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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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  • This old shopping recommendation question is not on topic, although it is interesting. Closing.
    – Rory Alsop
    Nov 1, 2021 at 11:22

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Yes, the Whisper Rooms sound very boxy and they ring to no end. I had to work with one on a regular basis when I was teaching audio post at Full Sail for 2.5 years. I hated having to use that room. They don't cut down on outside noise coming in all that well either. And if you do clog all the vents and seal the cracks, it gets very hot in there. I suppose you could treat it to make it not so square and thus boxy and ringy, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

I'd suggest building a room yourself. You could do it for a fraction of the cost of one of those rooms. You might consider that money wasted since you'll have to tear it down and can't bring the room with you when you have to move again, but consider it time and money saved from all the problems a whisper room would give you.

Another option would be building a small ADR room off site with a modest PC and interface.

Or maybe you could find a studio and make a deal with them for using their facility or renting space there. I'm sure there's some struggling studio out there that would be happy to make a little extra by partnering in these tough times.

Best of luck!

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Check out the rooms from VocalBooth.com. I have used both Whisper Room and VocalBooth but the VocalBooth didn't have the boxy sound (it was fully treated on the interior, I think this was standard). The VocalBooth room was diamond shaped which may have had something to do with it as well. I was also using a single wall version from VocalBooth compared to the double-walled Whisper Room and it did a much better job reducing the exterior noise. I think you could probably save money purchasing a single wall booth from them and the space is much better acoustically for VO. Having something mobile and be practically sound proof is pretty impossible unless you get into the metal booths which are super expensive. Just my two cents. Also, from time to time I see them on Craiglist for much less than new.

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Professional musician here. I bought my 4x4 Whisper Room with window door, wall with window, single layer soundproof model, castor plate, ventilation system, sound proof box for the fan, door lock, put in a custom desk, and shipped the whole thing to Finland 20 years ago. It perfectly soundproof, provides complete sound isolation, I also bought 3 accoustic panels, but never needed them for vocals. It's a top notch booth and if you want amp isolation, can you put in the bass traps and use velcro for the foam accoustic panels.

My Whisper Room has lived it's whole life in my studio and it looks brand new. The technical support from Whisper Room in Nashville is excellent. There was one awkward moment where some sound leakage became noticeable after 10 years of use. I phone Whisper Room Technical Support and they suggested that I check the alignment of the door. Sure enough, it was off by a couple milimeters. After making the adjustment, there was no more leakage.

In 20 years, that's the only adjustment that I've made. I highly recommend this sound booth and totally don't understand the comments from people who weren't satisfied with their sound booths from Whisper Room. It's weird!

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