DIY Isolation Booth

Brief

The brief is a modular, low cost DIY friendly isolation booth for The Edge Recording Studio. Although mainly for vocal recording, the booth should be large enough for two people podcasting, or a small drum kit set-up, solo instrumental recording or as in isolation booth for guitar amp.

Requirements

fits minimum two people, including one wheelchair or mobility scooter
meets or exceeds relevant ISO standards¹⁾ for acoustic isolation
provides disability access
uses commonly available, low cost materials
fits with existing State Library decor and level of finish
can be pre-assembled
plans are open sourced at end of prototyping

Design

The prototype has been designed in Fusion 360²⁾. The model is available on the web to view and annotate: https://a360.co/2Sfz8gC

The design is a basic double walled shell, with variable configuration of panels and some parameters.

The unit will fit within 1.8mx 1.8m, which is approximately half the width of the recording studio.

Acoustics, internal fittings, fixings, penetrations and ventilation need to be considered at the meet-ups.

Acoustics

Analysis

Thanks to Jon South and Adrian Diery we have a plot of the room resonances:

A similar tool can be found online here

Acoustic Treatment

Given the resonances present in the analysis, broad low frequency absorption is appropriate. Our challenge will be to fit effective absorption is such a small space. Options include:

Panel bass traps
- resonant
- broadband
Corner bass traps

Low Frequency absorption with Acoustic Metamaterials

Over the last few years, research into acoustic metamaterials produced with 3D printers has achieved some interesting results for low frequency absorbtion. While there have been no products released (that we can find) that use these materials, there are a couple of papers that explore some likely looking options.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-49982-5

https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4895617

Ventilation

Once the booth has been framed up, we will look at the best way to build in ventilation. Discussion at this point has been around a couple of boxes on the back of the booth, one for input, one for output, with a labyrinthine baffled passage to reduce noise transmission.