VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Rob Ellis]

This was discussed at length in a recent thread about acoustic treatments, specifically in booths.

My renewed interest came by accident, when testing out my Sennheiser 416
for travel. When recording it outside my booth in my office, I got a crisper, more open sound than in my booth.

This got me to thinking about maybe reconsidering Mike Sommer's suggestions about OC 703 in the booth (instead of the generic acoustic foam in there now)

Has anyone tried the OC 703 in their booth and/or recording space, and what were the results compared to the standard acoustic foam?

[Frank F]

Sounds (pun intended) like you ahve too much absorbtion material in your booth.
Tuning a studio is an art AND a science. Moving around some of the OC panels or adding some reflection points may be the answer.

The job in front of you now is to determine the sound you desire and how to achieve the desired effect.

Frank F
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Rob Ellis]

Well right now I don't have any OC 703 in the booth, just the garden variety acoustic foam on the walls, and bass traps in the corners, from floor to about within 3 inches of the ceiling.

I'm just wondering if the OC 703 would liven up the sound a little. Right now it is a bit muffled, which is good because it's not boomy, but.....maybe less bass trops?

And Frank, I'm sure you will smile a little at this, but the 416 seems to be the most prone to less than perfect acoustics in a booth. My other mics don't seem to reflect it back as much.

But there are folks out there whose acoustics seem to work well with the 416, and maybe the OC 703 would help.

[Frank F]

You have discoverd the situation with acoustic foam which is prevelant in small booths.

Too much or too little. The OC panels will halp you adjust the sound to your liking, but, you will need to TUNE the studio to find the frequencies which are being subdued by the foam. Then you will be able to create the panels and mount them properly.

Acoustic foam tends to assimilate frequencies (broadband) across a broader spectrum than the OC panels (narow band).

Another cheap and easy way to "fix" the problem is to add some reflective surfaces in your studio. A picture on the wall, wood moulding artfuly placed in the corners, larger desk surface, etc. may be the ticket to achieving the tuned feel for your home studio.

Frank F
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Mike Sommer]

I believe you have a whisper room.

It sounds muffled possibly because the foam is doing nothing to absorb the rooms resonance. When you are in good room for recording VO, to your ears it should have a quiet stillness to it, very much like a good digital movie theater does. And when you speak, your voice should almost seem like it's sitting right in front of your face; not reflecting around the room.

This is what absorption does, it removes the influence of the rooms resonance, modes and echos. The smaller the room the more problems you have, and therefore the more absorption you will need.

Whisper rooms are nothing more than plywood boxes covered with speaker carpet, and are only good in environments that are already quite, because they provide little if any isolation. Which is why I say if you already have a quiet room why would you want to stick yourself in a box and sweat.

By adding absorption you will eliminate most if not all of the rooms influences, thus moving you closer to a single sound source in a free field.

Once you dry up all the resonance, modes and echo you can then contour the space with diffusion. Or leave it alone. The reason for wanting to add diffusion is really for your own comfort. Working in dead room without headphones can be a little unnerving for some people, but with headphones you should sound clean and natural. It's just our brain messing with us.

Let me also say that if a room is clean and dry sonically, you should have no problems with your recordings, but you can add a little boost in the upper mids with a parametric EQ to give you a little clarity; if that's what you need.

Over the summer I helped Chris Koprowski's with his little booth by having him treat his entire booth with 703. His sound is now 200 times better. It sounds clean and present, with his U87 and Speck 5.0 pre.

As a side note: You can treat a room with diffusers, but you'll need a lot of them plus bass trap absorption, and yet you still may not get your your decay times low enough. Absorption is about the only way to do this.
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The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

[BenWils]

I will say that most of us that chose a booth do so because our rooms are not quiet enough to conduct sessions in. Yeah, things are better in the winter time. But come Spring and Summer.....the landscaping crews and lawnmowers....and noise from passing cars, trucks, trash trucks, mail vehicles. I could go on and on.

I have a floated booth with an added layer of heavy load vinyl inside and have yet to have anyone complain about noise ever. So...it is working well.

And, as I mentioned in a previous thread, I have a big monitor in my booth. I will say that I thought my booth was a little too dead before for my taste. After adding the monitor, it has added some needed life without sounding too reflective. And I have had some big dog engineers compliment me on the sound in my booth. So that is all that counts to me. Just know that adding a monitor though will add heat. Know that going in. I only use it for short gigs and auditions in order to save all the printing.
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Ben


"To be really good at voiceover, you need to improve your footwork and hip snap."

[Rob Ellis]

Hey Ben, thanks.

Are you using acoustic foam in your booth or OC 703.

How big is your monitor? I assume it is at about eye level when standing (?)

I have seriously considered changing out the foam for OC 703 and it's not that much $$$, but I'm at a point where if I could get a cheaper fix, I would.

I am actually finding that reducing the bass traps so that they aren't completely floor to ceiling seems to "liven up" the sound some.

[BenWils]

Rob,

The foam in my booth came with it and it covers all walls and ceiling. I have a Gretch Ken (Sound Suckers) booth. I noticed the foam that they put in their booths is a little more rigid or stiff than the less expensive stuff I used to have in my old recording environment....the stuff from the mail order foam places. Not knocking that stuff...just telling you what I noticed. So from the get go, I noticed it had more life, which I liked.

The monitor is a 24" monitor and it is at eye level. It has a slight downward pointing angle to it.

I also have a shelf installed too for a keyboard and mouse. I think the two (monitor and shelf) along with the all bass traps I have, have helped in "de-boxing" the booth. The more weird angles or non-uniform elements in your booth, the better. It helps to knock down or break up low end sound waves from bouncing to and fro. I also stuff a blanket under my booth, which seems to help knock out some resonance too.

My booth sits on a riser with wheels that I built myself. It is pretty heavy duty. It consists of two layers of MDF with a layer of shock absorbing rigid foam between the layers. Then on top of that I have a really thick layer of rubber. It was a 6x4 brand new stall mat that people normally use for horse stalls. Did I over do it?....yeah....that's how I do it though....LOL. It works really well for me.
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Ben


"To be really good at voiceover, you need to improve your footwork and hip snap."

[Rob Ellis]

Thanks again, Ben.

I have put up a couple of mirrors in and it definitely seems to liven up the sound a bit.

[Mike Sommer]

What you have done by installing mirrors is add slap-back/early refections.

In Colin Day's booth I designed his acoustics for him, and followed my own rules, one of which is the smaller the booth the more absorption you need.


The clever feature I added, was using his closet space as a bass trap. This same trick was used at Abby Road by utilizing the storage space under the stairs to the control room as a trap.

There is also a cloud trap on the ceiling in Colin's booth. Now he and Emma sound fantastic, clean clear and present, Emma's sibilance problem is also tamed by the treatment.

To get clean, clear sound you must eliminate the room. As Colin has told me he has spent thousands of pounds on high end gear, but could never get as close to the sound he was looking for than he did by spending 500 pounds on treatment through absorption. In his case with mineralwool.

Foam is not going to cut it. Sure it looks pretty and all studio like, and may even help to a small degree, but it is not as effective as rigid fiberglass or mineralwool.
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The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

[Rob Ellis]

Well I have done the math and will need about 12 panels to cover my booth and listening area.

Does anyone have experience mounting the 703 with industrial strength velcro? And is it necessary to build frames as well? I was thinking I could just
cut the dimensions as needed, and then cover the pieces with burlap.

I am a little reticent about nailing or drilling holes in my booth walls out ofconcern of comprising the soundtightness of it. (even though I do have the enhanced version with the additional inside wall.)

[Rob Ellis]

Wow, this is getting a little confusing.

I have to admit , though, that right now to my ear most of my mics sound better in my room (with bass traps in the corners and some foam behind my monitors) than my booth.

Recording in the room sounds warmer, and my voice sounds richer and fuller.

Will the OC 703 get the sound in the booth more in that direction?

This is frustrating considering what I paid for the booth, but it does block outside noises quite well.

[Mike Sommer]

Rob

What booth do you have and what are the inside dimensions?
_________________
The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

[Rob Ellis]

It's 4X4, but probably on the inside about 3'5" X 3.5" since I bought the enhanced version, which has the extra wall inside.

[Mike Sommer]

How high?

And what bass traps are you using?

Pictures always help, so don't be shy with them.
_________________
The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.