Building a vocal booth

Hi I am considering building a vocal booth in my small basement studio.And would like some idea of the smallest size possible,without getting that (in a cardboard box) sound that can sometimes happen..... I have tried sectioning off a corner of the studio with screens and curtains to make a room the size of 3ftx6ft but all i get is a boxy sound thats horrible..... The ceiling is very very low approx 6ft 4 inches because its a basement.. Is this causing the problems...? Should i foam out the whole area,ceiling and all walls in a vocal booth to kill off all sound reflections...? I have bought a really good mic and preamp so i really need some ideas of how to build a good booth to get the best from them.... So please help if you can Even if you just let me know the sizes of your vocal booths that would be great Regards Paul

Hi. I'm Fernando. I read your post and have some things that could really help you. First: the size of the booth You said that the height is almost 2.10 (mts) so.. any of this configs. could be usefull to you. #1 H: 2.10 L: 2.919 W: 2.394 #2 H: 2.10 L: 3.234 W: 2.688 #3 H: 2.10 L: 4.893 W: 3.36 This sizes are for correct modal issues, so your vocal booth it has to be a cube wtih paralell walls. Second: The acoustic treatment Cover every surface with absorptive material, with good absorpt coeficient, but not too much. If the room is too dry, you can use plywood in the ceiling with some diffusion configurations for better curve response. I hope this helps! Fernando AWS

A lot of the "boxy" sound you're experiencing is due to the material you used to segregate your booth. Those materials only absorb high frequencies, so all that's left (sincle vocals have limited bass) is mid frequencies. Modally, with a 6'4" ceiling you'd do well with wall dimensions (inside) of 5 and 7 feet. That combination shows no modal problems at all. This means that vocals in such a room shouldn't be "colored" by the room. You would want to keep the upper half, including the ceiling, absorbed with such as rigid fiberglas insulation boards, covered with a light plastic film (they shed) and fire proofed cloth (they're ugly) - you'd likely get better vocal sounds with the singer seated rather than standing, since otherwise they will be nearly at the ceiling. Being that close to a boundary (especially if it isn't absorbed) will cause comb filtering due to early reflections. Hope that helped... Steve

I bought a vocal booth and stand from this site called editorskeys.com, have been using it constantly since and its actually amazing, I get perfect audio recordings everytime! Saves me money and time going back and forth to studios. Also just bought a pop filter from them too, pretty cheap and work really well with the booth. Definitely give them a go.