Impromptu Voiceover Booth with Cigar Box Battle in 2022

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Impromptu Voiceover Booth with Cigar Box Battle in 2022

In this post, I talk about using Cigar Box Battle gaming mats as an impromptu voiceover booth. This one is not really a gaming post, but rather a post about how I create content for YouTube and some of the solutions that I use. In it, you also see a different use for a gaming product. That said, you could do the exact same thing as I did with the Cigar Box Battle mats with blankets and other soft materials too.

I’ve used this impromptu voiceover booth for a few of my YouTube videos on my Must Contain Minis Channel. I am fortunate enough to have two places where I can record videos and voiceovers. Unfortunately, one of those two places has a lot of hard surfaces. The recorded voiceovers down there sadly contained a harsh echo (or empty space) feel. I tried to do a few things in post processing to fix that, but it ended up sounding odd in the final product.

I had to do something to make that space more usable for recording. This post details my solution.

My goal with this post is to entertain those of you interested in my channel, show a different use that I found for Cigar Box Battle Mats and to give some ideas for any of you interested in content creation.

Now, let’s take a look at the solution that I came up for my audio issue.

My Impromptu Voiceover Booth

This is what I came up with. I took a plastic bin and stuffed it with Cigar Box Battle Mats. I also covered the table I was working on in a Cigar Box Battle Mat too. The blankets that you can see are all Cigar Box Battle’s double-sided fleece gaming mats. You can pick these up in their online store.

As a note, Cigar Box Battle Mat is currently in a Kickstarter campaign to incorporate new designs and a new size of mats too – 4′ by 5′. They are not fleece mats, but if they interest you, the campaign runs from now until September 30th (2022).

Again, you could use any blankets, foam or soft fabric to do the same thing as what I did, but Cigar Box Battle Mats are a very fun option since this is a gaming website after all!

Impromptu Voiceover Booth with Cigar Box Battle Mats
Above is my Impromptu Voiceover Booth. It doesn’t get rid of all the echo, but it certainly makes the audio from this space much more useful.

While the above setup does not make the space 100% perfect, it makes it so much more usable. Before, I could not use the audio that I recorded down in the basement. Now that audio is usable!

Components of the Impromptu Voiceover Booth

So, what is in my impromptu voiceover booth? I have the two fleece Cigar Box Battle Mats that you can see plus one regular Cigar Box Battle Mat double lining the bin. The bin is just a plastic storage tote buyable from any big chain store.

The is an ASUS TUF Laptop and I have a Blue Yeti X microphone too. Attached to the Yeti microphone I have a pop filter and a pair of JBL headphones. I will toss links further below for anyone who wants to recreate part of this setup.

For more on the laptop, I conducted a lot of research to find what was right for me. On my second website – Tech Presenters – I make all of the information I discovered in finding a new laptop freely available to you. You can find my research article for buying a new content creation laptop here.

On the laptop, I use Audacity to record my voiceovers and DaVinci Resolve to edit my videos. Both programs are fully functional and free to use.

My recording setup for voice using Audacity.
Another look at my basement voiceover recording solution.

Items List for My Voice Over Setup

Many of the items in my setup here I bought from Amazon. Below is that list. All of these links are affiliate links, which means that if you use them and then buy something from those online stores, Must Contain Minis receive a small commission. It is a nice way to support this website while getting yourself something to enjoy.

The links will take you to the products on Amazon. If Amazon is out (or does not have stock in your country) it will take you to what it thinks is the next best thing is.

Concerning the laptop. I have the 2021 version of the laptop and I bought it through Costco instead of Amazon. That said, the 2022 version is pretty similar. My model has the 3050 Ti Graphics card with the 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD space. You can find the same statistics in the 2022 models.

Other Interesting Articles for Aspiring YouTubers and Content Creators

While my use of a Cigar Box Battle mat is certainly interesting for you to have gotten this far, Must Contain Minis is about gaming and miniatures. I run a second website that could be of interest to aspiring YouTubers. As mentioned earlier, that website is called Tech Presenters.

There I focus on easy tips for media, technology and presentations aimed specifically at Content Creators and Presenters. Let me list off a few articles from there that I think you will find interesting.

The tips within those articles could help you with your voiceover and video creations and you general presentation skills as well. If you find those tips useful, please also like the Facebook Page for the site.

My hopes are to grow that website up alongside Must Contain Minis.

Now, let’s close out this article.

Wrapping it up…

There you have it. That is my impromptu voiceover booth made from Cigar Box Battle Mats and a storage bin. It’s not perfect, but it makes

Overtime, I am sure that I will improve upon this setup. I might try hanging the blankets instead of using a bin. I also might try other microphones in the future. The Blue Yeti X works really well, but it is intended for people who don’t know a lot about audio. If you background is as a sound engineer, you might not be happy with it. If you are someone that just wants to record some great voiceovers at a budget that won’t break the bank, then it is great!

Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!

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