

When I bought Reason 4 I asked some professional musician friends advice on what sort of equipment I should be looking at for recording songs at home. Headphones, mics, midi-controllers...what makes they could recommend. One of the guys I know said...”get a reflection filter. Your gonna need one of them”. So I did. An SE Electronics. I used it but to be honest I never really heard a noticeable difference. I recently read a load of articles and watched a few videos which discussed whether reflection filters were actually any use to which the general consensus was that they weren’t. The old hang a quilt or a carpet behind the singer trick gave much better results.
So...anybody got any views positive, negative or neutral? :)
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selig
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05 Oct 2019

MrFigg wrote:
05 Oct 2019
When I bought Reason 4 I asked some professional musician friends advice on what sort of equipment I should be looking at for recording songs at home. Headphones, mics, midi-controllers...what makes they could recommend. One of the guys I know said...”get a reflection filter. Your gonna need one of them”. So I did. An SE Electronics. I used it but to be honest I never really heard a noticeable difference. I recently read a load of articles and watched a few videos which discussed whether reflection filters were actually any use to which the general consensus was that they weren’t. The old hang a quilt or a carpet behind the singer trick gave much better results.
So...anybody got any views positive, negative or neutral? :)
I'd say negative, basically. I learned not to put anything near a microphone because it would affect the response of the microphone and possibly add comb filtering. I've never seen these sort of "tools" really work either, and it's probably because it would take far more mass to effectively absorb a significant amount of reflections in a room. At best it would function as a weak low pass filter, absorbing a little HF energy, possibly causing as many problems as solving IMO.

I agree that blankets/quilts do as much, if not more, than these things. ;)
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guitfnky
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05 Oct 2019

some decent sound treatment in the room you record in will do the trick. many of us record in the same room we mix in, so if that’s the case, you’re doubling the favor to yourself by treating. plus it leaves a little bit of natural room sound in the signal (as long as you haven’t overdone it with the treatment), which will keep the track from feeling too sterile, while leaving it clean enough to work with.

of course, blankets work too. 🙃
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diminished
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05 Oct 2019

I have a bookshelf behind my mic = lots of nice diffusion :)
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MrFigg
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05 Oct 2019

Hmmmm. S’what I’ve suspected for a while. Oh well, reflection filter in the bin. Time to glue egg cartons on the walls and buy an old heavy carpet :).
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joeyluck
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05 Oct 2019

I have one and it works well for me. Comes in handy when I'm recording on the go. I often record voiceovers in costume storage rooms or dressing rooms.

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MrFigg
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06 Oct 2019

joeyluck wrote:
05 Oct 2019
I have one and it works well for me. Comes in handy when I'm recording on the go. I often record voiceovers in costume storage rooms or dressing rooms.
That’s good too. Wonder if I’m maybe using it wrong. There is a lot of echo in my “studio”. That said I’m guessing if you record in costume storage rooms there’s a lot of clothes and stuff to absorb the sound anyway?
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botnotbot
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06 Oct 2019

I have heard that there is a vast difference between the entry level reflection filters (even the ones from sE) and their "official" reflection filters. I took this advice and I definitely prefer the sound of recording with the filter that I have. There are no options for treatment in my current space and I can definitely say that the reflection filter is a net benefit in this context.

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selig
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06 Oct 2019

MrFigg wrote:
06 Oct 2019
joeyluck wrote:
05 Oct 2019
I have one and it works well for me. Comes in handy when I'm recording on the go. I often record voiceovers in costume storage rooms or dressing rooms.
That’s good too. Wonder if I’m maybe using it wrong. There is a lot of echo in my “studio”. That said I’m guessing if you record in costume storage rooms there’s a lot of clothes and stuff to absorb the sound anyway?
It could also have to do with the microphone/pattern you use, since users have varying degrees of success with these things, at least anecdotally (or maybe the result is subtle enough for some to not hear it).

Maybe it would be safer to say that there is no substitute for proper treatments, but in some cases a well designed "reflection filter" can begin to mitigate some of these issues (better than nothing at all in some cases).

For example, if the mic is directional, then putting a filter BEHIND the mic will affect it's ability to reject sound from behind because this is how it becomes directional in the first place. The result could be more sensitivity to sounds from all directions, including above/below (which is NOT controlled by the reflection filter).

It's the sound coming from in FRONT of the microphone you're trying to control, right? That's why putting absorption BEHIND the singer (not the microphone) often yields better results. This is also why live stage monitors are placed directly behind the microphone (from the perspective of the pickup pattern). This would imply that ideally one should use the OPPOSITE of a reflection filter, that is to say a curved absorption panel BEHIND the singer where the microphone is most sensitive, allowing the room sound to enter the rear of the mic at the point of the most rejection in the pickup pattern (to cancel it out as much room noise as possible).

Ideally, a "cone of silence" (see "Get Smart") lined with insulation would be best because it would more fully remove the room from the equation, essentially creating a new "dead" space around the microphone/performer! ;)
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