VO Studio Setup: Voiceover Recording Booth Upgrade Part 4

Recording Booth Upgrade Part 4: Booth walls improved, ATS Panels and Bass Traps in place, sound panel adapted to fit the door - time to put the booth upgrades to the test! Standard 4x4' Vocalbooth VO recording booth upgraded for better performance. View from open door into booth. — *Booth walls improved, ATS Panels and Bass Traps in place, sound panel adapted to fit the door – time to put the booth upgrades to the test!*

With the polyester squares adhered and the ATS panels and bass traps in position, things were beginning to look good in the process of my voiceover recording booth upgrade. Now it was time to figure out how things sounded.

Setting up a reliable and good sounding recording space is seldom achieved on the first try. In my voiceover recording classes, I regularly reference the idea of “iterative fixes”. Acoustics are complex. Sounds will often mask other sounds. Audio imperfections will often hide in plain sight, but definitely out of earshot. Only after addressing the first issue do you uncover the second.

Which is why even several weeks after beginning this project, I’m still messing with things a bit. Dialing things in is a key part of the process. Acknowledging that allows a bit of a mental buffer. That means it’s not quite so unsettling when things don’t sound quite right.

One thing I noticed right away was that the room sounded much more “quiet” – not necessarily in the sense of isolation from environmental sounds (though that was noticeably better), but in terms of how loud my voice sounded in the room when speaking. Back when the “foam wallpaper” was in place, I had been hearing sound reflected back to me.

Finding Flaws and Fixing Same

While auditioning inside of my newly resurfaced and treated space, the more enthusiastic reads found a minor rattle from the window frame the original egg carton foam must have been damping. The frame used some hollow plastic parts inside the room which needed to be deadened. Trimmings from the polyester damping panels to the rescue – adhering the 2” wide end cuts to the frame edge fixed things.

A few minor positioning changes for the ATS panels put them in slightly better locations, as well. Since sound energy increases logarithmically, getting louder helped to identify frequencies which appeared when I got louder. Soon, I was yelling with abandon when necessary.

The Lightweight Booth Door – a weak point for isolation

I had actually put off dealing with the excessively lightweight entry door (which has been changed since my model was manufactured). In working with a variety of recording setups, I’ve seen plenty of good door designs. Mine was not among them. Poorly fitted frame, lightweight door material and a fairly loose fit did not make for a highly soundproof doorway. I’ll admit to toying with the idea of replacing the complete door fixture. Gaining mass from a nice solid core wooden door sounded good until I looked at how much detail fitting work might be involved.

Another voice actor came through with a great fix. They had upgraded to a new booth, and ended up no longer needing some of their isolation panels. Happily, those panels measured roughly the same size as my door. All it took was removing a chunk for the door handle to rotate properly. A bit of careful peeling back of the fabric and fearless slicing did the job. With a couple extra Z-Clips from my ATS batch, this new layer squeezed in just under the sealing flap at the top of the door.

The door panel solved the last major piece of the puzzle, reducing external sound transmission nicely, and complementing the new ATS panels to reduce reflections within the space.

Recording Booth Upgrade - Door panel fix details - Before and After view of the door panel. This came from a local recording studio (with a notable musical heritage!) and fit neatly on the inside of my Vocalbooth's door. At left, the area that needed to be removed with the view from the unfinished side of the panel. At right, the chunk taken out, with the cloth reattached to the material. The Z-Clips (French Cleats) at the top were already in place. I added hook/loop to stabilize the position. — Before and After view of the door panel. This came from a local recording studio (with a notable musical heritage!) and fit neatly on the inside of my Vocalbooth’s door. At left, the area that needed to be removed with the view from the unfinished side of the panel. At right, the chunk taken out, with the cloth reattached to the material. The Z-Clips (French Cleats) at the top were already in place. I added hook/loop to stabilize the position.

Detail view of the door panel just after mounting. The insulating/damping panel fit the inner dimensions of the booth door quite well. Just needed to cut out a recess for the door handle. Installed below before the detail/finish work around the handle. — The insulating/damping panel fit the inner dimensions of the booth door quite well. Just needed to cut out a recess for the door handle. Installed below before the detail/finish work around the handle.

Well… How does it SOUND?

Prior to this project, my booth had served me well. It’s just that for the past few years, as the quality of sound I heard from my audio consulting clients continued to improve, mine had remained relatively static. Completely usable for projects and live sessions to be sure, but not decisively “better.”

Perhaps my neighborhood has gotten measurably louder. It’s also possible that I just notice those noises more. However, once you start feeling there’s something not quite right, it cannot be ignored. These improvements did not suddenly provide isolation from the most heinous sound intrusions. If a loud motorcycle rattles the rafters, or a landscape crew fires up a gas-powered weed whacker outside my window, it can still creep into recordings.

The results of the project: Definitively Quieter

The noticeable benefit is that the consistent level of local hubbub has disappeared. With the sealed corner gaps, damped wall material, and upgraded door layers, the room is a good 10 to 15 dB quieter.

To test things, I started diving into the booth whenever random noisy events occurred. Distant lawnmowers, idling delivery trucks and even enthusiastic neighbors might have seeped through my original setup. Now those went away with things closed, but reappeared when the door opened.

I’d have to say that this VO recording booth upgrade process has been a success.