DIY vocal reflection filter/booth

Have you ever been recording vocals and found yourself struggling against background noise. Or does you microphone pick up too much of the ambience of the room when all you want is a clean and dry vocal take?

This is the blog for you!

There are a number of options. You could acoustically treat the room but this is expensive and quite a hard task if you don't understand acoustics. Also if the treatment is done badly it can cause further Problems and luck very messy.

You could also turn a closet In to a vocal booth and line it with carpets, foam, blankets and all sorts of other thick materials.. What if you don't have a spare closet then what do you do?

You use a vocal reflection filter. With your microphone in the middle and the acoustic treatment of the filter around the back and sides the amount of background noise it picks up will be greatly improved.

SE electronics are a notable company for making these as are many others. I really like the editors keys version and will include a link to there website below.

Unfortunately these things cost money. This is where some recording studio DIY comes in.

Materials

Old drum

The size is up to you as each size will give you different end results. i used a 16" floor tom. You can pick up cheap drums on eBay or on many other places online. Some drum/music shops sell broken drums for spares and repairs that you could use depending on there state.

Acoustic foam

eBay is also a great place for this. I used some auralex egg box foam but most acoustic foam will suffice just make sure you get a size big enough for your drum. any excess could make smaller versions or a number of other things.

Wood glue/Hot glue gun

For glueing the Acoustic foam to the drum shell.

Brackets/clamps

Head to your local hardware or DIY store and buy something to attach it to a stand or wall. i attached mine with butterfly style clamps to a straight microphone stand but the possibilities are huge.

How To

Step 1

Saw your drum in half

This will give you the contour you need for your booth.

Step 2

Grab your acoustic foam and glue it to the inside of the shell. Make sur you use plenty of glue to keep it glued down.

Step 3

Cut off and excess foam. This may vary depending how much you want the filter to wrap around. On mine I've left a bit past the drum shell edge.

Step 4

Attach your brackets or clamps to the drum in the position you want. Depending how and to what your attaching your reflection filter the results will vary.

Step 5

Record some crisp vocals with less worry!

Here's a picture of how mine ended up: