Almost done with my vocal/iso-booth... need assistance!

[majortom]

I am not an acoustics expert. What I know I learned from trial and error. Mostly error.

Foam won't isolate, you need mass for that. Usually two layers of something (MDF, plywood, sheetrock) separated by an airspace works best.

To absorb the nasty reflections you get in small spaces, you could use panels of 703 fiberglass covered with fabric. I used 4" thick acoustic cotton and some bass traps from GIK Acoustics in my booth. Realtraps are nice too. It might be good to have at least one good bass trap for the singer to aim at.

My booth is very dead, provided you don't sing up close to the wall. In my experience, either 703 or acoustic cotton would be better than that pyramid foam you can buy. I think that foam is a major contributor to the woofy sound I've heard in some vocal booths I've been in.

For a window I used two sheets of 1/2" plexiglass separated by 1/2" air space. 1/2" is probably overkill, but I had it left over from another project. Caulk it up airtight and it works pretty well.

The door will probably be your weak spot.

For more info, there's a few other threads on here about building vocal booths.

[RockDog]

Originally Posted by Einar

Hello...
I´ve just built a vocal booth in my studio and I need help before I can go through the finishing touches;

1. ISOLATION: what kind of foam/isolation should I put inside it, and where can I purchase that online?
(i want a well soundproofed, dead sounding room)

2. WINDOW: what are you guys using in the window of these booths? do I just order normal glass (double) or plexi.. or what? what is best suited for this?

Thanks guys... I really appreciate if you can help me do this right!!

i built my booth out of pine 3x2 with rockwool between then masonite each side gyprock on the outer an glued convolut foam on the inside i did alot of door work so when it closes it seals i didnt put a window in it i instead put a 19 ws lcd inside which is better to me, the singer can see me an i can see him the booth is also fairly large so i can do amped guitars in there too its really is dead inside and sound dont come out either i can put a 100 watt mesa dual recto an quad cab cranking in there an its basically silent from outside

[Anselmo]

I´ve already built the 4 walls with 1,2cm plywood inside & outside with 7cm isolation in between, I just need something to cover the walls on the inside to get the "dead room" sound...

Also, could someone tell me what kind of glass is normally used? Is plexiglass the way to go?

...I read somewhere that it is good to have one glass straight (90° angle) and then some airspace, and then the inner glass at an angle, leaning... how does that work? How much should it lean?

[matt thomas]

use rock wool instead of foam, covered in material

use acoustic glass, or thick plexiglass, whatever, the more massive (heavy) the better

angle one panel (or both) a bit, possibly the inside one as this would make the reflection point further away from your mic position

put some moisture absorbing silicon in between the bits of glass.

narco

[Ozzy]

You want to match the mass of the glass to the mass of your wall, so there is no "weaklink".

I remember reading somewhre on the sayers forum that plexiglass wasnt a good idea as the mass:£ ratio wasnt as good as, say laminate.

I recomend that forum for any isolation or design ponderings. It literally changed my whole perspective of a "recording studio".

John Sayers Productions

Oz