How I Built My VoiceOver Booth (for $200)

[@mikebauer6917]

Cool DIY solution! Your vocals are always great! Please, please keep some fire extinguishers handy; all of that cloth/blankets and electrical equipment intermingled together makes me nervous. We can’t afford to lose you!

[@TheRecordist]

Hey man, thanks! And that’s a great idea, Mike! I hadn’t thought of that. I will do just that immediately! In fact, I’m going to pin this comment to the top so others might see this, too. Thanks so much for the great suggestion and for caring! ❤️

[@DapperDanLovesYou]

Worth noting: You can specifically buy fire-resistant cloths if someone is planning on something similar. In fact, if you're feeling crafty, you could make your own "Acoustic Blankets" that double as fire blankets (not unlike the "Vocal Booth To Go" Producer's Choice Blankets).

[@TheRecordist]

@@DapperDanLovesYou excellent recommendation! Cheers!

[@topfragrances]

I've said this once before however, I will say it once more! You have the best YT channel and production in the cosmos.

[@TheRecordist]

Oh wow. Thanks so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me that! Cheers!

[@risingstu]

I have to admit, wife's approval is a turning point, a milestone in the pursuit of constructing a voiceover booth. It took me twenty years and about a month. I built the booth in total of four weeks... We are now a booth brothers, and we both are in danger of suffocation of wicked huge farts in there. So I built mine near a small ventilation window. It's a salvation.

[@TheRecordist]

Hahahahahaha! Well said! A booth is the best thing ever. Glad you have ventilation! It’s my next project!

[@paulherrick4591]

Voice Booth Bunker Practical quick work, and done. Pros and cons while opening a community discussion. Glorious. Happy and Heathy 2025! Thank you for your channel and good humor. A fan

[@TheRecordist]

Hey thanks so much! I really appreciate your kind words! Happy and healthy 2025 to you as well! Cheers!

[@albertopeixoto]

I went from finding you on a rabbit hole about mics to subscribing and looking forward to every different video you’re gonna make. My compliments to the chef.

[@TheRecordist]

Oh thank you very much! So appreciated, my friend! Cheers!

[@ManuelParodiRamos]

I think you and Bridget have done a wonderful job! Hope you get to enjoy long and often! And of course, thanks for the inspiration.

[@TheRecordist]

Hey thank you very much, Manuel! I really appreciate that!

[@allamfillipe]

Your videos are amazing. Thanks.

[@TheRecordist]

Thank you very much! Cheers!

[@MarkYoshimotoNemcoff]

Really great video! I had no idea the studio room was just moving blankets and old Moose hides. I just thought it was a Canadian bomb shelter. The booth is freaking great. The before footage looks like something out of Silent Hill or a gulag interrogation room, but the after is quite impressive.

[@TheRecordist]

Hahaha. Thanks, Mark! Funny you say a gulag interrogation room. When I recorded the asylum interrogation bit for the Rabbit Tape plugin, that’s the room I did it in because it sounded awful. Hahahaha.

[@M2Texas]

You are... uh, were? ... will be? You am my hero(s). This is a great help. I've just been trying to find a way to create a budget space for recording vocals for music and this seems like a great jumping off point. Thank you for this and everything else you do. You are the definition of a great content creator imo.

[@TheRecordist]

Oh thank you so much! That’s very nice of you to say!

[@DaveSS-xi4pn]

Nixe work!

[@craighoward5486]

Very good! I puzzled for a long time about how to go about this myself, watching too much KZbin and feeling scolded for not having a perfect acoustical understanding. Finally I just moved ahead. I framed a similar space (4' wide by 7' long and 7' tall) put in bats of rock wool between the framing. Then I covered it all with burlap. I feel like I'm in an Amazon delivery box, but it's a remarkably effective space for recording voice for podcast. It feels pretty acoustically dead, which I'm told is not perfect, but nothing competes with my voice in this space. Your videos are always entertaining, and this one was encouraging. Thanks~

[@TheRecordist]

Hey thanks! And that’s great! Just make sure there aren’t any holes in the burlap that can cause some rockwool to shed. That stuff is very bad to breathe in. Your method is the one I originally wanted to do. And I might still do that. I just needed something up immediately so I did this. I prefer totally dead because I can create the room sound later in post, if needed. Great comment, Craig!

[@TheVALLEYBOY559]

I did the same thing . Same blankets ! lol it works and that’s all that matters ! That Stam sounds really good. I have to stop buying mics lol but I love it ! Can’t have to many

[@TheRecordist]

Hahaha. Yes! It works! Bam! Mics… they’re both life and death. Haha.

[@pacovillalta4910]

You are the best. New color, new lut? Looks gritty. Good too.

[@TheRecordist]

Hey! Thanks very much! No lut. Just got tired of the warm lighting and magenta hue. I used a power grade to transform my B-RAW footage into Alexa footage and then took some magenta out. I’m still hunting for the look I want. Haven’t found it yet. Thanks very much for noticing!

[@pacovillalta4910]

My pleasure. Thank you for your openness and generosity to share your wways! Big fan

[@TheRecordist]

@@pacovillalta4910 much appreciated, my friend!

[@barryburns911]

Love it! Inspirational. I've been "building" mine under the basement stairs in my house. Congrats!!!

[@TheRecordist]

Fantastic! And thanks, Barry!

[@TartanKiwi]

Ayo I also built my booth that is around my desk for around 200$! I bought a bunch of PVC and a pack of 7 3.4m moving blankets and made a frame with the PVC, hung the blankets so they doubled up and finally put some of my old acoustic panels over the top to make a floating ceiling type effect. And I left some opens in the booth so it doesn't sound boxy and wallah! Great to see the nice cheap booths we can just make and it doesn't even take alot of effort

[@TheRecordist]

Oh wow! See now that is a great idea! Thanks for sharing! Cheers!

[@ramspencer5492]

Sweet Booth on a budget! Congrats!

[@TheRecordist]

It does the job! Haha

[@Rounder-One]

Hi Bastion Baltazar Bucks. I hope I spelled your name correctly. Your furniture cushion and clothing-based booth (underware?) is well-damped and probably will sound great for critical V.O. However, I also like the "sound" of your open area where you record your videos, because it has a touch of clarity, a good balance of the room sound and reflection control. And here’s a tip: Keep your basement at 60 degrees fahrenheit or lower so as not to be trapped by a fart. The fart air, being much warmer, will quickly rise and filter out through the ceiling.

[@TheRecordist]

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good tip! Hahahahaha

[@CreepypastaChroniclesDE]

What microphone are also interesting is a in Germany hand make weissklang v17 or v13 or L1, please test once of them :)

[@TheRecordist]

Hey there. Sure. I’ll try to get those. Cheers!

[@northcoaststudios]

I've had thoughts of a fairly similar construction for a booth after I retire and move. I didn't even think about black-out curtains that also advertise acoustic blocking as well. NICE idea. Right now I am just looking for a value (read "cheap used or to construct cheap") mic isolation box for doing voice over. I don't know how long I am going to be in this house and am looking to get started in VO (already have audio equipment) and just need something to quiet things down and get some practice.

[@TheRecordist]

Hey thanks! Well, there are booths on Ali Baba and Ali Express. They won’t do anything for sound proofing but they’ll definitely help with reflections.

[@DearNoobs]

Fun idea, since the colour of the interior of the booth shouldnt mater to the audio, a light colour could make it feel more roomy, if you ever come across a few rolls of a nice colour that is. just an idea. oh and onetime i found some really nice moving blankets for $10 each at princess auto. i bought a boat load of them, surely a mistake on their part. i love princess auto

[@TheRecordist]

That’s a great idea! When I bought the curtains, I was going for a blue color but they didn’t have any in stock. I had to build it quick so I just went for black. The light colored curtains are a great idea! And $10 each for those blankets is a steal!

[@billkaroly]

You can pipe in air from an inline fan and a baffle system as it enters your booth. My wife has a ton of cut up jeans in our attic we've had for 14 years which she has done nothing with. Maybe I'll build a small booth. Thanks.

[@TheRecordist]

Yes. Great advice! And you should do the booth!

[@Bloor005]

20 bucks? Pretty good going! With those bass trap things I've read they need to be about 18 inches deep to have an affect, and be 2 or so inches off the wall. The sponge is supposed to free float and flex or something.

[@TheRecordist]

Yes. I got a deal on them so thought I’d try them. Total garbage. I could already tell when I received them. They’re just not dense enough.

[@Bloor005]

@@TheRecordist what you can do is coat them to improve them. There are fabric latex paints (stinky though) as it might mean the air pockets/bubbles flex less. It wont do a great deal though tbf. Or soak a thinned acrylic paint/lacquer into them and let it set so they stiffen.

[@alexisvazquez691]

Great job, thank for sharing.

[@TheRecordist]

Hey thanks! And no worries!

[@PokeChit]

lol ... Hello there! I love all the nerdy stuff sir bucks

[@TheRecordist]

Hahaha. Thanks so much!

[@paulquinnvoiceover8354]

Talking conversationally it sounds great, but what about higher energy work? Small booths can start to sound boxy when the sound waves start bouncing around a small space. Just curious :)

[@TheRecordist]

That’s a great question. There is no body sound in there no matter how loud and lively I get. I tested this repeatedly, which is what guided me with the amount of stuffing. It’s dead in there. Sometimes I think it’s too dead.

[@rayrestless]

your space sounds absolutely amazing.. GREAT WORK!! This alone is worth channel subscription...

[@TheRecordist]

Hello, Ray! Welcome to the club! Thanks so much! Also, your name will be included in videos beginning in January! You’ll have a producer credit! How would you like your name to be written in the credits? Thanks for joining! Cheers!

[@64RRussell]

12:19, I’d been listening for that like it was South Park and I was waiting for: “You killed Kenny! You bastards!”

[@TheRecordist]

Hahahahaha

[@vampula12]

Its great! Mine is 1×1m long and wide(structure made of tubes) and has just one layer of blankets up to the ceiling, yeah Its hard to breathe in there really

[@TheRecordist]

That’s great! They work! And it’s all you need… for now. Haha

[@kodakodiak3949]

i wonder how you'd get ventilation to work well in a space like that if it was being designed from the ground up 🤔 Id assume youd need a way to shut off AC at will, so that you dont get system noise. Surely they make acoustic vent covers. Great video as always!

[@TheRecordist]

Thanks so much! I have no idea. Perhaps two wide tubes like dryer vent tubes with fans outside the booth. One is sucking and one is blowing, creating an air exchange? I’d have to think about it.

[@kodakodiak3949]

@TheRecordist i work in architecture so these are the odd things that pop into my head haha. I will have to reach out to an engineer or architect where i work and see of one of them knows

[@MichaelSteighner]

Sounds fantastic!

[@TheRecordist]

Thanks! I think it does the job nicely!

[@PokeChit]

HAHAHAH wicked farts are the worst... especially with my booth door shut lol. I built my booth by cutting through the drywall under my stairs... its pretty small for a big ol guy like me. I will post a pic on discord later today.

[@TheRecordist]

Hahahaha. Are you on the Cult of VO Discord?

[@PokeChit]

@@TheRecordist Yes I am lol. I have posted a few of my youtube videos in the for likes thread.

[@ahfimiwonawun]

Wish I could get into voice over work.

[@TheRecordist]

It’s just a matter of doing it. I said that for years. I’m now doing it. Or at least starting. Give’er!

[@Joesmoeyaudio]

I would like to know your thoughts on the mke 600 and how u think it stacks up to the 416 as I’ve heard there pretty close

[@TheRecordist]

Hey there. I don’t have much experience with the MKE 600 but I can say that I doubt it’s as close as we’d want it to be, else the 416 would stop selling, and it hasn’t. It’s still a hugely selling mic. For more than 50 years now.

[@BoxRecords]

I think you need to invent a signature hand gesture greeting, so we .. The Time Preservation Society fans and maniacs .. can recognise each other on the street.

[@TheRecordist]

HAHAHAHA! That’s a great idea!

[@barryburns911]

By the way. Would you be interested in hearing a sample from my booth and give me your "feedback"? But not real feedback. That would not be helpful.😀

[@TheRecordist]

Hahaha. Sure! Send it to my email: [e-mail] Cheers!

[@HarmonicaTool]

Thank you for the encouraging video. Do you see any value in those small screens that people mount behind the microphone on the stand? Are they worth anything or not really?

[@TheRecordist]

Reflection filters? Sometimes they can come in handy but they won’t make a reflective room sound better. The sound will bounce behind you and then right back into the front of the mic. But in a semi treated room, they can come in handy.

[@HarmonicaTool]

@TheRecordist So they are not just snake oil? Thanks for the answer.

[@winnipegbandog]

I have a question. What do your leather strap holsters hold?

[@TheRecordist]

Hey there. That’s a good question. They hold my Apple AirPods 2. I crushed my last pair in my pants pocket. Then I kept them in my coat and would always forget them. This works out well. I also can stick my phone or items like flashlights or other things I need at the ready when I’m either on a shoot, or field recording, or anything really.

[@winnipegbandog]

@@TheRecordist That is handy indeed. I could use something like that myself.

[@TheRecordist]

@@winnipegbandog I’m all about being prepared. Hahaha

[@eaglerayrob]

Have you ever had any noise issues, audible or electrical, with led lighting?

[@TheRecordist]

No. Not at all. I’m running all of my stuff through Furman power conditioners, though. Further to that, I expected to have camera shutter issues with some of those lights but not one problem.

[@jmccaintx]

So about $13,000 Canadian?

[@TheRecordist]

Hahahaha. About $260

[@MigranteKorea]

"They are making the kwan." 😊😉

[@TheRecordist]

I said that? Hahaha

[@MigranteKorea]

Bcoz you said help me help you 😁

[@windpeoples]

Bastian! You must be about 50 now... have you been back to Phantásien lately?

[@TheRecordist]

I have not! And I miss it so!

[@caesaredouard]

Dang, I should've watched this video before building my voiceover booth for $5000.

[@TheRecordist]

Oh no no. I’m sure yours is MUCH better than mine. If I knew I was going to be building this, I would have planned it better and allotted more money to it. I just needed something very quick and cheap.

[@PokeChit]

Oh silly permission from the wife lol

[@TheRecordist]

Yes. It always comes down to that! Hahaha

[@liveto1]

Is there anything sacred about the dimensions you chose?

[@TheRecordist]

Absolutely nothing sacred whatsoever. It’s the size of the room I was working with and the amount of padding I had to add. The measurements came after the room was sufficiently deadened. Haha.

[@RichardOldroyd-s7n]

If it works then why spend more?

[@TheRecordist]

Exactly!

[@CaptainMoto]

I have a relatively inexpensive solution for your ventilation problem but, it looks like if I put it in a comment it will be deleted.

[@TheRecordist]

Hahahahaha. Now I MUST know. Hahaha

[@CaptainMoto]

@@TheRecordist I don't understand the comment process, my replies never show up

[@jxsanche]

Embarrassingly noob question: why not use the iPad in the booth to record the audio rather than using a 50 ft. cable to a separate computer?

[@TheRecordist]

Hey that’s a good question. Well, I have several pieces of outboard gear (preamps, EQs, a few compressors, etc) and I want to be able to use them. I also want to record directly into my DAW for editing with my preferred plugins later. Also, the iPad in my booth is an iPad 4, which is about 12 years old and has very dated software. Also, I cannot connect an interface to it the way new ones can. But I also have a high end recorder in the booth, in case I want to record directly to that. Hope this answers that. Haha.

[@jxsanche]

@@TheRecordist Thank you so much for your explanation!! Makes complete sense. At first I thought "why not record 'raw' audio through preamp and audio interface into iPad and then load that file into the DAW and apply whatever filters you like", but if it's an iPad 4, I can see why you opted for the computer option. Thanks again! Love your videos!! don't stop

[@TheRecordist]

@@jxsanche exactly! My studio rig is extremely high-end and my iPad is ancient. Perhaps it’s time to upgrade. But yep, you got it! Thanks for the kind words! Happy holidays!

[@DearNoobs]

+1 comment :p

[@TheRecordist]

Hahahah

[@64RRussell]

You don’t have $10k to build a voiceover studio, but I’d bet you own many times that in cost/value when it comes to microphones. I’m not suggesting that is inappropriate, or a poor choice of where to put your money. I’m just saying they are all work tools (mic’s, studio hardware/editing equipment, cameras). But, why spend money unnecessarily, if you can get a good result spending far less?

[@TheRecordist]

Yep. You’re exactly right. Just 10 of my mics would total that. Never mind the rack gear and 500 series gear and cameras and lights and all that. You’re right. But it took me years to collect all that. And the booth was an afterthought - or at least, it wasn’t something I had planned on doing in this house. Then the offers came, so I did it.