Homemade vocal booths

Hey guys,

Today I was thinking about homemade / makeshift vocal booths. Now if you are like me, then you aren't rich and dont have a huge budget to spend on something like this. In my case, I dont have any cash for this yet... but who would just sit around and let that stop us.

Today I was looking around on google and saw some ideas, and thought... hey maybe some of you have done some yourselves.

I saw some good closet conversions, where they stuck some sound proofing panels on the inside of the door, and a bit around here and there and the rest of the sound proofing was done with clothing hanging on hangers.. haha. This is an option for me, but I dont have a closet downstairs in the music area, so I would have to move a recording rig up to one of the bedrooms...

I also saw some small head sized mini-booths.. lol, one guy seemed to have made a vocal booth out of a large lunch box and put some sound proofing inside and had the mic held inside it with it's stand... kind of neat for really low budget.

A friend of mine mentioned that he did vocals in a shower (the phone booth kind as he calls it) .. he did some back up vocals for a band and they had him in this shower that the guy bought specifically for the purpose... that sounds awesome. plus my downstairs washroom has a shower like that so that might work for me. I have no idea about sound proofing or any other details in that design...

If you got one, post pics and mention your likes and dislikes with them... I would like to see what you guys have rigged up in your home studios! Suggestions would also be great.

P.S. I never really did music that required vocals, but I plan on gettig into hip hop beats designed for rapping.. before I did instrumental music not designed for singing or rapping.

before my commercial spots I had booths in closets, boiler rooms (not cool), garages, and right smack in the middle of the room. It depends on what you want to spend and what you expect. If your going to build a boxed in booth just try to keep your dimensions above a 4x4 box. You can purchase premanufactured booths but they are a bit pricey. With a basic design, a few bucks and some sweat you can build something decent.

Another thing to consider, what are you trying to quite down? Meaning If you live in a house that is already really quiet and your room is fairly quiet but your computers fans are like planes flying low, you may want to concentrate on quieting that down instead. THis way a mic, some headphones and a partition could be used and you could save $$.

poundaproblem wrote:before my commercial spots I had booths in closets, boiler rooms (not cool), garages, and right smack in the middle of the room. It depends on what you want to spend and what you expect. If your going to build a boxed in booth just try to keep your dimensions above a 4x4 box. You can purchase premanufactured booths but they are a bit pricey. With a basic design, a few bucks and some sweat you can build something decent.

Another thing to consider, what are you trying to quite down? Meaning If you live in a house that is already really quiet and your room is fairly quiet but your computers fans are like planes flying low, you may want to concentrate on quieting that down instead. THis way a mic, some headphones and a partition could be used and you could save $$.

good advice.. think outside the box... or booth... maybe quieting down other stuff is a good tip for people.

I dont have much noise issues, luckily... but some people do.

and you are right, the booth can depend on the goal in sound... good tip, how did the boiler room project turn out? I like the idea of different non typical surroundings when it comes to music...

thanks for the input pound.

The boiler room was HORRIBLE....lol. I was like 16 and had no other options. In the basement there was a boiler room and a small closet-like room next to it. The main issue I thought I had was noise from the boiler kicking in. It was far enough that with a little treatment to the walls and the right compressor settings you barely heard it (mind you that was good enough for me back then. These days I advise strongly against it lol). What I didnt take into consideration is that it was done in the winter. When summer came around I found out how bad of an idea it was being in a isolated room with a boiler not too far.

i just got foam on my closet walls. i dont think its even soundproofing foam but i looks like it. works like a charm.

Here is a video where Jay-Z is rhyming @ Rick Rubin's house in a temp vocal booth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh003Czlx3g

my mic is in the middle of my bathroom(small bathroom),,i keep my mic on a stand so i can move it in and out when i shower,lol...and i too use clothes egg cartons styrafoam,insulation,,anything to basicaly prevent echo,,and then i use a lot of reverb on my editing and it comes out fairly decent,,,if i had a better mic it would sound better but i use a mxl990 and it gets the job done..

i been doin a little research and i think the way to go is corkboard,,im going to try this myself as soon as i can find a decent place to buy it and i'll let u know how it goes!!

i built one with a glass window in it and a big wooden door. cost me about 450 but the shit is ballin and sounds real good, i padded the shit out of it.

^^this is my goal,just dont have the room right now,but been lookin at houses for 2 years,so the time is definetly getting closer!!

I'm just using the open room right now with a noise gate and expander, and I monitor through headphones while tracking. I get great results with this method. I am lookin to build a booth though and am going to use a deadening technique that they use for in home theaters. Will keep posted

I built mine in a sliding mirrow closet:

Blanket infront of the Mirror:

Mirror:

Blanket Behind Mirror:

Closet lined with Blanket:


<br>
Ceiling Lined wit Body Pillow:

Open Framing Gray foam:



Sounds Great for a home booth
Sorry if the pics are too big

there are some neat stuff in here..

I was thinking of attempting to build one using insulation (the kind for walls) and other material. I just think it would be fun to build my own one, even though I could spend a couple of grand and buy a movable booth... But music making is supposed to be fun, so might as well give it a go... I have a few ideas.

mr_debauch wrote: music making is supposed to be fun, .

and thats the reason the dude above u just inspired me to turn my closet into my booth...so thanx mr.debauch for the thread and thanx seanebo for the idea....off to work i go!!!!!

ps i'll post some pics when i finish!!