vocal booth

[halfguard]

my friend and i are building a little studio in his garage and a vocal booth. i pretty much now how to build the booth (www.johnlsayers.com) but im alittle confused on the dimentions and if the room should be dead. it needs to be on the smaller side. we were gonna do 4x5x7 but then i read that parallel walls are not a smart thing.....any help is appreciated............

[con?one]

personally, i hate a dead room. it's alot easier to deaden a room with blankets and gobos than it is to add life to a totally dead room

[theflyest1]

I agree...

I have a whisper room 4x4 booth that was completely dead when I got it. The sound was too much like an anachoic chamber (completely sucked the life out of the vocalist).

I had a studio designer gut the booth and he added a wood floor and various absorption and diffusion panels (auralex). It made a world of difference for my recordings...

Hope that helps...

Lohit

[halfguard]

thanx for the opinions, im still doing my resaerch.

[TonyBelmont]

Originally Posted by con?one

personally, i hate a dead room. it's alot easier to deaden a room with blankets and gobos than it is to add life to a totally dead room

Exactly... I have the livest room to record vocals in, and I tame it with painter's tarps/ shipping blankets.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by halfguard

my friend and i are building a little studio in his garage and a vocal booth. i pretty much now how to build the booth (www.johnlsayers.com) but im alittle confused on the dimentions and if the room should be dead. it needs to be on the smaller side. we were gonna do 4x5x7 but then i read that parallel walls are not a smart thing.....any help is appreciated............

Go for somewhere in between live and dead(a mixture of wood and some softer pieces).

Also the room you are building is too small.


It will take a lot of bass trapping to get a decent sound and afterwards the room will be smaller than it already is.

And lastly you didn't mention about how you plan on cooling the vocal booth.

The 2 most important things to a vocalist is a great headphone mix in which they can hear themselves and they have to be feel comfortable.

I've been to some producers elaborate homestudios full of gear and the one thing that always gets over looked is the HVAC for the place.

Especially in the vocal booths.


It gets over looked because its expensive.


A central unit for your studio and with the ducts setup right can set you back $3k-$5K if you are lucky and you buy used.

You still have to pay someone to set it up right.

[halfguard]

well this is going in my friends garage. first thing we are going to do is bulid the main wall to separate the garage into two sides. (he still needs some space for home stuff. i believe he plans on modifying his central ac and run some sort of duct to the booth. what size do you recomend on the booth itself? thanx for the help.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by halfguard

well this is going in my friends garage. first thing we are going to do is bulid the main wall to separate the garage into two sides. (he still needs some space for home stuff. i believe he plans on modifying his central ac and run some sort of duct to the booth. what size do you recomend on the booth itself? thanx for the help.

How much space do you have?


How much height can you squeeze out?


Its possible to squeeze out volume from a small room if you raise the ceiling height.

But keep in mind that you will be running ducts for a send and return for his central AC.

This is important for:

1) Cooling purposes

2) For fresh air especially if you have clients that will smoke in this booth.

[CustomDigi]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

How much space do you have?


How much height can you squeeze out?


Its possible to squeeze out volume from a small room if you raise the ceiling height.

But keep in mind that you will be running ducts for a send and return for his central AC.

This is important for:

1) Cooling purposes

2) For fresh air especially if you have clients that will smoke in this booth.

Smoke -in- the booth? I think not... best leave those clients for someone else. That's what breaks are for. :)

-Matt

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by CustomDigi

Smoke -in- the booth? I think not... best leave those clients for someone else. That's what breaks are for. :)

-Matt

I gather you don't work with rappers.

[halfguard]

no clients. this is just for us. also no smoking in the booth,house etc.........clean livin here.....we cant take to much space because the washer&dryer is in there and there has to be access. were looing at the smallest dimentions we can get away with.

[overdose]

I work with rappers all the time , and it's a no smoking zone in my studio. If they want to smoke they do it outside.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by overdose

I work with rappers all the time , and it's a no smoking zone in my studio. If they want to smoke they do it outside.

Well i work with rappers,rockers, divas and reggatonists?

And if they want to smoke, drink alcohol, eat, have naked girls or fart in the booths to get inspired to do their thing i let them.

That's where they do their thing.

In my control room i don't let this stuff happen(only the drinking , eating and the naked girls but not near my gear) because that's where i do my thing.

You should have a great setup for maximum air flow nonetheless.

The top studios i've been in a person can smoke on one side of the room and you could be on the other and never know it.

That's how powerful the in-take and out-take is.

[adrianex]

I think 4 x 4 should be enought, but I would recomend to use alot of wood and try to get Rt60 aroound .6 or .7 and then you could build some portable gobos and have some carpets around the place, so you can dry your room.

I use the Live room for everything (drums, guit, vox) but I have different gobos and carpet to change the sound of the room when need it...best desicion ever.

If you need any help PM me.

Best regards

[JohnnyPraze]

I thought if one had a small vocal booth (ie: 4'x4') they would want it completely dead because of its small size and early reflections. Bigger rooms would naturaly need to be more live...

Am I wrong about this?

Also, one shouldnt need much bass trapping for vocals right?

How dead should a small booth (4'x4' and just for vocals) be?

[adrianex]

Well, Bass shouldn't been a problem on a room that side. Just because there is no space to develope, unless the ceiling is huge. If I recall correctly you need about 7 mts (or more..I can't remember) for a 20 Hz wave form to develope a full cicle. (I haven't done calculation in a long time, so I could be wrong).

You are not wrong about early reflection, it could be a problem if the walls are flat, but if they use some difusers whit rigth amount of absorvers, then it should be ok. Because on the rage that the voice works, those frecuencies are easier to control and deflect plus they wont have the same amount of energy than the low ones.

Regarding the live situation, Yes a bigger room would make it more live sounding, but because the space is limited you have to improvise. Use the example of a restroom, the reflection (lets call it natural reverb) is huge because the materials used, no because the size, rigth??. So you can make a room that size (4x4) sound a little bit more alive, using a mix of materials.

You should be able to find a lot infomation about RT60 rates on alot materials( different kind of wood, carpet, fiberglas, etc) that way you can control the sound better.

Also we have to consider that there is no much space to build it so I was trying to be practical.

Hope it helps

[CustomDigi]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

I gather you don't work with rappers.

Actually I do. But my studio is also in my house, so maybe it is a little different than your situation. In any case, I can't imagine someone blowing smoke into one of my mics, regardless of ventilation.

-Matt

[halfguard]

what size vocal booths do you guys have? ive read that anything under about 10x10 (i know this shape is not correct, just an axample) should be pretty dead.

[JohnnyPraze]

Mine is 4'x4'x7' and totally dead. I feel its a great size (comfort wise). I dont have any complaints, neither does my man who is 6'1" 325 lbs. Mine is built mostly with wood and is treated with foam tiles.

I do believe a mixture of materials would help though. Mine sounds good, just maybe a little too dead. I may remove the foam from the back wall/door and leave the wood exposed and see how that sounds.

[halfguard]

i think we are going to go 4x5 with a 7ft ceiling. not perfect at all i know, but its the most my boy can spare. im going to treat 2 of the walls (a corner) and the ceiling fully with oc 703. the other 2 walls will be done at 50% with oc 703. ill use wood for the floor.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by halfguard

i think we are going to go 4x5 with a 7ft ceiling. not perfect at all i know, but its the most my boy can spare. im going to treat 2 of the walls (a corner) and the ceiling fully with oc 703. the other 2 walls will be done at 50% with oc 703. ill use wood for the floor.

The ideal room ratios are:

1: 2.16 : 2.96
1: 2.16 : 2.97
1: 2.16 : 2.98
1: 2.17 : 2.96
1: 2.17 : 2.97
1: 2.17 : 2.98
1: 2.17 : 2.99
1: 2.18 : 2.97
1: 2.18 : 2.98
1: 2.18 : 2.99
1: 2.18 : 3
1: 2.19 : 2.99
1: 2.19 : 3
1: 2.19 : 3.01
1: 2.19 : 3.02
1: 2.2 : 3.01
1: 2.2 : 3.02
1: 2.2 : 3.03
1: 2.21 : 3.02
1: 2.21 : 3.03
1: 2.22 : 3.03
1: 2.22 : 3.04

Also you can find some here:

http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?p=5570


I don't get why anyone build a booth with 2 sides of the same length(4 X 4).

There is no way to spread out the modes and the buildup in the low mids would be too much.

[halfguard]

i have those calculations also. the thing is, space is an issue. imgoing over there on sat to do my own measurements. ill see what i can come up with.

[The_Phoenix]

Check what I found!

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...0E05DE498F66F6

[csilt]

Originally Posted by halfguard

my friend and i are building a little studio in his garage and a vocal booth. i pretty much now how to build the booth (www.johnlsayers.com) but im alittle confused on the dimentions and if the room should be dead. it needs to be on the smaller side. we were gonna do 4x5x7 but then i read that parallel walls are not a smart thing.....any help is appreciated............

Make it like 9' wigg by 9' wigg

[stevep]

Originally Posted by con?one

personally, i hate a dead room. it's alot easier to deaden a room with blankets and gobos than it is to add life to a totally dead room

.

[stevep]

Originally Posted by halfguard

i think we are going to go 4x5 with a 7ft ceiling. not perfect at all i know, but its the most my boy can spare. im going to treat 2 of the walls (a corner) and the ceiling fully with oc 703. the other 2 walls will be done at 50% with oc 703. ill use wood for the floor.

is the 4x5 measurement after the treatment ??

You may do better to build a couple Gobos, one with a window in it and trap off the corner instead of building that booth......

The cost of building this booth may be more than it is worth ,
and it might sound bad .... then what ?


Also a room this small WILL need air flow and the ducts will need to be sound proofed so you can run the air when the mic is on, Or you could turn it off for takes....... this is a pain !

And the ducks will cause sound leakage big time ! the cost of doing just the AC alone would turn me to the Gobos.

[halfguard]

thing is, this booth will be in the garage. the ac is in the garage. we can always turn the air off and probably will, but he has kids & a dog. we need isolation from the house.

[stevep]

Originally Posted by halfguard

thing is, this booth will be in the garage. the ac is in the garage. we can always turn the air off and probably will, but he has kids & a dog. we need isolation from the house.

The Gobo route will give the vocal Mic plenty of isolation


Just a thought , save $$$ , , and space in the recording area



steve

[halfguard]

with the gobos, what about the ceiling?? what do you think of teabagz
www.modularacoustics.com/products.htm

[JohnnyPraze]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

I don't get why anyone build a booth with 2 sides of the same length(4 X 4).

There is no way to spread out the modes and the buildup in the low mids would be too much.

What do you mean "spread out the modes"?