Tuesday, March 15, 2011

DIY Vocal Sound Booth

So I've just begun to try my hand at recording vocals... I've recoreded music for a while but never really had the need to do vocals until now. My first go at it was... disappointing... first of all, my music room is rather live and has 2 exterior windows... so as I was listening to playback I could hear the ice cream truck. Secondly, because of the lack of control of the environment, there was a lot of "extra noise" in the recording that I didn't want... so I set out to come up with a solution...


Now as most of you home studio guys know... money is tight and building a full vocal booth in your home might not be the best solution... so I built my own little vocal box that I currently have elevated on my music stand. I priced a box like this and it retailed for $85+. With all of the mateirals, I built mine for about $15. It took some initial thought, but it was easy and now I'm proud to have it. Here is the step-by-step of how I did it.

Supplies Needed:
  • Plastic Box - I purchased mine from target. It is a cube and each side measures 14.5"
  • Foam - You can use acoustic foam from the music store. I used bedding egshell... and it works phenominally
  • Desktop Microphone Stand - Optional, but a great idea for mounting your mic inside of the box
  • Pop Filter - Optional

Tools Needed:

  • Measuring Tap
  • Sharpie
  • T-Square
  • Drill with a hole-saw bit
  • Utility Knife
  • Hot Glue Gun - or another type of adhesive to secure foan inside of the box

We began by drilling two holes in the back of the box. There was one hole near the middle which was about 1" in diameter. This was to facilitiate getting an XLR cable in the box. The second hole was near the top... that was so that the pop filter could be installed in the back of the box. That hole was approximately 1/4". I am considering re-installing this in the top front of the box.






Next we cut out the foam. There are many different approaches to cutting out the foam. I personally cut one long piece approximately 41" x 13 1/2" to wrap around the sides and back. I then cut out to pieces, one for the top and one for the bottom. They were approximately 13" square.





Next I put the cube on it's bottom and and fit the long pice in, making sure to tuck it snugly into the bottom corners. I didn't bue the back, but did glue the sides. I started at the bottom and put a few dabs along the bottom, middle and top near the edge. This stuff hardens quickly... again, I think a sprad adhesive would have also worked. - Once I got this nice and snug, flipped the cube on its top and first dry fitted the piece in. You may have to trip a little... depending on the thickness of your foam. After I got a good fit, I folded back the foam and began gluing from the back forward.




For the bottom, I elected to put in a desktop stand. Mine has the round iron bottom, not the tri-pod. I attached mine to the bottom of the cube with the glue gun and poked a hole in the boam for the bottom to fit the neck of the stand through. (I thought that acoustically to have all of the foam and then the reflective surface of the base would not be good, so I installed the base under the foam with only the neck showing.) Again, I dry-fitted the bottom piece and then glued it. - *Note* - Before attaching the stand to the bottom, I would attach your mic to the stand and eyeball or measure everything to ensure a good fit.

Well, we're almost done. So now all of the foam is in with the stand. Next I put the cube in the general area that the cube is going to be used in my studio and fed the XLR cable through the pre-cut hole. I took a small utility knife to slit the foam to make it easier to get the cable through. I chose to install a pop filter right in the cube... so the smaller hole at the top is the pass through for the screw and then you screw the cap to secure it on the outside of the cube in the back.










Finally, you take your favorite recording mic and install it on the stand on the inside of the cube and plug in the cord and fold down the pop filter. Voila... there it is! I tested mine and it is great!!!

This size box worked for me because of the size of my microphone... that is the determining factor. I would base the size of your box on your largest vocal mic. I am using a low-end MXL 990 condenser mic. If you are using something longer, then you have to determine if there will be enough clearance for cabling and the top of the mic.

The total time for this project was about 45 minutes. Honestly... cutting the foam was what took the most time... Haha... I measured once and had to cut twice! I think if I had to do it again, it would be under 30 minutes... this is totally a DIY project. If you have any problems... let me know!!!

SM










2 comments:

  1. That's alot of work bro but it looks like great quality. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome! I so want to do this, thanks for the tutorial!

    ReplyDelete