Re: VO booth construction

Staggered studs looks to be the best route for the walls, and an MDF sandwich floor oughta do the trick nicely.

To me, this sounds like overkill for VO, unless you live next to an airport. freeway, or train depot.... 8^) However....

Staggered studs will definitely help stop transmission. Double up the dry wall too, if you really want to do the STC thing. If you really, really want to isolate using drywall construction, use Z channel, or hat channel to seperate the two layers of drywall on one or both sides of the wall. Make sure the whole shebang is airtight, but allow for some sort of ventilation. Ideally, a tie in to the building A/C, but with as much isolation as possible. Sound can travel through the A/C system.

I have a bunch of 1" thick dense fiberglass sound absorbing panels that came with a painted cloth covering. I made frames for these and they hang in my current studio. They seem to be working well for wideband absoption. Do these pass muster d'ya think?

That sounds like the same stuff, but I can't be sure without seeing it. Thicker is better. The thicker the fiberglass panels, the lower the frequency absorbtion dips. A general rule is that your absorber will work with frequencies whose quarter wavelength is the same or smaller.
So if the wave length of a certain frequency is 1ft, then it would require 3 inches of absorbtive material.

Is this for bass trapping? (Contracarpet) Should I put roundies in the corners for bass? I have been looking at "noodles" the long, skinny floatytoys made out of closed-cell foam. They look like they might work.

No, it's more for higher frequency control and diffusion. By varying the wall coverings, you can get a little more control over the character of the room. Personally, I prefer to just put as much absorbtive material on all the walls, and kill as much sound as possible, generating, any 'ambience' or character later in the digital realm. But that's coming from someone who has never had the luxury of large rooms to work with. I would definitly love the oportunity to have a large room in which I could build a great 'sound' into.

Wha??? So they would go OVER the absorption panels? Open for deader, close for live-er sound?

Yes and no. As far as how it will affect 'deadness', opening and closing them would affect mostly higher frequencies. If you left them hinged, you would have some control over adjusting 'diffusion' characteristics, at a much cheaper cost than RPG diffusers and the like.

Do I angle the panes of glass in the window?

I don't think I would worry about that for VO work. Just don't have the speaker talking into the glass. Position him somewhat away from it, with the glass door (which is a door for entering/leaving the booth) at an angle to him, on the side. This way any reflections are likely to first hit an absorbtive wall before bouncing back towards the mic.


Don't forget to pay as much attention to the monitoring room and the monitor equipment too.

As a final note, Couches make good Bass traps, put a nice heavy/overstuffed one in there if you have room.... 8^)