Building an inexpensive and effective sound booth (with bricks?)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason April
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Jason April

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  • Location: 1,500 sq. ft. loft apartment with cement floor and 25' ceiling. It's one big room.
  • Reasons: Bad acoustics. Girlfriend who I don't want to keep awake during late night recording sessions. General soundproofiness to prevent unwanted noise from appliances, pets, etc.
  • Size: I'm guessing 5' wide for a desk which will have my computer, monitors, and a 54"-wide midi controller. Enough depth to comfortably fit a small chair and a microphone stand for recording vocals and acoustic guitar. I'm thinking at least 6' deep. The height would be fine at 6.5'.
  • Budget: Under $1,000 would be nice.
  • Ability: I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never done construction, carpentry, masonry or anything of the sort.

Here's my idea: People give away bricks all the time on Craigslist. Brick walls are about STC 50, if I'm not mistaken. Throw some mass-loaded vinyl over them and that should top STC 70 (I think), which is perfect. I could yell at the top of my lungs and not wake my girlfriend 20 feet away.

Assuming this idea for the main construction is all well and good, I'd just need to figure out the ceiling, floor, door, and ventilation. I'll worry about acoustic treatment later. Does this sound feasible so far?

P.S. This is really a control room/sound booth combo, i.e. a miniature recording studio, but the sound booth part is primary.
 
I'm wondering if a better option would be to build two rooms: A studio and a bedroom. So instead of having an STC 70 studio, I could have an STC 50 studio and an STC 40 bedroom. Since I don't understand the math, I'm not sure if this setup would be superior sound reduction-wise. I'm also clueless as to the difference in cost.
 
A 6'x 5' x 6.5' brick/whatever room will sound terrible. You won't be able to acoustically treat it because there would be no room left inside. The brick may stop the sound, but the door, ventilation and ceiling won't unless you really build it correctly.
1500 sf is a decent amount of space - how much of that floor space is your girlfriend willing to let you use? I'd suggest a room no smaller (interior) than 10' x 15' x 8' ht - you're going to need to build 'per code' so the whole thing doesn't collapse on you (loose stacked bricks is not a good idea!) so as you say you have no experience, what's your budget, can you afford to have someone come in and do this correctly?
 
Building a brick bunker sounds like a terrible idea.

Best suggestion given, which I agree with, is to build bedroom walls, and possibly studio walls (if space permits). Use wood framing, rock wool product in the wall cavities (roxul safe and sound is good stuff), and double layer drywall). There's lots of info out there about building walls that reasonably block sound.

Don't lock yourself into a room that is too small to be effective. Perhaps after building out a bedroom, you will be fine to just record in the remaining open space. Those 25' ceilings are going to be a problem though....is your ceiling really 3 stories high? That's huge!

Now, as you mention, you don't know what you are doing. Are you renting, or is this a condominium? You will need to investigate your permissions to modify the space. Then you need to build the space in accordance with local building and fire code. Any modification you do impacts the rest of the building and tenants/owners too. If you screw up the structure, or overload the floors with weight, or burn the place down with bad wiring, or flood the place out by driving a nail through a water pipe, or....you will be in big trouble. Get a professional to do it if you don't know how.

And you've budgeted for $1000? Triple that for a single small room. As a guideline, I recently renovated a 15'x24' room for my "studio". All framing, insulation, wallboard, ceiling tiles, paint, electrical, etc...came to about $4000 CAD. And I did my own work, however I had inspectors sign off on the work as per local building by-laws. So if you are going to get a professional, the general rule of thumb is 33% materials, 33% labour, 33% profit. If I hired a contractor to do the work It probably would have cost over $10k.

And I still have flooring to do for another $1500....

I know it can seem tempting to just dive in and start doing the work, but seriously consider what you are trying to accomplish, and how it is going to happen. Renovating is expensive.
 
Have to agree with the direction of the previous posters.

Brick no good.

I mean if you go cheap, make some serious GOBOS on wheels and a ceiling to pop on. Starting with a big space is not a bad thing, but it is the start. A lot of make shift vocal isolation set ups in major studios. But if you are building real walls and have the $ and ability to put in a structure, go for it, but no brick.

In contrast Classical music is ideal for a big space, but requires as much attention to acoustics as the more typical multi room tracking set up.

I can say that places like the original Columbia recordings and big spaces like that are awesome and have the capability of not only classical style room ambiance, but also ability to do whole brass and string sections etc... and grand piano...not that all of these couldn't be done in a multi room setting.

A private one close by me would be Futura studios, they have a big acoustic and classical music studio and do work that includes rock and pop etc....

Similarly, went to Vindaloo Studios, Aerosmith and they have some info on the web of their set up in a big room, having each instrument in different corners and use of gobos and homemade contraptions filled with roxul in huge umbrellas hung upside-down from ceiling rope height adjustable and covered with fabric. They were able to regulate the amount of room sound and feel by raising and lowing these big umbrellas. I saw the space and it does have good treatment throughout, but for the more up front sound, they were tweaking it.

Anyways, also remember in a closed space ventilation becomes an issue quicker than you might imagine, it is currently an issue even i my bigger tracking room. IN a closed booth u would be surprised how fast it gets stuffy. Hence ventilation systems in vocal booths, just remember to engineer that in.
 
Thank you all for the responses!

From what I've read here and elsewhere, brick is not a good idea. It's much too heavy, and the sound absorption isn't that fantastic. I was naively hoping for an effective unorthodox approach. But decoupled construction is the way to go.

I could probably snag 200 sq. ft. or so. How much space I can use is limited more by my budget than by my girlfriend. $1,000 was a frugal wish. I can go higher, but not by too much. $3,000 might be doable. Maybe. This is my life savings, so I want to spend it intelligently and still have enough left over for emergencies or a down payment on a house or whatnot. I'm not a wealthy man. My girlfriend is the breadwinner. I'm just the lowly musician. ;)

This apartment is a rental. I'm expecting to live there for at least two years. And yes, the ceilings really are that high. It looks amazing, but it sounds awful acoustically.

I'm allowed to build walls, and I'm close with a real estate developer who can help with making sure everything's to code, as well as lending the necessary tools. That's my professional. I'll likely be doing all the labor, though.

I should add that I'll be recording just vocals and acoustic guitar. No drums. (Maybe an electronic drum kit sometime in the future.) So there's less need to absorb low frequencies. I hope that will keep the cost down.

At this point, my main question is "One room or two?" The purpose of the studio/booth isn't just to keep sound out. It's also to keep sound in so I don't wake the girlfriend at 3am while practicing or recording with my bizarre schedule. I'm thinking I could build a well-soundproofed studio, or two somewhat soundproofed rooms (one studio and one bedroom). I'm not sure which setup would be most effective in terms of optimal sound isolation as well as cost and time.
 
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Life savings? In an apartment? Build portable panels that you can use in another location when you move. You will...


Drums or not, the low frequency treatment need is no less. Actually, I have no bass traps in my drum room. The issue is not with the recording room, but the mixing room. One large room is always better when dealing with spaces this small. Trust that. I wouldn't BS you.
 
***+1 to what Jimmy just said. for that kind of small investment, you cannot make an isolated room. Make some gobos - movable panels 4" thick with OC703, 705 or Roxul in them If you do it all yourself you make a dozen for under $500. There's not going to be any way to make a recording space in that place that your gf won't hear when you are playing, unless you play electric guitar DIed (no amp) with headphones for monitoring.
A 10'x20' iso room, even doing all the work yourself, will cost you at least $10000 for true isolation and acoustic treatment in it, not including permitting required.
 
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Yeah, I suggested the big gobos with a barrier membrane in between and something similar make-shift for the top.

If going with a vocal booth, as recommended, portable.

I almost bought a Whisper room and a couple of other similar booths at one point. USED of course, u can;t get one new with that budget. Used, I was looking at around 3-4K with ventilation lights a small window etc... I was looking at a 7x8x7 vocal booth, and thought about exclusively using it for vocals, treating the internal sound and late night setting up my 15 inch kick Canopus kit in there with just couple of cymbals for playing at night. Never took the step, but it was an option.

Again, I would still go making movable gobo absorption/barrier as I said and not do the booth or similar structure, lots of effective ways to do it easier cheaper and perhaps more flexible. Secondly, a lot of $$ can I assume u have a killin mic, pres and interface? If 3K is life savings, then where does the gear come into play? Spend 1K on serious Gobos and ceiling for them and 2K on mic and/or preamp, or maybe you have the Killin system already?
 
A 10'x20' iso room, even doing all the work yourself, will cost you at least $10000 for true isolation and acoustic treatment in it...
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Wow. Okay. Gobos are looking much more attractive. Maybe I can get my gf to wear earplugs when she sleeps. Or I could change my schedule. Just as long as it's enough to keep out the sound of appliances and pets. Most of my recordings have the sound of a guinea pig drinking from the water bottle in the background. :/

What degree of sound absorption can I expect with gobos if I were to spend somewhere between $1000 and $3000?

The gear I already have.

I wouldn't BS you.
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I trust you. ;)
 
It's pretty simple to build 2'x4'x4" traps yourself - I built 6 for under $250, and $50 of that was for shipping the insulation to me because I couldn't find it close by. If you buy your traps, you can spend twice as much (or more).
Put the guinea pig in the bathroom and close the door when you're recording. I turn off the filter on my fish tank - in the next room - and taking the ticking clock off the wall, too. You do what you gotta do!
 
mjbphotos said:
I turn off the filter on my fish tank - in the next room - and taking the ticking clock off the wall, too. You do what you gotta do!
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I throw a blanket over mine, muffles the sound pretty well. Amazing what you hear when it is time to start recording.
 
DM60 said:
I throw a blanket over mine, muffles the sound pretty well. Amazing what you hear when it is time to start recording.
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I've got the filter plugged into an extension cord (other outlet on it has the light with timer), so its easy to unplug. Just have to remember to plug it back in when done!
 
Acoustic blankets are always an efficient and inexpensive alternative.


[ModNote: Edited to remove spam. Don't promote your products or services in the free forums.]
 
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mjbphotos said:
"Acoustic blankets" - in other words cheap moving blankets rebranded for higher selling price? :thumbs up:
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Haha, something like that. There are tons of differences that are too subtle to be gimmicky, but I understand where you're coming from.

Have you used moving blankets, or "acoustic blankets"?
 
johnwestmartin said:
Haha, something like that. There are tons of differences that are too subtle to be gimmicky, but I understand where you're coming from.

Have you used moving blankets, or "acoustic blankets"?
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yeah, I tried it, one time, before I built my traps, on the wall behind me when using a mic. Recorded with and without it and there was no difference. Of course YMMV, depending on the room, mic, etc.
I haven't tried the blanket on top of the fish tank, though. :D
 
:facepalm: invasion of the moving blanket people. I mean 'acoustic blanket' people. I can't believe all the pro studios that have been wasting their money on real bass traps and acoustic treatment and could have been using 'acoustic blankets' all the time.
Waiting to see the frequency absorption charts....
 
vocalgal said:
I found a place called vocal booth to go.
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Really?? Vocals Booth To Go?? Whatta coincidence because that's the place where John works. Wow!!
And another amazing coincidence is that you and John are in the same town!!!! Wow. imagine the odds.

Oh, my bad, apparently you work there too.
 
Chili said:
Really?? Vocals Booth To Go?? Whatta coincidence because that's the place where John works. Wow!!
And another amazing coincidence is that you and John are in the same town!!!! Wow. imagine the odds.

Oh, my bad, apparently you work there too.
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Frickin' spammers.

"Vocal Booth to go"??? Ha! What will they thing of next? Do you get a free order of fries if you buy 2 blankets to go? :eek:
 
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