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Thinking about buying an isolation booth
Hey Guys,
I've done some research on iso booths, don't mind paying a premium for one I can take down quickly and reconstruct seeing as I tend to move every few years... OTOH, I don't want to dump $5k on a 5'x7' 1/2 ton box that doesn't do what I need it to. It seems the main players are Whisper Room, Soundsuckers, and Vocal Booth. Any others I may want to look at? I'm in the US so I assume Wegner is out of the question. One message I read in the archives from this group put up a big red flag - a fellow mentioned he could have a conversation through his closed Whisper Room without a talkback system. I understand these things are far from soundproof, but I would think you'd have to _shout_ to make any sense of what someone was saying from the outside. Is this not the case? In this thing I plan to crank electric guitar/bass, vocals, mixing/monitoring, and I don't want the neighbors to hear any of this. The only real outside noise would be a yapping Pug dog, the community I'm in rather quiet and far away from any major streets. Perhaps an explanation of what I should expect from the decibel cuts would help some. If I recall correctly in my limited understanding of sound physics, a 3db cut is equal to 1/2 power. But you must cut power by a factor of 10 to halve SPL? At low frequencies these boxes cut about 25-30 decibles up to 45-50 in high range. So would they not appear to be something like 1/3 - 2/5 as loud on the outside as the inside? Is that in the ballpark? Seems to me if this is true these boxes have pretty limited usage - probably adequate for vocals, not say cranking a 4x12 or even playing a bass at moderate levels. At least in my situation where it would go in my 7'x9' dining directly adjacent to two other neighbors' dining spaces. Would it be wise to give up my dream of a home studio and buy a small iso booth just for recording acoustic guitar/vocals, then do all my electronic stuff direct? Any advice much appreciated. Thanks. |
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Thinking about buying an isolation booth
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Thinking about buying an isolation booth
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Thinking about buying an isolation booth
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Thinking about buying an isolation booth
"Beau Randall" wrote in message
om... (Mike Rivers) wrote in message news:znr1069419150k@trad... In article Is this not Oh, so you want in isolation box to bottle up your instruments, not an isolation box to keep the instruments out of a vocal mic. This is a good build-it-yourself project. Mike, Thanks for the input. What I want is a space to create noise, to experiment in. I have no interest in making quality recordings - what I want is a sanctuary where I can sing/play my heart out without worrying of disturbing the neighbors, at any time of day or night. I've been playing guitar forever, but just now really taking the art of songwriting seriously, and as well have begun taking vocal lessons. I don't have expectations of making anything aside from demos in production quality. I also would rarely dime an amp in there considering what it would do to my hearing and am not too concerned about outside noise made by my dog - I put that forth to guage the limitations of these booths. What I'm really interested in is whether or not my assessment of perceived sound attenuation is accurate. I'm having difficulty finding a clear explanation on this. - Beau Unless you consider a padded coffin on its end a suitable sanctuary, I think you will be disappointed with the WhisperRoom type booths for your purpose. Even if the sound attenuation is satisfactory... from your neighbors point of view, consider the following. The ones I have been in (to do narration) just suck up the sound. It is difficult to hear your own articulation because of the extreme high-frequency attenuation on all surfaces. I know they make bigger ones than the 4 foot by six foot, which is the largest that I have been in, but I am skeptical that the accoustics would be improved even at double that size. I do know that a Whisper room allows a friend of mine to do voice-over recordings even when the lawn service is whacking away outside... so long as they aren't right under the studio window and only the rare corporate jet on low approach to an airport 7 miles away interferes. But, yes, one can converse with an engineer outside the booth if one speaks loudly and conditions are relatively quiet otherwise. Put you and an amp in there and you'll be bleeding from the ears while still not hearing any highs, and your neighbors will wonder what the thump, thump, thump of the bass leakage is... probably calling the cops. Give the WhisperRoom folks a call. They are nice chaps according to my friend. I suspect they would tell you if they have customers in the area, where you could take a look for yourself. Steve King |
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Thinking about buying an isolation booth
"Steve King" (Take our WORMBLOCK to reply) wrote in message news:mcxvb.265959$HS4.2375616@attbi_s01...
"Beau Randall" wrote in message om... (Mike Rivers) wrote in message news:znr1069419150k@trad... In article Is this not Oh, so you want in isolation box to bottle up your instruments, not an isolation box to keep the instruments out of a vocal mic. This is a good build-it-yourself project. Mike, Thanks for the input. What I want is a space to create noise, to experiment in. I have no interest in making quality recordings - what I want is a sanctuary where I can sing/play my heart out without worrying of disturbing the neighbors, at any time of day or night. I've been playing guitar forever, but just now really taking the art of songwriting seriously, and as well have begun taking vocal lessons. I don't have expectations of making anything aside from demos in production quality. I also would rarely dime an amp in there considering what it would do to my hearing and am not too concerned about outside noise made by my dog - I put that forth to guage the limitations of these booths. What I'm really interested in is whether or not my assessment of perceived sound attenuation is accurate. I'm having difficulty finding a clear explanation on this. - Beau Unless you consider a padded coffin on its end a suitable sanctuary, I think you will be disappointed with the WhisperRoom type booths for your purpose. Even if the sound attenuation is satisfactory... from your neighbors point of view, consider the following. The ones I have been in (to do narration) just suck up the sound. It is difficult to hear your own articulation because of the extreme high-frequency attenuation on all surfaces. I know they make bigger ones than the 4 foot by six foot, which is the largest that I have been in, but I am skeptical that the accoustics would be improved even at double that size. I do know that a Whisper room allows a friend of mine to do voice-over recordings even when the lawn service is whacking away outside... so long as they aren't right under the studio window and only the rare corporate jet on low approach to an airport 7 miles away interferes. But, yes, one can converse with an engineer outside the booth if one speaks loudly and conditions are relatively quiet otherwise. Put you and an amp in there and you'll be bleeding from the ears while still not hearing any highs, and your neighbors will wonder what the thump, thump, thump of the bass leakage is... probably calling the cops. Give the WhisperRoom folks a call. They are nice chaps according to my friend. I suspect they would tell you if they have customers in the area, where you could take a look for yourself. Steve King Hmm... that does make sense being an acoustically dead room, something I hadn't considered. Perhaps workable though if I mike and monitor everything through headphones? On the upside in doing so I can probably reduce fatigue by turning amplifiers away, maybe sing and play more adeptly with greater control over the levels my ears hear. Looking at the Whisper Room website it appears a local university is a client, I'll see if I can check them out. Maybe they'll rent me a booth for experimentation. Thanks for your insight. |
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Thinking about buying an isolation booth
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