Advice on building outdoor soundbooth for vocals and VO

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birdy50
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:04 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Advice on building outdoor soundbooth for vocals and VO

Post by birdy50 »

Hello to all! First time poster here. Will do my best to adhere to the forum rules.

So far, total wealth of info on this site- thanks so much to those who take the time to make a thriving, active and helpful community.

Let's begin.

The Goal/Reason:
I'm in Los Angeles, CA. I'm an actor and singer. I am out of work due to Covid and all productions being shut down. With the likelihood of me not working for the rest of the year, I've been poking around at the idea of building a soundbooth. The idea being opening up job opportunities for voice over work.
I am also a singer and play guitar and piano.
I'd like to use this soundbooth for recording voice over, singing, and hopefully fitting myself and an acoustic guitar in there to record. I can mix/record electric guitar and keys from my office, so no need to record those in the booth.

Proposed location/idea:
I don't really have any open space inside my pier and beam (raised foundation) 1950's ranch style home that I own. The rooms are tiny and we're using all the spaces. So if possible, I'd like to make this booth live outside.
The best place I can find for it is on the backside of the house, where it's more insulated from traffic noise, which is my biggest obstacle sound-wise. The front (northside) of the house faces a HEAVILY trafficked street with big trucks, motorcycles, jerks with backfiring cars/super loud exhaust and emergency/police vehicles. Thanks, LA.
I have not begun any work on this yet, this is the planning stage.

Misc details:
I am a female, so most recordings need to cater to the female hz range. Husband might record a thing or 2 in there for fun, but it would mostly be for my working use.
I am a woodworker and feel very capable/confident in building things. I've built furniture/sheds/drywalled/framed/electric/plumbing, you name it. So this will cut the cost down as well as allow me to customize it however I want.
I'm not at all concerned about the noise emanating from the booth. My neighbors are loud and the neighborhood is loud. Any noise I make would be a drop in the ear bleeding bucket of this area.
Budget preferably sub $750.


notes on the photo/dimensions:
in case any of the writing is unclear:
  • *There are 9 feet from the ground to the bottom of the eave of the house.
    *The width of the back wall (the stucco wall seen) is 8 feet
    *The depth of the porch with railing from the front of the rails (end of the porch) to the back wall is 10 feet. I don't think I'd want to extend the outer building much over 6-7feet of that 10 for visual aesthetics from the porch.
    *From the ground to the top of the cement porch is 17inches
    *From the cement porch to the top of the railings is 31inches.
    *I'll obviously take out that bush and the landscaping below. No big deal.
Questions:
  • *Does this seem like a workable spot to build a room within a room?
    *Is room within a room my best option in this scenario?
    *I've found a used professional whisperroom locally and while it's only 3.5ftx3.5ft (likely eliminating my acoustic guitar), buying something like that would provide all the sound proofing items preinstalled, and I would just have to build the shed/building to house it. Is this a good idea? There's another soundbooth I found for crazy cheap that's 4ftx8ft.
    *Would the outer building use the stucco exterior wall of my house as its shared back wall, or would I need to build it to sit a little distance from it?
    *Should I make the building and interior room level with the porch and either enter from built steps or have the door open onto the porch (cut out the railing at that spot)?
    *Dimensions wise, for my needs, what is an ideal footprint for this soundbooth? 4x4? 4x6? 8x10?
    *How much bigger should the outside building be from the inner soundbooth? Ideal space between the 2?
Any other hints/suggestions/guidance is much appreciated! Thanks in advance!
birdy50
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:04 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Advice on building outdoor soundbooth for vocals and VO

Post by birdy50 »

Been a few weeks, no peeps. Checking in. Thanks!
edit- the 2 vocal booths I had found were sold. I waited too long. Possible another will show up, but it's a crap shoot.
SoWhat
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2020 11:30 pm
Location: Philadelphia

Re: Advice on building outdoor soundbooth for vocals and VO

Post by SoWhat »

Greetings birdy50,

Given the heavy ambient noise considerations, you will want as much isolation as you can get. The room-in-a-room will work best.

I would suggest that you start by determining how much available square footage you have to build your OUTER structure. Then Immediately get Rod Gervais's book Home Recording Studios: Build It Like the Pros and read it. Then read it again. Then you'll be armed with the information you need to ask questions.

All the best,

Paul
birdy50
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:04 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Advice on building outdoor soundbooth for vocals and VO

Post by birdy50 »

Thanks for that, sowhat. I've been working on getting the book in, but came down with Covid (can you say "came down with it??" ha!) and it has wiped me out for 3 weeks. Anyone have any idea if there's much changed between the 1st and 2nd edition of Home Recording Studio?

That being said, sowhat, the outer building will not exceed the amount in the picture- 8 foot long, 6-7 foot deep and maybe around 8.5 feet high. Do you think that's workable space to then build a room within that?
SoWhat
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2020 11:30 pm
Location: Philadelphia

Re: Advice on building outdoor soundbooth for vocals and VO

Post by SoWhat »

You want the second edition. Amazon has it (or at least they did).

I do apologize. I missed the line about your budget. $750 won't get you the ventilation you'll need, let alone build the room (properly). Proper doors alone will eat up at least half of that (probably more).

This might be why you've received no replies to your original post.

Again, my apologies.
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