(yet another) vocal booth

preben · Post by **preben** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:19 am

Hi everybody,

great site - great info and a very nice and friendly vibe.

I am building a vocal booth and I have been doing loads of searches on here and found a lot of very useful information so this question is a very simple one regarding dimensions.

I understand that odd dimensions such as 3'x5'x7' is preferred to for instance 4'x'4'x8'. But what if I need for instance a bit more height in my box and went to 3'x5'x8'..? I mean, none of the dimesions are dividable with eachother so am I still cool mode-wise..? And can anyone point me to a place where I can calculate whether my dimensions represent problems or not..?

Finally a SILLY question: the dimensions we're talking about here are the inner dimensions of the actual box BEFORE I start putting for instance Rockwool or stuff like that on the inner walls of it, right..?

thanks a lot,
Preben

ninjakyle · Post by **ninjakyle** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:36 am

I am about to do the same thing. Are you going to build a floor for it? And how are you going to treat the inside of it? One door or two? And are you insulating the walls? Using double studs?

bondsong · Post by **bondsong** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:09 am

Welcome Preben,

Here's a link for a mode calculator.

Frank

preben · Post by **preben** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:49 pm

Thanks for the mode calculator.

And yes, I am going to build a floor for it and it will have only one door. And no window... it's going to be mainly for guitar amp use with the occassional (suffering) singer stuck in there.

I am planning to treat it with rockwool with some sort of carpet covering so that the fibres aren't going all over the shop. Any good ideas a very welcome.

Also the idea is to construct hollow walls out of plasterboard and insulate them with rockwool - preferably 2 layers and a bit of air between the two layers. The actual assembly of this boxx I am still not totally sure about - any ideas are very welcome.

ninjakyle · Post by **ninjakyle** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:34 am

i think we are in the same boat
i am thinking of a floor, ceiling, and walls all single studded, with no insulation in the walls. I am then planning on treating the inside with acoustic tiles and some home made bass traps.

I have two doors so I think i will use them both, although making them seal will be tough.

I am planning on running cables through conduit that is sealed off, with an external box/plate on the inside and outside.

I also might put a camera in there because I won't have a window.

One of my ideas is to make all panels seperate with plywood, put some sealant (caulk) on the edges and throw lag bolts to pull them together and then treat the inside with drywall and the outside with carpet.
This way, I could take it apart to move it if I ever sell the house soon.

Any thoughts on this?

preben · Post by **preben** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:44 am

Not being totally sure I'm using the modes calculator correctly. Are these two sets of measurements reasonably o.k.?

100*120*230

110*150*230

As far as I can see they should be ok, but a thumbs up or down from one of the more experienced guys around here would be great.

cheers,
Preben

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:37 pm

Are those measurements in cm?

And yes, modally 3x5x8 feet will work OK; that's the inside measurements BEFORE treatment.

Building a portable booth is one of those "holy grail" things, but won't give you as good isolation as a permanent one - and NOT putting insulation inside the walls will hurt isolation by several dB.

IF your situation isn't all that noisy, or you don't need much isolation, it may be OK; but I'd not recommend it for most cases... Steve

ninjakyle · Post by **ninjakyle** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:49 am

see, i was thinking of building the booth over a piece of carpet and then it wouldn't have direct contact with any other part of the house. but if i made it permanent, then it would tie into the floor at least.

am I off here?

Post by **sharward** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:26 am

Very off. Sorry, carpeting is not an elastomer... And that's only one of many reasons you don't want to construct something on top of carpeting...

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:47 am

Another reason is mold and bug infestation - the closer you get to walls and floor, the higher the relative humidity in any given room situation (because when you cool air its relative humidity goes UP) - mold loves higher humidity, and several bugs/mites love mold. Trapping all this in a relatively UN-vented carpet under your booth is just asking for problems.

There's almost nothing you would want to record in a booth that can't be done with a low cut filter in place, either at the mic or at the board - this lessens the need for LF isolation as far as polluting the recording is concerned. If you're concerned with impact noise getting into/out of the booth, you could rest the frame on neoprene pads, but that won't do a lot; you need something with higher internal damping, such as the Sylomer material Paul Woodlock used in his studio build (bring your lunch, and possibly a sleeping bag)

http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.p ... 27b0d93e98

Sorry, don't know where (in the 120 pages to date) the Sylomer is mentioned; try a search on the word.

For a do-able alternative, you could experiment with expensive Butyl-based caulk - make 4 BLOCKS of it by filling 4 small (maybe 4" square) open-topped boxes from a caulking gun, letting it cure for a few weeks, and peeling the boxes away - butyl has quite a bit higher internal damping than any other readily available material I'm aware of. Just a wild thought... Steve

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(yet another) vocal booth

(yet another) vocal booth

Same for me

same boat