Vocal closet, critical?

Bisson820

New member
I am deviding the upstairs of my garage into two rooms.... studio/mixing room and an isolation room....

.. my question is how important is it to divide part of the isolation room into a vocal closet? or would the isolation room itself be fine.

dont know the exact dimensions of the isolation room, but its a pretty decent size.

thanks!

Bisson
 
Not only is it not critical, it's actually counterproductive. For that matter, how big is the entire (undivided) room? It may be a better idea to keep it as one big LEDE room.

Frank
 
I mean that all you'd be doing is creating a tiny room that will sound horrible, and that *may* be the result of splitting the full-size room you have now. Bear in mind that it's much better to have a 20'x30' room than split it into two 10'x15 rooms that will be much harder to treat. If your room is like 17'x21', it'll be MUCH better to keep it as one large room.

To get back on topic though, don't build a tiny iso room. It's a waste of materials and labor. It'll sound terrible unless you line just about every square inch of the inside with 4" broad band panels.

Frank
 
To echo Frank... I wouldn't waste you're time building a booth.
Further more, I'd spend some time doing some research. There are a lot of intricacies when it comes to studio building and its EASY to spend a shitload of money on something that will get you little return. On the other hand, with some research, its easy to spend a little money and make a big improvement in your room... Read... :)
 
Id also suggest getting the dimensions on here also. There are alot of people on this site that can help do things right the first time. Draw up some diagrams of your space. Cant really do much with "the entire upstairs of a garage" because we dont know what your garage looks like.
 
its the entire upstairs of a garage being split into 2 rooms... they will be big lol.


One car or two?

I wouldn't even split up a two-car garage space...nevermind a one-car.
Your use of the word "closet" would be very appropriate if you did...especially when you bring in all the gear. :)
 
I have to echo all the comments above.

Building a booth that works properly is a significant undertaking, and the space it removes from your 'general' recording area can have unpleasant acoustic side-effects on that.

It is a good idea to keep your recording space as big and as airy as possible. With good acoustic treatment, this will serve all purposes.
 
4 car garage and i'll try to get the exact dimensions today of the upstairs.

i was thinking the same thinga bout having it in the iso room... which is why im now thinking to have it in part of the studio room (mixing room) ... w/e you wanna call it.
 
4 car garage

Sounds like you are gonna have a pretty sweet space for a studio!

Also, check out John Sayers website & forum- its ALL studio design and building. If nothing else, check it out for inspiration. John used to hang out here quite abit and was always a nice guy. When you get serious about designing your space (just as important as selecting your gear, but typically overlooked), post up plans here or look for advice there...
 
i was thinking the same thinga bout having it in the iso room... which is why im now thinking to have it in part of the studio room (mixing room) ... w/e you wanna call it.

I think the point we're all trying to make is that you shouldn't bother with it at all.

A tiny 'closet' is a horrible space to work with in so many ways. Firstly the acoustics of such a small space will be terrible, and would be very difficult to treat well even if you have a lot of money to put into it. It would also be unnecessarily claustrophobic. Planning on putting a window in and keeping all this isolated? Well you can at least double your budget!

You would be much better off recording vocals in a well-treated, larger live room. A typical vocal booth in a 'pro studio' is probably roughly the size of the average home/project studio live room anyway.
 
A 4-car garage...well now you're talking! :cool:

But I would still go with huge open space...and if you really feel you must, put a nice size iso-booth in one corner (or somewhere)...but do one that will hold a bit more than just a singer...you may want to use it for more than just that.

One question though...since you are not talking about using the actual 4-car garage space, but rather the space over it....that's often a slanted roof space, which isn't really as large as the actual garage beneath it.
How is yours?
 
it is a very tall garage... second story to roof is probably 10 feet with a slight slant at the top.

Ah, you're lucky with that :D

It sounds like you have a good space to work with, but I think a few of us in this thread are slightly worried you're jumping into this quite fast, maybe without some of the proper knowledge or understanding needed to make a success of a project like this. You may even want to consider seeking some professional advice as to the design and the construction of the rooms. Don't underestimate how much the dimensions, shape, construction and treatment of the rooms will contribute to the studio as a whole.


Whilst its at least a few years away from reality, I've spent a bit of time recently beginning to plan how to divide up a similarly large outbuilding (I think its roughly 41' x 17') into a double garage and a studio. Due to planning restrictions (its a listed property) we will be limited to rebuilding it in the style of an original farm outbuilding and so the height will be limited... even if we dig down a bit for the ground floor, the upstairs will still have the slanted roof running almost down the floor.
 
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Yep...a 4-car garage will work just fine. Still, post some dimensions so we can help you with how to divide it up.

Frank
 
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