t.akustik Vocal Head Booth

After comparing this product from t.akustik to ISOVOX, I decided to spare my wallet and give the cheaper underdog option a chance.

First of all you gotta set realistic expectations for it: if you're getting it in order to prevent your baby from waking up while you're recording screamo vocals — this is not going to work out. However, it does a great job of preventing reflections from bouncing off your walls and into your mic again, dampening the hum of your PC fans and whatnot.
Visually it's very solid, the walls are 4cm thick and minimal design allows it to fit most rooms without standing out too much.

Things I liked the most:
— It's spacious in there!
— Pop filter and headphone holders. Really neat.
— No assembly required.
— Minimal design.

Ways to improve in the next iteration:
— Controlled isolation on the front/sides. I get why there's an open space for shoulders, but it allows for some reflections to sneak in if placed next to a wall. I might throw a blanket over it just to get a little more out of it.
— Adjustable light brightness, that LED is very bright.
— To add to the point above, some batteries for the light would be nice 😅

And that's it. I've only had it for a couple of days but so far I'm really enjoying it. If you're like me and don't want to study acoustics to treat your room, you'll probably save yourself some money and a lot of headache by getting this thing instead.

Let's face it, even when you acoustically treat your room, if you live in a rather noisy area you'll get some background noise. I gave the t.akustik Vocal Head Booth a try thinking "let's see if it makes any difference, otherwise I can send it back". Well, it made a huge difference. Yes, you'll need to know how to mix such a dry sound, but once you learn you'll get amazing results. I almost gave up and started booking studio sessions before trying this out, but now I just record at home and I'm super happy with the results. So yes, even if they don't advertise it, this things DOES work at reducing background noise. Amazing.

This is a solid addition to your studio, I love it! I have a cramped studio, so space to store it, as well as space to use it, is difficult for my situation. So if anything one should consider, is the dimensions of the product and how much space you have in your studio. Other than that, the quality this generates for your vocals is amazing. I usually run a lot of plugins in my audio software to get it sound how I'd like it... with the Vocal Head Booth, I do NOT need to do this anymore. It is a sort of equalizer, in and of itself, in my humble opinion. The only thing I have to attenuate for in my audio software is the bass... For a deeper voice, such as myself, it does bring up the bass quite a bit. So, I suppose, if there is any sort of equalization that need to be done, would be to dial that back in your recording, if anything. This is not soundproof, so bear that in mind. Think of it more as a on-mic tool that improves the quality of your recordings, allowing you to do less in the editing department. Therefore why I call it... THE Equalizer. Cheers!

It's big and heavy and makes you look like an alien, but it's very effective!
A friend of mine recently bought an Isovox and got good results in his city apartment.
I do some engineering for him and was impressed with it.

In my case, I am lucky enough to have a detached live room and as my needs were simpler than his, I decided to try this as it is half the price and thought it may be perfectly good enough in my environment.
However my room is being refurbished at the moment and the old acoustic treatment has been ripped out, ready to be replaced.
I thought I could use this in the meantime and it could also be useful afterwards too, as I don't have the budget or the space for a proper mic booth.
It certainly does the job, a nice dry sound, easy to work with and mix.

If you need to cut out external city sounds (sirens, birds, children playing, dogs barking, helicopters, planes etc etc) this and the Isovox help a little with that too, but they are not really designed for that purpose.
I know many people look to this kind of device for that reason.
Instead they are designed to give you an easy dry acoustic to work with in a room where the acoustics are not perfect and they both excel at that.

Personally I don't feel the need to go to the expense of an Isovox, it depends on personal circumstances and preferences, but I'm perfectly happy with this