John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Looking to find a miracle acoustical "Tardis".
I know how to make them dead and kill of the room nodes with bass traps, that's no big deal anymore.
What tips do you have to make a typical WhisperRoom or StudioBricks booth 3.5x5'x6.5' interior sound not so hideous by making use of diffusors?
Maybe even a reversible panel that can be flipped to liven up the room for times you want to emulate a larger space for videogame voicing.

We still need an RT60 of 0.2 or less for VO work.

generally speaking, you make the tiny vocal booth "larger" by making sure it's completely dead and then add reverb etc during the mix phase.

if this is a commercial venture, i'd suggest making the vocal booth larger in physical terms so that the diffusion could have a chance of being useful - something like 6' wide x 5' deep x 8' high - dead except for slats. this is where an inside out room really shines because you can make the isolation walls also the absorption for the bulk of the room and add slats and so on as needed to create some life.

Yes, typically VO tracks recorded at home/commercially are "dead" as possible to allow post total control of the ambiance.
This is why I've never bothered with the added cost/complexity of incorporating diffusion. When you are starting with a "non-negotiable" interior dimensioned space, everything must be hung off the walls/ceiling. No thanks to the "Whisper Rooms" of the world for selling these little boxes with a pieces of token Auralex 2" pyramid foam, and voice actors adopting them as an acceptable way to record professional VO tracks. Now it's become the norm. More offensive is the brand "Vocal Booth" which literally brands their product for the use, while still having lousy acoustic treatment (2" layer of foam wallpaper).

unfortunately, to get that small of a space even more dead in the low and lower-mid frequencies, you'd have to rip out the foam and build a frame set inside to then put in a deeper set of (say) 4" semi-rigid insulation and re-cover with cloth. another option is to open up the top. build an extension onto the walls of the unit, and put in deeper absorption up top as well.

do you own the affronting vocal booth already? or thinking about buying one?

No, my job is making these voice boxes sound good for voice actors. It's a living...
The "science books" don't explain proper acoustics for tiny boxes so we do a lot of improvising.

ahhh. gotcha. retro fitting knarly sounding vocal booths