The StudioBricks One

   At the beginning of October, I purchased a vocal booth! 
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   I hadn't planned on making this investment for at least another year, but all the right pieces fell into place. The booth was gently used and already available on the east coast. I even had the right amount of money set aside in my savings. All the stars were aligning and it seemed like the perfect step forward in my career. So I said yes!

Why StudioBricks?

   StudioBricks has been on my radar since I saw an interview with a narrator for ACX about what her daily life was like narrating audiobooks. I was tremendously impressed by how comfortable and clean her recording booth and setup appeared, but it took me a while to find out who made such beautiful looking booths! 

   I came across StudioBricks again when I was researching audio treatment solutions for my day job as a Learning Experience Designer. There were a few key factors that I wanted to apply to my personal recording solutions, as well as impart to my supervisor, that made StudioBricks stand out above other vocal booth models I'd seen so far.

• StudioBricks booths are double walled. There is more space to stop and diffuse sound both coming in and out of the booth. 
• The booths are easy to put together and take apart. Someone who has their pieces staged out ahead of time and knows what they're doing (plus a good amount of elbow grease!) can assemble them in under 10 minutes. 
• The booths are made of multiple types of material that prevent the space from becoming too "dead" or "boxy" sounding compared with competitors such as the Whisper Room. 
• StudioBricks also includes voice over customization options in order to treat the space even further and create an ideal voice recording environment. 

Getting the Booth to South Carolina

   I was very lucky that my dad was willing to make the trek to and from Baltimore with me in his 2006 Dodge Durango. My entire plan might have fallen apart without his help! By the time we were packed up and back on the road again, we had only a few square inches in various corners of the vehicle left. With clever packing, we fit every piece and there was no room left to spare - any more and we would have been in trouble! It took both my dad and I, as well as the voice actress I'd purchased the booth from and her ex-Navy husband to make it happen. They were incredible!

​   Back in South Carolina, I was able to call in a few local friends from Audio Centrik to help me unload and get all the pieces into my apartment. Fortunately, once they were inside, my dad and I were able to assemble the booth ourselves together in just an hour!

StudioBricks in Action
 
   The proof is always in the pudding, so rather than tell you, I hope the audio sample below will give you a clear idea of what my recordings sound like in this new space. However, I can say that so far I am completely pleased with the results!

   The recording below does not include any post production at all. No noise removal, compression - nothing! I recorded using a Neumann TLM 49, Grace M 101 Preamp, and Scarlett 2i2 as an interface (I know that last bit isn't ideal, but I don't have my new interface installed yet and this is an acoustics test anyway!) Also check out the short story I'm reading here.

Thinking about your own StudioBricks Booth?

    While I can't recommend this incredible booth enough, here are a few pointers as a new owner that I would recommend for you moving forward!

• No words can describe the weight of the door and frame, especially if you're transporting or moving them assembled together. I would easily guess they are around 200 pounds (we jokingly said it was solid glass and lead.) The weight makes it clear why this booth works but you really need to have at least 2-3 strong guys on hand to move it. After this experience, I intend to hire either movers or body builders the next time we relocate and have insurance on everything just to be safe!
• Stage your pieces out ahead of time and make sure you can tell the wood connector pieces apart. We made a few mistakes with those, but our assembly went very quickly by laying out the pieces ahead of time in order and with the labels upright so we could find what we needed.
• Spend the extra money on the voice over customization if you plan to use this booth for voice over. It's already a great space, but you can tell that the extra pieces add a satisfying final touch. The bass traps in particular are vital!
• Buy extra cable ports. In order to ensure that your booth is properly sealed and maintains good isolation, you have to seal your cables once you've run them out to your computer. In order to do this, you will need StudioBricks cable ports. This video does a much better job of showing what I'm talking about than me trying to explain the process here. I absolutely recommend having extras on hand in case you ever need to switch out your cables. 

Let me know what you think!

   If this experience has you thinking about purchasing your own StudioBricks booth, then awesome! I'm so excited for you to fall in love with them too! If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments, and I will do my absolute best to provide you with an answer. My experience was a little different than a new buyer, but I'm happy to help where I can!