Drum/Vocal/Amp Booth

  • Thread starter Thread starter Harlequin Man
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Harlequin Man

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Well,

I'm in a new house looking to build myself a good booth..

I am going for acousticly treated not neceserally isolation from anything..

its quiet around here..
The booth will be aginst 2 concrete walls, concrete floor and exposed rafters..

how should i go about building this..

it will be semi-perminent.. pieces bolted together,


Any help would be appreicated..
(Sorry for double post, posted it in wrong catogory)
 
What dimensions? Do you want dead, or just sound good? If it's too small it, probably, wont sound good, so will need to be dead
 
Quick and cheep

I use screens that I made from mattresses, 2 single mattresses standing upright positioned in a vee shape, 5ft behind the vee is a double mattress standing on its side about 2ft off the floor, the roof of the structure is a king size mattress. There is carpet on the floor.

It’s all held together with wooden frames the mattresses are covered with fitted covers (both sides)

All the uprights are free to move so the vee shape angle can be adjusted, the back wall (double mattress) can be moved closer or farther away from the vee, changing the shape of the booth enabling outside reflection to enter.

The only cost to me was about 30 euro for the wood and screws, the covers I got for 5 euro each (8 used) Total price 70 euro.
The mattresses were free (picked up here and there, there’s always old mattresses being chucked out.) a word of warning WATCH OUT FOR PISS STAINS the last thing you want is a vocal booth that stinks of piss.

The results are amazing if you want dead sound its there, if you want a bit of early reflection added move things around.

This idea will work for drums I’m sure just add more screens.

I know this might seem a tad eccentric, but it works and works well.

I tried to insert an image but it wouldnt have it. If you or any one else is interested I will try again.
:) [/IMG]
 
I am looking for a good sound..

Something that will work with drums vocals and amps..

size thinking up to like 8x8 area...
 
zinktrumpet said:
I tried to insert an image but it wouldnt have it. If you or any one else is interested I will try again.
:) [/IMG]
I wana see, i wana see :D . Try saving the image as jpeg, and making it quite small. (if you dont know how to, open paint and open the file in paint, go to image, stretch/skew, change the horizontal and vertical equally until they are smaller than the page, maybe about 2/3 of the size, then save as, name it and "save as type" jpeg. That's how i do it anyway, just be sure not to select the bit of the image you want when stretch/skewing as it will pixelate like mad, lol. Sorry if you knew how to do it or a better way)
 
Harlequin Man, dead will work with all of these. 8' x 8', i believe, will be too small to make sound good without making dead. I'm just a beginner on acoustics so not sure the right way of how to make it dead, but i think you should cover all the walls of the booth with 4" material-covered (so the fibers don't irritate) rockwool/rigid fiberglass/703/something like that, and in the corners, either make bass traps (you will find out how to if you do a quick search), or put material-covered 6" rockwool/etc. If this is for recording purposes then you can add reverb later.
 
Coool, the matress on top dips a bit in the middle, isnt that quite scary standing under?
 
My only isolation room is 10'x12'. It's basicly a room inside a room in that the inside wall studs aren't connected to the outer walls. I have two live walls made of tongue and groove pine, the ceiling is ox board and two treated walls. Crapet over a concrete floor. As far as small rooms go, I think mine is pretty nuetral which is good. I get decent drum recordings out of it.
 
Heres what im thinking so far..

Aginst the concrete walls will be 2 8' walls..
then 4 foot walls joined to them.. then the trapazoid wall facing the corner..
(typical trapazoid design)

Its gonna be on the concrete floor.. so i want a capret?
Should I put down carpet padding too?

Walls will be (from inside to out)
---------------Drywalll
|==|==|==|==| Insulation and (2X4's)
--------------- 3/8" Plywood

Will have a ceiling in the same layering...
What kind of insulation do i want to put in? R-13 or rigid fibre glass

This will be a booth you can take apart easly(beacuse i do basement shows its needed)

There will be door and plexy glass window..

I read to put carpet on the inside wall? or real acoustic pads?

I'm not going for sound isolation, just a acoustically tame booth... to record drums, guitar, and vocals...

So questions..
Do I need padding under carpet?
What kind of insulation do I need?
Carpet or Acoustic Foam?

This looks likes its gonna be like $300-$400 to make..
 
You'll probably get a little better sound by making a little wooden floor, maybe on rubber pucks... and putting the absorbtion on the ceiling of the room. i know that works better for accoustical instroments, but it might not make a difference for vocals since youre standing up much higher than a seated guitar or something
Don't do carpet on the walls, it's going to absorb a very narrow band of freq and be super flammable
For the inside, you might want to get some peices of rigid fiberglass, and stagger it. if you cover the entire walls with absorbtion it might sound a little too dead. consider diffusers too. if you can keep the diffusers portable, you can leave them up for when you have shows.. it'll help with the sound of the room most likely. you could also build portable gobos as seen here -> http://www.jeffstrong.com/gobos.html and use those for the live shows as well
hope that helps
scott
 
Harlequin Man said:
---------------Drywalll
|==|==|==|==| Insulation and (2X4's)
--------------- 3/8" Plywood

What I did on my vocal booth (here) was similar to your idea.

The wall was built of 2x4's.

The outside surface is 3/4" plywood, and on top of that 1/2" sheet rock. The wall was then stuffed with regular, encapsulated insulation. Then on the inner wall, I slapped up 3/4" plywood and 1/2" sheet rock. On top of that (again, on the inside), I put up another layer of 3/8" sheet rock.

People have stated that the plywood was a bad idea, and doesnt' do much, but the vocal booth walls are so rigid and part of the structure, it doesn't move, vibrate, or anything like that which is what I was after. I used glue, and deck screws for the entire vocal booth struture.

I had planned to line the inside surface of the vocal booth with rigid fiberglass batts wrapped in a nice color-matching cotton cloth, however I've made several recordings in this booth already and have been pleased with the results. I don't have any echos or artifacts that annoys me, at least yet. I've recorded vocalists, an acoustic guitar, a violinist, and an basson player with nice results. my booth is somewhat small however, about 4'x6' with a 7-7.5" ceiling. The ceiling slopes upwards slightly, maybe that is why.

Anyway, not necessarily the best method, but it worked for me.
 
Renascent said:
You'll probably get a little better sound by making a little wooden floor, maybe on rubber pucks... and putting the absorbtion on the ceiling of the room.

For the inside, you might want to get some peices of rigid fiberglass, and stagger it. if you cover the entire walls with absorbtion it might sound a little too dead. consider diffusers too. if you can keep the diffusers portable, you can leave them up for when you have shows.. it'll help with the sound of the room most likely. you could also build portable gobos as seen here -> http://www.jeffstrong.com/gobos.html and use those for the live shows as well
hope that helps
scott

Wooden floor built how?
Little rubber pucks? Of the hockey kind? ha ha ha..

Rigid fibreglass.. like the 703 er 503.. w/e number that everyone always talk about?

I will eventually put 2 layers of sheetrock on but on my budget not yet..

do i still need R-13 or blown in insulation in the walls?

Thanks...
 
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