your iso question re voc/guitar sounds like phone booth....

Well I would say it has to do with a lot of things. Frequency, size of iso booth, mic, source sound, etc. Too much to guess about to nail down, although I would venture to say IMHO that vocs and guitar will not categorically sound like a phone booth if recorded in an iso booth. Everything plays a part in what sound you end up with, sometimes it helps... other times it hinders.

Since I have a garage conversion, I like to track in the same room as the board, (except drums) just to have good vibe and such. Because in the end the only thing that really matters is how good the source is; and recording in a iso booth IMHO suddenly becomes less important.

...not to mention most iso booths are quite small in DIY land, and I like to hear the natural characteristics right off that guitar. It gets me through. What better way than to have it in the same room with you? Of course doing your best to minimize other sounds in the room competing with the guitar.

Very general thoughts but hope they are helpful.

Hey here is my input. i have just recently built my own booth. its actually well constructed, and very sound isolated. its 4x4x7 and works quite well..i got it, cause, my studio is in a spare room of mine, and, its a larger room, so i have my v-drums, mics, guitars, etc, all in one room. This room is treated properly, but, i found when I star buying high end pres, and mics, they pick up every single pick of noise. So, like you i started thiinking about it, looked into some ready made booths(huge rip off) and, went about the process, of building my own, and very glad i did. The moain purpose of my booth anyway, is to keep noise out mostly, I think if you insulate it properly, and treat it properly you will not get this phone booth effect you talk about. if you want really pro sounding tracks, that are noise free, go with the booth. not, to say that you cant achieve this without it, but, i think in the end, you will have better sounding tracks, if you know what your doing with it.

goodluck

Thank you for the insight!! Pretty much the only things I will be recording live will be vocals and acoustic guitar. The room my project studio is in is so small it may already qualify as a booth anyway :shock:
Thanks
Mike