Building small portable isolation booth

[Garak]

I'm thinking about building a small 4'x4'x6.5' vocal/isolation booth.

A friend is getting me the glass from a display that they are throwing out at a department store where he works. I think they around around 2'x3'. There are two of them and they seem prefect for a soundproof window, the only problem is the hole for the key but it shouldn't be too hard to seal it up with some silcon or something.

I'm thinking of some MDF of something cheep for the walls, floor(maybe plywood here) and celing with 4"x4" in the corners. I would cut slots in the 4"x4"s using a router so the wood fits in nice and tight. I might double the walls up if I can find something cheep enough while being strong enough not to break while moveing it. I'll put a small gap in between the two sheets.

I'm going to try and make this as dead a possiable for recording vocals, should I still make the walls at 12 degrees to each other?

What products out there are cheep and easy to remove for sealing up the cracks around where the MDF or plywood meets the 4"x4"?

What about the door? Any ideas on how to make a simple air tight door in a sheet of wood?

[frederic]

Two layers of MDF as walls is fine, thats what my under construction vocal booth will be made of, attached to the floor and the ceiling, and the supporting walls of the room (I'm wedging the booth in a corner, over a rarely used open stairwell).

For a door, I'm using a heavy wooden flat door I found in the attic. Nothing special about the door other than its a good, heavy door with no trim, moulding, or other surface irregularities.

The doorframe will be made of 2x4's, and the walls will butt against the frame. Nothing amazing, nothing special, just anchored well. In between the two layers of MDF will be sheet rubber for a little extra isolation, which I ahppened to have left over from when I did the rest of the studio.

I won't be having windows in the booth, just wall/ceiling covered with Auralex 3" foam, a small video camera, a small LCD monitor (so the vocalist can see the engineer and vice versa), a mic stand, a XLR jackplate, and a headphone jack/volume control.

I have other issues with my booth in that its going to be situated above a stairwell as I mentioned earlier - so the floor will flip up into the booth so that the stairwell is clear for carrying boxes/equipment up. Also, the wall closest to the top of the stairs can be partially flipped up, much like a "doggy door" if you have pets. This way, the stairwell has access for those rare occasions. I even started to build the counterweight for the floor - so that lifting it isn't stressful.

[John Sayers]

Garak - take a look at Dan's panels.
http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthr...threadid=42708

If you were to buils two of your walls like that and use the glass on the other two sides you'd have a nice VB. I's angle two of the sides. Set up so you face the glass so the mike is therefore looking at the dead walls.

cheers
John

[DougD]

hey Frederic,

wouldn't your microphone pick up the TV monitor high frequencies?

[frederic]

Originally posted by DougD
hey Frederic,

wouldn't your microphone pick up the TV monitor high frequencies?

Seemingly not!

I believe because the LCD display is just that - its not flinging electrons forward. Also, I have the NTSC cable for it routed in a different pipe than the mic cables, so that might be helping. Honestly, I didn't think about it until after I installed everything, but so far I haven't gotten any weird harmonics or hum or anything like that.

[busted kitty]

Is the objective of the VB to build an accousticlly "dead" space? If so, what are you lining the walls with to elimintate nasty sound reflections of of hard surfaces? Also, what are the angles of the walls?

This would be very helpful info for building a booth of my own.

Thanks
Busted Kitty

[frederic]

I believe the vocal booth should be completely dead.

In my case, acoustical foam and other such materials will line the walls.

Originally posted by busted kitty
Is the objective of the VB to build an accousticlly "dead" space? If so, what are you lining the walls with to elimintate nasty sound reflections of of hard surfaces? Also, what are the angles of the walls?

This would be very helpful info for building a booth of my own.

Thanks
Busted Kitty

[John Sayers]

Yes I think it should be dead, then you can add verb if necessary and have control over it. But remember there is dead and there is DEAD!. Curtains will make it sound dead but only in the high end, what you want is dead in the low end around 150 - 500HZ as well. A good place for that kind of absorption is in the ceiling above you. If your booth is 8' high and you are only 6' high you can have 18"' + of depth to absorb the low end. 4" rockwool covered on cloth and 18" off the ceiling will absorb down into that region.

cheers
john

[DougD]

Sorry Frederic.

I read LCD and thought CCD. Oops.

Carry on.

[Cwadroon]

I was thinking over the weekend about building a small portable vocal booth. This site is the sh!!t.

[mysong]

I am also thinking of the use of a 2-way camera system with the iso room and control room.

Can you tell us some items to look at for purchase that will do this.

Will it be its own 2-way system, so we can see each other.

I am sure it is simple, but always willing to ASK so I can learn.

We have a Fry's Electronics here, so once i am sure of what I am looking for,...I am sure I can purchase it.

As always ,..you are all great

[Innovations]

Originally Posted by mysong

I am also thinking of the use of a 2-way camera system with the iso room and control room.

Can you tell us some items to look at for purchase that will do this.

Will it be its own 2-way system, so we can see each other.

I am sure it is simple, but always willing to ASK so I can learn.

We have a Fry's Electronics here, so once i am sure of what I am looking for,...I am sure I can purchase it.

As always ,..you are all great

The Fry's if it is like any of the ones around here has a section on security camera systems.

[mysong]

with these type of cameras,..I will be able to do a 2 way camera view with one unit? and 2 cameras and 2 monitors

[riffy]

I built this. Maybe it'll give you some ideas. I use a camera so I can see the talent.