I need to build a vocal booth. Suggestions?

[elser]

These have had some good reviews.

http://www.audiovoice.biz/

[southpaw]

I've been down this road before, and unless you wanna totally geek out, have the time, and the desire... OR you have the cash AND the need for a fully contained enclosure, which will have to be ventilated, and on and on and on....

Then I'd suggest your best to stick with one of the 2 following solutions I found.

That just my honest opinion, unless you think you really need the isolation for multiple instruments and other very specific reasons...

In any case, I'll just share the condensed conclusions from my journey with this.

*Note: I am a basement studio singer/songwriter/guitarist, I needed a solution for highest quality, least hassle, easily portable, for recording voice and acoustic guitar.

I record in one of two rooms - either a carpeted basement with bare walls and/or room with studio foam and bass traps.

Solution 1: The vocal Tent I learned this from a guy several years ago. It's basically two king size duvets sewn together and strung in ovular formation from hanger wire. You could use a number of things to rig it up. Ideally you'd do it like a shower curtain. In a circle. nowadamean?

I have an old post with exact instructions on this on the blog, I can probably go dig it up if you need me to...

Anyway, this is your lowest cost of entry to an actually very smooth, clean, and clear track. Vocals and guitar... sounds great. It's still got some breathe to it, and works well without killing the sound to much.

It would take you probably half a day to put together and cost about $50. Make sure you place it in the middle of a room or at least a couple feet from walls, for full effect on silkyness.

Solution 2: The reason I went with the vocal tent first, and not this, was because the guy who told me about the vocal tent, got into this long drawn out theoretical debate about the science of why the vocal tent is more effective than the portable vocal booth solutions...

Basically, he was saying that since the reflections coming from the direction behind you are more important than what is on the OTHER side of your capsule...

Theoretically, solid.

But a couple years later I decided to try a reflection filter, just sprung for the best user reviewed one, and not the cheap imitation foam ones...

Figured, well I've got 30 days to put it through its paces and if it dont beat the vocal tent, i'll get my $350 back...

I kept it. It's awesome. I love it.

I don't care about science, it's just easy and it works nicely.

I can change the angles, the height, the mic placement in the room and in respect to the reflection filter, and as a one man show im changing positions, navigating in smaller spaces, I LOVE the convenence, and It is WAYY more than just "good enough."

Not only that, but it keeps me in a mindset of resourcefulness.

All in all, when I find the right house to purchase, that has what Im looking for... Im going to deck it out and get a pro in there to do his thing...

I just don't have the time to mess with that stuff anymore, new plugins, new gear, Im just into mastering the tools I got these days.

I can sculpt out a professionally tracked vocal and edit to radio quality, without even really trying to hard, so I conclude that for my situation, the portable works well.

I am also very pragmatic, with slightly geekish tendencies, which I often need to fight because I can get borderline obssessive with tiny details if im not careful... So YMMV.

Hope that helps.

Jamie

[ernstinen]

Wow, Jamie.... Do you have any opinions on this topic? LOL

Nice to hear from you again!

Best Wishes,

Ern

[southpaw]

Nice to be back.

[kevinmathie]

Thanks for weighing in on this everyone! And thanks for the link, Chris.

FYI, I do need a soundproof booth, as opposed to just a sound-treated booth, as I have an almost-3-year-old at home who cares not a whit whenever I need silence in the rest of the house.

What's making this critical right now is that I may be starting to record a lot of voice-overs -- as in, 8-hours-a-day for days on end. So, I need to make the booth both soundproof and comfy for the voice talent.

So, I'm studying options now and I'll let you all know what I decide. In fact, I'll post pictures when it's done, whether I end up buying a commercial unit or build something custom.

[Casey H]

FYI, I do need a soundproof booth, as opposed to just a sound-treated booth, as I have an almost-3-year-old at home who cares not a whit whenever I need silence in the rest of the house.

I dunno.... Locking your almost 3-year old in a soundproof booth sounds awfully cruel to me...

[kevinmathie]

FYI, I do need a soundproof booth, as opposed to just a sound-treated booth, as I have an almost-3-year-old at home who cares not a whit whenever I need silence in the rest of the house.

I dunno.... Locking your almost 3-year old in a soundproof booth sounds awfully cruel to me...

LOL! LOL! LOL!!!!

Wait.....hmm......I hadn't thought of doing that....Maybe that could...........


No, I better not....

[JohnWeeks]

Hey Kevin, I also do voice over work and have a 5 by 7 model Whisperroom. I don't need it anymore. If you're interested, let me know.
Thanks!
John

[NathanNasby]

Not sure which way you decided to go on this, but in the first studio my brothers and I build we used an air to air heat exchange ventilation unit we mounted the exchange in a different room and used insulated ducting for moving the air. It was a while ago that we build it so I can't remember the make and model, but we research low DB units for this application and it worked incredibly well. The longer you run the insulated ducting and throw a few slight S curves in the run we got absolutely now sound transfer through the duct and had nice fresh clean air in and out of the booth.