 Hey there. It's time for voiceover body shop tech talk. Oh, we've got stuff that you want to listen to tonight We've got a lot of things so don't leave don't get bored because you won't because it's all fascinating, right? What do we got tonight? Oh, we're gonna remember a little bit about Rupert Neve or Neve If you don't know who he is you'll find out Talk about specs that you might see in a video game audition you soundproofing a ceiling. How hard is it really? Audience the ID for mark 2 is out and earthworks Mike. What's earthworks? Well find out and no, maybe see what else we can get to there's a lot to cover Yeah, and I want to talk about people buying the wrong stuff because that a week for that Unbelievable all that and more and your questions put them in the voiceover body shop Facebook chat room Right now because George and I will get to them in the next segment of the show Both of them work or YouTube or whatever or smoke signals voiceover body shop tech talk right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Whiddle the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional video studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voice over body shop Tech talk Voice over body shop tech talk is brought to you by voice over essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success And now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Hey there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voiceover body shop or VO B. S. Tech talk Tech talk because you guys want VO tech and when it comes to VO tech You know, there's only two guys that really know what they're talking about You know, which is something we'll talk about consistently. Yeah consistently. I mean when you think about it We you know, we've we've been doing this a long time And there's a lot of people like yeah, I do voiceover. Yeah, I know how to use a microphone Yeah, let me explain to you how to do all this compression and all this other stuff and you got to do this and you got to do that and This past week a lot of that came to roost It's a saint the least We'll talk about that a little bit later But you know if you need help with your home voiceover studio if you really don't understand all this technology You're totally intimidated by it if it's you know, because we hear this all the time And I know you hear this like every day. I'm I'm I'm technically challenged Which really amish as Very well-known actor would say If you're So if you really want to understand what really is involved in trying to greet your home voiceover studio There's really only two places to go You got to go to a professional and this is one of the other cool things that people like I have this Is this the way I do it? unless you hear it It when no one's ever gonna be able to tell so, you know, if you if you give us a sample of what's going on there That helps a whole lot because otherwise there's no standard rules to what goes on in a home voiceover studio because as I always say every voice is different every room is different and It doesn't really matter which microphone you use as long as it's not a bad one The really there's a way it's supposed to sound and and George and I know what that's about and So if you'd like to learn from Professionals work with professionals have your stuff set up by professionals So all you have to do is hit record and be a voice actor, which is what most of you want to do Make your selection or talk to both of us We don't care it doesn't matter because George and I just you know We just want you guys to get things right if you want to work with George Where do they go they go to head over to George the tech or George the tech comm yes They both work and you can book services there. I've got a whole menu of different ways I can work with you specific softwares different specific issues that you might have maybe you have microphone gas Gear acquisition syndrome and you've got a few of them and you don't know which is the right one for what you're doing So I have a mic check service, which many people don't probably know about Just send in samples of your various mics that you've done and show me You know, let me hear a consistent read over these different mics Maybe even using their different alternative settings and I'll help rank them narrow down tell you which is gonna work best for You such as one of the many ways you can work with me and Dan site has got a wealth of ways He can work with you over at Home voice over studio Dot-com there it is right down there Yeah, check it out see the the services that I offer it. I think the one that most people like to use As I was saying I want to hear what it sounds like is my specimen collection cup You click on that it's a drop box and I will give you a very thorough analysis of your audio And if I think it just needs a little tweak here a little tweak there We can we can talk about that But if you really are and I've heard some really bad stuff this week If you really need to start from scratch we can talk about a full consultation and get you up and running As soon as possible and not like in a month or two Sometimes it comes down to the equipment you're using and again, we'll be we'll be talking about that a little bit later But Appreciate it go over home voiceover studio.com and that's why we're here on voiceover body shop To help you with your home voiceover studio and george collects all the stuff every week And we give it a name we call it it's time for george's tech update now I'm having fun with this roadcaster pro. It's a fun board. It's fun to hit buttons, isn't it? Well, I'll kick off the show a little bit of a sad note and there's boy was there It's just been too many Losses to entertainment in the last couple of months or weeks. Well, heck I mean, I we lost chikoria, which is my favorite jazz artist growing up from Probably 12 or 11 crossed over to a lot of different stuff, didn't he? Yeah. Yeah, exactly He created this bridge helped create this bridge between rock and jazz, you know Being a big star in the fusion world. They called it fusion And it got me into jazz early on as well. So uh rest in peace chick. Uh, what a loss But also more pertinent to the audio of pro audio world Incredible engineer technician studio gear designer rupert neve passed away at 94 And by all accounts up until his illness. He was still designing Recording equipment I mean, he is as famous to the pro audio world really as noiman is to for microphones when it comes to preamps Nobody is more has there's there's I don't think there's anybody in the world of design of audio gear Who we owe more to than um Rupert neve and his designs Attribute to or contribute contribute to so many other designs in the studio world And some of the stuff doesn't even have his name on it You know, of course, there's things that have his name on it like the neve Famous famous neve mixing console like you see in this photo. He's sitting in front of one of these big console unbelievably elaborate complex expensive Uh studio installations These things these things could easily cost two $300,000 plus to Uh install and wire up and they're amazing. I kind of went down I went down the rat hole last night on youtube watching uh documentaries about Him him his designs and studios that use his consoles. It's just if you like audio You need to learn a little bit about the history of uh rupert neve. I mean, uh, it's just incredible But anyway, we lost him and uh, you know, his designs and the equipment he designed will of course Outlast him and will Be used for many many many years to come because as I've said before about microphones, you know All these mics were using overwhelmingly When you look at like a standard large diaphragm Condenser mic like here's a classic mxl 1006. This is one of the very very earliest mxl microphones They're all really just a take on the design from neumann the ui of the original condenser microphones From 70 80 years ago and we're just making them cheaper and easier to attain and easier to use That's really what's going on here So in terms of mic preamps kind of the same deal. There are tons of mic microphone preamps you can buy nowadays That are just takes on the designs that he did over the years You know, um, probably the most famous would be the The neve, I guess 10 73 That's a very very well known mic preamp that he invented so Anyway, very cool. If you have anything from focus, right all the isa brand stuff the isa line That is based on his designs. So when you get a focus, right isa one You're getting a mic preamp that he designed and it was taken from a mixing console He designed in fact if you go on youtube again type in focus, right mixer design history of something Rupert neve there's an incredible story of that fact that there's only 10 Focus right brand mixing consoles in the entire world And they talk about who's using them and why and what it takes to run one of these consoles Just kind of fun stuff. Yeah Um Okay, so we've talked about this a bit on the show, but I've been getting really irked by these Specs that are going out for folks who are doing auditions for video games Um, Dan, are you taking any uh auditions for video game stuff at all? Have you seen these from there if I see something? It's a character that I could do or something. Yeah, I will audition for it. Yeah And I'm seeing these a lot and and people will always will will they'll say Hey, I got these specs that say something like this and I'll I keep saying I want to see the real I want to see these specs will you please send them to me and one of our friends did anonymously sent them to me because he sent uh, you know, he sent me The actual audition script, which obviously is under nda So I just snipped out the copy that was in there and this is what it says recording capability Throughout the current stay at home order our engineers will also be evaluating audition files and weighing in on final decisions Aka the sound of your studio has a big part of you booking this gig or not Please be sure that your audition accurately reflects your home recording setup Please do not do any post processing Equalizing compression reverb, etc. Ideally your average level should be okay. This is where it gets nebulous Ideally your average levels should hover around minus 18 db What does that mean? Now dan, how would you interpret that your levels average levels should hover around minus 18 db? What does that mean to you? I I think the word hover just doesn't belong in the sentence Uh, that would help a whole lot because generally we like people to modulate at least to minus nine consistently and peak between Say minus six and minus four to have a fat enough signal, but averaging minus 18 That sounds a little loud actually. Well, it's going to say do they mean average levels around minus 18? But that's not what they're saying Well, that would be well, I think of average levels as rms right and in order to get levels of an rms Of minus 18 You have to speak consistently loudly like this overall the entire recording or You have to use a limiter. There's no two ways about it So um, so I I've been having I've really honestly been having a hard time telling my Clients what they're supposed to actually be doing because does that mean the peaks should never go above minus 18? Because now you're gonna have this little tiny Waveform across the screen So this spec is making me endlessly crazy and I would love love love if any engineer Who is sending this out or anybody can interpret what they really mean by this What do they really really want? Because that's making me crazy Next at the end of the audition. It says please state one Your microphone and they put in parentheses Just to give you a little You know just to intimidate you give you anxiety about what microphone they think you think you should have They say Sennheiser 416 or Neumann TLM 103 slash u87 preferred now That final word in that sense is preferred All right, so please do not get all caught up in the fact that those mics are listed It doesn't mean you have to have those To book these gigs They're just trying to give you an example of what a high quality studio Condenser mic is In a quality studio Yeah, and it has to be part of a high quality studio which in no way is represented in these questions The next question is what's your preamp? We know that doesn't make a freaking hell of a difference. You can use a scarlet solo $100 $100 interface and that could be the preamp And the quality will be fantastic. So it's it's crazy right and then they ask what interface are you using? Oh, yeah, this one just says preamp But what they really probably mean is what is your interface? I'm guessing And then it says are you set up for source connect and that's pretty straightforward. We all know that that's being used a lot But also I noticed a little bread crumb in these messages that is becoming more common as I had people Send me copies showing the n the last n in neumann is always missing It's spell n u n e u m a n without the second n So whoever obviously this is being just recycled and copy pasted over and over But somebody mistyped it Some porn along the way and I'd love to find out who that was and that would give me an idea where the spec is coming from When when they ask me I usually say well, I'm using an alfanzu decredenza Yes If my dad's watching I'm using a tellori de cesco That's for my dad Um, so that's a little rant but yeah, okay. It's making me crazy It should be now. Um, I'm having a couple clients right now wanting to get their studios or their spaces soundproofed from the from the story above So they're moving into the basement or they're on the upstairs. Yeah, and they're on the lower floor And we're getting into what it takes to soundproof that and i'm telling you It is not simple um A great a guy's become a friend who I met through Byron Wagner. He's a brilliant audio Acoustician and vibrational Vibration consultant, he knows everything about sound and how it's transmits through structures and everything And he and I have been bouncing back and forth on these designs And I'll tell you if you think that buying the studio bricks or any room booth And just sticking it in your basement is going to stop the sound of the footfall You are sorely mistaken so If that is your goal if you're trying to keep it so the kids and the family upstairs can live their lives while you are Being in their studio It's going to take more than just an iso booth So I've been recommending heavily designs that are passed on to me from this amazing fellow named skip queenie queenie queenie Keeney, I think his last name. Sorry skip um and uh and trust me if you if you need this let me know because We have a design that will do the job It was tested in a studio. He built or actually at home theater space that he made for uh the owner of tom's shoes and his massive multimillion dollar mansion and uh, it's a it's a system that's proven to work So let me know if that's something you need to do but it is definitely more than just spraying some foam or Putting insulation and it takes a lot of layers of material to do it right A couple pieces of gear the audience id 4 mark 2 has just been released as well as the id 14 um The id 4 mark 2 is interesting in that it still works and essentially works and looks like the original But they changed a few basic things one of them that may you really may appreciate is they change the taper I believe they change the taper of the game pot Did they remember a little bit remember we talked about how like you have to turn the game almost All the way up to get more on the lower than in the last 20 percent than there is in the prior 80 and there was Some scientific explanation for why they do it that way, but I believe they have changed that and made it More usable. So that's one thing that's nice and two If you need loopback capabilities You can now install a driver a companion software control panel With the mark 2 and you can now have that ability is to set up the loop back for playing back Takes you've recorded back down the line on source connector or not usually source connect but say skype and Things like that. So it's nice that they've baked that in but the beauty of it is you don't have to use it So you can use it without I like that a lot um, another one that just came across my uh, my radar is the earth white earth works. Sorry earth works icon microphones They have a usb and they have a pro the usb is obviously usb. The pro version is non usb Uh, it just has an xlr jack. Now. What's really weird to me is the pricing on how they price these The usb mic because it's not pro Is 300 the pro version with the xlr jack is 500 From what I can tell they're identical from the microphone down So like the capsule and the the actual design of these things they look Absolutely fantastic. In fact, I'll show you how cool one of these mics looks if I do a Share screen of this tab in my browser. You'll be able to see how cool these mics look and I know It ain't all about the microphone folks, but these uh, are an interesting Take on industrial design and we all know how you love industrial design Sometimes it's really cool to look at a really cool mic But anyway, here's here's what these mics look like. They both have the same machined out of stainless steel chassis And they use the triad orbit mount Remember we've we've talked about them before. Yeah, that actually is included with every microphone. It comes with this ball joint with the The quick disconnect thing If anybody's bought those they know how expensive these things are I mean Already the the just amount it comes with is like a hundred bucks maybe a little less and um, but anyway, it's funny because The xlr you would think would be it would be the same price because it doesn't have a gain control A usb interface a headphone jack or anything, but it's kind of odd that the that they're priced that way But they do have two versions the pro and the usb and the usb has a proper gain control on the bottom of the mic, which is really nice a proper Gain level control. Anyway, I've heard some samples. I haven't heard it for myself yet But um from what I've heard I was very impressed with its fidelity and it is not it looks like Your typical your typical end address Broadcaster dynamic mic, but on the inside it's actually a small diaphragm condenser so it's a very it's a very interesting microphone and uh If anybody's looking for something a little bit unique or if you know you're going to be on camera You want something that looks extra cool or you just want to got gearitis and you want to try something new Um from what I can see these are these could be a really nice usb microphone option for someone that wants something Really really simple to use Cool. Um, anyway, so dan, let's talk about Bad purchases now. Does this have anything to do with your upgrading to big sir? Uh, no Or how about buying a new m1? Is that a bad purchase? No, it's not a bad Not a bad purchase at all after after you've been bragging about your mac book air for the last uh Oh this little old thing. Yeah, you know, and then my son ordered one and he got his and he said oh, it's really fast It's really nice Uh, so I ordered one if anyone wants to buy an old uh and not necessarily old But a used uh mac mini a 2018 mac mini with you know Checked out it's it's a it's 16 gigabytes of ram 256 hard drive, which is all you really need and uh, It was great and I and I loved it and then every oh this thing is so much faster You got to get the m1. So I'm like, okay, so I did it came in And you know, it says if upgrading to big sir, make sure your current os is fully updated I You know, they sent it to you But there had been updates in the week or so that it came from zheng zhu china Of course, right come from and uh, there was an update and I tried to do the migration and You know it created It thank you. She long just heard sue and in that year uh, and uh, you know, it it created the same user account But not entirely. I'm like, uh Yeah, so I'm like, oh, how do you put a stake there like oh, oh, okay You know factory reset on it tried it again. Boom suddenly my old computer was on my new computer my old computer Now needs to be drained of all of its information and works just as well and it's really fast Uh, yeah and quiet, right? You never hear the fan. There's no fan and it doesn't make any heat. Well, yeah, so That is a good thing and uh, but you know, make sure everything is updated when you when you update Your your your os so yeah, we're running this too Yeah, if you're if you're gonna upgrade to big sir make sure the version you're on sue figure this out on her own Make sure that if you're gonna make that upgrade too big sir And you know, it's getting to the point where it's maturing And so if you have done your due diligence and backed up your computer and made sure All of your software and hardware that used to make a living are truly compatible with big sir It's probably okay to make that upgrade but make sure you're already updated on whatever os you're currently on To make sure that that upgrade is gonna go. Okay. That's very very important. Yeah, when it does it's Boom when it's not it's like what so the only one real got you was the migration. Yeah, that was really it You know and you know and setting a new new passwords and stuff like that You know, but other than that everything was right there And you know all the program just started right up So the bad purchases Who was making bad purchases this week? It wasn't you. No, I I don't make bad purchases I I think about these things. I do my research before I purchase Well, yeah, I mean I had a couple of clients this week one guy who had called uh We would tweet smotter. Uh, whatever the name of the company is that makes uh, you know cells gear Uh And you know sometime you You know dance number one rule of retail never walk into Banjo and pourium or go over to one of the sites and say i'm a voice actor. I'm building a voiceover studio What do I need? Well this poor guy? Uh, well first off they sold him an apollo twin Now if you don't know what an apollo twin is for it doesn't sound better Then a focus right to i2 or solo it's the stuff that comes with it that takes 25 years to learn and master Yes, um, yes, that's that was bad enough. So we got it. Okay, so we got i'm keeping score here He's got an apollo twin and you made did he get the twin x by chance? Is that the one? I don't know which exactly which one it was. Let's assume you paid a thousand bucks for the twin Okay, yeah, I think it's something like that and then They sell him a universal audio l 610 Preamp la 610. That's uh, what how much for one of those suckers? $1,800 got it got it and he's like why you know, I don't think I've got it sounding right I said what microphone what microphone? He had a 416. Okay a thousand or maybe it was a 103. It was one of those some around 1 000. Yeah, yeah Any other crazy things that they sold them in the chain? Uh, that was about it. I thought that was funny I think they figured they had reached their limit on what this guy was gonna spend add some headphones some other gadgets and cables Probably $80 my cable well over $4,000 worth of gear right? Yeah for them, uh, but the second I said please take the l 610 out of your chain and he does he goes Well god, that sounds a lot better Like Send it back To a rock band on on ebay or something like that. How about the lady that you helped out? She reached out to us for some help and I said I don't feel like helping At this time of the morning Dan are you insane? Do you want to do it? And well, you know, I understand. Yes So dan helped out a lady in uh in spain and at 8 a.m. Her time and it was midnight here Yeah, the wife is like where are you going and why are you doing this now? And I'm like and what's her name? Uh Just kidding Any so so what was the gear she bought I remember seeing the name in the in the email thinking What is that the product was called an anubis? I thought it was a typo. Yeah, I thought because I'd never heard of it No So, you know, so I knew I had a few hours to prepare And I typed in you anubis, you know in the model number manual And got the manual for this thing What this thing is now what what happened was is the people who had sold her her booth Had recommended to her to a an establishment in germany for a good interface And this thing is probably about 1800 bucks. It is 1899 1900 bucks And what it's designed for is to remotely control multi tracking of musicians or doing interviews or stuff like that And basically a mega apollo That has a heck of a lot more features, right? But it's really designed to remote control somebody else's microphone in their studio and stuff like that and In control levels, which has nothing to do with voiceover And you know and she's like I can't get it to record. Well, the problem turned out to be That she had not downloaded the you know the software for it, right? And and then looking at the software and saying, okay Turn the phantom power on for starters and then Go into twisted wave and make sure that was the input and boom suddenly it's working again This thing is really a lot and it does direct stream digital Which most of you have never even heard of trust me. What do you need that for? It's 192 kilohertz sample rate It does 22.2 surround sound mixing Stop talking now because then people are gonna want to buy one talk about overkill I mean it is no doubt absolutely next level stuff that has zero relevance to a voice actor, right? So anyway, I said go focus right solo and you know for like, you know $1,800 less Sound just as good And it is a lot easier to use too. So that's the big thing like we're not it's You know, we don't we're not anti-good sounding equipment per se, but so much of it is so Unnecessarily complex right and you have now a signal chain that you have to manage the gain staging and You have to know where you should actually adjust the gain out of these seven knobs that are on these pieces of gear And it's it's just too much to be an actor and engineer yourself. It's too complex Which is what we teach is how do you get in there hit record and do your job? And not worry about all this other stuff because all that other stuff is you know That these people were trying to deal with was irrelevant. You know good acoustics proper mic technique proper microphone and setting proper levels That's all you're responsible for all these little tiny things You know, if you want to adjust a little tiny thing for room correction That's what george and his stacks are for and you know, if you've got, you know A little bit of rumble at the bottom, you know use a little bit of eq But don't try to futz with your actually actual sound of your voice try to deal with the other things and to me everything is physical Uh, so, you know, make sure that your environment is right Uh, because that's really what's going to make everything else a lot easier So that's that's my rant on don't go if you're gonna buy stuff Watch all 200 episodes of voiceover body shopping and of course all 51 episodes now of tech talk Where we say this about every other week. Don't buy this stuff or Buy the same stuff or take a shortcut or take a desire one of us That's I think the the overriding message here, you know go over to george d.tech or home voiceover studio.com We know the right answers Everybody else is like well, they're experts in one studio their own right? We've done Probably well over a thousand between the two of us Definitely and we we've heard it all Anyway, uh, we got a few questions and we can go on to a couple other things But if you've got a question for us throw it in the chat room right now Jeff Holman is standing by and uh, we'll get to your questions about your home voiceover studio Right after these incredibly important messages Yeah, hi, this is carlos ellis rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop So I was talking to harlan hogan this morning. He described chicago as having Parma frost with more snow on the way But something warmed his heart a letter from a satisfied voiceover essentials customer And here's what he said Hi harlan getting started in the voiceover business and want a big value for your dollar Look no further than harlan's portabouth pro and the vo1a mic These got me started and have proven valuable in producing over 50 titles on audible Great results for a great price right out of the box. Douglas Burke the agile narrator So if you do audiobooks clearly these two products from voiceover essentials dot com can help you get it done Go on over to voiceover essentials dot com to see all the great voiceover recording equipment and accessories You'll ever need that's voiceover essentials dot com the home of harlan hogan signature series products like the vo1a mic And the portabouth pro and plus Thanks, harlan 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 stick around? You don't want to miss this At target we want you to come as you are be comfortable Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys time is up Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop if you're demo ready or looking to get there Check out jmc demos dot com and see a sample of our work. Now. Let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom Let's talk about source elements the creators of source connect Boy, you guys you're quite familiar with source connect We've already talked about it during this show because yes, it's on the audition requests Of many many of the productions that are going on right now in voiceover, especially The big time ones the video games the high budget productions where the engineer wants to have total control Of the production workflow and once your audio Sounding pristine but also being piped right into a track and pro tools And that's what source connect allows the studio to do It does it so elegantly it was designed for this from the get-go from the ground up for this purpose So in order to do that you do have to have software on your computer that will connect you To those studios and that's called source connect standard You want to get a subscription? And I recommend the subscription you can do a buyout One time buy but I recommend the subscription it can Really be a good idea because there are new things coming and you will always be Up-to-date with the latest updates and you'll always have access to their support So check it out if you want to get it set up go to source dash elements calm And check out their new website, which has made it easier to get started with source connect And get the ball rolling. Let us know your what your first source connect gig was Thanks a lot for listening. We'll be right back to answer tech questions 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 shop All right Tech talk and we get to answer questions. This is really I mean, that's what we do professionally all day long It's people asking questions usually the same question over and over again, but Or should I buy this l610 that they're recommending? Don't buy that stuff You'll save yourself so much trouble just buy the simple stuff that we recommend Anyway, we got a couple of questions here for our humongous worldwide audience one for me here From jim mcnicholas Uh, what are your thoughts on marketing yourself? Where do you get the best return? Uh, you know last week we had fred melamed on And and he's he made it pretty clear. He says What what's gonna give you the best return be the best at what you are? You know be a good voice actor But you know, how do you market yourself? Everybody's got different ways of doing it Uh, and and what gives you the best return the one that you work the hardest on And if you're working hard on being good actors, someone's gonna notice you You know, but you can you can be on the pay to plays sometimes those workouts. Sometimes, you know, it doesn't Also, you can, you know, the Are You know, you can try linkedin. There's so many different things you can try And you've got to find what's going to work for you, you know, I know it works for me and that's I've been doing this Literally since the end of the next administration. So I have a little bit of experience about how to get out there and do this stuff, but With with the modern online voice over world It really is your responsibility to go out and find the work and that means cold calling emailing Doing your homework And that really is what is going to make it happen And it's too much work for you to do that You're in trouble because no one else is going to do it for you an agent getting an agent's not going to do it for you Because an agent's not going to be Knocking on your door until you're making enough money to make it worth their while Yeah, you got to know your client too Um, if you're looking if you're if you're doing the wrong kind of It's like fishing if you're using the wrong lure You're not going to pull on that fish you're looking for right? I mean you have to Use techniques that will reach the kinds of clients you're looking for So if you're marketing to just local businesses hoping to get on their phone system or on their You know their local radio spot Then cold calling them might work pretty well, but it depends, you know, you have to know your client and the way they look to be Reached out to that's probably very important. Yeah, you've got to be we've got to do it face to face um Interesting jake thomas garner, uh, do you think it will ever go back to artists being called into studios to record voiceovers? I think that's pretty obvious that it will for sure I mean, it's gonna happen. Eventually you got all these studios out there and And amazingly, I think my wife was reading somewhere. It's been the lowest flu season on record. Nobody's getting the flu That's right You know, it's like everybody's washing their hands everywhere. So they're not getting the flu Right, exactly and the people that aren't are getting covet Uh, so I think that says a lot for that. Um, you know those germs are always out there But yeah, eventually they're gonna let us back into the studios but but Now that a lot of producers are seeing that some really good quality stuff can come out of your Your closet Even though they think you're in some big expensive place that george built that uh, it is uh, it's it's cost effective to do stuff from home and uh, I think that uh The work that people are doing now to get their their home studios up to snuff Is going to pay off for those people that do it right And back to the last question are really good voice actors. What do you think? Yeah, I yeah, no, there's no doubt that especially in The kind of work that is traditionally done in a commercial studio. I think much of it will return um, but there there's got to be some cases where uh actors got cast on shows and things who Don't live in la And are they going to now start flying them in? When they could be recording that when they could continue to do the production remotely I probably doubt that but whatever they choose to do it's going to be because it's good for their bottom line So if you're being there is going to save them money You'll be there if you working remotely the way you have during the doing during this period Is uh, actually ending up saving the money then you're going to keep working Remotely that's really what's going to determine how this goes down, you know, so It's going to depend. We shall see we shall see Jeff Holman our very own Jeff Holman. He says how far away can you get from a Sennheiser 416 capsule? If you have a good studio And still have it pick you or pick you up well Um the question that's a good question. I mean these mics This is a this isn't a sanitizer. This is the road, but it's a shotgun mic in the in the vein of the Sennheiser um If the rooms acoustics are well tuned like to say you're in a in a good quality commercial grade uh or television or film studio quality studio With very high ceilings, but the room is really well acoustically tuned You can be quite far away. Um, I mean think about it these microphones were really designed to to have a long reach um on the end of a boom pole Hovering above the head of the actor sometimes several feet So they're not on camera And they do a very very good job of this when they're aimed correctly And everything is set up correctly. So yeah, you can be quite far away Um, this is a dumb experiment because I certainly don't have a well-tuned room But I can stand Let's see Uh I'm gonna guess I'm I'm about two feet away right now So now you're starting to really hear the room become a lot more of a factor I'm projecting a lot more because if I don't I won't read quite as well And so I'm pretty far away from it right now. But yes, unfortunately I'm getting a lot of bounce off the ceiling the rooms uh reverberation Has become a lot more of a factor So because I'm not in a great sounding room because it's not been tuned Let's just put it this way. I'm doing the bare minimum to make my room usable Um, then I'm going to work closer distances here And in some cases if I really want to sound like I'm on the radio, I might be right here Yeah, be right there and it's 20 degrees right now in Chicago. We've got some City robins exactly So yeah, so question the answer is you can be quite far away in a really good sounding room that's well tuned And that is really quiet Yeah, yeah, and you know there there are We've discovered that there is a you know a good a couple of good standard distances with a studio condenser mic You know, I mean like, you know, you're in a small room. It can be fairly close But you know, I've measured this. This is exact exactly eight inches And you know, so if you're about this distance, that's the way other people hear you And the same thing with the 416 It can be at the same height and you know in the same distance and that's really it's really going to work Unless you're like doing promo in which case you can really get up on it, which is Yeah, really will help you when you want a 416 to be in what I would call like a sales mode Being up close is going to give you that much more aggressive almost compressed sound And when you want it to sound a lot more natural more balanced more like a large diaphragm condenser mic Backing away does that does that pretty well? Yeah. Now. Here's a great question from fred north All right This has happened to me this morning Believe it or don't because we were we were setting up for a dubbing session. My son. Jacob got a job dubbing a you know some tv show and From another place And it says I see that the id4 mark 2 says it uses usbc Will an adapter be clean enough to use it in my chain You know so we were using the road caster. We're having a problem with it goes. Well, let me try the Let's try the the focus right to i2 and then i'm trying to find All these what kind of adapter does he mean does he mean a usb adapter? Well, I mean you might have one of these guys that goes into one of these that's usb b That's what the connector is right so but usbc is a lot smaller and the As big as the the road caster is It has a smaller usb jack on it and that's a usb c Connector right there. It's becomes a lot more common now right, but can you use an adapter with that? Well, here's an adapter. Oh, you just happened to have one and This is well, this is like this little kind of clever multifunctional adapter, right? That does multiple different coat formats The the usb a port flips open and reveals a micro usb Which is very interesting Lightning it's got usb c and it's got lightning Essentially usb c is just a new standard for the connector That's that's the jack that's on the back, but the cable it's going to use is generally going to be a standard usb a Connector that goes into your computer So you should not need any kind of weird adapters Most units will just come with that cable some gear may come with the usb c to usb c cable Which has that connector on oops this one on both ends And that's nice if you have a new macbook one of the new max with the usb c connector on the machine then you don't need any adapters But getting the right cable for the job is nice, but you should rarely need any adapters Um, just make sure that you know, you've got the right connections for the machine you're using. I wouldn't worry about it too much All right Okay, uh get the next one from pamela. You're are you're are okay um I have a focus right solo with audio technique atx at i think those are at h m 20x is the full name Headphones They are really there's a they're really good budget headphones. Um, they're both new. Um, I'm on a l capitan mac Which is not five five six years ago For some reason whenever I'm on a zoom call though the sound goes Bye, I guess Goes away. I suppose is what she means Um, it works on my laptop speakers, but slowly starts crackling Through the headphones until it becomes completely muffled. I've tried on plugging and restarting to no success Where am I going wrong? um That's a good question Zoom is being updated all the time Almost every time I check to see if there's an update for zoom There is So I would do that first. I would make sure you're on the you're on the most up to date version of zoom And you didn't mention if you're recording or not doing this So I don't know if you're recording in some other program While this is happening or not. So if this is happening without recording That definitely is rather unusual um geez She didn't say where the headphones are plugged in are they plugged into the solo or are they plugged into the mac Right and what does she mean by muffled and then Yeah, we really need to hear that kind of stuff. It's tough to troubleshoot. Yeah, that's uh, that that sounds like a You know interesting that I keep discovering there are bad units out there that that they can't be You know or from the factory can have problems. It can't happen Or at the digital mismatch or something along those lines. Sometimes that that'll throw things into a tizzy, especially on zoo Uh and skype that we discovered um I found these issues happen more when you're recording with some other program and there's some kind of a A mismatch or a conflict, right? Um, maybe you could record a little bit of what that noise sounds like and I know it sounds a little complex but Recording your software and put the microphone literally Into the headphone Make sure direct monitoring is off so you don't get a massive feedback Loop and try to capture it record that that bizarre noise and Send it to one of us so we can take a listen and help you troubleshoot it, but yeah I don't have a direct, you know surefire answer to that one. You could also reach out to focus right support too We might have something like oh, well you're running El Capitan and on that version of os Yeah, blah, blah, blah. Should be really moving up on that. Yeah Yeah, they still update some of the old the old the old Plamporn, so sure Uh joy b. Oh, it's time for back to local radio time for radio How much you asking for the 218 the 2018? Oh tradeio Radio Yeah, it was like the classifieds on the radio when I worked at a station in agrifall. No way. It's time for tradeo Uh, you know so-and-so has uh, he's got an old pinball machine Maybe this will happen on clubhouse Yeah, really we could start the tradeio channel on club and club I suppose I could mention a price, but then facebook's going to go. Well, no commercial mentions or anything like that Yeah, right right to me right to us at the guys at v obs dot tv and i'll sure i'll talk to you about it Uh, oh, there's a follow-up from pamela about her technical issue with zoom It's happening without recording even just the headphones are plugged into the focus, right? Um, they're working on audacity, but not zoom and I've tried zooming the browser And the download version boy. That's really weird pamela Oof, I definitely would reach out to focus right you may have some Hardware hardware issue there might be something in that unit That's not uh working too hot It could also possibly be a bad usb port on the computer if there's two ports or more try a different usb port But yeah, I would maybe if that doesn't work definitely reach out to focus right themselves Yeah, sounds like something's draining something from something else. You never could be Uh, okay got time for one more here says prepping for that big gig With a new client ask questions test the engineer george hears this a lot Yeah, people ask me all the time what am I supposed to do or what are they expecting me to do or How am I gonna know if it's gonna work or um, I'm really nervous that I have it all set up right well Communicate with the engineer um Maybe it's a little intimidating Maybe you're worried that you'll come off as maybe an inexperienced or something If you have to ask but honestly, there's so many new systems out there that's being asked, you know, you guys are being asked to use and so um And often and sometimes you're being asked to do a lot more steps or a lot more tasks Than just being an actor So you should really communicate with that that to the client And if there is an engineer working with you on this job communicate with them prior to the session make sure that Everything's gonna work together make sure that systems are all in sync and you're on the right versions and You don't want surprises once the director or the clients are all waiting there in zoom and You don't want to you want to avoid that if you can so a little preparation goes a long way and Don't be afraid to ask Don't just don't be afraid to ask I mean tell them Tell them this is your first time doing this exact combination of systems and you want to be sure Everything goes off smoothly and does that sound Is that sound like a bad idea? Is that sound unprofessional? No, like you said with all of the the the different systems that are out there right now And we know there will only be more as others fall by the wayside I think it's pretty important to say I have not used this particular system before I'm used to this this and this right Let's let me let's sync up here. So when we do our session tomorrow It works and we don't waste anybody's time right so when any surprises and it just makes I think it makes you at come off professional Absolutely letting them know exactly the situation You know That don't be don't be concerned that you might look less than experienced or Whatever it just shows that you care and you want the job to go off. Well, I think And if they don't say anything or they just don't reply You you tried, you know, uh, you did your job and if the session has technical problems during the The job, hopefully the engineer is really good at troubleshooting on the fly and It won't be time wasted. So but that's uh, you know, do your best to prepare Absolutely. Well speaking of wasting time. You've not wasted it for the last hour as we've About Home voiceover studio technology. Some of it. Maybe it goes over your head and some of it's like, oh That's really simple. Well, that's why we're here. Anyway, we'll be back to wrap It all up into a nice tight little package right after these message Yep, this is v o b s proven anybody can have a show these days Hey there, it's david h. Lawrence the 17th with v o heroes and you may be watching voiceover body shop v o b s Because you're interested in becoming a voice talent and you looked around the internet You found that this was a great place to come and you're absolutely right Um, but you don't have any of the knowledge yet as to how to get started and I'd like to help you with that I've got a free course online. You can take it anytime you want It's called getting started in voiceover and it walks you through the equipment you need The business side of things the actual categories of voiceover work that you'll likely be pursuing And also the mindset that you need to have when you're getting started and moving into being successful At doing voiceover for a career. So if you're an actor or you're not an actor You want a side grade from another business you want to learn about voiceover? Go to vo heroes.com slash start That's vo heroes.com slash start For the vo heroes getting started in voiceover class and I'll see you there In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to live online In a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com Where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know, what? This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop And we're back Here on voiceover body shop. Yeah, boy. I recognize any of the parts inside this piece of amber Uh It looks like all sorts of stuff I can't quite see it quite clearly What is it? There's one right there in our oh, I see I see any an rca jack there capacitor Yeah My dad made this I don't know how long ago my dad made this eons ago It sat in his ham shack This has his old call letters from being a ham radio operator in there too Wb3 cwn And he just sent it to me in a box of stuff. I just thought it was really cool piece of You know gear tech history, you know, he just decided to be fun to mold a bunch of components into a piece And make it like a paper one. You know, yeah. Well, it's that's what they're doing They're they're honing it down and in shipping me things and in these in these Yeah, they're just sending me things In uh, you know, they every time they send me something. It's in a flat rate ups Or us postal service priority box and so they find ways to fill in all the nooks and crannies Even if you just send me some one little thing they pack it full of stuff and lately it's cassette tapes Every box I get I get five cassettes and then my dad puts a post Yeah, and then he puts a post a note saying 75 left so I'm actually gonna have every cassette tape in their house mailed to me and now in a cassette collection Yeah, they're great for putting that wind veins and stuff like that. They're flapping the wind just nice Especially on a sailboat. Oh tell tales I got a whole cassette here. It's that'll it'll be fine Anyway, who are our donors of the week? Oh, well, we have a few names that have trickled in this week. We have christopher epperson christie berns Graham spicer and this just in Larry Hudson. All right. Thanks, larry. Appreciate it very much. Yeah next week on this very show by the way We've got our good friend Mary Lynn wissner If you're familiar with her at all she is a top coach an industry expert She knows all the agents and she knows what it really takes to get going in this business So she's going to be a great cast to ask a question Yeah, we've been wanting to get her on but she always teaches on monday night But oh, okay free next we lucked out gotcha. All right Uh, let's see. Hey, you need help george the tech dot com or george What is the dot tech? You know, I keep making these slick domains nobody can save them just george the tech dot com. It works fine Yeah, and you climb me over at home voiceover studio dot com Where we will help you with your home studios or thanks to our sponsors harlan hogan's voiceover essentials Voiceover extra here it is source elements Vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc demos Alrighty our thanks to jeff holman dragging all those questions off of facebook and youtube apparently And doing a great job with that sue merlino our marvelous technical director Getting everything right and in the right order And that's the most important thing Getting the show out every week and leap any fruit simply being leap any well That's going to do us for us this week Hopefully, you know, he hit record and everything works But most importantly if it sounds good It is good. I'm dan lennard. I'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vio b