Needing advice on creating this vocal booth

BuddyC111

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Hello everyone here. I am trying to setup a vocal booth for my daughter to do voice over recordings. I got some advice from some and wanted to run it by people here to see what they thought of the guidance I was given and whether or not it's sounds good, and also what things you would do differently. Basically, I came across this big cabinet-like thing, it's 36" wide, 30" depth, and 74" tall and very solidly constructed out of some type of wood. Three side walls and no wall front wall so it's just open, no door. It has those 3/4" wide wood beams which are about 2.5" in height attached to the floor. They all run parallel to each other and are spaced about 5" apart. I am going to remove the metal slides. When he talks about the rubber or baby mat stuff, he's talking about putting a strip of it on the top of each 3/4" wide beam. I would like to know if the materials(such as the styrofoam sheets) make since to use of if a different material would be better. Also, what is my most cost effective option treatment inside the booth for decent sound proofing? Just using any cheap blankets, or do I really need thick moving blankets or need to go the route of buying something online specifically made for soundproofing booths? Here is what they said:

To keep things cheap, first I would add some 2x4 across (or 2x-whatever-the-height-of-those-beams-is), between each beam, so you will create "squares" that need to be filled. In those squares you can add thick pieces of styrofoam (link to styrofoam at the bottom, I just did a quick search on Amazon for you to get an idea). You could buy a big sheet, and cut each square to size. Styrofoam usually comes in like 1" or 2" thick. You want to cover the full depth, so you may have to put two or three layers of it in each square.

Once you got that done, it's time to add the rubber/ rubber pads on the wood, on which the floor (piece of plywood) will rest. Those rubber pads are expensive (because they have to be extremely sound-absorbent + really strong, to carry the weight of a full floor). In your case, you may be better off getting something like a baby mat (link at the bottom of this message), and cutting it up and either gluing or screwing the "strings" of rubber to the wood.

Now, there are different ways to keep going. My recommendation is: cut a piece of plywood the size of the booth, minus 1 inch, glue some rug on it, or something that makes it feel nice (let's face it, plywood is ugly). Wait for it to dry. When you put the plywood on the floor, you'll have a gap of half inch on all sides (because you cut it 1 inch smaller). Fit yet another piece of baby mat in all those gaps around your floor. What you are creating here is a floating floor that has zero hard connection to anything (between the beams and the floor you have baby mat, and between the floor and the walls, you also have baby mat!). Once this is set, you can either leave it like that (don't screw anything, the floor won't move unless your daughter is recording and tap dancing like fire at the same time), oooor you can screw the floor to the walls with THIS TYPE of tip-over restraint (link at the bottom; I say THIS TYPE because as you can see, it is a strong piece of fabric that connects the floor to the walls, but it's still fabric, so it is flexible and it absorbs vibrations).

As per the walls... there are many treatments you can do. Again, with a mindset of keeping it cheap, you could add blankets or rugs hanging from those walls. But put them in a way that it's not hard to take out, because they may collect dust and get moldy depending on where this booth is located. The biggest deal is the floor, and with what I told you, you'll have that covered.

In addition: your daughter may know, but she'll need a cardiod mic (condenser mics are better, but expensive; a dynamic mic will work fine), and an isolation shield like this one for the mic (link at the bottom). The isolation shield is a great noise-reduction solution for the mic, and it replaces having to install the expensive absorbing panels to the whole booth.


P.S.: damn, I love sound...


Examples of styrofoam you can get: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=styrofoam&crid=2Q55JPKNXLAHV&sprefix=styrofoam,aps,172&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Baby matt: https://www.amazon.com/Angels-Color...8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1
 
Sound proofing, prevents sounds entering or leaving, and sound treatment makes it sound less like a tall telephone box. Styrene does nothing for sound. Material like rockwool works much better and lining. The thing with this will take the edge off the boxiness. A very heavy curtain like velvet, might work over the entrance. It will be stuffy, hot and humid inside, but you can waft the curtain between takes. Soundproofing, if the thing is in a noisy space needs mass, so cladding and a real solid heavy door. If she wants to do voice over work, and the room its in is quiet, then add the treatment and see how it goes. You can always add cladding and a door later if needed.

The snag with these things is simply they are horrible to work in for extended periods. Much depend on the noises in the room. I assume the room is noisy, hence the need for the booth? Often, it can be nicer to just treat the room, if it is quiet.


Much of that advice you got is sadly complete tosh. Common misconceptions. There is no point taking a lightweight structure and making it heavy. If you are going to add all the stuff suggested, you probably should just forget the structure you have and do it properly. Room within a room is a solid concept, its done that way all the time, but you could then build bigger one.

Isolating inside from out, isolating from the floor, proper door, air handling, sound treatment are all possible, but yo7 also need to consider the building? On a solid concrete floor all is good, suspending a solid structure on a small point on an upper floor is a lot of weight for old timber joists and floors.

Many voice over artists live in quiet areas and all they need is sound treatment. This could be a hinged timber frame, draped in large thick duvets, and easy to dismantle. Others live next to a railway or busy road, and they need very different things.
 
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