My setup-
I have been using the Vicbooth since a week now. The Vicbooth size is 2mx2m, nevertheless my review is applicable to all sizes. My Vicbooth setup is used as a mixing room, tracking/recording room and rehearsal room.
Use-
1. Audio engineers- Excellent for mixing , mastering and recording. The room has no reflections and feels very dry. During mixing, making decisions are faster, more accurate and confident.
2. Musicians- The booth is a boon for musicians who want to practice at high volumes without disturbing the neighbours or being disturbed by outside noise.
Instruments and vocals sound exactly like it should with no room reverb, which is very important to dial the right tones.
3. Others- Can be also used as an office space to work in silence and undisturbed.
4. Home studio- I would definitely recommend to use this as your home studio, as the way I do. Neighbours don't hear anything. Family members may hear at very low volumes, if they are near the Vicbooth.
Pros:
1. Silence for neighbours- At the moment the sound played inside the Vicbooth at 80db ( that's loud inside the Vicbooth) is definitely not louder than low volume audio from a mobile phone outside the Vicbooth. Outside the Vicbooth, the low frequencies (Sub monitor inside the Vicbooth) are not aggressive enough to be absorbed by the room walls to disturb the neighbours.
2. Silence inside the Vicbooth- Inside the Vicbooth there is total silence and no room reverb. Feels like absolute true sound. If someone shouts outside the Vicbooth , one can still hear it inside the Vicbooth at a very low volume. So while recording inside the vicbooth it is important that there should not be high to medium decibels of sound level outside the Vicbooth.
3. Very good as a mixing/mastering room- I have been using the Vicbooth as my mixing and mastering room for a couple of days on some of my projects. I was surprised to hear the clarity of sound inside the Vicbooth. I could hear clearly, the things I had to fix and could make quick and confident decisions. The Vicbooth increases your confidence in decision making. There is absolutely no reflections to disturb the original sound. It's kind of as if the room becomes a giant headphone.
4. Very good as a recording room- At the moment, I have used the Vicbooth as a recording room , to record 2 artists on vocals and guitars. The recording was absolutely clean and flawless. There is total silence during silent sections of the recording. The recording artists also felt pretty comfortable to work in the Vicbooth for long hours.
5. Very good as a rehearsal room- Since I am a bass player. I am unable to practice bass in my apartment with an amplifier at a decent volume. Right now I practice bass inside the Vicbooth at an enjoyable volume level. Well, the bass frequency does leak a bit outside the Vicbooth but it is at a very low volume and not strong enough to affect the walls of the room.
6. Instruction manual- The instruction booklet has very clear and understandable guide instructions for assembly. It is similar to Ikea instruction manuals. Please do not skip the sequence of instructions.
7. Visual look- The Vicbooth has a white mate finish which looks very good in my white room. The windows of the Vicbooth are large enough to view inside and outside. the Glass is extremely transparent. the inside material has a carpet fabric all over.
8. High power amplification monitors- I was surprised that my Yamaha HS5 monitors and sub sounds very loud in the Vicbooth. The monitors have volume knob at 12o'clock position and sub has at 9 o'clock position. I also thought that back ported monitors would create a problem at low frequencies inside the Vicbooth, but that does not occur. The sound is absolutely clean. There is absolutely no boominess. the Vicbooth has be EQed to have a flat response.
9. Air vents- there are 4 passive vents on the ceiling and 4 on the floor. i sit inside the Vicbooth for around an hour or maybe longer. I don't feel that the air is uncomfortable. It does get a bit old but when ever I am not using the Vicbooth , I do keep the Vicbooth door open for extra ventilation.
Cons:
1. Ceiling panel design fault- This is a very silly design fault which the company should improve on. The ceiling panels are heavy and need 2 people to install the panels to the ceiling. One person to hold the panel and the other to screw the screws in. The problem is that the screws do not coincide with the nut hole. I also think that the screw threading is not the same as the nut. Some nut holes had, I think could have been some adhesive solution which prevented the screws to thread smoothly into the nut. i struggled to fix this situation. Due to this i couldn't fit the ceiling centre plate. I had to improvise and build my own fitting to secure the ceiling panels.
2. door handle missing- I guess there is a leather door handle which comes with the door. I couldn't find this in any of the packaging. This is really not a problem for me because the door does not need an inner handle as the door closes by a magnetic seal. One can push the door from the inside to open it.
3. Sealing tape is too thin- Between the joints of the entire structure, there is a sealing tape that is provided to air tight seal the joints. I think the thickness if this tape is too thin. I checked the joints with outer room light and could still see light penetrating through the gaps. i have used duct tape to further close these gaps to reduce audio leakage.
4. Paint colour, paint smell- The black colour paint on the frame does come off and can dirty the white mate finish. I fixed this with detergent soap. the newly built Vicbooth will have strong chemical paint smell. It took me around a week to get rid of this smell with coffee and odour absorbing products.
5. Packaging- There is a small package with a lot of important fixture items, that was not packed securely. This package arrived in an open condition with all these items falling out. This box needs to be sealed well.
6. Screws- Vicoustic should care about this problem. the screws and nuts should coincide comfortably. There is some adhesive solution inside the hole of the nut, that could be stoping this smooth engagement. The quality of metal of the screws to fix the ceiling panel should be made of much higher quality (Like the ones used to fit the walls of the Vicbooth).
Tips:
1. Size and weight transportation- This entire product arrived on a pallet (1m x 2m) and was almost 2m high. the entire package weighed almost 700kgs. The pallet is placed right at the parking place on the street. At least 4 persons are required to transport the separated items to the installation location. Each separated item would weigh around 30kgs and require 2 persons to handle each item. The biggest items is around 2m x 1m in size.
2. Vicbooth assembling- Minimum 2 persons are required for Vicbooth Assembly. Please note : The air vents on the floor should be placed in a position that is always kept open and no objects are placed over it. The floor units can be fixed in any combination, so this is where you need to plan your cable position and your air vents.
3. Extra seal to reduce audio leakage- i do recommend to buy more sealing tape and double seal all the joints. Also seal it further with duct tape from inside and outside..
4. Professional tool set requirement- Motorised screw drives are very helpful, as the 3 Allen keys are too slow and tedious to assemble a big structure like the Vicbooth. A mallet with a wooden or rubber head is need. a small A-ladder is definitely required.
5. Room Size- The room size where the Vicbooth is installed should have a minimum space to build the Vicbooth. I have built the Vicbooth between 3 walls on 3 sides (space between 2 walls is 2.28m). and ceiling height is 2.45m. I would not recommend a Vicbooth 2x2 if you have lesser space. Keep in mind that you need to have adaquate moving space on all sides of the vicbooth to deal with the fittings.
6. Cabling and lighting- The is no provision for cable and lighting management, besides the cable entry holes in the floor. I have improvised with cable ties stickers to help this situation.
8.Cleaning- The floor carpet, walls and ceiling can be easily vacuum cleaned. the windows need a normal glass cleaner. the outer walls may need some light detergent soap solution.
Other thoughts- Overall, I am extremely happy with the Vicbooth. It had definitely increased my quality of productivity.
The pricing may sound a bit too expensive, but if you think of working in a space for long term, then it is worth it.
I would like to thank Vicoustic for their effort in making this product.
