Questions about recording possibilities and booths

[joe_masi]

Hi there, since this is my first post: Hello to all of you! Great forum!
I work as a musician (guitar/bass/singing), engineer and sound artist. So far I am recording at home, I have a DIY vocal booth in my bedroom for recording voice and guitar. I am mixing in my living room that has basicallly no acoustical improvement and a poor insulation to the adjacent flats. Bad sound.
The other point is: The vocal booth sucks. It´s single wall 1.4 meter * 1.60 meter and the insulation is totally shit. Lot´s of money spent for almost no effort.
Well.

There are three options for me now:

1. Since I live in Berlin I could rent some totally rundown appartement for about 150 Euro per month and record and rehearse there. No water, no toilet, in some rooms even the wooden floor is stolen. But it´t cheap and you won´t have much trouble with the neighbours.
I would have to buy new doors, new particle board and something to improve the acoustic in at least one room. Don´t know exactely but something like 3000 Euro seems realistic.


2. Another option is: Take two friends and rent an renovated industry space. About 100 sqm for about 8000 - 1300 Euro incl utilities (if thats the word for electricity, heating etc.). Build a nice and thick room in room.
This option would also be nice for renting out.
But this options seems very unflexible to me plus you have a lot of running charges.
An advantage would be that we could build the whole thing how we want to (depending on how much money we spend).

3. Or the option I favour most:
Put my bed in my living room, get rid of the old vocal booth and get one of these:

Grössen von Schalldämmkabinen

Unfortunately the page is in german but the basic facts for my thing are:

Size:
2.61 meter * 3.26 meter or
2.61 meter * 3.89 meter (Fits perfectly into my room)

Double wall enclosure completely decoupled with angular inner walls

One window in the door

One extra window

Air ventilation system

Acoustic stuff like absorbers included, easy to put on and remove with velcro

Light, electricity wiring and switches, carpet included


The company is located is in Berlin, I visited them today. They have something like a showroom where they have set up two booths
After doing the normal stuff like singing inside or talking and walking outside (nothing to almost nothing to hear from the other side) I brought my old Hiwatt 50 Watt tube amp with 2x12" and cranked it up in there. Then i recorded some bass and guitar on a looper and went out to check the damping. I was really surprised how good it is.They even have the possibilty to go a floor downstairs and listen from below like my neighbours would do.
You could still hear some bass but very soft and only stuff below ca. 120 Hz.
If you wanna see some figures they show some measurements here:

Messwerte bei Luftschall

I am kinda fascinated by this opportunity the only bad thing is the price:
For the 2.61* 3.26: 13000 Euro incl VAT and including shipping to my house (not my appartement)

I am not converting this into $ because of the bad exchange rate these days, it would look just too much.


The advantages I see here are:
- No more rent than the one I am paying already.
- Veeeeeery short way to work
- Record guitar and vocals or anything else not too bassy at anytime. Or mix at anytime (BIG advantage)
- To a certain extent can treat the acoustic as I want. If I want more highs I just take out some absorbers
- I especially liked the angular inner walls, they created a nice acoustic
- The whole thing is modular and seemed very easy to set up and dismount

Disadvantages:
- I am loosing a room (I don´t care so not a big problem)
- Recording drums there might be a little bit hard because of the bass
- Not the hugest room for mixing or recording acoustic instruments


My questions are:
Does anyone here have experience with this company?

Do you think the price is fair?

Do you think that it is a bad idea to put all your mixing equipment in such a small room? Does anyone here do that?

Do you think: Shit, don´t spend so much money on that when you can easily do it yourself? But I think to achieve this damping you need quite some experience or tons and tons of mass.

And what do you think about the other options? Which one do you think is the best?

So many words, whew.
jm