soundproofing

[solit]

Hello-
I'm looking to turn my hall closet into a vocal booth.
4 ft wide, 4 ft deep, 12 feet tall.

can anyone recommend any cost effective ways for soundproofing the closet?

I'm not looking to spend thousands making it airtight, but if there is something I can do at a reasonable cost to enable me to get clearer recordings with minimal backround noise, that would be great.

thanks for your input

[Blue Bear Sound]

You want to soundproof it or sound absorption? They are 2 different things and the soundproofing is costly (need to build a room within a room).... sound reflection handling can be as simple as put up heavy material such as moving blankets or drapery to deaden the room a bit....

[Jason James]

If you just want to make the room sound nice, and your using instruments/voices that do not have lots of low end then I would suggest using Owens Corning 703. It comes in 2'x4' sheets, get 1" or 2" thick pieces and wrap in burlap etc. space them off the walls an inch or two and your done. Cover as much of the rooms walls and ceilings as possible. Contact roofing supply companies or insulation supply companies in your area.

Should sound nice. Check out www.recording.org for info too.

Jason

[solit]

how much would this cost to purchase and install in a closet? roughly

[Jason James]

I got the good stuff for 44 cents a sqft. Add some 2"x2" or 1" x 3" would be better for a frame get some cool looking fabric that sound can permiate. Weed Block from home depot is cheap and some of it looks really cool. Your done. Go to www.recording.org, go to studio building or what ever its called. Read the first post and the link thats on there. SHould answer alot of ?'s you have. Keep in mind that soundproofing and acoustic treatment are 2 different things. THe 703 is partly what "big time" studios use to get their rooms controled. It will not stop sound.

Good Luck
Jason

[knightfly]

If you're actually looking to keep sound in or out (sound PROOF) there isn't a lot you can do without removing the wall paneling from at least one side of the frames.

If you can't do that, the next best thing would be to put either another layer of sheet rock on every surface except the floor, and a layer of 3/4" particle board on the floor (covered with whatever floor material suits you)

or

put 3/4" particle board on EVERY surface in the closet. Either way, you would need to get non-hardening, acoustic-rated caulk and seal all joints air tight. Sound will get through a tiny crack with ease, so "close enough" isn't close enough.

Neither of these methods properly de-couples the two "leaves" of the wall - to do this, the paneling would have to come off one side of the framing, and Resilient Channel mounted on the studs, then at least two layers of sheet rock put over the Resilient Channel. It doesn't sound like you want to go this far, so I won't go into the details of how to do this right now. I've posted step-by-step procedures in other threads here in the past.

Generally, when people use a closet for vocals they leave most of the clothes in and record either at night (if they live alone) or in the afternoon when the family's at the mall, etc - saves having to actually sound proof the room... Steve

Oh, BTW, if you're going to do more than a couple of vocal tracks this way the 703 on walls/ceiling is definitely good, whether or not you do any actual sound PROOFing...

[solit]

Thanks for your help.
to clarify-
I rent my apartment, and I'm lot looking to actually soundproof it.

My three options are as follows:

1.) record vocals as you stated in a normal closet full of clothes
2.) record vocals in a closet that is empty, with padding(such as owens corning 703) on the walls
3.) record vocals in a closet that has clothes, but also padding on the wall.


the booth with only be used to record vocals- not instrumentation.

out of those 3 options, what would be best? would I notice a significant improvement in the crispness/cleanness of the vocals by adding padding.

It looks like "sounproofing" is indeed well beyond the scope of what I am trying to do, but a cost effective way to improve the quality of the recoding environment would be great.

thanks!

[Blue Bear Sound]

I hear Armani suits make the best mid-high-freq absorbers...

Also Martha Stewart sweaters for women's voices...!