 Hey, it's time for a voice-over potty shop tech talk number 35 The arthritis in this not how does that work exactly 35? Okay 35 This is the 35th tech talk and we got lots of stuff to talk about tonight, too You've got some great stuff in your tech update like too much stuff. Actually, I've been finding more and more stories Yeah, we're gonna talk about Luna the new doll we're gonna talk about The new version of level later, but the heck is level later anyway And the new hackintosh computer that's available Audacity woes and probably more. All right more stuff than you can possibly handle Hopefully your brains won't explode, but at least you're gonna get some good information here It's time for voice-over body shop tech talk right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice-over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voice-over home studio master a professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience to help you Create a professional sounding home VO studio and each week They allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voice-over body shop tech talk Voice-over body shop tech talk is brought to you by voiceover essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice-over training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and voice-over extra your daily resource for VO success and Now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Hey there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voice-over body shop or VO BS BS tech talk tech talk tech talk Yeah Yeah, you know I interesting technologically you know I do a lot of editing and stuff and I have started to develop osteoarthritis in this knuckle Which makes it really tough to edit and which one are you using? I'm using a magic mouse. What is this? I'm using a magic mouse But I find doesn't surprise me actually yeah, because I had pain a couple of years ago Yeah, I'm using this. Yeah, until I went to this Hmm. Well, I've got one. Yeah, I find that it hurts just as much using the pad on my laptop Okay, but what I've done and I'm it's not like that right now is I've been taping these fingers together because it's the motion sideways that hurts Doing that but I'm finding that I'm missing Every time I click on the wrong side of the mouse. It's like why isn't this one? Oh because I'm one finger over It's very strange I'll tell you I got used to I so what I've done with the trackpad is I don't use it as I don't click Right. So trackpads have a click button on the bottom. So when you tap down, yeah Yeah, I just have tap mode and that seems to help me a little bit I don't I don't know if that makes a difference, but I wonder does the magic mouse have that Maybe it does the magic mouse. I think you still actually have to click it to get a click I don't think it has a tap. I'm not sure. I haven't used it in a while. Hey, if you know, let us know Anyway, we're here to talk about voice over technology Knowledge which is why you guys keep tuning in because you want to hear George and I talk shop because we've been talking shop For the last nine years. Well, we you and I have been talking shop for like the last 11 or 12 years before we started doing this and We want to make sure that you guys get it right because Everybody has to have a home studio now and you're getting all these edicts from the you get the studios and your agents and other People saying you have to have this and you have to have that Although, you know, they say you have to have a TLM 103. I'm usually telling them, you know, I have a TLM 103 I don't tell them it's sitting in a box in the closet. Exactly You know, it's it's like I mean you could buy like a broken one for parts on eBay for Maybe for a cheap and just say I have one. Yeah, is that lying? Well, it's it's sort of like that line from the pink panther you know klusos checking into a hotel and There's a dog there and he was oh, does he a dog bite and the clerk says no, my dog does not bite And he goes, oh good dog a dog you bite some he says, I thought you said your dog does not bite. This is not my dog Yeah, it's okay. It's a classic. It's you know, it's pretty important and that I think with equipment It's like that as well but if you need to learn if you're just starting out in voiceover or if you're an experienced voice actor and George and I work with them all the time who's never really done it themselves They go into the studio and they get the craft service and somebody taking care of them and the engineer You know moving the microphone for them and stuff and now they're like well, I have to do it at home Don't panic. You got a couple of guys here that actually know how to get it done and get it done inexpensively and Take away. I think the way you describe it is this black art that people think it is And if people want to work with you and learn how to do it or have you set it up How would they work with you mr. Whittom? Well for starters, you'd head over to George the dot tech That's the site that has all my information on how to get a hold of me book support with me remotely Then we have processing settings I can do for you for specific kind of needs Or even just what really most everybody needs at this point is just a sound check Sending in your audio and having me take a listen And give them my thoughts about where you're coming in making sure we get that whistle dialed in Dan you do whistle Yes, which stands for what it's supposed to what it's supposed to sound like Right hurt my finger doing that and you whistle on another you whistle in a different way. What's your what's your website? My website is home voice over studio.com and you can find me over there and you can submit audio to me $25 I will give you a very thorough analysis. All you have to do is go to that home page home voice over studio.com Scroll to the bottom of the page Where you come across my specimen collection cup and you click on that and that will trick you to a drop box and follow the Instructions to a tee, but I also help people set up their studios explain to them the basics of how you build a home studio and really what's required and it's not usually as You know deep and dark as some people think it is it really is mostly physical stuff and I and I teach that so feel free to give either of us a buzz or an email or Or click on the links that say contact us and we will get back to you and we'll set something up Anyway Boy a lot of stuff in your tech though, you know, I was like looking at this earlier today I'm like, well, it's nothing was nothing there earlier. Yeah. I'm during the show I'm like, oh, okay. It looks like you're coming up with a lot of stuff. What is in your tech update this week? Well, it's the first thing it came to mind was I saw a post maybe last week or a week before from actually one of our sponsors David H. Lawrence the 17th and You know, he develops this thing called audio cupcake Which is he developed audio cupcake as an answer to the fact that this other tool called level later Was not being maintained enough to date What the heck is level later? What is lovely? So yes So level later is I call it an audio black box So classically a black box is something where something goes in Something happens inside the box and then something comes out the other side. Maybe it's from magicians, you know and So level later is an audio black box What happens is you literally can drag an audio file into that literally a drop box not like a box that you drag and drop files into And it pumps out a new file on the other side that's been modified How so exactly is dependent on the software's own algorithms? It does all kinds of things that are that are on out of your control. It's completely 100% automatic and so it does Leveling taking quieter sections of your audio of your track and making it louder It does a compression to control dynamic range. I think it also does expansion noise reduction I it does a lot of different stuff and so I Know people are using it for audiobook mastering and for me. It's kind of like It's too automatic like as an engineer I want a tool that I can hone or adjust especially tonally One thing that an automatic tool can't do while it might be able to give you a file with a consistent level or an RMS level It cannot make judgments of EQ and adjusting tone So it's definitely not an all an all fixing tool But if you want to try it now on a Catalina Mac, so any modern New Mac with Catalina. Well, believe it or not They this this software came out of the ashes rose from the ashes from its 2020 2012 version And they have a new version if you go to your app store on the Mac. It's in there is called the level later So you can install it now and try it out Give it a shot try it out see what it does to your audio files I recommend trying this on maybe a bunch of e-learning files or on audiobook files and seeing What does it do to the audio? Does it sound better but just louder? Is it sound all over the over the map? What is it doing to your audio? It's something to experiment with I'm not gonna endorse it in any way Because I have no idea what it's gonna do to your audio file. It's everybody don't know what's different Yeah, I have no idea what it's gonna do. I'll tell you really quick What the guys have developed this for it said it says when we develop the it conversations component-based show assembly system Some kind of automation system for putting together content online They realize that all the components had to be of the same loudness all the audio files or the results would sound awful Yes, they would and they limped along for many months using a bunch of different plugins and stuff but the results weren't satisfactory and so some of the post production and audio engineers And came together one guy named Bruce Sharp offered to write our standalone software RMS normalization Utility and they've been using a part of their production system the CNU up CN uploader since 2005 So this thing was not in any way developed for audiobooks specifically or really any genre of voiceover Specifically, what was this tool they developed for their service? They just decided oh, let's let everybody try it out. And anyway many years later It still exists 15 years later and they made a new version So give it a try suit you think and see if it's helpful or if it just makes math, you know a mess out of your audio All right next up audacity the free DAW software that I love to hate and Honestly, sometimes I just hate to love it What does that mean so audacity is it's free and that's obviously makes it so pervasive I also saw that it's been around for over 20 years. It's had its 20th anniversary Which is remarkable And so it's constantly evolving and unfortunately in those evolving when it evolves and when it does update They just tend to sometimes arbitrarily change the names of certain features Where they're located where the files are stored, etc Now if you're just a typical user of audacity and you just record edit your files Maybe normalize and send the file off. It may not affect you But however, if you do take make use of the macros function Things can get a little bit messy sometimes when you do a new or upgrade to a new version of audacity Sometimes those macros why would someone use a macro? What are those for? Oh, yeah, macro So a macro is is the ability to sort of program and automate your audacity software to do certain tasks for you And actually it's become far more powerful than it used to be It used to be called chains and you could just load in normalize compressed two-to-one normalize EQ level of Master or whatever you call limiting boom, whatever put all that into a chain And it would just do it Macro adds a lot more features. You can add far far more options to a macro a lot more different tasks Can be added as a macro so it's a bit more There's even more automation now you can do and if it's set up, right? I got to say I've never come up with a more elegant or fast way to master an audiobook It's a bear to set it up. It's a bear to get the odd of the macros and all the right plugins imported into your system It's it's a pain and it's never been seems never seems to be getting easier And that's what makes me a little bit crazy about it. Once it is set up. It can be pretty brilliant There's even a plug-in if you know where to find it called ACX check And after it does all the processing it'll spit up a window saying your RMS is in the right range and Your noise floor is acceptable. It's it's pretty cool, but boy setting it up is a pain So it's just it's a little bit of a rant and it's free software But I'm telling you sometimes free software costs you in other ways like hiring me or one of my tech guys Actually, Sue's son hat This has been a considerable amount of time way beyond what you would think would be normal to help one of my clients set up Getting a macro to work. Yeah that I created for and it's just it's a bummer that it's so hard to set up Yeah, so yeah, I'm you know I've been teaching people audacity, you know last couple of weeks because people are like, yeah Yeah, we're setting up studios and of course you get the updated version that now works with Catalina and they changed a bunch of stuff It's like changed a bunch of stuff as you're trying to teach a couple things. Yeah, that's like Oh, well used to be here and that's right. Don't you feel dumb? Like as long as you're doing it too, so Absolutely, yeah, I feel like I'm like this person's paying me to be the expert and I'm going let me Google that Let me go to the Facebook group for audacity exactly. I frequent a lot I'm the guy posting questions like what the heck happened to this feature So anyway audacity be where it's just it's free software it changes at a whim and Support is just done by committee So good luck with that. All right. Um another completely different end of the spectrum in terms of DOS, but strangely also free is Luna Luna is a new Multi-track recording software from universal audio now. It's free with a big-ass asterisk That is it's free if you own a universal audio Apollo Or any one of it the Apollo series Um, so it's free ish But you have to use it with their hardware So what it is is basically bakes in the ability to make your audio sound like it's passing through a classic Neve mixing console and then being recorded to or mastered to an Apex or Atari tape machine from the 70s or something which has and yet a little to do with voiceover by the way That is for sure very little to do with voiceover. I I brought this up tonight only because on facebook. I saw the first Uh vio tech talk post about this somebody saying I'm using Luna to record and at my voiceover and something something something's happening And it sounds like this and it's all funky blah blah blah and I comment was Luna for voiceover editing Who is using that nobody I know So I guess the point is is like If you if you have an Apollo Go ahead and install it go ahead and play around with it I just frankly haven't had time to really give it any effort But those that need tools like this because they're producers Are finding it to be pretty awesome as a voice actor Holy cow. It's it's really just another over the top multi-track doll tool like pro tools don't go there You really don't need so I'm not saying go get it yet and uh, unless you're an early adopter slash producer With an Apollo then give it a try All right next thing hackintosh is dan. Have you ever had a hackintosh? I haven't but I remember our experience with one. We actually did produce the show With a hackintosh for some time until it started crashing during the show So what a hackintosh is for those are going what the hell is a hackintosh It's a it's a so max systems if you want to run mac os You have to normally have an apple computer and there's a lot of good reasons for that but one of the reasons is because it literally is the The the the rules set by apple says you have to own An apple computer to legally run mac os But many years now there's been hackers that have come up with ways to run mac os on non apple hardware And you know, I've known people with varying degrees of success Using it but really honestly everybody. I know that's used it has eventually pretty much stopped Because the long term the longevity and the stability over time It is it is a it is a crapshoot Uh as to whether it's going to run from from month to month from update to update There's so many things that can go wrong But this company called open core they decided will be the next ones to make hackintoshes and commercially sell them Which is kind of mind boggling. I mean, it's like selling it's basically you're selling something illegal ish Very much in the gray area of of legal in terms of software licenses And here's the reason the problem is the apple end user license agreement or yula That thing that you see when you put install software that you Immediately say yeah, I read it and it's about 78 pages long says give us your firstborn. Oh, yeah It says this is a This is a really important document everybody skips to the end clicks agree and it says the software including the boot ROM code Which is what allows a mac to run mac os to run on a mac um the documentation the fonts Accompanying the license whether it's on disk read in the memory of the computer on any other media or in any other form Uh collectively apple software Are licensed and not sold to you by apple. So you don't own mac os Um, and it's for use only under the terms of this license and apple reserves all rights not express Lee granted to you in other words if you go buying a computer called the open core computer And it's running mac os They have every right to make it not work apple meaning they um to make it not work So don't go buy one of these things I mean, okay, it'll probably run windows great and it's probably a cool-looking Computer that will run windows fine And so if you're buying it knowing that that might be the case after a couple of months that you might be stuck Just running windows Be my guest, but anyway, I just thought that was really Bizarre and interesting to see that somebody is trying to commercially sell hackintoshes Anyways, that's it for my tech updates. Yeah, our experiences with those were we're kind of so so So anyway, I thought I'd you know, let's get back to the physical world Uh, as opposed to the you know the technological world because you know as many of you know when I when I teach My whole thing is everything is physical Uh, and you know, we had Dave Finoy on last week who was totally agreeing with us You know, you can have the greatest microphone in the world, but if your room sucks It's gonna you know, that great microphone is going to prove that your room isn't very good That's right. Uh, but one of the things and it's controversial Uh, because I had my own opinions on it Uh ran and I had a a run in with my agent Who's also a prominent voice actor and uh, and and someone who Is not afraid to express his opinion on youtube and twitter and stuff like that But he said there was some guy on you know, you know on facebook that was saying you don't need a pop screen When you're you know, when you're doing voice over Some guy some guy and I know I've been caught saying that a million times right Don't mention any names, but it was something that I've been well known for saying you don't really need a pop screen Right, uh, and so I immediately, you know sort of got on email. I'm like, you know, it's nothing better than your agent You know getting on twitter and calling you several names that I will not mention on here and uh You know, I wish you wouldn't do that and he goes, oh man cool your jets If I was talking about you, I would have said I was talking about some walrus-faced doofus And then it would have been totally And then you would have understood that I was talking about Now we know who you're talking about. Yeah, exactly So but anyway, so I here I have a pop screen now those of us that You know came out of radio. We didn't have a pop screen It was never a pop screen. It was you know, it was an art You know a an re 20 or a uh, a sennheiser. What is that a 417 or 421 421 maybe yeah, you know, and you you'd talk right into it like that and you know There was no reason that you would get any any pops or anything because they have process Yeah, the yeah processing would take care of it So we see a lot of pictures with people doing voiceover because if you type in voiceover and you You know, well, it's got some voiceover images. You see people headphones microphone pop screen um I've come to the conclusion that these things are not what people think they're for Uh, and I think you probably agree with me george. It's you know this it's not so much a pop screen As it is a spit guard and as I explained to everybody It's to prevent saline dion from spitting on a $10,000 telephone could microphone Does it really work some people say oh, yeah, it absolutely works I find that with mic technique If you talk directly into the diaphragm Which you know is not how we naturally talk to people I mean, I don't talk right into your ear. Yeah, we don't talk half an inch from your eardrum You know, I say keep your mic at ear level because that's how people naturally hear you It's you know, it's how everybody's ears here So why not have the microphone have the same perception as someone that you're talking to since voiceover is An intimate one-to-one conversation not talking to thousand people thousands of people out in the hollywood bowl at once um But people think that they need to have this pop screen because if you do talk directly into the diaphragm And go peter piper pick the pack of pickled peppers You're going to get what we get plosives those plosives, baby, right Now some people will say and I won't mention any names um Well, you use a pop screen peter piper pick to pack of pickled peppers Does it really help a little bit? I would say 50 percent. Yeah, but here's another and here's the thing Yeah, after working with hundreds and hundreds of people I've come to the conclusion that this thing Is why we keep getting these specs that say No announcers Because when you put this thing in front of you or it's there like that Suddenly it becomes this Psychological object in front of you that it's like oh now there's this barrier between me and this microphone I have to project more in order for it to hear me And people who are I think that might be right if there's something something psychological about oh I I definitely think there is especially people have these you know these big ones with you know With nylon on them and stuff or it says, you know the logo of the company that manufactured it um If you're a singer. Yeah, and you really work the mic like that I can see where you might need that you know one to protect your microphone But also to prevent some plosives But I find that if you've got the mic set properly and it's at eye level And you talk underneath it and your copy is down here like this You can go peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers all day long and you will not get any plosives So, uh, and something you didn't see Something I just did that you didn't see because you don't have a confidence monitor right now As I swung my pop screen on my mic into the view of the camera Yeah Okay, recognize recognize the name on that pop screen. I do it's I actually have We actually at one time had a branded Pop screen believe it or not right, but what's it's unique about this one is the shape of it So the reason the reason it has that slot in the middle and it's very small This was developed for the apogee mic right This mic was in still is notoriously Easy to pop like ridiculously easy to that very unforgiving microphone right and so at the time It just made sense that there should be a pop screen. Nobody was making it We reached out to we happened to know about this guy named Mike french And I think that was that's his name and with the hook studios and we long long story short We ended up getting on a small number of the main with our logo, which was really fun and cool Yeah, I still have it and I have it on this mic here mainly because I don't own this mic. So I want it to be pristine When I send it back I have to do a review of this mic. It's a vanguard v4 Um, and this little pop screen is very in innocuous very small takes up very little space And so for me it just makes sense to have that protection. It's a spit guard Right, you know, and that's really all that makes sense to me about anything like that So those big disc ones that are on a gooseneck that always seem to sag down in front of the mic or Take up space and you know, I'm not a big fan Is that the harlan one this is that the this is a groove tubes It's a groove tubes. I know harlan's got one really similar Yeah, if it dad has a good gooseneck on it looks like it looks like wherever you place it it stays Yeah, relatively well a lot of them are saggy Anyway, yeah, I totally agree with Dan Absolutely 100 on the pop screen. Dan makes a much better fly swatter It's got a little bit of you know recoil action to it Alrighty well, we got lots of questions that you guys have been sending in which is why we do this show And we're gonna get to those right after these incredibly important messages. So don't go away This is Arianna Ratner and you're listening to voiceover body shop vlbs.tv And now a word from harlan hogan and voiceover essentials.com Has this ever happened to you embarrassing The washers on these booms. Yeah, they're not so great at holding up your expensive microphone And here's the answer the adjustable boom stop is great easy to attach and works like a charm No more droopy mic. It's simple ingenious and infinitely adjustable The padded non-slip pouch fits almost any size boom arm unique double loop webbing system for unlimited angle of the downstrap Works with tripod and solid round bases light gray webbing lets you mark and repeat stand settings for each performer It's three ounces of protection for your expensive microphone with free standard shipping in the continental us Hold up your mic with the abs adjustable boom stop Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat Were you stick around? You don't want to miss this Power 1039 at target. We want you to come as you are be comfortable Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer and aisle floor, please Representatives watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices Sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos.com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom Oh, right. It's time to talk about source elements. You know these people They're the amazing techs that brought you source connect and a whole lot of other tools At this point, uh, do you have a source connect license? Wait, you don't All right. Well, that means you're not a voice actor because i'm telling you at this point Uh, source connect is the tool that's expected of professional Voice actors that not only range not only just the promo and the trailer and the commercials But i'm even hearing audiobooks are being remotely produced now with source connect What is this thing? Anyway, it's a way to record your voice remotely by another studio another engineer Somewhere else somewhere else on the planet And it allows them to capture the audio in extremely high quality real time I think that is like broadcast quality skype. Did I just say broadcast quality? I sure did You know totally clean studio quality no processing just the way it sounds right off the mic So this is tool has become extremely popular as you can imagine Um, you don't have to go buy it right out of the gate and that's the good thing You can just get a demo license go to source dash elements.com Get a 15 day free trial get it up and running If you need some help head over to george the tech comm slash s See the source connect help page and there's some free tutorials and information over there You should follow Before you delve too deep but get it up and running make sure you know what to do with it Make sure you know you've got your system tweaked and when that request comes along saying do you have source connect? You can say yes, I do Activate your license and off you go So anyway, we really appreciate the support from source elements. They've been helping us out Bring this show to you guys for many years now Tell them we sent you and uh, we'll be right back Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky the voice of Rocco and you're watching voiceover body shop Oh, thank you. All right Well, we're back here on voiceover body shop tech talk number five and Fascinating, you know, it's just always fun just talking with you And it's amazing how we just keep finding new stuff to talk about And I thought I would just pull out the least covet friendly microphone in my That is a coals lip mic Tell us about it's literally designed to for the user to press This bar up to their lip As the guide for where the mic should be placed And is this used for voiceover? Heck no, this is this is an announcer mic This was like the classic bbc sports announcer mic that was used to announce like formula racing and things like that But what makes it unique is well, it's a ribbon microphone for one And it has an incredible extreme amount of backside rejection Um, one two three four five one two three four five one two three four five one two three four Which is why it would be which is unusual for a ribbon mic Check it out on the side Nothing It's a really really bizarre mic, but the most bizarre thing of all is you physically Press it against your lip so Not good to think of a more Non a mic you would never use in in voiceover especially in the studio I just thought I dug it up the other day I was cleaning up my office and just thought I would show you guys the the famous coals lip microphone And there and what are you doing with that? This frankly belongs to a client and uh, it's a long story. Okay, but it Definitely belongs in somebody else's hand But it's still here. So I'm playing with it. All right Now one of the things we wanted to bring up was when we were talking about pop screens is You asked a question, you know Do you could you bring your own pop screen and headphone to a gig? I know I wouldn't but Yeah, I mean, um, I guess if you're really, you know, if you're very concerned about Uh, and maybe this would even be true for just normal times not even covet times But if you just don't like the idea of putting on that same pair of headphones that was worn by seven other people in the last three hours Bring your own headphones to the gig I don't think that's such a bad idea. Um, see what they say I mean, you know quarter inch jack bring it with you I mean, I can't imagine they would have a hard time with headphones I also thought maybe a pop screen boi o pop screen probably not going to be something that the engineers are going to be all excited about Ringing that thing up to their mic and all that stuff. I don't know about the pop screen, but You know what and these strange times they might be kind of open to it anything that would Make the voice actor feel comfortable Working in their studio. Maybe not a bad idea Yeah, I do know that the studios that are opening dipping their toes in openings such as um, sound box la Uh, tim freedlander's studio. He's opened up. He calls it um Mo covo covo vio No co no co vio no like no contact vio. That's what it is. No co vio Um, they have a whole way of recording you to minimize the amount of contact That you have to make with their equipment and or anybody else So they're being very very cautious about it. They're approved to do this by the city Which I think is brilliant. Um, so there are studios slowly dipping their toes in the water of being Back into business again if you really need to get into a studio Yeah, I always liked it if I would go into a studio and there were no headphones. There was just a squawk box And you know that way, you don't have to wear headphones because I don't like wearing headphones anyway I just happened to have to wear headphones because that's how we're hearing each other tonight and I can hear the director Uh, but uh, you know, I've I've always thought you know a squawk box makes more sense In voiceover. Now if you're doing overdubbing with you know a band or something like that Yeah, you got to wear headphones to do that. Right. So, uh, anyway All right. Well, that's interesting thoughts interesting thoughts. Well, we got a ton of questions here So why don't we dig into those then? Thank you for sending a minute if you've got a question for us You can send it to us at the guys at v obs dot tv And you can get your question Mentioned right here on our show and let's start off with the richard. Why don't you take that, george? Sure, richard says are there any significant pros or cons between recording at 48 kilohertz sample rate versus 44.1 kilohertz sample rate with the same bit depth of 24 24 bits and if a client has requested a specific sample rate when exporting a file Should that determine the recording sample rate great show. Many. Thanks That's like actually a good question techie question, but it's it's a good one I do not believe there is any audible difference in quality between 48 kilohertz and 44.1 So why do they both exist? Um 48 kilohertz for whatever reason became the sample rate commonly used for broadcast of video of television And uh film sound just whatever reason that that sample rate worked well for Their equipment and their production workflows And at the same time when sony came up with a red book standard for cds sony philips, I guess Um, they settled settled on 44.1 kilohertz sample rate for cds. So that's why that is still a thing Um, they sound virtually identical. I don't know anybody that could tell the difference between them I generally tell people just record in the same sample rate all the time Just leave it set so you don't have to overthink it and screw with it And then if you have a production specifically saying we want something at that point just resample it just convert it And save it it with the new sample rate. They're not going to know or hear the difference Um, so I wouldn't worry about it. So yeah, it's it's a technicality If you're recording a source connect session if you're a voice actor on source connect And also recording yourself You do need to pay attention to that sample rate. They have to be the same Both softwares So that's something we really keep keep keep a keep an eye on that but no 44.1 48 Interchangeable as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, I I've never had an issue with that, you know, and sometimes you send in the wrong one They just convert it back the other way. So it doesn't really matter. Exactly. Uh question from terrell kennett Uh, I filled the appropriate forms to obtain my iLock account and got my email and download for source connect I have Wi-Fi in my house with the router upstairs my studio downstairs about 60 feet away rather than Stringing the ethernet cord through my house down the stairs, etc I considered power line ethernet adapters as you suggested in episode 34 That which was last week my house was built in the early 1950s And the upstairs and downstairs are on different breaker switches. My research suggests that would be a problem thoughts advice Thanks so much Yeah, these power line ethernet adapter devices I had some within arms reach but now they are not Uh, I want to give me just a sec. They're right over here dan. I can pull one out. Okay, sure All right Yeah, in the meantime, I'll I'll I'll go on to jack the gallius question. He says I've got an audio editor who for six weeks Yeah for six weeks this summer will be off in the woods. What's less than stellar internet Do you have any thoughts on file sharing apps that's suited for that situation? smoke signals It's probably the best answer for that um You know file sharing if you don't have good internet It it you know, it really doesn't matter. It just takes longer to upload stuff. So You know google drive works great If you're patient, you know if things have to move really really quickly Uh, you know, it's got to download now then you can't do it from the woods Um, unless you've got like satellite internet or something like that So I I wouldn't know of any of those but you know, you can address that too george And you know if the internet's not good, it's not going anywhere or it's just going to take a long time to get there Yeah, I mean less than stellar. I mean what what does that mean? I mean is it dsl You know with like uh 700 k upload Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna take longer if you're doing audiobooks and sending them to your to your uh Proof for as wave files is gonna be a bad experience. It's gonna take a long time to take overnight or more. I think Okay, so so you got to go and tell yeah So just to explain real quick what these power line ethernet adapters are Here are some uh one goes plugs into the wall by your uh Directly into the wall as you can see Then one of them plugs right into the wall by your router the other one plugs into the wall by your computer On the bottom there's ethernet And that connects on one end to the router the other end to your computer and the wiring in the house is the Connection between so your house is the ethernet is what happens These have been around a long time and they they generally work pretty well But they don't always work and the reason is because they use the household wiring To make that connection if the how household wiring is screwed up If there's not a ground or something weird like that There's a chance it may not work Um, but I understand and my my experiments it definitely works in on circuits that are different breakers um, and for example I'm in it I'm in a different like house and I plug went into where the router is which is in another physical building next to me And these things actually worked in two different buildings and the reason they worked on this in the different buildings because There was one master box Everything went to one master box and because of that it still worked So in your case Even if it's glass fuses or something is as long as both parts of the house are on the same Uh circuit box You should it should work Best thing you can do is buy them on amazon where you return policy try them and see what happens Um, but uh, yeah, they generally work on multiple Circuits, they don't have to be all in the same breaker They would certainly be a lot less useful if they had to be in the same room For example to be on the same breaker But isn't as good as say a land because they you know the guys at source connector suggesting it always If you can have a land you really should Is this good enough for something like source connect? Yeah, I mean land is absolutely the best possible thing a physical ethernet cable from your Router to your computer. That's best Um, I would say in most cases as long as these are working. They are the next best thing Because it's still a connection that's wired Um top speed will not be nearly as fast probably as the ethernet And in a lot of cases it may not even be as fast as wi-fi So that can that's kind of depend But it's going to be it's going to be more consistent and stable And that's probably where most matters for source connect. So Give it a shot. Cross your fingers. Okay, cool. All right Interesting question here from marlene goodman This is this is this is the kind of stuff that you and I just live for How do I learn the technical skills to record voiceovers? I wish to make a demo um Well, that's kind of like saying I'd like to learn to drive a car. I'd like to make one first Yes, or yeah kind of right Essentially It's a weird analogy, but it's you know learning how to record properly takes Proper chain training and education. George and I didn't just learn this stuff overnight We learned it in college in classes one after another Radio production and these sorts of things where we learned the basic theories behind how all this stuff Does what it does and how to use it And you know because it's much easier these days because you can do it on a computer Doesn't mean that it's necessarily easy. It's easier than it was I mean you don't need expensive equipment and stuff like that But it still comes down to the it's not the equipment itself, but how you use it And understanding a bunch of concepts that you really do need to understand about the acoustics of your room how you use the microphone properly of setting proper input levels Uh, if you really don't understand that And you know and you and I see this stuff all the time because people send us audio and it's like Little tiny waveforms in there and it's like somebody doesn't understand The db scale and why that meter is there and why do we use it and things along those lines The best way to learn it is to hire somebody Who knows how to teach this and that would be me and George I mean, yeah, there's a ton of engineers out there that do this every day for a living and they're very good at it But not necessarily good at teaching it and not yeah not necessarily for voiceover and certainly not necessarily good at teaching it as well Um, so yeah, there's lots of courses online books you can buy blah blah blah But if you could just book a half hour to an hour of time for us to teach you like very specific Skills that you need to know That's going to be a major major shortcut now That leap to I wish to make a demo That's a whole different story. That's a quantum leap Yeah, so recording a great sounding voiceover track for an audition That's very straightforward. You know, we we can teach you to do that and that's appropriate Teaching you how to produce a professional sounding commercially viable demo on the other hand That's something you leave to a professional right producer. Right. It's a it's a huge skill set That takes years to get really good at right, you know And if you're just if it's one of those things Well, I don't want to spend the money Then you're not really willing to invest in doing voiceover properly You have to have a proper commercial demo that's produced by somebody Who knows how to do it because if it doesn't sound right, it's you know, you may get lost and gonna hurt you Yeah, you're gonna get roundfiled very very quickly. Oh, they just did their own demos keep in mind demos are often used mainly these days to To find an agent right and trust me if anybody knows what a demo should sound like It's an agent. So if it doesn't sound Totally pro It's a waste of your time. Yeah, it's not gonna happen. Right, but did the agents know what makes it sound like that? Not necessarily that we've discovered is not necessarily the case. No, but they know what it's supposed to sound like Why don't you take this question from jeff holman? Jeff our chat room chat room mod Um We're changing the placement of pillows Boxes and clothes in my closet recording space Make my sound more tinny or less full or bassy sounding Is there anything other than mic proximity that will change? The bass quality of recordings making it sound Thinner. Um, well, yeah, yeah, of course You know, I always have the the story of you know Somebody called me somebody who studio I had set up and in their closet and They called me back a couple weeks later and they're like Suddenly it sounds different and my immediate reaction was well, did you take something to the cleaners? and And he's oh, yeah, I said, you know, this is back in the northeast. I had a down jacket I sent it. Well, there you go down jackets gonna If you've got it placed in the in a specific place that's going to diffuse an awful lot of sound a lot of sound It really is. Yeah, and that will change the you know the acoustical dynamics of the room Yeah, but as far as you know trying to keep you know the lower end I mean it depends on if you're talking about bass resonance Or or or uh, you know bass reflex You know, we're just where you could it sounds like you're essentially under it, you know in a tube or under a desk Yeah, you've you've got to you've got to keep it consistent and in using my proximity Is not necessarily the best way to make you have a deeper voice because that's dishonest because Nobody hears you like this, you know, there's always guys you hear on the radio and then you meet an effect Right, you meet him in person and they're like, well, you know sound anything like you do on the radio Well, that's because I don't talk an inch, you know from your eardrum So Yeah, I mean you you can you certainly can control the low end of your mic's pickup by doing working proximity But um, yeah, if you were to uh, all of a sudden add a bunch more clothing or big thick dense products boxes of Winter clothes god, I don't know whatever if you added a bunch of that stuff to the closet The low end or the base Reflects sound of that closet's going to get reduced So it would then certainly sound less rich full bass heavy. So yeah, that that makes sense to me So that could that would definitely happen. Yeah, we keep a consistent space and a consistent like technique You know and and you know your sound and and if it changes it becomes tinny It may not it may be, you know, you know, it could have be could be You're talking in the wrong side of the mic thing, but you know That happens way too often way. It's um, yeah I mean if you if you use a clothing closet walking closet, whatever as your voiceover booth And you decide one day or your spouse decides one day. It's time to donate all those suits from the from the 70s Uh, beware. You've just changed the dramatically change the sound of your Voiceover booths. So be careful about it. Yeah Interesting that now the the next question we have from steven hack, which was actually intended for day fanoi last week But I I I say that I said, let's move this into tech talk because You know, this is this is one of those things I talk about Uh, it says when we're being our own engineer for at-home auditions Do you have any advice for how to handle scripts that require yelling or shouting? For example, the script says Talking talking talking then scream Not regarding the acting but handling the recording and the levels. This is man This this is actually pretty basic. You go first on this one because I've got I've got my thoughts on this Yeah, I mean, uh My I I think maybe we differ on this which I will see but I My thing is set the gain for the loudest thing you're going to possibly record And that's where the gain should be So you said it, you know, if you know you check your script, you know, you're just gonna be screaming Then you've got a test record. See where you're coming in on levels. Are you still clipping? Turn it down Check it again Do it a couple of times until you can get a clean track with no distortion and clipping Is the rest of the audio on the track going to be super low? Uh, yeah, it's going to be super low But that's You know, nowadays we have equipment that can handle that dynamic range Especially with 24 bit recording it can capture and properly store That huge dynamic range. So I don't think it's as big of a concern If you're really really worried about it, you could break your script up and have all the loud stuff that you record And then record all the all the other stuff I think that's really cumbersome Um, and I'm not sure I would recommend that but Dan, I'm not a voice actor at the end of the day Well, that's you are so how have you handled this and your Day-to-day recording well the way I teach this and the way I handle it I I I provide two options You know when you're in a studio and you're and you're yelling There's going to be an engineer like you are controlling the audio Despite the fact that you're you know 10 miles from here Uh, you're you can control the level. So if I say george, I'm going to shout right now You're you can yeah, there was a scripted thing the engineer I can guarantee Has the script right, you know, and they're kind of keeping an eye on what's going on Right, but steven is asking here of self record self recording So there's two techniques that I you know and you mentioned one one was Have two level settings, you know one for yelling and one for normal conversation And if you know and and I would actually record the soft stuff first And the louder stuff second because if you record the louder stuff first It may affect your voice for when you're trying to do the quieter stuff It's a good point. So It's it's an interesting point or the other you know, and then you know So you have a level set for regular conversation and then for shouting You turn it down and two level settings is very easy to reproduce. All right, you can even grease pencil a little mark I would I heck I just use your sharpie. It's my my face, you know, exactly But the other thing is and and we talked about this with pat fraley I think a couple weeks ago is When you yell even for a video game, you don't yell into people's ears unless you really want to rupture their eardrum So you can learn the proximity And yell over here Because if you're farther away from the mic It's going to sound more natural because it sounds like someone yelling at you unless it you know It was your father yelling at you like, you know, right here um But you know, it's a matter of microphone technique and you can you can turn away and you can you can certainly Learn and the guys that are the big pros at this who work the animation studios And do the you know, the big video games like like Dave vanoy does They know how to play with the mic and there's an engineer there, but if you're doing it at home Learn the different proximity and how far away from the mic you have to get To be able to talk louder and not over modulate if you're going to keep your levels the same Yeah, just listen to it back, you know experiment you're going to have to find what works best for your scenario because If your um booth closet setup, whatever you're recording in sounds really bad when you're far away from the mic Let's say it sounds super Hollow and phasey and weird right that may not work so well So you may have to try different techniques because that technique can work awesome in a good studio a bigger space Better acoustics. I think that that technique is completely works awesome. It's that totally valid So you have to experiment with your studio see what works best right and of course the louder you talk The more the acoustics of the room come into play That's the other thing that people don't get it's like well, you're projecting too much and that's why we hear you bouncing off the walls making it a more intimate one-to-one conversation and The acoustics of the room become less prominent So anyway one last question I'm gonna let you handle this because every time I every time I see someone talk about the sphere like Suddenly they're gonna be at this great voice actor because they got this microphone. It's like Yeah, okay, not that the sphere is real expensive but Go for it. It's on the I'd say it's in the upper mid-range price range. Yeah, it's not cheap Um, scott chambers actually no scott. He's he's actually been recording voice acting for a long time actor himself um I'm interested in the towns and l 22 sphere or maybe they call it the sphere l 22. I'm not sure uh studio microphone Will it run on the Apollo arrow or is that asking too much from that interface? Um, as far as I know scott, I've never tested it personally with the arrow But I'm 99 positive it will run that plug-in will work perfectly fine and work great with the arrow Um, when I did my review on youtube of this mic if you go into youtube and just look for George the tech towns and sphere mic review, you'll find it I did the review with the first Apollo twin the original silver one, which is quite a few years old Did it perfectly sitting in a box over here sitting right in Dan's place Um, it worked perfectly fine and the arrow Apollo Apollo arrow is a lot newer Um, I don't see why and I don't see why at all you'd have any problem So give it a shot. Have fun. That the one is that the one that with the the the tom mation let us use Yeah, the the microphone. Yeah, or the interface. No the the microphone the microphone. Yeah, that's how I got to do. Thanks to Thomas I got to Got to do a review right because he bought that mic with his own money and boy Does that sit in my studio for a long time? See and the only thing the only thing I thought that was cool about it was the leds on it It lights up. It's pretty cool Well, it just so you guys know before we wrap this up. We that mic um emulates extremely faithfully the sound of tons and tons of other microphones from history including the sennheiser 416 Quite well Among many many other tricks that has up its sleeve Uh, yeah, definitely wouldn't even think about buying that mic until you've made quite a bit of dough in this business And unless you have an Apollo, you don't need one, but it it's really a horribly cumbersome to use without something like the Apollo and I won't get into why because we're out of time Right, but yes short answer. Yes Scott good All right Haven't seen Scott. Of course. We haven't seen anybody in a long time. I know it's getting kind of weird I was hoping to see him in Atlanta. That's the kind of place I would have seen scott for sure Was it yeah, I I actually did a home install this weekend though So I did get the chance to actually get out. I am venturing out this week myself for the first time. Yes For over three months. Yeah, I think I might start wearing my flight suit Yeah, you know tape up the gloves and yeah, I didn't buy the tyvek suit. Yeah Anyway, all right great questions guys And this is why we're here and this is why we love doing it and uh, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back This is bill ratner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv What question do we get most often? Far and away. It's how do I even get started in voiceover and we have a great answer to that question Take the vo heroes dot com free getting started in vo course You heard right. It's free and it's available online 24 7 at getting started in vo dot com That's getting started in vo dot com If you've been watching vo bs and thinking that you need to get in gear and start your own voiceover career This is the course you should start with You'll learn about the vocal skills you need the storytelling skills you need the equipment you need the business skills you need And the mindset you need to have all in one single comprehensive online course taught by vo heroes david h. Lawrence the 17th This course won the backstage readers choice award four years in a row and again, there's no charge. It's absolutely free Want to take it? Of course you do getting started in vo dot com. That's getting started in vo dot com As a voice talent you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do they break or don't look right on mobile devices They're not built for marketing and seo. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time go to voice actor websites dot com Like our name implies voice actor websites dot com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as seven hundred dollars So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voicehactor websites dot com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer that place is voice over extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voice over career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voice over extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audiobooks Auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voice over success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com Watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here. I think I want to go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich and Thus bring it to an end another voice over body shop tech talk number 35 in the can Yes, sir, and uh boy and another good one It's always a pleasure talking to you sir and get you that information and the synthesis that we have And getting this information out to people I hope you guys appreciate it Apparently you do because you keep watching it like 8,000 people a month Which is great uh Next week on this show Another great guest. We don't like to tell who But we'll know in plenty of time. Uh, who are our donors of the week? We'll rattle them off Harlow Rodriguez, Michael Kerns, Christy Burns, Graham Spicer, Antland Productions, Michelle Blinker and Christopher Epperson. Thank you everybody We really appreciate it and if you want to contribute either just on a one-time basis or as a small Subscription you can do that right on v obs dot tv. There's a there's a place you can do that It's very obvious right on the website. It says donate now Makes it real easy Uh, we need to thank our amazing sponsors Guys like Harlan Hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra uh Source elements Yes, vo heroes dot com a voice actor websites dot com and jmc demos Alrighty and uh, jeff holman for great job in the chat room tonight our technical director who just Just keeps it rolling along Sumer lino. Thank you so much. So we love you. Thanks for all your help and lee penny for being Lee penny Yeah, so that's going to do it for us this week The information's out there Just if you read all the forums on facebook, it's going to drive you nuts. Just listen to us every week And contact us if you really want to work with some pros And we'll make it happen for you in the meantime Really if it sounds good It is good. Alrighty. I'm dan londard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vo bs Have a great week everybody