Picked up 360 square feet of Johns Manville Insul Shield for the new booth and studio today. I bet I currently have the best sounding truck bed in the southeast.

I haven’t posted much about the design and construction of my studio, mostly because I don’t want to give you the impression I’m unable to work for you.  I am available and ready for your project.  With that in mind here’s an update:

The new voiceover booth is coming along nicely thanks to the generosity of some fantastic people that know much more about acoustic design than I do.  The isolation walls and ceiling are done.  Over 300 square feet of acoustic insulation is on it’s way.  The new door should be delivered on Monday or Tuesday of next week.  It’s a heavy beastie but it has to be to provide the kind of isolation I want (and feel that you as my client deserve).

The Hart Voice Overs Booth

Today I got the flooring installed. Boy it looks pretty. And it won’t mess with the high frequencies in the voice range the way carpet does.

The new floor in Hart Voice Overs Vocal Booth

I’ll have the door system installed next week. The acoustic insulation should arrive in about another week. As soon as it gets here I’ll be able to treat the walls and hang a “cloud” on the ceiling. Then the new booth will be ready to go!

I’m very excited about the upgrade to this booth and I hope you, as a client or potential client, are excited about the great enhancements it will provide for your projects with Hart Voice Overs as well.

Australian John Sayers is one of THE guys when it comes to studio design and construction. He has built professional studios all around the world that are not only functional but also beautiful.

In addition to being such a great designer, he is also kind enough to help out the little guys and do it your-selfers. John hosts a wonderful forum at www.johnlsayers.com that is all about studio design and construction and is one of my main sources for research into studio construction. There is a ton of great knowledge and plenty of experts willing to help you apply it as long as you show them you’re willing to listen and learn.  Bookmark it. Read it. Use it.

John has posted a sketchup file of plans for a vocal booth designed to fit in the corner of a room.  (Click on the sentence to go to the post).  You need to install the free  Google SketchUp to view the plans.

John Sayers' designed vocal booth

John says the aircon ducting is an option.  Anyway, at first glance the plan looks fantastic!  Pay particular attention to the wall construction as well as the absorbers in the corners.

Two more thoughts:  If you choose to build this design or something similar you should create a build diary on John’s forum.  You’ll get lots of advice and expert help.  And if you do build on John’s design consider making a donation to his site to help him defray the costs of providing all the great information for free.

photo by Brian Hart 2010

Ah, the weekend.  Time to practice  my sheetrocking skills.  This morning I’m sanding the first skimcoat of joint compound and applying the second coat in my new voice over booth.  Ultimately there will be three coats of joint compound before I’m ready to prime and paint.

The basic application of joint compound is the same in a studio as it is in a home and there’s plenty of information available on the web for you to read.  But there are some other considerations you need to keep in mind for a studio project. Whether you’re working on a studio or a sound booth it’s important to make it as airtight as possible (air proof is more sound proof if you will).  Without giving away my whole process I will tell you I’ve been through a case of Green Glue in the small VO booth.  It goes in between two layers of 5/8″ sheetrock.  In addition I’ve gone through a LOT of a quality silicone caulking making sure all the joints are nice and sealed up.  Foam backer is your friend here.  It saves a lot of caulk and therefore saves a bit of money.

One day I might write a series on booth construction but what I know is limited compared to some of the acoustic geniuses that have been nice enough to lend their expertise to my studio builds over the years.

If you’d like to read more about home studio construction I highly recommend Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros, by Rod Gervais.  It’s full of valuable information and Rod makes it easy to understand the concepts.  I’ve been lucky enough that he’s offered advice on a couple of my projects now.

For more information online I recommend reading all available information at the following websites.  All three have forums you can join and talk to both home recording enthusiasts as well as experts in the field.

www.johnlsayers.com

www.recording.org

www.homerecording.com

If you’ve found this information helpful please leave a comment and let me know.  For that matter if you have another great resource you’d like to share I’m always looking for more information.