Portable vocal booth

[pandamonk]

Hi guys, I'm planning on building a portable vocal booth for taking to markets etc. to promote my studio, recording karaoke style.

I have designed it to be easily built, offering modest isolation (STC of at least 30dB), portable, and quick to dismantle, store and rebuild. My only problem is how to temporarily join the stud walls, ceiling and floor in a way that can be reusable.

I understand that 2" absorption does not offer enough absorption across the spectrum, that more isolation could be achieved through a better design and that a booth should have ventilation, but this is intended as a cheap, easy to build booth to promote my studio. Clients will spend 5 minutes each inside the booth, leaving the door open to ventilate between, and it is not intended for commercial use, but only to give people a taster of recording and promote my studio.

How would you temporarily join the walls, floor and ceiling? I was considering nuts and bolts, but can't work out a way to do it.

Thanks guys

 

[dodgeaspen]

Never built anything like that before but what about using hinges of some kind and lock them in place when the booth is in operation. I know it would be very heavy so you could take it apart in two separate pieces. Just a thought. Hopefully someone will chime in and give you better advice.

 

[pandamonk]

Never built anything like that before but what about using hinges of some kind and lock them in place when the booth is in operation. I know it would be very heavy so you could take it apart in two separate pieces. Just a thought. Hopefully someone will chime in and give you better advice.

Thanks for your suggestion. Do you mean something like gate hangers?

I'm thinking of something like this for the walls and ceiling but can't think of anything secure for the floor.

 

[woundedknee]

That's a great idea! I think the bolt through would work really well. What if, for the foor, you had some dovetail type joints so that the bottom could be "snaped" or peiced together and then would hold when the top is bolted together. You connect at the bottom, then swing the rest of the wall up like a drawbridge to bolt it in. Hope that makes sense. It would be a two man job to drop the bottom piece in but might be an answer. Hope you find something good.

 

[Lunchbox2212]

Would you even need a floor piece or even need to secure it down! If its just for a test, I dont think you should really worry about the floor!

 

[pandamonk]

Would you even need a floor piece or even need to secure it down! If its just for a test, I dont think you should really worry about the floor!

I see your point, but I do want some level of isolation, and the ground might not be even enough to place the walls on without leaving gaps.

 

[pandamonk]

That's a great idea! I think the bolt through would work really well. What if, for the foor, you had some dovetail type joints so that the bottom could be "snaped" or peiced together and then would hold when the top is bolted together. You connect at the bottom, then swing the rest of the wall up like a drawbridge to bolt it in. Hope that makes sense. It would be a two man job to drop the bottom piece in but might be an answer. Hope you find something good.

I think your idea sounds good, but don't really understand it fully. Is it possible to draw it?

Also, I want something pretty simple to build.

 

[pandamonk]

I think I'll probably do the opposite to my bolt idea, with the nut held in place, so I don't have big bolts sticking out the frames. Don't fancy being implailed on them

 

[pandamonk]

Just had the idea to extend the floor and then attach the walls to the floor with a nut bolt, like below. What do you guys think? Will it work? What if the wood/plywood expanded?

 

[pandamonk]

Or if instead of making the walls sit on top of the floor, they sat round it and bolt like the walls and ceiling? Like so:

 

[pandamonk]

What do you guys think?

 

[stupidfatnugly]

how big is it?
what I've learned is that you can't get a desireable sound out of anything with less than a 10 foot ceiling and each of your walls have to be larger than 10 ft themselves.

personally I wouldn't waste the time on a "booth". I say that from experience wasting lot's of time on one.

 

[pandamonk]

how big is it?
what I've learned is that you can't get a desireable sound out of anything with less than a 10 foot ceiling and each of your walls have to be larger than 10 ft themselves.

personally I wouldn't waste the time on a "booth". I say that from experience wasting lot's of time on one.

I'm sorry but this is the kind of response I didn't want. It'll be 3'6"x4'x6'9" (internal dimensions). I know how bad this is, but the booth is intended to only give a taster of recording and promote my studio. It will be placed in a busy sunday market for a karaoke style 10-15 minute recording/mixing session.

It is designed to be easily built, offering modest isolation (STC of at least 30dB), portable(easy to transport), and quick to dismantle, store and rebuild. Acoustics are not a big priority for this booth (only 2" foam, I know it's bad), although they certainly are in my studio (I have it properly kitted out with self-built bass traps and broadband absorption). The booth should be better than standing in a busy crowd of people at least, but I know it won't completely block out the crowd noise.

 

[woundedknee]

I don't think my last post worked, so I scrapped the idea of the dovetail because with time and wear and tear, it would need to be made of plastic. I opted for a tongue and groove idea that may or may not be cost/time effective. anyway, here is a terrible drawing of it.

 

[pandamonk]

I don't think my last post worked, so I scrapped the idea of the dovetail because with time and wear and tear, it would need to be made of plastic. I opted for a tongue and groove idea that may or may not be cost/time effective. anyway, here is a terrible drawing of it.

Ah, cool idea! Although, I think it would be quite difficult for an amateur DIY guy, like me, to build.

 

[dodgeaspen]

Some good suggestions guys. I have two thoughts on the floor. First is to use a floor that is a few inches thicker so if the ground is uneven you will not have gaps in the walls at the bottom. Or, what about securing the floor and a wall or two with the bolts and instead of using regular nuts you could install wing nuts. That would save time and a lot of hassle. Or, have the floor hinged on a wall that will just drop down when you stand the wall up. Something to think about.

 

[NL5]

Hinges.

I'll try and post a pic of how to do it.