What are the hapsmy people

[DaveChristi]

My studio/office is an extra bedroom in my house. I was in need of a smaller space to record. No matter how much I tried I couldn't get the life out of my room.

I rent my house, so building walls is out. I'm not about to pay $3000+ for a pre-fab iso booth. Besides, I wasn't looking for complete isolation, just less "life" in the recording.

I can't remember where on the web I saw this idea, but it works and it's relatively cheap.

I JUST put this together today! It took one full day, but that's because I moved everything in my office around. The booth only took a few hours.

Step 1:

I bought 3 hollow-core 24" interior doors from Lowes (cost $19 each) and 6 door hinges (cost $1 each).

Step 2:

I also bought 8.5 linear feet of 6' wide gray indoor/outdoor carpet (cost $25). Using spray adhesive on both the doors and carpet, I applied the carpet to one side of the doors (this takes a 2nd person to help line up the carpet). Save the extra length for later.

Step 3:

Since the 3 doors and the carpet are the same width it is easy to fit it and then cut between the doors.

Step 4:

I already had these foam squares. I bought them on eBay from the Foam Factory. I bought an order of 1" wedge and an order of 2" wedge (total 96 sq. ft. cost $75). This is where I got the spray adhesive.

Step 5:

Using the spray adhesive, I sprayed both the doors and the foam. Then applied.

Step 6:

Because the doors are 24" wide and the squares are 12", I had no cutting to do. The doors are 80" tall so there's some extra room at the bottom.

Step 7:

I used the extra length of carpet on the bottom.

Step 8:

Once the adhesive was fairly dry, I brought the panels inside for assembly. Using the door hinges, I assembled the 3-sided "room". Once assembled, the booth stands on its own.

Step 9:

I mounted my boom arm directly to the side of one of the panels and attached a clip-on lamp to the top of the center panel. You'd have to decide how best to do this for your setup.

Step 10:

I now have a small recording booth that sounds fantastic. Like I said before, it's not an ISOLATION booth, but it gives me the sound I want without having to gate the crap out of my mic.
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d to the c

[mcm]

This is a wicked useful set of photos. And a clever & frugal solution!

[Deirdre]

Nifty solution!
And your "How-To" photos are indeed helpful. Mission Control has a shared wall with the kitchen, and some of my mics pick up the refrigerator's motor/compressor noise like mad.
I believe a little hollow-door-behind-the-frige experiment is called for.
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[BenWils]

Nice....I just did a very similar set-up with some 36" doors. It does work great. You can add a 4th door, which may make the whole thing more cumbersome or just buy a heavy black blanket or something to drap behind you. I went the blankey route and just got some heavy duty push pins, which hold nicely in the tops of the doors.

My next project is to build one of those mobile units that goes into a bag. May need some light durable material for that. Still keeping an eye out for what may work the best.

Nice pics Dave and welcome to the VO-BB for me.
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Ben

[Bailey]

I think the partitions are great... but I've had a question bouncing aound inside my head for months. I've been wanting to ask it, but didn't want to sound like a total goof.
When I record at my desk, the mic and all that stuff is right here. If your recording in a booth or behind a partition, do you just click the record on the computer... run into the recording area... record the script... and then run back to the computer to stop the recording? Or is there a way you remotely do this from the booth? I realize that you can trim the recording aftewards. I just thought I was missing one of the "SECRETS OF VOICE OVERS".
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[DaveChristi]

[bobsouer]

Dave,

Thanks for the excellent and vivid illustration of just how simple this process is. I'm going to follow your instructions at the end of this month when I re-configure my studio at home.
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[Doc]

Bailey,

Also, if you have an extra monitor, keyboard and mouse laying around (and, doesn't everyone?) , you can purchase a KVM switch. Mount the monitor in the booth (flat LCD's are best) and build a shelf for the keyboard and mouse.

BTW, I recently purchased 2 LCD 17" monitors for $99 apiece. At that price, I simply could NOT pass them up.

So many choices... so little time!
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DOC PHILLIPS
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[DaveChristi]

[bobsouer]

[Diane Maggipinto]

[dhouston67]

Dave,

Many thanks for documenting these steps; it looks great and no doubt works like a charm.

This same idea was discussed here a while back, but without the photographic evidence. Kudos!
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[BenWils]

[Joniv]

Ben, that's so creative! Thanks for sharing.

I'm using a a closet that I converted into my recording room. It works well, but the only problem is that it gets very hot in there. We've just finished a record-breaking heat wave and I'm working on a 3 hour audio track for a DVD. Lots of ice cream helps- LOL!
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Joni Lambert
www.jonilambert.com

[BenWils]