Bedroom Studio Vocal Booth

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technominds

technominds

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Bedroom Studio Vocal Booth [Help Please]

Iv e been recording for about 2 years now, and ive decided enough is enough and i really want a vocal booth. My bedroom isnt too small... but not huge. I was thinking maybe i could use my clothes cupboards as a starting build point... they are wide and deep enough to stand in with a mic stand.. and once i knock out a shelf.. will be tall enough to stand in too.... if i can turn this into a booth.. will it be worth my troubles or will i lose too many frequencies for it to be worth it? If it is worth it.. what materials do i use and how do i make everything sealed tight without it being so hot you can barely breath after 3 minutes of recording?

Any advice would be brilliant,
Josh
 
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Plan so far..

If you could tell me what you think of my plan so far, improvements ect? I would be very grateful..
 

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It is definitely doable. What are the inside dimensions? For a closet probably the best thing you can do for acoustics is to make it as dead as possible. Try to find a source of rigid fiberglass if possible and line as much of the walls with it as you can. This will minimize the effect of the small room on what the mic picks up and will allow you to do your processing of the vocals later on.

Darryl.....
 
Thanks man, i think its 8ft tall... about a ft deep... and about 4 ft wide... i tried recording in there with some padded stuff and it worked kinda ish... but it did sound like i was in a small room... so fiberglass will do the trick? no carpeting/foam or anything? What about angles, should i leave it square.. or maybe angle around the mic area?
 
I'm not so sure if the angled mirror is a good idea. You mean the vocalist can look to the ceiling and see the control room? It would be upside down, wouldn't it? :eek: If you look through the window into the boot all you'd see were the hair of the vocalists, right? :rolleyes:

Why don't you just cut a whole into the second door and put a piece of glass in it? Should be much easier and the vocalists can look outside since he/she stands right behind that door.

In any case, this should be an easy project. Good luck! :D
 
The mirror was actually going to be put there mainly for light... i kinda figured it would be the quietest way of getting light into the booth.... also.. i think it will look nice :p But... what kind of padding/material shall i use to make sure no sounds get in?
 
Also, i dont think they would see them upside down... it would just be a view onto the control room...
 
I'd do a lot more research on this topic before I spent a bunch of money.

The bassist in my band converted one of his small closests into a vocal booth. Basically every inch of the (4 foot x 4 foot) closet is covered in foam. I believe it's even the good acoustic foam (Auralex or whatever it's called). Anyway, we recorded some vocals in there and I compared it to some vocals we recorded in a decent sized bedroom with moving blankets hanging around the mic/singer. The only difference was the room (signal path was exactly the same). In my opinion, the vocals we recorded in his closet/vocal booth sound like crap-- very boomy/boxy sounding. There are no highs and the low-end is muddy and boomy sounding. The vocals we recorded in the bedroom sound more airy and real (definitely NOT boomy)-- but were maybe a bit too bright.

Bottom-line: both vocal recordings needed EQ, but the "vocal booth" (i.e., closet covered in foam) sounded like crap and I won't be recording vocals in it ever again. Granted, foam isn't the best product for sound absorption (rigid fiberglass is better), but I still don't think that tiny closet would sound better even with the best acoustic treatment.
 
So whats the difference between a 4x4 Closet... and a 4x4 £2000 vocal booth that you can buy in shops? Surely by replicating what they do for those... you should get the same kinda of sounds.... i think the reason it sounded boomy was probably because it was over-padded.... its sometimes nice to have clean surfaces for the sound to hit high's with... all im saying is if 4x4 shouldnt be a size for a vocal booth... they should sell £2k ones in shops! :confused: :confused:
 
technominds said:
So whats the difference between a 4x4 Closet... and a 4x4 £2000 vocal booth that you can buy in shops?
Click to expand...
I agree with you that ther results should be similar: dry recordings.

Of course you needed to add reverb later and eq a bit, but that should be the same for both treated rooms.
 
I'm not saying that a 4x4 room CANNOT be a vocal booth. I'm saying that if you are expecting miracles-- you may be disappointed.

Technominds, are you willing to put $2k into your "vocal booth?"

I was simply suggesting more research on the subject and sharing my experience with a similar project that was done on the cheap. The results are not impressive (and that's being nice).

You may be able to get better results by simply treating the main room (bedroom?) instead of the closet. Then you would get dual use out of your effort (a nice sounding tracking room AND mixing room).
 
its an idea, but my main room.. yes my bedroom... has noisy machines such as my computer... which makes a rediculous amount of noise when around my mic... i never mentioned doing this cheaply... but to be honest the £2k vocal booths that you can buy are not priced that high because the material cost is high... its just because those booths are for people with no time or knowlage to do it themselves... as far as im concerned anyway... although i do thank you for your advice and have taken it into consideration that a similar project has gone wrong..

Thanks again,
TM
 
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