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VO Booth


MatthewFreedAudio

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I work with a production company in Minneapolis and they want to purchase a voice over booth for their new office. I'll be the one doing the recording so I certainly have a vested interest in this thing. Our current office has a massive (overly constructed) VO booth that I built and it works quite well.  But, we're moving to new offices for the next 12-18 months before buying a new building. So, in the mean time we need a very good VO booth that is easy to setup and then torn down and transported a year from now. We can't do a build-out in the new office space for various reasons.

I'm thinking either the double walled Whisper Room, something by GK Acoustics, Industrial Acoustics, or similar. The prices for the new booths are about $10-$13,000 for a 6x6, double wall, with ventilation, window, and door.

So....my question.... Does anyone have or use one of these rooms on a regular basis and can offer words of wisdom on how well they actually work?  I've heard the Whisper Rooms sound boxy and don't cut out that much noise.  Is that the case?  To reduce the boxy sound I'm thinking a bunch of acoustic foam added to the inside.  How much do they really cut down on outside noise bleeding in? 

We will be in a fairly small and somewhat quiet office environment with only 3-4 people working in the area of the VO booth.

If anyone knows of one of these booths for sale anywhere in the country and has some experience with them I would love to hear about it!

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Two clients of mine have Whisper Room booths and they sound awful--like being inside a coffin.  In a booth that small you have two choices--speaker eats the mic or very boxy audio.  If the room has to be transportable get the biggest one you can.  Is it really not possible to use a more normal room with some treatment, perhaps at a slow time of the day re other work going on?

phil p

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The boxy sound of a standard Whisper Room definitely concerns me.  Anyone have better luck when lining the inside with Auralex  Foam? 

I share offices with this particular production company and sometimes we'll have 3 or 4 VO's to do in a day, plus editing.  Other days we don't have any.  But, we definitely need it on-site rather than renting out another studio or using a mobile rig. 

How about the other brands?  VocalBooth.com, GK Acoustics, etc.  They're all about the same price range but perhaps one performs dramatically better? 

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The problem as I see it is that it's hard to avoid the acoustic properties of a very small space. I think it's the openness of a larger room -- as well as how quiet it is -- that dictates the sound of dialog. It's hard to get away from that kind of "boxy" sound in a space slightly bigger than a phone booth.

Coincidentally: I just saw a video of famed VO announcer Ernie Anderson, doing a bunch of ABC promos... in the actual control room. The place was filled with all kinds of equipment, cart machines, and people -- but you couldn't hear any problems because it was a 416, carefully placed, and he was right on top of the mike. It sounded exactly like every ABC promo you ever heard, and there's no special acoustics beyond just a good control room with a little Auralex foam. Here's the video:

(Note that Ernie, as cantankerous as ever, doesn't use a windscreen or headphones!)

I wonder if it might make more sense just to wall off a 10x10' space within the office, put a door on it, control the ventilation, and treat all the walls, ceiling, and floor with good sound absorption material. That might cost less than $10K, but won't be as portable.

--Marc W.

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I wonder if it might make more sense just to wall off a 10x10' space within the office, put a door on it, control the ventilation, and treat all the walls, ceiling, and floor with good sound absorption material. That might cost less than $10K, but won't be as portable.

I agree you can do better building your own booth of a decent size over getting a smaller pre-made one, HOWEVER, having surfaces the same dimension apart (such as 10'x10') will NOT be good acoustically.  If the walls must be parallel (non-parallel -- which distributes the room nodes more evenly -- is better), a room ratio of 3 to 4 to 5 -- or multiples thereof -- is much more desirable.  Having any two dimensions the same -- or an even multiple -- will make the booth much more boxy.

So, 5x10x20 is pretty much the same disaster as 10x10x10, whereas 12' L. x 8' H. x 10 W. would fit the 3-4-5 ratio which will distribute the resonances more evenly.

Also, here's a professionally made PortaBooth along with the more advanced Pro version:

http://voiceoveressentials.com/

John B., CAS

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Absolutely right, John -- I forgot the factors of parallel walls and the dangers of building a "cube." Not good acoustically.

No question, a rectangle works much better. Every announce booth I've ever worked in (all five of them) were rectangles, maybe 8' x 12', something like that. Many had glass windows, angled to reduce reflections and so on. All of these managed to avoid the typical "boxy" sound you often hear on narration tracks. (I chuckle when I hear that kind of vocal sound on 1950s rock and R&B hits.)

The point of the Ernie Anderson clip is to show that you can get very effective narration in not-ideal places. It helps that Ernie was real loud and knew how to work the microphone. No question, he would still sound good with a $50 microphone -- it was all in the pipes.

--Marc W.

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You can mitigate some of the deadness and boxiness with the use of diffusion in the space.  The vo booth at the PBS station I worked at for many years has a combination of dense fiberglass fabric covered panels and wooden convex diffusers.  The shape of the room is

rectangular with an angled window.  It sounded really nice with both pro and non pro vo talent.  A very natural sound.  Matt you're in Minneapolis area so you could arrange to go take a look and get some ideas.  Call TPT (Twin Cities Public Televisuon) and ask for Vern Norwood or Joe Demko and tell them I sent you.  I'm sure they'll give you a tour.

Best,

Bernie Beaudry 

PS

I met you at Tom's house about a year ago

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