Vocal Booth Treatment

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bdam123

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I have a room that I want to use as a vocal booth and maybe also do some guitar cab recording. The room is 7' 4" x 11' 4" x 10' 2".

How should I treat this room to optimize it for recording?
 
Bass traps in all corners to start out with. Ceiling cloud, first relection point traps.
Every rooom/set up is different, but bass traps help every room. :)
 
mjbphotos said:
first relection point traps.
Click to expand...

Well the term "first reflection points" would be referring to treating a mixing position where the speakers first reflect with regards to where you are sitting, which you want to trap so those reflections don't arrive at your ears causing ill-judgement.

So I guess the term here would just be "wall panels", and I'm sure any acoustician would say in a room that small, even if you have bass trapping in the corners, you'd be wise to make your wall panels as thick as possible (4-6") as well as ceiling traps and to add an air gap behind each one that is 2" or or greater if you can afford it.

I'm no acoustician, but I think its safe to say that a "vocal booth" or "isolation booth" is probably one of the few places where it's ok to have carpeting on the floor (with a ceiling cloud too of course), as opposed to the whole "reflective floor, absorptive ceiling" thing. Unless you plan on recording some acoustic guitar or percussion in there. But you said just vox and cabs so should be ok.
 
If you want to record both vocal and acoustic instruments in your isolation room, consider an area rug to cover the reflective floor for vocal and then roll it up for the nice acoustics of the hardwood on guitar, sax, etc.
 
mjbphotos said:
Bass traps in all corners to start out with. Ceiling cloud, first relection point traps.
Every rooom/set up is different, but bass traps help every room. :)
Click to expand...

This guy is building a vocal booth / guitar room. Bass traps in every corner isn't a cure-all for every application.
 
It's a vocal booth. You want it dead, but you're listening through cans when you sing in there, so bass traps may not be a major issue. Most of the vocal booths I sang in in the 80s were done ceiling and walls with the acoustic tile they use on the ceilings with regular fluffy behind. That's probably dated, but it worked well then. Your room dimensions are not ideal, but if the room is deadened you shouldn't have a lot of problems.
AFA a guitar iso booth...if you're going to play bass or guitar in there, you'll need to find a good sweet spot if you don't trap the corners, but it's possible.
 
Decent sized room for vox recording, comparatively to everyone wanting to use 3' x 4' closets!
Corner bass traps are not exactly necessary - 6" thick treatment everywhere would absorb low enough for vox. However, if you wanted to use thinner treatments on the walls, then you could do that and use bass traps in the corners. Either way, you'll want to cover a significant amount of the wall space.
 
GIK Acoustics said:
Decent sized room for vox recording, comparatively to everyone wanting to use 3' x 4' closets!
Corner bass traps are not exactly necessary - 6" thick treatment everywhere would absorb low enough for vox. However, if you wanted to use thinner treatments on the walls, then you could do that and use bass traps in the corners. Either way, you'll want to cover a significant amount of the wall space.
Click to expand...

What do you think about recording guitar amps in there. Is there something I should keep in mind for that application?
 
For vocals only you could just build some broad band absorbers good article here, which are a bit like a corner bass trap but mounted on the side walls, there is not a lot of low bass in vocals so if you stay away from the corners no problem.

I don't agree with the make it dead thing, when you sing in these rooms it is like singing with foam stuffed in your ears. You just need to take out the flutter echoes and try to make the room sound neutral. This will also mean that recording acoustic guitars and amps should be good too.

Alan.
 
GIK Acoustics said:
Decent sized room for vox recording, comparatively to everyone wanting to use 3' x 4' closets!
Corner bass traps are not exactly necessary - 6" thick treatment everywhere would absorb low enough for vox. However, if you wanted to use thinner treatments on the walls, then you could do that and use bass traps in the corners. Either way, you'll want to cover a significant amount of the wall space.
Click to expand...

Also, when you say "everywhere" does that mean cover all surfaces completely? As in I shouldn't be able to see bare wall?
 
I suggested bass traps in corners because you also want to use this room (possibly) for guitar amp recording. Build some traps and experiment. The idea of many modern 'vocal booths' is to make the sound totally dead, then add ambiance back in with plugins. Foam or moving blankets can absorb flutter echo (the high frequencies) and leave a very boxy sound with vocals, whereas broadband absorbers (bass traps) will do a better job of taming all frequencies.
 
In my experience, most vocal booths have a big pane of glass, for the vocalist to see the other band members, control room cues, etc.
That's a lot of hard surface for which to compensate.

Perhaps it would be better for us to refer to an "iso booth", and treat for all the anomalies.
Flutter echoes need to be quashed, as do low-frequency standing waves (hence, bass traps).
That way, just about anything would sound decent in there.
 
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