First Post! - Building Booth

[jkfitch]

Hello everyone,

Im researching a DIY vocal booth for my project studio in Brooklyn, NY. I will be putting up three new walls, off of the studio itself and have some questions about how to treat the room... Firstly, the space in which I'm putting up the walls is about 5'x4' so I want too avoid excessive layering in order to maintain some of the space within the room... Ok, here's my plan - I want to fill the space between the studs with Roxul AFB Mineral Wool 2-inch, then, on top of that, use some OC 703 or 705 (1'' or 2'') as drywall (not sure if this is recommended) --- and to add one more layer, for diffusion and aesthetics more then anything else, I want to add 1'' pyramid foam with some adhesive--- Is there any redundancy in my plan? Do people use OC 703/705 as drywall? Will the fibers from the OC cause my untimely death? Will the mineral wool even have any effect on the booths sound because it is behind the foam and the OC? If you were in my shoes how would you go about treating these walls? Thanks so much and I'm glad to be part of such a progressive forum....

John

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by jkfitch

Hello everyone,

Im researching a DIY vocal booth for my project studio in Brooklyn, NY. I will be putting up three new walls, off of the studio itself and have some questions about how to treat the room... Firstly, the space in which I'm putting up the walls is about 5'x4' so I want too avoid excessive layering in order to maintain some of the space within the room... Ok, here's my plan - I want to fill the space between the studs with Roxul AFB Mineral Wool 2-inch, then, on top of that, use some OC 703 or 705 (1'' or 2'') as drywall (not sure if this is recommended) --- and to add one more layer, for diffusion and aesthetics more then anything else, I want to add 1'' pyramid foam with some adhesive--- Is there any redundancy in my plan? Do people use OC 703/705 as drywall? Will the fibers from the OC cause my untimely death? Will the mineral wool even have any effect on the booths sound because it is behind the foam and the OC? If you were in my shoes how would you go about treating these walls? Thanks so much and I'm glad to be part of such a progressive forum....

John

First a question: what's your goal here? Isolation? A nice sounding space? Both? I don't really understand why you're doing all the layering of mineral wool and 703.

I'm not known for my fear of escaping fibers, but I wouldn't leave them uncovered like that, especially in a small space where they're likely to get jostled a good bit. Is there any reason why you wouldn't put up a couple of layers of drywall with a layer of Green Glue, then treat the inside of the booth with fabric-covered panels? I can't imagine that that would take up more space than what you've got planned right now.

You don't need the foam at all.

Frank

[jwl]

I agree, why are you building a vocal booth? For more on this question, see this article:

Do I Really Need a Vocal Booth?

If you do definitely need a vocal booth (and the only reason you do is if a very high degree of isolation is required when tracking more than 1 performer at a time), then I'd build it using John Sayers' inside-out wall design. Frame it up, install the drywall on the OUTSIDE of the vocal booth only. Seal it up, preferably 2 layers of drywall both on the outside, preferably with Green Glue between the 2 layers.

Then, inside the booth, install insulation (I like Ultratouch Cotton for this application), then cover the insulation/studs with cloth (or acoustic foam if you really like the way it looks ). This will get you lots of absorption in the booth, as well as a decent amount of bass trapping.

[jkfitch]

Originally Posted by jwl

I agree, why are you building a vocal booth? For more on this question, see this article:

Do I Really Need a Vocal Booth?

If you do definitely need a vocal booth (and the only reason you do is if a very high degree of isolation is required when tracking more than 1 performer at a time), then I'd build it using John Sayers' inside-out wall design. Frame it up, install the drywall on the OUTSIDE of the vocal booth only. Seal it up, preferably 2 layers of drywall both on the outside, preferably with Green Glue between the 2 layers.

Then, inside the booth, install insulation (I like Ultratouch Cotton for this application), then cover the insulation/studs with cloth (or acoustic foam if you really like the way it looks ). This will get you lots of absorption in the booth, as well as a decent amount of bass trapping.

Ok, great stuff so far guys... Confused about the 'cloth' covering the studs... I got one recommendation for drywall on the inside with hanging acoustic panels and one recommendation for cloth... seem like very different solutions... can you guys comment on the other option or does anyone else want to chime in as well?

Thanks again!!

[jwl]

Those are just 2 different approaches. Both can work.

You can also combine both. Put the insulation on the inside of the booth, and use acoustic panels over them, to restore some reflectivity if that is your goal. But most small booths sound better if they are dead.