John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hi guys! We are in desperate need of some experts here

We are on a strict budget and we need to build a small audio booth for voice overs and ADR. The biggest concern is that we are in an office building with a ton of windows right by the street and it gets a lot of outside road noise! So we need to create a booth that can take out as much of that sound as possible!

We can get a good deal on some MDF, 8x4 sheets for $15 each. So our plan is to build a 4x4 (8 ft tall) booth. We used 2x4's to create the basic frame with metal brackets holding them together (one on each corner). And the plan is to just screw some MDF on the sides and roof.

Then we have a bunch of carpet scraps to help absorb sound in some way, we're wanting to buy enough soundproofing blankets to cover the booth and also some to hang in front of the windows (after caulking them). My original thought was to cover the outside of the booth with soundproofing blankets, glue the carpet to the inside of the MDF and then hang cheap blankets loosely down a couple of inches away from the carpet.

Will this work? Is there a better way we can use these same materials? Is there a better solution using different materials that would end up around the same cost?

Thank you so much!!!

please update your profile to include your location information. have you checked out John's design for a vocal booth in the design forum stickies? definitely going to 4x4x8 is bad because of the reinforcement of sound energy on even sized boundaries. consider 5x7x8 as a better choice. putting the booth on a 2" rigid insulation layer will help decouple it from the floor, and using inside out walls (MDF on the outside and rigid insulation between the frames - then cover with cloth) with some additional slats and panels as needed to get the desired response in the booth. remember lighting and ventilation - some exterior mounted baffle boxes to exchange air with the larger room is necessary and you want the quietest fans with enough volume and low speed as you can get.

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Glenn