Iso booth size/shape

[Roblee2803]

Ive been beat into submission by a woman and had to give up my loft for a house. Now my studio and I must make due in a garage. Attached is a CRUDE sketch of a iso booth I plan on building. I want to escape the boxy sound so I hope Im building it large enough. Once built I will have professional help treating it. But I want them to have a good pallet to work with. Keep in mind all I record is acoustic guitar and vocals.
No windows cause Im not a fancy guy, and no ventilation cause I dont have customers just my buddy and I.
I do no mixing or mastering, I leave that to the people who know what they are doing. so no need for a large treated room.
If you have any advice on design shape or size It would be so appreciated.

[xaMdaM]

Roblee2803,

A coupla' thoughts.

I initially designed my iso booth as a diamond, (almost EXACTLY to your dimensions) and then realized two things... when your room shape is a diamond, you're really creating a concave shape in a small enclosure... not good.

Also, if you can create an angled ceiling (which I HIGHLY recommend) then your construction is a buttload easier to use square corners.

Instead of a completely symmetrical room, you really do want all the lengths to be different... even if it's a 6" difference between wall lengths... and bigger is better. Offset the door from the center of the wall.

When you get this iso booth built, you're gonna need quite a bit of trapping in there. So, be sure you take into account the correct sizing/scale of your drawing. That way, you'll not be in for any rude awakenings when you start to run out of room.

You better put some ventilation in there as well. Even if it's passive convection. It's pretty easy to make a small room like this air tight... which you really should... and you can run out of usable air in just a few minutes of singing. Carbon monoxide poisoning happens a LOT faster than you think... PUT VENTILATION IN THERE!

Put a 6x10 opening at the bottom, and a 6x10 opening at the top... just put em' on different walls. Create two 90 degree turns on each one. They don't need to be fancy, just functional, and you can run your cables through the bottom opening.

Since you probably won't have this inspected, I would not put any electrical in the walls, and just run a light in there via long power cord.

[PaulP]

Originally Posted by Roblee2803

Now my studio and I must make due in a garage. Attached is a CRUDE sketch of a iso booth I plan on building. I want to escape the boxy sound so I hope Im building it large enough. Once built I will have professional help treating it. But I want them to have a good pallet to work with. Keep in mind all I record is acoustic guitar and vocals.
No windows cause Im not a fancy guy, and no ventilation cause I dont have customers just my buddy and I.

If all you're going to be doing is recording acoustic guitar and vocals why not
use the whole garage ? The sound'll be a lot better and you'd be more
comfortable as well.

Or is there a car or two in there with you ?

Paul P

[Roblee2803]

I am sold on the ventilation... thank you, I didnt realise that carbon-monoxide would be an issue.

I will angle the ceiling for sure. Im not going to be able to give it a crazy angle but I will do what I can.

So I changed the angles and length of the walls. I totally understand what you were saying about the concave shape in a small space. I made it bigger in anticipation of the treatment, i figured you woudnt mention it unless it was an issue i might run into. So what do you think? is this going to be a better shape?

PAUL: I dont want to do the whole room so that I can breath while Im tracking my guitarplayer and he can breath while tracking me. ya know?

[PaulP]

Originally Posted by Roblee2803

I dont want to do the whole room so that I can breath while Im tracking my guitarplayer and he can breath while tracking me.

I can see your point but the general consensus I've noticed around here is
that when faced with dividing a room into control and tracking rooms that will
be too small for good acoustics the recommendation is to do both in a single
room. How the engineer breathes has not been addressed.

Paul P

[Roblee2803]

lol I didnt mean literally breath.... I have read that as well but most of those people are wanting to build 3x4, 4x4 or 6x6 booths. Basically I am building a booth, its not ideal but I dont want to be in the same room as the person performing. It will be professionally treated so im hoping to make it the best of a not ideal scenario.

[Roblee2803]

a please help bump.

[mysteryman]

Originally Posted by Roblee2803

a please help bump.

Don't build a booth, build tall gobos. You will be happier.

[Roblee2803]

Originally Posted by mysteryman

Don't build a booth, build tall gobos. You will be happier.

I used gobos in my loft, I loved them. Im in a garage now and Im worried about sound bleed from the neighborhood.

[0bazooka_joe0]

Originally Posted by xaMdaM

You better put some ventilation in there as well. Even if it's passive convection. It's pretty easy to make a small room like this air tight... which you really should... and you can run out of usable air in just a few minutes of singing. Carbon monoxide poisoning happens a LOT faster than you think... PUT VENTILATION IN THERE!

Um... human beings exhale carbon dioxide not monoxide... therefore you aren't going to die of any poisoning by not having ventilation in your iso-booth. the only thing that you'll notice is its going to be like a sauna in there and you'll find it hard to breath after a while... you just need to open the door every once in a while. i use my cold cellar as an iso-booth. the only downfall is windy days (blowing sounds coming through the vent hole from outside) but other than that it works great, stays ventilated and stays cool.

[xaMdaM]

Originally Posted by 0bazooka_joe0

Um... human beings exhale carbon dioxide not monoxide... therefore you aren't going to die of any poisoning by not having ventilation in your iso-booth. the only thing that you'll notice is its going to be like a sauna in there and you'll find it hard to breath after a while... you just need to open the door every once in a while. i use my cold cellar as an iso-booth. the only downfall is windy days (blowing sounds coming through the vent hole from outside) but other than that it works great, stays ventilated and stays cool.

I stand corrected... not carbon monoxide... CO2... which, in an air tight room, with NO ventilation would not cause carbon monoxide poisoning... but rather flat out suffocation.