VO Booth

[MatthewFreedAudio]

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!

[rraudio]

[i]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[/i]?
- Acoustical foam by itself would do almost nothing to keep extraneous
noise out.

I see 'Whisper Rooms' and other 'portable' iso booths advertised
regularly in 'Mix' and other pro-audio publications.

[JayRose]

I've been doing a weekly gig in one of those rooms for a couple of
years. It's okay, but:
a) work tight with a good mic. Much tighter than you would for
narrative dialog. Don't try to capture any of the room ambience even
if you've added more foam/fiber. This means talent has to be used to
not moving their heads during a take.

b) despite the built-in ventilation, oxygen will be in short supply
after an hour or so. Give the talent 'door-open' breaks and turn on a
fan when the mic's off.

c) Make sure the doors are truly closed. Unless the room has active
isolation devices (drop-closures, etc) the doors may leak after a few
years, unless you're sure to push them shut.

[rraudio]

OT. Hope your feeling better Jay, I heard you had some medical issues
to contend with.
Cheers, Rick Reineke

[JAM]

I used a small Whisper Room years ago. It was the 4x4 boxed version. It sounded terrible. With such a small space, you shouldn't expect much else. Currently the company I work for uses a Vocal Booth 3 carat diamond booth. Despite it's small size, it's pretty decent. The lack of parallel walls is definitely a plus. It also fits nicely into the corner of the audio room.

As Jay mentioned, ventilation will be an issue for longer reads.

[video guy - www.locoworks.com]

On Feb 13, 3:41 pm, JAM <jasonthemil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I used a small Whisper Room years ago. It was the 4x4 boxed version. It sounded terrible. With such a small space, you shouldn't expect much else. Currently the company I work for uses a Vocal Booth 3 carat diamond booth. Despite it's small size, it's pretty decent. The lack of parallel walls is definitely a plus. It also fits nicely into the corner of the audio room.
>
> As Jay mentioned, ventilation will be an issue for longer reads.

What kind of a chair do you recommend for a VO booth, or should the
poor bastard stand?

[Steve King]

"video guy - www.locoworks.com" <vide...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:2f8b8637-1612-4883...@8g2000prb.googlegroups.com...

Several of my VO clients have Whisper rooms. Personally, I find the smaller
versions (4' x 4') fatigueing. I second Jay's call for very tight mic
placement and for frequent 'out of the booth' breaks for long form
narrations. For shorter sessions I prefer to stand. For longer narrations
I prefer a wood stool with a cushion. The stool doesn't make noise and
helps keep the back straight and the chest open. Also, a performer on a
stool makes a smaller footprint than when he or she is fully seated in a
chair. If you do decide to go with a chair make it a straight chair, no
swivel. Less possibility for noise, but you knew that;-)

Steve King