 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk tech talk number 83 Tech talk number she does it again tech talk number 83 So if you're taking notes, I'll make what show did they talk about this? You'll know it was on 83 Uh, what are we gonna talk about tonight George? Oh, we have a great video to start off with we did We got a we just did this afternoon an interview with the folks over at Mojave audio The Microsoft microphones like this very microphone right here And then I'll talk a little bit about a few topics that I thought thought what might be helpful like avoiding buying overly buying solid-state drives on Amazon with ridiculous sizes for the price. Oh, that's a thing window inserts, do they work and Well as universal audio Apollo fixed zoom yet Stay tuned. All right all that and more and I have a little bit of talk about what's the best mic for Vio On voiceover 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 Vio universe. They bring it to you now George Whitton the engineer to the Vio stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional Vio studios of the biggest names in Vio today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home Vio 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 Vio 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 voice over essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your Vio website isn't a pain in the butt Vio 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 Vio success And now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hello there. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voice over body shop or Vio Be as tech talk tech talk tech talk talk talk talk talk talk talk And actually from our studio and clubhouse in Sherman Oaks, California for reals. Yeah, we're like reach my arm long far enough You know, we can actually like poke each other Yes, so weird it is it is But you know, we're gonna get back in front of the green screen eventually and for now This is fun. Yeah, it's okay. It's a cool backdrop. Yeah, I do know we we will be having a live guest in beginning of August Somebody who we really like having a show who always brings alcohol, which is Anyway, if you have a question about your home voice over studio And despite the fact that we've been doing this 11 years you guys still keep coming up with questions And we are still coming up with the great answers So throw those in the chat room and Jeff Holman will get that question to us in just a little bit But today we did it. We did a road trip It's been a while but we did it again. Yes, we went out there and actually videoed something with us in the same place and So are we talked with dusty wakeman over at Mojave audio. How did we how did we end up over there? Yeah? Well, you know, it's organic, you know, they They I ran into Dusty over at Nam show and he said hey, man. It's good to see you again Gosh, how's things going over the Donald Fontaine voiceover lab because they were an early early supporter of the lab You know and and he was like we need to get you a mic And he sent me over this MA 50 mic right here to play around with which sounds fabulous to do a review Which I will be doing a proper review of I promise And then then it became hey, we have a YouTube channel We want to come on our show is like a force and while we're there Can we interview you and show see us around the studio and if we made it happen Dan edited it for an hour Got it done just in time for you to watch Right now go for it. Hey, let's go inside the Mojave Office and see how they make these great microphones. Hey Come on and welcome to Mojave world headquarters appreciate somebody who Has a neat desk A place for everything and everything in its place I didn't tell him you guys were coming So it's probably a little neater than it normally is because you know, there's a lot going on over here But uh, you know, we all of our tube mics we burn in over here for 24 hours And then all of our microphones David listens to everyone every single one and the actual signs of card There's a little card like this that goes in with every mic After he signs it or after he inspects it he signs it and dates it looks like he's pre-signed somebody hasn't dated it yet So he's got to fill in the blacks that happens over here and then our highest-end microphones the MA 37 and the MA 1000 Actually get built here or finished here. We install the capsules transformers and tubes here And then this is all shipping and receiving these are mics that are all good to go ready to go out to customers and to dealers More more boxes boxes and more boxes and this is our storage room. These are boxes full of tubes We were fortunate that we stocked up a long time ago. So we have tubes for all of our models For the foreseeable future Probably past my lifetime in this business And then these are all capsules and all the other parts to go into our microphones So people wonder what it is that makes a high-end mic a high-end mic I mean we use you know most of the people in voiceover use a good studio condenser mic But what really separates it and what is it that Mojave is putting in their mics to create what we would call a high-end mic Well, there's a couple of things involved in that one our secret weapon David Royer Designs them. So it's his I call him simple yet elegant designs Which is something I stole from the wine world, but I love the sound of that simply an elegant Yeah, our mics if you open them up. There's not a lot of circuitry going on We don't heap on a lot of special sauce circuits like you know three different microphones in one We don't do anything like that what we do Put our money into and what really makes a difference is the quality of the components. There's a capsule That's a capsule for our MA 37 the Chinese Many many moons ago, and we were just talking about the mic that you referred Standardized cat capsule making so they're very consistent. We don't see a lot of variation We never have any problem with them They came up with a jig because the a lot of them are hand-tuned like a drum and that's great But out of one batch you'll get some great ones and some not so good ones Well, they figured out a long time ago how to just use a jig and standardize it So boom boom boom. They're all the same and then you've got the other things like the quality of the fets the resistors the capacitors The tubes all those components. It's an audio chain So in any audio chain it only sounds as good as the worst piece the worst link in that chain Right, so we're all about having high-end quality components all the way through the all the way through the chain And that's what really makes the difference So what what component has the biggest impact on the quality of the sound within a microphone As you were saying there's lots of different things within the the circuitry, but what's most important? Well, I would say oddly enough. It's not the capsule which most people think It's not the tube which a lot of people think to microphones aren't like guitar amps and the guitar you're really driving that tube And that really you're getting a lot of sound from that or a lot of coloration with a microphone You don't want that you want high fidelity. You want performance So the tube is not making a huge difference in the sound as long as it's providing all the proper voltages for everything to work I would say probably the transformer or the amplifier Probably you hear the difference more than anything else, but like I say it's an audio chain You're here. Whatever the weakest thing is that's what you're hearing, right? And let me turn this around There you can see the tube So this this is an MA 300. It's our Multi-pattern large diaphragm tube condenser basically David Royer's take on the classic u67 so the question is Why use tubes? I mean I love old radios and I play with them and I understand that they create a certain amount of harmonic distortion and stuff Why are tubes essential to a good quality like well? They're not essential because we do make mics with fets, right? So you either have a tube or a fat a fat is them a field effect transistor That's the modern replacement and I say modern from when we were kids in the little Japanese transistor radio show up And they started having those instead of tubes But tubes give a certain warmth and like you say harmonic distortion of a pleasing Distortion that creates the the good harmonics, right? So it can sound a little warmer a little smoother, but really David is just an old-school designer He's really using it to achieve high fidelity performance more than coloration Why is this important say for a voiceover person? Well for voiceover I mean we have people that use all of our mics But the ones that the voiceover people seem to like most are the fat mics the 201 which is a cardioid only and The 301 which is the multi-pattern version of that because the Fets are a little bit faster They have a little more presence a little more grab if you will of the voice and especially some of our people like Toby Browning and some people like that that are doing commercials where there's Explosions and car crashes and stuff that where the vocal has to cut through like movie trailers that kind of stuff So they seem to prefer the fat mics. These are all coming from different places You're you're you're just assembling all these we use a factory in China to do all of this stuff The metal work all the parts and then some of the mics are finished there Like I said the MA 37 and the MA 1000 which are are high high end mics They're finished here big John puts them together over here and he installs these things and the tube But all of them get burned in here and go through our QC What makes the difference in cost and quality? I mean you're not you're using high quality components in every mic What makes the difference between you know say between a $500 mic and say a $5,000 mic or something? Well, you know people always wonder that one for some reason, you know, that's an interesting question I mean, I'm an old studio owner and recording engineer and The difference between a $500 mic and a $5,000 mic is not you'd help me with the math here set 10 times Yeah, something like yeah, it's not 10 times better It's you know the higher in higher up you go the more it becomes incremental and it just depends on how much of a geek you are You know, I would think in the voiceover world It's really more about having one or two mics that gets you quickly to where you want to go Right The idea being that you know, you want to be able to sound the way you sound capturing you as you exist And that's what you want to hear right an altered or colored a whole lot Right, and you've gotten feedback from your customers that like love love the sound of your voice So it's like check don't change anything. You're right. I'm not gonna like well. Let's audition, you know for this commercial Let's audition a bunch of microphones. You're probably not gonna do that, right? George might do that sounds like he some Some people are known for being a little over the top of the mic selection product but I tend to say, you know pick a couple that you love and stick with them can Cuz consistency is pretty big deal, right and you know, I know a lot of voiceover artists are doing auditions all day long You don't have you need to go flip a switch and hit record So that's exactly that's one reason our fat mics that 301 fat the 201 fat in the MA 50 are really good for voiceover work What are some of the things that can really Damage a mic if you're what things are people doing that they're not taking good care of a good Well with fan and power. It's always good to have the fan and power off until you actually connect the mic and then turn it on Always make sure your speakers are turned down And if you're wearing headphones, you might want to slide them off Those are good practices. I still have ringing in my ears from the 70s, right? It's like yeah, right? Those are all good practices if you have a tube mic you want to make sure it's all connected and the power supply is turned on right Question I've always wondered about Say in a multi-pattern mic, how do you change the patterns? What is the electronics doing that you know, it's get you've got a diaphragm and all that What is it that not allows it to be omni or figure 8 or or cardioid? So on a on a multi-pattern mic like this. It's a dual diaphragm, right? So in cardioid that the back one the back plate is just turned off And you're just getting the front with the for omni you're adding in the back diaphragm in Phase so now you're picking up 360 you're getting both of those on and then to get figure 8 You flip the phase of the back one So now they're out of phase with front and back or out of phase So you're picking up here you're picking up here, but it's null all the way around all the other lobes Dusty, thank you for showing us around my pleasure. It's great to have you I was just going to say if you go on our website. Yeah, well have you audio comm There's a whole section for voiceover with examples for every mic that we make we have Professional voiceover artists giving examples of what that mic sounds like so it makes it easy to go on there and kind of take a Look in advance if you're in them if you're shopping for a microphone Yeah, that's that's the interesting thing is that you know there are no companies specifically making Microphones specifically for voiceover. I mean it's like it's all primarily designed for making music, right? So But you've you've actually created microphones that are easy to adapt to doing voiceover work Well, your voiceovers are music to our ears. So it is music remember that And I always always love learning things when we get to talk to these Company representatives and owners in this case. Yeah, and I like that Some of these tech questions that they're a mystery to most people. I still want to know what it means to be fast You know, you notice you mentioned the word fast. I've heard that used in in talking about preamps and things And I still need a good description of what that means, but unfortunately my mic is muted So I'm gonna mute my unmute my mic. I can hear myself, but it's just saying no I'm why why am I so I was am I still gone? You're on I can see I can see Your levels on there. So it's all out of the lost audio But you know, it was great having such a straight shooter to talk About the way the mics are made, right cool, right and he gave us a hat, which is even more important So what's what do you else you got in your tech? Well, just a couple of things I won't go on for too long But Recently I was like, you know what I need to get a bigger backup hard drive So I started searching for large capacity hard drives and it's you can buy for $300 now a 14 terabyte External hard drive from Western Digital, which I was considering actually getting just to have a single drive that backs up All of my archive drives because I realize I have a whole bunch of hard drives that are archive Meaning that they only have the the the data on that drive is only on those drives It doesn't exist anywhere else and then I thought well, let's go go buy one So I did some research went to go look on Amazon then all of a sudden I stumbled on 16 terabyte SSD drives solid state drives for $100. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Whoa $100 and then there was a bunch of reviews And I posted about this on the VOTech talk Facebook group for the geeks over there to laugh about and read The comments on the on the the reviews were all over the map because what they do over there at Amazon is they allow a product merchant to essentially Swap out the product so they can build up comments over time selling a bunch of products cheap stuff like a hat or Whatever and then they can essentially refresh the product and change the product. That's exactly what they did They had over a hundred reviews. Most of them all five stars. So this thing was Visible it was floating to the top of the search It looked really legit because I had so many great reviews But when he started reading them, they were on completely unrelated products I did a little more digging a little more research some YouTube video watching found out It's crap. These drives may lose you a ton of data Don't buy them. So the takeaway is if you're looking for solid state drives Chances are if it's under a hundred dollars and it's more than a terabyte. It's probably BS It's probably not true. You also want to buy solid state drives from reputable manufacturers like Sandisk Kingston other companies known for making those things and be very careful Don't buy things that seem way way too good to be true in storage because guess what it is and you're gonna be upset when you Find out you've lost a ton of data Beware Windows and window insert windows windows windows. Yeah, open the sash windows. Yes James Romick posted on a group recently about his experience with Indo windows and I've seen these I've installed them And I've recommended them And his takeaway was it wasn't as effect as effective as advertised Which didn't surprise me And the thing is when you look when they're looking at these when they're selling these products They're giving you these figures sometimes 70% improvement In noise and the thing is that's extremely dependent on the type of noise Is it and how loud is it? Is it the type is it low frequency rumble right? Is it lawnmower? Is it bird sounds? These kind of window insert certainly have like eighth to a quarter inch if you're lucky thick of plexiglass and They have a good tight seal on them, which helps a lot But it's still not enough mass and it's still not enough depth of an air gap to get rid of lower Frequency so don't expect a lot at the lower end But if the types of sounds you are wanting to reduce dramatically or sound of the wind in the trees birds Higher frequency sounds maybe a distant highway that kind of stuff yeah, they really really help a lot, but they will not get rid of lawnmowers and Rumbling engines and and just low frequency Crud don't expect that like if a tank is rolling by or something like that Yeah, or even if just even if the neighbors mowing their lawn, you're still gonna hear it It's it's gonna help a little but it's not gonna completely fix it lastly before we move on you I am I am gonna be teaching a webinar on universal audio Apollo and One thing that probably people maybe have been wondering is if they haven't used one in a while Or maybe they haven't used zoom in a while is has universal audio fixed? Zoom or thick has universal audio fixed their driver So it will work properly with zoom see the problem with universal audios Apollo Compared to a nice straight forward simple audio interface like a scarlet 2i2 something where it's just two channels in Two channels out the problem is is that universal audios audio inputs and outputs all appear Simultaneously in zoom with absolutely no way to control which of those channels. You're actually using in zoom So zoom just looks at the first two channels like an Apollo has 14 inputs. I think last I checked And it may not have 14 inputs on the back But there are 14 input channels available and then there's like 10 output channels and zoom uses the first two of the inputs And the first two of the outputs Guess what? Those are not the ones you want to use with zoom So the problem you have is that you get echoes you get weird phasiness and headphones sometimes a Lot of things go wrong when trying to use zoom with the Apollo So it hasn't been fixed since the newest updates in console 10 point Whatever the newest one it has not been fixed. It still happens and I don't know if anybody's ever going to fix it even though folks like myself Tim tippets Jordan Reynolds Tim Friedlander all of us have been telling them time to fix this guys It doesn't seem to be a high priority. In fact their own tech guy says. Oh, just install this hundred dollar extra other program Call loop back to fix the problem. I just don't think that's the right way of approaching it No, that's kind of like walking through the back door to make something work and that's It's really frustrating. Anyway, it's one of the reasons why Apollo is something I don't recommend without a lot of Asterisks a lot of disclaimers and if you are gonna get it You really need to learn how to use it and that's what I'll be teaching in my webinar coming up in a couple of weeks Good luck with that. Thanks, man. Anyway, we're going to talk about the best mic for view. Is it this one? Is this one right? I mean it sounds great, but it sounds good. It sounds very much the same as mine But it does it sounds very much the same as yours. Yes, just like the same components I think it's probably a lot of the same components. Yeah hand-picked components. Yeah Everybody asked this question and we've we've we've joked about this before, you know But like what if you have a question and the question is always what's the best mic for voice over? And it depends on a lot of things one how much you want to spend to how much You know, how what kind of a voice do you have? See and I still don't buy the argument about what's the best mic for my voice I mean, there's you can you can keep it limited to a couple of things now It was interesting in that video that the dusty wakeman explained to us What goes into the mics and what makes them really really good? That's a good mic There are a lot of mics that really suck, but they're like under a hundred and fifty dollars if they have bad components if they the amplifier and the transformer in it aren't Top-notch, you know, they went and bought them at Woolworth's or something or they're inconsistent from Mike to Mike and they're in can absolutely so I'm of the opinion and you can you can disagree with me all you want I mean I tend to find the best mic for voiceover is the one you got if you have one that's over a hundred and fifty dollars It's the sound you have it is what your clients are used to I Doubt there is anybody out there that has a good microphone that is somewhere between a hundred and fifty and say three hundred dollars That is losing work because of that microphone I don't think I've ever heard of anybody losing work because of that type of a microphone unless It's a crappy microphone and we damaged Damage, you know it fell over. They didn't have their ABS on there The adjustable boom stop from Harlan Hogan It should be a hundred over a hundred fifty dollars generally. Yeah low self-noise right low distortion Right and the mic that you have is probably the mic that you actually need and look at an aspirational mic When you're ready, then you always say this Don't buy really expensive equipment to get the work get good work make money and then get better gear exactly So this this mic right here this This is the Muhammad MA 50 This could be an aspirational mic for some Yeah, but it's a $500 mic. This is their entry level. You don't start there You don't need to start there right you could if you have the budget, but you don't need to this could be your Aspirational microphone or this could be your first mic depending on your budget, so yeah But what good is the mic if you don't use it, right? So that's acoustics all that stuff really important critical Alrighty, well, I've got some editing to do tonight. Anyway, we're gonna take a break right now We'll get to your questions right after this food enough editing already. That's right I'm in good practice. We'll be right back and voice over body shop get sending your questions kids Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky the voice of Rocco, and you're watching voice over body shop Inflated prices not at voice over essentials calm Despite the nationwide inflation rate of over 8% voice over essentials refuses to raise prices In fact, they refuse to even say the I word They're inventory is large on all their products and they purchased them before the current economic conditions It's simply wrong to increase profit as many retailers are doing right now So Harlan and company promised not to raise their prices during difficult times for everyone They'll stay the course steady and sure flat and firm solid and steadfast. Okay enough you get the point Unfortunately, they're under the same inflationary pressures as everyone else and they'll need to restock in the not so distant future No doubt they'll be sticker shock for them and you so right now is the time to order that port-a-booth pro or Vo1 a voice over microphone and their VO 2.0 headphones fight inflation at voice over essentials calm Hey, everybody. It's time to talk about source elements. Yay our sponsors for a very long time here on source On VOBS and their flagship product as you probably know by now is source connect for a very good reason it is definitely established itself as a as a must-have technology at the best in the best projects out there because These are companies that understand how workflows important to getting things done. It's efficient The client can hear you the voice talent during the session real time The audio that is being heard is being recorded directly into the timeline of the production And it's done in a very smooth and easy to understand way for the for the engineer because it actually works as a Plug-in into Pro Tools as well. No, you don't need Pro Tools But a producer an engineer loves that it will appear magically in Pro Tools it even has a cool thing called called the The Q manager which can automatically fix dropouts from bad internet connections It's really really amazing stuff. And if you want to be on Basically on the bandwagon because you're getting those bigger clients You're getting agents and you're starting to see source connect as a requirement to get those big jobs It's time to go over and get your free trial and get started at source dash elements Dot-com and get the ball rolling and let them know we sent you because they'd love to know that people are finding out about them From us. We'd appreciate that. Let's get right back to those questions right after this Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big-voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat Weren't you this is virgin radio? Well, okay? We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies cuz I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values a leader for California and a voice for America It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone, but it's so much more It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice check out this song It's the end of the road for red When hope is lost the I-8 from BMW Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish Hey, it's J. Michael Collins. Bet you think I'm gonna try and sell you a demo now I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's J. Michael at JMC voiceover dot com Now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show Hi, this is Bill Farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great All right, we're back in one piece, which is the best way to be now. It's time for our Lightning round of answering your questions Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let's get into our questions here All right The first one I actually grabbed from Facebook myself because I just thought it was a good question Excellent get things started tonight this Greg, you know if you're watching I don't know if you are but if you are and this is for you Greg says Greg Thomas says it is it normal for two of the same Make-and-model of a microphone to sound slightly different from each other. Is this why they sell matched stereo pairs? I'm glad he met it was great timing that that question came up because as as you saw in the video earlier from dusty Some of the key things and microphones sounding the same is the way the capsules are being made and they have to be made and Tested to make sure that they sound consistent from mic to mic and depending on the price point of the mic you're buying Who's selling it? The lower end microphones tend to not be matched and checked to sound if they sound just to see that they sound identical And yes The best microphones you'll notice can be bought in stereo pairs And it's almost always more expensive than buying two mics as Crazy as that sounds but it's true because they do actually go through an extra level of Testing and comparing at the factory to make sure they output the same exact level within a decibel of each other and sound as identical as possible So I think it's less of a trouble than it used to be because of manufacturing practices being so good now But that is definitely an issue that needs to be checked out and buying an older mic and a newer mic They might sound different another thing is if you bought them in different times of the year or different year You know years apart your old mic will almost always sound a little less crisp and bright, right? Right they get dirty and As the as dirt and scum gets on that capsule and everything it damps the capsule So it doesn't respond as quickly and you lose some top end So that's another thing he mentioned that a newer mic sounded more forward It sounded brighter and crisper and an older mic and that would probably explain why that Happened right but when someone has a microphone that might sound slightly different It's just is it going to not make them sound as good that someone could that it was be perceptible by an engineer That it's like it's not gonna make that much of a difference like you know If you're listening to it under a microscope It's only because you're comparing an older one to a newer one right right, but the likelihood of one mic Booking the job and the other one not extremely extremely low Unless one of them is actually damaged Oh, and that then that will make a difference and I've and I've heard that Grace Newton asks for the guys that would be you and me. I have the scarlet solo interface Will you please explain the function of the direct mod with the function of the direct monitor button is? I never record with my headphones on and I always turn it off while editing So I don't really know what it does guess what if you don't use your headphones. It don't matter Exactly yeah, no, it's yeah, there's a there's a direct monitor button on the focus rights. It's Right under right under the the phantom power button right now on the older one It's a switch and on the newer ones It's a it's a push button right and and and what it does is it allows you to hear yourself And you know if you're not wearing headphones, which you you know as you know I say don't wear headphones unless you're trying to listen to a director somewhere else Then just keep the you know direct monitor off It really doesn't help what direct monitor is for is if you're as all of this stuff was designed for If you're a singer and you are syncing up with other tracks in a multi-track program That's what the direct monitor is button is for so you can hear the other stuff that's going on and your voice in sync with that And that's pretty much what it's for pretty much Yeah I mean if you're engineering yourself and you want to check things test things make sure they're working Direct monitor can be useful so you can hear what's actually going on But acting while listening to yourself at the same time being fed back into your headphones at a loud volume Even when it's not delayed if it's zero latency It's still distracting and it is still going to affect the way you perform Guaranteed absolutely you get the next one All right, this one's from Zachary Chalmers. Hey Zach Is there a way to use an external Bluetooth receiver on a Mac? Studio either switch or default to the external receiver because my magic mouse or trackpad are a bit too far from the Mac studio in In the adjacent room. Thanks guys. That's a good techie question. Yeah, I would say there are many many USB Bluetooth receivers out there You might plug one of them into a long extension so that it's closer to the space where your mouse and Trackpad and keyboard are I have found that with my Mac mini M1. It's really crappy with my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse I always leave my trackpad. I have the Apple trackpad I always leave it plugged in and when it's plugged in it's actually not just charging It's actually connected to the Mac same with the keyboard So if you're using the Apple keyboard and the Apple trackpad, you can plug them with USB to a hub Old-school style and now they are permanently charged and hardwired to your Mac But if you really got to be wireless Just get it get get a Bluetooth receiver dongle for 20 bucks on Amazon and Extend it and give that a shot. I don't know how to get the Mac to prefer one over the other That's that's gonna take a little googling or Asking on some Apple tech forms because I don't know the answer that question All right. Yeah, and I Bluetooth, I mean I have a Mac Magic mouse Now this is this is not Bluetooth. This is just this is Is it blue? Yeah, it is blue. Oh, it is blue. That's right Do you think about that one? Is that the one that takes batteries or the one that you have to recharge? You got to recharge this one and it's in the bottom of the friggin mouse Yes, yeah, so be in the end of the mouse where you can plug it in and charge it while you're using it Why I always keep a wired mouse hook When that happens, it's it's all of us do it except I no longer do now because I use the trackpad and I leave it plugged in all the time. But yeah, that's just you know, Apple gets it right 90% of the time The other 10% of the time they do bonehead stuff like put the charger on the bottom of the mouse where you can't plug it in Right, but I'm you know, I'm sure they're sitting there in the design meetings going Just put it here, you know, there's no place on the bottom. We're you know, so Yeah, design, you know, they're very they're very specific about their design requirements, but sometimes they just lose it Grace Newton asks again. Do you know someone reputable who offers a twisted wave course? I'm hesitant to go to YouTube root as there's a ton of misinformation on them interweb thingies Well, we've both done it. You've done one. I've done one. You've done one extra I've done a series of them in the last year So if you want to see Dan's go over to voiceover extra and just type twisted wave Yep, and then you want to find mine George the dot tech slash webinars Everything I've ever taught on George the tech is on that page Including all my twisted wave stuff. So yeah, there you go You know, we actually failed to mention at the top of the show. This is as you're a little hot right now Oh, well, I can I can turn it down there. There we go. Thanks. I Probably because I got a little closer to the mic you and I do something that Basically, no one else does and that is work on home voiceover studios and if you're watchably Exclusively now there are people out there that are like, you know, I've been doing this for five years. So I can teach it. Yeah. Well, you know, there's It's not a perfect science. It really is an art and George and I are the Picasso and Monet's of home voiceover studios. How is that for a bizarre segue? There's a there's very specific things you have to think about with a home studio every room is different Every voice is different. Every situation is different. You we have to consider your lifestyle How is it that you want, you know, how is it that you want to be able to use your home studio? I was working with some clients last week a studio sent me over to talk to somebody and they're like Well, I wouldn't want to do this here in my living room. I'm like, what do you have a closet? Well, no, this is the only place that I can do it is here And I don't want to put up a room divider and I don't want to have all this stuff. I'm like then You're not there's no way to make you sound great without a whole lot of Technical wizardry and we don't want to use the technical wizardry We want to create a studio that recreates or captures you as you exist and so That's what we do. We find the best spot in your particular home To set up a studio whether it's in a closet whether you think you need a booth What do you got a really quiet room and we can build you a you know a PVC booth or Recommend something like the the tri booth or something along those lines Those are the types of things we do and people ask us these quite types of questions It's when they get into the really specific stuff like how big should the duck to be on a on an exhaust system on an air vent and what type of fan and Really specific stuff. Well, guess what? We actually know the answers to those things and And because we know how to look them up. We know how to Google them But we've also experienced it ourselves. We built these these units ourselves We know what it takes to do that if you would like to work with one of us and get the top-notch Expertise you need to have your home voiceover studio Recreate you and capture you as you exist You can work with one of us if you'd like to work with mr. Whittom. Where would they go? You can head over to George the dot tech. That's my name is my address That's where all my tech support Access is you can find a tech menu with a whole menu of different types of services that we provide And if you're really in a pinch and you need an emergency support Yes, we do have that. We have a phone number a hotline You can call 424 226 8528 and press the option 9 and that goes to our Emergency support help desk dispatch. It sends off my beeper It's more low-tech than that they literally just start calling our list of approved and really talented texts that we have and You will get patched through to somebody ASAP When I'm not available. So it's a it's we love that plan and it's helped a lot of people Save a big gig. So those are ways we can help you Dan has his own world over ads home voiceover studio com Brand new site it finally got it's up there. The specimen collection cop is right up top So if you want to drop off a specimen of your audio You know unprocessed the way you would record without, you know compression and noise read I want to hear what your studio sounds like when you use it and you can send that to me for $25 I will give you a very thorough analysis of what your audio is Sounding like as opposed to what it's supposed to sound like unless of course it sounds like what it's supposed to sound Which case I will tell you guess what it sounds what it's supposed to sound like Whistle exactly so should we do a more lightning lightning round? We still have a few more here Yeah, Douglas the voice guy asks. So which mics are Dan and George using today? Well, this is a mojave mojave 50 and then Dan's got something really really unique. Yes. Well, this is a Homemade mic. I mean, I mean it's not homemade. I mean I made it here in the studio But from our friends at mic parts calm and it was a a donor body from an old mxl 2001 which was a really lousy mic But I got it for free when I bought something 20 some years ago. Yeah, I mean 20 21 years ago But it's we stuffed it with new stuff. I did all the soldering I did all the stuff that we saw earlier that that dusty wakeman and his guys over at mojave do and it's got a K-47 capsule and the right Stuff in it and that's why George and I sound almost exactly the same tonight It's surprisingly similar and very much so which is which is good because usually, you know, if you're on your Often on a shotgun. Why who knows what it sounds very different. Yeah anyway also in the same room Well, that helps too and we're in the same environment We're running through the same exact preamp right in the same mixer There's a lot of reasons that we could get such similar sounds and it's hard to be being in the same place, right? So that's why we're gonna start being in the same place far more often. Yeah, that's right We're gonna have to wear hazmat suits, but that doesn't matter Jeff Holman has a question says if you were building a booth in an unfinished basement What would the walls and floor and ceiling be made of well in an unfinished basement would? concrete No, you mean floor would be concrete. Yes, you would just leave it right on the floor, right? There's no reason to have a floor you can put down a rug But you don't need to put a floor in right the ceiling The ceiling is much more complicated because if there's anybody walking around upstairs You're gonna hear footfall and I I guarantee it. It's I've seen some very expensive builds come out where someone's like yeah, they didn't do it, right? And I can hear people walking around upstairs. Yeah, it's it is the most difficult thing to get right is the is the ceiling The walls. I don't know drywall Studs insulation Quiet rock. Yeah, I mean it's the walls are not a pretty simple on a basement setup, right? They don't have to be Mega mega walls because unless there's gonna be another family down there with you Well, your family or who knows what down there making noise You don't need to do a lot basement right of sounds from the neighbors. So if you're below ground below grade There's not much noise coming in from the outside. That's right And of course here in Southern California. Who has a basement? Maybe just maybe definitely are you hinting that you're moving or did you get a house with a basement? Well, his movie career has been taken off HBO is working out That's right. He can afford one of those houses over in Beverly Hills Last one from Bob lead him in the YouTube He says in another week or so I'm about to get delivery of the new M2 MacBook Air Can I use migration assistant on my own to transfer contacts from computer to computer? Well, yeah, that's just one of a thousand things that migration assistant will transfer But the contacts will come over as long as you're using assuming you're using Apple Stuff like if you're logged in the iCloud and you're using The contacts on your iPhone and your Mac and all that kind of stuff all that stuff Yeah, it should migrate over pretty nicely. I don't know about my great every like I don't know about migrating the apps. It just depends on how old the other Mac is. Yeah, I mean Yeah, I mean I when I got my new m1 When we got when you know when you and I bought the new m1 mini year and a half ago about a year and a half ago at the same time And I tried to I had a migrate From the old one to the new one somehow it burned out the old one and Which reduced its value a whole lot and was not easy to get fixed. We're not exactly sure why it did that But you know, but that that's the one great thing about iCloud Well, one of the great things about iCloud is that you know, you just sign in and And it just it transfers every yeah It's it's almost as long as you're doing cloud backups with iCloud and you have all your contacts your Counter stuff your notes and everything that you want to be backed up It's almost better to just start new and not migrate and just let iCloud bring in the content You need and then if there's other files you can bring over you want to copy over. That's fine But going from an old system, you don't want to migrate over problems So if your user account had little issues or things were just funky Don't migrate if it was working perfectly and you were already on the most current update of the mac os and the machine isn't eight Nine years old probably will be okay, but I like fresh darts I just find it almost always comes out better when I'm starting from a fresh Machine without migrating everything over. That's just been my experience. Have you noticed that? I mean my Mac seems to be doing weird things and I I mean, I love it. It's fast and everything It's fast and quiet. It's fast and quiet But sometimes weird stuff happens, you know things will get lost I was working on auditioning earlier today, and I couldn't find the razor blade and all the other stuff I'm like, where did it go? And I'm like looking that was an audition. It wasn't in Mac OS It was in the app itself, huh? It was in the app itself. Yeah, and you know, but then I clicked on the top thing and Suddenly reappeared. I'm like, well, where'd you go? Yeah, my my MacBook Air when I'm using right now is on Not Mac OS Monterey. I think you are too, right 12. Are you on 12.4? I'm always on the latest. All right. I They fixed they're still the fixing bugs and what I tell people ad nauseam is that if you're on the current OS You're on the newest OS when you're on the newest OS. You're not on the best OS because They're still fixing it The best OS was the last one the one that's not being repaired anymore That's already had all the patches and it's fully fully baked. So in my opinion, probably the best OS is still big sir Um, whereas Monterey is still going through its growing pains So, yeah, things are going to be a little bit funky. Well, they still be funky when ventura comes out Gosh, I hope not. I hope everything has been fully repaired, but it's still 12.4 There could be a 12.5 At 12.51 2 3 4 5 6 7 The last update I got for big sir was 11.5 0.7 I think so they're still updating Um to get rid of some bugs and stuff like that. So yeah, yeah, this is technology It ain't getting easier And when you're going to be on the newest thing expect there to be some unpredictable Things that take a little bit of patience to to sort out So be be prepared. Don't wipe the old computer and donate it the next day, right? Keep it around for a little while. Yeah Well, you know and for classic douglas voice cases would love to see a video of dan's mic mod if one exists No, you wouldn't I mean it's you know tubes and screwdrivers And all sorts of stuff hours and hours it was no it didn't take hours But it was uh, it's just soldering and following the instructions. You know go over to mic parts.com Exactly. Yeah, they probably have some fun videos over there. Absolutely. All righty. Well, guess what another hour of your life Is gone by and look how much better informed you are Uh, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be wrapping things up right after this. So don't go away Before time began there was v obs dot tv watch or else Hey there, it's david h. Lawrence the 17th What's it like for you when you check your email and there is a voiceover audition waiting for you to dive in and You go great. This is awesome. And then that fear starts to creep in. Am I good enough? Do I know what I'm doing? Am I going to give them what they want? Listen I've been there and so has my friend michael costroff who is now one of my voiceover clients very excited about that He's applied his audition psych 101 process and method to voiceover And it's awesome. He's got three free Uh lessons right now that are available at audition psych 101.com slash join That's audition psych 101.com slash join go watch these right now by the time you watch this maybe they're all out Who knows but it's worth every moment to help you get your mind right On the psychology of auditioning audition psych 101.com slash join In these modern times Every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites.com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to Live online in a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites.com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites.com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself go with the pros voice actor websites.com where your vio website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widdum v obs dot tv And we're back good to hear her voice again. I think you're I think you're still muted. Oh man I think i'm not muted because uh, I hear myself. I I hear you too, but it says it says you're muted Well, I've been muted the whole time because we're running sound through you tonight. Ah, well that would explain it I know exactly. All right. It's actually working to figure that out. Yeah Well, you've seen another hour of absolute magnificent technology Sort of flawless. Yeah Well, we'll just forget the less um Anyway Oh boy, this was this was a fun day running around getting things edited. Yeah, I really ran us ragged today I did not you did at least we got to eat a little bit Uh, who are well next week on the show. Yeah, we have another great guest. Who's that's gonna be? Let you know soon. We will know probably sooner than later Uh, let's see here. Who are our donors this week? We've got robert ledham steven chandler kasey clack jonathan grant tom pinto Shelly evalina patty gibbons greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions and the one i'm only Martha con martha con yes Haven't seen martha in a while. Um, anyway, it's great that you're here and uh, we really appreciate it once again If you need help with your home voice over studio All you got to do is if you want to talk to me I'll be happy to talk to you if i'm home or i'm by my phone go over to home voice over studio Dot com and there's all sorts of options there You can send me your audio on my specimen collection cup or contact me directly And uh, I can help you If you're just starting out or if you got a tech problem or any of those things Go on over I can help you out, but george does that as well and he's over at george the dot tech and uh When you're watching this if you're quick enough you can grab the webinar i'm going to be teaching all august 2nd For universal audio apollo for vo covering everything to do with the apollo For the voice actor who decided to plunge into buying one because somebody else said you should get one of these And it wasn't us But if you bought one I'll i'll navigate you through the mess and show you how to set it up and that's on the webinar That's uh, you can sign up at george the dot tech slash webinars great if you're a musician voice over It's gonna mess you up great if you're a producer. Yeah, absolutely just a voice actor who wants to audition and book a job sometimes Way more than keep it simple. Yeah Most important thing. Yeah, uh, we need to thank our amazing sponsors who are just great people Aside from being great sponsors like harlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements Bio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc demos and world voices dot org. That's world Slash dash voices dot or i'm the president. I should know that Uh dot org the industry association of Voice over talent freelance voice over talent. Uh, thank you to jeff holman Got all those questions in there was paying attention tonight. We really appreciate that and he's clearly moving to a much nicer house uh, and Sumer lino our wonderful technical director for getting it done and of course Lee penny because he's lee penny Anyway, that's going to do it for us this week. You know, this is not an easy business voice over takes all sorts of things You got to have talent. You don't have talent. Why are you even trying? You got to have Uh, you know quiet quiet. You got to have a you had to have good bass business acumen We had great marketing. Yeah, kelly buttrick on last week and she was talking about you got to you got to get yourself out there No one's going to find the work for you. You got to go do it good people's skills, right? But it's really important that your audio sound good But the bottom line is if it sounds good it is good That's going to do it for us. I'm dan lennard and i'm george widow and this is voice over body shop or vo b s tech talk tech talk tech talk. We'll see you next week. Have a good one everybody