Complete ISO VO Booth

1. THE START

After seeing this Plane Finder image of all the aircrafts flying over head, I knew I needed to upgrade my booth. Especially after booking many high profile jobs in voice over! 

The air noise, plus my wife and puppy not being able to walk around the house without my mic picking it up, convinced me to get a new booth!

I knew that the Studiobricks and Whisper room were out of my budget. Plus those were single and double walled. I asked around and Tom Aglio and Robb Moreira said they were using Complete ISO Booths and liked it!

It was quadruple walled, and they could do custom sizes.

2. THE PLAN

This was the draft of what I wanted. An 8 foot by 5 foot booth that could fit my Shelf Booth directly into it! I drew up the plans and sent it to Justin over at Complete ISO Booths. He was excited to make a custom sized booth, and the price was MUCH lower than other booths companies!

I knew that I wanted a glass door and vents. My worry was that it wouldn't fit in our NYC apartment living room. 

After putting in the order and hiring someone from the local queer community to help build it, I had so many sleepless nights filled with anxiety! "Will the booth fit? What about the shelves? Did I buy this too soon? What if we move in the next year?"

3. THE ARRIVAL

Despite my anxiety and sleep deprivation, it arrived a few months later. All 900 lbs of it! Unfortunately, the shipping company had broken the crate that it was shipped in. There was minor damage to some of the walls and some of the acoustic fabric.

Justin was very helpful and walked me through the process of documenting all the damages so that the insurance would cover it. He even offered to send more acoustic fabric and glue.

I could not have moved this into my apartment without help from Franki and Alex!! 

4. THE LOAD IN

Sorry to my neighbors for taking up the lobby! Franki and Alex managed to load all the pieces onto the blankets from my dismantled blanket-shelf booth.

We documented even more of the damages and looked up the instructional video. Justin explained in an email to treat this as 2 booths put together, but we still had questions. He very graciously answered the phone and helped us find the base pieces!

5. THE SNAFUS

We hit a few road blocks. My old booth would not fit the way I wanted! If I had shelves on each side of the booth, I would not be able to enter because of where the door was.

My floor was also not level, so Alex HULK lifted the booth while I shoved a VO Atlanta magazine under. (Yes, JMC's face is holding my booth up.)

We ended up needing some extra 2x4s as well. The delivery driver thought it was trash and threw it out. I drove to Lowes during their lunch break and got their least warped 2x4.

6. THE BOOTH!

By 8pm on December 13th, the booth was aliiiiiiiive!

It was absolutely unreal that there was now a booth in my apartment.

We'll deal with Shelf #2 and my piano later...

I asked Franki and Alex back the next day to help sort though the cables and add foam to Shelf #1.

8. THE RALLY

The enhancements never stop! I got 2 more sheets of foam from Complete ISO Booths and installed them for better sound. 

You can see in the timelapse that my monitors now rest on top of my piano! I use gorilla double sided tape to make sure they don't fall over... The monitor against the piano wall can also be hooked up to my Mac Mini so I can read sheet music on it!

Other Upgrades: I bought the SSL 2+ to replace my trusty Scarlett 2i2! (let me know if you want to buy it!)

9. THE ACCLIMATION

I could now shut out the apartment sounds! My wife could walk around, wash dishes, my pup could fart and clack her nails on our wood floor, and the booth would block it all out!

The air quality was not great for the first week. I set up and automation through my Alexa Air monitor. Any time the air quality got bad, the booth lights would turn red and the vents would turn on. I also ran an air purifier in the booth

After about a week, the air quality has been consistently over 90 (which is good)!

10. THE RESULTS

My noise floor DROPPED. I was shocked. (Tiktok video for comparison!)

My blanket booth was around the -50s to -40s if there was apartment sound.

My new booth... -60s!! These were hard factual numbers not just feeling that it was quieter. 

I am so happy with this booth and can't wait to keep working in here!

Bonus shot of Soraya using my booth for an audition: