building my own vocal booth.... Very small...

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 3:15 am

First I started with the 3 back wall sections. The 2x4's are sitting on exercise mat foam. 2x4's aren't straight so I bent things where I wanted them to go.

The frame at this point was pretty warped

I added in the window frame section and door frame section, things got less warped as it all got bent together.

I added the wood on the backside of the room before things got any heavier to move.

I added the front walls. Don't use a ziplock bag over your hand to spread caulk...

I put in the windows. 2 panes at 1/4" thick. I built the frame as a 2x2 sqaure for the window. I ordered the glass a 1/4 inch smaller than the frame. I used redwood pieces to separate and enclose the glass, and then clear acrylic caulk around the edges. (Use your finger to spread it nicely)

Old band T shirts I couldn't sell as floor insulation

I added some support 2x4s. They creak when you shift your weight now... (fuck)

Two PVC ports on the ceiling, one to the vent fan (which sucks) and one for fresh air. Ceiling mount mic stand. I surrounded the base in the ceiling with 2x4 pieces so it wont move around if I unscrew it.

Blown in insulation made from recycled stuff. Smells like jigsaw puzzles. Makes your noise run. Dusty. I hate it.

I modified a regular monitor stand to become a wall mount monitor arm. muahahaha.

inside of the door. 2x4's and poplar wood.

long hinges.

Air Conditioning theiving.

Roof n stuff.

Christmas Lights!

Purple Auralex

From the outside...still looks shitty. Blurry girlfriend inside. Looking pretty! I hazrhymezlol

Things left to do...

Wooden floor. Faux Brick outside. Mouse and headphone amp pedestal...

Al_ · Post by **Al_** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:07 pm

Cool.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:01 am

More pics added. Trying to caulk and smooth with a ziplock baggy instead of a glove makes for a big mess... but I'll just be covering over it later anyway so who cares.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:54 am

Hmm, will you be able to hang a door on that? It looks kind of flimsy, I could well imagine one of those beams being pulled out of the wall by the weight of a door.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:41 am

looks sturdy enough to me

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 3:02 am

The MDF is very sturdy. and adds to the rigidity of the frame. I added the window. Its two panes of 1/4th inch glass seated in redwood. None of that caulk mess will be showing. Only the new redwood in the window will show.

I ordered the glass a 1/4th smaller than the 2X4s. Glad I did. Would have been a total beyotttch otherwise.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:21 am

Added the floor.

Ran out of money today so I made use of old band T-shirts that never sold.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:28 am

added ceiling, ventilation, insulation

Zack · Post by **Zack** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 3:30 am

do you know how well the shirts & insulation will soundproof the room? Curious if this could be successfully implemented for larger rooms. this is a great hint for diy sound booths.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 4:43 am

I'm about to find out. haha. The insulation is supposed to add an extra 6DB's of sound reduction. MLV (Which I haven't added yet) sucks up about about 40 DB's. Not sure what the rating is for MDF. That blown in GREEN insulation I am using is supposed to have superior sound proofing qualities to normal insulation.

I still have to find a cheap low SONE ventilation fan...

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:19 am

jigsaw 1 finger 0

don't worry my digits are still intact though.

Rayjaysonic · Post by **Rayjaysonic** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 2:21 pm

Very cool project. Nice job.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:21 pm

I'll be updating with pictures today. Got the inwall's in... gotta throw some caulk in there, and build the door today (which I'm going to figure out as I go...

)

I put in that ceiling mounted mic stand for vox and whatever is taller I am micing. And I also added a wall mount monitor which mirrors the monitor in front of my board so I can record and edit from within my booth without yelling "MOM!!! MEATLOAF!!! FUCK!!! AND MAKE ME A NEW TRACK!!!!!!!"

cur · Post by **cur** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 4:08 pm

So the floor is MDF, at first I thought it was dry wall

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 9:42 pm

You track down a ventilation fan yet so your clients don't suffocate?

Really like this idea, nice construction job too. Looking forwards to the completed project, I would follow your lead if I had a good place to build one.

Is your studio in your house or a rented space?

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:15 am

Okay so the door is up, it's heavy as fuck. I used some extra long hinges which anchor into the long 2 by 4's inside the door. The out part (mdf) of the door overlaps the frame, and the inner part is kind of like a plug. I got it very very snug by building the inside section of the door inside of the frame and then putting up the outer MDF part to it and put it together in the building frame. I put in the insulation out in the garage because that shit is dusty and gets everywhere. When I put the plug MDF section over it it wasn't a perfect cut so I had to use a plane plain? plane? tool to shave it down.

The ceiling is missing its top layer, the inside isn't caulked and I still have to do some weather stripping and extra things to make the door more soundproof. But I would say at the moment its cutting down outside noise by about 30 DB's which is great given the fact that the walls don't have a giant space between them. If all else fails I can still buy the MLV and throw it up on the outside or inside.

Low Sone fans at Lowes are like a hundo. There's one on clearence for $64 but its fan and light so I have to see if I can separate them.

This room is in my old bedroom. I moved out and sacrificed it to turn it into a studio and now I'm pretty much homeless. lol?

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:55 am

a helpful video I made while making my dimming switch for my vocal booth.

[youtube][/youtube]

cur · Post by **cur** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 5:16 am

Ian wrote:
Low Sone fans at Lowes are like a hundo. There's one on clearence for $64 but its fan and light so I have to see if I can separate them.

Unless this is isolated to another part of your house you are going to get noise from the fan. Really with the two 3" vent holes on top you should not have a problem, except for heat. One simple solution would be to instal a quiet computer fan in the vent line. You could use a flexy hose like used in a dryer vent system to locate it away from the chamber. I was going to rig some thing like this at work. The fans are cheap and can be rigged up easily.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:45 am

Yes the idea is to locate the fan away from the booth.

The vent fan I bought today was very quiet, but was blowing quite hard, the sound of the rush of air through the tube was too loud, I tried turning the fan speed down with my dimming knob but it did not take well to it and would stay the same speed or shut off completely.

so I found a cheaper alternative solution!

bigger fans at lower RPMs make less noise and move the same amount of air as small fans at high RPMs that produce more noise.

I found a nice 10 inch house fan and rigged a plastic bag around it duct taped to my vent hose as a test. I was able to use my dimming knob on the lowest setting of the fan to get air into the room without noise.

Tomorrow I will refine this idea...

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:42 am

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater.

I ended up stealing the air conditioning right out of the ceiling vent. But thats fine because the air comes back out through the output tube. So i get to air condition two rooms in one go and all it cost me was a 6 inch to 4 inch reducer, a 6 inch to 6 inch coupler, and some 4 inch air conditioning vent hose.