DIY Voiceover Booth Panels

[KineticSound]

Hello all!

Just wanted to share a quick walkthrough of some DIY panels that I finally got around to finishing today since the wife's out of town... The primary function of my little home studio is voiceover production - nice, as it doesn't take up much room - but as I banished my voiceover rig to a small alcove off in a corner, I was battling some pretty wild reflection problems. I decided to build some acoustic panels to wrap around my voice "booth" with the prerequisites that:
a. They had to look presentable - My recording area is visible from the living area, so I couldn't just attach the foam all over the wall
b. They had to kill the early reflections I was getting. (Duh)

I decided to "frame" some standard acoustic panels. The panels I used were UL 94 Foam from Parts Express. These come in 18"x24" panels that were the perfect size for my space. I have a friend who owns an art & framing shop here in town, so I had him make a couple of basic 18"x24" frames to give me a 1" wood border around the panels. To hold the panels in place, I used 3/8" foam core board from an art supply shop:

 

[KineticSound]

I cut the foam core board to fit snugly within the frame backing - just a little larger than 18"x24", and ran a dry fit to make sure everything lined up.

The foam board I found had an adhesive surface on it, so next was removing the protective film and placing the foam core board into the frames. I used a little carpenters' glue in the frames to keep the foam core board firmly in place.

 

[KineticSound]

Next came the acoustic panels themselves. While the foam core board had a tacky surface, I didn't want my panels moving or peeling off, so I used some 581 Foam adhesive (also from Parts Express) on both the foam core board surface and the back of the acoustic panels. Once I had the adhesive sprayed on, I carefully laid the panels in place inside the frames.

 

[KineticSound]

From here, it was just like hanging a picture. I used a couple of small mirror hangers on the backs of the frames, centered them on my studio walls, and up they went! The foam core board is surprisingly light, so the panels hardly weigh anything at all.

My last disclaimer is that this space is just used for voice tracking - production & mixing is done through headphones and I wasn't really concerned about tuning the space for anything... just killing the reflections. While the photo shows just two, there are two more hung behind me and two smaller ones on a strip of wall to my right. The finished product kept the room looking nice, and the early reflections were dramatically reduced!

 

[BentRabbit]

Looks great and functional too!

Thank you for this! I'm inspired to start tidying up my recording space now...