Reflexion Filter: The Premium Portable Sound Booth
February 5, 2009
I’ve talked plenty on this blog (and on other blogs and online forums) about doing your own narration work for your eLearning projects. And I will continue to do so. Sure, most of us don’t have the golden “Voice of God” (heaven knows I don’t) and weren’t really born to do voiceover work, and yes, using a professional voiceover specialist for your project will almost certainly result in a higher quality product (though I’ve argued that hiring the wrong voiceover person will give your project a cheesy “over-produced” vibe), but if you’re doing guerilla work in the trenches without a ton of money to throw around, doing your own narration work may be a necessity.
So let’s assume you’re like me and you’re doing your own narration. Does that mean strapping on a cheap headset microphone and popping and heavy breathing your way through your course? I certainly hope not (though I’ve been subjected to courses where the narrator did exactly that). You do need to invest some money in decent equipment. Decent, of course, being highly subjective – most real voiceover pros would laugh at my pitiable little setup (and my voiceover work, for that matter). That said, there have been great strides made in recent years with products geared to podcasters (and, consequently, DIY eLearning course narrators). Selection is way up, prices are down – people are cutting entire albums in their own homes, on a tight budget, with a level of quality The Beatles would have killed for.
A big issue that remains for us guerilla narrators is sound isolation. We don’t have foam-enveloped sound booths in which to record. So we have to improvise. I did it with under $50 worth of foam core and acoustical foam tiles. The problem is the whole thing is very rickety, it’s a pain to set up, and frankly, it looks third-rate (which has the unfortunate effect of making me feel third-rate about the work). And my sound is probably too “dead” with this setup anyway.
When I get serious about this narrating thing (read: when I get some extra cash), I plan to look for something better, both for my microphone and for my home-based sound booth. A new microphone will come first (my review of 3 Marshall MXL mics will be posted soon).
For a portable sound booth for the discriminating narrator, perhaps the Sound Engineering Reflexion Filter best fits the bill. Five layers of sound-aborbing materials, wrapped in an I-mean-business-looking punched (for sound diffusion) aluminum shell.
(Note to Sound Engineering: shrinking that enormous logo would provide an instant uptick in classiness.)
Not only should the Reflexion Filter help keep the sound bouncing off your walls from wrecking your recording – even more importantly it should also do a good job blocking out the hum of your computer fans (as you’re likely recording directly to a PC).
I say should because I haven’t tested one – nor am I any type of audio recording expert. But I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
(Actually I lie – I don’t even have the Holiday Inn Express thing going for me…*sigh*)
The bad news? The Reflexion Filter sells for about $300 (street price). Cheap for real audio professionals. Not cheap for eLearning guerilla narrators.
That said, I may be saving my pennies for the Reflexion Filter. Frankly, I’m tired of inadvertently knocking my teetering foam tiles over.
I wouldn’t mind trying out a Sound Engineering USB2200a USB microphone either (it’s probably time to retire the Snowball). Another $400 for that – not including shock mount or stand. Ouch. But perhaps money well-spent if you’re going to be doing a lot of your own narrating. Hey, you’ll still end up saving money in the long run over hiring the work out…
Posted in 
content rss
February 6th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I bought one of these a while back. It’s amazing and does everything it says. You can move the microphone closer or farther from the back to control flatness.
But…
I’ve never used it. It’s huge. There is no way to record screen tutorials using this thing. The only way to use it is to put it off to the side but then you’re not talking directly into the microphone and losing the absorption behind the mic. See if you can try it out before you buy it.
You’d be hard pressed to use this along with a music stand to read scripts. It’s just too big.
I can post pics if you’re interested. I wish they had a smaller size.
David
February 6th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
David, I too thought this thing might be too big to be practical, but then I take a look at my “little” jury rigged soundbooth and realize the Reflexion can’t possibly be *that* big. I record my narration at an angle, reading my script off to the side. Not the most ergonomic or comfortable setup, but it’s the best I can do without building an actual sound room.
Since I don’t do screen tutorials, perhaps you’d like to sell your Reflexion Filter?
P.S. some pics of this thing “in the real world” would be great, if you have some…
February 6th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Pics:
http://www.multimedialearning.com/images/reflexion/IMG_8014.jpg
http://www.multimedialearning.com/images/reflexion/IMG_8011.jpg
It’s big – too big.
What you have going is really great and I’ve done that as well.
Honestly, the best $150 you can spend is on sound blankets:
http://myworld.ebay.com/audimute/
I’ve used them for five years and they do 80% of what an audio booth does. They’re portable and remove enough ambient noise to record clean, flat audio.
Remodeling my home office right now and putting these up:
http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/products/panels/alphasorb.asp A bit more expensive but they work as well as the Auralex foam and much more attractive.
David
February 6th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Thanks for the pics! Nice computer setup. And I like the blog on your screen.
I like the panels – I may have to look into those. I’m not fond of the temporary look of the blankets – I don’t want to put them up every time I have to record something, and they don’t look great enough to leave them up all the time. I’m planning to build a new house soon – perhaps I can incorporate the AlphaSorb panels. There’s still the issue of computer fan (and occasional hard drive) noise though. How do you deal with that?
I’m wishing Apple would update their iPhone software to allow external mics via the dock connection. Then I could record my narration straight through to my iPhone without dealing with computer noise, transfer it to the computer, and do my editing work there. There were rumors that the last update had this feature buried in the code, but it apparently didn’t make the final cut when the firmware was updated. Then again, I don’t even know if the phone’s processor can handle full-res audio…
February 8th, 2009 at 7:42 am
The panels are great. Richland College (Richardson, TX) built an audio room with those panels. They look great and really do the job.
The sound blankets are not attractive but they really work. I don’t record meaningful audio every day so most of their folded and stored. When hung, they make you feel like you’re in a moving truck – a quiet moving truck.
Not sure about the iPhone. Heard that was a feature people were asking about. Always felt they missed an opportunity with true recording on the iPods as well.
February 9th, 2009 at 6:07 am
I like your home-based sound booth. It looks especially inspiring for teachers, who are afraid of high-tec and do not have lots of money.
Caspar
March 30th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
You can make your homemade sound booth a bit more sturdy using the harlan hogan method – folds away neatly but I just keep mine in a cupboard til I need to use it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59426010@N00/sets/72157604851038912/
April 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I need to keep sounds outside the space where I record – a closet – and now it appears from the monitor which has a loud fan.
Will the blankets work?
April 13th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Frank, the blankets/batting material will only help deaden reflected sound, i.e. sounds bouncing off your walls. They’re not going to block the sound entering your mic directly from the monitor fan. Where is the monitor that is producing the noise? Inside the closet?