VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[dmgood]

I was searching eBay for a used WhisperRoom, etc. and found plans for building your own vocal booth.

www.projectstudiosolutions.com

They give a noise reduction of -39db to -52db and say it is acceptable for low to moderate noise areas. (I have frequent low flying planes and a neighbor with an old pickup with not much of a muffler, so I'm not sure it would work for me....)

[Hart]

I converted the dimensions. It's roughly 5 ft by 4 ft. About 7 feet tall. So the dimensions aren't terrible.

They want 50 bucks for the plans. If you spend a couple of hours digging on the net you'll find lots of ideas and advice for free. Some is good, some isn't and I suppose you get what you pay for.

Nice find, DM. Hadn't seen that one before. Thanks for sharing it.

I have a spreadsheet at home that helps calculate the "golden dimensions" for a booth. Maybe I'll run this thing through it this weekend and see what it says.

[Doc]

Hart,

Everybody shares stuff, man!

If you snagged that spreadsheet from the internet, I would sure appreciate a link. If you designed it, how much to a fellow V. O. Artist?

[Hart]

No problem. I got it from somwhere on the internet. I want to say I found it on the forums at http://www.johnlsayers.com but I'm not postive. Be happy to shoot it over to you when I get home.

They deal with recording vocals for music and like to leave the room more "live" than most VO people I know. But the principles are the same as best I can tell. We just add more absorbtion to deaden the space.

[Doc]

Hart,

Terrific. Thanks. You da man!!

[Hart]

Had some time to kill, so searched and found it. I was mistaken. The spreadsheet is meant for control rooms. You can find it here:

http://www.studiotips.com/tools/

It's the first thing listed. There are some other cool tools too.

You could use Bob Gold's online calculator. You can find it here:

http://www.bobgolds.com/Mode/RoomModes.htm

It's used to calculate room modes, which can apply to vo booths with a BIG caveat. It has to be a bigger room. When we're talking about rooms that have dimensions of 5 or 7 feet. There's not enough room for sound waves to develop fully so room modes aren't an issue. I guess that makes it a little caveat instead.

Now, I know have three different sets of ratios used to determine dimensions....somewhere. One was done in a study by the BBC. Try searching around for that. I would, but a sales weasel just brought in a piece of copy that's supposed to start Monday.

[Doc]

Hart,

Hey, man... thanks a bunch! Got 'em. Now, if I can figure out how to use 'em. LOL

Appreciate it immensely.

[nick reed]

For those who wish to build their own isolation booth, here's a link to a previous discussion about determining room dimensions, .

Lots of good information here, especially my post... uh-hum, I mean... Kevin's post.

http://www.vo-bb.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=601&highlight=golden+ratio

Nick

[Hart]

Thanks Nick. I'd read some of that before, but not all.

Bailey, if you pop in this thread, how well along are you with your booth? If finished, how'd it turn out? I'd love to hear about it sometime if you wouldn't mind sharing a bit.

Just of note, if you were trying to follow the ratios: I read somewhere that those clever fellows over at the BBC have experimented with turning an ideal room "on end" so it takes up less floor space. Of course your height would be substantial, but it's an idea.

One final thought when dealing with the thought of room modes and such and thinking about a booth. Very few of us produce frequencies lower than around 150 Hz. Maybe Mr. "Pure Testosterone" or a couple others of you might...... maybe.

[Bailey]

[Frank F]

This may be a bit long winded - so if you choose - disreagrd this information...

Just a simple thought for anyone who decides to "build" a studio.... especially in a small area. Sound Proofing is good - meaning: shielding yourself and the microphone from the noises of the outside world, but, (and I stress this point) ...but, what about the noises inside the "studio room"? You will have a computer - with all it's fans and noises and a myriad of other small sounds you do not normally hear in the real world.

Another consideration is "ventalation". A/C, if and when needed, heat - again when needed. Your air ducts should be of adequate size and as silent as possible... remember, noise comes from the ventilation ducting as well... even the air moving by your microphone can add un-wanted noise. All of this falls under the catagory of Sound Proofing. What many have discussed in the previous posts on this subject is: Studio Tuning.

Studio Tuning is the art of getting the best possible audio frequencies to : "bounce" or "not bounce" in a way which gives the most "true" quality sound. Tuning for an orchestra is a lot different than tuning for a drum set. Tuning for "voice" is more problematic than most think it will be.

There are several questions you might wish to ask prior to setting out to "tune" your studio area. Are you and you alone going to use the "studio"? Will you occasionally have another voice talent come in to your studio to record? Are you a male - tenor or bass or a female, alto or soprano voice talent? Does your studio "boom", or echo? Does it rattle, and roll? Does it sound "tinny"? And on-and-on, and on-and-on...

There are calcuations and numbers to fit almost any scenario if you look hard enough. But consider this: Does your studio area sound as you want it to sound? Do you like a "dead" sound - shades of the 1950's or early 1960's - or a more live sound - circa 1970's.... or a mellow sound - similar to today's professional recording studio - a bit more "live" and yet soft and mellow - not quite "dead"? It's what you like and how you "hear" your studio's sound that matters - not what someone else who has not heard your voice and your area of space.

Many, if not - most of "today's microphones are sensitive to a certain area around the diaphragm, and to a certain distance. Making sure you have no reverberation, or un-wanted "transients" in your room is a simple step toward "tuning" your area. Testing this can be accomplished by just - recording silence ................... and then adding short 'plosive noises in the low and high ranges. Hitting an empty two liter bottle with a plastic mallet, ring a dinner bell - once... and then listen to the silence afterwards on your recording - it will tell you more information than you might want to hear...

Tune your "studio" to your ears, and be happy. Just make sure the un-wanted sounds of the street are NOT in your recordings.

Keeping in "tune" with what is going on in our world should keep you busy - not thinking about how to make your studio sound like the multi-million dollar studio that records your favorite type of music sounds.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Frank F

[Hart]

Bailey,

If it was me, I'd think hard about using the whole (new) room. 6 x 7 isn't that big. Sounds to me like the neighborhood you are in is fairly quiet. What are you contending with? Lawnmowers, the occasional delivery truck or low flying airplane? I wouldn't think it would be too hard or expensive to achieve suitable isolation, then deaden to "taste."

I understand about the house and "honey-do" chores. We bought a foreclosure last May and have had lots of work to do before I could even begin to think about how to turn an empty room into a decent recording space.



Boy am I glad to see so many on here who have studied some of this stuff. I've been trying to learn as much as I can, but the design sites are really geared towards bands and such. So it's hard to ask them a question about VO when they are thinking about putting amps and drums in their rooms.

[Bailey]

[Hart]

Gotcha. Don't they call those portable walls Gobos? Something like that I think. I've seen some designs for building your own on several sites.

Sounds like a good idea for that space now that I think about it.

[dscott]

Here are a couple of "in depth" links that may be helpful...

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

http://www.realtraps.com/

http://www.spi-co.com/architectural.html

http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/forum/f/26.html

Cheers!
Dave