Vocal health is important for everyone but especially when you need your voice to earn a living. There are many ways to protect and keep a voice actor’s vocal chords healthy and strong especially during flu and cold season such as using honey and lemon. But, many are unaware there is a high possibility that acoustic foam in the very vocal booth voice actors use on a daily basis could be causing illnesses over and over again.
Acoustic foam based vocal booths can harbor germs that could affect your health.
So how healthy is acoustic foam? A case study.
After time, acoustic foam used inside a foam-based vocal booth or portable vocal booth absorbs smells and starts to stink. This is especially true if different people share the vocal booth. A communications director from a university from the United States had a similar problem when using a mobile vocal booth for his students, Aside from the smell from sharing the vocal booth, there was a concern over germs spreading because students were getting sick often. This was especially a concern during flu season.
The department tried to use Lysol to disinfect the foam and other types of deodorizers to mask the smell, but after some time the chemicals start to disintegrate the foam and the smell became even worse! What to do? Maybe forgo using acoustical foam?
Looking closer at acoustical foam, and how it works
Acoustical foam is widely used as means of sound absorption and acoustic room treatment. What makes acoustical foam absorb sound is an open cell structure with long tunnels going through the foam. Sound gets into the openings and loses its energy in the long twisted channels.The acoustical foam has to have the open channels so the sound can get in.
To understand how foam works, you have to think of it like a sponge. Sponges absorb liquid — but what else gets absorbed by the foam? If the open cell acoustic foam behaves like a sponge, then it can also absorb and retain dust, mold spores, allergens, bacteria and viruses. What happens to the germs and allergens that landed on the foam? These warm, dark environments are a breeding ground for mold and fungi to grow. Mold spores, allergens or viruses trapped in the foam can potentially contaminate the next user when the foam gets disturbed.
Because the acoustic foam is an open cell material with long channels it cannot be easily washed. If water gets in, it would stay in those channels and cannot fully evaporate. On the other hand, how can you wash the foam in a vocal booth or home studio? In most cases it is glued to the wall, you can’t take it off. The foam is too fragile to be properly washed.
How can voice actors keep healthy without using acoustic foam?
There is a healthier alternative to foam -based vocal booths and is truly portable — Carry–on Vocal Booth, available from http://www.VocalBoothToGo.com. The Carry on Vocal Booth is made out of Producer’s Choice Acoustic Blanket instead of acoustic foam. The material has a high Noise Reduction coefficient ( NRC 0.8) The Carry on Vocal Booth gives a great sounding recording – no boxiness and no boominess, Carry-on Vocal booth is a great tool for travelling voice actor. It is light weight, durable, portable, easy to set up, versatile and can carry all your recording gear as well! In fact, some voice use the Carry-on Vocal booth for book narration regularly when their publisher told them that it was the best sound they ever had!
Portable vocal booth made from sound blankets that can be washed
This booth will keep you healthy because if it gets dirty during traveling or if you are sick and sneezed and coughed all over it, you can easily remove the sound absorbing liner and wash it in a washing machine plus dry it too. VocalBoothToGo also makes upright, walk-in vocal booths that also utilize sound blankets instead of foam too.
Voice actors need to keep their voice sounding great and consistent. Maintaining good vocal health is imperative for this business and choosing equipment wisely may just be the answer.
The Carry-on Vocal Booth is portable, great for in-home studio or travel and is made from sound blankets that are completely washable.
Voice actress Randye Kaye unfortunately was recovering from an illness at a hospital but still wanted to continue to work. So…she brought along her own Carry-on Vocal Booth to help her complete projects.
“We needed something convenient, portable, and quick to set up in a hotel room to reduce echo and noise while recording a voice over talent for a last-minute job,” said George Whittam, Director and Founder of Technology of VOStudioTech.com, a division of EDGE Studio, and a co-founder of EWAB podcast — experts in home vocal booths and recording studios. ”We found it [the Carry-on Vocal Booth] large enough to easily position the mic and a laptop inside, yet easy to transport and quick to assemble. It will work great for voice actors without the space to set up a proper booth, given their existing environment is quiet enough. ”
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