Glass Window in my Booth

I am planning on building a 4x6 recording booth with a 6 foot glass window (using one of the sections of the double-payne glass from my old patio door) and for deadening material I have a bunch of seat cushions that came from hotel ballroom chairs. They are 18"x18" and they are about 4 inches thick. The cloth covering appears to have a burlap-like cloth even though its not burlap. So this leads me to a few questions:

#1. Will this glass window affect the recording adversely? I like to be able to see the person inside as I am recording them from the outside plus I want to resemble the "real" studio look.

#2. Will the 4 inch seat cushions be thick enough to get a good sound or should I double up on the layers? I had planned on installing them tightly side-by-side. Should I put spacing between the cushions before I attach them to the walls? Sound isolation is not as much of an issue for me as the ability to get a good recording.

#3. I don't want the booth to get too "stuffy" inside. Can I go with an open ceiling if I make my walls 6.5 feet tall or will a closed in ceiling give me a better sound?

#4. Does building a 4-wall booth make sense or am I better off just building a half-wall partition?

This booth will be built in a commercial office building. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

ORIGINAL: jscotty

I am planning on building a 4x6 recording booth with a 6 foot glass window (using one of the sections of the double-payne glass from my old patio door) and for deadening material I have a bunch of seat cushions that came from hotel ballroom chairs. They are 18"x18" and they are about 4 inches thick. The cloth covering appears to have a burlap-like cloth even though its not burlap. So this leads me to a few questions:

#1. Will this glass window affect the recording adversely? I like to be able to see the person inside as I am recording them from the outside plus I want to resemble the "real" studio look.

#2. Will the 4 inch seat cushions be thick enough to get a good sound or should I double up on the layers? I had planned on installing them tightly side-by-side. Should I put spacing between the cushions before I attach them to the walls? Sound isolation is not as much of an issue for me as the ability to get a good recording.

#3. I don't want the booth to get too "stuffy" inside. Can I go with an open ceiling if I make my walls 6.5 feet tall or will a closed in ceiling give me a better sound?

#4. Does building a 4-wall booth make sense or am I better off just building a half-wall partition?

This booth will be built in a commercial office building. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

How much isolation are you trying to acheive? What kind of money are you looking to spend on this? I am building my studio and there are a few things I kinda screwed up on but can't turn back now. My local glass supplier advised me to use laminated glass instead of tempered (probably what's in your patio door). The glass worked wonders. As far as absorbing the sound within the booth, I don't think the cushions is going to cut it. You probably want to make the room completely dead and most of the wall surfaces will need to be a broadband absorber. The open ceiling will allow sound to escape so that will breech all of the measures you've taken to isolate booth.

ORIGINAL: jscotty

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#1. Will this glass window affect the recording adversely? I like to be able to see the person inside as I am recording them from the outside plus I want to resemble the "real" studio look.

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I may depend on the size of the glass and how it's installed. Most of those windows are designed so there are two glass panels and the one inside the studio or booth is tilted out at the top or maybe both. Some other tips I've seen is to use two different thickness of glass so they can't resonate at the same frequency. You also want to float the glass in a gasket of some kind to keep it from making direct contact with the frame. You can also keep the size down by making it wide but not very tall and at eye level in the center.

Another idea would be to use monitors and video cameras just make sure your LCD monitors don't make any noise. The video rig would give you a high tec look rather then the old school "real" studio look.

Oh, and the video system could double as a security system... or at least tell everyone it does...