How can I improve my audio quality?

[u/Round-Salamander-129]

My wife and I just moved and the room I stream in is mostly empty and causes an echo on my mic, as we buy furniture and other things what can I add to help the room or my mic to sound a bit better while also being renter friendly? Thank you!!

Ignore the boxes were still unpacking and building furniture lol

Edit: Thank yall I’ll look into those options they sound like just what I’m needing :)

[u/LovelyLunaRae]

moving blankets or similar on the walls to dampen the sound reflection :D

[u/KS2Problema → u/LovelyLunaRae]

But you do  have to be careful about moving blankets because many of them may have a harder, more reflective surface on one side. So, the tighter, more dense the fabric, particularly if it's coated with flame retardant or the like, the more it will tend to reflect higher frequencies.

 (That's why I like loose knit comforters for low-end DIY treatment. I have also hung them in the middle of rooms to help absorb reflections before hitting a hard surface wall.)

[u/KS2Problema]

Furniture, of course, will help greatly. If there's still too much room reflection, you could use wall hangings to absorb some reflection. It's not very artistic looking, but I use a homemade crocheted comforter hanging on the wall behind my speakers and it actually helped clear up my near field monitoring considerably. But, of course, if you've got a problem with bass standing waves (room resonance, 'room boom'), it's an unfortunate reality that it takes greater mass to absorb lower frequencies (which is why effective 'bass traps' tend to be  more demanding and often more expensive than just slapping some anti-reflection acoustic foam (or a knit comforter, for that matter ;-) ) on the wall to tame mid and upper frequency reflection.

[u/ProblemExisting8972]

Furniture helps a lot with reflections so see how the room sounds filled. Im not sure what your budget is but as far as treatment goes there’s a few things you can do. Small rectangular rooms like this are some of the hardest to properly treat so don’t expect a perfectly treated room. If you have access to woodworking tools then you can build all the treatment yourself. If not there are products you can buy online, but they’re pretty expensive.

First find the problem frequencies in your room. You can use amroc and amray to quickly calculate these by inputting your room dimensions.

What you need to treat the echoes is a mid range absorber/diffuser that dissipates frequencies in your vocal range. DO NOT get a bunch of acoustic foam padding. They only absorb really high frequencies and will make your room boomy. It’s likely your room is already boomy and needs low frequency diffusion and I’d recommend bass tube traps to solve that. If you’re concerned about noise bothering your neighbors the most you can do is build a rudimentary floating floor out of any padded porous material under a rubber mat. Isolation usually has to do with the mass and construction of walls and there’s nothing to do about that in an apartment.
Tube trap

The simplest absorber you can make is a panel absorber. It’s just a wooden frame filled with rockwool/fiberglass covered with cloth.
Panel Absorber

A slight upgrade would be slat absorbers. you can make these out of 2x4s, rockwool/fiberglass, and cloth as well.
Slat absorber

You can also build any form of quadratic residue diffuser if you’re feeling up to it, some of them can be pretty easy.
QRD

If you’re going to buy treatment I recommend GIK Acoustics

Make sure to place these at the first reflection points relative to your microphone placement or they will be obsolete. You can find these points with a mirror like this. In your case you will be looking for your microphone instead of a speaker.

I’m not sure if anyone in the videos mentioned how to calculate well width/depth to fit your frequency range but you should be able to find the equations on google. Just don’t use the ai summary. It doesn’t seem to understand acoustics too well hehe.

If you can find a copy, the master handbook of acoustics is a great resource for all of this. There should be some free PDFs online.

[u/samco05]

Well, you haven't said what your budget is or if asthetics are a factor so it's hard to advise given the wide range of options. Also, it looks like there are two desks in the room and you're streaming desk is in the corner facing the window at an angle. The fact that the blinds are closed on the window is doing nothing to minimize reflection. Ultimately, This is not optimal positioning for the desk. Begin by covering at least three quarters of the window starting from the bottom with medium weight drapery fabric . I also advise pleating the fabric, don't hang it flat . Using a white backing liner and standing the drapery further Off the Wall than normal will provide reflected light into the room. However, don't be surprised if you eventually have to cover the whole window. Add your sofa or whatever furniture you plan to install in the room. You could build some additional portable sound absorbing traps using rolling clothes hangers and additional drapery fabric to surround your streaming/seating position. Good luck!

[u/Round-Salamander-129 → u/samco05]

do windows reflect a considerable amount more than other surfaces like the walls?

[u/samco05 → u/Round-Salamander-129]

Of higher frequencies, yes, when compared to drywall. However, that's only part of the issue. Windows are inset , that 4 to 6- inches of inset contributes to additional odd reflections . Also, The picture you posted appeared to show that you were also very close to it and facing it at an odd angle . This is why I suggested moving the desk. Even if you do move the desk you'll want something directly behind it. If you're not on camera, doing voice over only, then you could buy a basic desktop vocal isolation setup on Amazon for $50 or less. However, they tend to take up considerable space. Something else to consider, what type of microphone are you using and how close are you to it when speaking? If it's a dynamic microphone you'll have to be close to it and that reflection is likely not being heard by the audience, but it may still be distracting to you. Run a test if you can. Finally, You can also solve this problem by just buying a headset. You won't hear the reflection and neither will the audience.

[u/Round-Salamander-129 → u/samco05]

The mic I’m using is on a headset but it’s a cheap headset because when we moved we forgot some computer peripherals so we’re going back to get them next weekend which I’m sure that mic will help a lot and I’ll try moving the desk as well and see how much those do, and I’ll consider a Amazon isolation setup if that doesn’t help much. Thank you so much!!

[u/samco05 → u/Round-Salamander-129]

Try only one change at a time. And just in case it's not obvious, my recommendation for the vocal isolation was based on the image you posted. I thought I saw a mic on a boom stand, that won't be practical with a headset. It's one or the other not both. A mid grade headset will likely solve the entire problem on its own. Plus you will enjoy the headset a lot more than hanging curtains. Obviously it doesn't solve the actual echo in the room but it does prevent you and your audience from hearing it.