Tour my custom-built home recording studio

There are many ways to build a voiceover studio in your home. One of the easiest and most economical ways is to build a blanket fort around your microphone/desk to help with any room echo and reverberations from nearby hard surfaces. There are also dozens of plans that you can Google for DIY, PVC-pipe booths, covered in acoustic blankets. These are similar to moving blankets but made specifically for dampening acoustic noises. There are also prefabricated booths like the Whisperroom, Studiobricks or the Canadian-made, Bear Cave Silent Booths. The good thing about prefab options are that they are modular and movable.; they’re a great option for renters. Finally, there are custom-constructed booths, like I made.

From what I’ve heard, the prefab booths aren't completely, 100% soundproof to the point where you can hear your own heart beating. To do that, it takes a lot of knowledge and skill. Something I certainly don’t have!

To be clear, this blog isn’t a step-by-step instruction on how to build a booth but more of an overview of the steps my husband and I took to build it and where I sought help. If you’re in the studio-building market, I highly suggest that Google and Facebook groups are your friends. So, let's tour my custom-built home recording studio!

My first home studio setup

Sitting in my home studio, surrounded by fleece blankets

My daughter recording in my first home studio

STARTING OUT

When I first began my voiceover journey, I started with an incredibly rudimentary blanket fort in the quietest part of my home- a corner of our basement. I hung fleece (yes, fleece!) blankets from the ceiling, around my desk, with removable 3M command hooks and fishing wire and padded the two walls behind the blankets with acoustic foam. It was quiet enough when my family wasn’t home although I did have to turn off the buzzing fluorescent lights and our humming furnace each time I recorded. But I was at the beginning stages of building my voiceover business and only working, at best, part time, while still doing my morning radio show each day. My equipment consisted of an AT2020 USB-plug-in microphone (which I used for years and booked hundreds of jobs, without complaint), a macbook pro and Adobe Audition. It served my purposes and I made a lot of money that way! You’ve gotta start somewhere. 

When it became clear that my business had grown so much that it was time to choose between radio or voiceover, I chose to bet on myself and grow my business full-time. That’s also when my husband and I decided to invest the time and money into building a custom booth for me to work in. And here I sit, typing to you!

THE SCIENCE OF SOUND 

First, we had to study the science of sound and how sound waves bounce off surfaces, where they reverberate from and where noise can ‘leak’ into your studio. I joined an invaluable Facebook group called Voice-Over Artist and Booth Building, run, at least in part, by John Brandt, who is an acoustic and studio design expert. He also has a website where he sells DIY booth-building plans. His blunt answers to my questions in the group really helped my husband and I figure out and narrow down what we were going to do in my studio.

BUILDING

The floor plan of my new, custom home studio

Outer walls constructed for my new home studio

We re-routed the HVAC from the bottom wall to top of ceiling.

Example of a baffle box

Green SONOpan panels installed underneath ceiling drywall

Building in progress

First, we chose the quietest part of our house and that was in the same room as my blanket-fort studio. We cleared the area and began constructing two stud walls about 8 inches apart. The space between the walls acts as an acoustic barrier and stops a lot of noise from coming in while you’re recording. Essentially, you’re building a room within a room. 

Then, we attached the stud walls to the ceiling with decoupling clips. I used the Pliteq GenieClip so that the walls weren’t touching the existing ceiling. This gap of space acts as another soundproofing method.

Next, we re-routed the HVAC vent from the floor to the ceiling and built a baffle box to snake an insulated vent through, which cuts down on any noise from that.

After that, we padded the ceiling and double-walls with Rockwool Safe ‘n’ Sound and covered the ceiling insulation with SONOpan soundproofing panels. Next, we covered everything in drywall, mudded, primed and painted the room. We added a solid-core door and a tempered, safety glass window, ordered from a local glass company.

Finished, DIY acoustic panels

My finished home studio!

Recording in my new home studio

Finally, I bought 2” thick acoustic foam and padded the walls and ceiling of the studio. I also made three of my own, large acoustic panels from 2x4’s, stuffed with Rockwool Safe n Sound, covered in a white cotton fabric and then covered again with cream-coloured burlap. Making these was one of the easiest parts and there are many Googleable DIY options.

I upgraded my equipment around this time and now use:

• Neumann TLM 102

• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

• Mac Mini 2TB (upgrading the hard drive is the best decision I made!)

• Adobe Audition

• Izotope RX Standard

• Source Connect Standard

Overall, the entire process took about 2 months of work outside of our regular jobs and the booth itself probably cost me, at most, $2000.

It’s not 100% soundproof but it is very quiet. There are a few more things we could have done to get it there:

• Built a drop ceiling instead of simply de-coupling the existing ceiling

• Built a second floor to cut down on sound/noise/vibrations coming from outside the house and through the cement floor of the basement 

• Installed weather stripping along each side of the door to prevent even more noise from entering the booth

• Used green glue everywhere!

If you’re hiring a professional to build your booth, I’m sure they could do more of these things. In my case, my booth is very quiet with a noise floor of below -60db, even with the door open! If my family is home, I can hear them walking around if they’re in the room directly above me but most of the time, there’s no issue with noise. The most important part is, I've had nothing but compliments on my studio sound from engineers and producers I've worked with remotely.

And now, I’ve got a wonderfully quiet and cozy place to work each day! Welcome to my studio!