VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

Joe Whistler · Guest

Greetings all. Could use, and would greatly appreciate, ideas for quiet ventilation in our small recording room.

The room is 6' X 10', in a corner of the basement. I figure I could run a length of 6" dryer hose through the ceiling, but then need a fan to push air into the room. obviously, it needs to be low-noise, and low-volume.

The room gets absolutely stiffling after 15 minutes. It's not only sound-proof, but is apparently air-tight, as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks, and regards!

Brett Mason · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:34 pm Post subject:

Joe,

There's been some discussion on previous threads about this issue, so you might want to search through.

The key to a ventilation system for a booth seems to be a remotely placed fan that is quiet, and then a series of baffles placed between the fan and the booth, i.e. a rectangular box that contains a series of spaced baffles along the route. I'm going to refer you to WhisperRoom's site to see their discussion on what they provide. Now, it's not that I'm recommending you spend what they charge for a system, but the description they provide gives some useful insight into how ventilation and soundproofing is designed to work effectively. Note also that they provide a remote to turn the fan on and off, and that could be useful to for whatever system to build. Simply turn the fan off when recording and back on when rehearsing or to clear the air. BTW, I don't have a ventilation system and just rely on the room air conditioning to provide relief.

Others may have more useful recommendations.

Good luck.

http://www.whisperroom.com/fetbasic.html#ventilation

[Edited to include a pic of Brian Hart's baffle box]

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verbcrunch · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:30 pm Post subject:

I wonder if a ceiling fan would do the trick. Have it pump air into a 3 foot wide baffles that eventually trickle into the voice booth.

I have a WhisperRoom with their renowned ventilation - it sounds like a distant jet taxiing the runway - i stays off during sessions. Mine is several years old, perhaps they've improved the system with a quieter fan?

Generally i open the door and fan it to recirculate the air every 20 minutes or so. The only way I know of to achieve quiet ventilation is to move the volume air over a wide swath of space so it doesn't give you that 'rushing' sound. Forced hot air / AC systems are usually pretty quiet.. is it possible to modify that kind of ductwork ?
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Frank F · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:40 pm Post subject:

anthonyVO · 14th Avenue Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1470 Location: NYC

my booth sucks air into it - in simple terms the fan is mounted away from the booth blowing OUT (at the end of a baffled 6" tube which is in turn mounted on a box similar to Brian Hart's baffled box) - so there's a vent where the air is sucked INTO the room (which is also attached to another baffled box).

i NEVER have to turn the fan off. As a matter of fact - thanks to KG - during the summer I attached the intake to a baffled tube that was placed in front of my A/C unit... still didn't have any noise - but it was nice and cool.

PEACE.
-Anthony

Yoda117 · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:31 am Post subject:

I can't remember if it's Gretch-Ken or not, but one of the major manufacturers once offered an air conditioning system for their booth. It was pricey (about $1,000) but from personal experience, worked frighteningly well.
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georgethetech · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:12 pm Post subject:

Out of desperation, one of my clients begged me to come up with a cooling solution for his Whisperroom during an abnormally hot summer in LA. He was given a window A/C unit, but it makes far too much noise in his smallish studio room. I placed it outside the room, cut a hole in the wall, a fashioned a duct from the output of the A/C unit to an insulated HVAC pipe (similar to a dryer tube, 10" diameter, all parts from Home Depot), and ran that through the hole in the wall and fed that directly into the exhaust fan of the Whisperroom. Since the fan was set to pull air out of the booth, I just unbolted and reversed it to instead inject the cool air into the booth. WOW, it worked great, and because of the relatively long run of the pipe (15' or so) there is no noise from the A/C unit at all.
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Joe Whistler · Guest

Great insight from everyone...thanks!

I came across this site that has quite a bit of useful info on sound treatment and noise abatement. Might come in handy for some.

Regards!

http://www.customaudiodesigns.co.uk/help.htm

louzucaro · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:35 pm Post subject:

bobbinbeamo · Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 9:22 am Post subject:

Hi. This is my first post since the wildfires, so I am just catching up with what's happening. This is the first topic I looked at. This is a great thread. I have a booth. It is so well insulated with all the auralex foam, I just need to be in there about 3 minutes with the door shut to be roasting. I do have a computer "stealth" fan with baffle that blows cool air in, but it's not enough, and it must be off during recording.

There are some excellent suggestions and approaches here to help. Thanks a bunch!
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