 Hey, it's time for tech talk number 23. I lost count 23 Is that right? 23 and we got lots to talk about I mean No, George is still has the flu and he's still you know in in his shed in Topanga Canyon But it's a really nice shit as far as sheds go. It's insulated. It has heat electricity Wi-Fi all And you live out in nature, it's just gorgeous out there. Yeah, but you're feeling better I'm doing a little bit better. I'm I'm well. I'm way ahead of where I was a week ago. So Doing a lot better thing. That's good Well, it's Christmases this week and Hanukkah starts this week. So we're gonna talk about lots of toys. Aren't we? Gear and whatnot what to look out for and things that you might want to give a shot for your upcoming year and voiceover Right, absolutely. So stay tuned for that. It's tech talk here on voiceover body shop. Come on up 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 voiceover 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 voice over essentials comm 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 voiceover training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and voiceover 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 Wynnum and this is voice over body shop or VO B. S. Tech talk number 23, you know, I we tend to forget to tell people George This is what you and I do professionally You know what? This is not a hobby that we just hang out and just like to talk about Voice over stuff and gear and stuff. We actually do this professionally. We we make house calls You know, I we do when we're not sick. That's right And you know or we're taking care of somebody that's sick or something along those lines but when we do get out there we like to see people studios, but we can do it remotely as well and we use zoom and All sorts of stuff where we can control your computer. We can see the space you're in There's amazing things that we can do with technology to help you Get the home voiceover studio you need and we do it through a bunch of really cool services And if you want to talk with George who does this full time, this is what he does He is the master of it But he's not over a master. Yeah, but yeah, I'm over at George the tech or George the dot tech which is my short donate domain name and you can head over there and check out my drop-down menus for all sorts of services and Many of you find there to be too many options So obviously just contact me and we'll point you in the right direction. Do you give certificates for? For the holidays, you know what? I wish I had a way to do that I'd like to talk to the guy that developed my CRM about how important that is and That doesn't exist yet That's yes, yes And you can find me over at Home voiceover studio calm where I do the same type of stuff. I'm a professional voice actor myself I really know what it takes to make sure that you sound the way you're supposed to sound and Because I know that the procedures and all those sorts of things you can talk to me about what's going to work for you And I'll understand specifically what that's about plus I want to hear your audio and I have a special service on my website Home voiceover studio calm you can click on the specimen collection cup send me your audio and I will analyze it and see if you've got audio that is that I guess the best way to put it is it doesn't sound Bad because the idea is not to sound great. It's to not sound bad And that's what we do we make sure you sound great But we're not the ones responsible for your coaching or how you sound professionally as a voice actor We just want to make sure that you get captured properly and then it's not a distraction to someone listening to your audio Actually, it's a pretty good explanation of it. I think so too. All right good So we've got your tech update for this week and so you've been sitting around Blowing your nose and coughing and stuff, but you've been looking at stuff What are some of the cool things that people want to might want to think about is the holidays are here? Well, you know, I I like to give as many cautionary tales as anything else I'm not like, you know by this by this by this you're gonna love it, you know, like that's not my thing So I'll tell you exactly what's going on out there and what I've been hearing about people talking about what's landed in my lap to try out and maybe something You guys never thought of before but um first of all this one had a lot of discussion this week by the way Yeah, I well, there's I there's this microphone from a company called TZ audio It's called the stellar x2 and if you're wondering if you've ever heard of that can name in that company probably not Because there are a tremendous number of microphone manufacturers in China Who come up with microphones that promise, you know, to be the miracle microphone that? Sounds exactly like something 10 to 20 times more expensive You know as at a ridiculous low-cost and then they make sure they put them into the hands of the the most followed vloggers youtubers and And then that might sort of becomes a phenomenon and this is one of those mics and The problem in it. I've been reading the threads in the groups and I'm like, oh man. This is all too familiar Everybody's so excited. They're like I'm getting mine soon. Damn it. They're out of stock. Oh, they're back in stock. Yeah, you know What do you think of this mic? Oh my gosh, and then people are like wait a minute This might doesn't quite sound like the one in the video. I saw on YouTube This one's a little bit noisier than I thought. Hmm. What's going on? so guys Guys and girls when you're buying microphones, especially microphones, you know Other things like Mike mounts and arms and accessories and things you can experiment and get some cheap stuff It's not, you know, no big deal with but when it comes down on microphone You got to get something that's gonna be backed by an existing a company that that has a support network a warranty Customer service years and years of track record and even if they don't have years of track record at least a team behind it The the product that has a years and years of track record And that they're gonna be able to support that product cuz and and I am seeing you know again on this mic There they supposedly have some knowledgeable support behind it, which is interesting and good But the thing is you know when they send out a mic to be reviewed by a youtuber You can guarantee it's gonna be the best one they've ever made It's gonna be the best sounding with the best parts Guaranteed to be exactly, you know a gold standard mic that they've QC quality controlled made sure it's working perfectly And then sent that mic out The mic you get there's no way to guarantee it's gonna be identical internally and even if it is there's no guarantee That's good. It's been the quality controlled and checked So you're gonna get that mic and it's gonna be a total crapshoe whether it's gonna sound as good as that other mic that you Heard on that video There's did they have absolutely no That's to make mics this cheaply. There's no way they can mass produce them And do quality control and check and see that every mic sounds within the specifics that are parameters that are really tight That is as much as anything what you pay for when you're buying the top names and mics like Audio Technica MXL Sennheiser anointment. That's you know, that's partly what you're paying for so Don't get too excited And if you are a gear split and God bless you Go buy one and tell everybody how amazing it is get everybody else to go buy one also and then put it up On their shelf and likely go back to using the mic they had before because that's what happens all the time Yeah, I I mean I saw a lot of discussion on this on on Facebook and a few other places Are you tried this? You know somebody wrote to me said Dan have you tried this thing yet? And I'm like why? You know, it's it's just another microphone. Yeah, but it sounds like a u87 I'm like the only thing that makes you sound like you're on your on a u87 is a u87 And if you really don't know what that kind of a mic sounds like You really it's it's kind of a crapshoot thinking well, maybe this does make me sound great But you got to remember one really important thing You don't hire you and if you're trying to do things to satisfy your own ears. You're making a big mistake Yeah, I mean and who's to say that a u87 is the best sounding mic on your voice in fact a lot of people that have plenty of means have tried u87s and Oftentimes put them back in a box because it doesn't work for them Yeah, we had Daniel on last week and he says I had a u87, but it didn't work in a smaller booth Right, right. So it is. Yeah, it's not necessarily a pro to have it sound like the u87. It's it's cool that it Theoretically does as many many other microphones that are being I mean basically almost every mic is being sold now That's a large diaphragm condenser mic is Essentially based on roughly the design of a u87. I mean that was that's sort of the the frame You know, that's the model mic that everybody wants to achieve So they plead me there's plenty other companies doing it and some of them are actually offering You know consistency from mic to mic. So anyway, watch out for that when you're shopping for mics And keep that in mind And if you are gonna get one of these things boy, you better make sure they got a return policy I'm darn toot. Yeah. Now. I also so recently I do have a mic from a Reputable vendor that I've been that I'm using tonight actually and that's the road ntg for plus Let me see if that can be moved within frame I don't think so because I just lost the battery on my second camera So I don't know if I can easily put it in the frame because I had a wider lens before well There's the tip of it. Oh looks like a microphone Look at it. Yes. It looks like a microphone. It looks like a shotgun like I'm gonna turn The side and then slide the computer because I want you to see that it just has a few unusual features I have a number of different cool things on it. It's got some buttons on it. Yeah So a shotgun microphone as you guys are probably a lot of you are aware are very focused sounding Like, you know very focused they have a smaller pickup pattern And so they tend to focus in on the voice avoid a bit of the bounce around the room and That's kind of a pleasing thing The the 800 pound gorilla of those mics is the Sennheiser 416 And it's proven itself time and time again and in the world of shotgun mics Just like the norm in u87 is the one to be the 416 in the context of voice over Is clearly the model microphone to beat and so many companies are trying to do just that This one does a pretty darn good job of emulating a sound of a 416 for someone who wants to have a second mic that they can travel with I call it a stunt mic. They don't quite want to have the Invest in a second thousand dollar microphone This one does a pretty darn good job of getting a sound that's similar very similar And one of the keys that we found in testing it is to engage this button right here, and this is a high Let's move my finger over to here. There you go This is a high boost button kind of unusual most mics don't have a boost button But this one does and when I found that when you turn that on this mic's character becomes a lot more similar To the 416 When it is off it sounds more like their road NTG 3 which a lot of people bought years ago Because they wanted to get that sound of a 416 with all for a little less money And they found that it didn't sound like a 416 NTG 3 sounds quite different But this one doesn't sound that far off this with that high boost button turned on It also has a low cut button which is nice so you can have it filter out more low end And then the other button on here is a power button. So it's internally powered For most of us Right. Yeah, well for most of us It's irrelevant because almost all voice actors all voice actors Let's put me be clear all voice actors are gonna have an audio interface with phantom power So right now the mic is being powered from phantom power And that's the power button is lit up blue to indicate it's being powered by phantom power So this mic was clearly designed for other uses in mind as well, and that's mainly video so you can plug this thing with the right cable into a video camera into a DSLR camera even into your phone with the right cord and This thing has an internal lithium battery and will power the microphone So that's makes a lot more flexible than a typical shotgun mic. So anyway, that's the road NTG 4 plus literally unboxed it and plugged it in today for the first time and Sounding pretty good considering. It's capturing my nasality quite nicely In great detail. You can tell exactly what's going on in your sinuses Isn't that wonderful? The other thing they have going on which is something I don't think we've actually Here we go Sorry something we haven't had chance to I think actually talk about it all in this show yet Is this little guy the road? AI one Hmm. This is a their interface that they came out with sometime last year and We're a quick rundown of the pro of the pros of it is it's is it's pretty compact? No, it's not bulky, you know, definitely travel worthy And it's super minimalistic in terms of its features and controls which I think is a good thing You simply hold down the gain button to turn on phantom power And then if you want to mute your headphone monitoring you just press this button Now the headphones are off press press the other knob again the headphones come back on It's very minimalistic and on the back. It's just excellent TRS balanced for if you need a plug-in speakers and then a USB C Cable which is the standard now. I mean really all new gear made in the last year should have a USB C at this point What else do you need? Right, it really it's this this is definitely obviously aiming at like the people buying the scarlet solo The Steinberg you are 12. It's a similar featured item I haven't gotten to do a super duper interface shootout We definitely want to do this one of these days because man between Dan and I we've amassed a huge pile of interfaces Not the most interesting thing, but it would still be interesting to see if there's any real differences from one to the next Yeah, I don't think there's really a change in sound between them so much as there is features And how it is that it can help you in your workflow, right, right? the What was I gonna say? Oh the one thing I think that distinguishes this possibly is that the headphone amp in it is actually pretty Impressive and just to prove that to myself tonight. I'm using Headphones that are you know studio headphones that are notoriously not necessarily easy to to drive I'm using some really old so old that all the nameplates and everything has fallen off by now But these old AKG 240 headphones these are like one of those venerable studio headphones and they they require or they use them They have a 600 ohm impedance And when you're searching for headphones Headphones with high impedance numbers are tend to be harder to Get a good sound out or at least a loud sound out of you know if you plug in this headphone Into a scarlet solo and you want to hear what you're doing. You're gonna be disappointed. You're not gonna hear much It's gonna be extremely quiet this thing I have the the headphone output running right now at about three-quarter volume and I'm getting plenty of gain I'm get it's it's plenty loud enough in my cans and that is I think pretty darn impressive for the very affordable Compact simple audio interface, so it's got a very usable Headphone amp so anyway for about 400 bucks Maybe I have to do a little price check could be a little higher Maybe four fifty five hundred shotgun and interface together. It's a pretty Pretty nice rig if you really really want to enter the world of shotgun mics and and not be quite Investing too heavily into something that maybe you maybe you're not quite ready for you know $1,000 a little dear for a lot of folks, but this is a lot more affordable. Yeah now What are these neurophone things? Neurophones, okay, so this has a little backstory. All right They were right out of reach I to grab them so How how how in Cessan are those Instagram ads? That you see I'm on Instagram a lot because I'm on multiple accounts and They start those ads start popping up and this is one of those products that had hammering my feed for months and months this headphone was a Kickstarter product that eventually did get made and It's made in the it's designed. I'm not sure if it's made in Australia, but it's what does it say? Well designed in Melbourne, Australia made in China But okay get to cut to the chase These are called Nora phone and what makes these things really unusual is they are they have a built-in DSP So that they analyze the sound of your hearing Not saying I know how they do this properly or if it's truly accurate, but they truly do make an attempt at analyzing your hearing Load in to the headphones internal DSP this new curve They call it a color For your head ears and your taste not even your taste. It's not based on taste It's just based on how this thing measures your hearing and then that is What you're gonna hear out of the headphones. How can it measure your hearing? I don't quite get that But it's crazy. It is crazy. So so the rest of the story is why did it end up with them? I got dragged along to the mall on Black Friday. I love you You know, we did some we did some makeup shopping and stuff And then I stumbled on a pop-up shop and it was this company Nora phones and I was like, ah, here's my chance To try something I've wanted to try and sure enough she and I both tried them out They had a they had a very cleverly set up subscription program and I walked out with the headphones You didn't have to buy them up front four hundred dollars up front or I think it's like 15 bucks a month I'm paying for these headphones. Yes subscription headphones Crazy, right? And what's even been more bizarre is after after you finish paying them off. They just send you another pair If you just keep paying the subscription, they just keep sending you more pairs. That's a fascinating model It's really bizarre. But anyway, let me get to the weirdest part of all look at the inside of this headphone Notice anything strange. It's a an earbud Then we can okay, I'm good. Okay Yes, these these are not really actually around the ear headphones as much as they're in the ear headphones and That is something that's the part that for me the jury is out on By the time I started demoing them I started getting sick and having anything shoved into my ears just drove me crazy and with this sickness Also came along like an amplified tinnitus So having these things in my ears was not what I wanted to be doing But I tried them out a little bit I spent one night just sitting in my house for two hours listening to all kinds of music and in definitely enjoying it But they do go into your ears Now that's why they seal so well. They have incredibly good noise cancelling for flying. They would be amazing But they also have a bass driver that circum that goes around your ear And it's like a massive bass driver like you can physically see these things vibrating The bass it's actually out of control. There's a spot. That's about 30% up that sounds pretty good But anything more is insane But the point I'm trying the for me. Why did I get these headphones? I Thought if these headphones truly do measure your hearing and they really are tuned to your hearing Then if I'm listening to your audio as voice actors, am I hearing the most accurate? What it is that you're sending me possible. So when I make You know judgments on sound quality and set up your processing am I going to be doing it more accurately? And that's what remains to be seen for me because I I've gotten used to the several pairs of headphones that I wear on a regular basis and These just don't sound like any of them So I'm wondering just because it's more accurate theoretically does that make it make it better? But in terms of you should definitely go to the website and see the video about how it measures your hearing But Dan it actually does play tones into your ears It makes like these little warbly electronic sounds and I don't know if these are in any way Related to if you have your hearing hearing aids made for you because I've never had them made Hopefully I won't need them for a while But they they they bounce sound off your eardrum and then a microphone inside here picks up the sound and builds this profile off of What it's reflecting off of your eardrum So they say it is really yeah, it is hard. You know the thing is it's one of those things. How do you prove? How how do you prove that that really works and that really truly is accurate? It's so hard to say but if you're if your headphone Excuse me if you're a headphone slut like me You want to give these a try at least and that's what's cool about this description It's a minimal investment and then any time you've had enough you just send them back So still gonna keep testing them for a while, but I'm fascinating interesting weird headphones Alrighty, should we do one more thing? Yeah, we got this well the one thing here about foam windscreens Okay, the foam windscreen you talk about it and then I have some thoughts on that okay Yeah, so I mean for a while now people that have a foreshock on Mike I've been just saying especially when traveling just keep the windscreen on the mic because It's generally gonna say it's not gonna change the sound all that much and it's just gonna at least generally protect the mic It's not a pop screen Out of the mic now that was my theory then recently a client of mine said that a technician at a major company said I'm sure you don't recommend that you do that because the foam disintegrates over time and little particles fall into the grills of the microphone and Start clogging the little ports on the mic and then that now has to be clean And she was kind of taken it back. She couldn't believe that a Supplied accessory left on the mic would actually cause problems in the long run But it really made me change my mind about that suggestion and but you know, it all makes sense I've been telling people to avoid acoustical foam for years for the same reason and this is no different I mean the pop screens that are the windscreens that come with some of these mics. They disintegrate terribly I'll make a huge mess and that includes what goes into the microphone So Dan, what's been your experience? Have you do you throw those things away? Do they sit on a shelf? Have you ever bothered using them? Well, here's the way I look at it The actual name of the thing says it all it's a wind screen Right unless you're a reporter out on the street There's no wind in here, you know, and we're talking about I mean and that's really what that thing is designed for That's that's a that's for a road and that is for it's designed as a video mic Meaning you're gonna be outside with it and you're gonna be shooting it and it will reduce wind noise Now some people talk about well if you're using let's say a 416 or another type of shotgun mic If you're using it really close it helps to have a you know a pop screen on it And if you're using a condenser mic really close, you really do there's there was the one that that hook studio came up with This guy here that fits on the end of a Shotgun mic and I if I'm doing promo work or something that requires me to really use that 416 in a way that you know You need to be close mic. I may throw this on there But if you don't need it You really don't need it It's the the mic really should if you've if you've got it set up properly You probably don't need to have a windscreen on it You really don't need a windscreen on a 416 or any kind of a shotgun mic and when you're using it in a studio indoors because Am I popping the mic right now no pop pop pee pop pee pop pee Right microphone is about three or four inches from my face right now, and I'm still not popping the mic You'll notice that George and I never have a plosive because we know the mic has to be set right and if you've got your mic set And you've got the proper mic position and you're using proper mic technique You can say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickle peppers all day long and you're not gonna get any plosives So don't get sucked into this vortex of I gotta have a windscreen on there Unless you're doing this in your backyard. I wouldn't worry about these are sometimes used indoors for one reason I've done boom operating before when you Miking more than one person and you literally swing the mic like from one place to another Without the windscreen you actually hear wind as you swing the mic like that actually what's the position? It's like this right you're holding that Right like this over your head It's crazy, but anyway, so you don't need that you don't need it and avoid it and don't get the dirt and your mic Sounds like a great idea. All right. Well, we got one other topic We're gonna talk about with the with some equipment in just a minute But we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back with that and some of your questions and a little discussion about Multitracking right after these announcements This is Ariana Ratner and you're listening to voiceover body shop VOBS dot TV 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 this is virgin radio? Well, okay? We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because 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 I8 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, huh? 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 Well, thank you JMC. I am waxing my mustache anyhow, let's talk about our good friend Harlan Hogan and His magnificent website for you voice talents out there voice over Essentials comm that's voice over essentials dot com Look, you gotta have equipment to do this and you don't have to have is George and I are always talking about the most expensive equipment out there but you need to have good stuff and Harlan only has the best stuff on his website the stuff that's going to work for you and not cost you an arm and a leg and he stands behind it and You know that you're gonna get it really quick because he's really good at Shipping his stuff and getting it to you as fast as possible. So he has a lot of cool things that he has manufactured specifically for his website like the Harlan Hogan via one a microphone Which is you see right here that I am actually talking to in this very moment that you are hearing my voice and seeing me talk into it It doesn't sound It's it's not a u87. It's not a 416 It is what it is and it sounds just as good as any other microphone and it's at a great price point and It's designed for voice over you cannot say that of any other microphone That's out there on the market Harlan designed this and had it tuned specifically for voice over and it works great on men's voices on women's voices and People will think that you're using a much more expensive mic But no you're using a Harlan Hogan via one a plus the Harlan Hogan signature series headphones Which are fabulous and Here they are right over here as he steps off the set well and falls into the Parliament building of Hungary this is the the Harlan Hogan V.O. Optimized headphones Magnificent. There's comfortable new pads. They have a disconnect on them so you can you know if you fall over and into your set and You won't lose it. You won't break the the cord. They're great So make sure you try those and a lot of other cool stuff go over to voiceover essentials com try not to fall over while you're doing it and Actually, if you're on our website go down to the bottom of our website a home page You'll see a picture of Harlan Hogan there click on that that will take you right there Peruse all the great stuff He has the microphone the headphones the porta booths the porta booth pro the porta booth plus And all the other great things he has at voiceover essentials calm all at a great price and he stands behind it You don't like it. You can send it back, but why wouldn't you like it Harlan? Thanks for being our sponsor all this time we love you and What would voiceover body shop be without you? We'll be right back Yeah, hi, this is Carlos. I was rocking the voice of Rocco, and you're watching voiceover body shop And we're back in one piece. I hope um So one of the things we wanted to talk about tonight was It has to do with the the Apollo twin everybody's like I gotta have an Apollo twin What's going on with that? Well, I've been I've been you know big time kind of digging on those things for a long time on And as I as I followed gear and recommended gear over and over over the years Chances are at some point that manufacturer will let you down And it just I think it's just a matter of time maybe matter of just you know numbers sheer numbers But in this case they they've been having issues with the Apollo twin mark 2 And I think also the the father the Thunderbolt one as well as I think the USB one and possibly also the arrow and that the common thread seems to have something to do with The phantom power so People have said that you know when they're using phantom power at Mike's the there'll be a hiss that starts to develop in channel one over time And people have done different things to try to eliminate it long story short I won't drag you guys into the dirt here because this is only only relevant for people that have this problem But the chances are you may end up being having it replaced with another unit that has the same exact problem so we Tim tippets who also likes this unit a lot. He started a thread on the Apollo Universal audio Apollo Facebook group and what he's basically doing is collecting your tickets to be anybody's submitted Technic tickets with universal audio We're collecting them to try to build a case because it seems that they're not sure That the issues are the hardware or not. They seem to think it might be drivers or something else So if you are one of those people Get on that Facebook group submit your ticket so we can kind of gather a bunch of information and get it back to Universal audio there's actually somebody from Universal in that Facebook group Monitoring that and we want to make sure that you know The problem is solved at the manufacturing end because clearly they they've made a very large number and That have a similar issue and they're just tend to be sending back sending the customer another unit Likely with the same problem So it's just a place that we can maybe build a little bit of a case So yeah And if you're not a producer if you're not really doing a lot of heavy-duty production is is a is an Apollo twin the best thing for you to be using It's really complicated. I mean I've set them up for people. I have it sort of as they say down to a proverbial science So I gotta be honest and if you're gonna buy one and you don't buy my services set it up You're it's a total waste of money Like little because you won't have a clue what it can or what you shouldn't do With it and it'll get you in trouble like again. I've been I have the thing I have figured out all the tricks and I can make the thing work. Well, but for I've had several people buy them and realize It's not what they needed and send them back. I've had people I specifically told them not to get it Even though they had the money to buy it because I wanted them to have something they just could understand and easily Control and adjust with minimal fuss. Yeah Yeah Like in yeah, not that it's not a bad unit is despite some of the issues that they're having with it It's an amazing unit for what it does But if you don't know what it does why it does it how it does it and how you set it up to do what it does It's not worth it if you're thinking about it talk to me Ask me Ask me why you should have it like if you're thinking of buying one Tell me why you want to buy it what it is you're looking to achieve And if it's something that you will but will be improved I'll tell you but for many of you ain't gonna make a lick of difference because you can do you're gonna do everything in Post and for the mass vast majority of you, right? It's gonna be done in software later So you're not you don't need to mess around with it on the way in that's and that's that's the truth All right now. All right. Yeah, I got an I got an email this week from somebody who was watching a Video from a very popular online voiceover instructor Talking about how we like to listen to music to get the mood of a read while doing an audition Now when I was in radio, I would I didn't have to do that I would actually listen to the music while I was recording the commercial Because it would be a record and I would have my finger on the record player and cue it up And the music would play and I would adjust the levels and do it in real time Well, we don't need to do that anymore But this particular instructor was saying well, I do this and this is how I do a better read so this person was like what equipment do I need to do that and You know my first answer and when I told you George about this this morning. He's like Was plug in your five phone listen on a headphone And it's not gonna play over into your recording So just listen to the music and you'll get the get the feel for it. The other way is with multi-tracking and Multi-tracking is something that I suppose people should learn how to do because if you do podcasts or anything like that Multi-tracking is the way that you have multiple audio sources Aligned properly in a production. I do hear people occasionally saying they're being asked to Send an audio with music right mixed in, you know, like basically they're being asked to produce, right? You do need to know how to do this if you're gonna produce right and we can teach you how to do this by the way It's it's one of the things that George and I do is we teach you how to properly do these things If you want to learn how to multi-track Contact one of us and we will give you a quick primer on how it's done It's not complicated for just adding music underneath and stuff But it really is the way it's way to do this So you need software that will do this like Adobe audition or you know everybody loves Pro Tools But you know, unless you're producing Hollywood soundtracks, you don't need Pro Tools, but audition Reaper and Video ones gaining popularity Yeah, you can actually do it with audacity as well actually you can you can do basic production and audacity Yeah, it's not elegant, but it will you can do multi-track production, right? so That's the answer to that question and then of course I said why don't you ask the guy that did the video? Which probably would have been you know probably would have saved me an awful lot of time as well, but But he's like well no, I would have probably had a pay him to do it. Well, you can keep asking me questions You're gonna have to pay me too Anyway, so we got a couple of questions here from our our wonderful audience out there one of them from our good friend Larry Hudson Who says what is your favorite? Your latest favorite warm mic for $250 to $400 What do you think guess what he means is a mic that isn't bright, right doesn't have like a really tussily top-end, right? Favorite uh depends on what your voice is. Yeah, I guess the Audio Technica AT what is it called the 40 40? Yeah, or the 40 43 40 47. Yeah, but it's pretty spendy It's definitely not $400. Let me think of another one. No sure KSM 32 is Is not bright. It's not an overly bright mic so I would define that as a warm mic and Yeah, I think that matches that. I think that meets that $400 price range I think I try to cat know an MXL like a Something 89 like a CR 89 one time and it was pretty warm Sounding that was in that lower price range But my go-to from what people that don't want to top a hyped sounding mic in that price range is probably the sure KSM 32 Try a ribbon mic Yeah, I mean ribbon mics are ribbon mics are weird. They're all over the map some of them are Super dark and bottom heavy others are tuned to be brighter and sound more like condenser mics Yeah, and there's a really all of it right. Yeah, but they're making them now and I mean yeah and more affordably too Yeah, and and they're they're they're very nice For doing very specific things and if you want a nice warm sound The right ribbon mic might be a good answer for that We've got an interesting question from J Horace black, which is you know somewhat essay-sut style here is is Just upgraded to a Mac mini 2018 from the older 2012 version good idea Noted they did away with the Thunderbolt connector and have a USB-C connectors and two HDMI's So I got an adapter to be able to plug into my Thunderbolt Apollo twin. Well, there's your problem right there However, it's not recognizing the interface George Dan have you run into this issue with the newer Mac minis? If yes, is there a workaround? Can you think of an answer to that one? Should we start there? Yeah The only adapter I know of that's a guaranteed to work is the $50 Apple USB Sorry $50 Apple Thunderbolt 3 adapter Anything else? There's absolutely zero guarantee. It's gonna work So if you're gonna plug your Apollo twin into anything new from Apple now You're gonna have to shell out to the Apple dongle division And buy a $50 adapter That's the only one that so that's not the one you bought and all bets are off That is literally the only adapter I've successfully and granted I haven't tried others because really there's very few companies actually make it They made I think Apple may be the only one that does make it Which is probably why it's 50 bucks But yeah, you got to buy the proper Apple Thunderbolt 3 adapter. Yeah for sure I think it's it's probably a matter of Planning ahead and not buying something because You can there are you know, they're there it's you know, there are unintended consequences of these sorts of things He goes on he says my good friend is a manager at Apple Well, there you go And we're going to troubleshoot this in the Apple store tomorrow to see if it's a bad connectors or something for now I went back to my older Mac mini my goal in getting the new Mac mini was to be able to use my use both my 27 inch K 24 27 inch 4k monitors as the older Mac doesn't have the capability as well as having more processing power for editing video For the on camera side of the business There's a good reason to buy it. Yeah, it's a good reason to buy it But there are two separate issues and and you really have to think about is it going to be you know What are the specs and don't buy something without really knowing what the specs are would you agree? Yeah, I mean it they it happens to everybody in fact when the 2018 Mac mini came out I expect and and bought them for more than one person and forgot to buy the stupid adapter like The good news is that it is at the Apple store So I've had to run out and get the darn thing or you know, whatever Which makes me crazy now. I try to keep at least one in the car But it's easy to forget But definitely when you buy new hardware check every jack in connection and make sure you're gonna have what you need to make it Work and of course you do have your old Mac not like you're dead in the water You you were smart enough not to like buy the new one and take the old one and ship it off to your grandkid or something Cousin so, you know, you gotta have a sort of an overlap when you're upgrading hardware You gotta have an overlap, you know from the old to the new and there's a period of adjustment So we've got a you know, that's not unusual the the Mac mini has four USB C Slash Thunderbolt 3 ports and you got to make sure you know that those are Those ports have two totally different sides to them. They are USB C Which is can be adapted to almost anything at this point But they're also Thunderbolt 3 which means they're compatible with Thunderbolt 3 stuff as well as Thunderbolt 2 and Do not buy adapters that are just USB C adapters To try to use with a Thunderbolt thing They will look exactly the same on the ends because they're the same USB C jack and I'm a huge fan of the USB port I mean, it's extremely well made the plug is reversible It's hugely superior to anything else from USB But it is not just because something as USB C doesn't mean it's Thunderbolt 3 So you got to know that that's really important. Yeah, don't take a chance on that Yeah, one last question here from again from Larry Hudson, and I didn't hear anything about this Yes, he says any knowledge about audacity being compatible with Mac OS Catalina Many I know are dead in the water because they updated to Catalina by accident and Now audacity won't work other than doing a workaround with a terminal So answer if there's a workaround with terminal then you're good to go Honestly When is it gonna be a when's it gonna be supported ask? Ask the company. Oh wait, there is no company. It's it's open source. Yeah, it's a bunch of volunteers So it's gonna take them as long as it takes to support it the most inside baseball you're probably gonna get is Being on the Facebook group on on Fraudacity because there's one of the developers is known to hang out in there. Yeah, so you're probably best to find out From him if there's like an early beta You know version that is working on Catalina, but at this point, you know, it's It's a it's a it's a shame You know, we all have been saying don't upgrade to Catalina I'm still saying and I will for the next six months to a year But it's gonna happen your chances are you're gonna mistakenly and it's gonna nag you to install it And you're gonna just click the wrong damn button one day every morning I'm looking at this thing and it's like you want update, right George said no speaking of There's now it says yes, I ain't doing it. Yeah, I can't remember if I mentioned this on the show already But there is a trick that is a terminal based command. It's called a sudo Super user do Command that will tell the Mac to stop asking you to install Catalina Do a quick Google search. You'll find it. Just search for have Mac stop asking me to install Catalina And there's a very simple code that you can copy paste in the terminal and it will it will stop nagging you But if you accidentally do it, can you go back? To Sahara or whatever that thing was called. Yeah, Mojave. Yeah, Mojave Sahara Mojave if you if you if you are using the time machine and backing your machine up Then not that it's simple simple simple to do it But yes at that point you have a way you have a means back To get back to the old version But you got to do it quickly because what I'll do is the system will then re-reback itself up again to the new version And eventually that old version of that's backed up on time machine won't be there anymore So you got to do right away. The really the best thing to do is immediately just take it into the Apple Genius bar and say dude. I got to get back to Mojave. This is my business And they will definitely help you so that's probably the best way to go I've not noticed that but then again, I don't use Audacity a whole lot But I I do have it on this machine and I do have Catalina on this machine I actually think I have used it and it has worked so it's you have used it successfully for it has not had problems That's right. All right. Well, that's more tech information than you could possibly handle this week again You're probably again. You're probably making you know Hanging candy canes and and lighting candles and doing all those other things you do this week But thank you for listening to all this amazing information and hopefully we've enlightened you and once again If you want to get a hold of George, where do you go? Head over to George the dot-tech and I can find all my tech support stuff There's self-service as well as ways to book me for a real-time session either remotely or on site here in the LA area and Dan also is available online over at home voiceover studio dot-com Yes, home voiceover studio dot-com. There it is right there. All right. Well, we're gonna take a quick break We'll be right back and wrap all of this tech stuff up right after these messages Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky the voice of Rocco and you're watching voiceover body shop Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead now There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra comm Whether you're just exploring a voiceover 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 Voiceover 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 audio books Auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover 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 comm That's voice over Xtra comm 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 comm like our name implies voice actor Websites comm 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 $700 so if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity in dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites comm where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know, what? This is the time of the show where we get to talk about one of our wonderful sponsors source elements Those are the creators of source connect that is a software that voice acting pros are being demanded to have in their home Studios by the commercial studios of the world. How do I know this? Well, I've set up software for everybody on every platform and in every scenario you can imagine And this is the one that people are being requested to get it's a standalone application Doesn't run on a Google Chrome browser so you have a lot more stability involved and This software has been tried and true tested improved the whole nine for well over 10 years now So if you really want to be establishing a business and voiceover that works with the top studios in the world Top agents that kind of thing make sure you have source connect locked and loaded in your studio Absolutely important go get a 15-day free trial at source dash elements calm 15-day free trial You don't need an I lock little USB dongley thing to get set up with source connect standard right away So go give it a try and tell them we sent you we'll be right back right after this Question what's the biggest challenge you have with voiceover? What's been the puzzle you need to solve the question you need answered? Well, David H. Lawrence the 17th and the coaching team at VO heroes comm want to know as we head into the new year They're planning new courses and new training and they want to find out what you need most and it's easy to let him know Just drop him an email at David at VO heroes comm and let him know what you'd like to know Is it tech oriented? Is it about auditioning? Is it about booking more work finding an agent podcasting audio books? performance questions Whatever that one thing is that keeps you up at night that makes you scratch your head or that you've always Wanted to know about success in VO Email David and ask the email address again is David at VO heroes comm. That's David at VO heroes comm This is Anthony Mendez. You're watching voiceover buddy And we're back to say goodbye Well, that was a lot of information and that was really cool But that's what we do. I know next week. I think we're gonna have a bit of a party show We'll see who shows up for that Could be yeah, yeah, and you'll be feeling better by then. Oh, please. Yes And then it'll be 2020 2020 is Barbara Walters used to say Who are our donors of the week? Let's go take a look heading over to my notes we have Michael Kearns Rob Ryder Christy Burns Joseph Harrison Brian Rausch Graham Spicer Antlion Productions Michelle Blanker and Sarah Borges. Thank you everybody. Thank we appreciate it Hey, show us your boots. We want to see what your boots look like like this really elegant one here The entire city of Budapest We want to see what you guys are doing with your boots They're your voiceover shrines. We want to highlight them and you could have us sitting in your booth Which is really kind of cool. Send them to and to make sure you take them in portrait not landscape and send them to the guys at Vobs.tv Alright also We'd love to have you live in the studio. We're here every other Monday night I think we'll have a few people here next week But right to us again if you're in the Los Angeles area You could be here on a Monday night and we're doing a show that night We'd love to have you right to us again to the guys at Vobs.tv and mark the subject as audience All right, let's see you guys. I know Hey, we need to thank our amazing sponsors like Harlan Hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements VioHeroes.com voice actor websites.com and J. Michael Collins demos and of course the Dan and Marcy Leonard Foundation for the betterment of live Voiceover studio webcasting and replays as well And of course Sumer Lino for the amazing job She does as our technical director making it seem effortless But we have to towel her off after every show because he's really sweating it out and of course Lee Penny For being Lee Penny. So thanks, Lee for being very Christmasly. Yeah, and that's what we'd really like to say to all of you Is happy holidays? Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy whatever else you celebrate this time of year George and I are here to help you out with your home voiceover studios And we'd like to both wish you all the best in 2020 but we'll get to do that next week too. Anyway, that's right. That's gonna do it for us this week I'm Dan Leonard. I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or V.O. B.S. Happy holidays, everybody