ISOVOX 2 Home Vocal Booth - White Reviews

So far so good. Easy to set up and I'm very pleased with the sound thusfar.

My house is an untreated space (high ceilings, wooden floors), and this box absorbs all reflections. Some find it claustrophobic, but I like that it eliminates distractions. It absorbs sound so well, it reduces the sound of my voice to the point of feeling like I'm wearing ear muffs. And I like being able to stand up during voiceover. It is expensive, and you will need a good, sturdy stand (they recommend speaker box stands, but I use a very heavy-duty mic stand).

Now the caveats. It absorbs high frequencies so well, if you are talking/singing off-axis to avoid plosives, the result will be a very warm (opposite of bright) recording. I actually use a small-diaphragm condenser mic, and it sounds like a large diaphragm condenser mic. This works out particularly well since it takes up little space in the VoxBox. The mic clip doesn't fit all microphones, and the post for the mic is close enough to the back wall and some mics cannot be used (such as most dynamic mics). If you use printed scripts, there isn't much light provided by the LED lamps, so I aim a high-intensity gooseneck LED light at the ceiling, getting good coverage. It can get a bit humid in there if you have the back closed up. Leaving the back open will reduce the sound-proofing, but will also take some of the excessive warmness out. My last caveat: the manufacturer will not ship parts to the USA, citing expensive postal rates and tariffs. I tried to buy an extra mic clip (plastic, no moving parts) from them (less than $20), but they referred me to one of the American distributers. Trust me, they won't have it. If special ordered, prepare to spend about 300% more for one. It is sturdy and flexible, and if you just leave your Rode NT1A on it all of the time, it should last longer than you do.

In all, it has made my narration better. I need to use a bit of EQ to reduce the lower register, but generally do that anyway. My microphone distance is much more consistent (there's no place to move in there). If you are trying voiceover and cannot afford a sound booth or studio, this is your best choice, far better than squatting in a clothes closet or narrating under the covers of a bed (yes, people do that).

My Sweetwater engineer first introduced me to the Isovox 2. I then reviewed many demonstration videos and customer reviews before ordering my own booth. If you are ready to discard the clothes closet, the moving blankets, the pillow fort, the egg cartons, (see before photos attached), or whatever DIY method you've tried up to now to capture clean, professional, studio-quality audio in your apartment, this is your best alternative. One word of caution, however, if you think the Isovox 2 will eliminate the roar of Harley Davidson motorcycles with stovepipe mufflers, or the rumble of eighteen wheeler semi-tractor trailers racing up and down a four-lane highway just mere feet from your studio window, (as I did), or, if you think it will eliminate the sound of your wife's voice talking on the phone in the next room, or watching TV, or doing the laundry across the hall, (as I did), as they say in Brooklyn, "fuhgedaboutit!" It won't happen. As Isovox 2's own website suggests, this unit was made to block the noise you're making inside the booth from disturbing the outside world, not the other way around. The outside world will still come to you inside this booth. However, that said, you can't beat the clear, crisp, focused sound created inside this booth. Your voice never sounded better. Another word of caution. Make sure your microphone has a bass roll off switch. You will need that to eliminate the bass build-up created by the small interior space. Also, it's extremely difficult if not impossible to mount a shock mount on the microphone mounting rod provided. Also, a normal sized pop filter will likely block your view to your I-pad, tablet or cell phone. You may notice the speaker stand receptacle on the bottom of the base plate is at an angle and looks like a manufacturing mistake. (Note attached photo.) Isovox tells me that's normal. They even have a video explaining why. In short, if you are looking for a way to eliminate room tone, protect the ears of your neighbors, and give you studio quality vocal audio, the Isovox 2 is your best answer and worth every penny!

I was skeptical at first, but I went ahead and bought one of these, as I don't have room to build an actual vocal booth in my home studio. This does a great job at getting you the sound of a vocal booth, and it really cuts out pretty much all exterior noise coming into the microphone. The assembly is simple, and it is truly worth the money if you are looking for professional-level recordings. You MUST buy a monitor stand for this unit. It does not come with a monitor stand, so buy a light-weight monitor stand for stage monitors in order to mount the unit.

Do yourself the favor of buying the unit that comes with a stand and cable. You WILL need the stand.

I bought this product about 4 months ago... I usually work out of really amazing studios out of NYC as an engineer but sometimes I like to track at home and this solved all my issues at once. Granted you do get a bit of a boom in the low miss but nothing you can't scoop with eq. Dry vocals will make your reverbs and delays sound a lot more accented due to the separation in time. Try it, those who made fun of my for buying this funny looking thing now call me every week to come and record in my home studio. In future updates I'd like to see maybe a bit of a bigger version and perhaps a bit more affordable. 1k is a very steep price for this item, specially for those who don't make a living out of audio. To end my rant I recommend it to anyone in need of recording vocals with an untreated environment. I use it with a tlm 103 and a Townsend Sphere and I couldn't be happier.

I'm so happy with this isolation booth, it does what it is meant to do!! I bought it because I have a VERY noisy home and neighborhood and was looking at all the options to create a sound booth in my small home studio. This isolation booth is not perfect and won't block out %100 of certain noises (for obvious reasons, which you can see why), but it does block out most outside noise while quieting audible noise for bystanders and isolating vocals. It's compact enough to have a in a small room as well. Putting it together was fairly easy, but it is heavy, so you will definitely need a heavy duty studio monitor tripod stand. I added some extra blankets and such around the booth to add another layer of isolation, which really helps. My only qualm so far is that I can't flip my mic and angle it back the way I like to, so I am still looking for a viable option to do so inside the booth. I am using the Slate VMS microphone and it fits perfectly. Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase and definitely recommend it, especially for the price (when compared to other options, even DIY)!!

I've had the Isovox 2 for almost a month. I decided to try it out because I live in an apartment and my singing volume was bothering others. Knowing that other people were upset by the volume of my singing really affected my performance and confidence and I felt like I couldn't sing using my full voice. The Isovox really helped with privacy and limiting how much noise I make when singing. The isolation in the box really feels like you're alone and you can sing as loud as you want.

The reason I chose this was because I didn't see the value in spending hundreds of dollars treating my room then spending more money and time on a DIY solution that likely would not work as well. Getting the Isovox meant I didn't have to waste time treating my room for vocals AND I wouldn't bother others when singing with an out-of-the-box solution.

My vocal tracks (prog-metal/metalcore) have been really clean and easy to EQ after using the Isovox. Setup was pretty easy, you really do need a PA speaker stand for this because it's too heavy for a standard mic stand. It's not completely sound proof because the bottom where you put your shoulders/chest is not sealed, but it still reduces the sound significantly to the surrounding areas. My wife can still hear a little bit from the next room with the door open, but it's very muffled.

I didn't give this a full 5 star because the official website and Sweetwater both listed the Shure SM7B as compatible with the Isovox 2, but it doesn't fit. At first, I just used a separate mic stand for the SM7B and routed the cables through, but then I found I could wrap the base of the mic (at the XLR connector) with a cloth and wedge it into the provided mic clamp. Also, Isovox support were very prompt to my emails asking for help with this.

Previously, I tried reflection filters but I couldn't feel a dramatic change for recording.
But this one gave that dry isolated sound I was looking for. Also, it was impressive that my neighborhood didn't complain about singing at night so this one is definitely a great isolation booth.
It just that the product looks relatively a simple product so the price tag to me is pretty expensive but I guess no other is offering similar one yet..

Anyway, I just wanted to share some photo reviews for someone out there who is looking for setting up SM7B with this.
Surprisingly, not much explanation is out there about this but if you see these photos, you will get a good sense of how to setup the mic.

Lastly, I also want to comment that I've been a customer at sweetwater for many years, but never had any issue with any order. Very reliable and professional. Best place to buy musical equips for sure.

The plastic adapter for microphones isn't very strong and couldn't hold my USB mic for more than a few seconds. I had to Jerry rig additional support that takes up precious space for an iPad with the material to be read, but it works. That said, the sound reduction is quite good.

This is literally a game changer. I went from a ton of room noise to very, very little noise. The problem?

It doesn't accommodate large mics well enough. I have a Roswell Colares (killer mic), it pops out of the Isovox white clip so you have to mount it directly to the threaded rod, which is where the problems start.

You cannot get the mic capsule low enough because when the mic is straight, it won't line up with the singer's mouth, so you have to tilt it and keep the Isovox as low in height as you can (to where the singer's head touches the top), which doesn't really solve the problem, but it creates another problem.

Whether straight or tilted, the end of mic cable touches the opening so if the singer moves the Isovox at all, it causes low end audio rumbles (similar to someone stomping the floor above you).

You can't lower the stand it's on for better mic placement because then, the singer won't fit inside at all.

We placed a sock around the opening which fixed the rumble but for over $... and not being able to close mic due to the mic position? Nah, I'll pass, and switch to some GLK panels, sell this and call it even.

This booth has VERY good sound softening effect for its size. And it's portable! Theoretically...
I travel a fair amount and have unzipped and rezipped this thing alng with me now on four flights and busses and I have to say, it's falling apart. While many aspects are well constructed (like the upholstery surrounding the foam) many of the components are in fact held together by HOT GLUE. This is a mind boggling choice to me and came as a deeply disappointing shock.
I'd say, if you;re gonna set this up and never move it again, go for it, it's a great product for a great price. But, if you're going to really be traveling with it, as it's "portable" descriptor encourages, I'd say skip it, spend the Time to build your own.
It's just dense black sound foam with some nice upholstery plus zippers and velcro to hold the panels together.
if you're handy, you can make your own. if you're busy, buy this, but know that parts of it will begin to pull away and you'll be annoyed, and you'll spend time peeling off the now exposed hot glue and shopping out a stronger adhesive with which to repair your nice thing, and wondering why the designers didn't spec something stronger than
hot
glue

hot glue???!!!! even a kid's halloween mask demands a stronger spec.
hot glue!
agh

The boominess is a nightmare… if your singing. No amount of surgical eq (dynamic or otherwise) seems to be able to remove the hollow boxy tones in the 100 to 500hz area without also destroying the rich character of the singers tone. I am using a tlm49, ua 6176 pre and a warm audio eqp1 (true rack gear not plug-ins). You would be better off spending a grand building a 2x4 or 4x4 booth with strategically placed dampers….again buy this product ONLY if you are using it fo V.O's.
Also, product does not keep sound out but it will keep sound in…if your willing to stick your head up a little opening and remain motionless while executing your performance, this is the product for you!