the YellYo.com Blog

When recording vocals in a home studio, it’s often frustrating when attempting to eliminate excessive room ambience or the noise of electronics used for processing the sound into your computer or multi-track recorder. This tends to be more problematic when recording vocals since the general volume of the voice isn’t loud enough to cancel out bad room sounds or equipment noise. At least with a guitar amp, you can crank it up and drown out most of the problems.

Vocal booths or professional studio rooms are the ideal solution. But the bulkiness and high price of adding a standalone vocal booth to your home studio make it less appealing as an option. However, there is a way to recreate the feeling of a vocal booth or studio room with minimal cost and effort. I call it the Magic Box, since the difference it can make feels like just that: magic.

First off, determine the microphone you will be using and the way it will be positioned on the stand. Also take into account the position of the cable going into the microphone (i.e., if the microphone is inverted, the cable will stand up on top and accommodations will need made with the box to ensure clearance of all elements.) Once you have your microphone setup as if you’re ready to start recording, grab a measuring tape, paper, and something to write with.

When measuring, the idea is to leave enough room to manipulate the mic (once inside the box) if needed, but without leaving too much empty space. The amount of empty space left can vary based on personal taste. For example, a smaller box will produce a “punchier” sound, cutting out virtually all external noise. A slightly larger box will allow a little room ambience in. Get too much bigger, and you’ve eliminated the reason you built the box in the first place. Measure the width to allow at least 4 inches of extra space on either side of the microphone. DO NOT measure from the center point of the mic; measure from the outside edges. Multiply this by two (to cover the total distance of both sides) and add in the width of the microphone itself. You now have the basic width of your Magic Box. On average, the width should be between twelve and sixteen inches and the depth of your box will be the same as the width. Next, you want to do the same thing vertically. DO NOT FORGET to include any extra height that the cable connection is using. Again, allow four to six inches on either side. The average total height should be sixteen to twenty-four inches.

Find a cardboard box that is close to what you need. It’s always easier to size down a larger box than to try the reverse. When forming the box, you will need five solid sides and one open side. The materials you use to form the box are irrelevant and will not affect any results when recording. Cardboard is optimal as it is flexible enough to assist in the creation of the box.

Now that your box is formed, you need to line it with soundproofing material. Anything absorbent will work (sheets, egg crate foam, non-vinyl padding, etc.). I recommend using professional grade soundproofing foam panels. You can probably find or order these from a local music store for about five dollars per square foot. Overall, if you go the route of buying foam, your investment shouldn’t exceed twenty-five dollars. The foam needs to be cut accordingly to cover all five solid inside walls of the box. Remember that studio foam is usually a couple inches thick, so not every piece will need cut to go completely edge to edge. Using glue or double-sided tape, adhere the foam to the inside walls of the box. If done right, you may find that the foam pieces hold each other in place from the pressure at each corner junction. But don’t count on this.

Next, cut a small hole out of the bottom panel of the box. This is what you will feed the microphone stand through. Make sure the hole is wide enough to accommodate the stand but without leaving too much extra space for sound to enter or escape. If you’re not sure which panel is the “bottom”, simply choose one of the sides at either end of the height of the box. Once your hole is cut, remove the microphone from the stand and unscrew the clip/harness from the stand as well. Slide the box over the end of the microphone stand and adjust the size of the hole if needed. Once the box is on, reattach the microphone clip/harness and return the microphone to its place in the harness. Next, feed the microphone cable up through the same hole that the stand is going through and connect it to the microphone.  If the hole isn’t big enough to allow the cable to feed through, try feeding the cable through prior to sliding the stand through the hole.

The final step is stabilizing the box so that it sits around the microphone and is not touching it on any side. There is no special secret to do this. Your best bet is using duct tape in a variety of creative ways to keep the box where you want it and to keep it from moving out of place if slightly bumped. This part will probably never be perfect but if done right, it will easily last as long as you need it to.

You are now ready to start recording. You will be amazed how much cleaner the sound is and I feel confident that for those of you who have struggled with room noise in the past, you will never want to do home recording again without using your Magic Box!

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Studio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.