Vocal booth - yey or ney?

MartinJohn123

New member
Hi guys,

I'd appreciate some advice. I am thinking about building a vocal booth from scratch using the same materials and technique that this guy uses: STEP-BY-STEP DIY SOUND BOOTH ON A BUDGET (Cost & Demo) - YouTube

I will be adding acoustic treatment to my room but even so I am thinking this vocal booth may be really good. My only concern is that it may kill the high frequencies too much?

Anyone got a booth like this for singing vocals? Any advice?

Thanks!

Martin
 
If you're going to build a booth like that guy in the video...you could just as easily put up a mic in a clothes closet, and get the same results/

There are reasons to use a booth (but I mean a real sound booth)...to isolate vocals from other musicians during recording...to block outside noise if the environment is not the best....maybe even to keep others from hearing you sing, which may seem like noise to them...or you want them to be 100% dry so you can add synthetic processing and ambience later...

...but IMO, it's not about making your voice sound better.

The way I look at it...recording a singer should be no different than recording an acoustic guitar or piano, and for those, you rarely stick them in a booth.
Maybe you want to control some of the room sound, but you can do that without sticking the singer in booth...instead you apply some treatment to the room, and let the singer have some "air" to work with...like an acoustic guitar or piano.
 
Thanks for your ideas and feedback. The room isn't an ideal studio space and I'm not in a position to move it. If I create a booth it'll mean I have at least some space where the reflections are completely dead and then I can process it entirely through my DAW.
 
Thanks for your ideas and feedback. The room isn't an ideal studio space and I'm not in a position to move it. If I create a booth it'll mean I have at least some space where the reflections are completely dead and then I can process it entirely through my DAW.

But that mans make shift booth is not the way to go. There are reasons why things like that cost $100 and other booths may cost $5,000 - $10,000. Just the same as a Blue Yeti mic may cost $50 and a Neumann will cost $1,000 plus. If you think you will get anywhere near the same results from any of the examples you are wildly mistaken. If it were so, then everybody would only buy a Blue Yeti and a King size duvet wouldn't they?

Build or put a proper booth in the room. You will not look back or regret it once you start to use it.
 
OK, let's go back to what Miro stated, isolation would be the primary reason for a both or noise control. When tracking, while your room is important, your mic placement is more important. The reason you have studios with big rooms and treated walls is to "capture" the room. In your case you might not want to capture the room.

I suggest finding a good place where the voice is captured well. Experiment with mic/room placement. Try hallways, bathrooms, closets, etc. Until you find "that place" where you like the vocals. If you are getting too much reflection, then use some material to reduce that reflection, blankets, Rockwool (make some frames and cover), you probably get the idea.

If you are mobile, get your tracks made, then record your vocals where they best sound.

When tracking you are trying to capture a sound, not to be confused with treating a room for mixing. Mixing you want the room neutral, tracking you want it to be what you want it to be. But usually not neutral, but some character.

Not trying to throw rocks at your idea, just trying to give you other points of view.
 
The way I look at it...recording a singer should be no different than recording an acoustic guitar or piano, and for those, you rarely stick them in a booth.......let the singer have some "air" to work with...like an acoustic guitar or piano
Bingo !
And bingo again !
Maybe once in a blue moon, it may assist the vocal sound you want by having a booth like that. But that's rare. Like once, you might put the mic in a washing machine or tumble dryer with the door open to record your acoustic or electric guitar for a specific effect. But that wouldn't be your standard modus operandi.
If you can get some air in your vocal, gulp it unless you have good reason not to.
There again you could just try a makeshift version of that booth and see how it does for you before committing full tilt boogie.
 
Thanks so much for all the feedback. Food for thought.

I would love to have the funds to buy a booth for $5000, but until then I've got to settle for cheap DIY techniques!

Still trying to get my head around the concept of 'air' though: I thought when recording vocals you'll want the reflections as dead as possible so that they can be manipulated as much as necessary in the mixing stage? Can't 'air' become a problem as you can't 'undo' it once the vocals have been recorded? I appreciate that 'air' and playing around with different rooms / positions to record vocals is good when doing a live mix, but when it'll all be EQ'd, compressed, reverb'd after the recording then I thought a dead space would be best?

This has made me change tact though: I'm going to put acoustic treatment in the room first before considering the vocal booth.

Thanks again!
 
Still trying to get my head around the concept of 'air' though: I thought when recording vocals you'll want the reflections as dead as possible so that they can be manipulated as much as necessary in the mixing stage? Can't 'air' become a problem as you can't 'undo' it once the vocals have been recorded? I appreciate that 'air' and playing around with different rooms / positions to record vocals is good when doing a live mix, but when it'll all be EQ'd, compressed, reverb'd after the recording then I thought a dead space would be best?
At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, the only person that can really determine that is you ~ and you could well be right. It might turn out to be just what you want for the music you make.
I had an interesting experience last summer when I was recording a friend's vocals on a Shure SM58. She works in an adventure playground and the main "room" is a large one. It's actually a small hall. Anyway, I didn't think anything of it as I would add a light smattering of reverb later. But when I listened to the vocal solo'd, it had a lovely room reverb to it. It wasn't at all obvious when all the music was added or even in my monitors solo'd, but in headphones I could definitely hear it. It sounded lovely. To me, that was "air." There are a number of buildings I go in where I think to myself, I'd like to record vocals, acoustic guitar, sax or drums in here !
 
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