Build a $21 Portable Vocal Booth
One of the hallmarks of amateur podcasts is extraneous sound in the voiceover. If you simply stick a mic on your desktop or kitchen table, it will pick up all kinds of audio garbage, from howling computer fans to humming refrigerators. Another ugly sound is reverberation caused by your voice bouncing off hard surfaces like walls or tabletops, which imparts a hollow, blurry effect to the sound, reducing the punch and intimacy.
Professional voiceover artists, of course, record in soundproofed studios, but that's not always an option when you're traveling. A year ago, I mentioned voiceover pro Harlan Hogan's ingenious portable vocal booth, a collapsible box that surrounds the mic with acoustic foam, blocking background noise and reverberation. Hogan has since developed an improved version (blue box at right), which he explains how to make here. (I love the subtitle: "Quality Recordings on the Go and on the Cheap.")
O'Reilly reader "wbk" noted that Hogan is now selling premade versions of the kit as well. (Notice the excellent-sounding voiceover on Hogan's page.) The cost is a reasonable $129, but if you still want to build your own, check out this tutorial from the crafty Jake Luddington (right), who found an alternate source for the the expensive foam. You still need to buy enough foam to make two booths to get that price, but that should put you well on the way to hosting your own interview show.
For an ironic demonstration on why a vocal booth is helpful, listen to the voiceover on Luddington's tutorial video: He was speaking into a distant camcorder mic, so there's all kinds of audio garbage.
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Comments (2)
Read More Entries by David Battino.
@Daniel: Spencer Critchley has some interesting recordings using the SE Reflexion Filter, a partial baffle. I've had pretty good results recording in my bedroom closet, pushing apart the shirts and suspending a mic between them from rubber bands. Reading the script in that position is a pain, though. I liked Harlan Hogan's idea of reading from his iPhone inside the box.
Hmmm,
I tried this a year ago with two different microphones and recorded samples with and without the "booth" and with the microphone placed in three different positions. To my surprise, my testers were unanimous in preferring the recording I made not using the mini booth.
My best reviews so far (and I'm still searching) is a quilted jacket that I lift over my head and shoulders and above the mic to deaden most of the bounces I might get.
Anyone have better ideas?
D