portable vo mic box

jamedia.uk

jamedia.uk

Well-known member
Hi all,

I was looking to build a portable VO mic booth and watched several videos on youtube (there is *nothing* on this planet that there are not at least two you tube videos about). One video showed some acoustic sound tiles and named the supplier who turned out to be only a mile from me. I went down to get some tiles to make a VO box. I ended up in a discussion with the owner as to why I only wanted 5 tiles and 48 hours later I was trying out the prototype of this.....

http://www.flightcasehardware.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=61&product_id=885

It's made to the same spec as their custom made flight cases for amps and intruments ( i.e. 9mm hex board, aluminium fixings) with 30mm acoustic foam. From my experience of the company (and the fact they custom build boxes) I expect they could modify the size and fittings easily.

Note they are UK based. I can't see it being cost effective to ship them across the atlantic.
 
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Well, something like that will prevent sounds from entering the mic on its rear and sides, but it doesn't address the sound out there in the world that's coming into the FRONT of the mic.
If your room is reflective or ambient a box like that won't make hardly any difference in the sound at all.

You don't want the room generating any reflections.
If you have thick curtains of a heavy material bunched up to form a continuous "S" shape along the walls you will have a room deadened all the way down to about 250-400hz.
Looks better than foam products, is way cheaper, and can be changed or removed almost instantly.
 
I've used a few different Mic Isolators similar to the one you posted, except they were rounded and not square. While you cannot achieve the same quality as a true iso booth they do work well. What may not hurt is if you can carry some C Stands and sound blankets and put up four walls of blankets to help reduce extra reflections. Once again, while not perfect it is in fact better than nothing.
 
@TSDavis as you say not as good as a real sound booth but they are a lot better than nothing. Also with the mic sitting back in the box and me in front it damps most of the sound. Especially if I string up a large towel or curtain behind me.

The portable sound booth came from reading Harlan Hogan and Jefrey Fishers book on VO and Harlan does produce a "port booth" of his own in the USA. http://voiceoveressentials.com/content/portaboothArticle.htm This is so you can work "on the road" with out a full studio. This sort of thing is also used by podcasters and you tube video producers. Not everyone is producing a feature film with a big budget......
 
I have constructed things like this in the past, but to be honest I don't bother with them now.

My portable VO kit consists of a desktop mic stand, dynamic mic, headphones, 2 mic cables, usb cable, 500 series lunchbox, MacBook Pro.
 
Get real close to the mic and then get a big blanket and drape it over you and the mic setup. Not something I'd do on a professional or even no-budget gig, but for just, it has worked in the past. Yeah. I've done it. It kinda works!
 
You have to deaden BEHIND the person...... get to know what a mic polar pattern looks like and have a think what the booth is doing.
Its stopping sound being reflected into the back of a cardiod mic..... where there is MINIMAL pickup anyway.
These booths are often designed and built by people that don't know what they are doing and then copied by people that also don't understand acoustics and the myth continues.
 
My audio room is treated decently (per Ethan Winer's forum suggestions) and is pretty dang dead, and I have a nice rear-wall mounted bass trap (6" owens corning in a 4' x 3' frame, suspended several inches from the wall). When I want dead-quiet audio, I seat the speaker in front of the trap and put one of the curved isolators in front of them. If there's going to be music in the mix, I don't usually get as intense about it - but my room's pretty quiet.

But seriously - as odd as it sounds - in a pinch, find out who has a BMW/mercedes/Lexus - "who's got the nicest car here?" (usually the business owner - luxury cars have a lot of sound insulation and usually big engines which call for even more insulation), park it somewhere as quiet as possible and record your VO in the car (with the engine off). You may get blown takes from a bird or passing car but monitor carefully and you'll usually get a much deader, quieter track than anywhere else at the location. (I saw a video once about building the first generation of Acura Sedans… they showed how they were blowing foam into the a-pillars and everywhere else to beat mercedes in quiet).

And to all the people who will say "but what about all the glass"? Just try it. Watch your mic placement, but all the fabrics and a couple bodies and you shouldn't have bad reflection problems. And it usually beats the hell out of the hard-walled meeting room or stairwell people usually go to in a corporate shoot.

One trick to monitoring like this? Good headphones and close your eyes. Cutting off your visual sense lets your brain put more processing to audio. You will hear a lot more stuff, like squeaks from the seats, etc. If you can see it, your brain says "this is normal". With your eyes closed, every little sound leaps out - I think your brain is working harder to make sense of sensory input when your primary input goes down.
 
Yes, some cars make a great VO option. I've also put clothes, jackets, pillows or what ever sound absorbing material I could find to block the front rear windows, the result was deader (almost too dead) than the typical studio VO booth, and if the location is too noisy, it can be easily moved.
 
Buy a Shure SM58 and put a real big wind shield on it and keep it close, then a high pass filter at 100hz and some 2.5-3.5k high end should make it useable.
 
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