Vocals sound muffled in booth

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tek2yuhdome

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I searched the forums but couldnt find an answer (sorry if its been asked)

I just made a vocal booth its 4'x4' and 6 1/2 feet tall. I put studiofoam all over the inside. Now my vocals sound really muffled plus you can also tell im in a small room. Is there a way to fix that? Maybe by adding something to give a little reverb in the booth?

Thanks for any help.
 
Your voice sounds muffled because you ARE in a very small room. And there's only so much that sound foam can do...

I don't know where this fetish for vocal booths comes from but you'll probably find it's easier to get a better sound in a larger room where you have minimised reflections using foam, furniture, fat people etc...

Not to mention being able to put more heart and soul into your singing because you can move around a little and not be staring at a wall 6 inches from your nose...

Sorry... :o
 
Well the vocal booth actually helps me put more heart into the song and I also find it more comfortable. Plus I cant really be loud where I live. Is there any tricks to make the room sound less small? I have a framed poster and I was wondering if putting it behind the mic or somewhere in the booth would help add a little reverberation and maybe help the room sound bigger? I got that idea because I read somewhere that taping cd's in the booth will help with the sound.
 
You may have built a room that resonates the low-mid frequencies due to its' dimensions and also has had the higher frequencies dampened due to to the foam on the walls. I would find a good-sounding room and record there.
 
What style of music are we talking here? How loud are you singing?

Do a test... do a 10 second vocal take of something in the booth, and then exactly the same thing in the largest room you have, making sure you're pointing obliquely at the wall, not going straight at it..

Compare..
 
I usta sing well in the womb.
Though you can keep your booth for times that it may be needed for that effect .... but yeah get out in the middle of a real room and give it a try recording the vocals then report back here with your findings.
 
Sing in the booth and "build" the room with reverb or a convolution/impulse plugin. I think Freeverb is still free. Depends on if your hardware or software.
 
It's likely the dimensions of the room 4x4 = bad MmmmKay. You don't want a square booth. Think of it like it was a circle, a square only has ONE mid point that is equidistant from at least 3 walls. Which means that the mic and source have to occupy the same space (in theory). You don't want something that would encase a circle. You want to encase an oval where the source and the mic will represent the two points from which a single continuous string could be used to draw the oval.

Also foam doesn't do much by itself for the sound. Probably cuts some highs, but hardly affects the lows. So you'll probably find a combination of EQ (HPF) and reverb that could fatten your existing tracks. Otherwise fix the space. Moving blankets and other more rigid things will likely do more for your treatment than foam IMO. Keep the door to the booth open? Alter the dimensions 3x4? Position yourself and the mic so it's not a straight line pointed directly at a wall face. Hang curtains in the corners. Your ears are already telling you that it's not quite right. So obviously something has to change.
 
and if you really want to try and make the booth work better ..... maybe take some of that foam out ...... since it's attenuating the highs ...... that's gonna make you vox sound muffled.
 
Open one of the walls and sing out of the opening. You've made an audio-hell-booth. 4x4x6.5 and covered in foam? I'd expect it to be muddy as hell.
 
Like everyone is saying:

Small room= bad sound.

Foam=Pretty much useless.

All the foam is doing is killing your high-end and doing absolutely nothing for your low-mids and bass. That's why it sound boomy, you've killed your highs, but you "think" it sounds better because it sounds "dead". Combine that with a tiny room, and it's a recipe for disaster.

I also don't know where this "vocal booth" fetish started. It's the word "booth" that throws people off. They think "phone booth". In a "real" studio, the vocal "booth" is at least the size of most home-recordists' entire recording area.

You're singing in a box full of foam. It can't sound anything BUT boomy.
 
It appears that the consensus on this thread is that if you can't manage to have an acoustically perfect 20' x 30' space you should just totally give up the idea of recording any vocals.

Funny thing though...there are several companies that are selling a lot of 4' x 4' x 6.5' booths with the insides completely covered with acoustical foam. And since they start at about $2,500 I don't think they'd be selling them if they didn't work pretty well.

I don't yet know a whole lot about this, but I would think that many of your problems could be solved with the proper application of EQ and reverb. I also saw one booth where the lower 2 feet or so of the walls were covered with a hard-surface material. You might try getting something like pieces of masonite in that size and just lean them against the sides of the booth and see if you get any improvement. If you do, then install them permanently.

You'll also find that some mics will sound better in your booth than others do.

A lot of great music has come out of totally crappy recording spaces. And while most of us would love to have totally great home studios, most of us in fact have to live with what we've got...
 
bdenton said:
It appears that the consensus on this thread is that if you can't manage to have an acoustically perfect 20' x 30' space you should just totally give up the idea of recording any vocals.
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Really??? You sure you're reading the same thread as the rest of us???

Seems to me he got quite a few good suggestion, like:
MONTE said:
Sing in the booth and "build" the room with reverb
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Shadow_7 said:
Moving blankets and other more rigid things will likely do more for your treatment than foam IMO. Keep the door to the booth open? Alter the dimensions 3x4? Position yourself and the mic so it's not a straight line pointed directly at a wall face. Hang curtains in the corners. Your ears are already telling you that it's not quite right. So obviously something has to change.
Click to expand...

Lt. Bob said:
.... maybe take some of that foam out ...
Click to expand...

Massive Master said:
Open one of the walls and sing out of the opening.
Click to expand...


But this:
And since they start at about $2,500 I don't think they'd be selling them if they didn't work pretty well.
Click to expand...
...is the one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Wanna buy a bridge? :D
 
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In theory foam could work, but you'd be looking at having 4' x 4' of usable space in a 10' x 10' room, with hopefully high ceilings (maybe 6' x 6' with the right foam). But it'd be quite unfamiliar to the artists and likely affect their performance. i.e. I can't hear myself, literally.

When I was in the Army Band we had some boxes of sorts that could be considered booths. Air tight doors and the whole 9 yards. Hardly a peep outside of the booth (or inside), but some sound did get through. And most times you couldn't really use them for any duration since they are small spaces that were well insulated. With body heat being 98.6F, which most folks find too hot for comfort if your room is also 98.6F (and humid, which isn't that good for gear / or people). It's a neat idea, but hardly an ideal solution.
 
Shadow_7...

Most of the vendors I've checked out either offer or include a ventilation system designed both for low noise and low noise transfer...
 
Can we start a sticky, "BAN THE VOCAL BOOTH".

What is this fascination with vocal booths, in large studios the vocal booth is as big as some home studios, the booth still needs size and the correct wall / height ratios? What everyone really wants is a "VOCAL ROOM".

Cheers
Alan
 
bdenton said:
Funny thing though...there are several companies that are selling a lot of 4' x 4' x 6.5' booths with the insides completely covered with acoustical foam. And since they start at about $2,500 I don't think they'd be selling them if they didn't work pretty well.
Click to expand...
And do you wonder why they're $2500...? The materials and techniques used to trap the broadband sound (not just the foam that kills the ambience and high end) leaving you with an impossibly small space that still sounds reasonable *and* offers reasonable transmission attenuation -- It's completely unlike a 4x4 "closet" or something of that sort...
 
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