VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Donna · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:42 am Post subject: Booth or Room?

Sick and tired of recording delays due to SOCC (Sounds Out Of my Control), I am going to build either

1) a vocal booth, roughly 6' X 8' with a 7'2"ish ceiling

or

2) decouple the ceiling and walls in my existing basement studio space, a 13' X 14' room.

Building the booth will actually take more drywall and lumber than working to better isolate the entire room, but doing the whole shebang is more labor intensive, and dustier. My DH and I are the labor.

SOCCs are Occasional Flying Objects, Lawnmowers, Noisy Animals, The Refrigerator Directly Above, The Hot Tub Directly Outside, The Heavy Footed Husband Directly Above. I know how to deal with only one of the annoying sounds at present.

He wants the booth, I want the room.

Opinions?
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heyguido · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:01 am Post subject:

A well-prepared room will likely sound more natural than a well-prepared booth.

That being said, it sounds like your problem may be more related to finding and isolating your noise sources. The refrigerator and the husband are more local than lawnmowers and barking dogs. Insulation of ceiling or floors, and even carpet, can help make these more manageable. External noises are more likely entering through windows and doors. These can be addressed by upgrading or insulating, or a combination of both. Check the forums for suggestions.

True isolation is more expensive, and decidedly more difficult to do right.

For a more professional and comprehensive approach, start by talking with George W.... advice is generally free. Consulting costs more, but many here can attest to the value....
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Monk · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:05 am Post subject:

Size matters. You would want a room that is at least 1500 cubic feet.

Then start with the basics, Mass and air.

I was going to go with the booth idea, but my designer said no. A booth sounds boxy, and the room is the way to go.

I have a construction thread started around here somewhere...
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Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:11 am Post subject:

monk's studio build
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Donna · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:50 am Post subject:

How very timely -- thanks for pointing me to Monk's thread, Diane!

So, here's the plan -- make some popcorn, and watch Monk's progress. Stay tuned!
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Monk · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 12:21 pm Post subject:

There's an art and science to acoustics. First you can see where your room or booth would work acoustically, using a room mode calculator.

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

What that will do is tell you which frequencies are going to cause issues in a certain dimensional space.

A cube is bad, a rectangle better, a room with non parallel walls.. better still.
There are great books out there that deal with acoustics and explain waveform and frequency quite well. It's all good to know. Once the room has isolated the sound from outside, then you can treat the interior of the room with absorbtion panels and bass traps so the sound you make, doesn't get bounced around and all echo-y and add a hollow sound to the recording.

It's fun!
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georgethetech · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:33 pm Post subject:

Here's my first non-parallel wall booth design, just finished last month.
This is NOT for the faint of heart contractor, but it sure sounds great even with the marble countertop and all that glass.

Why not convert the whole room? That's what I asked Howard and he said he wanted to be able to "leave the studio" and great fresh air from his sliding glass doors to the patio, rather than being in a hermetically sealed room all day long.

Totally get it.
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Benjamin Stovall · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 2:19 pm Post subject:

I did a lot of reading about rooms vs booths, but there was a particular post over at voiceover universe (Shocker! There's another VO forum?) that deterred me from buying a Whisper Room. Here it is:

Rob Ellis · M&M Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 2385 Location: Detroit

Whisper Rooms aren't bad if you get the proper treatment inside---and I can tell you that I have had no issues with dogs barking, lawnmowers etc. since
taking the WR plunge in 2008.

That said, they can be boxy if you don't get the proper material inside for
sound dampening. And they ain't cheap, although mine has more than paid for itself.
No complaints from clients either, even when I was still struggling with getting the acoustics right on the inside= don't overthink the whole sound quality thing (like I did) I know I'll probably get shot down for saying this, but most clients I've encountered are way less worried about the perfection of our room acoustics than we are.

That said, they DO want the recording free from dogs barking in the background, etc.

Just my perspective. I have my asbestos suit on standby if anybody wants to torch me now cool

DougVox · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 2:55 pm Post subject:

I'm no acoustics expert...not even close...but I can offer this anecdotal evidence:

I'm in a 4x4 Gretch-Ken booth that I bought locally on Craigslist for about 10% of the numbers listed above. No boxiness, no out-of-control reflection, and very effective isolation. (I've had some very picky network engineers connect on ISDN and compliment my studio's sound before they knew my setup.) No, it's not soundproof, but it's not intended to be. My studio is on the second (top) floor of a building in a fairly busy business district, above a 4 lane street with lots of traffic, and I almost never hear the rumble of the traffic.

As others have said, the right solution is location-specific.
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Chuck Davis · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 3:30 pm Post subject:

After getting some advice from Mike and George I managed to get my 2.5x3.5 Whisperroom to sound just fine. The only exception is really loud parts....for that I go to the control room mic.

If I had my choice, I'd be in a larger space....but this set up works very well. No complaints from any engineer or producer that I work with.
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Philip Banks · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:01 am Post subject:

Everyone who doesn't own a (insert name here) mic will tell you that (insert excuse for not buying one). Booth or room? Same thing. You do not need industry approval or to be one of the crowd whereas you DO need to be able to work effectively and ensure that the sound you send to other studios either recorded or via ISDN is the best it can be.

Most pro recording studios have a VO booth and a control room, so do I although there's not that much for me to control.

Rule for me is that the technology must fit into my home not the other way around.

Donna · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:50 am Post subject:

And once again, Philip has identified the real issue -- which is a better fit for me and the way I work. I'm used to working in nice large studios, and might get melancholy, or worse, crabby -- in a voiceovering cubby.

Another complicating factor is the possibility of selling this house some time in the not too distant future. While it is conceivable to deconstruct a booth and take it with us to wherever we pitch our yurt, it surely ain't convenient. Better to build out the entire room and position it as "perfect for home theater" in the sales brochure.
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Monk · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:49 am Post subject:

Which is what I'm keeping in mind as I build. We could have taken the window out, but we have to think resale.

I will create a plug for the window if needed.

We're in the woods, so I don't hear any traffic noise. The only lawnmower I hear is ours, same with chainsaw and all that. So those factors went into designing the space. It started with a noise floor below 40db, I primarily need to keep the dogs out and the sound of someone flushing the potty.

(ABS pipes are quiet.)

we're still negotiating on Owens Corning, a local supplier wanted almost 19 bucks a panel, while down in Yonkers we're down to 16 including shipping... I'm hoping for 11 or 12 and no shipping.
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JTVG · Backstage Pass Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 433

If the late Mike Sommer were with us, he would have probably suggested coverting a room. That being said, I think it's a bit more more challenging to do, possibly more expensive and certainly more overwhelming than a small booth space. But if it's done right (and that would be the key word) by all accounts, it will sound better.
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