 Hey, guess what? It's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 79 More tech talks than there are weeks in a year Hey, we did it. Yeah, we're gonna keep doing it If you've got a question for us about your home voiceover studio tech or something related to that Put it in the chat room and we will answer that question during the show in the meantime We got lots of stuff. You got lots of cool stuff in your tech update Yeah, I'm a little show-and-tell actually right here and right here in my office. All right And we're gonna talk a little bit about troubleshooting and your questions coming up right now on voiceover body shop Don't go away 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 Whidham 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 voiceover body shop Tech talk Voiceover body shop tech talk is brought to you by voiceover essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and Now live to thrive 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 Whidham. I'm glad you remembered that and this is voiceover body shop or VO be a Tech talk tech talk talk tech talk tech talk tech talk talking the tech talk, okay? anyway We're here to help you with your home voiceover studio. That's our job. I mean, I'm a voice actor But it's also my job to make sure your home voiceover studio is working as it is George's job because we want you to not suck that's sounding we don't we Can't control how you act. We just don't want you to suck at sounding good, right? You know, I great at sounding good, right? If you if you if you suck you're gonna sound great sucking It's I you know, it's as simple as that, you know, that that's not that's not under our control But you know, we had a guest last week at least burglary and she was like Yeah, there's a lot of untalented people that are doing fine because they're very good at managing their careers But the thing is the thing is It's not easy to learn how to record if you've never done it before Or if you You know, maybe you've you know a little bit here and there, you know But voiceover recording is very very specific. There are very specific standards that we've set That the producers expecting sometimes they expect more than they actually understand themselves But we understand that stuff and George and I have committed our lives to making sure that all you gotta do Is hit record and do what you do which is perform as a voice actor And uh, it's not as hard as you think But it helps to have somebody who actually knows specifically how to do it and can teach you how to do it properly Yeah, we're here to give you a huge shortcut. Yeah, it's like, you know, you know, here Here's 35 years of experience right in front of your face right now and we can You know, ask a question We know the answer and we may have different answers, but the two answers combined together are going to be the right answer One way or another Even if they're the polar opposite No, that almost never happens. Right. Yeah, we usually agree on everything. Um, but if you want to work with George Uh, who is very good at what he does and uh, and has has a staff I got a dog, but we have a staff. He has a staff I'm actually on his death if you want to work with George Where did you go? Uh, you can go over to george the dot tech and yeah, we are trying to build us We are building a staff We've got a few folks who are available to be booked through the website directly And we also have our tech 911 support line Which is You know with all the web stuff and the high tech stuff we have that's probably the thing I'm the most proud of is how do you set up a hotline phone system with Virtually, you know actual humans that answer the phone and get your information and get a tech on the phone Well, we we've gotten it figured out So if you want to reach us through that tech support line, you just dial 424-226-8528 Press number nine on the menu and that will take you to our This is for it's not free folks This is for people who have a real tech emergency and you're worried that this is going to help This is going to keep you from making that next job happen. That's part of your career That's what it's there for and we've got I mean sundays robert marshal took a call the other day It was a challenging one. It took an hour and a half to get through a really difficult tech hurdle But that's the kind of people we've got uh working with us. So that's all at george the dot tech But dan's doing a lot of the same thing Yeah, yeah, I've talked a few people off the ledge Over at home voiceover studio dot com and uh over there you'll find Hey, I supposedly the new website went live while I was in france. So I've yet to check on it But supposedly, you know, I'm like, you know fire in a hole. Let's see what happens. Let's take a look. Oh, okay While you're looking, um, but you know go over to my website home voiceover studio dot com and see what I have to say About setting up your home voiceover studio. I will do a consultation with you. I can teach you from Zero to hero very very quickly. You will know exactly what's going on After like an hour and a half and you're gonna go that's it But you have to know and I know how to teach it and I can get you there very very quickly Uh, and I also will analyze your audio if you've got if you've got yourself set up And you want to make sure that it sounds the way it's supposed to sound or what it's supposed to sound like Whistle whistle, um You can I for 25 dollars I will do a thorough analysis of your audio and usually it takes about five seconds to figure out that whether it's great Or yeah, you could fix this you could fix that and if you need a fuller consultation, we can talk about that So go over to home voiceover studio dot com and uh, check it out. Anyway, is the new site up yet? Is it blue and white? It's always been blue and white Is is the specimen collection cup on the top play part of the page yet? I don't think it is live yet Got to make a phone call when we're done. It's still a perfectly fully functioning. It's all there everything Okay, all right good. All right the specimen collection cup very bottom of the navigate website much better than my My current site. I gotta tell you that And here's your your thing is a museum. We have a new one coming believe me Excellent. All righty. Well with that out of the way because by the way, that's why we're here to let you know that we do this Kind of stuff. Uh, it's time for george's tech update and uh Yeah, I've been looking forward to this because you know, I went when I was in france a couple weeks ago Went into a lot of museums like the live And uh in several other museums, but your own team go now, don't you? Oh my god, I do. Let's head over to the museum. Okay Is there like an audio guide that we have to use or uh, we're not hearing you Uh, now we can hear you. You got me now. We got you It's coming through five by five Very good. Okay, great I'm self self producing this from here from home. It's awkward and weird, but hey, here we go So, uh, I talked about source connect on I do it every show right source connect is the tool That's not that's not the camera. That's a light cameras over here I didn't rehearse this at all source connect has been the way now and other technologies, of course that many of you've used Are the way we're connecting To the studios around the world, but before there was source connect and before there was Actually, believe it or not even the internet It was ISDN and it required actual equipment and I have accumulated a pile of equipment a veritable pile and um, they're not stacked in any order more or so the order that I receive them in but I'll just go through them real quick and it's amazing I have most of all of the most commonly used ISDN Kodak if you ever hear people talking about ISDN I have most of the ones that have ever really been used in the voiceover industry Now basically sitting here on my shelf Um starting at the very bottom. This is this is the one that kind of really started it all I would say if Byron Wagner is watching you're probably gonna tell me no no no no always something else Sorry Byron, but this is the one that I know the best From when I did radio broadcasts for Eagles football and it's been in a lot of studios This is a telus zephyr 9202 and this is uh, this is I believe this one came out of a rack from Um, Joe Soprano's studio. Maybe I should have put their names on it. Well, anyway That's what I believe this for this one came from and sitting right above it is a cd player That's not an ISDN Kodak, but that also came out of Joe's studio Above that is a this is a telus zephyr extreme. So this was the next Evolution or generation from the this one down here This was the next one that came along from them had a lot of upgrades But at the end of the day it did pretty much exactly the same as this one And years after this one came out people are still using the old 9202 Uh zephyr this one had it it added benefit of being fanless So this one did not make any noise this one did have a fan which we routinely would cut the wire on And hope for the best that happened a lot On top of the zephyr extreme is another extreme. This is an mxp model meaning it has a built-in Mixer so you can have multiple talent up to four mics and four headphones all plugged into this at the same time Um another unit that has capabilities like that actually there's several more here that are all considered portable units We have the zephyr express Now this one here is near and dear to my heart because I actually used to carry one of these around in a roller board and a what do you call it a A carry on sorry a carry on suitcase When I was doing broadcast for the eagles radio and this was our backup So if the systems that we shipped with us and took us on the road all went We could plug meryl reese and mike quicks headset mics into this And get on the air so I carried this around from show to show this is not physically the same unit This one came from nick tate In australia believe it or not He actually had it with me with him and gave it to me one time on top of that is this one was a real oddball This is an aeq i sd on kodak also meant for portable field use it has multiple headphone and microphone faders That it has capable I don't know if i've ever seen one of these in the world world being used ever This I just found in david k's closet and I was like hey you want that thing anymore He's like i don't even know if I have the power supply for it. I was like all right. I'll take it So that's the aeq and the last i sd on kodak in the collection in the most recent edition Is the good old music cam road? This is a roadrunner. This was like another one of those ultra portable Ultra portable it has a handle on it even Is dn kodaks with preamps headphone jacks Everything the user interface was a was a nightmare the menu system made notes It was so confusing to use compared to the zephyr extreme But you know the day it did the job too. This one just got retired from devy maywest's Studio I literally picked it up last week before she moved to hawai So, uh, that's the is dn kodak museum one day. I'll go through the other stuff up here But I don't want to waste any more time. So while while i'm standing here I also have a pile of acoustical panels um I want to just go through these real quick. These are all samples from Uh, ats acoustics now. They all have unique properties. They may look somewhat the same Like if you look at these from the front they both They both look pretty similar But their similarities change a lot when you look at the rear This one actually is made out of a compressed oc 703 material So this actually is a very different substrate than what's inside this panel But this is kind of like what's used in more like pro studios because they like this incredibly Refined fit and finish. It has no wooden frame. It's just a very different way of making a panel This is really if ever what I would use in a home studio This kind which is full rock wool is probably more like what you might like to use And the unique thing about this one is it's also a tack board So it has a special layer that allows it's allows it to be a a tack board. You can tack Documents to it. So I don't think I would use the whole studio with these but You can put one of these nearest to where you're working and have an acoustical panel That will also act as a cork board essentially now these two panels To me are a little bit controversial. This is one that's wrapped in micro suede I can write my name on it. The problem with micro suede is is it's more reflective at higher frequencies It actually will brighten up a room if you use these panels Now the inside is the same as what the other panels use the rock wool But the outside while it looks really nice Is more bright and reflective So it'll make your room just sound a little more sparkly and echoey Could be good often not good for voiceover and lastly as I drop it on the floor This is an art panel now This one's wrapped in a canvas like material that they print digital images on and it looks amazing But this material is highly reflective. I don't know if you can pick it up on the mic I'm now talking at the panel and pointing at the mic and you can still hear me really clearly versus Do if I do this one it sucks my voice away, right? You don't want to use anything that's reflective You've got to be very careful about choosing panels and use the material that does not reflect sound so there's my little attempt at a onsite Tour of the studio and I'll get back to my regular location Wow, that was almost exciting as exciting as the Lou Uh, was that was that someone entertaining? No, I You know for those of us that are into that sort of thing that was actually pretty cool But I've been noticing that collection accumulate over the last year or so I figured if we're really coming back to the studio in person again, which we were really hoping to be doing I won't be here that much anymore on the show. So this was my opportunity to have a little fun Great after having done all that I wanted to talk about two new products that have come across my desk And now we're actually getting some actual use out of one is the austrian audio oc 818 microphone And that's this microphone right here You may have heard of us talk about it over on the pro audio suite podcast Austrian audio and full disclosure is a sponsor of the podcast and that's why I have one of these beautiful Pretty expensive microphones. These are running on I think around $1,200 microphones. So what's special about this? What's another large diaphragm condenser mic have that everything else doesn't have? Well, it's got a few interesting features one of them is it's it's really the the spiritual successor to the akg c414 414 An amazingly flexible mic it's been used in a lot of voiceover not so much voiceover as some other studio type uses but still versatile but the company that made that akg got Absorbed by Harman international which got absorbed by another bigger predator samsung And basically the microphone division kind of dissolved. There's no no more any development of microphones. So That team went off and were permitted to essentially as I understand it purchase The intellectual property of akg and start making microphones again It rose from the ashes and became austrian audio. So this is called the oc 818 obviously a play on the 414 name Sounds great. Yeah, it sounds great It's got the multiple patterns that led to experiment with how the microphone hears your voice if I put it on If I put it on figure eight It's gonna have a very easy time of picking up sound from both sides Especially figure eight if I snap behind I was gonna say it's a bit boy. It sounds like it's a 100 yards away. Exactly. So I like the default hyper cardioid I think like that's the best way of focusing on my voice in this big open space It's got way more well bells and whistles than that If you go on youtube type in the name of this mic george the tech and you'll see a long video for you geeks Where myself and andrew peters in australia review this mic in full Showing how this there's even software that go with this microphone It's pretty intense. But anyway, if you're looking for a really versatile mic It's something interesting to try if you if you thought about buying it Neumann tlm 103 This would be something you might want to compare against because it's similar in price and a lot more Versatile in terms of features. Lastly another thing from austrian audio. I have a pair of their headphones the high x 15's and Um Where do these fit into the headphone map? Well, these are actually they're these are really their entry point headphones They're running around 129 something like that price range and at that price point They feel better than they should be they feel in sound. I think better than the you would expect for that price They're really physically well made. They have aluminum Headphone yokes on the side that feel very strong The headphone cups is really the beauty of them They're just ridiculously soft and comfortable and they're very large. There's a lot of room in there for your ears If you've got bigger ears You can appreciate how deep and spacious these um your cups are Sound wise. They're not like anything I've heard before and they are definitely an acquired taste. I will tell you this They they how do you put it? They have they're very forward in the mid-range. So they really bring out detail and Openness and at the at the opposite end on the low end I gotta be honest. I'm a bit of a basehead my Dardanamic dT770s Even the new harlan hogan uh voiceover edition headphones have a more rich Full low end that I really enjoy Dan's got them on now These don't have that rich full low end that I kind of expect Um, you're not going to miss anything But you're more likely to miss maybe an errant plosive like a plosive that in these headphones I would I would I would hear that plosive I might not catch that plosive easily in in these because it doesn't reproduce low end quite as fully now I've seen other people say that it does a great job of low end Maybe I just need to break them in for a while. I don't know but This is headphones are the most personal thing in a studio because you wear them So like anything else you'd have to try them out for yourself and see what you think They do have the detachable cord, which is really becoming the norm these days Um, and just come with one single cable with with your typical little adapter nothing too Not a lot of frills on the accessories, but at 129 dollars I feel like these are a really really good value very competitive to my favorites the audio technica m40s And the harlan hogan headphones something to compare against I guess I should say so Anyway, that's some of the new stuff I have had Coming through the studio and I'll be using over time and giving my thoughts about in my own review One of these days when I had some time So dan speaking of speaking of troubleshooting Don't you just use one of these when you troubleshoot don't you just like flip through this and Well, if if I'm you I might but you know You started a fascinating thread An email thread with all of our our voice over tech brethren Talking about troubleshooting about you know somebody and you know, they're they're you know, I guess it must have been a fairly old Thought it goes about you know somebody in their car anytime they would go out to get vanilla ice cream their car wouldn't start Uh, which you know, and then we're all commenting on it. It's like well Vanilla ice cream has nothing to do with the fact that the guy's car won't start But that seemed to be the variable that made you know And you know what made me so excited about that story when I read the back story on the story They said it was one of the first places it was shared was on and car talk car talk Click and clack our you know our Our heroes our heroes are influencers to create the show. So yeah, so dan What's troubleshooting to you? What is the magic secret sauce that will make everybody listening no longer have to hire Either of us. No, there's no such thing. Um The fact of the matter is now I learned troubleshooting in junior high school what you kids call middle school now Uh power mechanics my power mechanics teacher mr. Soman used to wear a bow tie explain how to troubleshoot a lawnmower and It's a logical process, you know With an internal combustion engine you need motivation got to get it going But you have to have fuel air and spark And what are all the systems that regulate each one of those systems? And if it doesn't start you start at one end. Do you got fuel? Do you have air mixing with the fuel? And do you have spark and if you have that then the engine should run But what would prevent each one of those things from happening? Voice over audio I think the problem that a lot of people have and why we related to the story about vanilla ice cream in a car um And by the way the answer was vapor lock And if you don't know what vapor lock just type in ice cream my car won't start vanilla ice cream You'll find the story. I promise, you know, it was not the fact that it was vanilla ice cream But it was how long it took to get the vanilla ice cream because vanilla was easier to get So you got it faster, which means the car never cooled down, which means it wouldn't fire up again This is the old days during times of vapor. Normally aspirated carburetors But in voiceover, I think a lot of our clients don't understand specifically Which each part of the systems that allow us to record digitally on a computer work What did they do and so, you know, like A lawnmower or any other internal combustion engine It starts with your microphone your xlr cable that connects your microphone to your interface The interface itself which takes your analog audio from your microphone and turns it into the ones and zeros that our computer can understand And sends it to the computer and then the computer has Software in it that interprets those ones and zeros and creates the graphic representation of our audio that we can see and actually hear So When someone says it doesn't work. I get like, can you be a little more specific? um One of the things that george and I always tell people and you know and some of the facebook groups There's always like someone's I have a buzz. I have a hum Or there's something going on and it's like, yeah, so We have to hear it because generally if we hear it for five seconds to 10 seconds is like, oh, that's what's going on And generally it's not one of the prior things mic cable interface You know computer it's generally Something in the software something wasn't clicked uh or something was clicked And you know and that's what causes the problems. I have feedback while your monitors aren't turning off You know, there's a way to do that on your interface Uh, but we'll look and see. Well, okay, if you change microphones, are you getting sound now? Well, yeah Well, guess what? It's the microphone Is it, you know change the cable? Are you getting sound now? Oh, yeah, I guess it was the cable you know, whether it's the xlr cable or or a the usb cable if You know if if you Know that's working, you know, you then you try a different interface. You should always have A spare interface You know, I you know, I have I actually have an old blue mic mate, which is an utter piece of crap But it works to show that it's taking audio It's giving him phantom power to your condenser microphone and sending it to the interface Or to your computer as digital audio and You know and you go through each one of those steps And if it's you know, you know, you're getting audio you see the lights flashing on your interface, you know, it's going to the computer You know might be the usb cable change that You know, it's really cheap interfaces that you wouldn't think would be any good at all Blue made one was called the icicle Oh, yeah, yeah, just a step above the mic mate. Yeah, the mic mate Yeah, but the icicle honestly That's that's the ultimate I got an emergency interface because it's really cheap and doesn't sound like garbage. It actually sounds okay I've used it a few so I'm glad you mentioned blue because I was like, oh, yeah the icicle That was a great one to keep around when you're troubleshooting if you want to go as directly from microphone There's the mic mate If you want to go directly from the microphone to the computer and bypass everything in between including Yes, exactly. There's a mic mate if you want to bypass everything including the mic cable Now you're going to go mic plug the mic mate or icicle Right into the back of it and go right to the computer and now you can eliminate more things It's all about processing a little bit. Exactly. And it's generally not the hardware You know, I mean, yeah, hard, you know hardware will fail if people drop microphones all the time It's like, why does it sound tinny? Well, did you ever drop it? You know, is there a huge dent in the in the grill, you know that sort of thing And and that's our process for troubleshooting and generally it's you know If it's a hum or a buzz or something like that, is there a grounding issue? Is there something humming in the background like a fluorescent light? Uh, you know those sorts of things But once we hear it, we generally know what it is and can solve it Uh, you know my contribution to the you know to the thread was Well, you know, nothing's more satisfying than walking in a room and it miraculously heals itself So we're either magicians or alchemists You know, generally technology knows i'm coming and it fears me You know, it's like dad this doesn't work. Oh, oh now it works You know troubleshooting sometimes is just a matter of faith Anyway, we've got lots of questions to answer on tech talk If you've got a question throw them in the chat room and uh, george and i'll be happy to answer those So put them in the chat room now. Jeff holman will get those to us And we will answer them and we'll be right back after these very important messages. So don't go away Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocking the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Hey, is there a perfect voiceover gift? Well, you're looking at it right now the voiceover essentials gift card You know the challenge the voiceover performer in your life wants or needs some gear for recording from home or on the road Well, that part is easy, but you're not sure just what You want a what? You want a what? Solution send them a voiceover essentials gift card good for any of the products you see right here and more And right now for a limited time only we'll include our summertime bestseller our voiceover Baseball cap free in the usa only when you purchase a gift card worth 200 or more Our gift card will be sent directly to your email address You can then forward it on to the recipients email where and when you'd like it to arrive And they'll automatically ship their gift cap to your united states billing address for free Go to voiceover essentials dot com and click on gift card Hey, that's me and i'm supposed to be paying attention because my job right now Is to tell you about how source connect Can revolutionize your voiceover career? Okay, it's not going to get you jobs I know that but what it does do is give you the opportunity To take jobs that require source connect and you got to tell you ask anybody that does use source connect And you can ask online you ask in our groups in our forums who here at source connect What kind of work do you do on source connect? You'll find out it's some of the best of the voiceover work that there is available It tends to be the work that pays the most Because there's a few reasons for that one In order to have source connect involved in a studio recording you have to have the software on two sides The talent side and the studio side and who usually chooses what technology is going to use It's generally going to be the studio. They're going to choose how to connect you into their Workflow and source connect does that Extraordinarily well for them They love the audio comes right over the internet drops directly into pro tools If there is any audio dropout from internet connectivity issues It will automatically replace it with a Replared packet or you can replace it completely with the raw uncompressed audio and it does all this stuff Magically, it's pretty incredible But you really have to have a license on your end as talent to use it. You can't plug in without it. There's no free option So if you want to get on board you should go to source dash elements.com Get a free trial. You really don't need to buy it or buy a license or subscribe Until you know, you're getting that work at least have it at the ready. That's what you want to do next That's your next step. Be ready Familiar and learn how to use it and you'll be ready to go. Let's get to the 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. 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 smart phone 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.com now if dan will stop waxing this mustache for a minute. We'll get back to the show This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widdum v obs dot tv And we are back here at voiceover body shop tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk Uh, we got lots of questions tonight, uh And we'll start it off with one that was left over from last week Uh, which is yeah, that's why it looks familiar. Well not last week. It was like a month ago I've been up and down the rhone river and through paris since then From bc on youtube. He said my ssl2 Which is a great interface a lot of people like that one Included a vocal strip to plug-in an all-in-one Compander de-esser de-plosive and three band eq only three Could I use this in a stack for voiceover auditions? Or does it Does it's all-in-one nature limit me? Hey, that's that's an awful lot to stuff in a plug-in if it doesn't have individual controls. I'd say You should keep that one to the side and you know, don't use it I'm not showing tail. Yeah, I mean what good is all this stuff number one if you don't know how to use it or what it does Right, right, right exactly. You know, it's like, oh, it has this while having it Isn't the same as knowing how to use it. Yeah So I'm looking at for the first time which is wacko because I have an ssl2 on the shelf over here I never bothered to play with the plug-ins. So It's it's a $200 plug-in. They're throwing it in with a $250 user Audio interface. So that's pretty amazing What's going on here? We have a compander. What the hell is a compander? A compressor and an expander. Yeah, an expander, right? So it's designed to compress high higher Dynamic audio sound the higher level sounds and squish them down a little bit And I think the expander is at working at the other end so that the quieter stuff is brought down in level, right? So And the tools here look like they have the basic things that you would need to properly Adjust such as ratio threshold Expander threshold and makeup gain. So it has a potential of being a pretty good tool and sounding good It has a de-esser potentially could be useful A de-ploser I'm assuming they mean a de-plosive ver. Well, yeah, they call it the de-ploser Um, why do you need that? I don't know because people don't know how to use their mic and they give out plosives Yeah, don't pop your mic Um, you know use good mic technique. You don't need that then lastly equalizer spelt with an s because it's made in england Yeah, what's gonna say clearly foreign. Yeah as a very very very basic equalizer Probably not ultra useful for doing anything surgical, but if you just want to add a little bit more Actually, it's a parametric equalizer. Yeah, it's quasi parametric. You can roll off the low end That could be useful if you have a rumbly recording space You can it looks like dip the middle so if it's kind of nasal or Something in your room is ringing and it's kind of annoying. You can dip it and then at the top side It looks like there's a booster so you can boost a certain frequency range I mean it could be pretty useful and I guess the question was can you use it in a stack? Yeah I could I haven't yet But if you wanted me to use it, I would use it I could probably get something pretty useful out of it I've just always used the plugins built into the DAWs because they do everything Right, how many more eqs compressors and etc. Do you need? Most of what you need is already in the DAW, but I would be willing to give it a shot Yeah, well, I mean if if you want to use all that stuff, you know I'm not a big believer in plugins, you know in the first place Um, you know, I mean you set stacks for people and and those are for like Little minor corrections or for some specific purpose of a certain genre of a special effect I'm doing a lot of uh TV affiliate need to sound like I'm the guy who's uh telling you to What tune in at 11 for the you know the horrible horrible news film at 11. Yeah, that's a that's a thing That has a lot of compression. It's very aggressive Most of it especially commercials, but it's a very limited thing. Yeah. Yes, most of us don't have to 90% of what all you guys are auditioning That's the golden goose, right? You want that commercial? Um, that is very limited processing. In fact, I'm going more and more in the direction of No processing at all. Oh No wonder you're my friend Get it right get the get the the the acoustics right in the room You're in use your microphone right set your levels right And that's that's really all she wrote it saves you so much time And problems and things like that if I know everybody watching that as mate that I've made a stack for using for commercials is going What? I'm supposed to keep using it God at this point if you've been using it for five years and you don't know what it's doing You better start doing some ear training Yeah, you better start listening to what those plugins are doing You better listen to it without listening to it The best thing I can hear from somebody and I've said this before is I don't use your plugin anymore, george Or I don't use your stack anymore george because I don't need it or I find it doesn't Give lent it doesn't improve or it causes something strange Right, and I don't look at that like oh crap. I screwed up the stack I look at it. It's like no, they're listening right they actually are listening They're actually hearing what's being recorded. They're making judgment calls about their sound and deciding to turn off the processing I that's great. Yeah, that's a good that's good Yeah, I think it's important that you know a lot of producers now are like and they've been asking don't do anything to it No processing And you know which is music to my ears Uh, you know because they want to hear you perform They don't they don't care if you're a producer if you've been a you know They want to hear if you can interpret copy properly. It's really the lower third. I don't it's not even fair to divide It's really the lower half Of the voiceover work that there's nobody that knows what's going on Exactly. So those those are really the jobs. I think they need the most help in this area, right? Yeah, but the better jobs the more, you know, the jobs that you guys really want to attain to Or, you know shoot for those big commercials and animation and games and all of them Don't want any processing. They do all of that in house That's that's those are the big gigs you want the ones where you don't have to do it, right? Yeah Patricia Andrea. Hi Patricia. Um This is something I know something about uh, it's a two part question Which neither has anything to do with each other. Um What are the best places to audition for movie dubs? You know when it comes to movie You know when it comes to dubbing work and there is a lot of it Uh, you know, a lot of the streaming networks Are taking a lot of foreign material and they're and they're dubbing it and they have systems where You know, I can sit here in my studio in Sherman Oaks And i'm working with somebody you know with a director in Mumbai Now granted I gotta get up at 5 30 in the morning and it's 8 30 at night in in Mumbai Uh and and be directed doing dub work for a lot of different things And But how do you get that work? A couple of ways one way is networking talk to other people that do dubbing work And if they think that you're capable of doing it, they will say well, look, I work with this company Give them a buzz or somebody will refer you To that company and uh, you know How do you do a dubbing reel? You don't uh, it's if you're a good voice actor because dubbing is not necessarily being You know like doing commercials It's voice acting. It's watching the the character and seeing how he delivers the line or she delivers the line and being able to Not imitate their voice In a different language, but to get the intonation that they have And do it in your own voice as an actor with the same emotion, you know, because sometimes it's like wake up Dear it's time to get up, you know that sort of thing and that's really what it is It's it's really acting in the movie only You're not in the movie. It's just your voice But they're very good at taking your voice and making it sound like it's part of the you know The actual original soundtrack of the of the of the movie or the tv show or whatever and uh You know, so that's why dubbing sounds a lot better than it used to So anyway, it is much better nowadays. It really is. Yeah, and then she also asked at what point Do you decide to get a logo and register your entity? I'm taking it, you know, business entity Yeah As a voice actor You know, that's a good question. It is. I mean, when do you decide when you start booking work? Uh, you know, you don't put yourself out there until you've really established yourself And that could be, you know Booking a couple of national spots or Getting a fair amount of narration work and you find out who you are Don't think that you are who you are until Somebody else figures out who you are because we tend we tend to You know, we think we know who we are Uh and creating our brand, but your brand is what you get booked for. What is it that people know you for? And that's really when you know when you start to book consistent work in specific specific genres I think that makes a big difference in uh in in who you are and when you create your logo and You know and and do you register your logo the word entity is that's the word? That's like that's like a keyword like that means like that's more of a corporate thing Right, exactly. So when you go corporate, if that's what you're asking that definitely is a question for your cpa Um, or you can go your lawyer. Yeah, or you can go to an sba. That's the small business administration Um, it's run by the government and it's a free service and you can mentor I'll get a mentor to help you with a lot of aspects around your business. Tell you what I'm well overdue I've been meaning to actually have a meaning. I I've been a bit lazy. Yes You might need to drive downtown at least in our case in los angeles to downtown la To go see an sba, but um Someone on the staff that's that's doing pro bono work. Um can help answer those Uh those levels of questions that would probably i'm not suited to answer Yeah, or raid rod siglampaglia's book voice over legal. Good point. That's a good. Yeah. He definitely knows His stuff when it comes to absolutely you get the next one from barbara on youtube. All right. Um, let's see eight I've done a diy demo and I've had voice training from a company And I still have a credit to get a professional demo from them Should I start with a fiverr or amx before getting a pro? Demo, so she's looking for the stepping stone Of where she should go next Well, this has been a very con fiverr has been a very controversial thing among the pros of voice over. Yeah. Is it all bad? Yeah, it depends, you know, it depends on who you talk to and But then again, it comes down to what I always say is voice over is a freelance entrepreneurial business. Yes You're not going. I mean you can put your demos up there and and hope for the best The way you the way to do it right is to control your own destiny And that is sending out the emails making the phone calls talking to the people who produce stuff And how do you find them? That's what Google is for it's a very powerful engine, you know video producers commercial producers start local Right, exactly. Yeah, or call local radio station or Uh find out who the advertising agencies are in your town You know, there's all these pay-to-play sites and things that you can do to you know to expose yourself to a lot of people I'll I'll be honest. It's the top people to get the work And everybody else is just paying into this pot and making money for the people who run these sites Scrammling overseas. Yeah, I mean, right. There are some good sites, you know, are good for an arm and Highest and Germany has bodal go which will expose you to a lot of work in europe and I've I've booked work from there But you learn what it is you're good at and you you pick and choose, you know on those sites It's you know, the pay plays are one tool in your marketing toolbox The most powerful tool is you And getting out there and talking to the people specifically who do it There's one thing she said that I think is a good point and maybe she maybe this was done Maybe this was calculated As she said, I've done the coaching and all this stuff and and I have a credit to get a professional demo Should I start with should I get the should I should I get going in fiverr or Should I get the demo? I think you should wait to get the demo wait as long as you can To get the demo. I don't know what they're delayed how long you can wait before the credit dries up or whatever But wait Till you've gotten some real experience under your belt even if you're not really booking them much You really need to hone your craft before you make that demo if that demo is just based off what they've managed to coach out of you In that first six weeks or whatever it's not going to be a great demo and you guys do it again No, you do a demo when you're ready when you know that you have the professional chops And skills to to pull it off and and a good demo is produced by somebody who's a good coach and a good director And diy demos Unless you're just naturally talented and really get it You know, they're not good. They're It you know, it can be a quick knock against you, especially if you don't really know how to record yourself Uh, which is why George and I will both listen to your audio and determine whether you know If at least it's good enough to record tracks for your own demo, but Demos aren't supposed to be about production. It's about how you interpret copy and how and when you when they They fire it in the first five seconds. They go this person has it They're not trying to be an announcer. They are Them and it sounds like they're not reading it that they Are actually the person that is telling you the message And that takes time and skill and talent and practice and all those things. So Uh, talk to people who really know what they're doing when it comes to producing a demo You know, I can only speculate who this company is So i'm not going to take that any further Uh question from Juan M on youtube. Have you gotten your hands on the new roadcaster pro 2? Is there a procaster 2? Is news to me I just found out about it. Obviously if the only people are going to have one of these are probably like the Mega influencers that they send out to before they hit them hit the market It says pre-order now 21 days counting down. So It's definitely new. It's definitely not in too many people's hands. I I'm looking at it. I'm looking like it looks it just looks like looks pretty much the same medically You know ergonomically a little different. Yeah a little ergonomic improvement with the display Um, I see there's some color coding rings around the headphone levels So maybe that makes it easier to keep track of which headphone knobs So few of you guys need four mics and four headphones, right? That's the thing. It is so overkill even for podcasting 90 of it is the talent is remote So a lot of you will never get a ticket advantage of what this thing can do but You know, uh, I used to have a connection at road. I don't anymore Uh through my last through pod through my other podcast, you know, we were supported We no longer are so likely I may not get one in my hollow little hands to demo But uh, I can I can see some of the little improvements that they've made that are more You know hardware, you know, actually have more outputs. That's the question I have Doesn't look like it. It doesn't look like it. No, I just as it spins around I'm waiting to see the back of it again. Where's the back of it? I can't know. It's not there I'm not going to show it to me If it doesn't have more line outputs then it's not a big improvement because that's the biggest weak spot is that It lacks line outs and line ins. Yeah It looks like they've they've created physical things on the actual physical interface to do things that were software driven or touch screen driven Right, um, and I that's probably the only thing, you know, is it an improvement? It depends, you know, I mean some of them had, you know problems There's you know, there's been hardware problems all along with it and then they sort of fixed that Uh, I love mine. That's what I use And it's a great piece. It still is the original one is still great. Yeah You know and and they upgraded of course now it seems I have a feeling they're not going to upgrade this the the firmware in this thing anymore They're just going to try and sell you a new road caster Well, you know, they've been milking it for three years plus and getting a lot of new features out of it So we'll see what happens next, but uh, ron none of us have yet. So well Stay tuned. Yeah Jim McNicholas asks georgia sounding great on that 818. I would agree. You do sound good. You almost sound as good as me Thanks They're only listening to me for 11 years Every review of microphones with dan's voice. They always comment on dan's voice You'll never hear anybody comment on my voice. Yeah Uh, let's see here. I'd love the 818 to set the to the figure eight for my voice Well, it all depends on the acoustical nature of your the room you're in And yeah, the acoustics is a big part of it This mic the tonal characteristics of the mic does not change much from pattern pattern to pattern So really does then it just really controls the way the proximity effect is It's like when I put her on figure eight 1 2 3 4 5 it gets a little more warm and like a little more like I got closer to the mic Right, it does it. I'm gonna go back to this is good a cardioid I'm in the same exact spot, but it doesn't have that just a little bit thinner A little thinner and you there's a little bit more you can hear a little bit of the more of the room around you So yeah, so depends on your situation But figure eight is still one of my favorite secret weapons for dealing with not so great small voiceover booth problems. So glad you glad you Like it. Yeah, uh question from jeff burns He'd be curious to know what what we think of the new ut twin 87 mic that can apparently switch between vintage and modern 87 sounds and your point ut twin 87 Boy, georgia. So quick on that google. Yeah, it's like you guys are pulling out a lot of new stuff I mean, well, you're looking that up. I will say what I usually say is there's no microphone That's going to change the way you read copy Or perform it so right, you know, it's Nobody cares, you know, I mean as long as you have a good mic That's over 150 to about 200 dollars It's the mic you have and it's if your your environment is correct. You're gonna sound great now Is it cool if you're an audio geek? Yeah, they're fun to play with You know likes are cool Um, yeah, this is uh, this one is uh Called the twin 87 because it has clearly two different signal paths Built in so if you can't decide which Version of a u80 71 at a vintage one or a brand a new ai modern one This was is supposedly right two and one, right? So is is it a matter of are you doing something modern or are you doing the only thing? so, you know, I mean I've been wanting to use that one for a while If you flick it to vintage it sounds like that. It sounds like exactly trust me folks The difference is pretty subtle like you're not going to go. Whoa. It sounds a vintage when No, it's not going to be a very very dramatic difference right unless you Are a recording engineer who's using a lot of different microphones and listens to subtleties and Different shades of mauve. You're not gonna notice the difference exactly and and and especially, you know I mean no most engineers can't tell the difference And why would and vintage and and then modern it has so much more to do with producing music And now gonna do some subtle things with you know with what where you are at now and you know for voiceover I don't see it, you know, but it's cool It is cool. You get the last question from mr. Holman Yeah, I'm actually answering that one offline But the one I want to answer the one right above it. Maybe do we miss do we miss him on purpose? I'm not sure but Matthew king Um says I've been wanting to invest in getting a laptop in order to start up my vo path But I was wondering which one would be ideal starting out Also any opinions on the at 2020? I've heard good things. I haven't Comparing it to 30 dollar mics. It's a great mic. Yeah To 100 to 150 dollar mics. It's not a great mic. So I would pick this mic over that when any day this is a 2035 and it's only a little bit more money and it's Superior in every way you find a used one George and I both have used ones. So yeah, this is a 3035 the Modern successor is the 2035. It's the same mic and they sound amazing. That's the way to go Skip the 2020 right and for a laptop get a mac You didn't say mac. So obviously you're not an apple person, but get a mac book air get one even if it's used get one Just swallow the take the red pill or whatever they say Just try it out. Take a bite of the apple go to the alternate universe and try it We we were big fans for a lot of reasons. I have a blog post about it I've talked about it on podcasts about why i'm an apple fan for voiceover studio users Definitely consider the the apple way of doing things because the computers are designed for media creation No audio driver conflicts. No audio driver confusion And now basically dead silent. Well the mac book m ones are dead silent They're the meant the air is the mac book air ironically the air Has no fan. So don't get a confuse megagare has no fan Um, so it's yeah, that's the way to go. Yeah, you know, you plug it in and it works It is you're not a whole lot of configuring Well, believe it or not another hour has gone by and we have answered all of the questions and solved all the mysteries of voiceover recording in your home studio, but Or at least we've tried uh, we're all we've still got a little bit to talk about and we'll be right back after these messages So don't go away Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great Hey there, i'm david h. Lawrence the 17th and with my company vio heroes and my team of coaches and my community of voiceover talent We guide voiceover Actors along their journey and you may be watching v obs here And not nearly as far along as many of the other people who are watching you may not even have Started yet And we actually specialize in helping you do just that so if you're watching all the stuff going on here on v obs I'm going I have no idea what they're talking about. I don't know, but I really want to do this I'd really like to help you Please go to vio heroes dot com slash start That's vio heroes dot com slash start and you can take our getting started in voiceover class Which tells you everything you need to get started as a voice talent And I'd love to hold your hand along the way and help you with that journey Again, vio heroes dot com slash start That's vio heroes dot com slash start 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 dot 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 dot 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 dot 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 dot com where your vio website shouldn't be a pain in the You know what? Before time began there was v obs dot tv watch or else And we're back that distinctive voice. Yeah Gotta get john back bailey back on the show one of these days fun guy to hang out with Uh, who are well first off next week on this very show our dear friend the thunder from down under even though He's farther north up in victoria british columbia matt collerick will be joining it. He has a super group super duper guy And uh, we'll we'll talk about some interesting stuff one of the very few voice talent. I know that hires an engineer No, like literally in house Somebody comes to his log cabin out there and victoria island and I haven't talked to him I don't think since the pandemic, but um, that was the situation last we spoke. So cool I'm curious to find out what he's doing these days. Well, ask him about that Uh, our donors of this week. We can start off with robert leadham steven chandler kasey clark uh, jonathan grant thomas pinto shelly I just want to put her first at last name Shelly shelly avilino patty gibbons rob rider Greg thomas a doctor voice Antland productions. I wore my antland productions t-shirt in front of the arch the triumph. Oh, that's so cool Yeah, and uh, and martha con are the dear martha my dear con um Hey, you need help with your home voiceover studio You can go over to my place which is home voiceover studio.com see all but I do and george over at george the tech And use that 20 off coupon code v obs fan 2022 All righty crazy gotta use that coupon. All right, you lead off with thankers thanking our sponsors All right. How about harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra? Source elements v o heroes dot com voice after websites dot com and jmc demos Thanks jmc Thank you to jeff holman kicking butt tonight in the chat rooms and getting those questions to us our fantastic technical director Sumerlino getting it done as she usually does and lee pennie who was actually tuned in tonight for just being lee pennie Anyway, you know, this is not an easy business Making sure that your audio is sounding right is really important, but the bottom line is If it sounds good, it is good. I'm dan Leonard And i'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shot or v o b s tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk Talk tech talk. We'll see you next week with mack hall rick. Have a good one everybody