Vocal booth bass trapping?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Diffusion
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Diffusion

Future Astrophysicist
I noticed that in every vocal booth I have seen, including all the top professional studio booths, there is no bass trapping. Most of the vocal booths I have seen are partially or completely covered in 2" wedge or pyramid foam. Now, this is all great for reflections and getting dry vocals, but why do the recordings not sound muddy? Is it perhaps a high pass filter on the mic or preamp they are using? Do they just EQ out the low freqs during mixing? Or am I just not looking hard enough for any bass absorbtion materials being used?

Having said all that, do vocal booths NEED bass trapping? Or can you prevent muddy vox by EQ and high pass filters?
 
to be honest i have no idea. but since when did vocals ever have that much bass to them? it seems like bass traping is useful in most situations, mixing and recording things like drums, bass, electric guitar.. and things with a lot of bass.. i dunno. unless some guy has a super super low voice.
 
If the room is 4 X 4 like "shellshock's" in the other thread I would actually think bass trapping would help. That's such a small space.
 
Kasey said:
to be honest i have no idea. but since when did vocals ever have that much bass to them? it seems like bass traping is useful in most situations, mixing and recording things like drums, bass, electric guitar.. and things with a lot of bass.. i dunno. unless some guy has a super super low voice.
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I never thought vocals had a whole lot of bass to them either, but it is very easy to get muddy vocals, which can only be a result of too much low/low-mid freqs and not enough highs...
 
You'd actually be surprised how deep male vocals can go. Some voices are around 100Hz. Bass control is definitely not a waste.

That said, in most good vocal booths, the surfaces are all broadband. Think about 5" of acoustical cotton. That gives you 1.00 or better from 125Hz all the way up and way better than .50 from about 80Hz up.
 
It helps to have a somewhat oddly shaped vocal booth too. Angled walls to avoid flutter echoes. I think I can get away with no more than 3 bass traps in my vocal booth once it's done, if I even need that many. I may want the room to add alittle bit of warmth to the recording.
 
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