John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I'm paying a friend to convert a closet in my apartment into a vocal booth for home narration projects. The closet is only a little larger than a phone booth, just enough room to stand in with a mic and stand. So far he's glued sheets of Apex acoustic foam (2" thick, open-cell w-foam) on all the playwood walls, doors, and ceiling. He just needs to pad the floor and add a light source. I'm using a Studio Projects C1 mic and stand. I did an initial sound test and am not really sure HOW the space should sound. So far, it sounds like I'm in a BOX (which I AM, but don't want it sounding so darn small and enclosed). IN the booth, there seems to be quite a bit of volume and resonance when I speak and the end recording sounds somewhat muffled. Is it a matter of mic placement and adjusting the levels? Or somethine else? It IS a small space...how can I alter the ambience and make it sound more open and "natural"? Any tips or suggestions? I'm kind of a newbie with this home studio stuff...thanks.

The size make it kind of tough - what you need for more even frequency absorption (this helps with the "boxy" sound) is to use either rockwool or rigid fiberglass insulation in place of the foam, 2" thick and spaced off the walls by ANOTHER 2" - this evens things out better.

If you don't have the space to do that, you might try hanging some thin plastic (like a painter's drop cloth) over part of the foam to get back some of the high frequency that's being sucked out of the booth - this won't help the problem with too much low-mid and low frequency though... Steve