Sound Treatment for 9' x 6' Vocal Booth...Dead or Not?

My booth construction is done and I was wondering what was the best sound treatment I could put inside. Its not a very big booth as you can see its 9 by 6 feet, one of the wall is not straight. A dead room is not a very good idea for recording vocals. Due to the absence of room sound... But how dead should the room be? I can do a 360° insulation with carpet on the fllor or cover only 1,2 or 3 wall...there is so many possibility. :idea: What kind of room sound should I get to get those juicy and clean vocal. You know, the kind of vocals that makes you not wanna look at the Eq. For you guru out there, for this size of room, what would be the best treatment for tracking vocals, and once in a while strings and bass. Thank you!

Ntchi wrote:

A dead room is not a very good idea for recording vocals. Due to the absence of room sound... But how dead should the room be?

Actually, a dead sounding room is perfect for vocals. Especially for a small room or booth. The smaller the room, the worse the room tone. Plus, that's what reverb plug-ins are for. :) --Ethan

Does it have to be fully dead? 360° absorber? Or shoul I leave a reflective surface somewhere.

what is the room constructed of? how does it currently sound? one thought is to "incrementally" treat the room. put in absorbers in the corners to improve your low-mid broadband asorption. put up some wall and ceiling based absorption to kill off flutter echos. put in some carpeting. keep working the room until it sounds good. keep in mind if the treatments can be adjusted then you can change the room - if you need it deader, turn the treatments around to face the "soft" side out, when you need more life, turn them face out to the "hard" side. Ethan - when is that combo absorber-diffuser on a stand coming out? 8)

gullfo wrote:

what is the room constructed of? how does it currently sound? one thought is to "incrementally" treat the room. put in absorbers in the corners to improve your low-mid broadband asorption. put up some wall and ceiling based absorption to kill off flutter echos. put in some carpeting. keep working the room until it sounds good. keep in mind if the treatments can be adjusted then you can change the room - if you need it deader, turn the treatments around to face the "soft" side out, when you need more life, turn them face out to the "hard" side. Ethan - when is that combo absorber-diffuser on a stand coming out? 8)

Well right now if I clap inside there is like a...lets say, half to 3/4 second echoes inside. My biggest concern is that I have to face 2 opinions. some people will tell me to deaden the room completly 360 and some say to make it partly dead (just like you showed me in this very artistic plan, thx you! :D ). It a pretty small booth, so "room sound" wont be that sexy, but in the other way, a fully dead room makes the vocal sound very dark...and dead. I think that this plan you showed is very interesting. But Id rather treat the room with foam panels glued on the walls, rather than coner slats. It gives more space, and its more "fancy" looking lol. Slats cuts to much in my ft.sq lol.

Here is what the room is made of: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7754 :roll: (I know...a terrible mistake was made) (If you "bold" a link, it doesn't work as a link anymore - I corrected it for you... Steve)

"dark and dead" can be fixed with digital reverb, but echo can't be fixed with ANYTHING very well... Steve

I heard great sounding vocals from room that were barely treated... So you guys are telling me that I should make a full 360 dead room? Foam everywhere with carpet?

This depends on the room size and SHAPE - yours is large enough that natural sound might work, but you only gave two dimensions - 6 x 9 isn't an ideal ratio for two walls, and if your ceiling height isn't a good match for either of those dimensions then modes won't be evenly balanced and the sound won't be either. If you can give ALL the room dimensions, I can get a better idea of how it might sound with minimal treatment - I'd need EACH wall length and ceiling height (along with materials used) to even get close... Steve

Well, the ceiling is 8 ft high, one wall is 9 ft long, the other one 6 ft long, the other one is about 6 3/4 ft long and one 9 1/2 ft .

OK, didn't run those dim's into cad but if the two short walls are parallel, that (and the ceiling) is where your flutter is coming from - considering your wish to use foam panels, I would get the Auralex TruTraps (more even absorption, so less coloration) and position them NOT opposite each other on your short walls (stagger them, in other words) - I would build something similar to David French's design, here http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5930 Depending on your budget, you may want to look at alternatives to foam that will kill flutter but keep the room brighter - one such is here http://www.rpginc.com/products/flutterfree/ I've no idea the cost of these any more, use the email at the bottom of the page to find cost and dealers near you. I guarantee it won't be cheap though. Using more conventional things like your choice of foam panels, you should get roughly half of the upper half of all your walls treated (very general rule), remembering NOT to place panels directly opposite each other for best flutter control. HTH... Steve

So I cant go wrong if I place my 1' x 1' foam in a checker pattern all over the room? A staggered checker pattern with no opposite facing.

I'd start with only the upper half of the walls, and if your foam isn't at LEAST 2" thick I would try to find a way to DOUBLE it - thin foam is about as bad as carpet for uneven absorption. For the ceiling, I would still do a thicker, heavier duty hanging cloud as I linked to. But yes, you have the right idea for placement - if there is foam on one of two parallel walls, there should be blank wall opposite - doing it this way keeps from covering the entire surface, yet still keeps it so no two bare wall sections are facing each other... Steve

Just another voice in the chorus. For a small booth, I would definitely make it as dead as I could. I can't see a room of that size imparting a nice sound to any recording you might make. I'd also pay some attention to bass trapping in that booth as well; you won't need much if it will only be used for vocals, but you'll get some nasty room modes in a booth that size otherwise. Your foam panels will have very little if any effect on the low end. Space wise, your best bet might be to hang a cloud that's at least 4" thick (of 703 or equiv) hanging at least 4" from the ceiling. 6" thick 6" down is better. Either design will provide some low-end absorption.

Agreed - but this "But Id rather treat the room with foam panels glued on the walls, rather than coner slats. It gives more space, and its more "fancy" looking lol. Slats cuts to much in my ft.sq lol." made me think that he'll have to hear the room's problems in that area before wanting to give up the space, so I thought I'd let him find that out first :wink: ... Steve

knightfly wrote:

I'd start with only the upper half of the walls, and if your foam isn't at LEAST 2" thick I would try to find a way to DOUBLE it - thin foam is about as bad as carpet for uneven absorption. For the ceiling, I would still do a thicker, heavier duty hanging cloud as I linked to.

Yes they are 2" thick. I'll try some placement this week-end to see how it sounds. Thank you

what kind of paint will suit the best? Eggshell finish uh? No shiny stuff I guess.

Agree with the "kill the room acoustics" line, for such a small room. ....if you find the room to dead and dull try to attach some (used) CDR:s to the walls at headheight, that will give you some reflections in the upper freq. range and give your vocals some "sparkle" and "air" How many? Try, record and listen! then add or remove... Needles is a good thing to use! HOOK

What thickness of plexi glass should I use in the booth? Double 1/4" or double 3/8"? or One 1/4" and one 3/8". Im kinda limited in the budget and was wondering if it was worth to spend more for thicker glass or if it wont significantly change the sound proofing. Maybe 2x1/16" do as well as 1x1/2". What do you Pros think?

I did many test, and I covered 3 wall and the ceiling with checkered pattern foam of 2" thick 1'x1'. And I brought a sofa in. The lows and the highs are good (mid cut some more highs maybe), but the mids really sound annoying...somewhere between 150hz and 700hz it sounds really annoying especially when I track at more than 12 inch from the mic. You ear this nasty the room sound. What Can I do to absorb more of the lower mid range? Thank you.

Here is what I did:

Looks like too much high absorption, where's your low-end absorption? it's out of balance this way. no wonder you've got problems low/mid-low. I'd suggest some absorption and/or pressure panels.

Ntchi How is this foam fixed to the walls? Glued? Can you still easy remove it without damaging it?

There are glued, But I can still remove them with average to no damage to them, I might re-paint the wall if the glue stays on the wall. Should I remove some? What can I add to get that low-mid and low absorption? Bass traps? A cloud? Slots?

I'd suggest some absorption and/or pressure panels.

What's a pressure panel? Thank You :wink:

I was thinking of regluing them upside down. In fact Steve warned you about this in this thread. I know you did for the very best, and they sell you these tiles for this purpose, and while finding this a nice job of your part, such pictures makes me a bit depressed, knowing that can't sound right. What Ro refers to with pressure panels is probably panel dampers in one or the other version as e.g. on ethan winer's site. The ideas as behind Glenn's (Gullfo) picture is a good one. Glenn I saw you made already a lot of nice didactic drawings/pictures for people. I admire them. I wonder for long already what to do about this foam sculpting magic. I asked that foam company I recently referred here if they were willing to measure flat foam, possibly with a light beveling at the edges or whatever for eastetic reasons. His reply was very dry: He didn't want to convince me from the advantages of traditional sculpting whatsoever, for him it's just a product. He confirmed it wasn't difficult to make some elegant designs, preserving the flat concept. For them it's nothing more than a simple program for their cutting machine. He said: I measure them gladly once there is enough demand to justify the investments involved. But until now on 1000 requests we only got a couple for flat foam. Hence this is a circle reasoning.