I'm trying to come up with an affordable but effective way to achieve the same as a vocal booth, ie:

a) reduce reverberations
and
b) reduce sound level emanating out (I don't want my neighbours to hear me singing)

Anyone know if sound absorption blankets would help achieve the above, let's say if I were within a "cave" of said blankets?

Call me crazy, but hey.

They can work rather well, However to do so they need a 3 layers with some space inbetween, Sort of like this | | | (if that makes sense?) The middle layer being the most dense. Hope that helps some, If you were to hang a few blankets around it would only touch the high frequencies and aid little in reducing emanating levels outwards. DIY is probably you best friend here and go dipping in SOS mags website for all the studio SOS articles as I'm sure they have put together/built a few over the years

Dean

Thanks Dean!

What does SOS mean, by the way? Is it like SOB?

Oh no, nothing like that, It means SoundOnSound magazine, Here is a link to the articles which might be of use to you leroik:
http://www.soundonsound.com/search?Keyword=studio+SOS
For example

The cheapest, bestest isolation solution I've found for home or apartment vocal recording is a closet full of clothes.

Put your mic just inside the closet, and while monitoring with headphones, find the optimum distance where you hear the room and early reflections from the closet walls the least. You'll be surprised how well it works, and costs nothing!

KVR/eSoundz: Xenobt

no an SOB is a cool old amp by Mesa/Boogie

Are you trying to make a booth in a room so others in the room or an open mic in the room wont hear/pick up you? Are you trying to make a booth in a room so people outside of the room but in the same building wont hear you? Or are you trying to make a booth so the mic in the booth wont pick up outside sounds?

I'm trying to make a "booth" in a room so people outside of the room but in the same building wont hear me.

The most effective home solution is to build a DIY vocal gobo like this :-





I'd use Rockwool RW3 instead of fibre glass and then cover the entire thing with suitable fabric. You'll also do well to put the mic inside as in the picture, and then get a reflection screen on the mic stand as well giving you a fully enclosed space to record in. The entire thing could be built for less than $100.

old matresses

well then you'll be surprised how much the empty the air in the room will do if you build a booth within that room. You are not talking a lot of bass here at high volumes but I would still try and get if off the floor a little. I have an isolation cabinet for my guitar amps and it's far from perfect in the room with me but my cab is about 6 or 7 feet from the door to the common hall in my apartment building and cranked up in the hall it sounds like an old transistor radio if you really try to listen for it. In adjoining apartments or even in other rooms in the apartment you can't hear it all.

Before that I had a 4x12 in a closet full of clothes and it worked oky but outside noise came in and I could not crank it up when the wife was sleeping. I have done this for vox as well and it works pretty good. I think the blankets with some foam to cut down on the reflections in your booth should do the trick.

Here's a place for good deals on foam if you do not want to pay auralex's prices, check ebay for them because they have "ebay bundles". (like 48 sq' for 40 dollars) I suspect for killing the reflections 1" foam will do the trick, I added 1" foam to my iso cab and while it did not make a huge difference in blocking sound it does change the dynamics of the cab quite a bit

http://www.foambymail.com/acoustical-foam-products.html

that's nice

Thanks guys! Really glad to see some ideas to go on here.

I was thinking of making a "half booth", which I haven't seen or heard of and, as well as being off the floor, it would take up less space. I'd just have to elevate it from the floor somehow.

just build some bass traps. you have a lot of DIY options out there that will work much better. but blankets are better than nothing i guess

Ive used moving blankets a lot hung off of a photo background stand. Works amazingly and was dirt cheap. I got the stand for $30 over 10' long and extends to 12' high!

+1

I also have good (enough) experience with suspending wool blankets on the ceiling...

You might also try to build a head-compartment. That's like a mini-booth you just put your head in. But this doesn't dampen the sound in such a way your neighbors will not hear it... or your sleeping wife for that matter...

[2c]