$30 Vocal Booth that Works

  • Thread starter Thread starter DarkFriend
  • Start date Start date
D

DarkFriend

New member
- Three pieces of plywood. Width should be 3 feet and height about 1 foot over your head. So if you are 6 feet tall, you want three pieces of 3x7 plywood.

- Six heavy door hinges.

- One super thick foam bed/mattress pad from Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, KMart, etc.

- About ten roofing nails

Connect the panels together with the hinges and drop the foam pad on top. Cut it along the plywood seams into three pieces from top to bottom. Use the nails to attach the foam pad to the plywood. Fold and go! Position it into a "C" or "[" to sing with the mic at the center back.

Just built this recently, and it definitely works. Add-ons include casters/wheels on one side to roll the thing around, or cheap door handles so you can pick it up or move it easier.
 
Why go to the trouble of cutting 4 x 8 sheets of plywood down to 3 x 7? The leftover is waste, at least it can't be used on this project, so why not make the sides 4 x 8?
 
stevieb said:
Why go to the trouble of cutting 4 x 8 sheets of plywood down to 3 x 7? The leftover is waste, at least it can't be used on this project, so why not make the sides 4 x 8?
Click to expand...

Because if I left it at 4x8, I wouldn't be able to fit it in my studio door? :)

Aside from that, it seems to me that the smaller the booth, the more focused and dead the sound.
 
have any with versus without clips? What thickness wood did you use? Plywood must be cheap over there in georgia. Three sheets of 4x8 ply by themselves will cost you well over $30 here in Los Angeles :(
 
I may build this..... got any pics of the finished project ?
 
mattress foam is simply horrible to use for decent absorption...
 
jasonbmerrill said:
mattress foam is simply horrible to use for decent absorption...
Click to expand...

You'd think that would be the case, but it works great. I've got three A/C units right outside the window. Without the vocal booth, the mic picks up a lot of room and outside noise. In the foam booth, it is dead silent.
 
DarkFriend said:
You'd think that would be the case, but it works great. I've got three A/C units right outside the window. Without the vocal booth, the mic picks up a lot of room and outside noise. In the foam booth, it is dead silent.
Click to expand...

i understand that --

it DOES deaden the sound.

however, it does NOT deaden it in an even way across the spectrum. it will kill alot of highs, and leave the lows to muddy up your sound.

it might be silent, but its not "even"


you might want to fill it with something a bit more absorptive.

rockwool covered with burlap? That might be not so good.

maybe cotton -- there are certain absorptive cottons that would work good in that situation.

but for decent recordings, you are just shooting yourself in the foot using mattress foam, ime.
 
jasonbmerrill said:
i understand that --

but for decent recordings, you are just shooting yourself in the foot using mattress foam, ime.
Click to expand...

I'll post a song in a week or two and you can hear the results. Let me know if you think the vocals are missing something. What I'm hearing are the best vocals I've gotten out of my home studio.
 
DarkFriend said:
I'll post a song in a week or two and you can hear the results. Let me know if you think the vocals are missing something. What I'm hearing are the best vocals I've gotten out of my home studio.
Click to expand...

i dunno, maybe this mattress foam you are using is above the norm?

you should look up some specs for the material you are using, there are specs available for rockwool/fibreglass, and other materials that show different absorption levels for different materials @ different thicknesses.

Even a decent absorber like rockwool only absorbs decent lower bass @ 4 inches.
 
Jason - my main goals were to

- isolate the vocals
- get rid of the outside noise
- get rid of the room
- do the above cheaply

For these purposes, it does seem to work. I dunno, perhaps the fact that the foam is mounted on fairly dense plywood helps its absorption properties?
 
DarkFriend said:
Jason - my main goals were to

- isolate the vocals
- get rid of the outside noise
- get rid of the room
- do the above cheaply

For these purposes, it does seem to work. I dunno, perhaps the fact that the foam is mounted on fairly dense plywood helps its absorption properties?
Click to expand...

i dont think plywood is absorptive ;)

if you accomplish these goals, yet sacrifice sound, i dont see the point...

but, hey if it works for you, if it sounds good who really cares all that much?!?!

:)
 
i don't get the argument here. If he's happy with the new sound, what's there to argue? who cares what the absorptive properties of his mattress foam is? I mean, sure it might not work as well for other people, but this is the internet. YMMV always applies doesn't it?
 
agreed... ooops, sorry, i totally missed you "if it sounds good who really cares all that much?!?!" remark... my bad.
 
Photos

mattkw80 said:
I may build this..... got any pics of the finished project ?
Click to expand...

Ha - started to disassemble this and forgot I needed to take photos.





Kind of difficult to get a good shot, especially since I had myself backed into a corner, but you get the idea.

As I mentioned above, I finished a song yesterday, and I'm SO thankful I took the few hours to build this box. It made a world of difference. Look for the MP3 in the Mix Clinic forums in a week when I get the track back from mastering.
 
santiu said:
Three sheets of 4x8 ply by themselves will cost you well over $30 here in Los Angeles :(
Click to expand...

Now that he's posted pics, we can see that it's not actually plywood. Pricing is probably correct.
 
Not plywood? What is that then? I'm about as handy as a 5 year old..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top