Question about booths
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Posted on Jul 05, 2012 11:47 pm
rapper
Member Since: Jul 05, 2012
I got a booth in my basement and its about 6 feet tall and like 15ft wide, i have the whole booth covered in acoustic foam, is that bad? I heard that half should be acoustic foam and other just your normal wall lol.
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J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Jul 06, 2012 01:28 am Well, having all surfaces covered in acoustic foam alone isn't going to do much other than suck out the high frequencies.
What you want to do is figure out where the sound is going to reflect the most, and place -broad-band- panels in those locations. In a vocal booth, the spots directly to the front and back of the singer/speaker, and in key locations along the side walls. Bass traps (as in the kind made from Mineral Fiber like Owens Cornings 705) in the corners will help a lot as well. Then maybe some key spots you would put some foam or high-frequency absorption.
Live/open ceilings are generally a good thing, carpeted floors or thick rugs on wooden floors are probably also a good thing.
Basically, you want to use panels in the spots where they will do the most good to control reflections. If you plaster all surfaces with panels and foam, it can be detrimental and even sound weird, so you want to have a little bit of liveliness to the room.
Someone else like Beerhunter or Rob, or MM can probably give more detail and more accurate info. I really just understand the basics. I know in a mixing room, you can walk around the walls with a mirror and put panels in the spots where the speakers show up in the mirror from the mixing position. Since you want to minimize the reflected sounds passing through the mixing position.
But for a live room or vocal booth, I'm not as clear on where the panels should go, or if just spacing them ever x number of feet is "good enough" And if anyone would like to elucidate on that, that would be great! :) I know it varies on the shape and dimensions of the room itself.
Jul 06, 2012 08:39 am I'd get rid of all the foam (really, it's pretty worthless), fill all your studs with 703 or 705 (or Roxul, of course) and start from there. Dead walls, live floor, then figure out where you want your live areas.
Theoretically, you could use the foam on one side of hanging 1/2" MDF panels that can turn and twist... Been there, done that. Makes a room quick to tune up as far as adding reflections.
But yes - Foam in the vocal range - All it does is make everything muddy. YES, it's in use on a lot of walls in a lot of studios - but it's usually just a more attractive covering for rigid fiber boards.
Jul 06, 2012 08:43 am Yeah, I agree with most of the above, you don't want ALL acoustic foam, eh, I've done that, it's creepy feeling...sounds bad as well...I do generally like having some moveable pieces of foam though in some sort of picture frame type object that can be hang on the wall or moved along the floor as gobo's between amps and such.
Dematrixhttp://www.reverbnation.com/2ndgMember
Since: Nov 27, 2007
Jul 12, 2012 11:06 am ive messed with a couple over the years and found end of the day unless you design one to have an effect you want on it yer better of trying to deaden it somewhat.
Only control i would try getting is of any wierd artifacts that occur in the booth. In small booths there doesnt seem to be much to worry about. larger ones i guess controlling what the mic picks up "as" yer singing is needed but usually it wont pick up much other than your voice directly and then when yer not singing mostly, if a gate is active youll not get room noise. If ya dont want room noise then deaden it just enough and use your own FX for expression. Otherwise your trying with no joy to put a send effect over the effect the room produces and what youve now recorded as such which is gonna turn to poo real quick.
Ive found deadening the room only just enough works well. too much and you start to lose the depth and natural resonance i guess you could say that a voice would naturally have in a normal situation. Then you find yourself trying to fix it when you cant. I guess it depends on music genre too.
i like to have a small immediate reflection if poss which still keeps the power of the whole shebang there if that makes sense but doesnt do much else reflection wise.
having said all that now hahaha if you had the time and strategy and money... you could get the best from your room, any size, with that control in mind but not worth it IMO unless the rest of yer gear in the chain is kick buttock and you know how to get the best from it.
dont forget after all you do to the room, happy or not with it, by trial and error of preference, move the mic round the room and find the best posi for it. that itself will make a big dent in the overall product.
Yoiull find what you thought was best at first will sound nothing like you thought once in a mix. Geez listen to me Mr eggspurt....Hey just my personal experiences tho mate. hope it helps
