Turn off any noise-emitting devices. Refrigerators, fans, televisions and cell phones emit audible and inaudible noise. Electrical devices that send and receive signals, such as cell phones, beepers and two-way radios, also may interfere with the recording, even when set to "silent." Place these items in another room, if possible, or turn all the devices off.
Position the vocalist in the quietest and deadest part of the room. Place the microphone stand as far away from windows, doors and squeaky floorboards as possible. Walk.around the room, and click your fingers at ear height. Some parts of the room reflect the sound, and others won't. The angles and materials of walls determine sound reflections. Pick a spot where your click sounds dead.
Create a dead space. Use glue or reusable adhesive egg cartons to the walls of one corner. The peaks and dips of the carton material absorb sound reflections.
Isolate the vocalist. Use any soft furnishings, bed sheets and clothes that you have to hand. Position two clothes rails approximately 24 inches apart, in front of the egg carton corner, and drape material over the top, back and sides of the rails, leaving the front open and facing the egg cartons.
Filter out rogue frequencies. Open the equalization tool on your recording program, and turn up the microphone channel. The microphone transmits any background noise to the equalizer. Adjust the virtual sliders to filter out the background noise. Have the singer do an audition take. Fine tune the filter parameters while the singer performs. It's a balancing act to eliminate unwanted noise without adversely influencing the sound of the vocal.
Set up a noise gate. Select "Effects" in your music production program. Select "Dynamics" from the menu and then "Noise Gate," which cuts off all signal from the microphone below a certain output threshold. Have the vocalist to sing at a low volume down the microphone, and adjust the "Threshold" setting until the vocal sounds clear. If the threshold is too high, the noise gate cuts off part of the vocal. If it is too low, it allows unwanted sound to pass. The gate blocks any sound from reaching the mixing desk until the volume threshold is breached, when the gate is set correctly. The volume threshold only is breached when the vocalist sings.