Dave Courvoisier's Blog

With absolute credit to Deirdre Cooper, Board Mistress of the VO-BB, and Voice-Actor extraordinaire, I’m re-posting in its entirety this entry from the Voice-Over Bulletin Board. The article was provided to the divine Ms.C by the equally impressive Harlan Hogan.  Hogan is the author of helpful books on voice-acting, and especially well-known for his expertise in configuring equipment for portable needs. 
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A “Porta-Booth" for Road Warriors

By Harlan Hogan

Quality sound can be portable

I’m a big proponent of setting up and using a home recording studio –
even when you’re far from home. A decent laptop, an audio interface,
and a microphone allow you to audition and work almost anywhere. And
with high-speed Internet readily available there’s no reason to miss
sessions and auditions because you are on location or vacation, unless
you choose to.

I heartily understand, respect, and secretly admire actors who can
tell their clients and agents, “Don’t bother me, I’m on holiday and the
only performing I’ll be doing this week is down at the pool.”

I understand, respect, and admire — but I just can’t do it. I love
this work and when I spend an hour or so a day working on vacation, I
enjoy the remaining 23 hours that much more.

On the road – even with pro-quality recording gear – you’ll often
find yourself in less than perfect recording environments. Most guest
rooms, cabanas, ship cabins, and hotel rooms are OK as long as you
avoid the ones adjacent to the elevators and the ice machine.

However, even a very quiet room (this applies to homes and
apartments, too) can sound like a “big boomy box” to your microphone,
instead of the tight sound booth quality we are used to in
purpose-built studios. That’s because in addition to picking up the
sound of your voice, the microphone is also “hearing” the ambient sound
of the entire space.

Until recently, I’d build myself a tiny little fort out of every
pillow and comforter I could scrounge from housekeeping on the road. My
wife found my constructions less than pleasing esthetically. Then I
remembered the brilliant idea of composer and audio guru, Douglas
Spotted Eagle, that Jeffrey Fisher and I described in, A Voice Actors
Guide to Home Recording.

Douglas realized that for a microphone to sound good and tight you
didn’t need to be inside a sound box – the microphone did. So, he built
a simple 16” by 16” four-sided box out of foam core, lined it with
acoustic foam (usually sold in 16 x 16 inch tiles), stuck his
microphone inside, and recorded with it . Dubbed the VO Box, the
results were stellar even in a “bad” room.

So I decided to construct a road warrior’s version a.k.a.

The Harlan Hogan “Porta-Booth.”

Dell
XPS laptop running Adobe Audition 2.0, Edirol UA-25 USB audio
interface, Sennheiser 416 mic, desk stand, shockmount, pop filter,
headphones, and the Porta-Booth at the Hotel Dominion 1912 – Quebec
City, Canada.

After a few false starts trying wood and plastic, my LA voice actor
buddy Steve Schatzberg suggested one of those “pop up” folding cubes
used to store everything from kids toys to laundry to garbage.

My first attempt with a flimsy mesh cube from The Container Store
worked, but sounded only so-so. Then, Jeffrey Fisher pointed out that
the cube needed to be made of a more substantial material to sound
right. Another shopping sortie and I struck gold! The Home Box
manufactured by Reisenthel.

The folding Home Box has a great sound and is a perfect size at 15
x 15 x 15 inches. Despite its relatively light weight it’s very
sturdily constructed of heavy-duty Dacron sail cloth with a
sound-stopping solid plywood bottom. The Container Store article number
is CX1325CO and as of this writing, the price was a measly $19.99.
Since products come and go and luggage gets lost, I bought a couple of
spares just in case.

One caveat – Reisenthal also makes Home Boxes that don’t swivel and
collapse and they look identical – so make sure you have the fold-up
version! I found this out the hard way when I convinced VO Bill
Ballenberg that the Home Box he’d just purchased on my recommendation
would absolutely, positively fold up. So Bill twisted and pushed and
all but sat on it….and sure enough, it crushed into a mass of bent wire
and polyester. To their credit, his local New Jersey Container Store
happily exchanged it for a proper folding version.

The acoustic foam can be purchased from Markertek, Sonex, or
Auralex – Guitar Centers carry it too and you might ask your favorite
friendly recording studio if they happen to have some scrap pieces
lying around.

The photos tell the story – pop it open, arrange the four foam
tiles, set you favorite mic inside and talk. The foam pieces aren’t
attached to the interior so you can nest them together to save space
when you flatten the box. A quick twist and the whole shebang folds up
to a thickness of about four inches. I tighten a nylon strap -
purchased for a buck at the hardware store – around the box to compress
it even thinner and shove it in my suitcase or a saddlebag if I’m
traveling via motorcycle.

That’s it! (Manufacturing right reserved)

H2

PS: If you do find yourself in the room from Hell, here’s a tip I
learned from a movie soundman. One of the best designed acoustic spaces
on earth is the modern automobile. So, if all else fails, get in that
rental car and find a nice scenic rural roadside. Pull over, shush the
cows – and hit record.

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Also, this additional information from Frank Frederick concerning the portable array:

http://www.ajprindle.com/products/sku-12594__id-72.html

This is actually a Folding Cooler… unique concept – keep your soda
pop in there until you need to do a session, take the cans and ice out
- record your scripts, then pop a cold one and put the ice and the rest
of the cans back in the folding box…

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006ZPC3E/nextag-kitchen-20/ref=nosim

This is a set of 3 cubes in various sizes.  From 16" x 16" x 16" down to 12" x 12" x 12".

There are many others available in the 13" x 13" x 13" size too.

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Thanks Frank!

CourVO