Homemade vocal booth - which is better?

http://chasms.com/95B/4_displaying_images.htm
 
See the pictures at the URL above. I recorded a vocal with both of the scenarios. First vocal was recorded with the foam booth (1st image). I had a comforter at the bottom of the foam booth that's not shown in the image. Then I read an article and started wondering if the booth was too dead because the vocal wasn't that bright and seemed bassy. Then I just threw some comforters up (2nd picture) and recorded that way. I couldn't tell the difference. Anyone have any opinions or suggestions on the matter? Thanks.

I was actually just calling the foam square/rectangle a vocal booth.  And no, my room is not treated at all. Not really looking to spend any money/time on too much treatment. Just looking to improve my vocals as much as I can with a limited amount of time/money. I'm using a Rode NT 1-A mic. I had read an article on the Sound on Sound website telling me the same thing about the lows and wondering if the 2nd method (2nd image) would improve things which, apparently, it didn't. Will check out the Gearslutz website. Thanks for your input.

bitflipper
Go down to your hardware/home-improvement store and get some compressed (aka "rigid") fiberglass. Four inches' worth should do the trick, and make sure it's not right up against the wall - leave a gap.

That's the simple answer.  However, fiberglass (or mineral wool) is some pretty awful stuff the fibres of which immediately embed themselves in your skin, not to mention your lungs.  Better to wrap the panels up into what's known as Bass Traps.  The forum I mentioned has one dedicated to this very subject  Bass traps, acoustic panels, foam etc.

How close you have your mic to the quilts can make a huge difference. I saw a video of the Traveling Wilburys recording vocals in a house. They had blankets strung over ropes. The mics were about 3-4 feet away from the blankets. The results obviously were pretty good.
 
I'd think if you tacked a blanket on a wall or better yet 2 adjoining walls and moved the mic into the middle of the room and sang towards one of the walls, your results would improve dramatically.
 
Randy

Unless you are in a GREAT sounding room AND you want that sound in your recording, then there is no such thing as "too dead".  You can add unlimited reverb and delay after-the-fact with plugins.  Having a dry, pure signal leaves you with all your options open as you head to mix.
 

bitflipper, I live in a small town and they only had one sheet of the fiberglass so I may order some online. Were you suggesting making a fiberglass booth such as the one I made out of foam? Or were you suggesting some other way of using the fiberglass. Thanks.

James, my vocal is being recorded completely dry. Nothing added to it. Mic is probably 8 inches in the foam enclosure and facing a little off center to the back right. The room before was not that lively. I just compared two vocals, one from the old house (no treatment whatsoever in the room) and the new vocal (with the foam enclosure).
 
The old house vocal has a lot more highs but seems thin. But is more clear and airy (if that makes sense). No noticeable reflections.
 
The new house vocal seems to have more body and not thin at all. But is somewhat more bassy. And I notice more bassy overtones. Or maybe more nasal overtones. Don't know exactly how to describe it. Hopefully I can work this out with EQ and such. And another mic might produce better results. I'm definitely not a whiz at vocal processing and there's probably someone that could straighten this with little effort.
 
Thanks for your input.

chances are, you are never going to get the results you want with that foam box.
 
use your room.
 
but tame it a bit.
 
these:
 
http://www.audimutesoundproofing.com/audimute-sound-absorption-sheets-materials-that-absorb-sound-soundproofing-blankets.aspx
 
 
work great.
 
you probably only need 1 wall treated,
and you would face that wall,
with all the rest of the room acoustics in play,
centered on that wall, singing directly into a good quality condenser.
 

BlixYZ
Unless you are in a GREAT sounding room AND you want that sound in your recording, then there is no such thing as "too dead".  

I would agree with this statement. The idea is to eliminate the "room sound", IOW the effect of reflections within the room that skew frequency response and cause time-related smearing.
 
However, the real challenge is achieving "dead-ness" across the vocal frequency spectrum, because the ability of any absorbent material to absorb a particular frequency is a function of both its density and its thickness relative to the wavelength of the frequency you want to attenuate.
 
Low-density materials such as packing foam don't absorb much except at the very highest frequencies. Even high-density materials only affect frequencies down to a point where their wavelengths are about 4 times the thickness of the material or shorter. So if you're using, say, 1" of fiberglass, that'll only have an appreciable effect on frequencies with wavelengths of 4 inches or less. IOW, about 250Hz and up.
 
Furthermore, the attenuation is non-linear, having a greater effect the higher up you go. This means you could be totally killing frequencies above 2KHz but doing nothing for the fundamental, which might be in the 150-200Hz range for a male vocal. The result: dull and boomy.
 
The answer is thick, dense materials. The density of rigid fiberglass is given as pounds per square foot. The most commonly-used type is 3 lb, but they go up to 6 lb. You need twice as thick a piece of 3lb material to get the same result as the 6lb material, but it'll work just as well. You can even use non-compressed fiberglass - the stuff in your home's attic - as long as it's thick enough (but you'd need 24-36" of it, so that's not practical unless you have a very large room).
 
As for how to construct it, that depends on how ambitious you are. Ideally, you'd surround yourself on all sides (including above you) with 3 or 4 inches of 3 lb. compressed fiberglass.
 
You can achieve this to varying degrees by constructing free-standing panels ("gobos") that can be moved around, stored in one corner when not in use, or reconfigured for recording things other than vocals.
 
I'd start by building two such panels and placing them to either side of the microphone in a V configuration. Later on you could add two more and situate them behind you, then make one more to either lay over the top of them.
 
I currently have 8 of them and need 1 or 2 more. They're 2 feet wide, the standard width of fiberglass panels, and 6.5 feet tall including the wooden feet that elevate them 6 inches from the floor. If you're very tall you could simply raise them up higher.
 
If possible, have at least a 4" gap between the gobos and any walls or windows. I have enough room here to allow a 12" air gap to the closest window, but I still intend to cover said window with additional fiberglass when funds allow. I'm thinking about hinged plywood shutters with fiberglass over them, as they would also provide additional security from break-ins when latched shut.

that's overkill, eh?
 

Scoot, without any treatment in the room there's way too many reflections. Thanks for your input.
 
And thanks to everyone for your responses. I've been EQing around with some plugins and it's getting a lot better (using the foam box vocal). I'm wanting to sound magnificent and maybe that's not what I sound like. Might need to face reality.    You've given me lots to look into for my next song. Think I'll settle for what I have on this song and try to make the next vocal magnificent.

mettleus, got a URL on that video? Like to see it. Thanks.

chasmcg
mettleus, got a URL on that video? Like to see it. Thanks.

I am glad this guy used the same video setup each run, since he was easy to find. This video he made is a "How to Get Started in VO work cheaply" and is pretty comprehensive. He does have a full blown whisper room with acoustic foam now, but he walks through how he got started. I time-marked the specific part about the moving blankets, but the entire video is worth watching (13m). http://youtu.be/_hBVkpHaDQU?t=3m8s

packing blankets pretty much suck.
 
those audi mute sound blankets rock.
in a good way.
 

For most folks with home studios, using a vocal booth isn't going to help much.
 
If you have a "normal" home studio room that does double or triple duty for other purposes, and has some furniture, curtains, carpet, etc.... recording in a room like that will work just fine for the average recording enthusiast.
 
I record my vocals in such a room....actually in the corner of the room I use for my home office. There's carpet and furniture but not much else. My vocals seem to be fairly decent sounding.... no strange room sound.  I occasionally have to retrack if a big truck, the train, barking dogs, or the lawn guy is working close by.
 
Throw some EQ on it, a bit of verb and put it in the mix.....
 
 
However..... if I was running some sort of commercial venture where bands and musicians were coming in to record..... then , absolutely, the studio would be dedicated space, it would be treated, and it would have a vocal booth.