Back in 2016, James Ivey reviewed the Isovox, a large, yet somehow small vocal booth replacement that you fit your head into. If you don’t believe us, check out the review. Now in 2021, the team at Studiospares bring us the Imperative Audio PVB, the Portable Vocal Booth. In this video, James is once again on the case to see and hear if the PVB is the answer to your home vocal production worries.

The Imperative Audio Portable Vocal Booth - PVB

If the COVID 19 pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that many of us have the option and ability to work from home. For many of us, this is nothing new but there can be practical challenges, as well the obvious distractions when one is trying to record a vocal performance or perfect voice overtake from the comfort of your own home. This is where the PVB comes into its own.

What Is The Portable Vocal Booth?

PVB is about as close as you can get to a truly portable microphone friendly vocal/voice recording environment.

The patent-pending Portable Vocal Booth’s light aluminium cylindrical design largely eliminates the issue of standing waves usually found in and around corners of more angular vocal booths. With a circumference of 324cm and an opening of 80cm, the Portable Vocal Booth is spacious enough for just about any performer, especially over long recording or broadcast sessions.

PVB features 3 high performing layers of acoustic treatment and the optional roof (which we used in our recording session) the Portable Vocal Booth produces a very respectable 0.07 secs reflection time (RT60 in accordance with ISO 3382-2 Measurements) and an average of 28.4dba reduction (One-Third-Octave Spectrum LZeq in accordance with IEC 61260) which is very impressive for an open booth solution.

Check out the official Portable Vocal Booth (PVB) promo video below for the full specs.

Full Specification

• Reflection Time – 0.07 (RT60 in accordance with ISO 3382-2 Measurements)

• Noise Reduction – 28.4dba reduction (One-Third-Octave Spectrum LZeq in accordance with IEC 61260)

• In Use Height – 181cm to 210cm (5’9″ to 6′ 10″)

• Circumference – 324cm (10′ 6″)

• Opening – 80cm (2′ 6″)

• Collapsed – W 125cm H 115cm D 35cm (W 4′ 1″ H 3′ 7″ D 1′ 1″)

• Overhead Micstand Channel – 30cm (10″)

• Weight – 35.5kg (78 lbs)

• Shipping Weight – 41kg (90.3 lbs)

Testing

Using the PVB in the studio would be a bit of an unfair test so James “built” the booth in his living room, which is far more real world. In the video, you will see a full, if not somewhat sped-up demonstration of how easy it is the erect the PVB and you will see and hear just how well the PVB performs with a number of vocal related tests.

Results

I am a great believer in what you might call marginal gains. Anything that can improve my recording even a tiny amount I think is a worthwhile investment. However, the PVB, to my ears at least offers far more than just a marginal improvement and I believe the tests in the video prove this. Not only is the PVB a nice comfortable working environment it vastly improves the quality of your recordings but offering you a consistent sound recording environment. The vocal sounded better sung in the booth than in the living room without the booth. The amount of sound reduction/isolation offered by the PVB was also impressive, especially given that there were no constraints on movement, like those imposed when using the Isovox with the rear flap down.

If you need to record top-quality vocal performances at home (or on location) be that a sung vocal recording, voice-over, podcast or live stream, I can not recommend the Portable Vocal Booth enough. In actual fact, it does more than just improve the acoustic results of your recordings. I think that it puts you in the right mind-set to get a great performance, as you feel like you are in a “professional” recording environment. It feels like a fully-fledged vocal booth, and not something that 10 minutes later could be packed in the boot of your car.

For more information on the Imperative Audio Portable Vocal Booth (PVB) check out the Studio Spares website.