hello everyone its nice to be here! Id love to build a studio in my basement, i already started getting gear and some minor building. i wold like to take this to the next level and put some real time, money and effort into this! Thank you in advance to anyone who can help!
What i would like to do is build a small studio and study study study! Practice and hopefully get better at this profession. i have read a few books on home recording studios and have a great base to build on, i play just about every instrument and have a great ear! i have found very good info on recording mixing and mastering. i have had no luck with studio design info... this sight looks to be AWSOME! (Pay extra attention to the words that are bold!)
The space in my basement where i can build is 12' x 14'. what i would like to know: is this a room that is possible to build a small vocal booth and small control room in or am i going to be wasting my time? Im not looking to do anything huge rite now, but maybe after i can study for a while and get a little better i would like to build a full scale studio somewhere here in my town and run a business! thank you to anyone who can help!
Hello everyone, nice to be here, a quick question
Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 9630.
Aloha and welcome to the forum,
How tall are your ceilings? Aloha 8)The space in my basement where i can build is 12' x 14'. what i would like to know: is this a room that is possible to build a small vocal booth and small control room in
aloha nice to meet you
sorry, i forgot a piece of key info, they are 7'
Aloha,
In Rod Gervais’ book “Build it Like the Pros,” http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5670 he points out both L.W.Sepmeyer’s & M.M. Louden’s formulas most widely used in professional studios worldwide. He also notes that the orders listed are (top to bottom) the first to third best ratios in both cases.
L.W. Sepmeyer
Height Width Length
1.00 1.14 1.39 7’ x 7’10” x 9’7”
1.00 1.28 1.54
1.00 1.60 2.33
M.M. Louden
Height Width Length
1.00 1.40 1.90
1.00 1.30 1.90
1.00 1.50 2.10
On small vocal booths Steve (Knightfly) mentioned that "4' x 5' x 7' inside dim's is about the best modal compromise for a small booth." 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.
That said, it'll be tight fit, but overall, it's doable.
Perhaps something like this, then?
Aloha 8)
:shock: let me start off by saying:i have been in many forums for many years,and in all those years i have not got as straight and good answer as i have with this one question! Thank you
The building has begun, all my plans are on paper now but im working on sketchup designs. as soon as i have them i will shurley post them. im going to post some pics soon as well, thank you!
Aloha,
Glad to hear that it was helpful. Looking forward to your build pics.
Best of success to you!
Aloha 8)
Aloha,
I was reminded of the tonal coloration of small booth designs, and thought I'd offer this bit of info collected along the way -
When construction your vocal booth, you may want to consider putting up the cloth covered insulation and do a few mic tests to see how the booth sounds before installing the slats, and then add them in increments while testing to see at what point you have a nice balance of liveness/deadness or have covered the wall/s being treated (Note that John's design calls for only two of the walls to be treated with slats.) Be sure to listen for any comb filtering that may occur when positioning your mic and adjust as necessary. You may also want to consider a cloud absorber to treat the ceiling/floor reflections. Aloha 8)My understanding of small vocal booth/voice-over treatments tend to lean toward the "dead" side. During the insulating phase of my front soffits, I noticed how nice and quiet it got with each 4' x 2' x 3" section of rock wool that was installed. Bryan Giles cautioned however, against building a square booth saying; "Be careful, a dead square booth will have low end issues (you'll hear the issues on your mic.)