The Recording Booth is Finished and then Some

November 8, 2024

Last time, I wrote about work commencing on building an audio booth to record the dialog for Sleuthhounds: Cruise in. That was back in September and then I completely missed October’s blog post (and am a week late on this one!). In the interim, construction on the booth has been completed and dialog recording has commenced.

The audio booth lined with sound dampening matress toppers.

First, let’s take a tour of the completed recording booth. Since last time I’ve attached several foam bed toppers to the inside walls with some screws and a bottle or two of spray adhesive. These toppers are inexpensive and do a good job of absorbing unwanted ambient sounds. I’ve tested this out by recording in a main floor room with the rumble of rush hour traffic going by just outside. Short of someone with a bad muffler or riding a motorbike, I’ve had no noise from traffic getting into the recordings.

The dual layer table with portable recording booth on top.

With the main box all properly bed topper lined, I turned my attention to the table. The tabletop has two layers. The main one is at a normal desk height and has a foam pad attached to it to serve as a sound absorbing coaster for a glass of water for the voice talent. The second layer is then raised up, to get the microphone at a more comfortable recording height. This has the added benefit of providing a “channel” through which I can run equipment cables to keep them from dangling around people’s feet. The inside of this channel has been lined with more bed topper foam so that it does not become an echo chamber right below the microphone.

One of my goals with the booth was to build it in such a way that it could be easily disassembled for storage when not needed. This extended to the table as well. I wanted some way to pressure fit the tabletop to its legs so it could be pulled apart but still provide enough stability that the table wouldn’t fall over. Enter my new favourite maker tool: the Bambu Lab A1.

I’ve wanted to get into 3D printing ever since I first learned about it, which was almost twenty years ago. However, I had so many projects on the go, not least of which was making the Sleuthhounds series of games, that I didn’t want to take on another. In the early days of 3D printing, you’d basically get a box of parts and have to spend days, maybe even weeks, assembling and levelling and adjusting it. I’ve kept my eye on the state of 3D printing and it’s only been in the last year or two that 3D printers have gone from being a problem to solve themselves into a tool that solves problems. The A1 was almost an out of the box plug-n-play machine and I have been having a lot of fun with it! Now, back to the project.

3D printed sockets and supports pressure hold the table together.

With the 3D printer, I was able to design and print several low profile sockets that fit on the underside of the table top. The tops of the table legs then fit into these sockets, with the pairs of legs at either end of the table connected by cross braces. Some additional 3D prints, then provide support for longer braces that help given the table more rigidity. The final table is quite stable as long as you don’t push on it. For recording purposes, you don’t want people banging into the table anyway, as that leads to unmuffable thumps in the recordings. So, while you wouldn’t want to use this as a general purpose writing desk, it serves is intended purpose and usage well.

A 3D printed box nicely encloses the electrical wiring.

The 3D printer was also useful solving a couple of other issues as well. First, with the booth walls being so tall to reduce noise, they also have a tendency to reduce light. A problem if you’re trying to read lines from a recording script. With the help of a circular saw drill bit, I was able to install a nice, bright LED pot light in the side of the booth. I wanted to be able to turn the light on and off from outside the, which meant wiring it up to a switch. As well, the light itself has a junction box that it attaches to and of course there’s the power cable. So, I had a bunch of these bits hanging around outside. In short order, I was able to model and print a small electrical box that all of this stuff fits neatly into.

The final 3D print addition to the booth I was really pleased with. For my recording process, I load the dialog scripts to record onto an eBook. This saves from having to print the script on a bunch of paper that rustles and can get out of order. In the past, people recording the dialog have either held the eBook, which can get tiresome after an hour recording session. I’ve also tried to set it up on a sheet music stand that you might see in an orchestra, although you then have the shaft of the stand in the way of your legs and subject to being kicked over.

A 3D printed stand allows the eBook with the recording scripts to be raised up or down.

When I started working on the booth, I hadn’t made the decision to get a 3D printer yet. I was trying to figure out what to do for a stand that could hold the eBook but also be adjustable in height so that people could set it at a level that was comfortable for them. I had a rather kludgey idea of taking a musical stand and cutting off most of the shaft and then, somehow, affixing the shortened stand to the tabletop. There were a bunch of issues with that for which I couldn’t really think of satisfactory solutions. Fortunately, I went the 3D printer route, which made things so much easier. With that, I found a little stand model for holding a smart phone. The angle of the stand could be adjusted back and forth to a comfortable lateral position. I then took that model and modified it to be supported on three pistons, whose height could be adjusted. After printing the model, I inserted it between the two layers of the dual tabletop. The whole right provides about 12.5 centimeters / 5 inches of vertical height adjustment.

Now that the booth is done and the recording scripts have been prepared, everything is ready to start recording. In fact, that’s already commenced. I’ve done a couple of recording sessions so far and the booth has been working great. It’s going to take a while to get all the dialog recorded – Sleuthhounds: Cruise is a BIG game. One benefit of that is that the booth will get plenty of use. Doubtless, there will be some “tales from the booth” in subsequent blog posts, but for now that’s what I’ve got.

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