My hand made vocal booth and voice test

Hey everyone

This is my first post on this forum, although I’ve been browsing it for years.

For several years I have been dealing with amateur podcast recording. Most of the time I recorded with the worst quality microphones. Friends praised my voice and persuaded me to become a professional voiceover. I quickly realized that it would be impossible to get a good recording without a studio. Searching the internet, I found information that a vocal booth can help a lot in recording. Having a limited budget, I decided to do it myself. As an example, I chose a vocal booth from Isovox. I used stone wool to make it.

I am writing because I would like to publicly show my project. I would also like to ask you to evaluate the quality of the recordings. I’m not sure if the sound I’m getting is good for me to think about producing recordings for podcasts, commercials, jingles and radio productions.

I am sending the test for your evaluation. And a short photo report.

I will be grateful for all suggestions!

Photos part 1
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photos part 2
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Terrific work. I can’t listen right this second, but I expect it to sound perfect.

I mastered it for audiobook submission and it passes with no other filters or corrections needed.


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With reference to the last picture in the last post:

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I know I’m the only person on Earth who does this, but what happens if someone hands you an A4 or letter size paper to read? Where are you going to put it?

Are you reading from your phone? There have been posts from people who got radio or other radiation interference from their phone or tablet to the microphone or cable. Airplane Mode may not be enough. You may also have to turn off BlueTooth, assuming the connection is separate.

We had one posting from someone who’s tablet screen was causing problems. If you do get whining or buzzing problems, do a recording where you turn the device off and see if the noise goes away.

As we go.

Koz

Sounds good to me.

Which microphone is that? It doesn’t have the harsh, overly crisp, sharp, essing that some other microphones do. It sounds like a natural voice.

That’s a raw sound file, right? No effects or filters?

Koz

I sew. I’m a “seamster.” I keep seeing the nightmare of sewing the rockwool covers.

Koz

Passes all the tests? That’s a great message!

I was worried that there would be some reverberation, or worse, a sound like a cardboard. I spent a lot of time on this box. I think it took me almost a month to work on everything, including the binding of the fabric. Something like 80 hours.

Cutting stone wool was not so bad. More work I had to put in the protection of the specific parts with foil and fabric. Buiding this i had in mind that it must be solid to last long. Everything, as in the original Isovox, is joined with Velcro and zippers, so its should be fast to transport all. However the same as in the oryginal, box is quite large. I was also searching for information whether to protect wool with foil or not and if it can affect the sound absorption. I found that rock wool is non toxic for lung, however more studies are neded :wink: So i decided to shut all the parts with foil. I guess it may echoes the sound a litlle?

The microphone is Rode NT1A. I connected it to the 3rd Generation Scarllett Solo Interface. Such equipment was recommended to me by a friend who is dealing with music. I know that there is a lots of it and many doesnt had to suite my voice. At this point i have nobady to go to to test other mics with my voice. Thats the most expensive mic that i can get.

The recording is clean with no editing, no filters or enhancement or normalization. Gain is set to 50%. I was afraid that the recording is gonna be a bit too quiet, as the image is not too big.

I am already recording my first materials and I do it using a telephone and a wireless mouse to scroll through the text. As you write, I recorded the sound of fried mosquitoes. I was able to get rid of it by changing the usb input on my laptop. Fortunately! I read that it is a big problem!

The microphone is Rode NT1A.

I’ve never had my hands on one, but it has a great reputation and for most applications it’s probably as good as any mic at any price.

The recording is clean with no editing, no filters or enhancement or normalization. Gain is set to 50%. I was afraid that the recording is gonna be a bit too quiet, as the image is not too big.

It’s good to have strong acoustic & analog signals to overcome noise, but the digital level is not that critical as long as you avoid clipping. The position of the knob isn’t important either. It’s the actual level you’re getting that’s (somewhat) important.

I recorded the sound of fried mosquitoes. I was able to get rid of it by changing the usb input on my laptop. Fortunately! I read that it is a big problem!

That’s noise from the USB power getting into the preamp in your interface. A different computer can make a difference and some interfaces are more immune to this than others. Of course, an interface with it’s own separate power supply is completely immune to that particular source of noise.

i decided to shut all the parts with foil.

The first thing the sound hits should be sound deadening material or rock wool, not hard foil. You can go with it as it is, but I bet the vocal quality “opens up” if you strip out the foil. This should be a snap if everything has zippers.

At minimum the inside foil.

I wondered about that from earlier experiences with asbestos. No mention of health hazards with rockwool.

There’s another Beginner problem. Do Not change anything once you start a job. ACX is expecting the beginnings and ends of chapters, the chapters themselves, and the start and end of the book to all match. There is no improving the microphone in the middle of a book. That dooms you to read the whole thing over.

There was a poster who moved houses in the middle of a book. It was an adventure getting the two halves of the book to match.

Post a milk clip without the foil.

Koz

You need to equalize to correct for the resonance of the booth …

suggested equaiization.gif

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Also you have pops caused drop-outs, e.g. at 5.015 seconds, (between “creamy” and “vitamin”).
That’s due to the computer not listening for a fraction of a second when the recording was made,
e.g. Audacity being interrupted by other software.

You need to equalize to correct for the resonance of the booth …

If it has resonances. See: foil.

Koz

Hello! I just got to the forum searching for a project like that. What a fantastic work! Could you provide the project measures and the quantity of the materials? I’d like to test it here. It seems to be a good solution for my acoustic problems. Thank you!

I don’t know that the dimensions are all that critical, and you can get an idea of the sizes from the microphone. The walls, ceiling and bottom have to meet. No holes or gaps. So construction accuracy is critical.

But that’s not the way I did it.

I did it using common parts given you live near a Harbor Freight or other large hardware store. My Home Depot has 24-inch pipes pre-cut and that would have created a completed sound studio before lunch.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/too-compressed-rejection/52825/22

It knocks down for storage, as I said, under the bed when you’re not being a voiceover artist.

Koz

I do have a caution. I read from paper, but if you choose (As 100% of normal people do) to read from an electronic device, they can make noise.


Koz

I thought I had this picture.

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Koz

an electronic device, they can make noise.

That’s not electronic communication and the phone is not receiving or placing a call. That’s the screen doing that.

Screens are wire meshes with data signals racing back and forth to turn each pin-point of light (pixel) on and off. Any electrical activity changing fast enough creates radiation.

And that post is what it sounds like. Yet another reason home voice artists never pass noise. Everything is stacked against you.

Koz