LyxPro VRI-30 Vocal Booth Review

LyxPro VRI-30 Vocal Booth Review

March 10, 2018 10:39 EST • Alexandre Vallières-Lagacé • 4 minute read

One of the ways to fix echo in a home recording is to plaster your walls with fabric, or sound panels. But when this is not practical or possible, you can leverage a simpler non-permanent solution. A vocal booth is mostly achieving the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale.

We are reviewing the LyxPro VRI-30 , a vocal booth that can be attached to a boom mic arm , or jerry-rigged to any type of pole behind your microphone.

Design

The VRI-30 comes as a foldable sound panel that is thick enough to absorb echo in most rooms, and makes for a cleaner sound. The attachment is working fine for when you have a vertical condenser microphone and the included slidable bracket helps in that regard.

LyxPro VRI-30 with Shure Beta 87a

In my case, I have a straight classical Shure Beta 87a microphone so I could not use the same boom arm for the VRI and the microphone. I ended up zip tying it to the arm and used the second part aiming downward. This was tied microphone could be adjusted to be as close as the panel as possible and offered all of the benefits from it.

VRI-30 Up Close and Personal

Features

  • Sturdy aluminum frame and sound panel
  • Attaches to boom arm stand
  • Available in multiple configurations
  • Offers great echo reduction

Performance

I tested this VRI-30 , which is considered the “small” configuration, in my office room where I am suffering from lots of echo. I ended up testing three configurations.

The first one is from a sitting position on my main desk back to the wall and close to it. The second one is from a stand-up desk in what I consider an alcove, in the same office. There is a part of the ceiling that is closer and makes up for a nice little corner close to both the ceiling and the wall. And finally, sitting in the middle of the room where the echo is the worst.

Setup and Installation

As explained above, I jerry-rigged my own solution as I was not equipped with the proper type of shock mount to have an easy installation. Nonetheless, I could still work my way with this vocal booth and get it to work as well as it could.

Ideally, you must place the mic inside the foam section so that the microphone is surrounded by foam. It’s easier for a condenser mic like the Heil PR40, but it still works for Shure shape microphone.

!! (use of headphones is strongly recommended!) !!

Sitting at the Desk

This first test is from the first 1/3 of the width of the room, with a sitting position. In front of me I have my Thunderbolt Display. This is my regular sitting desk where I work most of the times and recorded the most episodes of our podcast.

 Without Vocal Booth

 With Vocal Booth

Standing-up at the Desk

For this test, I’m standing up facing the wall in what I explained as the alcove above.

 Without Vocal Booth

 With Vocal Booth

Standing-up Middle of the Room

And the last test is simply standing up in the middle of the room where the echo is the worst since there is nothing blocking the sound and it can freely bounce around.

 Without Vocal Booth

 With Vocal Booth

Conclusion

As you can hear from the above tests, the LyxPro VRI-30 makes a huge difference! If you are recording voice overs or simply podcasting, I highly recommend this product. The only downside of using the VRI-30 is the actual size of the thing and the placement not being very flexible.

For example, while recording our podcast RGBA.fm, it was basically in the way of my monitor so either I don’t look at the show notes, or I put it on the side and keep turning my head every time I want to say something to the microphone. Not the best situation. If the vocal booth was installed on some kind of tripod ball head, I could easily mount it upside down or on its side and be able to see the screen. Without changing the vocal booth itself, LyxPro could easily add accessories in the box to offer a much better adaptability of their product!

Otherwise, if you are looking for an effective way to block echo and isolate your voice, this type of vocal booth is ideal, you should really look into it or its siblings of various sizes!

Review Summary

VRI-30 Compact Vocal BoothLyxPro
VRI-30 Compact Vocal Booth

They VRI-30 by LyxPro is a vocal booth that can resolve many problems related to voice recording, but how effective is it?

LyxPro VRI-30 Compact Vocal Booth
LyxPro VRI-10 Large Vocal Booth

The Good Stuff
  • Quality, strength
  • Audio absorption is great
  • Echo removal is great
  • Foldable for storage
The Bad Stuff
  • Single mounting option
  • Not adapted for top capture microphones
The Ratings
Design
80%
Quality
100%
Installation
70%
Audio Properties
90%
Price
90%
Overall: 86%
Disclaimers: This product or service was provided by the company or partner for the purpose of this review.
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