Help with setup

EnglishHarry93

New member
Yo Reddit

Basically we're attempting to kit out a walk in wardrobe in my friends room and make it soundproof etc

We don't care about noise coming out we just want to make sure vocals that are recorded in the booth aren't echoey/reverb.

Our plan at the moment is:

We have layed thick carpet and plan on layering the walls with either duvets or insulation sheets/thick blankets.

Then we are going to place some plasterboard against the duvets etc and screw them around all walls and attach foam acoustic tiles to all the wooden walls.

With the door we were hoping to do a similar kind of job but also fit some rubber lining around the edges to seal all the gaps.

Would this be soundproof?

We also have a pop filter on our microphone and will also be getting a good microphone shield/reflector.

Ifanyone can help on this or advise on better methods to achieve soundproofing this room then please drop a line as we will be spending a fair bit of money to kit it ouT!

Cheers
 
Hi there, (btw we're not reddit ;-) )

I would be careful with this method, you sound like you're building quite a fire risk.

Also remember sound's not a one way thing. If you don't mind sound escaping you also don't mind sound entering the booth.

Can you give some more details. Such as dimension etc?
 
Yeah, is there outside noise you are worried about? Small vocal 'booths' like you describe tend to sound dead and boxy. Try recording out in the room first. Face out into the room, with those duvets on the wall behind you to absorb early rear reflections.
 
If all you want to do is kill room resonances you don't need a 'booth', it will sound dreadful.

Use some plastic waste pipes to build a big frame then cover that with duvets/blankets, back, front and top at least. This will limit sound escaping into the room and attenuate any that comes back.

You cannot in any case easily do much about sound ingress/egress unless you go the whole male pig and build a room in the room. Whatever you do, with live mics there will inevitably be lots of editing and do-overs for fluffs, corpses* and noises off.

*If you are NOT laughing a good 20% of the time you are NOT enjoying yourself so, WTF bother?

Dave.
 
Yes sorry I asked reddIt also and forgot t change the intro!

The room is quite small. It's 2310mm high and its area is 855mm by 1160mm.

We were told smaller rooms were not ideal but with some good absorption on the wall behind the person using the microphone (rockwool, moving blankets,duvets have all been suggested) and some acoustic panels on the other walls and there's no reason it wouldn't work. We just don't wanna spend an arm and leg and it not work.
 
Cheers for the responses people!

I get that a small room isn't ideal... but it's kinda all we got...

If we do go ahead and pop acoustic tiles on the wall and blankets on the rear for absorption is there any way of making it sound alright? I've seen online that leaving the door open for the standing waves to go out can dramatically help with small "booths"
 
Yo Reddit

Basically we're attempting to kit out a walk in wardrobe in my friends room and make it soundproof etc

We don't care about noise coming out we just want to make sure vocals that are recorded in the booth aren't echoey/reverb.

Hi there,
Sound proofing is about stopping sound being transmitted in and out of an environment whereas acoustic treatment is about changing how an environment sounds when you're in it.
If you're concerned with echo/reverb then you're looking for acoustic treatment and I'd recommend building a few 2'x4'x4" rockwool panels.

They'll do a much better job of taming a wide range of reflections, to some extent, whilst retaining a natural sound, instead of creating a dead/boxy sound with a whole new set of issues.

If you don't want to, or can't, buy rockwool, you can expirement with any dense objects or materials but try to think of it as blocking and diffusing reflections from the existing walls, rather than trying to build a smaller 'room'.

Even playing with your position within the room to take advantage of things that are already there can be helpful.
If, for example, you already have a bookshelf and a closet facing eachother, put them on your left and right, step back a foot or two, and set up the mic there.
That way the first reflection points (points where you'd see the mic if there was a mirror) are covered with dense objects and materials rather than smooth plastered walls, or whatever.
 
Thanks for the reply. Since this morning I've researched and been helped by a lot of people but I'd say that was the most informative!
 
Hi there,
Sound proofing is about stopping sound being transmitted in and out of an environment whereas acoustic treatment is about changing how an environment sounds when you're in it.
If you're concerned with echo/reverb then you're looking for acoustic treatment and I'd recommend building a few 2'x4'x4" rockwool panels.

They'll do a much better job of taming a wide range of reflections, to some extent, whilst retaining a natural sound, instead of creating a dead/boxy sound with a whole new set of issues.

If you don't want to, or can't, buy rockwool, you can expirement with any dense objects or materials but try to think of it as blocking and diffusing reflections from the existing walls, rather than trying to build a smaller 'room'.

Even playing with your position within the room to take advantage of things that are already there can be helpful.
If, for example, you already have a bookshelf and a closet facing eachother, put them on your left and right, step back a foot or two, and set up the mic there.
That way the first reflection points (points where you'd see the mic if there was a mirror) are covered with dense objects and materials rather than smooth plastered walls, or whatever.

Steen is correct, with the money you would spend on the booth you could build several 2x4 panels. I built about 30 including 3 bass traps for 30 bucks per panel. I spent around 1000.00 for all of them which included the wood, stain, fabric , staples and a air stapler. plus a pair of pink electric scissors:D
 
Steen is correct, with the money you would spend on the booth you could build several 2x4 panels. I built about 30 including 3 bass traps for 30 bucks per panel. I spent around 1000.00 for all of them which included the wood, stain, fabric , staples and a air stapler. plus a pair of pink electric scissors:D

Holy crap. lol.
I made four using skirting board off-cuts and old bedsheets.

I'm in a shitty room so I throw two up every time I do vocals. Makes such a difference.

Edit : Here's my old thread with build pics.
 
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