Pros and Cons of Isolation Booths for Voice Actors with Randy Scott

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Hi there, and welcome to Vox Talk, your weekly review from the world of Voice Over. I'm your host, Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices. Do you need an isolation booth to sound your very best? Voice over talent Randy Scott joins us today to share his experiences with home recording studios over the years and why he chose to go with an isolation booth for his studio. Some of Randy's clients include Valvoline, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, and The Gideon's International, and there are so many more that I just don't have time to mention today, but welcome to the show, Randy.

Randy Scott:

Thank you so much for having me, Stephanie, it's an honor to be here.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

So Randy, obviously you're posting stuff on LinkedIn and that's kind of how we got connected and interested in what we might be talking about today. You put a lot out there about your booth, but it wasn't always the way it is now. So could you give us an idea of what your first home recording studio was like and how that changed over time to get to where you are today?

Randy Scott:

Sure, I think a lot of people just try to find that place to start and my place was in my wife's walk-in closet, which was a great way. I think whenever you make that decision that you're going to do this, you've got to find that space and I wanted to do it for sure, but I also wanted to ease into it. So I'm like, all right, I'm not going to invest a ton, I'm going to see what we've got out there. So I started in the closet of my wife's master closet and with coats around and then I would go with blankets to hang, just treating the space in the most cost effective way possible. And booked a little bit there, certainly nothing major, but realized that this was what we wanted to do and we had an unfinished basement in our home and was able to get with my phone father, who's pretty handy, much more handy than I am and say, hey, I'm in my wife's closet right now. I'd really like to finish off on the rooms in the basement, what do you think? And he had just retired, so he needed something to do anyway. So it was something we did. My issue was I built the room a little too big. We went too big and it was just tough to treat and so from there I made a little, I guess, kind of a cave situation, a little cave and still just couldn't get the sound right. And then it dawned on me that there is a nice tiny little basement under the stairs of the basement, a little closet under the basement stairs. So that's what I treated. It's very small and that's where I went until the day that I went with a whisper room. So an ISO booth is kind of where I call my booth home now. So it's been great.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

I think everyone starts in their closet so far as recording because that's where, honestly, after David and I had left our recording studio environment at the studio when we had moved and had a condo and kids and changed the entire business from him being a recording studio to us doing independent work, the very first place that we set something up was in fact in a closet because you could close a door in there. Just make sure there's no crying babies and you're fine.

Randy Scott:

Exactly.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

That's all we needed to do at the time because it was insulated. It had clothing. It had a way to, it was hard to see inside unless you've got a light in there and that's a whole other thing. But I think that the closet is often where most of us do get our starts and certainly with bedding and whatever else you can find around you. So obviously, you know, nice progression there. I'm glad that your dad helped you out to kind of do some renovations and get things ready. And then you discovered that little room underneath, you know, the stairs into the basement and just like, oh my goodness, like perfect little spot, right? You're like, oh, something mustn't have been exactly what you needed in that little spot. So, so at some point you did decide to get that ISO booth and what drove you to that decision?

Randy Scott:

Well, I think a lot of it was space. The space was great when it came to sound. I had a great noise floor, I was booking good work, I was making a living with it. But you know, I'm not a tiny person, but I mean, it was a very tight space. A closet under stairs, so it can only be so wide and you know, I had it just right. I had a carpenter build a perfect door, but it was just, there's no ventilation. And so I had kind of been thinking about making a change. And then I don't want to call it an impulse buy, but I saw a deal I couldn't resist online. So I saw a second hand whisper room that was for sale a couple hours from where I live. I live in Maryland on the Maryland, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. And this was in Virginia Beach, which is about two hours from where I live. And the price was right. And I ended up buying it within like 10 minutes of seeing it. Like I played it out within 10 minutes in my head. I made the mistake of not talking to my wife first, but I would say you should do that 100%.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah.

Randy Scott:

But she was fine. She forgave me. You know, as long as you know, income's coming in, so making that move, I think that was a lot of it was, you know, I just, I wanted that permanent feeling space. I wanted that space that, you know, I could, I could grow in and you know, I was able to add to some gear. I got a bigger monitor and I was on my laptop in there and I have a MacBook Pro, which is great, but even that occasionally the fan would come on and I'd have to sit back and wait or the heat would come on, which is not far from where I was in that closet. So it was like, I just, I needed it. It was there and I took the plunge and I haven't regretted it.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

I love that. I love it. I love that, you know, you should have asked your wife like that's a good point and that's a great point in your story. So anyone who's listening was just like, I'm going to get an isolation booth. You might want to talk to your husband or wife about that first because it is an investment, even second hand. So how much did that one run you? Do you remember?

Randy Scott:

This one was about $3,000 and if she's listening to this for the first time, that might be the first time she heard that number, no, I'm just kidding. But you know, she was very supportive from the get go of me jumping into voice over. So I knew it's one of those apologize later for and it'll pay off. So but yes, it's probably best when there's a big investment of hundreds or thousands of dollars to talk to your partner first.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

For sure. I know that's a rule in many households. If it's over a hundred bucks or maybe, I don't know, it could be a different threshold for different homes, but yeah, no good tip there. So while it may seem like the isolation booth is a silver bullet, you could say like, oh, all my problems and voice over will be solved if I could only have this ISO booth, you know, for some people it's a Neumann, you know, for some people it's a sound booth. Like if only my problems will be solved by this, you know, obviously there's pros and cons, like it won't be the one thing that fixes everything. So you've got a list and thank you so much for putting that ahead of, you know, for us to discuss today. Can you walk us through those right now?

Randy Scott:

Well, I think the cost is something we've hit on and making sure you talk to someone about it. But you know, it's worth the investment if you, you know, put in what needs to be put in. And I think that was one of the quote unquote cons was, all right, ‘I've got this’ and you're right. I'm thinking, all right, I just put this booth together and I'm golden. And I'm like, well, there's a lot of treatment that still needs to be done even within one of these booths. It has great walls, but it's very echoey and, you know, you need, you still need to treat it. So I think that is, you know, maybe I was a bit naive and some others may be naive going into that process thinking, all right, I'm going to buy this ISO booth and we're going to set it up or get rocking a rolling and it's going to be good. And it's been good, but you must treat it. And I know WhisperRoom, especially in others probably also include that in, and when you make that purchase and I was able to inherit that along with the purchase. So that was nice. Also nothing is soundproof, right? For example, very little sound gets on this mic and I have a pretty sensitive mic. It's a Neumann TLM 102, not the 103, but it's a sensitive mic. And I hear things outside my booth, but it's not picking up. That can be a distraction. If you're concentrated on whatever piece of voice over work you're doing, it does take up a bit of space, but that's obvious. I think you're going to need to know that it took up a little more than I thought because of the ventilation system, which is also a pro, which I'm going to get to in a minute. But it just, it took up a little more space than the five by five that you think it is. And you can lock yourself out, which we'll get to in a moment. But some of the pros, obviously it's a dedicated space. It's a space that you can come into, you know, you hate to say legitimizes, but you pump your chest up a little bit, walking into a space that you have a little pride in and you feel like this is my workspace, I'm proud of this. I've gotten to this point. Feels good. Mine's technically portable. I mean, the WhisperRoom is portable because you can tear it down and put it back up. But that's not like it's the easiest thing. I've seen it, some people kind of set it up on a wheel system where they're able to wheel it in spaces. It's certainly not going to fit through a normal doorway, but it's portable. But to me, mine feels like it's permanent because it's in a spot and it's going to take a bit to move. And I feel like that also is a nice feeling to know that there's a permanent space that I'm going to go into. Ventilation, so important. When I was in my either closet, there's not a ventilation system. Actually, my wife's closet at least had air coming in, but the basement stair situation could get very steamy in there or very, it never got cold. But in the summer months, it could get very hot. You've got all this foam around you and you're just, it's all up on top of you and there's no air coming in and out where with an isolated booth, if you have the option to get ventilation, it's worth the extra expense for sure. It's quiet, it runs in and out. It's absolutely great. And it's easy to treat. There's the walls, it's close, it's not hard to treat. And you can find former musicians and other artists and studios sometimes selling them online secondhand, which was fortunate for me.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah. I really appreciate that you mentioned that this can be more of a permanent structure. Obviously, you can move it from house to house if you do move. But just how heavy is it? Because some of the ladies listening are like, uh-oh, got to need some muscle here to bring somebody in. Like, how exactly did you get it into your house? You said it doesn't fit through a normal sized door. Like, does it come apart? Like, how do you do that?

Randy Scott:

It absolutely comes apart. It's collapsible and it's interesting. I didn't even drive the two hours to pick it up. I had a friend who I reached out to, a friend with a truck, everybody needs a friend with a truck. And I said, hey, want to take a road trip to Virginia Beach? He said, I'm already going, but I'm taking my family. And I said, well, could you do me a favor? Not knowing exactly how much it weighed and that sort of thing. He's forgiven me ever since and I've owed him for a long time, took him out to dinner. I don't know how many times, but I feel like I should keep taking him out to dinner. But it is heavy. It's multiple pieces. Each wall is collapsible in the WhisperRoom situation, but it's easily found online to install and the seller marked it well for me, so it was easy to organize. But yeah, it comes apart and does fit through doors, but not when it's put all together. That's kind of what I meant.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Right. You'd have to have like a ginormous, like two, like, you know, those houses with the really big doors that open up wide. You need something like that probably to get it into the home like a big, you know, when a piano comes in the house, for instance, you know, you need to have them, but you're saying take it apart. It's heavy, so make sure you've got some help. Maybe even a dolly or something, like some kind of something to pull it along. I would think, because who wants to carry that? I don't know. And to get it down the stairs. Was it a lot of maneuvering, like, was it like, ‘oh, got to turn it this’ like carrying a couch down or like, how would you describe this?

Randy Scott:

You know how, like, I don't know how often you've moved, people listening have moved stuff. You know, whenever you hear, it's not heavy, it's awkward. This is both heavy and awkward, but it has to be. It's not unbearably heavy, but definitely have some strong friends nearby, get the pizza and whatever, you know, have a pizza party, have them put it together while they're doing it too. But yeah, I mean, it's doable. It's just, you know, it's not the easiest thing to move.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

No, no, I would think not. So like, there's a lot of, you know, pros and cons of having, and we just talked through some of the cons. Are there any other pros that you want to throw it on the table? Like, what else has this done for you?

Randy Scott:

Well, I just, I feel like, I don't think you should ever be ashamed of your space. Like, if you're booking work in the space you're in, and you're happy, I don't think you need to go get something just because it's the next thing. I did feel more legitimized, as I kind of said, like earlier, and that was for me. And that's, you know, that's not necessarily for everybody, but I felt like walking into the space just to just look around, to be able to have a huge monitor instead of my little laptop, to have a boom stand for my mic, you know, I had what I needed, but I wanted more, you know, to be able to feel like I could do more work and just be more efficient with my time in the space. I think that was kind of the biggest pro for me, and just to be able to have the workspace that I felt like I needed to continue to grow in my business.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

And that makes sense. Randy, like, I don't think anyone should feel badly about wanting to have a place that they can do their work in predictably, where nothing changes, it's always the same thing, you don't have to readjust this or touch that or turn this thing off. But also just the idea that this is your creative space, like, this is where you go in and you are the voice artist or you, this is your profession, it's your little world. I know that you've got some nice sound treatment in the back and that's something I learned admittedly over the last week as I was preparing for this episode is that an isolation booth doesn't come pre-treated like, duh, but I actually thought that maybe, oh, you just put it up and boom, you're done. But no, like, obviously you've went to lengths to find some kind of acoustical treatment in there. It's a nice pattern for those of you who cannot see it. It looks like, is it black or is it kind of like...

Randy Scott:

It's like a dark brown. It wasn't one that I chose. It came with when I bought it, but we want it to look as nice as possible, but what's the most important thing, the sound, and I think that's where I'm the most happy. I'd love it to look more beautiful, and there's foam and options for that, but what's truly important when you're a voice artist? Unless you're doing on camera occasionally, the sound is the most important.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Absolutely. What would you add in there? Because, okay, let's say we gave you unlimited budget. What would you put in that booth that you don't have right now?

Randy Scott:

I would probably… I do have some acoustic panels that I've wanted to toy with. The problem is you get your booth to the point where it sounds like you want it to sound and you don't want to mess with it, but I'd probably, I don't know, some different patterns or something just to make it look a little cooler, but again, the most important thing, and I keep reminding myself, it sounds the way you need it to sound, just if they say if it ain't broke, don't fix it, so there you have it.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Right on. You've got your ISO booth and you have a Neumann, so right away there's two silver bullets that most people would think would solve it all right there. That's really interesting. Earlier in the show, and I know we talked about this before, but you had an incident with your booth. I would say this is on the con side, so why don't you walk us through what happened?

Randy Scott:

It is, and I didn't realize that it has a lock, but my ISO booth, I was preparing throughout the day for a session. I had auditioned a lot throughout the day, had a couple of projects throughout the day, but the big part of the day was this directed session that was very important. It was a well-paid job, and my focus for the day was on this event, and unfortunately, the day had a little later in the day than I particularly would have liked, because I like it when no one's home, and the kids were home, and I had worked really hard that day and I needed to unwind, so I'm playing ping-pong with my son, which is really close to the booth, because we're in the basement, and things are going well. It's about 10 minutes before it starts, I'm ready to walk into the booth and really prepare, kind of check back in, and I can't get the door open, and I am flipping out. I am just like, I'm 10 minutes away from hopping on this call and starting, and first of all, I had to accuse everyone in the house of who locked it, blah, blah, blah, because this has never happened, and then I ended up finally finding a way to get in. I found a flathead screwdriver and was able to break in using some skills I used to use back in the day in my wilder... No, I'm just kidding.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Were you being like a ninja, like you, your foot was involved in this, like I saw a picture. What was going on with that?

Randy Scott:

That was my frustration of, get this door open. I had to get a little leveraged. That didn't work. It was the breaking in that worked.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. It was wild. And all the while, you're trying to get in the booth, you did get in, right?

Randy Scott:

Yes. I got in in just enough time, and they knew nothing. I was able to catch my breath and go, I got in, took a deep breath, and was able... We had a great session, everything went fine, but it's just one of those things that got your heart beating a little bit too much that day because what if I didn't get in? What an embarrassing call. I'm locked out of my booth. I'm sorry I can't make our directed session today with three producers, directors, and it's one of those calls where it's not just one client that you've worked with often, but it's the client and then the producers that you're working with directly. So it would have been a huge headache and an embarrassment had I not gotten in.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah. Because you went to LinkedIn, and this is where I saw this story, and everyone should be on LinkedIn and obviously follow Randy and see what he's doing. But it kind of evolved from, I can't get into my booth to like, I've gotten in my booth and I've tried these, and then WhisperRoom jumps on. And what did they say? What did they say to you?

Randy Scott:

They were willing to... They offered for me to reach out. Thankfully, I had resolved that particular situation, but offered, hey, reach out, we'll get you a set of keys, another spare set of keys. Their customer service throughout the process has been really cool that they're willing to do that. And I love companies that are responsive on social media and ones that'll sit there. My problem wasn't their problem, but it had to do with their product and I had an issue. So they wanted to offer whatever they could do to help. And I just, I gained a little more respect for WhisperRoom. I have a ton of respect for WhisperRoom. I love my WhisperRoom, but I love when companies step in and try to assist you and at least respond even in a situation that they had nothing to do with other than it was happening to one of their booths with one of their people.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah. Well, good for WhisperRoom. I was watching that exchange, like, oh, this is good, this is good. But because I was thinking, Randy, what are you going to do? You're going to go get a locksmith come in? What if you couldn't ever open it? And what if WhisperRoom didn't have other keys and who even knew that whisper rooms had keys? I guess it makes sense, right? Like maybe you have a studio situation externally where you want to lock up all the studios before you leave for the night. Maybe it's not always in someone's home, but just, yeah, like it was really interesting. So did you, I know you said obviously the situation was resolved. WhisperRoom was obviously very happy to send you keys, spare keys, but as a precautionary measure, Randy, do you think you're going to get a spare set of keys cut?

Randy Scott:

You know, I love to learn lessons the hard way. So I probably will get a spare of, you know, a set of keys, a set of spare.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

I think it's only like five bucks or something, like five dollars or something.

Randy Scott:

It's not expensive.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah.

Randy Scott:

And I can put them in a safe place and instead of freaking out and coming up with different solutions, I can take one minute to go find my spare set and open the door and breathe easy.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yes. Because like, and we've talked about breath before on the podcast, but it is so needful when you're doing voice over and just being calm and walking in, like, you can only imagine how you managed to shift gears between freaked out, to I can't get into my booth. This is a huge client. This thing's going to go down the tubes to all of a sudden like, ‘oh, hi everybody.’ Yeah. Let's, how did you do that? How did you go from being frantic to just being present and ready to do the session?

Randy Scott:

I think early on in my voice over career, I learned how important mindset is and, and depending on what project you have, preparing yourself for it. And, you know, I had prepared throughout the day and, you know, I have been in frantic situations in my life before and, you know, I feel like I can usually, usually calm myself down and, you know, in this particular client, it was actually an emotional, heartfelt client that's going to be coming out soon in commercials, but it was like one of these that, you know, you really had to get to the heartstrings and you really had to, and I think resetting and just going over, having at least a few minutes more to look over some of the scripts and material and where this was going, it helped me get back in that headspace. Um, I mean, it's, it's vital to know that, you know, you're a professional voice talent. You, this is what you do. This is what you have to do and you need to be a professional even in situations that you become frantic or panicked. You need to always present the calm and, you know, I take pride in the fact that they, I don't think they had any idea that five minutes before we started, I was, you know, about to break down the door.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh my gosh. Well, I'm so glad that you were able, first of all, to get into your WhisperRoom and do what you needed to do. I'm really glad that WhisperRoom was responsive and able to even say, hey, like this is what we do for our customers. We go the extra mile, um, but for you to be able to then go the extra mile emotionally in your booth after you've just been through that, that is a mark of a professional. So good for you, Randy. That's really great. Um, so what else have you learned from having an isolation booth? Has there been anything else that you're like, wow, I'm surprised by that. Like I had no idea that, that, uh, I would experience this great benefit.

Randy Scott:

So other than locking myself out and being able to get in, yes, uh, I think, you know, what we've mentioned before is just, um, you know, finding that what at least feels like your permanent space, your home, uh, a place of comfort and you just mentioned it. It's like, we just had that crazy thing happen, but I'm back where I'm comfortable. I'm in, this is the zone I like to be in and, uh, I think that's, that's been the biggest thing for me. Um, I've got a window that I can see out, uh, occasionally and you know, I don't have a great view. I have a great view of the rest of my unfinished basement. I have a door that, uh, now unlocks when I need it to, and, and, uh, you know, it's, it's that sense of, uh, in a permanent place where I feel at home, I'm comfortable, I have the room I need and, uh, just that's kind of where, where, you know, I feel like this is my spot.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah. I love it. You're settled.

Randy Scott:

Yes.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Right. It feels very settled. You're not a nomad anymore.

Randy Scott:

I'm not waiting for my wife to come in and get her, her, I need my coat or, you know, that sort of thing.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

So, right. And I'm sure your family just loves to know that you feel, um, supported in what you're doing, but also that, that there is a place where dad's going down to do his recording right. Like don't bother him. That's where he is. And, um, and it's just, as you say, your own space and, and when you have a space set aside, it just feels like work is that much easier, you know, it's, it's, you just step right in and do it. So, um, that's wonderful, but thank you so much for joining us today, Randy. I know I learned a ton. Um, I, I think that if I ever had a WhisperRoom, I definitely need a crew of people to help me put it together. I'm, I'm just, that's just me from hearing what you've said, um, but you know, obviously not everyone can afford one of these booths either. Um, where do you suggest they go to find, um, one of these isolation booths?

Randy Scott:

I ended up finding mine on a website called Reverb and it wasn't something I had ever experienced anything else before it just, I can't even remember how it came up in social media. So I don't know if someone shared it. I think someone might have shared it to one of the, the voiceover groups I belong to on Facebook. Uh, that's a great place. If you're not connected, um, you know, it, it's, it shouldn't be your number one priority to be connected to every voice artist, uh, in the world. Um, but it certainly has benefitial for many reasons and one, uh, you know, just to know that there's people in your tribe that are going through the same things you were going through, but also in moments like this where they're going to share, Hey, I don't need this, but maybe someone in this group of people does. So here's a WhisperRoom and if it's in your location, and I had seen several that were in California, which is, you know, 3,000 miles from where I am or, you know, Missouri or wherever it may be that just didn't make sense. But when one was two hours away and I had started about thinking about that, ‘I said, all right, this is a sign that we got to do it.’ But next time I'm going to tell my wife.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yes, good idea. And so there are, there are other, um, isolation booths out there just in case anyone is wondering, this is not a paid sponsorship from WhisperRoom. They just happened to be a company that was in our conversation that I think also does great work.

Randy Scott:

They do.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah,

Randy Scott:

And, and when we talked about treating a WhisperRoom, they also have that, uh, opportunity for you to, to reach out and say, all right, what is the perfect way they offer. So I, um, 100% impressed with him, but you're right, I bought mine second hand, but I'm still impressed with what they are able to offer and the ease of their site and their customer service. Uh, I can't say, um, anything bad about them at all. I mean, just wonderful things. It seems like a wonderful company. Um, but yeah, if you're looking second hand, um, a couple of social media groups, which we talked about, Facebook marketplace, sometimes Reverb, some other sites like that, uh, eBay, um, you know, it's out there. Unfortunately, there's people that either retire or get out of the business and they just don't need their space anymore. Or there's a studio that only needed a few booths for a short amount of time. So they're trying to sell them, you know, they're out there. So Google search is your friend, right?

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking in a used booth is kind of cool too, because like it's like when you get a second hand piano from like a Broadway show or it's like, it's got some kind of, some works happened in there before and maybe you can be inspired by thinking, Oh, like, you know, there's been creativity and in this area and, uh, it's not just something, you know, made out of, I don't know, wood and materials and whatnot. It's kind of, it feels like it came from community. So that might be a neat feel to, um, but yes, thank you so much, Randy, for recommending that. I think that even just for the peace of mind and feeling like you're an established voice talent, I have a space. This is my space where I do my work. Um, that to me seems like it could just even be the impetus for getting one, let alone the great soundproofing that one can do inside of it to sound even better than you already do. So, um, thank you again, Randy, for joining us. I'm so glad that we're following you on your journey there and I hope everyone else has learned something great too from hearing you and just thank you so much for being with us today.

Randy Scott:

Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

And that's the way we saw the world through the lens of voice over this week. Thank you for listening to the show and for sharing your thoughts with us on social media. And thank you also to our very special guest, Randy Scott. This conversation has definitely been enriching, um, always, always for the better. So to learn more about what Randy is up to, all the cool things he's doing, I did mention he's on LinkedIn. So you can find Randy Scott on LinkedIn. You can also go to voiceofrandy.com and that's where you can see all of his professional work and listen to demos and, and, um, maybe connect and see if you might talk shop. So anyway, for voices, I'm your host, Stephanie Ciccarelli. Vox Talk is produced by Geoff Bremner. Thank you again for listening to the podcast and we'll see you next week.