Help with building a small vocal studio in Viet Nam

Hello to All I am based in Viet Nam and am about to make improvements to an area primarily used for mixing electronic music and recording vocals. The Vietnamese love to get their photo taken and to record themselves sing! This is a rented house – probably another two years of my contract. I will be using a Neumann TLM 103 and Focusrite pre amp into a little Digidesign 002 and Mackie 824’s. Being able to hear the bass as accurately as possible at around 80- 120 Hz is fairly important. I know this isn’t easy to achieve. The control room is an irregular shape approximating to 4.75m x 3m x height 3.25m The vocal booth will be built in what is an adjoining bathroom – 1.4m x 1.75m x 3.25m height. All walls brick and concrete. Floor/ roof - concrete The house is semi detached and in a very quiet area. At the moment the two short walls in the control room have bookshelves 40cm deep, made to fit the whole wall and are full of Files, junk, books and bits of foam. This works reasonably well to keep out any noise. I am not sure I will need to soundproof the control room, I just want it to sound as accurate as possible for mixing. I will need to soundproof and acoustically treat the “vocal booth” – after I remove the sink and toilet! Availability: In Viet Nam we can get hold of Rockwool in two densities. 60kg/m3 and 80kg/m3. One size: 0.6 x 1.2 x 0.05 m and with or without an aluminium foil attached to one side. Apart from the obvious bits of mdf this is about all that I can see that matches anything that I have read that could be of use. I am aware of the size problems. Read somewhere that 2500 cubic feet is needed – I am way short of this. But can it be done? My Plan: Contrtol Room: Leave the bookshelves as are. Make rockwool panels 0.6 x 2.4m and 10cm thick (ie 4 pieces of 5mm, 80kg/m3 rockwool each, Cover in raw silk – cheap and breathable and put into a frame of aluminium shelving- lots of holes in and strong and light. These panels would be hooked onto the wall so they are separated from it by about 5cm. The 3 on the roof would be hung somehow.– Questions: 1. would the aluminium shelving be better / as good as wood? 2. If I use the aluminium shelving would I then need to cover the frame with something to stop reflections of high frequencies? 3. Do I back the panels with mdf or carpet underlay 4. Not sure how many I will need – Two either side of the mix position. Two at the front and back. Two for each corner in front of the mix position and 2 or 3 on the roof above?) 5. Would there be a huge benefit in making some bass panel traps as well with an mdf front – for better low bass? 6. Should I make various different absorbers and traps? How about making some with 5cm of rockwool and others with 10cm, some with aluminium and others without etc. Vocal Booth: Cover back wall with 10cm thick rockwoool. Separated from wall by about 5cm. Other walls / roof cover in 5cm rockwool Flush to wall. Add wooden strips to get a better sound. Leave floor – maybe a small rug. The door – no idea! Questions 1. Is it a good idea to create a temp door with one of the panels for the control room and somehow hook it over the space when needed? 2. Use a door with Double glazing windows – not sure if available here. 3. Is the design idea suitable! I would have liked to try the design that Paul White outlined in Soundonsound last month or so. However I have no idea how to get hold of the materials in Viet Nam. Finally. Does this seem OK or not? One last point I will probably move to a new house later on that will be more appropriate for recording. So the more the stuff can be used again and transported the better. I would really appreciate your input on this. I’ve bought lots of books on acoustics and read what I could and this is the best I can come up with at the moment. An attempt at a floor plan is included. Thanks. Mike.

Hehe welcome to the board ! Notice my location, fellow. Your plan seems okay and if you bought lots of books and had time reading them, I'm sure you will know how to design this. Your place is way too too small, so low bass controling is impossible. If you want better monitoring, small speakers with the freq down to 70-80Hz are better than those Mackie giants or you'll get problems with the 40-80Hz range. And if you're going to move out, better don't invest too much money on acoustic. The last word: You better rent another bigger place to achieve acceptable result. Xin cha`o.

Thanks for the reply! Cam on Are you in Saigon?? I thought (knew) the place is too small. I could move out of my bedroom and create the studio there. much bigger but a better room to sleep in! I'm locked into one more year here. Need thoughts on if it is possible to get some kind of result in the space. I have lots of books, read the forums and tried to understand. I am a complete beginner and have done very little recording. I really know little about all this. Where is your studio?, would love to take a look. Mike Xin Chao DJ Ack

Hi Mike, I'm just graduated and working hard to earn enough money to build my own studio, so I haven't got my studio yet.My experience is reading a lot may help and very useful for your later work. If you have low budget, better think "Auralex" or sth like it. The traditional method in this forum may exceed the budget and need a moderate room to build. However, I'm very appreciate to this forum and especially Mr. Sayers. Knowledge is fortune, you have to dig it for yourself ! Xin chao.