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New Real Traps product announcement:


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I got this press release in my email today - just passing it along FYI:

 

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REALTRAPS ANNOUNCES NEW PORTABLE VOCAL BOOTH

 

New Milford, CT, USA - February 15, 2007 - RealTraps is pleased to announce their newest product, the Portable Vocal Booth. This clever device mounts on any microphone stand to create a highly controlled environment for recording vocals and spoken narration in acoustically hostile spaces. Unlike other products that are too small to be effective in noisy or live sounding environments, or that color the sound, the RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth is much larger comprising a pair of 2 by 2 foot absorbing panels in a fully adjustable V shape. The integrated base attaches easily and securely to any inexpensive microphone boom stand. The RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth can also be placed directly on a table or other flat surface.

 

The RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth costs $299.99 direct from the manufacturer and begins shipping the end of February. Complete information is on the RealTraps web site www.realtraps.com/p_pvb.htm. Data on the Portable Vocal Booth product page shows how well it blocks unwanted sound, and a short video demo lets you see it in action compared with a popular competing product. The RealTraps site also contains educational videos, magazine articles, extensive advice on all aspects of room treatment, as well as showcasing their high-performance acoustic solutions for rooms of every size and purpose.

 

RealTraps is owned by Ethan Winer and Doug Ferrara. Ethan is known throughout the industry for his many technical articles in audio and computer magazines, and he has engineered and produced several classical music CDs including a recording of his own cello concerto. Doug is a professional musician and has owned a recording studio for more than twenty years. Besides his interests in audio and recording, Doug holds an advanced degree in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic, and has been a systems engineer for Intel and Motorola.

 

Product and contact information: www.realtraps.com

Phone, toll-free: 866-RealTraps (866-732-5872)

 

pvb.jpg

 

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:wave:

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Man, that thing sure is ugly compared to the Reflexion Filter!:D

 

I'm slightly angry, because I JUST got my sE Reflexion Filter in the mail about a week ago! I haven't done any recording with it yet, but I sure hope it does ok! My room is actually a bit treated to begin with, so hopefully it will do the trick. I do like Ethan, and his products, so I wish I would have known about this one! It is much larger than the sE product, so perhaps it would be a better investment for amps, and other bigger sources. My feeling is that if you put the mic a little further IN the Reflexion Filter, the results would be better than showed in the video. Also, maybe its that mic, but I don't think the sound quality of the Portable Vocal Booth examples sound very good...much more controlled, sure, but they sound strange. Again, this could be anything from the Mic, to the video's audio quality I suppose.

 

halcyo

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that is a pretty interesting design as well. it seems we have a new trend here of product line. the real traps seems like a good deal at $249 because like someone said above you can use it on amps and such... more flexability i think.

 

they should call these things 'nanogobos'. im trademarking that. copyright 2007.

 

aside from the obvious vocal use, i can definately see creative use of all the products like this that i have seen. im not sure about the price of them for said creativity...

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huh, it seems like I was just on a few posts the other day about this thing.. or i saw it on the web already or something...

 

It seems like it could be handy little trap, but everytime I think something will be good, it turns out i'm wrong. soo, i dunno.

 

So has anyone tried one of these 'NANOGOBOS?' (copyright 2007, alphajerk)

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Man, that thing sure is ugly compared to the Reflexion Filter!

 

Hey, which do you prefer - shiny chrome or works good? :D

 

 

We tried that and then it sounded even more affected and colored.

 

 

The video's audio is compressed, as are all online videos. But the main change in quality is the absence of room tone. Listen again, and directly on-axis with your loudspeaker tweeters (or use headphones).

 

There's always some slight coloration with a microphone in close proximity to anything, even perfect absorption. The change would be less with an omnidirectional microphone because the sound that no longer gets into the rear of the mike has the same response as the sound that still gets into the front. With a cardioid mike like my partner's Neumann, the sound that had been bouncing off the walls, but was removed with our PVB, had a different quality than what arrives at the front. This is why I posted graphs showing how much less affected the sound is with our Portable Vocal Booth compared to the SE device. For those graphs I used a precision DPA omni measuring microphone.

 

Thanks for all the comments, and especially thanks to Phil for posting this. :thu:

 

--Ethan

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you cant compare the two of them like that... its TWICE the size. you can see the tweeter peeking out over the top of the SE version on the one test.

 

ultimately these are two different products. the real traps version not being as elegant in size, but bigger area to dampen overall... it also is more visually consuming for the person singing into it whereas the SE might excel with being less obtrusive.

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According to the web site, it's FOUR times the size!!! I think I'm gonna pick up one of these.


I realize they may be somewhat small for this application, being NanoGobos (TM Alphajerk) and all, but I can't help but wonder if a pair of these would be useful for
drums
.


Ethan?

 

I ended up calling Ethan, who recommended that for my needs (mostly vocal and guitar amp micing with occasional use with drums for US$6-700), the MicroTraps would be an economical solution. Just to follow up....

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One thing that the video taught me is that a little room sound is desireable, even in a bad room! The radio announcer sound is very impressive and all, but it's not usually the sound you're looking for in a mix. Maybe moving the portable vocal booth back a little would strike a nice balance.

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http://www.smproaudio.com/MICTHING.htm

 

Yup, that's the one I was talking about - thanks AJ.

 

micthing_l2.jpg

 

I have not tried any of the three yet, so no comment... Craig did review the SE Electronics Reflection Filter, and appeared to like it, so if anyone has any questions on that unit, I'm sure Craig would be happy to discuss it. Here's a picture of it:

 

RF_Pop_Up2.jpg

 

Of the three, the Real Traps product seems to be the largest. Does that translate to better isolation? On the surface, I would tend to think so, but short of independent, side by side testing of all three products, I can't say for certain. I do think that these products are probably useful and interesting for many of you, so I wanted to let you know about them. :)

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I wonder how this portable vocal booth compares to slapping up a couple sheets of Rockwool (wrapped in fabric).

 

This is what I usually do.

 

I've noticed that if I get too close (within 12") to the Rockwool, the life kind of gets sucked out of the mic.

 

Ethan, do you have any A/B sample audio or video?

 

Brandon

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Brandon,

 

 

Very similar.

 

 

This is usually what you want for vocal recording. It's easy to add ambience electronically when mixing, but impossible to remove room tone after the fact. Also, room tone is usually resonant, meaning some frequencies are emphasized unnaturally more than other frequencies. A decent reverb plug-in with a small room type preset has a better ambience quality because it's not frequency selective as most rooms are.

 

 

You bet. Go to the Products page of the RealTraps site, and you can see all sorts of information. There's a link from there to our Videos page with a very basic "slide show" video demo.

 

--Ethan

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I just tested the low frequency response of my room using the Sonar project on the real trap web site. Damn, my room is terrible! Some frequencies just a few hertz apart have drastically different amplitudes. I will certainly be buying some more acoustic treatment very soon.

 

There you go.

 

Actually, those test tones are part of my secret plot to take over the world and cover every available surface with bass traps. :D

 

--Ethan

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