best vocal booth on a budget?

[Last Alternative]

What do you guys use or recommend? My budget is $500 or so. I’m looking at a few options such as:
1) https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09TG64Q ... P5VF&psc=1
2) https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... lsrc=aw.ds
3) DIY PVC & acoustic blanket design with a size calculator for custom build which I can’t find the link right now. But here’s the blankets they recommend: https://vocalboothtogo.com/product-cate ... rs-choice/

I used to hang blankets from the ceiling all around me but it looked really bad and I’m going for something more effective and aesthetically pleasing. The last thing I wanna do is waste my money on something that’s all hype and doesn’t do the job. Sadly there are far too many products like that…. Any advice is welcome!

Btw right now I have an Aston Microphones Halo reflection filter which wasn’t cheap and I feel like it’s just not enough so I’d like to sell it to help fund this project. Of course it’s not gonna be perfect. Just need something that will allow clean dry vocals with no boxiness. I’m in a bedroom with carpet; the windows have acoustic curtains, if that helps.

[crimsonwarlock]

This is how I did mine DIY. The curtains are just for looks, as I had those lying around anyway

I don't remember the exact cost, but it is certainly below 100 euros (without the curtains).

[DaveyG]

I'm a big fan of the Halo -type designs (although mine were way, way cheaper!) but if you are not happy with that then, at your budget, your only option is to go the DIY route. You'll find about a million designs and ideas online but it's hard to make them look good and they are always very uninspiring places to be in and sing, so what you gain in isolation you might lose in performance.

A key decision is whether you want it to be permanent or does it need to fold away or dismantle when you are not using it?

[selig]

I’ve never been a fan of any small vocal ‘booth’ sound. Boxy is typically what you get, or if you’re lucky you can get a dead boxy vs live boxy sound. But there is something about the small space that, when I’ve been able to to comparison tests, was revealed to be inferior to simply having more space around the mic. Typically, final vocals are recorded in a large room, sometimes with a gobo (free standing sound panel) or two nearby (but never more than a few feet away, and never creating a ‘room’ around the vocal mic and often more on either side than directly in front of the mic).

WIth any directional mic you don’t want it to be near ANY boundary if at all possible, as this can affect the response. So especially if you’ve felt the sound was ‘boxy’ in any way in the past, maybe experiment a bit with how much more space you can leave around the mic. You can still hang all the same material around the mic, just move it back a bit and see what you think. The typical ‘hanging blankets’ (or similar) approach is only affecting the higher frequencies anyway, and sometimes reflecting them if the fabric isn’t ‘transparent’. Let that mic ‘breathe’!

[Marco Raaphorst]

I made a booth that I only use when someone needs to do a voice-over for a podcast. It is made of wood and has no door, just two heavy curtains. I must say it is only useful for super in-your-face voice-overs, for singing I prefer to just sing in the room (a little room reverb is very nice to have).

I have to say that for voice-overs I just sit behind my computer and it sounds great. Sometimes I put some de-reverb on it to make it sound super dry.

Tricking part of a small room: building up frequencies, resonances. Use your ear when you start using acoustic foam and stuff like that.

I will rebuild my studio when I have the time. Without the vocal booth. Plug-ins and AI plug-ins can create optimal vocals, so I don't need a super dead room.

Outside:

studio-raapie-1.jpg (227.22 KiB) Viewed 3086 times

Inside:

studio-raapie-2.jpg (159.28 KiB) Viewed 3086 times

[motuscott]

Once put a Twin in a water closet (room with only a toilet for you non NYers), Twin is a type of guitar amplifier, fer christsake. Worst sound ever! And I've hosted some egregious guitar sounds...
Check my CV

Practically my entire catalog,
but now I'm just bragging...

Still the one

[DaveyG]

Have you ever tried one of those "soundproof" enclosures designed for mic'ing loud guitar amps without so much loud?
You stuff the amp/cab and the mic in a sealed box, crank it up and do your stuff. Except it sounds crap. I did it once and once only.

[plaamook]

Once put a Twin in a water closet (room with only a toilet for you non NYers), Twin is a type of guitar amplifier, fer christsake. Worst sound ever! And I've hosted some egregious guitar sounds...
Check my CV

They have water closets in the uk too.
Think it’s just called a toilet.
Never quite understood why you’d go to the trouble of plumbing in a kazi but not a feckin sink!
Saw one once…had the sink built into the tank on the back of the toilet. Very slick solution to small spaces.

[motuscott]

12 Reason points for best grilling solution involving tiny NYC living space.
Lurves me some seafood

[RobC]

I’ve never been a fan of any small vocal ‘booth’ sound. Boxy is typically what you get, or if you’re lucky you can get a dead boxy vs live boxy sound. But there is something about the small space that, when I’ve been able to to comparison tests, was revealed to be inferior to simply having more space around the mic. Typically, final vocals are recorded in a large room, sometimes with a gobo (free standing sound panel) or two nearby (but never more than a few feet away, and never creating a ‘room’ around the vocal mic and often more on either side than directly in front of the mic).

WIth any directional mic you don’t want it to be near ANY boundary if at all possible, as this can affect the response. So especially if you’ve felt the sound was ‘boxy’ in any way in the past, maybe experiment a bit with how much more space you can leave around the mic. You can still hang all the same material around the mic, just move it back a bit and see what you think. The typical ‘hanging blankets’ (or similar) approach is only affecting the higher frequencies anyway, and sometimes reflecting them if the fabric isn’t ‘transparent’. Let that mic ‘breathe’!

So, to sum it up, do I understand the following about sound shields correctly?

Pro: absorbs sound, thus reduces room reverb and what leaks out from the room

Contra: lower frequencies may still pass through, leaving us with booming reverb, slightly LPF-ed sound; since shields are close to the microphone, a bit of the voice may still get reflected, maybe even creating a subtle comb filtering.

All we need is DIY panels with thick, heavy rock/mineral/etc. wool in it.

[challism]

Depending on your budget...

booth.jpg (23.92 KiB) Viewed 3008 times

I'm kind of a fan of no booth, though. As Selig said above, it can sound boxy. Many of my favorite vocalists don't/didn't seem to make much use vocal booths, perhaps preferring to sing live with the band (which is how Billy Joel always recorded). I don't recall ever seeing the Beatles in a vocal booth, they are always out in the main room with the rest of the band. Check out Brian Eno's technique of recording Bono (whose voice is so large and powerful, he never needs double tracking); putting this performance inside a booth would have ruined it.

[selig]

So, to sum it up, do I understand the following about sound shields correctly?

Pro: absorbs sound, thus reduces room reverb and what leaks out from the room

Contra: lower frequencies may still pass through, leaving us with booming reverb, slightly LPF-ed sound; since shields are close to the microphone, a bit of the voice may still get reflected, maybe even creating a subtle comb filtering.

All we need is DIY panels with thick, heavy rock/mineral/etc. wool in it.

If something absorbs sound, then it just lowers the overall level of direct and reflected sound equally rather than absorbing JUST the room reverb and leaving the direct sound alone. The only way to absorb what leaks our from the room is a room within a room. Absorbing the sound in the room is “room acoustics”, absorbing the sound leaving the room is “acoustic isolation”.

That said, they won’t address the ‘boxy’ sound as much as the higher frequency ‘flutter echo’ range of reflections. And you don’t really want to put a directional mic near any boundary if you can help it. Those mics tend to sound nicer with more space/air around them (assuming you don’t have a totally crap sounding space).

I always recored vocals out in a room, even if the room isn’t all that great sounding - have never had a vocal booth or other ‘solution’ since they always seem to cause more issues than they solve for me.

In short, sometimes the best you can do is slap a bandaid on a problem, and other times the cure is worse than the disease. You have to do some experimentation to weigh the pros and cons and make your own (hopefully informed) decision!

[DaveyG]

Depending on your budget...

Honestly, what a ridiculous suggestion. There is no way that's going to work - it's upside down. The vocals will come out backwards.

[RobC]

So, to sum it up, do I understand the following about sound shields correctly?

Pro: absorbs sound, thus reduces room reverb and what leaks out from the room

Contra: lower frequencies may still pass through, leaving us with booming reverb, slightly LPF-ed sound; since shields are close to the microphone, a bit of the voice may still get reflected, maybe even creating a subtle comb filtering.

All we need is DIY panels with thick, heavy rock/mineral/etc. wool in it.

If something absorbs sound, then it just lowers the overall level of direct and reflected sound equally rather than absorbing JUST the room reverb and leaving the direct sound alone. The only way to absorb what leaks our from the room is a room within a room. Absorbing the sound in the room is “room acoustics”, absorbing the sound leaving the room is “acoustic isolation”.

That said, they won’t address the ‘boxy’ sound as much as the higher frequency ‘flutter echo’ range of reflections. And you don’t really want to put a directional mic near any boundary if you can help it. Those mics tend to sound nicer with more space/air around them (assuming you don’t have a totally crap sounding space).

I always recored vocals out in a room, even if the room isn’t all that great sounding - have never had a vocal booth or other ‘solution’ since they always seem to cause more issues than they solve for me.

In short, sometimes the best you can do is slap a bandaid on a problem, and other times the cure is worse than the disease. You have to do some experimentation to weigh the pros and cons and make your own (hopefully informed) decision!

Thank you!

So, right now it seems like I might be better off without the vocal shield, but gotta test it to be sure.

What I believed was, that if I yell towards the door, then it will be heard louder than when I yell at the opposite direction, or if I hold something in front of me.

The door has a broken glass part on it, and it's not properly sealed. And the other glasses aren't sealed with silicone or similar at all. Windows need some work, too.
I know these sealings make a gigantic difference.
After that, and once I make DIY panels for the door and windows, hopefully just some muffled something can leak out, which is not a big problem.

[challism]

Depending on your budget...

Honestly, what a ridiculous suggestion. There is no way that's going to work - it's upside down. The vocals will come out backwards.

How do you think greats like Led Zep accomplished all that satanic backmasking?

[joeyluck]

The choice in mic plays a big part. I rarely use condensers for vocals unless it works for the space—they pick up everything, including more ambient noise and reflections many people are trying to avoid. Often I'm using supercardioid dynamics, like the Beta 57A, which is like a Swiss army knife and I use it on everything. Or I'm using shotgun mics.

I find that simple setups with sound blankets work. They diffuse the sound more than reflect sound back into he mic. And again, when paired with something like a supercardioid, it's got great off-axis rejection, so when paired with reflection filters, it does a really good job not coloring the sound.

[guitfnky]

I'm with Selig--a vocal "booth" is a huge audio turn-off for me. every time I've tried something like that, it's sounded awful, and very unnatural--you then have to compensate for it in the mix by adding some ambience to keep it from sounding like you recorded in the void of deep space. I find that far more difficult to get sounding natural for some reason.

if you have a well-treated room, that's going to get you way more bang for your buck than a dedicated vocal booth, in my view (and if you don't already have one, that $500 will go a LONG way to getting you there!--and it's better for mixing!) of course, that assumes you're tracking vocals and mixing in the same room... anyway, just making sure you have some sound absorption on walls parallel to the mic will help a lot. I don't mind using a good condenser, but if you're worried about the room, a better thing to avoid (IMO) is an omnidirectional or figure 8 mic.

I think that approach is better because it's sort of like applying compression...you can easily overdo it, and using a vocal booth that's designed to keep things super dry is sorta like cranking the settings on your compressor to hear what it's doing, but you can't really dial it back like you can with a compressor. better to start with the room, and add some absorption until it starts to sound uncomfortable, and then back off a little bit with it than go all-in right off the bat.

[Marco Raaphorst]

There’s one thing the booth is perfect for: blocking sounds that come in from the outside. Street noises and things like that. Is that your goal?

Must say modern software is also great for blocking these noises. Adobe Vocal Enhance for example can feel like magic.

[crimsonwarlock]

I have great results with my makeshift vocal booth. But in my music style (symphonic/progressive rock), heavy processing of the vocals is the norm. In most cases my lead vocals have a slap back delay, vocal plate and a hall reverb at minimum.

[challism]

No vocal booth for Freddie

Or Elton

Or Billy

Or David/Floyd

Or Sting/Police

Or Bob (doesn't look like a "booth")

Or Ed

Or any of these people

But apparently Easy E and the boys used a booth. So it might depend on what style you're after.

[Marco Raaphorst]

Back in the day they did less editing.

[crimsonwarlock]

So it might depend on what style you're after.

That's basically what I said

[challism]

Back in the day they did less editing.

Yeah, it's amazing how much noise and imperfection you hear in old recordings. Even in stuff as highly regarded as the Beatles music. It's full of stuff that wasn't really supposed to be there.

So it might depend on what style you're after.

That's basically what I said

Yeah, but I said it with a clip from Straight Outta Compton.
Don't make me bust a cap in yo ass, homie!

[crimsonwarlock]

That's basically what I said

Yeah, but I said it with a clip from Straight Outta Compton.
Don't make me bust a cap in yo ass, homie!

I've just cut the plumbing in two of my fingers, so your threat doesn't impress me

[Marco Raaphorst]

Back in the day they did less editing.

Yeah, it's amazing how much noise and imperfection you hear in old recordings. Even in stuff as highly regarded as the Beatles music. It's full of stuff that wasn't really supposed to be there.

Sounds very human. Modern music sounds very sterile and generic in general.