The StudioBricks One

11/4/2018

At the beginning of October, I purchased a vocal booth!

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!

9 Comments

Ian Russell link

12/12/2018 01:52:52 pm

Hi Natalie, I live in Spartanburg and am in the process of buying a booth. Looks like I'm also going with Studiobricks and came across your article and you are in SC too! Small world. I was considering the One Plus as I was concerned about internal space but see you have the One. How do you find it for extreme work like videogames when you are more likely swinging your arms about? Does it have sufficient elbow room for the more 'active' Vo like myself. I assume your booth came with the ventilation system. How have you found that. Do you need to turn it off when recording?Thanks Ian

Natalie

12/12/2018 02:14:07 pm

Hey Ian! Wow you're right - VERY small world! Also congrats on your new (upcoming) booth!

So I was incredibly impressed by the size of the One. I find that I have plenty of room to move and gesture comfortably. I talk with my hands a lot, especially when I'm doing eLearning, so having some space is important to me along with the price tag. I am very comfortable in the space I have and can do a good amount of physicality without having to worry about what's around me. Mind you, I'm not significantly large person (5'4), but it's covered everything I could ask for without being suffocating. Unless you are a very aggressive and broadly physical person, it could very well do the trick!

As far as the ventilation, I have to admit that is the one thing I haven't been able to test yet! Unfortunately the only way I was able to fit it in my current space was up against the same wall where the ventilator sits. As a result, I can't use it at all at this time. I do plan to move next summer though and I am very curious to know how it works myself! In the mean time, it takes longer to heat up than the storage closet I was using. I usually need a break 45 minutes to an hour in when the window starts fogging up, haha.

I hope that helps - feel free to reach out if you have any other questions!

T.R. Campbell link

12/26/2020 05:34:43 pm

Hi Natalie. Thanks for posting this. I too have been considering purchasing a Studiobricks booth. You mentioned the one you bought was already on the East Coast. How did you find or where did you look to find someone selling a pre-owned booth? Also, without having to say the exact price, can you tell me if it was a significant discount buying a pre-owned unit? Thank you!!

T.R.

Natalie Van Sistine

12/26/2020 06:00:50 pm

Thanks so much for your comment! I'm glad it has been helpful to you!

To answer your question (and if I remember correctly), I found the booth via a group on Facebook (VO Gear Exchange). Another voice actor was selling the booth and was offering about a 35% discount from the current price as long as I came to pick it up. To me, it was worth it to drive up and get it!

If you are looking to get a Studiobricks booth with VO in mind and have the funds or ability to do so, I do recommend splurging for a larger size than the base ONE model if possible. The ONE model sounds good if treated appropriately and certainly hasn't hurt my career, but after spending the past year working with actors that have a variety of booths, the ONE Plus model seems to sound the best out of the bunch.

I hope that helps!

Aaron link

3/25/2021 12:37:19 am

Hi Natalie!
Thanks for all the info on your booth. I'm hoping you can answer an additional question for me. I live in an apartment in L.A., and I just recently bought a booth from a different vendor. It is their top level booth, and unfortunately, I'm returning it because the isolation is so poor. I'm not at all expecting sound*proof*, but I was even picking up my dogs' panting on my mic. My question is, what level of noise would you say the Studiobricks booth is capable of keeping out? Noisy neighbors, pets, TV in the other room...or does it still need to be very quiet to get a clean recording? Thanks!
-Aaron

3/28/2021 11:13:44 pm

Hi Aaron,

Of course! I definitely understand this issue and have run into the same problem before with other booths. The isolation for the Studiobricks is so far the best I've encountered when it comes to prefab booths. When I was recording in my closet for example, I used to have to turn off the AC, make sure the TV wasn't too loud in the other, room and had to stop if the pets made noises, traffic or neighbors were too loud, etc. I've found that the single walled Whiperroom and Vocal Booth booths can still pick up those sorts of noises even if they are in another room.

With the Studiobricks I haven't had issues with those noises, though I will say that my booth is always in another room away from my pets and roommate, especially during recording. The only exception is that some low end rumble can get through, but it is usually only such low end noise that it is very easy to EQ out of voice recordings save for rare extreme cases. Depending on where you are in the room/house relative to your AC you may pick up some of the rumble from your unit, but that's usually the worst you can expect in my experience.

That has been my personal experience at least and if you are extra worried about isolation and have to share a space, I do know that Studiobricks does offer a tripe walled version of their booth as an upgrade option (they come double walled by default.) I hope that helps!

3/28/2021 11:42:17 pm

That's *very* helpful. Thank you! I know they have a triple-walled option, but it's larger and quite a bit more expensive. I was hoping to hear that the double-walled is still effective for isolation.

Nate

4/28/2021 06:47:47 pm

Hi there!

What was the cost of your studio bricks one? How long did it take to ship?

5/2/2021 09:12:36 pm

Hi Nate,

This post is specifically about my purchase of a used Studiobricks booth that I drove to pick up within the US. I can't answer either of those questions, but do recommend going to their website and requesting a quote. They are very quick to respond and extremely helpful in answering any questions about purchasing and shipping a new booth.

Best!

The StudioBricks One

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