Vocal Booth Questions!!

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P Stew

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arright well im bout to build a booth that is 4 ft by 4 ft. an 6 feet 8 inches tall...i will fill the walls with Auralex Acoustic Foam...is 4 ft by 4 ft big enough? i will only be recording vocals but i dont want to feel like im trapped..thank you
 
P Stew said:
arright well im bout to build a booth that is 4 ft by 4 ft. an 6 feet 8 inches tall...i will fill the walls with Auralex Acoustic Foam...is 4 ft by 4 ft big enough? i will only be recording vocals but i dont want to feel like im trapped..thank you
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How do you plan to build it, and what do you need it for? Do you have the auralex already?
 
A great many home built booths are four by four because that is the dimensions of the material. But even dimensions are not best for accoustics. Also you can save money and get better results by making DIY 703 fiberglass panels rather than Auralex.

But let's start with the first question. What are you expecting to accomplish by building a vocal booth and what are you building it out of.
 
i got plywood from Home Depot..an im hoping to somewhat isolate my vocals an dampen the outside noise
 
P Stew said:
i got plywood from Home Depot..an im hoping to somewhat isolate my vocals an dampen the outside noise
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How much isolation will you need? If you want a decent amount, you will need to build a box inside a box, decoupled from each other.

So a mass air mass setup, or even better, mass cusion(insulation) mass. Then cover the whole inside with rigid fiberglass, and cover that with breathable fabric.

Rigid fiberglass has as good, and often better absorbtion coefficients that auralex, and is a hell of a lot cheaper.

Where air can go, sound can go, so you gotta seal all the edges of the booth. Then you gotta worry how the vocalist is gonna breathe. Hmm, it's a lot of trouble just for a bit of isolation.

If isolation isn't vital, then why not make some broadband absorbers? You can place them in the corners or first reflection points of your control room, and then move them round the vocalist when recording.

Do a search for broadband absorbers and bass traps and you'll find a bunch of info.

Anyway, hope that's given you something to think about. :D
 
thanks...but if i just put Auralex Foam throughout the walls will it dampen the outside noise for a better recording?
 
P Stew said:
thanks...but if i just put Auralex Foam throughout the walls will it dampen the outside noise for a better recording?
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Auralex foam will do nothing to dampen the outside noise. If you wanna isolate the vocals from the outside, even just a bit, you need mass. If you just want a dry/dead vocal sound then yeah auralex will give you that. But you'd save a whole lot of money, and get better results with rigid fiberglass.

What do you mean by "if i just put Auralex Foam throughout the walls"?
 
P Stew said:
im going to just put Auralex all over the walls...will this ruin my vocals in anyway?
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Auralex foam will kill early reflections/flutter echo. That's probably ok for just vocals. However, bass frequencies will not be significantly attenuated by normal auralex foam, so you may get some buildup there (leading to a muddy sound).
 
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P Stew said:
im going to just put Auralex all over the walls...will this ruin my vocals in anyway?
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all over the booth walls? That's fine, but yeah auralex wont be good for bass, but if it's just a vocal booth you won't have loads of bass anyway.

Why go with Auralex when rigid fiberglass is so much better/cheaper?

How are you gonna build the booth? Cause if it's not built properly, for isolation, then there's really no point building it at all. If you don't need isolation then there's no need to build a booth.

Why not just build a couple of broadband absorbers out of rigid fiberglass and place them round the vocalist if you, 1 are not gonna build it right for isolation(mass-air-mass), or 2 don't need any isolation and just want dry vocals?
 
well the booth is arready up...4X4 an 6'8 tall

i havent put the foam on yet....but is it true my vocals will be muddy?
 
if someone can explain what it will mean my vocals will be muddy?

im just tryna dampen the outside noise
 
likely, it will absorb upper frequencies and their reflections. you should know that before buying the stuff and sticking it in a vocal booth. :p have you read the specifications of the auralex panels that you'll be using?

you said the booth is already up so you might as well slap up the auralex panels and see what it sounds like. i'm doubting that the results are going to be what you are after.
 
P Stew said:
what do you mean by absorb upper frequencies an reflections?
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If you don't know what auralex does, then why did you buy it? We can hear between 20-20000Hz, which means between 20waves a second, and 20000waves a second. Bass frequencies are 20-around 500 or so, mid 500-8000, and high 8000-20000. Auralex will absorb well at mid and high frequencies.

Vocals can reach down to around 300Hz though, so these will be heard over the rest, 'cause any above around 500 will be absorbed. Between 300-500Hz the sounds are "muddy".

Now for your isolation problems. A 1 leaf booth wont do much for isolation, as the sound outside will vibrate the material, which causes theair inside to vibrate, ie sound. So the sound will basically pass right through, even with the auralex, which does nothing for isolation.

With a 2 leaf system the sound vibrates the outer leaf, this vibrates the air inside, which is then absorbed by the insulation, and only a much lesser amount vibrates the inner layer, which vibrates the air inside (This is only when the layers are decoupled though).

You booth will only isolate against high frequencies, because the higher frequencies have much less energy and cannot viberate the mass so much.

Ohh and reflections is just the sound bouncing off the wall and coming back, ie echo.
 
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