Decent Portable Recording Booth?

Hi everyone, What a great forum, I'm glad to have found this. Is there any decent portable isolated 'room' out there for drums? Enough to isolate so you can't hear outside the booth? The booth size specs needs to be around 5x5m. Although I have the money, permanent sound proofing isn't a viable option at the moment. The room would actually be used for recording exceptionally quiet sounds, so it has to be isolated from the outside. If you can't hear a drummer in the booth then the specs are right. How about a booth in a booth? I hear good things about Wenger Corp portable rooms, but looking at their specs, I can't see how it'd be enough. Am I wrong? Thanks

depends on your budget, how loud you'll be, what level of sound isolation you need (the more sound isolation you need, the more money needed, and the more weight). For drums, GOOD LUCK. These are VERY VERY hard to get any isolation with due to the bass and the fact that the bass is the hardest to block of all the sounds. Here is a $15-20,000 practice room booth with drums, you tell me if you like the results: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5C4BeY18Gg It will also depend on where you put the room (good vocal booths or portable practice rooms are VERY heavy and if you're on a second floor or something, the building structure will likely not safely support the weight of a good room). I am building my own small practice room for about $2500-$3000 and the raw materials weigh about 2 tons. This is for a room about the same size you're considering. The equivalent pre-manufactured double wall whisper room (http://www.whisperroom.com) would be around $15,000, I think they ship to the UK if you have the money. Never heard of Wenger before but I'm assuming it is something similar. I can't see anyone getting any decent sound isolation (over 55 STC) for less than $2500-$3000 if you do it yourself and less than $15,000 if you buy it pre-made. Believe me, if I could get good results cheaper, I would. The hardest part of the build is making it portable while maintaining the sound isolation.

wow that's cheap, I was expecting more.. $3000.. incredibly cheap! But back to the subject of portable rooms, this would be for a ground floor. Needs to big enough for large instruments. So ideally around 5x5m. I don't think the one in your link is good enough, no. I need the level of isolation you get in sampling studios, for sampling instruments. This by necessity needs to be of a higher rating than a standard studio used for tracking. Is there anything out there on the market that can do this, and at what cost?

I know of nothing pre-made that can top what the link above shows for drum use. That's one of the best there is. For vocals or voice over work, it would be more than enough, but drums are a different beast. I misread your size (I thought you meant 5 feet by 5 feet). I don't know how you can build a 5 meter by 5 meter room AND make it portable, including making the HVAC portable? Yours is actually about 3 times my size, so it would be at least 3 times my cost then in terms of materials ($9,000 minimum). Then you have labor, time, tools to add in. That big of a room will also need a good HVAC system, which can be very costly (mine does not because it is a very 1-person practice space and I positioned it so I can easily connect it to my existing HVAC unit if necessary). BTW, my inside dimensions are approximately 5 feet by 4 feet. Outside dimensions are 9 feet by 8 feet (approximately 3m x 3m) due to double stud construction and a 1.5 foot air gap all around the inner leaf). So if you want 25 the best sound isolation possible, you will need to create a room within a room by using double stud construction with a LARGE air gap inbetween both leafs (i.e. walls & ceilings), like 2-3 feet of air all around the inner leaf. A small air gap won't do. And none of the leafs can touch at any point. So add AT LEAST another meter around the perimeter to your space requirement (I think you will really need at least an 8x8x8 meter open area to build a 5m x 5m room with good double wall construction to stop the drum bass from escaping. Probably more since you need to make the walls REALLY thick (ideally like 3 feet thick each side) in order to mimimize the bass from escaping. You need lots of MASS and air and then more MASS to get what you want. Which means you need lots more layers of drywall (plus green glue) than standard walls. But the incremental benefit over 2 layers is not as much as you may think (only a decibal or two for each extra layer, so the cost of the additional green glue anad drywall will not necessarily give you what you need). IMHO, I think the best bet would be to find a barn or warehouse someplace rural where you didn't have to worry about soundproofing. To achieve the level of isolation you need will be VERY costly. Either you need mega amounts of drywall and greenglue (expensive) or you will need 3 foot thick concrete walls all around you to stop the bass from escaping. Can be done, but VERY expensive. Something like this would help abate the drum noise, but not isolate it to the extent you require: http://www.clearsonic.com/IsoPacC.htm .

whitelion88 wrote:

I know of nothing pre-made that can top what the link above shows for drum use. That's one of the best there is. For vocals or voice over work, it would be more than enough, but drums are a different beast. I misread your size (I thought you meant 5 feet by 5 feet). I don't know how you can build a 5 meter by 5 meter room AND make it portable, including making the HVAC portable? Yours is actually about 3 times my size, so it would be at least 3 times my cost then in terms of materials ($9,000 minimum). Then you have labor, time, tools to add in. That big of a room will also need a good HVAC system, which can be very costly (mine does not because it is a very 1-person practice space and I positioned it so I can easily connect it to my existing HVAC unit if necessary). BTW, my inside dimensions are approximately 5 feet by 4 feet. Outside dimensions are 9 feet by 8 feet (approximately 3m x 3m) due to double stud construction and a 1.5 foot air gap all around the inner leaf). So if you want 25 the best sound isolation possible, you will need to create a room within a room by using double stud construction with a LARGE air gap inbetween both leafs (i.e. walls & ceilings), like 2-3 feet of air all around the inner leaf. A small air gap won't do. And none of the leafs can touch at any point. So add AT LEAST another meter around the perimeter to your space requirement (I think you will really need at least an 8x8x8 meter open area to build a 5m x 5m room with good double wall construction to stop the drum bass from escaping. Probably more since you need to make the walls REALLY thick (ideally like 3 feet thick each side) in order to mimimize the bass from escaping. You need lots of MASS and air and then more MASS to get what you want. Which means you need lots more layers of drywall (plus green glue) than standard walls. But the incremental benefit over 2 layers is not as much as you may think (only a decibal or two for each extra layer, so the cost of the additional green glue anad drywall will not necessarily give you what you need). IMHO, I think the best bet would be to find a barn or warehouse someplace rural where you didn't have to worry about soundproofing. To achieve the level of isolation you need will be VERY costly. Either you need mega amounts of drywall and greenglue (expensive) or you will need 3 foot thick concrete walls all around you to stop the bass from escaping. Can be done, but VERY expensive. Something like this would help abate the drum noise, but not isolate it to the extent you require: http://www.clearsonic.com/IsoPacC.htm .

Thanks for your detailed reply, whitelion88, fantastic. This is in fact what I thought, its great to get another realistic opinion, so thanks. Unfortunately, I'm in the UK. Finding places rural and away from roads in the UK that are affordable, is near impossible, if not impossible. You've got house prices here that rise faster than people earn, and this recession so far has done little in practice to alleviate the extreme prices. Purchasing something away from main roads and houses in the country is basically only an option for someone who has been on the housing ladder for 15 years, or someone like a rich kid, and has a large amount of inheritance under their belt. I'm better off than anyone I know, and I could only just manage to pay the going rate for a small derelict building by a main road in the country here, that needs demolition. Then the council isnt going to allow you to change the use from agricultural. I'd have nothing left to rebuild or to soundproof. The UK is not like other countries where you can get rural buildings away from roads and houses, with permission to convert or use for residential or studio use. When one does come to the market, it goes for a huge amount. I do however need to find a solution. I'm going to have to start considering moving to another country if nothing turns up. That'll be an interesting discussion with the gf!

At the very least, try not to have 2 dimensions the same. 5m x 5m will sound bad

lilith_envy wrote:

At the very least, try not to have 2 dimensions the same. 5m x 5m will sound bad

Hi lilith, Thanks for the constructive advice, but alas it looks like this is no longer an option anyway. You're right, 2 dimensions the same is not preferrable - I haven't seen any professionally designed portable booths that don't already take this into account. If anyone has somehow found a booth for sale that has 2 dimensions the same, they can if necessary change the shape by using angled acoustic treatment as large as the walls, inside the room. Cheers