DIY Vocal Booth for $55 USD
Overview
After dismantling my room within a room studio I needed something to isolate my vocal takes from background noise (computer fans, house and street noise etc) so I looked around and found many options but all required either complicated solutions or were costly. So I decided to design one based on some standard box designs and using easily obtainable materials. The result is ugly but is a great isolation booth that is also portable. I’ve even brought it to studio’s and used it inside their recording rooms. Why? Because I know what I’m getting and what I’m getting is good!!!
Build time 2 hours. Currently lasted 5 years, 3 house moves and hundreds of hours of usage.
Tools:
- Scissors
- Hobby glue
- Gaffer tape
- Stapler
Goals
- Isolation booth to cover your entire head and hold your microphone
- Cheap
- Easy to obtain materials
- Use gaffer tape for bonus points!
Materials
You can get whatever foam/rubber you want really but the corflute is easy to work with and saves a lot of time and effort so stick with that.
- Corflute (black) x 1 sheet: $8.50 USD
A. Width 2.44m
B. Length 1.22m
C. https://www.bunnings.com.au/project-panel-2440-x-1220-x-2-5mm-black-cor flute_p0390164
2. Foam/rubber panels x 9 panels
A. The foam/rubber type doesn’t matter really because the corflute and the panels that you will cut and glue together will combine to create very good sound-proofing for you. Try to get lighter stuff as if you venture down the Mass Loaded Vinyl path then this will no longer be portable and the corflute won’t be strong enough to support it over time. The foam panels I got were only $4 USD each and came in 60cm x 60cm squares that I had to cut down. Cheap is good!
B. The one I linked below is $13.50 USD per meter. You will need 3.51m so just get 4m which is $54 USD.
C. Width/Length: 39cm x 39cm (15in x 15in) squares
3. Gaffer tape + Staples
A. https://www.bunnings.com.au/nuplastex-65cm-coloured-shapes-anti-slip-dec orative-matting_p6650306
Steps
- Cut the corflute like in the below picture. The small flaps that you see will be folded inside the booth and you can tape/glue/staple to the panel+corflute walls. You need to pay attention to the 1cm strip cut out. Without this it will be to tight to assemble. You may have to play around with the gap depending on your panel thickness.
a. You should end up with a single ‘t’ shape.
b. Tip# Use a white marker to draw this out before cutting with scissors.
2. Fold the beast together and fold the flaps inside then glue/staple together. Gaffer tape the outside edges. Don’t fold/glue/gaff the coreflute panel #1 yet. Do that last.
3. Cut out 9 panels 39cm x 39cm each. You can make the middle ones 78cm long if you want to save a cut.
4. On the inside: glue to each panel with some rubber/plastic hobby glue to the inside of the coreflute.
5. Lastly, fold and glue/staple/gaffer corflute panel #1. Then glue the foam/rubber panel on the inside.
6. Finished product is below! Note, it’s 5 years old and has seen a lot of usage and has needed some extra tape in parts.
Bonus points you can cut a cable hole. I didn’t. I did buy a cheap mic holder and placed it inside. It holds my condensor mic very well and allows me to place my mobile phone for lyrics without it slipping off and provides a little bit more sound proofing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GR9W1MS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?i e=UTF8&psc=1
$69 USD
