foaming my vocal booth???

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hiphopsupamix

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hey guys,

I've put up a basic vocal booth (4 pieces of think plywood hinged together) now I'm told I need to foam the inside of my vocal booth. To clarify, this is to reduce the reflection of sound from the vocalist right?

I've been told a reasonable way to do this is to buy a bag of foam offcuts and stick them up randomly in the booth. To be exact, this is what was told to me;

Then get your bag of foam offcuts and cut them into random shaped blocks that sit no higher than 4cm. You will need to cut up alot of foam pieces. The randomer the shape the better. Once you think you have enough foam to cover the 4 panels, you can stop.

get your quick grip and smother it all over the inside of the frame. Then start sticking the foam pieces randomly all over the panel. You will need to hold the pieces firmly to ensure they stick. Once you have fully covered the sheet, leave it overnight. Repeat this for the other 4 panels.


does this sound ok to achieve a good result for my vocal recording or does anyone have any additional advice or comments?

thanks sooo much for any help!
 
Well, this is undeniably a cheap way of doing absorbtion, so if cost is your highest priority it will be far better than bare plywood. But think of a couple of things:

1. The foam that you are gluing to your walls is a material that was designed to feel comfortable for sitting and lying on, not for its sound absorbent qualities.

2. Most exposed foams are bot flamable and release toxic fumes when burning.

3. If this was really good professional studios would use it, right?

If you could afford about two bucks a square foot I would recommend instead getting some two inch thick 703 or similar semi-rigid fiberglass and then cover it with felt or burlap.
 
Innovations said:
Well, this is undeniably a cheap way of doing absorbtion, so if cost is your highest priority it will be far better than bare plywood. But think of a couple of things:

1. The foam that you are gluing to your walls is a material that was designed to feel comfortable for sitting and lying on, not for its sound absorbent qualities.

2. Most exposed foams are bot flamable and release toxic fumes when burning.

3. If this was really good professional studios would use it, right?

If you could afford about two bucks a square foot I would recommend instead getting some two inch thick 703 or similar semi-rigid fiberglass and then cover it with felt or burlap.
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thanks for your comments.

in terms of this;

Most exposed foams are bot flamable and release toxic fumes when burning.

do you mean there is a greater risk of fire or something else?


also, when you say If you could afford about two bucks a square foot I would recommend instead getting some two inch thick 703 or similar semi-rigid fiberglass and then cover it with felt or burlap

would I glue this "703" or "fiberglass" up agasinst againt the plywood? where would I get such material as well - is it readily available?

thanks!
 
Foam absorbed high frequencies, and in small rooms like vocal booths that is really not going to be your acoustical problem, as much as resonating bass frequencies might be.

409 fiberglass batts are a good choice because they absorb most frequencies fairly effectively, so the room isn't unbalanced acoustically. Or less so anyway.

409 is available mail order as well as some home-depot type stores (though not home depot, stores like them).

What you do is screw together using deck screws, a simple pine 4'x8' frame using 1/2" or 3/4" thick pine strips, about 2" or 3" thick. Lay the fiberglass batt inside, and cover with fabric and staple to the back, and mount that on the wall. I've grossly simplified, if you find Ethan's site, you'll see how to make them in respectable detail.
 
hiphopsupamix said:
thanks for your comments.

in terms of this;

Most exposed foams are bot flamable and release toxic fumes when burning.

do you mean there is a greater risk of fire or something else?


also, when you say If you could afford about two bucks a square foot I would recommend instead getting some two inch thick 703 or similar semi-rigid fiberglass and then cover it with felt or burlap

would I glue this "703" or "fiberglass" up agasinst againt the plywood? where would I get such material as well - is it readily available?

thanks!
Click to expand...
1. Yes I was thinking of fire safety. Most foam burns rapidly and gives off toxic smoke.

703 is shorthand for Owens Corning 703 fiberglass. It is denser than the fluffy fiberglass insulation that you likely see in home imporvement stores and less dense than really rigid insulation. There are other fiberglass and rock wool products that will do. You will most likely have to go to an insulation supplier who sells to builders rather than the general public. Usually you are looking for something with about 3 or 4 pounds per cubic foot density. How you usually install it is to cover it with fabric (felt, burlap, etc) and then mount it to the wall using impaling clips. or long screws with wide washers. You can't glue it directly to the wall because it shreds easily.
 
Frederick, what is "409"? A different manufacturer's nomenclature I've not seen, or the household cleaner in the spray bottle? Got a link or anything? Thanks... Steve
 
409? Brain fart on my part.

I meant 703 Corning-Owens stuff.

Over the last couple of days I was trying to port over an application to Linux, and I keep getting errors on line 409 of the source code, so maybe it's burned into my brain :)

Sorry!
 
No prob, just thought you were a "clean" freak in addition to all your other freakish behaviour :=) (Takes one to know one :=) Steve
 
Would the insulator called "Roof Blanket" be worth trying? It seems denser than regular fiberglass insulation or am I way off base?
 
Knightfly wrote:

what is "409"?
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Ditto :confused: I thought frederic had his mind on "engines" :D Remember..."little 409" by the Beach Boys :p :rolleyes: Ha! But then, I thought maybe it was some NEW Owens Corning product or something that I missed reading about. Like in Ethans products or something. Glad to hear it wasn't. I've been slipping alot lately with this stuff. Hell, I'm still trying to get my hands on 4" 703. Maybe next year. :(
fitZ
 
knightfly said:
No prob, just thought you were a "clean" freak in addition to all your other freakish behaviour :=) (Takes one to know one :=) Steve
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Clean? You need to look at my studio pictures again.
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Ditto :confused: I thought frederic had his mind on "engines" :D Remember..."little 409" by the Beach Boys :p :rolleyes: Ha! But then, ...
fitZ
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I'm merely suffering from "brain full" syndrome, combined with excessive inhaling of paint fumes.

In the last two weeks, I've painted 2 cars, 2 bathrooms, part of my studio, and a garden shed.

:eek:
 
Innovations said:
Is this the kind of stuff you are talking about?

http://www.insulationsolutions.com.au/datasheets/bulk-insulation/Permastop.pdf

If so the sound insulation numbers look pretty good, particularly on the perforated stuff, but not that good in the bass range (which is not surprizing, since it takes depth of insulation to stop long wavelengths.

BTW this kind of product data sheet is available for just about any building material if you look for it.
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Sorry I got the name wrong. It's called "Attic Blanket". It's supposed to lay on top of existing fiberglass insulation in the attic.

There's a picture of it here: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cda/article_print/0,1983,HGTV_3805_1383994_ARTICLE-DETAIL-PRINT,00.html

It's made by Owens Corning.
 
hey guys, thanks for the replies...

I'm still thinking the foam offcuts idea may be my best bet, firstly because I live in Australia and it seems to be hard to get many things, secondly because it sounds relatively easy to put into my booth, thirdly because it seems to be good enough to give me a good enough sound (please correct me if I'm wrong)...

having said that, does anyone have any advice or instructions on how to foam my booth with foam cutoffs in terms of what levels of thinkness I should vary betwwen and how much of the walls should I cover...

anything else helpful is appreciated as well...

thanks!!!
 
hiphopsupamix said:
hey guys, thanks for the replies...

I'm still thinking the foam offcuts idea may be my best bet, firstly because I live in Australia and it seems to be hard to get many things, secondly because it sounds relatively easy to put into my booth, thirdly because it seems to be good enough to give me a good enough sound (please correct me if I'm wrong)...

having said that, does anyone have any advice or instructions on how to foam my booth with foam cutoffs in terms of what levels of thinkness I should vary betwwen and how much of the walls should I cover...

anything else helpful is appreciated as well...

thanks!!!
Click to expand...

please help! I'd really appreciate it
 
If you end up using foam then try and get foam rated for furniture use as opposed to packaging use as perhaps the furniture foam will be fireproofed. guess you can try a tiny piece in the garden and see how fire retardent it is.

If a flame gets anywhere near your wall and the foam is not fire retardent the entire wall will become a huge burning mass very quickly.

You should be able to get some kind of rockwool product even in Australia I imagine.

love

Freya
 
thanks...

any advice on size and thickness I should cut the foam off shoots?

should I foam the entire booth?
 
JohnnyMan said:
Sorry I got the name wrong. It's called "Attic Blanket". It's supposed to lay on top of existing fiberglass insulation in the attic.

There's a picture of it here: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cda/article_print/0,1983,HGTV_3805_1383994_ARTICLE-DETAIL-PRINT,00.html

It's made by Owens Corning.
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http://www.owenscorning.com/around/insulation/products/miraflex.asp

I could not find reference to STC data but in general.

1. This kind of soft batt stuff is not dense enough to have great absorbtion. The sound travels through it too easlily.

2. I would guess that the poly-wrap would tend to negate absorbtion by not letting the sound get into it in the first place.
 
Hiphop; in Oz, what you need to look for is this -

http://www.insulco.com.au/INSULCO/WEB/RESOURCES/DOCUMENTS/Semi-Rigid.pdf

get at least 50mm, and if possible space it away from your booth walls by another 50mm or so. You can cover with cloth, but don't bother with a back board if you're spacing it off the wall - the idea is to leave a longer travel path through the insulation to the wall and back, to lower the effective absorption frequency... Steve
 
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