Voice Booth/Office - how much noise can I expect to keep OUT?

[Dr Gonzo]

My fiancee is a voice over artist who works from home. Right now, she has some accoustic triangle foam on a couple walls in the spare bedroom. Her setup is just fine for what she does; sound quality doesn't have to be super-ultra-mega great or anything. The problem we have sometimes is that we live about two miles from a small airport that has an aviation school, so little airplanes occasionally buzz by our house about 100 feet up, as well as the occasional helicopter ambulance (you can't hear them loudly in the basement, but it's loud upstairs) It's not a huge pain in the butt, but it does keep her from working for a minute or two at a time... and she is busy! We are also starting a family soon and general house noise is about to increase. I'm looking to build her a booth over the summer, so I have a couple questions:

How realistic is it for a DIY job to block out environmental noise like airplanes and weed wackers and lawn mowers? And what about kids? Can I build a home booth for ~$2,500 that will allow my then-wife to record while a baby cries in the house? She also edits as she records, so it has to be big enough for a standing desk and tall chair, with room to move the chair out of the way. I was thinking a 4'x2' shelf for a desk, which means I'm probably looking at a 4'x6' booth at a minimum I'm thinking.

I'm going to build something that we can disassemble and move when we buy a bigger house in a couple years. I have some construction and design experience, as well as a professional Autocad and Revit licence. Best placement looks like somewhere in the basement... some is finished immediately at the bottom of the stairs, and the unfinished part is in the mechanical space with the furnace and overhead exposed ductwork and gas lines. I would much rather put it in the unfinished part, but I don't know if the furnace would be too loud that close or how much more it would cost to insulate from THAT noise.

I'm just looking for some guidance and what kind of reasonable expectations I can have within that budget.

 

[DaleVO]

Dr. Gonzo,
When I'm recording, I battle the "Poor Farm" ambiance similar to what your betrothed battles. Weekends are worst, with the neighbor's chainsaws, mowers, tractors, birds singing, and such. On sunny, Saturdays, I am in the flight path for north/south air traffic. They have much more altitude on their fly-bys, which was fine when I was recording the FAA's Airplane Flying Handbook a few months ago- added natural effect. I cannot imagine a 100' buzzin-the-tower altitude. Additionally, if my cattle know that I'm out and about, on the place, they will start bawling for me to throw them some cubes (slaves to their stomachs).

Not knowing your facility, you have some tough sounds to try to tame successfully. It will take a lot of mass to keep the sound out. I have a 6'x8'x8' pentagonal/ non-paralleled walled, isolation booth with doubled sheet-rocked walls, acoustic foam over 6" OC703, and carpeted floor, built inside my shop, that still lets sound into it. Typically my noise floor peaks at -60dB, which is acceptable for the recordings that I produce, until I have to pause for the extraneous sounds to subside. So I do the best I can, and deal with the interruptions/outtakes, and pickups.

I am not an expert on booth building, but would like to recommend a book: The Studio Builder's Handbook (Book & DVD): Bobby Owsinski, Dennis Moody: 9780739077030: Amazon.com: Books

Dale

 

[Armistice]

Not very... to answer your question.

 

[Bobbsy]

I'm afraid Armistice and DaleVO are correct.

Sound proofing (as opposed to acoustic treatment) takes a big mix of mass and physical isolation. Besides the cost, for a small booth the double walls/air gap you need can take as much space as the interior of the booth itself.

On top of that, sound isolation also results in lack of fresh air so you need some kind of specialist ventilation system as well.

One thought...if you're serious about needing a nicely silenced voice booth, you might consider a prefabricated, free standing unit from IAC (Industrial Acoustics Company). It'll be more than your budget but they give guaranteed specs and handle all the problems. I can't do a link for you because I get sent automatically to their Australian site but a quick Google will find your local site.

Some years back I had to create a small radio facility fast (interview studio with control room, two self opp voice booths) and they were quick and actually cheaper than getting in an acoustic consultant and specialist builders.

 

[Dr Gonzo]

She's been dealing with the occasional airplane and weed wacker (and train, even) for two years now. What I'm really concerned about is the baby. Can you have kids in a house with a booth and have that booth effectively shut them out?

 

[mjbphotos]

Kids/babies in the house? She won't have TIME to do any of the recording. Unless you are going to be the 24/7 'Mr Mom'.

As already said, other than one of the stand-alone booths that Bobbsy mentions (I think they go for $4K and up), mass is your answer. "Room within a room" in your basement or a detached garage will help a little. But when those little buggers are running around, the noise will carry through the floors, though the joists and beams.

 

[DM60]

Maybe use of close micing and a noise gate. If you have a smart phone, get an app that measures the sound and that would give you an idea on where to set the threshold to filter out the noise. Or, if you can post edit the recording, do this in post edit.