John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I've been soaking up knowledge here for a while and I'm finally in a position to post a question. I've recently purchased a home and I'm in the process of setting up a modest basement studio like many people in this community have done before. I would like to convert a closet (dimensions: L 10'6" W 5'10" H 9'4") into a vocal booth. My primary concerns are treating the room to respond as good as possible for use in vocal recording, and eliminating noise that is entering the booth from a near by interstate. I live about one mile from I-75 and two walls of the closet are bordered by concrete and then outside. The long wall bordering the outside is concrete, then studs with insulation between them and no drywall. I think the majority of the sound is coming in through the ceiling which has no insulation on it yet, and is directly below a room with linoleum flooring and a window facing the direction of the interstate. Although the sound of the interstate can be heard from my main large room which has two windows and a sliding glass door. The sound is much more present in this vocal booth with concrete on three sides.


My questions are:

- What steps might I take to eliminate any outside noise pollution from entering the booth (I will start by insulating the ceiling)?

- Based on these dimensions and wall composition, what are some suggestions for taming possible reflections and converting this into a usable vocal booth?

Would this room be too small for use as a vocal booth without making it totally dead?

Aloha and welcome to the forum, UC

A couple of thoughts until those with more wisdom get a chance to look in.

Although the sound of the interstate can be heard from my main large room which has two windows and a sliding glass door. The sound is much more present in this vocal booth with concrete on three sides.

What frequencies are you hearing in the room: lows/mids/highs?

What steps might I take to eliminate any outside noise pollution from entering the booth (I will start by insulating the ceiling)?

I believe the principle taught here to achieve "isolation" from noise coming in/going out is mass-air-mass. Would John's inside out wall design be a viable option for you? (Cloth covering without slats)

Here's an excerpt from the SAE site:

In the page on isolation I describe the standard double wall construction on a floating floor with a resultant wall thickness of 300mm.(1ft). That is 100mm (4")for each wall and a 100mm (4")air space between. The finished room then has a wall surface of plasterboard that requires further acoustic treatment to handle the reflected sound within the room. If you then put 100mm of treatment on each wall you end up with a wall 200mm(8") thick and a total wall thickness including the air space of 300mm (24"). In the home studio space is precious so a small saving of wall thickness can really help. So I have developed a simple and cost effective solution.

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html (click on construction tab at left and then on walls and ceilings at top)

Would this room be too small for use as a vocal booth without making it totally dead?

From the responses I got on mentioning a vocal booth, I would say, it's probably a little small to be used for a live sound. Dead would be better.

Hope this helps,

Aloha