 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk Number 88 number 88 tech talk number 88. All right, let me do that one again 88 That's how I get the three right there. I can't do the other kind. Okay, whatever 88 tech talks, you know a couple weeks ago. We didn't we didn't have one I'm like there's like 85 of them you could watch and the information is all good Most of it's pretty evergreen stuff it is But we got lots of evergreen stuff to me you've got some new stuff I've got some new stuff the side that this the side you talking to the Mike hasn't changed not at all That's a popular one. Yeah, I mean they don't ask it but believe me it comes up It does yeah, I have I have a piece of show and tell here I'll tell you about a few new things. I've got about the Apollo and I'll mention a clubhouse hack for getting much better audio and to Clubhouse for those that still like to use clubhouse on their phones. All right. Yes, we can get better audio All right, get your tech questions in now. So George and I can answer them We love it because this is voiceover body shop tech talk right now Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials calm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements the folks who bring you source connect JNC demos when quality matters Voheroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor websites comm where your voice actor website shouldn't be a pain in the butt voiceover extra your daily resource for voiceover success and by world voices the industry association of Freelance voice talent and Now here's your hosts Dan and George Hey there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or VO Bs Tech talk. Tech talk. Tech talk. Tech talk. All right The reason we do tech talk is because that's what George and I do where it all started Yeah, I mean we've it's always been about talking tech But when we talk tech everybody seems to want to hear what we have to say So we said well, why don't we just do a show about tech talk and that's what we do But the reason that we know so much about it is because George and I had been doing the home voiceover studio tech thing For a long time. I mean we've been doing this show for 12 years But we've known each other before that and we were both doing home studio stuff before that So probably 15 years. Yeah, so about 30 combined years of Knowledge of going into people's closets and examining people's rooms and we've been focused on yeah And it's amazing now. We knew a lot when we started But imagine how much we've learned yeah in that 15 years of us both doing this and every yardies small booths You wouldn't believe the things that we find You know, I got I had one today, but we'll talk about a little bit later when I'm dealing with noise reduction and stuff but if you want help with your home studio from people that actually know because There's no question about it. We end up mopping up After people who you know, I have a friend who's a sound engineer or they said that I should do it this way Right or my buddy the voice actor says he bought this mic And it makes it sound like yeah, yeah, right exactly and it's it's all it's all misinformation and Disinformation and just outright ignorance and confusion So if you want to get help from the people that know what they're doing you can work with one of us and If you want to work with George who has lots of great services and lots of great experience. Where do they go? You head over to George the tech. That's my home on the web and all the tech support services I offer from the soundcheck to studio design to acoustics tune-ups and Processing presets and how do you audiobook master? It's all on there in a menu look through there You'll might find something helpful and Dan has his place on the web over ads home voice over a studio Dot-com I think that says it all Just go on over there first thing you'll see is my specimen collection cup at the top of the page Which has been running over the last couple of weeks, which is great people are like hey Yeah, I what does my audio sound like you know I'd like to hear your raw audio because a lot of times people send here's how I process my audio And I'm like yeah turn all that stuff off You know, are you booking work with that? Well? I haven't been looking well Maybe you should turn some of that stuff off right so I want to hear what your audio sounds like that's gonna be a big clue because in Three seconds I can generally go tell what's going on in your room because there's a lot of important things that you should be doing and You'll send in your audio. I will analyze it and I will tell you Specifically where your short vowels are and if it sounds really good, I'm gonna go. Hey, it is good How's the batting average been the last couple of weeks as far as what you get versus what needs a lot of help What what what needs versus what needs a lot of help versus or what the ones you're like hey, you're good Everybody needs yeah, everybody not if nothing is perfect No, and of course you can never be perfect, but I will show you how to make it perfect or er It's like one in five I get one in six maybe yeah, where you're just like, you know, you're you're fine Yeah, you could lower this noise floor a little Or you could do it, but you're you're good exactly and I'm the same way and you're gonna you're gonna find that You know, there's always something you can do a lot of it has to do with technique Yeah, it does not have a lot of my technique my my technique is very very important as I sit here practicing perfect mic technique Yeah, I'm doing the shotgun mic technique and I'm doing the studio condenser mic technique Right, there's a reason we do it this way so you can see how it's supposed to be done see there you go Which is why our podcast Sounds like a podcast is supposed to sound as opposed to some of the podcasts that our video shows that turn in the podcast Right or our podcast done over a dining room table in a large room. Yeah, it's like yeah I can't you know, and they're 20 miles from the mic and stuff like that You know, perhaps we need to do a tech show about podcasts if we'll do a podcast about podcast if it comes up How many podcasts are there about podcasts a lot anyway, so starting off with our Tech report of the week George. What do you got? Oh? Not a whole heck of a lot, but I'll start with a little show and tell okay this Is coming from a brand that you'll never see us talk about on the show and I never have on the show Sterling isn't isn't that like the the brand name from from Banjo Emporium? We just discovered static electricity Holy didn't shut off the computers or Jacob just grabbed the doorknob and you got a heck of a spark This is the this is the Sterling audio Harmony H 224 24-bit 192 kilohertz audio interface Why did I get this? This camera feature now sweet. Why the heck did I get this thing? Well, I was at there I was at a guitar center to buy something much bigger more expensive a mixer for a client and I always look to see What's in the case? Because things like this don't really come up on my radar unless you physically Or if you don't shop a guitar center, you won't find right this is a house brand thing Why did I like this thing and I'll unbox it while I tell you? The first thing I caught my eye was just the the industrial design of it It just seemed like really a nice design. You know what I mean like keep it simple So you know how it operates. Yeah, it's they got away from putting all the knobs on the front You're right. They're on the top right so easy to see on your desktop where it's gonna be They provide for you. Obviously the usual two microphones with two mic gains and they give you a really nice big knob here A little remiss isn't a little reminiscent of the Apollo. Let's admit that, right? Okay, but that they give you a knob that it works a little bit like that So this knob is either headphone level or Monitors level right it does both or you can switch between the two and decide which one you're controlling So that's that's nice design right there, but it still gives you proper physical gain knobs Next thing is it you don't really ever use these in voiceover, but it does have pads Pretty unusual for an audio interface of this price. It's around 150. Well, I paid for I paid for it out of my pocket There's 150 bucks But it's got pads on each channel and the thing that really I thought was even more cool It has high pass filters on each channel There's nothing at this price point that I'm aware of that has high pass right then it also has Monitor control so you can adjust Whether you're monitoring at all if you don't use headphones you don't need it or you can monitor mono or stereo This is just like the scarlet stuff does now and a surprise it actually has It has Interestingly to headphone jacks it has one on the front right here And then you can set up another headphone mix at the rear because it has two sets of headphone has two sets of Lineouts monitor outputs on the back. So a surprising amount of features for something at this price point It has physical switches on the rear to switch between mic and line input Which if you want to use an outboard mic preamp with it It seems like that will work better and interestingly it has MIDI Not many people out there MIDI not many voiceover, but it's there in case you want to You know noodle away with a MIDI keyboard between sessions. So really impressive now. You're all wondering. Well, how's it sound? I don't know yet. I literally just unboxed it on the show So I'm going to do some tests with it plug it in do some recordings But I am sure that unless they severely botched this thing Which I seriously doubt because guitar center does what they're doing I think it's gonna sound just as good as all the other USB interfaces out there with similar specs I'm not Julian Kraus. If you know who he is look him up on YouTube that guy does the most elaborate Videos most elaborate tech reviews of audio interfaces. You've ever seen it's really geeky But anyway, I'm not him. I'm not gonna analyze it like that I'm just gonna plug it in and use it some time and see how it sounds. But anyway, that's something new on the radar Meters on it and everything. Yeah, take it. I mean, it's it just feels Feels like a flying off your desk. No, it's even got like a really nice big rubber huge rubber foot Yeah, it's not gonna slide around when you plug things into it. You know what I mean? I gotta I gotta give guitar center props. I think it's really nicely designed and built piece of gear So next up is to actually try it out So that's one thing. Um, I Came up with a new Apollo hack Universal audio polio interface That makes it work the way it's supposed to work with zoom the way I could never get it to work with The way, you know, the way they're always telling you oh install a loop back to make this thing work with zoom Right. It was always a hat. Well, I finally figured out a good hack for it and rather than keeping it a secret Go for it. I put it right up on The UAD forums website. So there is a UAD forums and they finally Matt the head forum Zarr what's name is that's a good word the main admin over there Finally I was able to make me art my own or make us really our own Sub-forum for voiceover. So if you or if you are an Apollo user and you want to see where I'm gonna be hanging out now and answering questions It's over there, you know UAD forums UAD forums calm and look for the voiceover one It's it's voiceover podcasting and live streaming. That's the category and I've posted a screenshot of exactly all the settings and How to use it. So what I want you to do This is your homework if you have an Apollo is to give it a try Do what I said try it out test it in your setup and tell me does it work for you? Or does something not work that I didn't think to test or just works fine for me and not for you So please do use that forum ask questions interact I'm not putting any more time into my Facebook group. I'm I want this to be in a more publicly searchable Not owned by Facebook property So the form is not owned by Universal Audio to be clear It kind of looks like it because of the branding on it. It's all sponsored by Universal But it is still an independent entity so you can go on there and ask and talk about whatever you like as long as it's on topic So that's that so that that whole new way of using the Apollo That I feel like is a eureka moment after using one for a 10 or 11 years Almost long as Dan. I've been doing the show I feel like I figured it out. I feel like I cracked the code. It sounds crazy, but I Feel like a crack the code. Yeah, so anyway, give it a shot Lastly, I just want to mention Clubhouse now Dan, do you find that you're still wanting to check out what's happening over on the clubhouse app? Or is it kind of falling off your radar only if I'm asked to be on it You're invited to be on a show like Jody Crangle's power of sound, right? We've been doing that like the last three months and that's fun. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah, what you and I tend to dominate it The other guys are like I apologize we did hey we host shows what it's natural. We know how to fill time But anyway clubhouse if you're not aware of what it is at this point Which you know, many of you may not be it's its own social media. That's audio based real essentially There's no they've added in a thing called a back channel, which actually is sort of a chat But it's really all about audio and it's like people are hosting radio shows Call-in shows where literally anybody can call in Anybody can be a host or and anybody can run one and so it's extremely democratic As of for now, there are no advertising which worries me I don't know how this company is gonna stay in business But it's really a fantastic thing. I have been tuned into it a lot when I have downtime To listen to people talk about what's going on over in Iran the whole hashtag masa Amini Movement that's going on over there. I'm not gonna get into the politics of it But there's a there's been a non-stop discussion on their live of people hosting and taking questions and talking For about seven or eight days like just non-stop. It's quite amazing Anyway, so that's what clubhouse is I'm starting to do one as well. I'm gonna call it the ask me anything, you know, once once a month It's gonna be the second not the last Tuesday of the month at 3 p.m. That's the planned date and time Anyway, so that's all about clubhouse, but a lot of folks want to get better audio in a clubhouse I mean, yeah, you can just use an iPhone. You can just use AirPods And it works and it's great like you can go for like I literally went from driving in the car From a client with AirPods Walked in my house sat down and just kept on going and it was basically seamless, right? But yes, you can use clubhouse with pro audio gear There's just a few little tricks and I'll leave one or one solid one And I'll tell you where to see good because I need to know this because I had to keep doing it on my phone Yeah, so the annoying thing is iPhone and the way Apple designs it and Byron Wagner did an extremely thorough job of explaining this So I'm just copying what he said but The problem is that the the anything that's hands-free mode Like anything that's for for conversation phone calls clubhouse Zooms anything where it's communication based not listening to music the phone switches modes into hands-free mode essentially Not every device can be detected as a hands-free device. That's the problem, right? So The trick is what Byron said is you need to find devices and adapters that have MFI as Part of the naming on the box or branding, which really means made for iPhone our iPad or made for iOS basically MFI You need to have that compatibility in the product Even if the product still records and works if you don't see that logo it may not work as a hands-free device That's one thing to the universal adapter that will guarantee to get audio in and out is those little Tiny headphone dongly things that iPhone gave you the first the first year They took away the headphone jack. They gave you these little adapters, right? I didn't give them to you that you had to go and buy them not even the very first generation They didn't give it to you. I know my wife is like, hey, I can't listen I can't charge my phone and listen to it at the same time That's true. That is so you had to have that little dongle. Yeah, so anyway, they still sell them for ten bucks Now you can get a better quality one, but but anyway what it does now is basically it gives you your headset jack back Once you have that headset jack All you have to do is have the right cables and adapters to get audio in and out of that little jack and it's called a TRRS connector tip ring ring sleeve so There's a lot more to it. I don't want to take away too much time from the show I suggest you jump over to my Instagram George the tech and watch the video I posted on Friday and I still show and tell of Several different methods you can use a sentrant's portcaster for example for the for the premium experience I'll roadcaster pro which has a TRRS jack on it I like the iRig kind of went through a range of different adapters and Techniques that you can use but I'll try to remember that next month when we're on with Jody and yeah I've been putting more and more on Instagram. It's got a little gets a little more engagement It's a little more people gets people commenting and I would have shown her on the show. It's just it's literally it's vertical It would have looked really dumb on YouTube. It's a vertical format But you can go check it out and get some more detail about how how that all might work for you great Awesome, that's it does it for me now. We're talking noise reduction. Yeah Because I got an email this morning from somebody who says I'm brand new with voiceover But I have tried everything I live any 500 square foot apartment and there's an air conditioner I have no control over It's noisy. There are other noises in there and I've tried I've gone into a closet. It still isn't very good Yeah, what do I do? And I'm like while you have essentially To me be three options number one You live where you choose to live you can move Yeah, nobody likes to hear that one. No, nobody likes to hit. I like where I live. Well, if you want to be a voice actor You know, if you're in the landing path of Bob Hope airport That's a problem the recording studios here in studio city didn't choose to put Bob Hope Airport there. No, they did not No, they went there, but they also have very expensive studios that are Floated million plus multi-million Almost a million I'm sure to make them to make them the way they sounded the way they well We've been prawn skis garage. That was not a million dollar project But it was you know percentage over a hundred thousand Watch watch that episode. Yeah, that was very revealing. That's what it takes to get quiet But he was trying. I think the mistake is always looking at oh, I can put up blankets I can put up foam. It's soundproofing blankets in foam. It's not guys on eBay. Yeah, and they are not soundproofing blankets They are sound absorption and diffusion devices that prevent reflection I think we say this like every week sure but needs to be bears repeating There's the soundproofing and sound treatment are not the same. They are completely different concepts But you got to have both. Yeah, one of the things he said I try to chaotic eyeball Not that I want to promote the chaotic chaotic eyeball because I don't it sucks They consume me. It just doesn't work. It's not designed for voice over If you want to if you want to chaotic eyeball because I think they gave more away Then they then they did You know then actually sold them although some people bought them Great for volleyball at a voiceover conference But not But not for doing it, you know, and then uncle roy was like well if you shove bagels in it that helps a whole lot too You know first it was you know sweat socks then I was like, well, let's try bagels bagels You know, I guess they worked a little bit better diffusers Yeah, it need none of these things prevent noise from the outside from reaching mr. Microphone And therefore or mrs. Microphone or miz. Microphone. I don't want to be sexist about it. That's right But I look you could move You could build something but you have to use the right materials you have to use Good construction technique and chances are since you don't understand what it is that Prevents sound you're in big big doodoo anyway So the last thing is noise reduction strategies, right Most programs digital digital digital noise noise reduction I end up doing this a lot with podcasts Because people have no idea what they're doing. Yeah podcasts. It's it's a matter of simply You know, you know, can you remove the sound of a fire engine can and police car is going by And the traffic on 5th avenue because they live in a midtown and like you don't do that But if you do they send the stuff to me and I got to clean it up And it takes a lot of time and effort you have to know how to use these noise reduction things Now in twisted wave, you also need to be able to hear the destruction that they cause Exactly when used incorrectly, right? Right. They have to be set perfectly and you have to have a noise floor You know, we set that standard of at least below minus 55 to minus 60 to make something Seamless in the way you use noise reduction. I've I've seen a lot of people using noise gates lately And you know early on we would say yeah use a noise gate, but it has to be seamless Using the right if you use the thing like in twisted wave or an adobe audition or even audacity has this now They're better than they used to be You mean the noise reduction the thing where you highlight, right? You highlight you create a a a a noise print a noise profile Right profile. Yeah, and then apply to the entire file. Yeah It does a pretty good job But if you're auditioning for a commercial There ain't a producer out there that wants to hear any of that and then they they know what it sounds like Like unless you use a very Like five percent reduction They're gonna they're gonna hear they know exactly. Yeah, so Move Find a better place to live or get alone or get alone and and build a but the thing is is you don't get a booth If you're just starting out. Yeah, and if you're just starting out in your noisy place I also suggested perhaps you have some voiceover friends nearby who have a better facility And perhaps you could borrow that until you make some money and then you can move Listen, here's the guy. Here's the thing guys. I just acquired a voiceover booth of my own I know it sounds crazy, but it just now finally having and i'm not telling you where I live And My daughter, you know, I've always thought maybe you should get my kid into voiceover right duh, right? But it wasn't until I had the the proper space to do it a booth in my apartment in my office That I had that confidence that I can put her in there put the mic up Of course, I know what i'm doing. It's my job, right? But I didn't have the confidence in getting great sounding audio consistently Until I had that in my studio. I made that investment and put it in there and Yeah, the better you are in voiceover or the more let's just say the more in demand you are The more you can get away with things So the more the more famous you are or the more high up the food chain you are you can get away with a lot Right, right, but when you're trying to get started They're judging you about sound quality the first two seconds of the audio Before they judge that you're acting is how do you how do you actually sound? You don't want the sound the quality of your sound to distract from your performance Yeah, you don't want that to be the reason that you don't get hired right weed it out for sound quality Yeah All right Well, I could demonstrate some of this stuff But just go through the the menus and and try it out and see if that works and listen listen listen use headphones Good headphones listen to the dry audio listen to the processed audio listen to what was there before What's gone now? And if it ain't just the noise, but it's also some of the frequencies of your voice Or you sound slightly robotic or unnatural Go back and try again undo and turn it down undo and test again, you know wet dry You know, that's yeah if it's got a blend control or if it's got a percentage or anything go lower Even try a second pass I've heard that can work. Well, I've done less but double double it up. So use your ears sometimes three times Use your ears everybody once you like compress it and you can you and all those sorts of things well novel noises louder Well, now I gotta take that out Just record it right the first place Anyway, we're gonna take a break and we got a pile of questions that we want to answer So it's time for a lightning round So we'll be right back here on voiceover body shop tech talk. Don't go away This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george wittem v obs dot tv Headphones for voiceover. Why not get the headphones made for voiceover? That's why I use harlin hogan's signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 from voiceover essentials dot com Harlins cans are incredibly strong and lightweight at only 8.4 ounces the combination straight coiled audio cable stretches from 5 to 10 feet It comes with two gold plated mini plugs and a studio standard quarter inch screw on adapter And includes the new mini jack on the left headphone for easy cord replacement The studio monitoring headphones are optimized for voice work now even better the harlin hogan signature series voiceover headphones 2.0 And for a limited time when you buy the headphones You'll also get a free autograph copy of harlin's best-selling book vo tails and techniques of a voiceover actor second edition It's full of stories from the trenches and insights about making the most of your voiceover career Go on over to voiceover essentials right now and order yours It's that time on the show where we thank Source elements the creators of source connect the most predominantly Widely used remote recording tool in the voiceover business Completely has taken over for istn. If you don't know what istn is don't worry about it But it's gone. It's gone But istn was how studios tended to connect to their Best and most well loved and highest paid clients Because it was easy for them to get great audio now with source connect It's even easier for producers to get great audio straight into pro tools Which is what they are going to be using most of the time probably at the studio The workflow is efficient and that is why they love it So you want to have this tool in your toolbox you want to be proficient You might even consider paying them. I think it's 75 dollars for the certification Which isn't just like paying for a little badge. They actually Teach you stuff. They will actually Go through your system. They'll make sure your system is set up properly They will if there's some issues with the sound they actually will give you some advice to make it better It's it's a very worthwhile expense to make sure that your quality is where it should be For source connect. So just another way they provide great service So you can go to source dash elements dot com Get yourself a demo poke around watch the videos spend some time And then when you're ready subscribe or pay for your license Outright and own it for life. You can do that right over at source dash elements Dot com. We'll be right back Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice 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 Before time began there was v lbs dot tv watch Or else Well now i'm totally intimidated Anyway, we have a pile of really good questions here We live for this every two weeks. We get together just to answer these questions So let's get work on it. Let's get to it and and our first question is from our actual chat room monitor Who always has good questions because he's which is why he hangs out with us because he figures by osmosis He's gonna learn all this stuff and he's got control, baby. So you play the top and bold bold types is What is the best position for a shotgun mic to reduce mouth noise? What are the three best positions for a shotgun mic your shotgun mic yours right here? That's actually my shotgun mic because this is my studio and that's i didn't bring 16 a didn't bring his George looks to be at a much deeper angle than in your home studio and in front of you rather than coming from the side well This is how george and i use a 416 That's the proper way Describe how you do this so there's no mouth noise or no Well, it I think it reduces well pops are no problem because the pops pops go straight or kind of go down So you're not going to pop the mic like this Um, in terms of distance from the mic, you know dan and I are getting to work longer distances Like you would have more like in a pro commercial studio for a good reason Dan's got a 10 foot vaulted ceiling in here, right? Right. We have a large high ceiling above us It's highly treated with acoustical clouds And we're seated so we're not even close to the ceiling that allows me to have the mic Way up here, which looks face a lot better on camera, right? Which is what it's designed for by the way Yeah, it's an on-camera mic You want to get warmer then you can choke up on the mic and it's going to get a bit warmer and more present sounding But we don't need to hear too much that could almost be too much So, um, yeah, so in terms of its position its angle is Uh, you know, it's 60 degrees. Maybe it's a pretty steep angle Um, but I also did this because I wanted to be able to move around a little bit more Um, you know when you're doing vo you're you're kind of locked on your script and here I'm like looking at this camera I'm looking at my laptop. I'm looking at dan so I'm moving all over the place So I'm choosing a little bit steeper angle that prevents me from moving off mic too much That's that's you're wondering why I'm doing it that way. That's why Um, and you mentioned are what are three best positions for a shotgun mic? Well, I guess this is number one Um, number two might be uh, if you're in a small space and you want to the camera You still have a webcam and you don't want the mic blocking the camera Then maybe more like over here similar thing coming at you from 45 to the horizontal 45 to the uh What axis is that left or right to the left or right? Um, is is a another good position The third a third position I don't know. I guess if you want to sound a announcer II Maybe you come more directly on and you use a pop screen. Yeah, maybe maybe you get it in tighter And get and to get that really announcer Voice of authority whatever kind of of sound, right? Yeah It's it's a great versatile mic Because one has great side rejection and a very narrow pickup pattern which can save you if you're in a Marginal place and instead of moving get a 416 which is about two months rent Or an la Half your rent Yes, it's about right Third Yeah, but the thing is is if you're doing like promo type stuff you that it was people just you know Jock's discovery you can talk straight into it and it makes you sound really great Yeah, you still never really want to you never really want to do right at the microphone because I will Magnify mouth noise and make plosives a nightmare, right? And then of course it has that foam sleeve that you can put on it, which is essentially For outside. It's really. Yeah, it's really meant to be used in And reduce it I know another reason is when screens are used is for boom operating when they actually swing the boom from actor to actor They need that on there. So you don't literally hear Swing the boom around they've got these covers one looks like a blimp and then when they call a cat You know when they call it a dead cat. Oh a dead cat. That's what it's called. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry cats. We love cats Tom Machen has a question Go for it. All right considering it is a business Where do you place your very limited energies for an audition when you're all you and you're ill and have no energy This is especially important when your agent says Uh, you're in the top two already. This may have been directed to our guest last week But you can certainly speak to this. Uh, where do you place your very limited energies for an audition when you are ill or have no energy? I've done it Well, I think any pro does it at some point I mean, you know, heck I had covid but I was able to You know, you learn to control your voice and you know what your limitations are And use it as little as you can you use it as as little as possible Fortunately when I got it it was just you know in my septum and you know, it may be a little more raspy But it didn't get into my vocal cords if it gets into your vocal cords. You really are out of business Yeah, I mean there are some people that can you know, they can they can pull it off But generally if you if it gets into your vocal cords and you start getting swollen vocal cords You can't reproduce that later on as an audition. So You know, if you're doing audiobooks Get away to your batter. You can't you can't do it differently. So I would highly suggest if you're sick and it gets into your vocal cords It's like you'll have to excuse me for a bit It's in my vocal cords. Yeah, you do not want to hear me like this and you just have to be honest about it and If you get sick, I people need to get past the idea of Well, if I can't do it somebody else is going to do it and they're always going to get the job and I'm out You can't think like that. Yeah, everybody gets sick Therefore just learn to relax about it and not fret about it. You're sick You're off. You're you know, you're on vacation from getting a forced vacation. You're getting forced vocal rest, right? Okay, uh terry briscoe asks Is there a way to make my basement ceiling more sound Defining without tearing out the drywall sound deafening. Oh, so preventing sound From getting through let's assume it means deadening deadening. All right. Thanks. That's what I think so. All right How do you get rid of uh sound sound deadening so When you're in the basement, what do you hear in the basement for furnace toilets flushing? Yeah, every every all the mechanicals are down there. Well, what do you hear upstairs? Footsteps, right footsteps footfall, especially people wearing bishad clogs and stuff like that. Okay. Remember bishad clogs Yes, uh, I don't but uh, yeah, I can imagine even regular shoes sound pretty bad through a floor Um, I hate to tell you terry that that is definitely one of the most expensive and challenging things to eliminate Is footfall noise from upstairs is quite difficult And it requires absolutely tearing out the drywall. I hate to tell you and putting in what? In putting in a uh a whole plethora of things Layers of insulation with mlv and then another layer of mlv and mass loaded vinyl. Sorry. I'm using too much jargon mass loaded vinyl And then some iso and then you tape that off and make it airtight So you have an airtight membrane and then you add some isolation clips And then you put in your hat channel And then you put on a layer of drywall And then you put on another layer of drywall And when you do all that right You will get rid of it mostly or you move Or or you move or you have to or you go to a different part of the house Different part of the basement, right? I have a client who's moving to a new home It's a big rancher with a huge basement. Oh, fabulous And uh, he was like I want to be here and I said, well, what's right above you if you're here And he's like, oh, that's the that's the master bathroom upstairs. I'm like, okay That could be a little bit noisy at times. How about if you're over that corner way over there? Oh, I didn't think of that. Well, what's under that corner? That's the master bedroom Gonna be pretty quiet when you're in your studio. That's carpeting and all right They're not gonna mean what's going on up there. So, um Yeah, so that's the kind of things you think about when you're but yeah tearing out the drywall I hate to tell you that is definitely part of the plan if you got severe upstairs noise All right, all right. This next question is a question for george because I could care less I can hear the difference, but I don't think there's a difference. Well, I'll tell you what the difference is Okay, but let's ask the question. Okay grace at newton asks What is the difference between the bear dynamic dt 990 pro and the dt 770 pro headphones? Why would there be a 20 point difference between the two? Yeah, right Or uh, the difference is the design one is what's called a closed back headphone That's the 770 and those happen to be one of my favorites and I've been using them for 25 years almost And then the 990 is what's called an open back headphone And you might look at the two next to each other in pictures and go wait a minute. They look almost the same But the 770 has a hard plastic shell on the back The 990 actually has like a vents like a there's venting or screen that the sound can pass through And those that prefer open back Find that they they feel that they're more natural sounding or more real sounding But the downside is that the sound does actually leak out So you don't want to use them for voiceover directed sessions Like if you're doing source connects and things like this That would be bad because that they'll actually hear them talking to you and playing your themselves And then they'll hear that leaking out and going right back into the microphone So that's bad But for just monitoring listening playing back or just enjoying great sounding classical music The open back is a more theoretically accurate sound I'm very used to close back. I've grown used to them. That's all I've used because that's all it's been really practical And here's a couple options. Here's the Harlan the Harlan Hogan headphones are closed back Right, and they and they sound great for a good reason and they're and they're very flat Which means, you know, they're not the response is going to be hyped or base heavier It's what you sound like which is really why you want those audio technica for these are the 40s h 40s and They are very again very similar in terms of not hyped up too much in any one frequency But that is the difference Alrighty Terry briscoe asks what are your thoughts on the dts mic 2 Uh, I don't have any yet because I haven't used it or the guy that runs that company is a unique gentleman I met him at a podcast convention. He was he's the CEO the designer of the mics. He does all of his own youtube videos He's he's he's he's an enthusiastic fellow knowledgeable And uh, it makes a very affordable product But I haven't been able to do real proper real world tests where I compare these With with other tools. So I I don't want to answer without having tried the mic and I myself Didn't we test one once I feel like we did yeah, I'll have to go back and that's one of the earlier episodes But second part of the question if you're then it seems to be a non sequitur question Because if you're using proper mic technique, do you need a high pass filter? Well, one doesn't have to generally do with the other Yeah, well, yeah, some people use a high pass filter to reduce the pickup of plosives Which is fixed with better mic technique, I guess right But the main reason we use high pass filter is so the mic doesn't pick up all that rumbling rumbling which is In your house in your apartment in your environment, it's always there And if it's below the frequency of your voice, then you can use a high pass filter It's the residual radiation from the big bang. Is that what it is? No It's just always there and you can't stop it. Let's just put it that way It's just always there. So that's that's why I've been there for billions and billions of years Yeah, so mic technique is part of the equation, but really it's not about mic technique. It's just Correcting that that background right noise Low frequency noise level stuff. Okay, you get the question from John O'Rourke Okay, um, when you have a booth made of pvc and studio blankets, is it still a good idea to add more absorption panels? And if so, how would you do it? Well, it depends. Yeah, it kind of depends on the quality and the type of studio Blankets you're using some of them Maybe a little more reflective than others. Some of them are very thin So they don't do a great job on their own Um, the producer's choice blankets and the blankets that we happen to use for a try booth Uh, the tri booth studios are very very absorbing and very dense So we don't need to add anything Um, but yeah, you may find that you're in your case adding a good quality absorber over top like a Orlex foam panel or something like that will Will increase the the the result or increase the overall sound result from the recording And the thing is if you have a booth like that and you want to know if it's enough Send us a sample and get a sound check do a sound check with george do my specimen collection cup Let us listen because we know what it's supposed to sound like Yeah, that's how you're gonna know because if you don't know then you don't know enough about your own sound to make that judgment You need someone else to help you do that and right. That's what we do. That's what we do Uh, okay. Have we tested the logitech blue sona. Thomas evinger asks that I know I I think you mentioned it once it's like a a joint project between logitech, you know webcams And blue microphones. Yeah, apparently the joint part is logitech bought blue That would explain it That's what I heard. Yeah, I just heard that Um, yeah, no, I I checked it out. There's they've sprayed them across the youtuber verse So there's a bunch of youtubers using them already And it sounds pretty darn good. Um, it's a dynamic mic that has phantom power Um, that's it's little that's its little thing. Um, it looks cool. It looks cute Kind of looks like a very space-aged version of an sm7b It has a big like yoke that it hangs from and you can twist it or you can aim it I but yeah, I don't remember on more distinctive details about it But I haven't tried it and the whole idea about it being a dynamic mic is it's designed for a more of a voice And more of a broadcast podcast situation, right? So it was intended to be used Right up like this to get that broadcast sound, but it's dynamic. So it's not as Sibilant and mouth noise sensitive as a microphone like this and our guest tonight is we're going to be talking with Yeah, it's you can hear aesthetically the difference, right? That's eating the mic versus getting a natural sound Don't eat the mic unless the specs say eat the mic and I've never seen that Yeah, yeah, no, well, maybe one of them will end up uh Coming across our desks One of these days now here's an interesting question from jonathan grand Heads up and a repetitive problem Focus right scarlet 2i2 with a mac Okay, when the system sleeps the 2i2 receives lower power. That's right with only the 48 volt A light lit. All right, so the fan on power is on system wakes and the power levels are restored and all selected lights are lit Okay, however, the buttons on the 2i2 are unresponsive and noise is introduced into the recording Unplug and reset the 2i2 and the problem is solved Problem solved Oh, there's more only solution is to allow the monitor to sleep, but not the mac it sucks and I want to upgrade But to what ssl2 I don't know if that problem will go away with the ssl2, but I haven't tested it I did not either You know reason why I haven't tested it because I tell literally every single voiceover actor who is listening to me to disable sleep Um, I know you don't want to hear that um, but that's the case. Um anything that's usp powered All has the same suffers a similar fate The the voltage drops or not find a voltage. Maybe the amperage current drops Going out to the device and the device goes The It freaks out for a while and then when power comes back it goes bananas Um, so I I don't know if the ssl2 would be affected by that that that fate Or not I haven't played with it. But yeah, this is this has been a problem is as long as usb audio devices have existed Sleep causes lots of trouble. So yeah, just sleep your displays If you're on a mac If you're really about being conservative on your power usage And you have an m1 or any of the new silicon mac don't even worry about it those computers When they're working they're damnedest It's 10 watts My mac mini at full blast is 10 watts, right? And of course you could always turn your computer off Yes, you could turn which will totally reset everything. I never do that. I never do either I leave it on all the time. My mac mini has been on for like years since I bought it when things go weird We restart our computers, right? But uh, no, I I tend to leave it on because I want to sit down and be right at work I I'm impatient And I walk down sit down and walk in sit down. I want it to be ready But yeah, I just don't sleep And um, if you do get an ssl2, which you should just get one anyway because it's just better Than the scarlet. Um, let us know. Yeah, I had a situation with an ssl2 last week young lady has wires had been drawn underneath the floorboards and You know, she went from a sure, you know smu to whatever that thing was and got an ssl2 Went through two hubs and then was wondering why it was skipping Oh, yeah, are we getting dropouts the more it extended and goes through hubs the more So yeah, you need it the ssl2 runs off a usb c You know double Male connection and that's what you got to use and you can't go terribly far maybe 10 feet Well, we found I we found a cable. It was 20 feet and once we plugged that in that was great Oh, good, but we couldn't get it under the floor and she didn't want to go under the rug and Oh, that's what we did is we got a a line with a an adapter that ran about 50 feet Still work A line with an adapter. Yeah, so apparently there's enough juice that runs through The five watts that that thing will send out over usb c and it powered the ssl2 So it's an extender with a power supply an act. We call it an active extender, I guess Right, but it wasn't the only power was coming from the computer No kidding. So it was an active extender that didn't require an external power supply Jesus like getting power from nowhere. I know that's amazing technology, but it worked. Awesome. I'm like, I'm a genius I just gotta make it longer. I'm like, how am I gonna solve this? Well, let's try this. It works fabulous now. We gotta go into uh Lighten and round Are there more questions? Oh, three more. I'll do the rich and you do the dave and okay Well, rich is just like phrasing us and bowing down and thank you rich I got to meet rich in person at the biker wave my bike co-op last week when he was visiting with his daughter It was a brief meeting. It was very quick, but I got to see him which was really awesome It was nice seeing you in 3d rich. Yes Dave says Hey, george and me because I got opinions on this too Uh, can you comment again on the sm7b and vo saw a discussion in another venue and some were swearing by it I bit my tongue. I usually swear at it I just got done talking about this. Okay. I've been using an nt1 for an audiobook after about 15 minutes the noise The noise appears the king of rumble or Lifting noise floor from minus 68 to minus 55. It's the capsule going bad Well, we'll take the first part. Okay the sm7b Oh I'm gonna repeat what I just said. It's a voice. It's a broadcasting podcasting mic. Right. It's designed for a diff different aesthetic Audible audio aesthetic. Right. Is there a word for that? Yes. It's just a different aesthetic, right? And it's for broadcast sound right and the reason that they use them in broadcast studios is because broadcast studios Generally suck acoustically. They used to be really awful pretty much And they wanted the jocks and the talent to just shove it in front of their face And pretty much that was how they use those microphones That's not voiceover because we don't talk to people an inch from their eardrum. We don't it doesn't sound natural Which is why we do, you know, I mean, I've come down to the three things Fist thumbs up and mahalo. Right one of these one of these three is the distance from the mic So you practice those and maintain that once you find the sweet spot with your microphone But the sm7b a lot of singers you're using it because it can handle a lot of spl He could sound pressure levels for those of you, you know, not good on acronyms. Yeah They're designed for loudness. Yeah, and therefore if someone is singing, you don't have to add as much gain to it Right, which allows for You know, not having as much background noise or electronically induced background Now the noise issue with the snt1. I don't know what's going on. I've never heard of nt1 getting noisy after 15 minutes It's an incredibly quiet mic So I check your interface first because if you're an appage if you're an apollo, this is actually notorious for this Um, but yeah, I'm not aware of that one. So check check your switch your interface first if it still happens Then it's the mic or change the mic Yeah, then change all the cheap stuff first Then uh, then then that's why and if you've narrowed it down to the mic Then send it back to road and let them replace it because they're really awesome at supporting their stuff All right, here's a great question because I've done this one and you probably are gonna do it in your new studio bricks What's the best way to illuminate one's booth? I hung my cloud which I told her to do And which covers the overhead light in the Tends to do that, right? I you know that one of the things you can do now I could demonstrate here, but then you'll be into the bright studio lights we have in here But I got some led lights and I put them on top of the panels And it can change colors and it will illuminate Yeah, and you go to the hardware store you get this little $3 adapter it threads into the socket right and it gives you an actual Plug right and you plug your led light thing into that Thing and then now when you turn on the wall switch The led lights light up on top or a battery powered Book light Yeah, or you can just eliminate that all together just use a spot a book light Right. It doesn't make any noise just runs on batteries Just depends how much light you need that's right, but I'm using an led strip in my Booth now it's route. I just wrapped it around the ceiling cloud and done okay easy great All right. Well, that's gonna wrap it up for now We're gonna wrap it up for good in just a minute But right now we have a couple of spots we need to play because they help pay for this program So we'll be right back here on voiceover body show This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our body show 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. 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It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports. It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover xtra dot com Yeah, hi, this is carlos ellis rocky the voice of brocco and you're watching voiceover body shop All right, and we're back. Did you know that the that when you heard on cnn? Yeah, james roll jones. This is cnn. Did you know it was a it was essentially recorded the same way we just recorded that bumper Really? Yeah, he was just an interview and they said hey james. We say uh, this is cnn Well, guess what they did that and they played it and he was PISSED Really? Yeah, they didn't make hole. Oh, yeah. Yeah enough to send his kids to the college Yeah, anyways anyway next week on this very show scott parkin will be dropping by hopefully with a bottle of sailor jerry and And we're gonna do some improv fun. So make sure you're here for that. That's going to be a great time and uh Went to switch to a standing set for that we may You know have to put the camera way back there. It'll be a lot of fun Anyway, uh, thanks to our donors of the week like robert leadham. Oh, I should look over there steven chandler kasey clack jonathan grant tom pinto Oh shelly addles doctor voice ant land production uncle rye martha con 949 designs jonathan grant again again I thought I I took that out christopher epperson sarah borges philips apyr Brian page patty gibbons rob rider shanna pentington baird don griffith tremosly tanner birdsaw And sandra man willer. Thank you everyone. We appreciate it for subscribing. That's right So if you need help with your home voiceover studio one you can watch this show But if you want to work with one of us like me you can go to Homevoiceoverstudio.com check out everything I got there or if you want to work with george you go to george the deck george Dot attack I can't talk at this point if you want to deal type in vobs fan tan You'll get 10% off your next scheduled booking Alrighty and of course a thanks to our great sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra sora selamans Vioheroes.com voice actor websites.com jmc demos And world voices.org the industry association of freelance voiceover talent Join today go to our website. It's great. Thanks to jet holman for getting all those great questions in there Even the late ones. Yep. Put us over the top. Which is what we love Sumer lino who did a great job of directing the show as usual And of course lee penny for just being lee penny. Well, that's going to do it for us this week Guys, you know, this is not an easy business so much. You got to learn technically though You got to get your sound just right all the things that you're going to do to get it right But if it sounds good, it is good. I'm dan Leonard and i'm george woodland and this is voiceover or vo bs tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk. See you next week. Thanks for the chair rick