Just a Thought

B

BlindCowboy

New member
I've been thinking on and off about building a small project studio. But, with very little space to work with, it hasn't been a real possibility.

So, I looked at what I really need, and where I spend the most time when i'm in a professional studio. And, that would be the booth. Roughly 85% of the time that was spent recording was in the booth. And the 15% that was not, was for the drum track, which was in the drum booth. Now, in my studio, I use MIDI and hand percussion for my drum tracks, so space is not really an issue. What I want, and what I think most people really need, is a nice double occupant vocal booth that is completely isolated and has a nice acoustical response and feel. Something that can isolate and tame a strong bass amp, yet fit into, say a 6x8 foot print. Perhaps a larger version that can house a drum kit.

There is a nice selection of educated and innovative minds in this forum. And I really think that a detailed description of building a booth such as this will give many of the home recorders out here a tangible alternative to the significant investment of a studio construction. And the greatest benefit being, that the money and attention can be micro-focused to a single application. Rather than spreading the resources thin and getting less than admirable results.

So, if your interested, this is an excellent design task that I think would benefit a great majority of people that are interested in studio construction.

Blind Cowboy...
 
sounds usefull

i wish i could help, but i have a seperate room. Is that what you are talking about, or like a portable room?
 
Actually, a semi-portable room would be cool. I'm thinking of a small room that is large enough to comfortably fit, say, two guitarists, and a couple of mics. Alot like the isolation booths that i've seen a couple of companies make. Only, homebuilt. Good acoustics and superb isolation.
 
I've been tossing around a few ideas on this for a while now; unfortunately, I'm buried in too many projects to be able to give it much time as yet. One of the goals, "Good acoustics and superb isolation." - isn't even remotely doable in a booth, and especially in a "semi-portable" one - if you look at whisperroom's portable (or not) booths, the isolation isn't all that great (although usable, if you pay for the higher grade version) and they are $$$$ (around $5-7k) by the time you get the better isolation, ventilation option, etc - Portability means movement, which makes decent isolation next to impossible due to flexing of joints, etc - it would be better to build it where it belongs and leave it there.

As far as acoustics go, in that small an area you would do well to accomplish "not too crappy" by picking finished inside dimensions that are modally balanced. Considering the need to fit this into a room with 8 foot ceilings, if you were to make the inside dim's 5' x 6' x 7' tall, you'd get as good acoustics inside as possible and have enough room to do a true mass-air-mass floor, wall, and ceiling. Door, window and ventilation would be the weak links, but a properly designed DIY double leaf door is possible (I think, haven't got quite that far yet) and I'm working on a vent idea that should cost around $200 or less to add -

All in all, this is a doable project - however, when reality sets in I still have to make a living - I've considered taking this project on as a possible paid download (say, around $20 for complete plans including pictures of construction) but don't know if the interest is there when it's not free. Until I see quite a bit of interest at that price point, this will have to stay on the "back burner" status it's been on for the past several months.

I saw plans on CD-ROM somewhere for a booth, but no idea how well it's designed - the cost was around $30 IIRC, and you had to buy the CD to find out anything useful at all - I wasn't willing to do that.

For now, if you stick to the inside dimensions I gave above you'll at least have no "bumps" in the room response - for more tips on general sound construction, check out the "sticky" section here -

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=4e176e841538e0f807702ab3273ed339

'Bout the best I can offer for now... Steve
 
Acoustics are very much the downpoint in this situation. And portable is not a necessity. Just an afterthought that might spark some interest in the constantly transient folks. But, if your kicking it around in your head, then I feel a bit more sane in the belief that this could be something cool. As for acoustics, i've been strongly considering a totally dead room. As scary as that sounds, anything else would lend to the constant bathroom reverb. Most of my acoustics are added through software and effects anyways, so this may give me a clean pallete to start from.

As for ventilation, i've been considering the construction of a baffled box resembling a mouse maze. I saw a construction similar to this and it seemed to work well.
 
steve, i have a feeling if you posted that on here in the newbie thread and made it a sticky, you could make a lot of money.

i would have bought it when i started building my studio
 
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