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You may have read my article about making a questionable recording booth out of my towel rack. While it was fun and all, I quickly realised it would not be a viable long term solution, especially for doing live coding videos.

I decided to create my own DIY recording booth, after watching a couple of convincing Youtube videos from Les McDonald and Media6D, showcasing their easy, low-budget DIY solutions. Big thanks to you two for the inspiration!

I ordered a bunch of professional acoustic tiles on ebay, and bought a plastic storage container which seemed to fit the dimensions I was after.

The plastic container cost me AU$ 14.99. There were some cheaper ones, but I liked the idea of a heavy duty plastic that won’t crack on first occasion.

The acoustic tiles cost me AU$ 53.00 including shipping. I have far too much of it, but that’s the best deal I could find. Out of my 10-pack, I have 6 intact tiles + a lot of scraps form the cutouts left.

Foam tiles are tricky to cut, and the best tool for the job was my good old rusty saw. After a few quick visual measurements, I started cutting into the foam.

Here are a few shots from the build:

DIY recording booth creation
DIY recording booth creation
DIY recording booth creation
DIY recording booth creation
DIY recording booth creation

Looking pretty neat! The Blue Yeti fits right in.

So, does it work?

I was keen to see how the booth performed, and to give it a fair test, I made sure I was not doing any effort to improve the room audio quality. I kept the door open, the blinds rolled up, the windows open. I wanted to put the booth to the test against real life elements.

Here’s the video #4 of my Jade/Pug Tips in 90 Seconds video series, recorded in the conditions described just above.

Not bad, huh?

As a comparison, here’s video #1, recorded in the same room, with the same microphone:

I know which audio I prefer!


Edit: I have since re-done the Series Intro, because I couldn’t stand hearing that echo in my voice, and thought it could turn off a lot of people from watching the actual series.

Here’s the new intro:

So, Yeah, It Works

In retrospect, it was well worth the little research, expenses and build. The quality of my audio recordings is greatly improved.

It is probably not studio quality. I could also probably improve things a bit more by adding some additional foam tiles around me on the hard walls. But hey, this article is about a low budget DIY recording booth, not about turning your home into a recording studio.

Portable booth FTW

An added benefit is that I have now a portable storage box for my Blue Yeti, USB cable and headphones. It has a lid that prevents dust from creeping in if I am not using the mic for a while. It fits under my desk. I can take it anywhere on the road.

So, yeah. It works.


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