 Hi, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 30 It is it's 30. Yes. Well, we have so many questions It has been nuts here at the voiceover body shop George and I have been running around like little elves Trying to get everybody's studio up and running and everybody's got questions And you can send us more questions if you want in our chat room Jeff Holman is in there So stay tuned. It's time for the OBS tech talk From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voiceover audio And together from the center of the vio universe, they bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the vio stars of virginia tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional vio studios of the biggest names in vio today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master A professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home vio studio And each week they allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in vio tech And having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voiceover body shop tech talk Voiceover body shop tech talk is brought to you by voiceover essentials dot com home of harlin hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites dot com where your vio website isn't a pain in the butt Vio heroes dot 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 vio success And now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in sherman oaks california Here are the guys Well greetings there i'm dan lennard and i'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vio bs talk tech talk Maybe we should run tech talk all this week since everybody's got all these tech questions, but uh Right, it's it's been nuts. I mean everybody is like I gotta get my home studio together. Well, where have you been? You know, I mean It's it's not rocket science And if you got a closet, you know, you're saving yourself an awful lot of money right there Yeah, what's it's pretty dang good. Yeah, what's the most interesting Client you've had to work with and you don't have to mention any names But anything weird this week with everybody or is it just all out panic or in your world or what? I mean some panic, um It's not it's it's a panic because people want to feel like they're ready when they need it But nobody's coming to me saying I'm gonna lose this major campaign tomorrow. Right, you know if I don't have it, you know So right now it's sort of a panic of I need to have my studio up and running at home I need to have source connect. I need to have whatever ipd tl a phone patch. Da da da da But it's not like the studios on the other end Are fully up to speed either and that the productions are not fully up to speed either So all those productions that are normally done at the studios Are they're all everybody's in the same boat scrambling to get all their acts together All the other productions that happen where the voice actor self produces which is what the vast majority of what voice over really is Yeah, you know you record you edit You process and you send it to the client That stuff just keeps right on going. Yeah, and everybody at works from home keeps right on working Yeah, and now I have found you know and the voice over business to me as a voice actor I have found that in the good times things are kind of slow When things are bad or you're coming out of a recession or during a recession Business is really really good Because you've got companies that are retrenching retraining Then they want to rebranding branding to repremote their stuff commercials are being all Yeah, commercials are all being re-recorded with a whole new tone Right, everything's a lot more solemn and or maybe not solemn as much but like more comforting and warm and In these challenging times, that's right. You need a jaguar You know crap like that. Yes. Yes, that's what's going out on the air, I know Yeah, I mean I I've done a few of those too for you know one for a car manufacturer and It was like we're here for you wouldn't a jaguar make you feel better right now. That really I Who cares? I'm not driving anywhere. You know and then it's got to start, you know It's that exactly don't you want to escape your horrible family and go out in the driveway and sit in your new Jaguar There's one there was one episode on madmen where this guy was trying to commit suicide Because he had bought this jaguar and lost his job and he goes out and he tries to you know Suffocate himself in his car and I'm like oh watch this. It's not gonna start And sure enough the car wouldn't start I think jaguar has probably fixed that problem since then and they're not Yeah Anyhow, but george and I are here to help you with your home studio and that's what we do And I think most of the requests we've been getting this week is can you Listen to my audio and see if it's up to snuff And I'm in yeah my broadcast quality or what yeah guys. There's no such thing as broadcast quality I mean if you're if you're watching, you know, how do you do to hear something like that from the 50s? It's an analog standard of you know broadcast quality It's now professional digital quality And the fact of the matter is is the stuff that you can do on a crappy microphone is still better than what they were doing On analog tv 50 years ago So right forget that forget that term um Any any who if you need help I don't have any tech updates Okay, that's why I don't have any tech updates because we just have so much just current events That need to be sorted out and Lot a lot a lot of questions and we want to figure why yeah, I'm not going to waste a lot of time with the tech news You know we the tech news is you need a home studio Which we've always held you for for nine years now Uh, so listen to it. Sorry. We know what we're talking about and because we know what we're talking about We're telling you where you can work with us if you really need help with your home studio If you want to work with george wittom There's a way to do that. All you have to do is go over to george the dot tech That's the website. Um, there's a um a whole section on there I call it home vio studio now And that's for people that don't have anything and they know they need a mic and they need a bunch of gear It's just some place you can go and start clicking around and buying stuff you need um, but there's also tech support on there on the vio studio tech, uh Menu you can book support if you're really under the gun You can book an emergency support and i'll burn the midnight hour with you and get you your issues sorted out So that's all over there. Right dan. How about you over your website? Well over at home voice over studio dot com Uh, you know, I talk about what I do, but at the bottom of my page and this has been busy I mean the specimen collection cup has been overflowing which can be you know, that's a little bit mess somewhat un unseemly but Um, but people have really been submitting their audio if you go there scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the The specimen collection cup there you can it's a drop box. You can send me your mp3 audio There's very specific instructions on how to do that and I will analyze your audio and if I'm like you're up to stuff I'm going hey no big problem. You might want to raise your gain a little bit. Maybe it's something like this if there's something major Then we can talk about you know, perhaps a little bit more consultation on that but go over to home voiceover studio dot com And do that and we'll take care of you. Well, we got it. We still have some guests with us Here we do I can we check in with the guest the chat room We should just do any of our our chat room guests who are in here with us on zoom Have a tech question for us that they would like to get across right now start with them. They're the ones here live, right I have one Hey, harris So this might be you might give me the dan you may give me that look but How quiet are studio monitors supposed to be because um I'm noticing a little bit more noise coming out of mine. I have the equators and they're out of business. So I don't know if there's supposed to be a little that sucks, man I'm sorry that they're out of business. I was really really impressed with them. Which which which manufacturer was that Equator oh equator. Yeah, waiter audio. Oh, we met them. Yeah Yeah, they made some great monitors. I don't know. They just didn't stay the They didn't stay the course for the long haul there, but when when the monitor speakers start making so is it sort of like a puttering Or like a buzz It's like a light buzz A light buzz. Yeah I've heard a lot of studio monitors do that m audio krk anything that's powered Some point where the monitor, you know, the amplifier might start to go south and Now there's not much you can do I mean you can you could send in the one monitor that's noisy to a technician And they might be able to repair it Um, like there's a place in LA called audio rehab As long as it's an analog circuit they can probably fix it which it's an analog circuit if it's an amplifier So I I have found first buzzing. Yeah, I have found that if if monitors are buzzing sometimes It's not the monitor. It could be Yeah, your pre amp Or it's how it's how it's being fed or the the xlr cable or the the uh, the other cable goes into your studio monitor May have a ground short in it And both speakers equally that pretty much have the same noise or is one more noisy than the other both the same See, oh, okay. Yeah, that that that may be not the amplifier and the speaker then Yeah, don't spend an hour talking about a ground problem possibly. Yeah, right, which is much easier to fix Because you just keep plugging things and changing cables until it stops No, and yeah saves you a heck of a lot of money. Why go out and buy new new monitor What kind of you you've got the equators, which are great monitors. I mean they really do make sound good But when you you know, if you try and listen to like I had a friend that was recording or you said jay Why does it sound so bad? So no those just the monitors is not your recording recording. It's clean, right Yeah, the recording is clean. So, you know use headphones in the meantime. I'll tell while you figure that out Okay, all right That that's a yeah, that's definitely a good question If it was both speak if it was one speaker being a real problem the other one not then that would be more of the amplifier That's that's a connectivity or ground loop issue between your Your monitor system Just one more thing are they both both those speakers power cords plugged into the same exact power strip or whatever? As all your other stuff in your studio. No two separate ones going into the wall Another one's going into a power strip. Yeah, that's a bad stat. You want to avoid that? That could be the cause of a of a ground loop Yes, so try to reroute that other speaker. So it goes to the same power strip if you can okay Try that. Where else are you gonna get answers like this? I'm straight, you know, I mean anybody else got a question. I'm on the chat room. Yeah, yeah, paul paul there Yeah, that's I have one um Right before we jumped on here. I was perusing the facebook groups and some a talent who Is in new york city said I'm trying to set up my studio for the first time and I'm told I need an interface. What is that? What do you say to somebody who has spent literally all their working life in studios and now has to start from scratch Again getting set up at home. Well, you know, we we teach this stuff I mean, it's it's pretty simple. George and I have lots of videos out there that explain these things Uh, but you know What do you tell them? You tell them it's like this is what allows us to do what we do on the internet Because it takes a good signal from a studio condenser microphone Which doesn't have to be really expensive and you can put it into an interface Like say, you know a focus rights solo or a two y two Well under 200 dollars someone could spend less than 400 dollars And have a good quality digital system because what that interface does is it amplifies the signal And it then converts it into the ones and zeros that your computer can understand And and then it and then it can take that that language and turn it into The waveforms we see and we can manipulate it. That's really all it does. It's not like alchemy or something Well, I think there's a lot of confusion too a lot of those folks that In that category paul's mentioning they may have a usb mic Right, you know, they may have like an apogee mic and that's all they've ever needed or need because they just record auditions in their closet So they're being told they need this thing called an interface and they're going where do we plug that in So that's a big confusion, right? Because the interface is something it's used with studio microphones, right usb microphones Well contact either one of us and you know, we can walk you through that Although I must say I was working with somebody over the weekend Setting up a studio in her closet And she had a an apogee hype And we set it up the way, you know, it's a standard You know studio condenser mic, you know rules not a bad mic No, and she turned it on and you know, she had the clothes were like, you know coming to a you know a corner Yeah, so just pat it there have the mic right in front of the clothes. She started talking Damn that sounds great Yeah, you know right right in there, you know and can you use a hype mic if you're doing stuff remotely or an apogee mic Of course Yeah, so as long as it as long as it can show up in your computer like any other audio device The microphone is the interface. That's what's confusing when you have a u.s. Mic The mic and the interface the preamp whatever people calling them It's all inside that mic. It's all inside one device squeezed in all one thing. Yeah So you just the thing that can be tough is if you are used if you need to be directed If you have to wear headphones Some usb mics don't have a headphone jack and if you have to listen to the direction Sometimes it can be weird hearing the direction on the Earbud or the phone without hearing yourself and the headphones And that totally depends on the way you're used to working But chances are if you're normally the kind of person that goes into a studio Chances are you're used to listening to yourself While you're recording because that's pretty much how all the studios do it So the hype mic can do that right? Yeah, it's got a headphone jack on it And it's got like but you know a mix between the computer and And and the mic so that it's a great little unit and they're right here in Santa Monica. So Yeah, support local business if you're here in LA If you're in Des Moines by many way Anybody else in the chat room or should we move to the email questions I have some questions Jennifer Jennifer Riley Hi So I have an Apollo twin Uh mk2 interface And I just recently learned of the the whooshing issue So it's in your life too, huh? It's whooshed into my life and uh And I was wondering if the if you've heard any news about that as to like why that's a A growing issue for people that have that George well Um The news is is that there is no news because they're not really fessing up to it in any kind of like grand way Um, which is really disappointing for you folks at universal audio the chances of any of you actually hearing what i'm saying right now are low but We created a facebook group or I created a facebook group maybe two years ago called universal audio Apollo And I recommend you go on that facebook group and we have a whole discussion that I've pinned to the top Um about this one problem So I recommend that you get in on that discussion so you can be understanding of what's going on But the short answer is and this is tim uh freelander discovered this I think from uh sound box la Is is to get an external phantom power box It's only like a 30 dollar little box and the microphone plugs into that And then that plugs into the Apollo And then you turn off the phantom power on the Apollo So the Apollo is still providing the preamp and everything else But the phantom power is provided by that little box That apparently has cleared up this problem for numerous people Okay, and it's in this little workaround as annoying as it is to do it Is it's still a better workaround than them waiting for them to get yours fixed And or replacing it and then having the problem happen again Which has been happening People send them get them replaced repaired getting replacements, and then it comes back again So You know, that's not a good That's make you warm and fuzzy to have that issue happen. So Try that little try that simple workaround Um, just search on on online on amazon whatever for a phantom power supply Shouldn't be more than 30 bucks. Yeah, I you know, I've got one I think I have an old rolling that I plug in every now and again if I if I have to do so Yeah rolling and there's all different companies that make these things. Yeah That's what you need You'll need an extra mic cable too because you'll need another little mic cable It goes from the little box to the Apollo. So you might spend 50 bucks total For this little workaround, but it does seem to cause clean it up for a lot of people. Yeah Yeah Well, I actually learned about it from the facebook group But the last update or the last comment was from seven or eight weeks ago So I didn't know if I missed anything. That's why I wanted to check Well, just add your throw your hat in the ring in terms of because what they want people to do is to submit a ticket And then once they've submitted a support ticket They are asking us to accumulate the support tickets to create a some what I don't know a super case I don't know what they're looking for a class action suit a class action suit Because that's for you know, we're like we got a lot of people with this problem Tim tippets has been gathering names as well because uh, he's got a lot of people with that problem. So, um It's a huge bummer. Yeah, I mean that's an expensive interface I mean, that's probably one of the most expensive of the you know, the the uh The level you know that we work at that we commonly use right and it's The expense is really for some of the things that this stuff can do On the front end that we really don't need, you know, people think oh, it's expensive. Therefore, it's a better interface It's a better interface for doing a lot of Production work that we don't really do Not to say that it's not a great interface. It just it doesn't sound any better Then say, you know a focus right to i2. It's the same process So sometimes it's good to have a backup around You know in case that's doing that you'll use your old interface or something along those lines, you know I think i'm gonna carry a blue mic made around with me if someone's having a problem with their interface Oh, let's see if oh, yeah, it's the interface. Yeah, this thing really sucks, too But it's one of those little sparks a little super mega simple $50 usb interface that plugs in That's a great little, you know workaround that's that immediately eliminates all the complexity of the Apollo and you plug that in Absolutely Alrighty and if any anybody in the chat room has you know, who's with us on zoom has a question Let let me know We've got a lot of written questions here though. People have been submitting these all week From terry parker brown. She says I record in a whisper room My mic and my ke is a gt 55 a grew tubes groove tubes 55 which is a I think the the guitar center from the guitar center probably it's a groove tube It's a groove tube. Yeah, I am running on the latest os on a mac laptop a desktop. I have a macchi 14 o 2 vz lz make The numbers don't really matter to us, uh, which then runs into a scarlet 2i 2 interface We won't mention any names, but larry hudson said I can ditch the macchi, but my husband is a musician And this is how I've been able to set up thoughts I find with all the gaming video out there. You have to scream and die It's helpful to be able to turn it down from the macchi Interesting let's say that one first because it's a two-parter it looks like yeah, maybe a three-parter actually. Yeah, but Yeah, it's right mixer is a mixer for mixing several signals together And so if you're using a mic into the scarlet, that's what you should be using a mic into the scarlet larry's probably right Now your husband has a different use case. He's doing it. He's using this system for a different need Probably plugging his guitar in or recording other instruments at the same time or doing bar gigs and needs a mixer that's where the mixer comes in but um Simplify the setup keep the signal chain as short as possible Have the scarlet in your booth if you need to so you can turn the little tiny the little gain knob up and down And that's that's it keep it simple really trust us Yeah, and then she asked secondly I got source connect and I've been trying to test it My computer and speakers sit on my desk and I step into the whisper room to record I'm getting some looping the obvious solution is to turn down the speakers. Yes yes Plug your headphones into your scarlet and turn up and turn down your speakers Yep, that's that is exactly the problem source connect is not I think we all get spoiled by zoom and skype Those have these crazy echo cancelling features built in right so we can talk to grandma on their iphone and it doesn't look like crazy But not everybody's gonna you know, that's that's a that's a feature that Muddy's the audio big time They can't do that on source connect You can't have this loop thing because it would screw up the audio Considerably so headphones are absolutely a requirement And then last connection last question is source connect depends on my internet, correct? I live in a suburban area, but I do notice dropouts every once in a while. Will this affect my source connect connection? Yeah, absolutely I have an Xfinity and I'm on their best plan Well, the thing about cable modems is there you're basically on a network of other cable modem users in your neighborhood So you're kind of depending on how much people are using it in your neighborhood Yeah, sort of everybody flushing their toilet at the same time kind of yeah When everybody is at home and they're all watching Netflix then things get a little bit sluggish, but full-on dropouts Obviously not a good thing make sure you're plugged in from your computer to the router with an ethernet cable And those should those kind of dropouts should be reduced quite a lot. Yeah We have another spousal situation here. Why don't you read this? Uh-oh from treisha Lovering is that the one? Yes. Lovering. Um I use our spare laptop to record in the closet, but sometimes my husband takes it to work I was thinking of using my ipad with an xlr mic I can send the recorded track to my desktop In the loft to edit I tried the lightning to usb camera adapter and it did not work I've been given various recommendations sure mvi irig pro mic port pro two Sweetwater recommended the isotope spire studio. They always recommend the most expensive choice. Of course Kind of funny how that worked. Don't ask them Ask a company that makes a profit on selling gear. Which one should I buy? Um, what would you recommend to do the voiceover into the ipad with an xlr? Um The you didn't say what mic it is. I don't know what mic it is The sure mvi is pretty damn dead simple The mic port pro two is fantastic. That's the best quality of the whole lot Yeah, um, it's not the cheapest, but it certainly sounds really good So I would go between either that the sure mvi or the mic port pro two, honestly Yeah, mic port to pro two is really a better product. So if you have the budget, I'd go with that one Um, because it has a battery inside and that helps the fan and power and everything else work more efficiently and work better Whereas the mvi doesn't so that that would be my choice Yeah, any of those you use the mic port pro two. I've yeah, I've got that I think I have one here. Well, it's actually the mixer face The mixer's face, which is like its grandfather or it's you know, the big brother. Yeah, this is you know, um It's very simple. It's just as good as any other interface, but it's a lot more mobile Not a charger power. You gotta charge it. It's actually on the charger right now. So it can It can be used. I'm not that I'm using it for anything but, um Anyway, but yeah, it's There are some really good small units out there that work like that Just don't get something that is meant for something else Uh, you know like like there you were mentioning the the isotope spire studio I remember we did a feature on that when we were at nam a couple years ago And it's an interesting unit but for voiceover. It really is designed for creative people making music Yeah, I haven't gotten a chance to test it in a real voiceover world situation I've seen a name pop up occasionally from other people online, but it's not not at all They're really the right thing. It does many things you don't need and it's Overpriced for what it is. You don't need something like that complicated Absolutely Well, tell you what we're gonna do right now We're gonna take a break break time because we got a rest I gotta get a bottle of water or something But we've been running at this and getting all these answers out to you because you've come to the right place If you want the right answers for your home voiceover studio talk about a niche that we have I mean come on that Anyway, we'll be right back here on voiceover body shop tech talk This is ariana rattner and you're listening to voiceover body shop v obs dot tv Breaking news as of today amazon and bsw have sold out of port-of-booth pluses Now amazon still has a few pros and stock But if you want a port-of-booth plus voiceover essentials dot com is the only game in town They have a good stock of both booths right now and are shipping a lot faster than amazon That's right. Get the most popular mobile studio out there The port-of-booth plus makes recording on the road easy peasy It assembles in seconds and allows you to kick out those inconvenient auditions wherever you are Get one now at voiceover essentials dot com The home of all harlin hogan signature products like the v o 1a microphone that you're hearing right now with perfect mic technique and harlin hogan signature series headphones go there now voiceover essentials dot com Thanks for being our sponsor for nine years harlin Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice denouncer 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 rig This is your neighbor 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 dan will stop waxing this mustache for a minute. We'll get back to the show Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great And we're back here on voiceover body shop tech talk, you know this week george I I experienced the catalina Audacity thing I hadn't really used audacity in a while, but I had a client that needed to learn something. I'm like Wait, it won't record and then I'm like, okay What do you see don't if you need to learn something just type it, you know in this in a google search It's like why won't audacity in regard and you'll find youtube videos and this guy's like, okay Yeah, just go into get a terminal You know just be careful what you type in there But put this line of code in there click but and the currents just accept the mic They just haven't gotten that that patched through yet and they don't have that little handshake with the mac That pops up that annoying little window saying are we going to allow the microphone to connect to the computer kind of thing? Right and you have to go after terminal going to the hood. Yeah, so Good to know. Yeah, but uh, yeah, just google it and and don't be afraid by it Uh, let's see. We've got a question here from max reed He says first. Thank you so much for being a great resource for us scrambling voice actors Especially now second. I love to ask a question on your show that goes like this I'm operating out of a small closet in an apartment bedroom 10 foot ceiling 30 inches deep 55 inches long good size It's is it better to try expand the closet outward with a false insulated wall Or am I better off somehow treating the two large windows approximately three feet away from my closet? I have an extra two by feet two by five feet outside my closet to play with Though most of my noise is coming from outside My space feels very close to otherwise being very Broadcast quality Again that term You know he's in a closet in an apartment bedroom So he's not going to be doing a lot of construction in that place. No, you're not going to be able to do that and the thing is Don't overthink this. Uh, the only way to tell Is for us to hear it You know and if if it's sounding we say at the end of every show if it sounds good, it is good I think people are like, well, it could always be better Well, yeah, if you're getting noise if you're doing 30 second auditions, it's not a big deal You know truck goes by Okay edit that out go back at it, you know, it's annoying and stuff like that But you're working out of a home studio if you're trying to do remote work That's a whole nother deal. That's you know, because that can be an interference. However I would hope that these guys who are now You know these studios that are like demanding people do things remotely Understand that not everybody has a whisper room or a studio bricks. Exactly. They're in a closet and that they're going to have to be patient It's just part of this transition I think they're going to be a little understanding If a session is occasionally interrupted by a noise, right? I mean just refer to fill in the name celebrity who hosts a giant tv show and makes 20 million dollars a year Name and say watch I heard their kids and their dog barking. So you're going to give me a break or what? Because that stuff's happening right now, you know, so don't be super concerned but to answer the question. I guess If the noise really is coming through those two large windows If that really is the noise source and you can't steal off the closet better There are ways to seal off the windows temporarily Um, it's quite costly to do it well But there's a company called indos that makes certain inserts to make your windows way quieter Right, it's basically windows without the w right. Um, it's quite costly But man, they work really well. So if you're desperate, that's something you can try right. All right I believe mr. Stefano has a question for us paul Yeah, I got never shuts up Related to one of the write-in ones a couple of minutes ago about bandwidth I've noticed since the whole family is here during this of coronavirus situation that when I'm doing a session Connected to either source connect or another another service that My son's playing fortnight is sucking some of the bandwidth away. Yeah, I think yeah Here's my question though. It's it seems to be worse with the power line adapter So I'm using a couple of power line ethernet adapters one for the studio in one of my son's room And they have less speed even by themselves than the wireless Can you think about can you tell me or think why that might happen where? I think my my plan is 200 200 with fios Downloads being uploaded nuggets for a second, which is great lucky. Yeah wireless is there But on the the power line ethernet adapters both of the ones that we have plugged in Are only averaging around 60 That's because they're they're power line ethernet adapters You're taking your signal and you're really stretching it out there into a system that was not really designed to do that Yeah, I've had varying success with them, but I have a very similar situation paul Well, I don't have kids sharing my internet connection right now. So I don't have that problem But I have used power line ethernet adapters in my own place And now I'm just using wi-fi because in my situation the wi-fi is faster And I'm the only one using it most of the time and there's I'm not crowded in an apartment building So in our in my particular use case the wi-fi has proven to be Really reliable I'm doing the show on wi-fi right now That would be more stable It should be more stable because it's a physical connection, but it maxes out the speed the speed maxes out But if you're getting 60 mega second on speed test on the power line adapter And you're having dropouts while using that on source connect I'm not sure if the power line ethernet adapter is the cause of it Okay, they're pretty tough to troubleshoot. I mean they pretty much Work or they don't and um, sometimes they get pretty slow So I wish I had a better answer. I just found that in my case. I stopped using them But I recommend them all the time to people because I can't guarantee their wi-fi network is going to be Super stable, especially in our apartment building. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Alrighty Victor Clark asks what about us pc guys? Should we just keep using level later? I heard something about level later going away. Did you well it was in it was in the spot for uh, our our friend, uh David, oh the uh cake video here goes. Yeah, audio cupcake. Yeah cupcake thing. So yeah, so that's what came out As a replacement for level later, right? Um Check it out. Yeah, I can't vouch for it. I haven't used it yet. Yeah, I you know, I I'm I'm sure it works fine I you know I then again, and you know me george. I'm like everything is physical Everything is technique and not to rely on the technology people are like well, it's got to be even so I want something It's gonna be I know for audiobooks. It's pretty important Audio books and like yes, maybe podcasts Yeah, but for just trying to get everything as loud as you can consistently without over modulating. Yeah, and that's level Yeah, and that's that's what it's for um You know, I I always believe you know record raw do everything in post and stuff and uh But you know, when you do those sorts of things You are you're not it's not natural. We don't have a level later when we're talking to other human beings Yeah, I don't I I hate that thing because it's a black box, right aka Something goes in something comes out. God knows what happens on the inside. That's a black box Yeah, and so I just hate it for that reason But if it's fulfilling your need and your client's needs and whatever I don't care as long as it just keeps doing its job. If it sounds good, it is good Don't worry about it. That's right. Yeah, so, you know, try not using it. Vic. Let's see what happens You know, maybe look someone will come up with something else Uh, I'll let you do Maria Marat Marcus's question because I know your answer to this Oh, yeah I have a pc and I'm in the process of signing on for source connect standard Am I in serious trouble for not having a mac? I can't afford a mac right now So It does run fine. Um on windows where people are having a lot of problems Sorry for rubbing my eyes so much on on the show. Don't touch your face. Did you wash your hands? I haven't left my house in three days You're probably I have a pc. Okay, so if you're on windows its source connect seems to work just fine on windows It's when you're trying to record in audacity or some other program Where we often have conflicts So if you just use source connect on your windows machine, you're probably okay Everybody I've set it up with lately. It seems to work just fine Yeah, so don't offer to record it back up and you'll be okay. It'll work on its own Quit everything else and just run source connect I thought you would say, you know, you can get a used mac Well, when they say I can't afford a mac right now. What does that mean? I can't afford $2,000 or I can't afford $300, right? I don't know What she's exactly referring to but you can buy a six or seven year old mac mini for three or four hundred bucks That'll run source connect all day long without any problems. So You can you can mac your way out of that problem For not a terrible amount of money and use the mac for that as a use it as an appliance This is a used mac Yeah used mac 2014 Yeah, used macs are a great deal. They tend to run for a really long time And so that really at the end of the day is going to be your long haul best solution But I know right now it's maybe the learning curve and the expense is intimidating. So It will run on source connect on windows Just don't try recording anything while you're on a source connect session until further notice until I found the right combination of Features to do that because I've asked people out there who who have done that successfully How to do it consistently and I haven't gotten a lot of good answers. Yeah Uh charlain voice says any way to get pops or s's out after recorded through mastering Boy, I love I love how people through terminology around um And of course my philosophy is we'll avoid the s's and the pops in the first place You'll notice I can say peter piper picked a peck of pickle peppers all day long using this harlan hogan via 1a microphone And you're not going to hear a single pop out of this. I don't you know, I don't even use a pop screen I don't use a pop screen, you know in my studio anymore because it's not a matter of trying to remove stuff After you've made the mistake of using the mic wrong. It's the Technique of using the mic properly and that is you want the mic to be at eye level the top, you know upside down at eye level Your copy behind you like this And that allows you one room to move your hands It gives you a clear view of your copy, but more importantly It's picking up your voice at the same plane as everybody else's ears at that distance And it sounds like you whereas a lot of people think that this is what voiceover is supposed to be and it's not It's supposed to be if you go into a recording studio. They don't shove that thing in front of your face It's up there and the you've got a Lectern there and that's where your copy is So don't don't think that you know, there's a way to get rid of it afterwards The way to get rid of it is to not do it in the first place And sibilance is an issue george. What's the best way to deal with sibilance that you found I Mean mic placement helps Speaking a little bit more across the mic instead of direct down the middle of it can reduce sibilance um Proper eq in software you can just set a specific eq to reduce that sibilance range. It's between like Six and seven thousand hertz and twelve thousand hertz The top frequency range So those are a few little tricks that that i'll use some people even use an actual ds or application like a plug-in Right, um, some of them are great and some of them are awful Right, there's one on adobe audition and you know, you can adjust the the width of that. Yeah, I've used that. It works Okay. Yeah, I put it on I put it on broadband mode. Yeah multi band mode and yeah, it seems to work Okay. Yeah, so but then again, it might be a matter of mic technique. I've also found with sibilance Learn to relax your tongue People tend to overemphasize certain syllables and letters like like that Relax your tongue and don't think about it. Talk the way we all talk because we don't talk like this That's usually what causes sibilance a lot of its technique. Absolutely Uh, you want to take this one from joe tarantowski? Sure, be happy to From joe tarantowski. We got oof. They are coming in still Try to keep this fast. Um, I've been playing with old gear compressors, eqs, etc Is it okay to plug in the quarter inch? tip ring sleeve out Into the quarter inch line in on my interface Um, I'll pass on that one just I don't get why what the context is Well, I think he's using some basically is it okay to have a loop connecting out to in To plug the quarter inch. I do that What for? I do it to record the incoming signal from a from a remote session So actually the source connect works really well that way. I just loop out from the stereo out with a mono cable And back into the channel 2 on the ago 6 and I can record anything coming in Oh, I see use it to record what's coming back. Sure. Yeah for podcasting. That's brilliant. Yeah Also for for sessions though. So if I want to have a backup where I can hear the direction to just for For posterity and I can record everything coming in. Yeah, okay Yeah, old old gear though is it, you know, if you're an audio geek if you're really into, you know, that that classic sound I mean, I'm I'm surrounded by old radios here And I love playing with those and having fun with those and way they sound But that's not the sound they're looking for today And these old compressors Again, if you record on the front end using a compressor, it's there forever. You can't take it back out Which is why it's important to record Fresh and raw up front Then if you want to mess around with it, then you can do things There's so much software out there that does the same thing and some people it doesn't sound as mellow Well, they ain't looking for mellow I don't understand that one. They're not looking for an am radio from the 70s sound That's right And it's 20 degrees here in the city. We've got lots of coming. Yeah, all right moving on a lot of questions terry parker brown I'm on my trial for source connect I matched my audio options to yours in the source can and source connect standard window my window says Port not matte. Is this something I need to address or does it doesn't it matter if I'm only sending not receiving? You are receiving because you're receiving the audio from the other guy who's directing you right So it does matter if it doesn't work So in other words, you don't always have to port map because it doesn't sometimes it works without worrying without having to do it It totally depends on your on your router and your network how that's going to behave and how it's going to work So it's a total crapshoot. Yeah, but you may be fine without port mapping Um, it's just it's a best practices thing just like connecting the computer with ethernet Is a best practice for source connect having that port mapped is also a best practice For source connect. So we recommend if you can get it done have them do it have one of us do it I do it routinely for people Um, and we'll get it set up for you, right Victor clark asks here's a question Since we asked for questions if someone made you an effects preset. We won't mention any names Do you use that across the board or how do you know what genres or types of clients want that versus unprocessed Versus something else specific like levelator for audiobooks ask ask Ask Ask the client. Do you want me to do anything? No, we want it raw. Okay, then take all that stuff You were just talking about and don't use it Right, you know and the thing is go ahead or if you do process your audition And they go we want it to sound just like that Then whatever you did on the audition you're going to do it on the the actual job. So Yeah, it just depends on the client what they want. Yeah, and and I always say if you don't know what something does or how it does it Don't use it Makes a lot of sense. Uh, here's one from a dear old friend of ours Uh, diane castello merit. I just I have a weird question. We would expect nothing less from you Yeah, um after printing a script and I start recording I see a line in my recording But when I've not used my printer, there's no line a line Okay, that is weird A line could you be a little more specific there? I'm not going to interpret what that means Which is when I hit my room tone looks higher on the on the waveform. Ah That's what I'm interpreting that to me So I'm I'm guessing that when the printer finishes printing because it's probably a laser printer The laser printer is still running Because it's like in standby mode, you know, right? And then so when it's running there's a little bit of noise on the line from the from the printer because those I have a laser printer. They use a lot of power when they're running So um, and then I think once the thing goes to sleep, it probably goes away Try printing it and then shutting off the printer diane just powered off see if that goes away Absolutely, just a wild guess. All righty Uh, colin mooney asked hi george and dan when recording at minus six to minus nine as you recommend The noise floor is around minus 55 or so with the gtt stack in my apollo twin It's minus 60 without the rack. What's the best fix process to lower and post find out what the noise is and get rid of it Stacks racks on my so he's what he's saying is that when he has the uad processing preset I've set up form turned on the noise floor goes up and that's probably because that that affects chain is increasing the gain So the processing in that chain is designed to increase the level and give you a higher Louder output for doing, you know specific kind of work where you need that loud output so So another way to work around that is to add an expander Into that chain which will then lower the noise floor a bit if it's set up correctly It works really really well but um If you want to do it in post an expander can be used as a plugin in your doll of choice And I can set that up for you Right, you know where to find me george the tech dot com. All right I'm gonna let you read the last questions and then you're gonna know my reaction to this okay, great And we're gonna wrap it up to this man because I I'm absolutely legitimately running out of steam Okay, good. It's our last question Sound guy says uh level later was designed to prep that one. So he was just talking about what level later is Oh, okay. Sarah kramer um, sarah says The dbx 286 s has been recommended to me for directed home studio sessions to help with my Stibilance and reduce the amount of room tone so the or room noise so the clients Won't hear it. Normally. I would fix this stuff before it's in the audio. I would do it in post Um, is there another option that will help with the same issues? Yes. So I yeah, I'm I'm Kind of flabbergasted that you're being told to use something like that when the producer's job is to do that stuff Right, but otherwise don't worry about it. If you're talking about source connect sessions Trust me the guy engineering your session on source connect wants to do that not you Yeah, but if if you're doing it because you have to do it to get away with it because your studio is just too noisy We got to talk about why your studio is too noisy. But what is it that's going on that you have to do it to get acceptable audio? Um, yes, there's a many different ways to deal with this problem But and the dbx 286 is is a band-aid fix that can be acceptable useful Yeah, or the money. It's pretty cheap and it generally works. Okay, but Um, it's a front-end processor though. Yeah, and and the thing is is the dbx 286 s Really is not designed for front-end recording. It's really designed for live broadcasting Yeah, podcasting and broadcast. Yeah, it's it's for that kind of stuff So whoever recommended that to you. I mean we hear this all the time that people say, oh, yeah use a dba That really fixes my audio. Well You know, we're we're into the next is it and or destroys it Yeah, and yeah, if you don't know how to use a fix you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah Well gosh, george, we got through all of these questions We did boy and this has been exciting and it's great and it's great having our our friends here who have been joining us on Source Connect 2 jumping in and asking their questions. I'm gonna unmute all the mics and have everybody say goodbye all at the same time. Ready? Go Bye All right, that didn't work. No. Oh, well, it doesn't work. You can't literally do that Just doesn't well, we know they're there. That's that's what's important. We really appreciate everything. Bye Alrighty george, and I'll be right back to wrap this up right after these incredibly important messages This is bill ratner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions Bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books Auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com As a voice talent, you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do they break or don't look right on mobile devices They're not built for marketing and seo. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites dot com like our name implies voice actor websites dot com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as 700 dollars So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites dot com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what so Level later it did a great job of rms normalization for audiobook content and podcast episodes But it's orphaned software Which means no one's developing it anymore and now it doesn't work with the latest max and catalina mac os So you're stuck right? Well, not anymore Behold the gooey goodness of audio cupcake Visit audio cupcake dot com and download the free audio cupcake app for macintosh Audio cupcake does exactly what level later did so well for so long It applies rms normalization to your audio and it preps your work for acx And it does it so well with mac os including catalina Just like with level later you drag and drop your audio file onto the audio cupcake window and out pops an rms normalized file But audio cupcake goes even further Unlock the premium features of audio cupcake and what pops out? audio That is both rms and peak normalized and converted to a 192k mono mp3 file ready for uploading to acx or your podcast platform That's delicious audio goodness audio cupcake is available free at audio cupcake dot com. That's audio cupcake dot com audio cupcake a beautiful simple way to master your audio narration and podcasts You're on all right. Sorry. I'm looking at the wrong screen gone. Where am I cue jord? Source connect You really all you guys already know what you need to know at this point. I think don't you? But if you don't source connect is a software for connecting your studio to other studios around the world It's under incredible demand lately if you're a voice actor Who is used to working in commercial studios who's now thrust into having a home studio? This is the air. This is really the thing that everybody's saying you got to have Um, so you really want to make sure you have your source connect chops ready to go The good news is you don't have to buy it up front You just have to have the account set up The iLock account set up have all that stuff ready to go and have your demo Up and running so you'll know how it works. You'll feel comfortable using it And better still you can even get certified once you sign up for having source connect to show that you are A certified studio you you've proven to the source connect company the source elements company They're technicians that your gear is set up correctly and you know what you're doing That shows your clients your potential clients and others That you have your act together So I recommend that highly and if you want to really get in a background on source connect standard and really really understand it Go to go to youtube go to my george the tech youtube channel And there's a source connect Tutorial source connect standard tutorial for voiceover video give it a shot give it a look Understand it better and don't feel intimidated when you're being told to get it Okay, that's it. Thank you source elements. You guys are amazing I'll be right back to wrap it up wrap to this Watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I want to go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich And we are back. Wow Lots of information there for people to soak up It's information avalanche really, you know, anyway Um, next week on this very show, we will have another great guest We we can we can get access to all sorts of people since no one's going anywhere It's true. So I mean we can you know, see if we can we can get to you know, tom hanks on Tom, you know, you're you're not going anywhere Feeling any better. Anyway, right, um, our donors are the can I do donors of the week this week? Please okay, uh, these people have done a Wonderful thing and they have donated to our show to keep this technical magnificence that you see tonight. This was this was a monster today Uh, guys like tim morganthaller phillips appear tray moseley tray. How you doing the lovely shelly avalino the even lovelier Well, she's just as lovely. They're both wonderful. 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This is This is voiceover body shop and send them to the guys at v obs dot tv Uh, remember if you want to work with george, where do you go you go to? george the dot tech That's my website All the services are there and contact us if you're having a query that doesn't seem to fit the website Let us know what we can do for you. All right And if you want to work with me go over to home voiceover studio dot com And you know Toss me some audio in my specimen collection cup and let's take a listen to how you're doing Um, hey, you know if you're watching this live be sure to check out jeff holman as the mater d on better things on fx on thursday april 2nd at 7 p.m. Right on jeff pacific time. All right All right awesome Boy, have i been doing a lot of binge watching You know it's you know, but then you know, there's stuff like outlander and homeland Which you know, it's the middle of the season you got to like wait till sunday like we used to My girlfriend had me start watching the good place. Oh, that's pretty trippy now. It's a that's a great show That's just wonderful We need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials Oh, man. I wasn't looking at that screen. Oh, i'm sorry It's okay. That's not your fault. No, it isn't it's the end of the show space out time A voiceover extra source elements vo heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com And jmc demos. Alrighty. Also the dana marsy lennard foundation for the betterment of live webcasting and recorded webcasting Uh, jeff holman who is is in better things? Uh for running our chat room tonight Sumer lino for doing a bang up job from our own house That's right. We're we we can't we can't all be together. You know, we we like our group hugs, but not tonight. So Uh, so she was able to do this remotely and she did a great job And uh, and of course lee pennie for being lee pennie. Well, that's going to do it for us protect talk Uh, you know something this is a tough business You've got to learn how to do it right there The demand for a home studio is even more now so tune in to us check us out and and We'll make sure that when it sounds good You'll know it is good. Alrighty. I'm dan lennard And i'm george the tech and this is voiceover Body shop or vo b s Tech talk tech talk. We'll see you next week. Stay healthy. Wash your hands. Don't touch your face