DIY vocal booth help

M

Morodiene

New member
I know there's information here somewhere about making your own vocal booth, but I couldn't find it in a search.

My current studio is 11x12 - basically an extra bedroom of the house. Wood flooring, one window (no curtains at this point), no wall treatments, and 10' ceilings I think. Voice is the only acoustic instrument I'm using - the rest can be done with MIDI or a direct audio line into the computer. I know that for mixing purposes I'll need to treat the room eventually, but for right now, I need to be able to get some good clean vocal tracks.

So a DIY booth that I can set up and disassemble when needed is a must. I have a big voice, being operatically trained, so that may come into play as to the size of the booth a little, but I don't plan on singing any opera in there. For the operatic vocals I'll have to record in a much larger space I think.

Hubby is very handy and we have lots of tools, so it doesn't need to be overly simple - although if simple is best, we'll do that. :)

What do you recommend?
 
Hi there,
You're right. Operatic singing in a nice large area can benefit from the natural reverb of the room. That's something desirable that you'd want to capture; Maybe even having dedicated room mics.
At home the opposite is usually true but a closed of booth isn't usually a great idea.

The aim is to dampen the natural reverb of the small room so a few carefully placed rock wool panels would probably be better.
Either that or you can pick up one of the reflection filters which fit to the mic stand. I don't have experience with those, though.
I use two 2'x4'x4" rock wool panels set a little behind the mic.

If Hubby is handy I'm sure he could knock up a few frames from scrap timber, fill with rock wool, and staple some nice fabric on them. :)
Whether you fit them to walls permanently or store them when not in use is your call.

What kind of mic are you using? In a bad room (my room) I stick to dynamic mics.
They don't magically pick up less of the room but they do generally let you get closer to them than more sensitive mics.
The closer you are the greater the ratio between voice and ambience. Think talking into someone's ear vs talking across a room.
That's probably where you'll get the biggest result.

Hope that's useful. :)
 
Steenamaroo said:
Hi there,
You're right. Operatic singing in a nice large area can benefit from the natural reverb of the room. That's something desirable that you'd want to capture; Maybe even having dedicated room mics.
At home the opposite is usually true but a closed of booth isn't usually a great idea.

The aim is to dampen the natural reverb of the small room so a few carefully placed rock wool panels would probably be better.
Either that or you can pick up one of the reflection filters which fit to the mic stand. I don't have experience with those, though.
I use two 2'x4'x4" rock wool panels set a little behind the mic.

If Hubby is handy I'm sure he could knock up a few frames from scrap timber, fill with rock wool, and staple some nice fabric on them. :)
Whether you fit them to walls permanently or store them when not in use is your call.

What kind of mic are you using? In a bad room (my room) I stick to dynamic mics.
They don't magically pick up less of the room but they do generally let you get closer to them than more sensitive mics.
The closer you are the greater the ratio between voice and ambience. Think talking into someone's ear vs talking across a room.
That's probably where you'll get the biggest result.

Hope that's useful. :)
Click to expand...
I have a Rode NT1a, but it is currently not functioning and I need to send it away to Rode for repairs :( . I bought it used and wish I'd forked over the extra for new.

Anyways, I also have a Sennheiser G3 mic that I use for singing live that I could use. I do like how it complements my voice, but not sure it's ideal for recording, or if it will work well. For now, that's all I have to work with really.

So even for more close-up pics (i.e., pop singing), you'd recommend against a booth?
 
Home-made vocal 'booths' are never recommended by those who know - the sound in them tends to be dead and/or boxy. Making some traps that you can use as gobos as Steen suggests is your best bet.
 
Do you have any other rooms where you can record, like the living room, perchance. You typically want a bigger room rather than a small room. And you don't want to record in a box, ie vocal booth; it will sound like you recorded in a box. A homebrew vocal booth isn't a great idea. You won't be able to trap out all the resonant frequencies and your vocal track could sound muddy, boxy, weird.

Your current studio could work with the right treatment as Steeno suggested. Still, it could sound boxy.

I have a small room, lots of acoustic treatment and I record right on top of the mic. It's not ideal, but it's what I got.

I have thought about trying the reflection filters Steeno mentioned... here's a link to one, but there are others to choose from. I've heard good things about them, but no first hand experience.

sE Electronics Reflexion Filter X Portable Vocal Booth | Sweetwater.com
 
Chili said:
Do you have any other rooms where you can record, like the living room, perchance. You typically want a bigger room rather than a small room. And you don't want to record in a box, ie vocal booth; it will sound like you recorded in a box. A homebrew vocal booth isn't a great idea. You won't be able to trap out all the resonant frequencies and your vocal track could sound muddy, boxy, weird.

Your current studio could work with the right treatment as Steeno suggested. Still, it could sound boxy.

I have a small room, lots of acoustic treatment and I record right on top of the mic. It's not ideal, but it's what I got.

I have thought about trying the reflection filters Steeno mentioned... here's a link to one, but there are others to choose from. I've heard good things about them, but no first hand experience.

sE Electronics Reflexion Filter X Portable Vocal Booth | Sweetwater.com
Click to expand...

I have the one Chili linked, it made a difference in cutting down on the room reverb bouncing back into the mic.
 

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Steenamaroo said:
Hi there,
You're right. Operatic singing in a nice large area can benefit from the natural reverb of the room. That's something desirable that you'd want to capture; Maybe even having dedicated room mics.
At home the opposite is usually true but a closed of booth isn't usually a great idea.

The aim is to dampen the natural reverb of the small room so a few carefully placed rock wool panels would probably be better.
Either that or you can pick up one of the reflection filters which fit to the mic stand. I don't have experience with those, though.
I use two 2'x4'x4" rock wool panels set a little behind the mic.

If Hubby is handy I'm sure he could knock up a few frames from scrap timber, fill with rock wool, and staple some nice fabric on them. :)
Whether you fit them to walls permanently or store them when not in use is your call.

What kind of mic are you using? In a bad room (my room) I stick to dynamic mics.
They don't magically pick up less of the room but they do generally let you get closer to them than more sensitive mics.
The closer you are the greater the ratio between voice and ambience. Think talking into someone's ear vs talking across a room.
That's probably where you'll get the biggest result.

Hope that's useful. :)
Click to expand...


Well said Steeno! :)

I also use two 2'x4'x4" panels hanging behind the vocal mic in my studio. I do record vocals in a larger room but the most important thing I have found is to limit the reflections from behind the mic/off the walls/ then back into the mic.

Larger rooms will typically sound better because there are not so much 'early reflections' coming back to the mic. Though that is a generalization as not every room sounds the same. Creating a 'closet' sound booth is an option, but not without consequence. I would never do that myself. Better and less expensive to use a larger room with some acoustic treatment than to try to create an isolation room.


Best bet is to do a shit-ton of research on this topic. You may be surprised at how little you need to spend to get great results. :)
 
there are tons of videos on how to build bass/sound traps, here are a couple. you can buy the rockwool at Lowes although I have not found a store that has it in stock. You can order it online and pick it up, BUT, you have to order a min of 3 cases which sucks. the 1st set of panels I ordered from a acoustics website, the price per panel was pretty good but the shipping killed it. search for DIY bass traps on you tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSogByPUezc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUoIoyizTo

Rockwool:

Mineral wool or rockwool Acoustic insulation - Acoustimac

Shop roxul at Lowes.com: Search Results!

:D
 
Great ideas everyone, thank you!

My house is an open-concept, so while I have a larger room - hardwood floors, but oddly shaped rectangle with a hexagonal? room off of that. It happens to be my living room, so any room treatment would have to be able to put up and take down after I finish recording.

So I need to worry about early reflections going into the mic, so it would be better, in addition to a set up like Atkron showed, to have the mic facing in the middle of the room rather than close to a wall? What about sound reflecting off the the ceiling? And should there be anything absorbing sound behind me?
 
Yep, face into the room. Back towards a wall, but not too close. If you can put an absorber behind, that would be good. Experiment with your living room, you may not need to do anything.
 
If your husband is a DIY person, here's a an idea I picked up from a professional narrator. It's a quick experiment using on hand materials. A better looking version would use foam and spray adhesive, not duct tape and insulation left over from my wood floor installation lol. But you get the idea.

image.jpeg

Doubles as a carry bin: if the foam were glued inside and trimmed, the lid to the bin would snap on, and the foam would cushion the Mike and cables inside when stored and transported.
 
Last edited:
rfalcon said:
If your husband is a DIY person, here's a an idea I picked up from a professional narrator. It's a quick experiment using on hand materials. A better looking version would use foam and spray adhesive, not duct tape and insulation left over from my wood floor installation lol. But you get the idea.

View attachment 95608

Doubles as a carry bin: if the foam were glued inside and trimmed, the lid to the bin would snap on, and the foam would cushion the Mike and cables inside when stored and transported.
Click to expand...

That might cut down on some of the room reflections, but chances are it's going to sound boxy AND boomy - foam does not absorb low and mid-low frequencies. You would probably get better results by facing out the long way into a room and having a thick duvet or comforter hanging behind you.
 
Morodiene said:
So how concerned should I be with bass traps?
Click to expand...

That would depend on how your particular room sounds and how important the vocal sound is to you.

It is basically impossible to make that judgment without hearing or testing the room. Though I would say with 90% accuracy that your vocals would sound better if you added bass traps.
 
I'd use a ribbon mic, face into the room, and maybe put a foam screen over the mic (maybe, this could kill the sound, but it might help if reflections are awful). I'd put curtains on the windows and rely on items in the room (couch, pictures, etc) for diffraction and some absorption (could consider a rug, too), which will be fine for reflections I'd think. Adjust as needed. But really it should sound fine. I record in a bad living room all the time, and I can get it to sound really good with just a few tweaks. I have spent $0 on room treatment.
 
Morodiene said:
So how concerned should I be with bass traps?
Click to expand...

They'll help with bass that's reflecting back, so just listen to how bad a problem that is, or download a vst like SPAN so you can see if there's a lot of low end on the graph. Since you're a soprano, I don't think you should worry about bass build up/reflections, but I'm sure many disagree.

I'd worry about it more for things like acoustic guitar, male voice, etc. Even then, it's not a huge deal. I don't use them and just EQ out where the bass gets too boomy. Technically I should have them to make the source better, but they're expensive and imo not worth the cost.

Here's an article rethinking them: Are Bass Traps as important as we like to think? | Features Articles
 
If you're mixing in a small room, you almost certainly need to trap as many corners as you can. Wall-wall, wall-floor, wall-ceiling. It may not be imperative for tacking voice (but certainly wouldn't hurt), but as soon as you play full-range audio over loudspeakers in a room, the bass frequencies will almost certainly be uneven. Flattening the bass response of small rooms is the bane of all of us home recording types.
 
The advantage of using bass traps is they absorb not only the low frequencies, but the mid and high frequencies, too. Using a couple of bass traps in front of the mic (an open 'V' shape is good position) will absorb the sound waves from the vocals, so they do not bounce around the room and onto the back wall and back to the mic.
 
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