Touted as a $23.00 solution.

Appears to be a potentially interesting experiment if you are presently singing into a microphone with no sound deadening technique in place yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTeUeRxAS7M

If your a goof enough vocal just use an SM58, no need to treat a room cheap and will do the job!!
 
Ben

Seems like a good idea.... But i wanna do something that can be mounted on my stand or something.

There's some pretty bad advice in that video. There are lots of similar how-to's around the net, but what you never see in any of them is before-and-after measurement to illustrate what the foam-in-a-box solution actually does. If they did, they'd show a tiny bit of absorption from perhaps 10 KHz and up, and probably some troublesome new resonances introduced by the box itself.
 
At least this gal tacks on a nice-sounding recording at the end of her version of the cheap vocal booth (the deluxe version: $40) as supporting evidence. In her case, she's probably getting far more absorption from the clothes hanging in the closet than from the Auralex.
 

I haven't ever done any testing on those mic stand mounted vocal absorbers like this. Most of those have holes or openings in the back and are categorized as diffusion and not absorption. 
 
I remember when they first came out reading a little about the construction which included several layers of foil and other dampening materials . I don't remember if it was SE I read about or not..SE have patented their process. 
 
I seen one made from those aluminum paint grids riveted together and then that structure was covered with foam  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFVqcEpg6_c  
 
...probably not nearly as effective as the SE. It was probably better than nothing and more effective than the first example. Anything with a solid back is asking for trouble.
 
Another idea that I have never seen anyone do, but it crossed my mind.....take large plastic 5 gallon buckets or larger if possible. Cut the bucket in half lengthwise and remove the bottom,or use the bottom to make a mount. Here is the hard part...make a whole bunch of 1/2" holes in the thing all over it, but not so many that you compromise the structure.Glue acoustic foam around the inside of the thing. You will need some structural brackets . Rivet the brackets to the assembly and make it mic mount friendly.Tools/materials needed-  Drill , 1/2" Hole saw, 1/8" bits for small holes to rivet. plastic bucket, spray paint (optional). A way to bend  metal.If you find something that already works, then all the better....or simply sit this on a table no brackets necessary.Acoustically if you don't have enough holes in it some of the sound will stay in it and make trouble...and maybe one reason why there are layers of thin foil in some of the commercial versions. I have no idea how well it would work....or not.

Starise, I like the idea. Maybe it'd be effective to cut the edge and make a frame from the bucket? I mean t's a completely opened back with smaller surface area and fewer holes to poke. Maybe it'd be a bit structurally sound, too.
My grandmother built a large, really lightweight room divider frame from wood and covered it in fabric.
I got a hold of it from my mom and stuffed it with quilter's batting. Right now, there's no where NEAR enough mass on there to make it worth using, but in the near future, I'm definitely gonna get some nice foam and lay it in there to serve as my portable booth.

That sounds ok too Dave......I like that paint grid idea because it's an almost totally open structure. If you trimmed away entire large holes in the bucket and left enough opening without sacrificing the strength of the frame you could probably do it.
 
Those 5 gallon buckets are still slightly small for the purpose...to get it larger you could trim it along the bottom and make larger "flaps" to get it bigger. The flaps would need to be held in place with a frame of some kind. You can get those buckets in colors...so maybe painting it isn't necessary...and they make them larger than 5 gallon size.
 
I guess the thing that bothers me about giving this kind of suggestion is I don't want anyone to get hurt...please be careful. I see visions of missing fingers and blood. I'm not doubting you I just don't know how good you are with tools...if you haven't used cutting things like utility knives and saws I recommend getting some help with it...maybe a project for your shop at school. Always push cutting edges AWAY from you and never put anything in front of a sharp edge except what you want to cut. I don't want anyone to get hurt.

lol... I've been saving a really thick cloth lampshade from a lamp I broke that I intend to try mounting on a mic stand and snaking my mics through when I do vocs. I figure at least it should keep sound from the back and sides bouncing back onto the mic. Will it work? Fracked if I know but it makes me giggle and I like trying low rent solutions for stuff like this.
 
Also I've saved an old frying pan spatter screen that I'm going to try out as a pop filter (an idea someone here gave me after I mentioned I'd been using socks to cut down on sibilance). I was actually hanging on to it to use as a paint strainer originally but hey... pop filter is much cooler.
 
They say necessity is the mother of invention but necessity + poverty is even more of an impetus.
 
Personally I found the sound the guy was getting from his little rig a bit boomy though. I think he would have gotten better results if he glued the foam to a cardboard frame than the plastic tub. And USB mic? Yuck.
 
Did give me some ideas though and there were lots of cool other things to try in the sidebar so thanks, lawa. Love this kind of thing.

Great to see you back Beepster...lampshades, now that might be a strong possibility. The frame is already there and you wouldn't need to remove much.
 
I heard room reflections in both videos. If a person is using a tight cardoid pattern there's probably more damage done from the reflections coming off the wall behind.

Thanks, Starise. Good to be thinking about music again. I see you've been contributing quite a bit of material for this tab which is great. Now that I've got a better handle on how to work Sonar I'll definitely be hanging around down here more checking out stuff like that.
 
The big pain with that lampshade is going to be mounting it to a mic stand in an advantageous way. I foresee some wire hanger and perhaps some duct tape getting involved. lol
 
I was just looking at it again and it's actually two layers of thick fabric on either side of the wire frame so there's actually a little millimeter space in between that might make it dampen the sound without making things sound too boxy/dead. It's also kind of a faux antique design so it's shaped like the bell of a trumpet which might make it work better than just a straight cone shape. Could be a total disaster though but no harm trying.
 
Hope you've been well. Cheers.