Is the Manley Vox Box Worth It for Voice Over?
The Manley Vox Box is the channel strip every voice over studio dreams about, and we have been weighing up whether to buy one. Our studio has been considering purchasing a Manley Vox Box. This is a one of a kind unit that has a lot of particularly good features that lend themselves to voice over sydney work. In this article we are going to look at those features and why they are important to voice over sydney work.
Noise Floor and Components
The Manley Vox Box is an extremely quiet unit. It has little to no self noise. The components that have been chosen are extremely high quality and the build on the unit is really impressive. This perfect for voice over Sydney work where minimal noise is required. When we are just listening to a single voice we require extremely minimal interruptions on the audio. Otherwise it can be distracting.
De-essing
Furthermore, the unit has a de-essing stage. The Manley Vox Box is one of the few units that has a hardware de-esser and they are not common as stand alone units. The helps the signal control harsh sibilant frequencies during the recording stage of voice over sydney work. This component of the unit makes it very favourable.
EQ
The unit also has a Pultec style eq that is good for getting the right balance on the way into the computer. Sometime Voice Over Sydney artist can be tracked a bit dull and require some EQ after the fact. This would allow us to get the right sound to disk, and thereby, minimise the amount of work that would need to be done after the project has finished.
Manley Vox Box Compression
The compressor is similar to that of an LA2A. It is a smooth and subtle compression which is ideal for vocal recordings. The Manley Vox Box has stages that allow the eq to sent out individual, too.
It appears this unit is the ultimate for voice over sydney work. Considering that Crash Symphony Productions is positioned as the go-to studio for voice over sydney work it would be a good investment to have one on the outboard gear rack.
For voice over work the Manley Vox Box is hard to beat, because it puts the preamp, de-esser, EQ and compressor in one signal path with no patching. You can hear our current voice chain on any session at our voice over studio in Sydney, and the full specifications are on the Manley Labs website.
