Vocal Dampener for Singers, Actors, Performers, Stress Relief. A Portable Warm-Up Room.

All my life I wanted to be a singer, but I have a serious psychological mental block about making noise. I genuinely don't know where it came from, but for literally my entire life, I've hated the idea of being loud which, unfortunately, extends to singing. I made some headway against it when I picked up the saxophone, which there's just no way to play quietly, but I still was absolutely struggling to put any power behind my voice.Before I got my Beltbox, I would struggle to hit notes in my chest voice range because I just wasn't giving myself enough breath support, so the note would get choked off before it could come out, and my head voice range extended to a strained A5 and a passable F 4.Almost immediately after I started practicing with the beltbox, because I could no longer hear myself as clearly (and the psychological notion that, neither could anyone else), I was literally instantly able to hit E5. I have never sung that high in my life, and could not believe my tuner. I had to go to my piano, play the note, and sing it to confirm.Some caveats: yes, it is difficult to breathe while wearing this thing. You may want to either hold it in your hand, or keep a hand free to move it when you breathe in otherwise, you'll start to open your mouth horizontally really wide to break the seal and inhale that way which could become a bad habit if you're not conscious of it.If you correct yourself during non beltbox practice this shouldn't be too much of an issue though.One of the criticisms I've seen online, especially on Reddit, is that it's "just a $50 pillow". Two problems with that argument though. One, a pillow ain't portable. You're not going to shove a pillow in your purse or day bag. Two, you can't strap a pillow to your face, if you want to actually see where you're going anyway. This is excellent for quiet practice while multitasking, and it honestly just looks like a very unique face mask in the post-pandemic world we live in.I'd rather someone think I'm just wearing a unique face mask while I strengthen my voice and breath control, than to hear the awful noises I'm going to be making into this thing (from the next room/next door, anyway. If someone's in the same room they are goiing to hear you. That's just how physics works).Now if you'll excuse me, I have some singing practice to get back to!

I use this to practice songs for a choral group. I live in an older apartment building, and this device allows me to practice at full voice without annoying the neighbors. I don't think it would be that effective to keep from annoying roommates in the same room - there is not enough sound mitigation. You have to briefly pull away the unit to breathe, but this actually has helped me work on controlling my breathing. I found it most helpful to hold the unit in my hand, rather than using the strap.

Product came on time and in relatively good condition. Muffles the sound you make with your voice but if your roommate is sensitive to noise this won't stop them from waking up.Problems can start when you wear glasses. Wearing the mask properly makes it so that its very difficult to wear glasses at the same time as the mask can ride up to your nose. Moving the mask down to accommodate means that a gap may form around the chin allowing sound to leak through. I personally solved this issue by stuffing a microfiber cloth in the chin area to plug the hole, which absorbs the sound leak. I suspect that moving the beltbox further down the face and stuffing in a cloth will solve a large portion of the complaints against the beltbox, particularly the ones addressing chinsize and the ability to move the mouth.A chemical smell will start to form in this mask if you keep it in a closed container or leave the beltbox in its full intact state overnight. To deal with the smell, its best to separate the black rubber and the red foam sections when not in use.This mask can allow you to stick a very small microphone inside it. The mike will touch your lips on occasion but this can be a way to talk to people online late at night and be less annoying to anyone in the vicinity. But once again I must emphasize that this is a dampener, not a silencer. People can still hear you, even if they can't make out what you are saying.Other than that, this product works fine. I'm not quite certain if it was worth the full price but get it on sale and save your neighbors a bit of a headache.

I wish I got the newer one, I heard it’s better. I don’t hear a lot of dampening so I don’t think it’s worth the price.

UPDATE: Much to my surprise the folks at Beltbox reached out to me and offered a replacement after seeing my review regarding a defective unit. This was completely unexpected and goes to show that the Beltbox has an amazing team of people behind it who truly care about doing the right thing. In a world where quality customer service can be hard to come by, Beltbox serves as a beacon of hope.This does a very good job dampening sound, but I ran into some quality issues. When it arrived the red foam portion already had a rip in it, eliminating any waterproof properties. The tear served as a weak point in the foam and grew overtime, especially since the item is soft and flexible. If they come out with an updated model I may give that a try, but I don't think I'll be buying this version again.

As other reviews indicate, you may receive a used or damaged item (probably because of how many get returned). Mine arrived with two punctures to the foam and a strange reside throughout the inner lining. I cleaned it and gave it a go, but it does almost nothing to reduce volume, and that’s after repeated adjustments to get it to sit properly on my face - I’ve had better results singing into a pillow. Sending it back once I sanitize it, since it will clearly be sent to another customer…

It does work in terms of soundproofing but it works because the holes to breathe are so small. I can’t use it because I get lightheaded wearing it trying to breathe normally standing or sitting still. I guess it would be great if you’re training for high altitudes or for SUPER short periods of time but in terms of actually practicing growling, if I can’t breathe well enough to speak or stand, it’s worthless.