help with home vocal booth DIY please

[kajani01]

Hi guys, i'm new to this so please bear with me.

I'm hoping to build a vocal booth in my shed at home so i can record clearer vocals for my music. The space i have to work with is about a single car garage space in a double car garage. The ground is paving and the walls of the shed are that thin tin nonsense.

I've been reading about how to go about this but it is faily confusing as i don't know the first thing about building/carpentry.

My plan so far is as follows:
build a 4ft by 6 ft by 7ft box with a corner missing (2 walls dont join together - meaning the floor looks kind of like a large simcard) for entry and exit. I dont think i can afford to build a door at this stage so a heavy curtain to cover the opening might have to do.
start with a heavy rug over the pavers
use ply wood (or chipboard over rockwool slab/or similar material) as a base
the walls and ceiling will be of timber construction frame with plaster board for the walls (2 layers on the outside and 1 layer on the inside. between these with be insulation (rockwool also)
to finish off, probably stick acoustic foam on all the walls and the ceiling.

My questions are:
will this be sufficient to get reasonable quality recordings (obviously not studio quality but clear and without so much resonence/echo)?
Is there any improvements that can be made to this?
Is the heavy curtain over the entry enough or is there another cheap way of building a door?
Is there anything i can do during construction to make sure the sound is clean (ie, using certain screws or glue or spacing between wall layers etc?)
Is there any changes that need to be made because of the structure of the shed (verrrry tinny/echo in there)?
can any improvement be made to the floor design, such as building it like the walls with insulation within the floor??

Any help would be appreciated...
thanks

 

[frederic]

What I would do in your situation is not build a vocal booth, but instead, build large movable gobo's out of the same materials (rigid fiberglass, rock wool, etc) and wheel them around to your liking. For some recordings, you could push three to form a small-ish booth or you could simply face your vocalist at a point, where two of them are shaped like a V.

The reason for this is it's very difficult to create a truly good vocal booth without spending a lot of time and money, and movable gobos are really just a wooden frame with absorbing material inside, covered in heavy fabric, maybe with a couple of casters on the bottom to make moving them easier.

Hope that helps.

 

[Seanmorse79]

will this be sufficient to get reasonable quality recordings (obviously not studio quality but clear and without so much resonence/echo)?
- As long as you're not fighting neighborhood noises (lawnmowers, dogs, etc...), then you should be more than adequate. Vocal frequencies don't require the same broadband absorption (Roxul, OC703, etc) you'd need for loud instruments. Heavy blankets all around would work just fine for vocals, but using the rigid fiberglass you'd be covered for accoustic instruments too.


Is there any improvements that can be made to this?
- There are always improvements that could be made, but for a vocal booth, I think you're in pretty good shape.

Is the heavy curtain over the entry enough or is there another cheap way of building a door?
- The heavy curtain will be fine for vocals. The challenges you're going to have is keeping outside noise from coming it, which is much, much more difficult.

Is there anything i can do during construction to make sure the sound is clean (ie, using certain screws or glue or spacing between wall layers etc?)
- If you're going with fixed walls, you could always do the 2x6 trick at floor & ceiling, alternating the studs, and stuffing R19 between drywall & studs. Might be overkill for your application though unless you're going to be recording accoustic instruments in there.


Is there any changes that need to be made because of the structure of the shed (verrrry tinny/echo in there)?
- If the tin is physically flapping around when you sing, you might have to get creative with it. If not, the tinny sounding reflections will be gone when you have your treatment up.

can any improvement be made to the floor design, such as building it like the walls with insulation within the floor??
- nope. All you really need to do is cover it with a rug to kill the reflections.

 

[kajani01]

thanks guys for your replies,
i was trying to avoid gobbos as the garage that i'm in is completely composed of tin sheets and metal frames so i probably need a lot of insulation from the outside noise.

I will be starting to build this 'vocal booth' in the next few days and put some photos up as it goes. once again, thanks for the help.