Portable Vocal Booth

[smurfpiss]

Hey yall just wanna share a little something I had made, it's a portable vocal booth that's ultra effective. The crux of the design is heavily inspired by the RealTraps Quiet Zone which you can see here http://realtraps.com/p_quietzone.htm.

Here's a photo of how mine looks like, .

The portable vocal booth has always been a big part of the home studio for me as I record vocals in my room all the time but find that it's not the best environment because of the bare concrete walls and windows I get ugly room sounds in my recordings. Many of us will splurge on a great mic and expensive mic preamps and compressors to improve our sound but always miss the point that all that won't matter if the ugly room reflections get recorded too. The panels I use are stone wool broadband absorbers that are pretty effective even down to the low-hi mid frequency range.

It's a first prototype which will be continually improved but it's doing it job perfectly right now. I managed to keep the production costs of this prototype really low and compared to the Quiet Zone or any other similar product which you'd have to get shipped in from the states I've made incredible savings fabricating this myself. If you're interested in this you can enquire more from me by PMing or dropping an email to marclian@outlook.com, I'm just thinking there must be quite a few of yall out there that will benefit from this more than any new mic or new audio gear will.


Vocal Booth specs:

Tri fold design consisting of three broadband absorber panels
Overall height - 6ft2"
Panel width - 2ft
Panel height - 4ft
Metal hardware - black anodized aluminum

 

[soft]

Hi smurfpiss

Good job on DIY-ing. Do you have any recordings comparing with/without the booth?

 

[smurfpiss]

No recordings to show yet but I already hear a difference just being in the room singing/talking. Even listening to music is different with the 3 large panels making a big difference!

 

[blueprintstudios]

looks good , but I'd rather it as room treatment for drums or string instruments because at 2,4,6 ft doesn't seem so portable anymore.

I'm using vicoustic flexi screen. in worse case scenarios, I use it together with a closet full of clothes. then drape a towel over to catch vocalist spit/saliva. been doing this method since '09.

 

[smurfpiss]

Just want to update with some modifications making it a little more portable, I've halved the two side panels, allowing it to close up nicely into a one panel unit but so far it doesn't sacrifice much of the absorption quality.



I've used solutions like the Vicoustic flexi screen and to be honest they don't do much at all. It's foam and it's physically impossible for foam to affect the mid and low frequencies which is where the bulk of harmonic information that our voice and instruments produce. Foam will only affect the high and very high frequencies which is not the meat of vocals and instruments.

 

[blueprintstudios]

I'm my 5th year using my vicoustic flexi screen, and no major issues with it. If you record a genre that's not going for the "close-up-miking vocals" mic placing, then yes you need more focus on the "room + acoustic treatment + distanced miking" . otherwise I've always worked with close up miking and if client wants "distanced vocal" sound I just wack a lot of simulated reverb / play around with the stereo image,bring down the levels and play around with the automation. and eventually blending with the music.

What you say is correct, it absorbs well on the high freqs, sibilances etc. But if you're still hearing reflections of the "mids/lows" , back it off from the walls (or record in a bigger room or something). Usually i use additional room elements like curtains, or even to the direction of a closet / bed in paranoia cases . Before I record in any new location I will usually clap to listen for the sweet spot with least reflections. Overall I wouldn't consider any portable vocal booth to be anything close to a "100% solution" vs a full fledged room acoustic treatment or "room within a room" (like whisperroom, james has one haha). it's usually more of a "make-up + photoshop" vs "natural born beauty + cosmetic surgery" then it's all camera gear / angle work / composure (music arrangement etc). so the target audience would be those budget conscious and wants to go DIY.

looking at the photos with Left/Right/Back coverage, it seems your next modification would be a Top/Bottom, cos that's the main issue I have using my vicoustic flexi screen. I hear my ceiling in loud vocal recordings (hardcore genre), but usually covers up with additional extra deverb post processing work and additional reverb after.

it'll be great if there are audiorecordings to check out and A/B compare

 

[smurfpiss]

My work is mostly close miked vocals as well but even then reflections do enter the recording, there is no 100% unless it's a fully treated room like you said but there is a good compromise.

I'm talking about price to performance ratio.

I do think mineral wool panels offer at least a 60% better result as compared to foam which is more like a 5-10%, in fact sometimes it even makes the recording worst as a result of high frequency dulling from the foam requiring you to add more high frequency later on with EQ. I've used both so I can attest to that difference. Price wise this panel I've made is the same price as a brand new Vicoustic Flexi Screen. Actually you know what it's cheaper than a brand new Vicoustic Flexi Screen =)

 

[blueprintstudios]

ah I mistyped all these while. I'm using a vicoustic flexi screen LITE totally forgot about the standard which i bought at $120 at esden SLS nong nong time ago. so my price to performance to investment to profit ratio has already paid off ages ago.

Don't know about mineral wool materials and numbers games as I'm no rocket scientist , I only know what I hear and would definitely like to hear the A/B comparisons. try record it right next to a bouncey wall , with and without should be a realistic situation replication.

 

[smurfpiss]

ah I mistyped all these while. I'm using a vicoustic flexi screen LITE totally forgot about the standard which i bought at $120 at esden SLS nong nong time ago. so my price to performance to investment to profit ratio has already paid off ages ago.

What if I told you $120 is my cost price, materials and labor =) it's actually slightly lower than that even.

I'm no numbers person either but I have A/B'ed Flexi Screen Lite and my vocal booth hence why I can attest to that difference because I own both.

 

[blueprintstudios]

[img=9gag Matrix Morpheus.jpg] and~ what if I told you $120 is my investment price, and I've already profited thousands from using with it . haha. no point going on from here with the money talk because really, it is just a couple of hundred measly bucks which kids have it easy these days (from my experience being engaged to build home studios for others) to get better soundtreatment than my vicoustic lite. but ultimately it is how you use it/record. example having a perfectly treated room but a blasting fan setting or leaking aircon will pretty much ruin everything.

at this stage it's really just all talk until we (the people who has participated in this thread and those reading) can join you in this attestation via that A/B comparison recording that we've been waiting for ever since you built this. really looking forward to it.

 

[smurfpiss]

Well if you want to listen to some samples www.soundcloud.com/marclian the recent songs uploaded up to 3 months old feature vocals recorded with the vocal booth. All the rest are either flexi screen lite or nothing at all. Of course with the music it's not easy to tell the diff, I'm just too lazy to solo the vocals out.

I'm just pointing out since the start of the thread the value of a proper vocal booth like the ones from RealTraps though they charge 4 times as much compared to what I spent making my own and it's pretty much the exact same product.

 

[blueprintstudios]

nah what I would want to be interested in listening is the A/B comparison raw. no compression/eq/delays/reverbs or post processing.

though what would definitely be more informative is the mic / preamp / audio interface used as they all contribute to the sound of vocal recordings but since we're talking only about treatment here , it's the age old saying "The sound is as strong as the weakest link" unless the strongest link makes up for it.

thanks for sharing!

 

[blueprintstudios]

http://youtu.be/kE8HX44apDY

here's a video of my Vicoustic Flexi Screen lite in use. somewhere in the middle of the room. behind it is the aircon's air flow direction. infront of the mic is a decent distance away from my CPU.

signal "chain" - Rode NTK + windtech popgard + vicoustic flexi screen lite > fmr rnp > echo audiofire4.

 

[JumpingJack2014]

Vicoustic Flexi Screen, is it good ?

 

[blueprintstudios]

I used an auralex one before, it was heavy. To me this kinda serves the basic purpose esp it's lightweight and affordable. But like I said don't expect it to replace an actual full fledged vocal booth

 

[JumpingJack2014]

Vicoustic or auralex good ?
which one you recommend ?

 

[blueprintstudios]

Vicoustic flexi screen lite. Because of the light weight and minimalist approach. But that is just from my opinion and experience and my preference of use.

 

[mcoliver77]

http://youtu.be/kE8HX44apDY

here's a video of my Vicoustic Flexi Screen lite in use. somewhere in the middle of the room. behind it is the aircon's air flow direction. infront of the mic is a decent distance away from my CPU.

signal "chain" - Rode NTK + windtech popgard + vicoustic flexi screen lite > fmr rnp > echo audiofire4.

Just curious, on your vid @ 0:23, was that with the same mic but without the vicoustic? Or raw audio from the cam?

In any case, that's one 'lively' room you're in and the screen is definitely doing it's job! You just helped me make my mind up on these things. Thanks!

 

[blueprintstudios]

Mcoliver77 : oh that's of course the raw audio from cam. I just wanted to demonstrate her voice from another perspective without any fancy mic like how human ears would hear it in real life

The raw microphone recording would just sound clean and all but no compression reverb eq.
Yea very lively room lol, I think about 100 different people have been in here.

A tip for storage is after buying the vicoustic flexi screen lite , just go giant or ikea to buy them lightweight acrylic boxes and pop it in. It's got an average thickness abit more than a yoga mat but shorter

 

[mcoliver77]

Thanks for the tip!

I spent the afternoon today in SLS looking for it but it looks like no one is carrying. Do you have any idea where else it can be bought locally?

I checked the one in Luthermusic website. But it has a solid, plastic backing. Might not be too great keeping internal reflections from hitting the back of the mic.