t.akustik Vocal Head Booth

A
coustic treatment
can seriously
improve the
reliability of both
your recording and
listening spaces.
But what if
permanent changes aren’t an option
or you simply need to improve things
quickly? That’s where a portable
vocal booth comes into play. We’ve
seen various efforts at this over the
years, including some very similar to
this one (Isovox 2 Vocal Booth for
example). It’s clearly an attractive
concept, and the latest design I have
on trial, Vocal Head Booth, comes
from Thomann’s t-akustik brand.
Vocal Head Booth is made
primarily from 40mm PET polyester
fi bre. This is a reasonably dense but
still springy fi brous material that
once manufactured forms pretty rigid
panels with a clean, stable fi nish. For
the Vocal Head Booth these are self
supporting and joined together on the
edges. So, along with a black
lacquered MDF baseboard you have a
reasonably sturdy, large hood (roughly
75 x 53 x 54cm) with shaped
sections either side to accommodate
your shoulders. It’s bulky though not
unrealistically heavy (7.8kg). It’s
designed to go on a standard 35mm
equipment tripod, and one of these is
included if you buy the bundle deal.
The hood has a number of rather
cool features. Firstly, it includes a
slide-in mic holder with 50mm of
height adjustment. Then on the
underside of the baseboard is a pop
fi lter mounting bar and a large
headphone hook. The base board has
environment inside the hood are
worth mentioning. However, there’s
no denying the Vocal Head Booth
considerably reduces the room
ambience that gets on the mic, quite
an achievement. I guess the only
other thing is it’s quite large, so you
need somewhere to store it.
The Vocal Head Booth reduces on
mic ambience, delivering a tight
sound, and is a fraction of the cost of
more permanent room treatment or
an isolation booth. Overall it’s a solid
effort that I’m very impressed by.
a 30mm wide slot, which helps
neatly accommodate not only your
popshield arm and mic cable but
allows you to introduce a regular mic
stand into the space if desired.
Inside the hood you’ve got a
magnetic clip high up behind the
mic for your lyric sheet, and there’s
also a magnet to mount the included
battery powered LED spotlight.
Finally, there’s a slot-in piece of PET
that goes behind your head and can
be adjusted up or down, or removed.
So how does it deliver sonically?
The fi rst thing to notice once you get
your head inside the space is how
dead it is. Just listening without
headphones, it really does take away
the ambience in the room. So how
does this translate to the mic sound?
Firstly, there is an obvious difference
when you add the rear slotted section
behind your head, meaning you
essentially have two degrees of
reduction. Next up, aside from the
reduced room sound, the mic does
sound different inside the hood, with
a boost in the low mid frequencies.
It’s certainly not a deal-breaker, and
it should come as no surprise that
the booth has its own acoustic
response. Nevertheless, this as well
as the slightly claustrophobic
THE PROS & CONS
+
Many handy
integrated features
Substantially
reduces the
room ambience
Well constructed
with quality fi nish
Good value
-
Booth has its
own acoustic
You’ll need a decent
space to store it
when it’s not in use
FM VERDICT
8.6
It may not be the most
portable room acoustic
device we’ve tried, but it
is by far one of the most
effective. If you truly want
to reduce room ambience on
speech and vocals, it’s an
excellent option
A fraction of the cost of
a more permanent room
treatment or isolation booth
t.akustik Vocal Head Booth | Reviews
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