VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Lee Gordon]

After studying countless Sketch-Up tutorials with the idea that I will design my own VO booth, I'm now thinking it might be more expedient to just buy a set of plans. The problem, as with anything you Google that yields lots of results, is separating the wheat from the chaff.

I plan to construct a free-standing booth, roughly 4½' x 4½' x 7' and could probably just draw my design on paper but I don't know if I want to trust my drafting skills (meager at best), nor do I want to build a booth and later discover that I've omitted an important design detail.

Can anybody recommend a good, not-too-expensive source of plans? Thanks.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[vkuehn]

I done a lot of Internet "scouring" and I don't remember ever seeing a set of "plans". Maybe a sketch of "what I did... door here, mic over there, etc.

If you have a relatively quiet place and your booth is a way to simplify achieving acoustic properties, the job would be rather simple.

If you are trying to achieve noise isolation from the rest of the building and from external noise, then your challenge becomes more complicated.

If you do all your voice work in a standing position, the layout, including where the door is, is not quite as critical. If you do book narrations (or think you might in the future) and you want to be able to sit, where you put the door in such a small space can be a pain forever. (Like getting in and out of the back seat of the old original Piper Cubs. )

Give a lot of thought to how you are going to ventilate that small booth without creating a noise problem.

How are you going to illuminate the booth? And will the heat put out by the lighting ruins your plans on ventilation?

And what about the floor? Will the current room floor also be the floor of your booth.... or will the booth have it's own floor on top of THE floor? Either way, you don't want a floor that squeaks when you shift your weight. Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt.

[Rob Ellis]

Just a few random thoughts on this, based on my experience purchasing and assembling my pre-fab Whispy Room.

If you're doing it for isolation, then standard lumber will likely not achieve that. For noise isolation, the material has to have a certain density and weight.

My Whisper Room does an excellent job of blocking out noise, but it came at a price. And the wall panels are very heavy. In addition to the density requirement, there's also an airtightness that's required if you want maximum isolation, as outside sound , like water, will seek any entry that is available to it.

[ballenberg]

Hey Rob, what do you mean by "standard lumber"? Good old 2x4's and plenty of drywall, plus some green glue and insulation does the trick--but the devil is certainly in the details . Metal studs may be even better but wood studs are totally okay.

[Rob Ellis]

hey Bill if you're getting sufficient isolation with your booth, then IMO that's what is most important.

I'm no expert on this, but it just seems that the material in my booth is of a greater density and weight than say, the lumber I used when I worked on constuction crews in high school and college.

Then again, maybe I've just lost some muscle mass since the 80s and the Whisper Room panels just seem heavier

But let me stress again that I am not an expert on this so I defer to the George Whittams and other acoustics geeks of the world.

[Jason Huggins]

Density is absolutely necessary, but you can get density from any number of sources. It just depends on how much you want to spend, and how thick you want your walls.

As to wood and metal, it really doesn't make a difference (metal is easier to work with) as far as acoustics go. If the walls are decoupled, they shouldn't transfer sound to one another, regardless of the material they are made of. The sound isolation doesn't come from the studs, they just hold the drywall. Enough layers of drywall is just as dense as any prefab booth.

Double layer inside, double layer outside, decoupled, green glue, staggered and acoustic caulked seams, acoustic caulk to seal all cracks and openings, solid core 1 3/4" door, seal around the frame, weatherstrip and add a sweep of some sort to seal the bottom of the door, and you're good to go. Build it in the basement, even better. I used track lighting mounted on the ceiling with LED bulbs for no heat issue.

[DougVox]

Lee, I don't know anything about this company, but it looks like they offer DIY plans for recording booths (with ventilation systems!):

http://dawbox.com/DAWBOOTH.htm
_________________
Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

[Monk]

Lee, as a general rule, you don't want to design a space that is a cube, that creates a lot of audio standing wave problems.

If you follow any one of the ratios:
1:1.6:2.33
1.0:1.9:1.4
1.00:1.9:1.3
1.00:1.5:2.1
1.00:1.5:2.2
1.00:1.2:1.5
1.00:1.4:2.1

Using the smallest formula there, 1:1.2:1.5
We can come up with a booth that would be 5 foot by 6 foot with a 7.5 ceiling. There would still be some frequencies to deal with, but a lot easier than a square.

And speaking of square, the more OUT of square the room is, so that walls are not parallel, the better. Then some good sound absorption on the wall to kill the reflections, and a solid construction to keep outside noise from coming in.

Weee! (I love this stuff)

Check out http://www.realtraps.com/modecalc.htm for more information. They're just over in New Milford.
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Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[Bish]

I was going to post about the Dawbox myself. I investigated and came to the conclusion that anyone who had the slightest power-tool and measurement skills should be able to come up with something similar. Further investigation revealed that you still need these skills if you purchase these pans as they are somewhat rough'n'ready. You should contact Matto... if I remember rightly, he put one of these together from the plans and had mixed opinions.

For what it's worth, here was my back-of-a-beermat plan for my booth.

1. Buy a pre-hung door. - From the outset you have to decide if this booth is for ultimate sound isolation (difficult) or reasonable isolation and good acoustics. You can get a good heavy internal door... or a solid meta-skinned external fireproof one.

2. Window. - I was going to get a simple ready-made (framed) 22"x32" "awning window" for around $100. Of course, you may opt for a door that has a window in it already. An external steel-skinned door with a window can be as low as $200

3. Decide on your size and build the base. Everything is on a frame made of 2x4 overlaid with 3/4 marine ply. Once you've got a platform, you can build the framework around the door position.

4. Cross brace the frame with a 24" (internal) spacing between the 2x4 studding... this way you can lay-in 24" insulation later.

5. Cover the whole thing in 3/4 inch ply.

6. Lay insulation bats between the 2x4 framework. By this point you should be able to run some simple sound insulation tests. If it's lacking... get the green glue and slap another skin over it to increase the mass.

7. Same with the inside... test the acoustics and add bats, traps and soft toys as required. Use burlap to finish inside... or you could cover the good treatment with sheets of 1" pyramid foam... not wonderful, but it may look nice and have a small additive effect. This is all personal taste.

8. Cover the outside with grey industrial carpet and we're good to go!

Two things ignored here

1. Cable management. - Personally I think people make too much of this... putting in a small cable slot (say 2" x 4") and adding a external hood which can be stuffed with foam or whatever should work nicely. I had planned for two of these... keep the power and signal separate.

2. Ventilation. - It all depends on how long you're going to be in there. I've seen plenty of bolt-on solutions. The trick is slow movement of a high volume. I was going to build and see it it was a problem before solving it.

So... that was my plan... it may still happen. Just remember to decide on the size from the internal space you need ... by the time you've got the cladding and internal insulation/treatment done, each wall could easily be 6" (or more thick)... if you want 4' working room, plan for 5' external.

I'm not saying this is perfect, but as far as I can see it's pretty much a dawplan! I expect to be told that suffocation is a real issue and no one wants to work in a hermetically sealed box ... and I acknowledge this... especially for long-form narration. As I say, it's a back-of-a-beermat plan subject to modifications and WTF moments during construction

This message brought to you by Monday-morning procrastination while recovering from a heavy weekend.
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Lee Gordon]

I did come across the Dawbox plans and people seemed to be complaining that they were somewhat incomplete and the only way to fully flesh them out was to pay the guy for tech support. It is beginning to look more and more like I have no choice but to draw my own plans rather than buy and, if necessary, modify some ready-made plans. All of the information here is very useful and I thank you all for contributing your input.

Of course, if anybody does know of a good set of ready-to-build plans available, please post the link here. Thanks again.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[ballenberg]

[Lee Gordon]

Trust me, ventilation is a priority. At the moment, I have to turn off my air conditioner every time I need to record. Eliminating the need to do so is the second most important reason I have for wanting to build the booth.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Jason Huggins]

I personally didn't add ventilation...but it would be nice. You can probably just purchase the add-on ventilation kit from a product like WhisperRoom, and cut the appropriate holes.

I am personally in a basement on the slab, so it stays cool. I do have to have a silent space heater in the winter...but that was a much cheaper solution than installing ventilation. I don't stay in the room any longer than 4 hours on a typical day anyway. I haven't suffocated yet

[BALKY]

Hey!

At some point I tried several options... did not work for me. All I achieved was dense sound... noise is the bitch! Two hospitals, fire station, Kennedy Airport, playground right under my nose... several computers working, AC! All of it would project too much noise!

Since I live in at an apartment building, building anything solid was not an option, so I ended up with a whisper room (4x6) double wall.

Honestly, I love it. Won't lie - it is costly, but if you are busy, then, you will justify the costs quickly.

By all means, it is an investment, and many would not go that far if other methods may work out well.

I love it
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Pavel Kuklin
(Russian native vo artist)
*****
Greeting: https://vimeo.com/216249549
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VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/channels/russianvoice
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[ChrisMezzolesta]

My dad and I built the DAWbox, and ..... meh. Yes it works, but IMO it would have to be double-walled. We put in the heavy vinyl sheeting, thick pinkboard, Masonite on the interior later covered with Auralex, etc. First off, he doesn't take into account the fact that a 2x4 is NOT 2x4, but his plans are drawn as such. My dad is a master carpenter of some 50 yrs experience and he was like Huh??!! So on some of it we futzed, and good thing. (for instance he indicates pinkboard of a certain thickness, which is just not sold here in steamy NC.) Honestly I am happy with it, seeing that no one booth is gonna keep EVERYTHING out, but more than likely the DAWbox design is at best a stepping off point for someone who knows better. And unless your outer room gets cool enough without AC, fuhgeddaboutit! Plenum ventilation, OPTIONAL, is with 2 computer fans and dryer vent. Works, but barely, and does NOT cool. Can get to be 120 in here. He wasn't the friendliest customer-service guy either, so just sayin'....Those on my LinkedIn, there is a SlideShare of the booth build from 2008.
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com