John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi everyone,

I'm having a great time reading back old posts and things. I've been able to answer most of my questions without needing to post.

However, I've got one question that I'd like some help with:

I've laid out my project studio to have the best monitoring position for my desk/speakers. I've been putting in big bass traps and I was planning on putting a vocal booth in, but it looks like the best dimensions I'll get are this, in a corner:

7' 6" fixed ceiling; 4' 3" fixed depth; and 4' 5" to 4' 9" for the width.

The other option would be to put another bass trap in, and make the corner really dead, and have people sing into the corner.

My fear is that such a small room would sound awful, and I don't want that.

A lot of my clientele are hip-hop / solo vocalists though, so I feel like I should have a vocal booth. I don't know if I'm giving live drums too much priority. The booth could be bigger if I didn't care as much about my live drums sound. But, vocals don't necessarily have to be done in a booth, they could just be done in a good sounding room.

Can anyone lend some advice? I'm doing this over the next few days and don't want to start too quickly without advice.

Thank you,

John Shryock
East Coast, USA

If you stay at the wider 4'9", it gives a bit better modal distribution in the booth than the shorter dimension; but there will still be somewhat of a "hole" at around 100 hZ using those dimensions. I'm not sure how much this would help, but all directional mics exhibit a "proximity" effect which boosts the bass response as you get closer to the mic; so maybe "working the mic" would help that "hole" somewhat.

And you're right, for what you're doing (or most anything else for that matter) a booth is a definite need.

Do you have an overall room diagram posted anywhere? If so, I'd like to see it... Steve

Hey Steve,

Thanks for replying - I attached a layout of the room.

I decided to go with the vocal booth, and now I'm just trying to figure out how to build it. I'm going to use these dimensions, I believe:

4'10" x 4' x 7'5"

That really stinks about the 100 Hz hole problem. I'd hate to have that ruining vocals. The proximity effect could help, but then I'll have to deal with some agressive pop filter use, probably have to use two pop filters.

I'll be stuffing the walls with 3 pcf 2' x 4' open faced johns manville IC300, and was thinking of trying to get some bass trapping going on inside. Maybe I can fit some corner trapping in there or something.

Maybe put the bass trap in the corner and then build the booth around it? That could be interesting. I don't plan on guitars or anything in there. Just vocals.

I'm using an excel file mode/wave calculator from Harman, is that what you use for mode calculation?

Thank you sincerely, it's great to have your help.

- John Shryock

Depending on isolation needs, you should allow for a wall thickness total of just under 6" - that's two layers of 5/8 wallboard outside, 3.5" studs, 1/2" for RC, and one layer 5/8 wallboard inside; more on the walls, and your door won't keep up. Even so, good seals will be mandatory if you want more than a few dB isolation.

Other than that, the room's about as well laid out as you can get for that area.

I use the Harmon sheet, but also use one I wrote several years ago for some simple things, and the one I used for the above comments is written by Jeff Szymanski of Auralez - you can find it

http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?t=497

You might have to join to download, don't remember... Steve

Thanks Steve, I'm reading on constructing walls now.

How does the door figure into the equation? I see a lot of sound booths with sliding doors, or doors with big glass windows, etc.

It seems that any glass would cause early reflections and decreased effectiveness for sound isolation. I plan on using a pre-hung solid core door, but I'd like some visibility through the booth.

How does the flat reflective surface of the glass affect the acoustic properties inside of the booth, and the sound reduction capability?

Also, is there anything else I can do for the vocal booth to take care of the mode problems? It kind of turns me off to the idea of the booth, or makes me want to work on the dimensions somehow, although I don't have much room to work with. Argh.

Anyways, thanks again.

- John Shryock