small DIY vocal booth closet space

A

AdamThing

Guest
So im moving into a my old home in june. I plan to turn one of the bedrooms into a mini studio. I dont want to do anything permanent to the walls and to make sure others dont hear me from outside id like to use the closet space as a vocal booth. i know this has been asked many times and its silly but i dont have the budget to construct a vocal booth that can easily be taken down if i move again. i also dont want to do anything permanent to the closet space. what can i use to temporary soundproof and treat the closet walls and door. will foam work and can it be taken down?
 
You're basically talking about two different things - acoustic treatment (which is to dampen reflections & minimize the sound of the room) and soundproofing (which is for constraining sound to a space). The latter is hard to do (and foam won't help at all), but of course vocals in general aren't very loud, so the thing that's going to do the most is closing the door and maybe making sure it's relatively airtight. You might also consider removable acoustic panels & bass traps, or just heavy blankets/mattresses hung to the walls if you want to do it the cheap way.
 
Krushing is exactly right. You want acoustic treatment to record better vocals and to better hear your instruments. And you may need isolation (soundproofing) to keep outside noise out and inside noise in.

Proper acoustic treatment is complex and expensive. But if you're only focused on vocals at the beginning of your chain, I highly recommend checking out the RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth. I saw a video shootout a few years back between the Portable Vocal Booth, the competing SE Reflection Filter, and a live small room. PVB was clearly the winner. I did a quick search, but I couldn't find the video. Maybe the maker of the SE Reflection Filter had it taken down?

If you're aiming for isolation, there's not a whole lot you can do. Here's a video showcasing one product that might help, however: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfT2Y2GDOMU It probably doesn't do a whole lot for bass, but that's an impressive video.
 
There's also the thing that a closet without treatment will sound just like that - a tiny, cramped space.
 
Back
Top