what is a vocal booth?

[ikijapan]

Alright, so that might sound like an ultra newbie question. But actually what I mean, is, I have several rooms in my basement that I use for tracking, and I don't understand what makes a "vocal booth" different than just any other room. I just use a smaller bedroom for most all of my tracking of vocals, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass.

From reading here, it seems a lot of people use this really small space for vocals...like just big enough to fit someone in there and sing...like a closet or something. I have no clue why you would do that? Everything seems to turn out fine just using a regular sized empty bedroom, not sure why someone designs a specific vocal booth.

Can someone help explain?

 

[gcapel]

I think it's when you go to the fair and you come to a booth and try to sing for a stuffed animal or a Montley Crue album image on a mirror.

 

[kid klash]

Alright, so that might sound like an ultra newbie question. But actually what I mean, is, I have several rooms in my basement that I use for tracking, and I don't understand what makes a "vocal booth" different than just any other room. I just use a smaller bedroom for most all of my tracking of vocals, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass.

From reading here, it seems a lot of people use this really small space for vocals...like just big enough to fit someone in there and sing...like a closet or something. I have no clue why you would do that? Everything seems to turn out fine just using a regular sized empty bedroom, not sure why someone designs a specific vocal booth.

Can someone help explain?

It's done to control the "acoustic ambience" of the vocal track.

Small room size means shorter room reflections and way less natural reverb. Treating the walls in the small room eliminates most of the remaining reflections and reverb, yielding a very "dry" vocal. During mixing, the "ambience" (reverb, delay, whatever) can be added back to the track in a specific, controlled way, if desired.