Homemade Computer Quieting Box and Small Vocal booth/Photos

Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 7:08 pm

Ok, I know this isnt the best approach. In about a year when Im done with school I will be moving to a new house and building a full studio. And that is also if I dont get sent to Iraq again. I will be able to spend about 15 grand to treat a room in the basement. So scratch "full studio" and Ill say, A 15 Grand studio. I will have to be able to Track/Mix/ and Master in the same room.
Yeah I know, you shouldnt mix and master in the same room. Well I will do my best by studying acoustics and with the help of some of my peoples as far as getting a good setup.

BESIDES all that non-sense, this is what I got now. As of now I am just using what I got to learn as much as I can. So check out these photos.
Tell what ya think.

I took photography in school, and these are far from spectacular shots. Just a real quick setup of the Tripod. I didnt try and get all serious with the camera and lighting by any means.
Ok my room is ghetto treated. This means I am using mattress bedding foam that you can buy at WalMart to treat the walls and cieling.
Here is a frontal shot of the Room.

Here is a shot of the ceiling

Here is a shot of my monitors. Of course when I am mixing the area doesnt look like this. Whole different configuration. That is 2 RP5's and there is a RP10S sub under the desk, right below where the Emu1820M is sitting.

Here is a close frontal shot of the little vocal booth I made. The mic stand brings the mic in from the rear. I have the rear blocked off a little with some foam. I can see the computer monitor while recording.
Which also brings to mind the fact that since the mic stand is coming from the rear. My vocal sound waves will vibrate the microphone boom arm due to its position. Im sure it has some effect, good or bad, on recording vocals. I know your probably laughing to yourself.
"Son, the "vibrating boom arm theory" is the least of your worries, you got other issues"

Here is another frontal shot of the little booth. I have the pop filter pulled to the side so you can see the mic.

Here is a rear shot of the little vocal booth. I have just enough room so the mic wire doesnt touch the foam. The foam could possibly trasfer energy to the wire, then the mic of course. Another theory, Im sure Im correct on this one though.

To quiet down my computer I installed new Stealth fans. But also made a box.
Here is a shot of my computer tower inside my makeshift box. Its uncovered in this photo. Some of the assembly is made of dense foam, and some is made from Foam I got from Lowes, cut to size, then stuck self adhesive Vinyl floor tile on the outside of the foam to keep the sound contained. If I did anything right, this would have to be it. You cant hear the computer at all when its covered.
I used to record vocals without a box around the computer, and once you stack 4 vocals, the computer noise would get rediculous as you would imagine. But now. There is no sound from the computer.

Oh, and there is another way to quiet your computer. They sell computer fan speed controllers. And they have other cooling systems availuable. I will incorperate these later. But that depends on what kind of studio Im running in the future.

Here is a shot of the front covered:

Here is a shot of the foam material and vinyl

Here is a shot of the vinyl

Well, tell me what you think.
I am more interested in what someone who knows a great deal about acoustics can tell me about the little vocal booth. Get as scientific as you want, I will understand.
I would like to do some frequency analysis comparisons with the mic in the booth, and out of the booth in the open. I did some with my vocals. But real quick. I will do more research and studies.
I will do some test using tones also. I can take screenshots of my computer screen. So if I have any interesting findings or questions, I will post them here.

If anybody has anything to say, good or bad, feel free. You cant hurt my feelings, I take constructive critisizm well.
Again, this is just what Im using for studying and learning the trades for now. Nothing spectacular.

You can hear some of my older tracks at my myspace page.
I havent been in the studio doing any vocal recording lately. Ive been studying "Instrumental Production" . But Im sure that the quality will be alot better than what it was from some of the tests Ive ran.
Check out my myspace page, link in my sig

Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 7:26 pm

I am electronics designer by day, and I think you may shorten the life of your pc by surrounding it with foam. The PC will not be able to cool itself. Overheating electronics causes them to fail faster.

It would be better to use bigger and slower speed fans on the cpu. Add rubber gromets to the hard drive supports to absorb some of there vibration. Also buy a quieter power supply. There cases like the Sonata that come with power supplies and better acoustic sealing.

I hope this helps.

Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 7:36 pm

Hey thanks. I should have addressed that. I am going to school for electronics engineering, I have an associates, but going for my bachelors.

The computer is not always covered. Only for short periods, and it will only be covered when recording vocals, and once done I will uncover, and point my external fan toward the computer.

Also I removed the power supply and rigged it with a better quiter fan with greater air flow.

Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 7:43 pm

I think the foam near the ceiling light is a fire hazard. You should certainly clear a large circle around the light fixture.

If the foam isn't fire retardent, I wouldn't use it at all.

Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 7:54 pm

Cool glad to see there are more electronics geeks out there! you should be able to get the pc noise down to almost nothing. I can not even hear my pc unless my ears are within 1 foot.

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 2:11 pm

My room here is padded like that to ! Sometime they let me look outside...

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 3:40 pm

You have plenty (maybe too much) of foam but I can't see any bass trap. The foam will suck out the upper range living you with the low end problem, specially in this small room. Your room needs less foam but giant help from bass trapping.

With so many foam on the walls, I doubt you need „the little iso chamber“ at all.

Monitoring/listening position is the place you have to do it better, and will cost you nothing.

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:48 pm

Im working on bass traps, thanks for the info Groff. There is a buildup of lower frequencies. I might make my own or just buy some

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:47 pm

Link555 wrote:

I am electronics designer by day, and I think you may shorten the life of your pc by surrounding it with foam. The PC will not be able to cool itself. Overheating electronics causes them to fail faster.

It would be better to use bigger and slower speed fans on the cpu. Add rubber gromets to the hard drive supports to absorb some of there vibration. Also buy a quieter power supply. There cases like the Sonata that come with power supplies and better acoustic sealing.

I hope this helps.

I recently changed my psu (with a 12" fan), exhaust fan (again a 12") and video card fan and its day and night in terms of noise. The thing is smaller fans produce that distracting high frequency noise. You may also try liquid cooling as well. But that piece in front of the computer is a no no, the computer will probably burn and fans will produce much more noise to keep things cooler.

Oh and this is my first post in the forum Smile

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:43 pm

kullaniciadi raises a very scary point.

If that foam catches fire from you cutting off airflow to that computer... well, there will be a disaster as bad as the White Snake fire of a couple of years ago.

GET ALL THAT FOAM OUT OF THERE!!!

You've created a death trap whether you know it or not... and you're doing nothing to help your acoustics.

You should build your box out of steel or lumber and line it with something fire resistant like a non paper backed gypsum board, or a flame retardant cloth over fiberglass insulation.

That closed cell foam is doing nothing but waiting to cause a disaster. Closed cell mattress foam is not doing much of anything except killing high frequency and further lop-siding your frequency response of the room.

If you were to have a fire, your likelihood of survival is probably slim. Not only that, but your insurance company would probably refuse to pay.

Man... this is one scary environment.

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:30 pm

Yeah I live dangerously I guess. But like I said, Its only closed up for like less than a minute when Im recording. And I have a fan ready to turn on and point at it. It doesnt feel no warmer than usual.

Its only temporary. haha,
Gettin all my stuff from Foam By Mail in about 3 weeks. And dropping alot of cash on a better mic, amp and some other stuff.

Only reason I cant have the comp in another room is because the Emu1820M audiodock had this CAT5 cable that connects to the card in the computer, and they reallly really dont advise making it as long as I would need it.

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:49 pm

"Only reason I cant have the comp in another room is because the Emu1820M audiodock had this CAT5 cable that connects to the card in the computer, and they reallly really dont advise making it as long as I would need it."

Cat5 cables can be really long without data loss etc. Long enough for your purpose im sure!

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:57 am

YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!!

Not only is the foam going to catch on fire and cause a tragedy a city block long, but that has got to be a pretty dead sounding space, (apart from the bass problems). Remember, mixing in a dead room will make your material sound very different when you play it on a home/car stereo. At the very least, make sure you reference often.

You do have a fire extinguisher handy, right?

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:39 pm

Doomith wrote:

Cat5 cables can be really long without data loss etc. Long enough for your purpose im sure!

Official cat-5 specs are 100 meters.

100 meters = 328 feet = fine for his purposes.

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:43 pm

Quote:

I am more interested in what someone who knows a great deal about acoustics can tell me about the little vocal booth. Get as scientific as you want, I will understand.

1 - like someone said place some bass traps and get rid of some of the foam in your room... there's too much foam in that room, you have an unbalanced room in terms of acoustical treatment.

2 - is that material flammable ? Get rid of it and get some decent acoustic panels or make them yourself

3 - About vocal booths I personally don't like them. Acoustically speaking I find them too dry and also with problems in the mid range frequencies. For a singer (I'm a singer as well as an acoustical eng.) I find them to be oppressive and claustrophobic. Keep in mind singers are not used to sing in a vocal booth. I had a couple of my music students in a vocal booth and they all kind of freaked out with the vocal booth. But of course this is in part a subjective choice and other may think differently than me.

4 - about the computer you can have a small duct with a small extractor into that foam box to prevent it from overheating, just an idea

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