Building A Vocal Recording Booth
Well folks, here is the first progress report on building my own vocal recording booth. As you’ll know I originally wanted a much larger space so I could set up my drum kit or maybe even jam with a few friends, but budget has ruled that out in the short term.
The short term answer to my recording problems was to build a vocal booth. I set myself a budget of $800 Aus and so far, although I’m not quite finished, I think I won’t go over by too much. The original spec was for it to be 1.8m by 1.2m but I got a good deal on some 1.2m by 2.4m sheets of chipboard so I did a quick re-design so I didn’t have to cut up large sheets. I also wanted each wall to be a self contained unit so if I ever have to pull it down it will be easy.
Each wall is made of a single sheet of 18mm chipboard with a 75mm x 45mm pine frame around the outside of the wall. In the cavity I put fibreglass insulation batts then I finished the “sandwich” off with another sheet of 18mm chipboard. You can see the profile of the walls in the accompanying photo’s.
(Click images for larger versions)
The floor is slightly different as I didn’t want a layer of chipboard on the bottom. Chipboard is very fragile if it ever gets wet so I put the pine frame on the bottom then 2 layers of chipboard on the top. The ceiling and door are of the same construction as the walls.
I still have a layer of carpet to go on the outside and some more carpeting and foam on the inside but already it’s pretty quiet. I did a test recording in there last night and you could only just hear the traffic outside. Once the extra layers of carpet go on it will just about be silent.
Where to from here?
Now that I know that all the pieces fit together I’m going to pull it apart again and paint it. It will probably never get wet but I’m not taking the chance. Once it’s painted then I’ll re-assemble it, sealing the joins with silicone as I go. This will help the sound leakage a lot too.
After sealing then it’s an external and internal layer of carpet and some acoustic foam. There will still be a few areas of bare timber inside so it’s not totally dead sounding but it should be nice and quiet.
Last but not least it will stand on a rubber mat for a bit more isolation.
Lessons learnt so far.
- I should have used a bit more internal bracing and stuffed a bit more fibreglass in the walls. They still resonate at low frequencies. The carpet will help this but more bracing would have been good.
- Building it almost square isn’t ideal sound wise but it was cheap!
- I need more hinges on the door. It’s REALLY heavy.
Overall I’m very, very happy with the progress so-far. Stay tuned for another progress report in a week or so.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Great job! I’m about to build a vocal booth soon too. Please keep sharing your experiences!
July 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Hey Dude, a door of that magnitude will always place masses of stress on its mounting points, no matter how many hinges used. Food for thought, put a caster wheel on the outside edge of the door that will run across the floor and support the weight of the door. If you mount it so that you can adjust its height, you can still raise or lower the booth on a rubber mat or similar and adjust the wheel to still bear the weight. BoB
July 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Great idea Bob, I was literally just in the garage looking at the door wondering how to stop it sagging in the future. A caster is exactly what it needs.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:16 am
I hope you don’t suffocate in there while you rock out.
Vocal booths usually have some ventilation http://www.vocalbooth.com/index.html
Are you going to mount a jack plate in there or run the cables under the door?
keep us updated!
August 13th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Hi Jon, so-far ventilation hasn’t been a problem. I’m only in there for short burts at any one time so I think it will be fine. We’ll see if that changes once summer arrives!!!
I will be mounting a plate for the connectors this weekend. I’ve run the cable through the wall itself. You can see the cable hanging out in the top photo. It’s overkill because I’ll probably never need more than two mics and a headphone send but I ended up running 5 lines altogether. I hope to get it terminated & mounted this weekend.