The best overall would be the Aston Halo IMO. It has the best balance of reducing room noise/reverberations and produces a sound that's not significantly different from the mic's natural sound. The Isovox definitely does the best at taking out the sound of the room, but it makes the mic sound very unnatural and boomy, so eq'ing is a must.
@@iankay8977 you wouldn’t necessarily need additional acoustic treatment, but the more reflections you can eliminate, the better. Also that would depend on the room you’re recording in. For instance, if you’re recording in an empty room with bare walls and hard floors, there will still be a lot of reflections being picked up even if you’re using the halo. But if you have a room that has carpet/rug, maybe some couches, or a bed, etc, all of those items will cut down on reflections and you can get a pretty good recording with just the halo. You can also use household items, like get some cheap throw blankets and tack them up on any naked walls or If you’re recording in a bedroom and have a closet with clothes hanging up, keep the closet door open, rather than reflections bouncing off the closed closet door, open it up so that some reflections can be absorbed by the clothes you have hanging. There are a ton of creative ways to improve the acoustics of your room, even with things you already have. Doing that on top of having the halo could give you great results.
A step up from the days of getting a cardboard box cut one end off and glue foam inside. Then cut an opening in the back so a boom arm can slide thru and a mic cable. Cheap and easy mic shield. Now want to go big time cruz through the alley and get and water heater box and line it with foam and have a complete isolation booth . When funds are low gotta get creative.
I actually have it and I feel it's a bit boomy compared to the other Mic Shields. For me I stopped using it any kind of my shield as soon as I treated my room and the environment was right got some carpet on the floor and some theater curtains on the windows no need for Mic shield!
How come nobody's paying attention to the fact that Sanhay is already in a treated (studio) room? Us who look for these isolation shields (probably) don't have access to one (the whole reason why we want one), making the video biased. It would be better to hear you try it in an let's say untreated apartment with a natural echo and compare to how it sounds in a studio.
Hey Sanjay, as always, great video! I was just wondering if you’ve ever used the kaotica eyeball and if it’s comparable to maybe the Aston halo? Would be a great follow up video I think!
I noticed that none of them really took much reflections out except the Halo and iso vox, but the vox booth sounded really unnatural. It would be interesting to hear these examples being compressed to extremes to really bring out the room just to hear the difference.
Cardioid mics (particularly LDC mics) are more omnidirectional when it comes to low frequency sounds. You're effectively hearing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bounce reflections of low frequency sounds. It's just not big enough to really kill those.
In my opinion, if you're worried about room acoustics you're better off getting a Shure SM7B. Because it's a high impendence dynamic mic, it literally picks up no background noise. It costs $400 new, and you'll probably want an in-line amplier like a Cloudlifter to boost the signal. So all told, you'll spend around $600 after tax for the mic and in-line amp. That's pricey, but I'd rather put my money into a great mic like the Shure than a mic shield that only does so much. I mean, unless you're buying the Isovox Vocal Booth all of these have a serious design flaw. They only block sound in one direction. And it's probably the less important direction.
I'm a voiceactor as well as and artist and I have a portabooth plus. Great comparison as always Sanjay! Always get the best from you on how to get the best out of our home studios!
The Aston Halo sounds the best...but 300.00 for foam, yeah, NO! It's foam people. Iso Vox sounded way too boomy and for 800.00 I will build my own (which I have done before). I do like the one with the window if you need to read a lyric sheet.
The Primacoustic one, I think is really good, because I am a solitary musician. I compose, and I sing my recordings. What I think is good about this shield, is that I can look directly through the window while I am singing. I don't have to go sideways, to see what's happening on my screen. I have an idea, of how to make it better. I am thinking of making an extension of it using hi density sponge such as a small ceiling, extended walls on the sides, everything held with Velcro, maybe I will need to hold the sponge gluing it to insulation foamboard, so it doesn't wobble. Let's see what happens. It will be sord of the iso vox, but not exactly. I am sure that way, I'll get more attenuation. I'll let you know what happens. Also, the shape of the shield allows to do those things.
Great comparison! Not the typical video seen so it’s a welcome addition! The isovox really stands apart. However, I really liked the Monoprice shield’s mic sound, was pretty surprised. The other shields do what it says on the tin too, I guess it really depends on one’s budget.
The IsoVox was definitely the most isolating, but it would also need the most EQ correction of them all. The Aston Halo was the overall winner, IMHO. I know the latest UA Sphere mic plugin has EQ correction for both the IsoVox and the Halo. I'm anxious for my Halo to arrive so the experimentation may begin.
One could easily build an Isovox with the right size cardboard box. Cut a hole in bottom for your head and shoulders. Glue in some foam insulation, then cover that with sound panels. Figure out a way to support the box at the right height.
Universal Audio's Sphere Microphone (DLX) software has a setting that automatically "EQ" compensates for a variety of different iso shields including the ISOVox booth.
Hi Sanjay, thanks for covering this often-ignored space. After buying SE Electronics Reflection Filter X, I bought the SE Electronics Reflexion Filter PRO. It is much better than X. Once again, I am a fan of your channel and have learned a lot from your series.
I use the IsoVox 2 vocal booth in my studio. The results are amazing. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Pretty much every song on my RU-vid channel was recorded in this isolation box, and the vocals are always extremely clean.
@@TheTerrorBeyond do* and thank you so much, truly contemplating getting this due to all the video reviews I've seen. I saw complaints about boxy vocals, but what's the point of recording if you're not willing to put in time to mix your vocals to a better sound. I appreciate the feedback 💯🙌🏼
@@rottenmynded2127 If you check my channel you can see what the box sounds (or doesn't) like. All the vocals on all the tracks on the channel were recorded with the IsoVox II. This is the lastest video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-b6qMRoSJhOE.html
I heard backround noise in all of the shields except for the Aston Halo and ISOVOX 2. I was going to purchase the ISOVOX 2 but after hearing the comparisons I'm going with the Aston Halo.
I have the sE Electronix and the IsoVox2. The IsoVox2 blocks out the outside noise but it adds a lot of bass to your recording that you'll have to EQ out. I had to get the Maag EQ2 to add some sheen to my vocals
Great comparisons. I have had a vocal booth for quite a while but I think I heard a couple that sounded better. Maybe time to upgrade. For the Iso Vox 2, is there room to read a script?
I use the Rockville Rockshield 4 and is really good, the foam is 2" thick and cover the sides well, for $50 I can't complaint. PS: The Rockshield 4 is very similar to the On-Stage but more cheaper price.
I think all the shields are a waste of money except for the Aston Halo and the IsoVox 2. I don't care for the extra bass on the IV2 or the cost, but it's clearly the most isolating of all the options. As you said, fix with EQ or a high-pass filter. I think if anyone spends money on an isolation solution, it should be either one of these two or something like them. The others seem like a total waste of time and money and don't do much for the sound. I feel like I could build either the Halo or the IV2 out of 40$ worth of acoustic foam, and a large Amazon box, some duct tape, and maybe some spray paint. I suppose if you travel or are serious about your vocal tracks and don't have a vocal booth, that the IV2 makes a great alternative that looks legit. I don't like how much foam is at the back end though - is that "extra absorption" for people outside, or does it really improve the sound inside? Dunno why I'm even bothering to post these comments since I'm not the target audience for any of this stuff anyway, haha!!! (Not a singer, only make instrumental music).
Great review and interesting subject! Listening to this RU-vid video the Aston Halo and the IsoVox 2 seemed to make the most impact, while they have completely different form factors and price tags. I am wondering which one from this review you will be using from now onwards?
@@SanjayC Nice to know! I really like the design and results from Astin Halo. Now the ‘purchase stress’ consist of ‘black’ vs ‘purple’ 😂 Both look really nice additions to the home studio
The SE electronics solution looks like it's a combination between acoustic panels and a shotgun mic interference tube. I wonder if that is part of the acoustic design they applied.
For me most of the shields sound noisy, but still relatively different of course. Can't say I feel like buying this kind of thing. Of course, the crazy booth is more effective hehe.
RF-x is what I have and I have the red one and I love it for what I use $189.00 in Australia finds this one to be my go to. Halo in Black? WTAF - we can only get Purple down under.
Just get some cheap duvets and hang them up with string SOS style. Use some tall mic stands will help if you have them. Unless you are using omni or figure of 8 polar pattens these will not help much (apart from the isovox) as the reflected room sound is coming into the mic from the front not behind.
@@SanjayC You know... I think I will. They also have the IsoMic that is suppose to go along with this. It's supposed to get you better raw vocals using the IsoVox booth. If you get a chance to review/demo that mic, definitely let us know or make a video. Lol!
ISO Vox seems ideal for podcasts but for typical vocals recording I don't see the point of having so much isolation since you normally add reverb in the mix and that tend to mask small amounts of room reflections
Hey, Sanjay. That's cool, but could you make the comparisons with noise reduction applied? I have Beyerdynamic DT1990 Pro, so the noise is super distracting (apart from the last booth). Cheers.
Hello Sanjay hope you make review for SSL+ especially for the instrument tracking not only audio quality cus many of the Market audio interface get lagging with instrument tracking and audio
Great video Sanjay about one of those things we need in our home studio, but is not sexy enough, so we always get distracted by "kool" gear. But can someone please tell me what thought process a company such as SE is using when they set their price point at $103 dollars? Any high school marketing student will tell you an odd number like 103 is off putting for consumers..set your price at $99.95 or $105..but $103 is just weird, and do they really need to add $3 from the $99 mark?
Do you have any advice for a mic shield for travelling? I want to go to Thailand in a couple of months and I'm bringing my mic with me. But what shield would be the best to use in non acoustic rooms?
Hi Sanjay I do voicoevers from home and I often read scripts from my laptop in my booth. Im considering one of these for when I go on the road and cant take my booth with me. Because I need to see the script to read I guess the only one that would work would be the Vox guard Vu with clear screen. Any other suggestions?
Hi, i buy Rode NT-USB Mini and im really amaze about Rode NT-USB Mini for Vocal Recording, but i have the problem with the Latency of the mic.. im recording my vocal with the beats, and when i playback it has a delay.. i already installed Asio4all, but it cant read the Rode NT-USB Mini... i wonder how you setup the mic with a low latency or zero latency.. thanks
Shocking how different the mic sounds with each shield! I use the Auralex Mudguard myself and it definitely makes a difference, with a bit less of the room in recordings. Thanks for the comparison video, something few people could or would do (unless they have a recording RU-vid channel).
