The perfect "small space" vocal "booth"

What about using one of those reflection filter thingeys- like the SE one? I've never used one - heard kinda mixed reviews, but could be a way to tame some reflections if you opened things up and didn't like what it did on vox.

Cheers,
Geoff

I'm with you there, my company's Portable Vocal Booth is much better. But from what I can see you should be all set as you have it now. Small rooms need to be dead. Small-room ambience sounds lousy. You can always add better reverb or ambience after.

--Ethan

I have Ethan's PVB. I like it better then the SE. I think its better because its bigger. I will also say I never use them how you see them in photos. That usually just makes things sound boxy. I put it behind the singer so the mic doesn't pick up a bunch of crap behind the singer. John, you could try something like that. I think you would be shocked how much that helps.

At AES I saw an amazing portable vocal booth, but I've forgotten the name. It had windows, and really looked first class, and well constructed. It was almost like one you'd build in, but this one was already done.

Did you see this?

vocalbooth.com

Nice stuff, but expensive, seems to me. A large, well-appointed booth could top $10K. Hopefully they offer deep discounts!

First... Let me ask you.. What are you trying to fix?  

I'm guessing the answer is that you don't know.  That's a common issue with the DIY crowd.  They don't know enough about something to make a rational decision, but yet they feel compelled to do something based on what they read in forums.  It leads folks astray and onto wild goose chases as they always question everything.

So let me ask another question..  What do you find yourself fixing on vocals in the mix?  Do you always cut certain frequencies, boost others, or do low cuts, etc?  Think hard about it and you'll notice that you tend to do certain things over and over.  Those are things that need fixing in the room more than likely.

Take me for example.  I almost always needed to cut around 1khz and below 200hz in my room.  I built a handful of tuned absorbers around 1khz and put bass traps in every large corner.  Now I need almost no cuts at 1khz and 200hz.

Understand?

So, my suggestion is that you reset yourself and your room and take all that crap down off the walls.  Now do some vocal tracks, preferably a man and woman singing different styles.  Now analyze the work you need to do to make the vocals sound "right" and now you have your plan.

I'd bet on bass traps and some midrange absorption around the walls to keep reflections down.

My room is about the same size, I put the booth in the corner beside my bass rig, I then attach two thick blankets to the ceiling to close it in.

Pop.

You say all that tongue in cheek and I get it. And also way agree that forum chatter gets people in trouble. The question running through everyone's mind when trying to build a studio is "How did they get it to sound like that?" The answer is, there is no one answer. Every room is different and every room will produce a slightly different product, this goes for recording or mixing. But I can say from experience and not forum noise that nothing helped my products more than getting serious about acoustics in my space. It was trial and error at first, then I started studying what's needed to get to a good result. What the problem frequency ranges are in every room and how to battle them ect..

Educating myself yielded mixes that translate good on a broader number of mediums which is in my mind, the goal.

In short, the room can be a friend or an enemy. John Ken 's room sounds fine like he's got it IMO. I've heard his stuff and it sounds good. If it sounds good, it is good.

Eh...I don't guess there is a real problem...not with vocals. I actually tried facing the other way last week and I think I had better results...Singing with the hanging baffles right behind my back and door in front. I had been singing the other way before. I guess it's just the fear that I've absorbed this thing into oblivion and I don't really know what I'm doing. I've been threatening to pallet board my lower walls...just for looks really...but maybe that would be a nightmare.

Sorry to have offended. Snarky? Have you MET me? Ha. I'm not sure what part offended you...the only thing I see as dick'ish in the post is absolutely meant to be...BUT wasn't in ANY way aimed at you. (re: "Wall pillows").

If there's a concrete problem, I'm sure someone can help you with it. I don't hear any negative room interaction in any vocal you've posted. Do you? (Edit...I see above that you don't). 

I'll take a picture of what I tend to do, tonight. Since my room is trapezoidal, I place the talent sort of centered and then turn them slightly so that none of the reflection surfaces are perpendicular to the singer's mouth, so no direct reflections. I'll put my gobos about halfway to the walls so that there is some deadening but allowing all non-straightline reflections to happen. that way I get some ambiance but no slapback reflections, which in small rooms will only cause comb filtering.