The NYC Sound Booth, Take 2

Hello!

This is Clark, co-creator of and actor in the upcoming Dark Providence Horror Fiction Podcast. And while this might be the first time you’re hearing from me, you’re jumping in very much in the middle of things. After months of script writing, and weeks of planning booth construction, my writing partner Patrick and I have both been executing on our booth builds–one in LA, and one currently in RI, but on it’s way to NYC this week. Here's a little window inside some of the logistical problems we've had to overcome.

To record our actors for our season 1, we priced existing studio rentals on both coasts. The costs of recording all of our actors for all 12 episodes was prohibitively expensive. So, we decided to build our own booths, which will give us amazing control over our recording schedules, and despite the initial investment, save our fledgeling studio tens of thousands in recording costs with the first season alone. I have access to a blackbox space in the Bowery in New York - but other theater companies use that space for rehearsals and auditioning, so my booth needs to be able to break down and reassemble easily. I’ve based it around artist Pro Panels that I already own, which I’ve used for years for showing my artwork at conventions and shows. They’re sturdy, lightweight, and are easy to set up and disassemble. It’s also easy to configure them in a stall shape, which makes for a great structure to build a recording booth around. The inside will be covered in acoustic foam tiles, just like you’d find in any professional recording or voice over booth. But because I don’t want to permanently affix anything to the surfaces of my panels (I still need them for conventions and art shows!), I needed a more modular solution. My first attempt was only moderately successful. I tried to hang black felt on the interior walls, and attach the acoustic tiles to it with the included sticky tabs, and spray adhesive. The seal of the tiles to the felt was only okay. It worked, but it definitely wasn’t going to stand up to repeated set-up and take-down. I needed a harder surface to adhere the foam tiles to.

So, I opted for corrugated plastic board - the same stuff they make political and school yard signs out of. I’d used it previously on craft and art projects, and knew it was sturdy and could take a decent amount of punishment - much more so that card stock or foam core. 24x 36 panels of this was the perfect surface to create tiles of 6 acoustic tiles. Since velcro sticks to the carpeted surface of the the Pro Panels, all I needed to do was stick velcro strips to the back of the plastic boards, and they’d instantly stick themselves to the Pro Panels with no additional hanging hardware needed. Perfect solution.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping to get some recording time in for myself of my own dialogue while I still have this setup here at my home in RI. On Tuesday, it’s on its way to NYC, and getting set up in the Bowery space for the first time, and our first recording sessions with our NYC actors!