SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
The way I see it, vocal booths are nothing more than another tool, just like a microphone or a treated control room or a compressor. As such, how critical of a tool they are entirely depends upon one's need for that particular tool.
If you have a room that sounds like crap, then a vocal booth can be one good solution (one does not need to necessarily go full booth there, things like the reflexion filter, gobos and backdrops can also be used.) Note, though that if one has a booth, but has reverbs that don't sound a whole lot better than the room - or an engineer inexperienced in reverb use - than a booth is not much better than the room except for making dead and dry vocal tracks.
If you have quality reverbs and an engineer who knows how to fly them like an ace, then a vocal booth can be an excellet tool, regardless of how the rest of the room sounds, bucause it gives you the flxability to get vocals that sound anywhere from being recorded in the desert to a well-irrigated choir in Notre Dame cathedreal and everything in-between. But again, a full booth is not absolutely necessary in such cases; filters, gobos, etc. can often deaden enough for all but the driest of recordings.
If isolation is what you need, either from the rest of the band or from outside noise sources, then a good quality booth or a seperate room is a good solution, provide the booth/room are designed with the needed *isolation* characteristics.
Critical? No. Useful? Definitely. Necessary? Not always.
G.
If you have a room that sounds like crap, then a vocal booth can be one good solution (one does not need to necessarily go full booth there, things like the reflexion filter, gobos and backdrops can also be used.) Note, though that if one has a booth, but has reverbs that don't sound a whole lot better than the room - or an engineer inexperienced in reverb use - than a booth is not much better than the room except for making dead and dry vocal tracks.
If you have quality reverbs and an engineer who knows how to fly them like an ace, then a vocal booth can be an excellet tool, regardless of how the rest of the room sounds, bucause it gives you the flxability to get vocals that sound anywhere from being recorded in the desert to a well-irrigated choir in Notre Dame cathedreal and everything in-between. But again, a full booth is not absolutely necessary in such cases; filters, gobos, etc. can often deaden enough for all but the driest of recordings.
If isolation is what you need, either from the rest of the band or from outside noise sources, then a good quality booth or a seperate room is a good solution, provide the booth/room are designed with the needed *isolation* characteristics.
Critical? No. Useful? Definitely. Necessary? Not always.
G.
Whether that's in the context of a booth ... a well-treated room ... a large space with complex reflections ... or even out of doors. 
