 Hey, it's time for volume voiceover body shop Tech talk tech talk tech talk and it's number 96 Tech talk number 96. Can you believe that number not good put the back up there? So 96 look at that Been doing this for so many years and there's still tons of stuff to talk about You know the thing about tech it never stops moving it doesn't we're actually gonna talk about that in a little bit as well But you got lots of stuff to cover here in your tech update We're gonna talk about how the marketplace has changed and how you can adapt to now and All sorts of cool stuff about equipment. So stay tuned ask your questions live on Facebook if you happen to be watching live and If you are Not watching live. Well, you remember you can always write your questions in for next time Anyway, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk right now Brought to you by voiceover essentials.com the home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements the makers of source connect Voiceover heroes become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor websites.com where your voice actor website doesn't have to be a pain in the butt Voiceover extra your daily resource for voiceover success And world voices the industry association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts dan and george Well, hello there i'm dan Leonard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vo b s tech talk Tech talk Yes, we're talking tech here on voiceover body shop and uh, you know, it's it's amazing How technology has changed we're gonna talk about that a little bit later on but the thing is You've got to be able to keep up to date with it And if you don't really understand All the things that go on in your home voiceover studio because that's what it's allowing us to do all the things that we do in voiceover today You got to talk to people who actually know what they're doing And I spent a lot of time online and look at the questions that people ask on facebook and linkedin and stuff And people chime in well, I use this well, I use that And the fact of the matter is and you've heard me say this a hundred times before Uh, or at least 96 times before this is tech talk number 96 Everybody is an expert In one studio and one voice except for maybe a handful of people Out there in the voiceover world that actually know what we're talking about Because we're talking about very specific places Which is your home voiceover studio and a home voiceover studio is a unique environment because every voice is different Every room is different. Everything's different So you need somebody who can understand the basics and how to transform your space Into a proper recording space. That's right. Every time you ask those questions on those groups, you're basically taking a survey And if you don't know how to interpret that survey information You're going to be really confused about what to do with that information right as you so many different answers You're going to get right and as you like is as you like to say Don't crowdsource your home voiceover studio to be Really when you work with us, it's a shortcut. Yeah, that's really what it is You know because we have worked with so many others and we've seen what works and what doesn't work We've bounced things off of each other. We've bounced things off of our colleagues. We've taken copious notes Believe me. It's it. Yeah, it's an investment upfront But the time you save the direct information you get Absolutely really is worth it. Yeah, that's so if you want to talk with one of us and work with one of us And look at all the services that we offer to help you have a really good home voiceover studio If they want to talk to george who's got a major company that is growing How do they get a hold of you? Yes, well, you can still reach us at george the dot tech Soon to be also george the dot tech by a whole new version. I'm not we don't have a release date Wait, get up, but we are so close 2.0.1. We are so close But the news site's coming soon, but we we have Myself of course available, but many others on our team now available to to take your Support request for your specific things. We have specialists now Yeah, and you don't need a doctor referral. You can go right to the specialist And uh, so it's it's a really cool thing. So it's all over at george the dot tech Stay tuned for that new site, but we're we're available to take your bookings And we have the 911 emergency support hotline too. Wow, which uh has saved a lot of people's Bacon gig So, uh, but anyway dan you're doing stuff over on the web Home voiceover studio dot com. Yeah, uh, go on over there My site is set up to make things really simple for you One of the things I offer of course and apparently my cup runneth over this week Uh, it's my specimen collection cup Uh, you can send me a raw file People are saying look at all the processing ideas. Is this right? No Um Try not to process your stuff. I want to see it raw I want to see what your your studio sounds like without you doing anything to it because You're really not supposed to be doing anything to it. We're going to get your studio sounding right Physically, but you go to there click on the specimen collection cup and send me a specimen for 25 dollars I will show you You know, what's working in your studio what's not and if we need to do a little bit more further consultation We can discuss that but I I teach this stuff. I've been doing webinars Uh, we've got conferences coming up and I love teaching at conferences Uh, so stay tuned for announcements and all that stuff. Uh, that's that's really important Uh, so, uh You get a hold of me. Yeah get a hold of me over at home voiceover studio dot com and let's talk Home voiceover studio So you got a lot of pile of stuff here in your your update of the week Go for sure do you have the floor sir some pile some of it's more pile than others Um, but anyway quickly There is now multi channel audio input control In zoom and so that really makes zoom different from every other Um, conferencing app i'm aware of because now You can choose which channel feeds into zoom So normally zoom feeds all channels into zoom, right? That can be a good thing that can be a bad thing depending on your on your interface But right everybody on apollos and rme's and some of the more complicated interfaces that have Multiple ends multiple outs. This is this is big time for you because you can now Finally tell zoom. No, I want you to hear only my mic I don't want you to hear what's coming back from zoom I don't want you to hear what's coming in on the mic in the other room Just this one mic in it you can finally do that or you can say I want to hear this mic And I do want to hear what plays back in twisted wave So you can there's more things you can do with with this new version. It's it's definitely a beta It's got some little quirks like it doesn't remember the setting each time you start the apps You have to always remember to go back in and reset it a little annoying But um really glad to hear that and I I have to say I don't know to who to completely attribute this to But I do know for a fact that tim freelander did talk to zoom about something two years ago and said, please do something about this And I don't know the journey that that took from their meeting to now, but Finally the features in there. They were very busy for the last two years Yeah, I was really glad that they paid attention though. I mean they eventually did it Um, so that's cool interesting update and really it does not affect anybody with standard two channel interfaces If you're on, you know scarlet or anything that just has two in two out not not an issue for you guys really Um next thing actually that's not entirely true. So So if you've got two mics in your booth, let's say you're only using the 416, which you have a tlm 103 And it's sitting right over here If you're talking into the tlm one of the 416 over here Zoom is still hearing the 103 over here So even though you might be sending what it sounds to you like good audio and maybe they're hearing good audio If both mics are on and both mics are gained up on your scarlet Zoom is still going to hear both mics all the time. So it won't sound quite as good. It'll sound Phasy and weird. So now it is it could be helpful for you guys as well. Okay moving on Fire this is something we just heard about fire wire support is no longer in ventura. So if you've got Some folks still are hanging on to an older macky onyx fire wire mixer, right that didn't burn out or catch fire or just Who knows what by now? um, and uh, it that feature is dead Now byron wagner good old byron posted an unbelievably complex That's the way you're using explains things to try to fix this and I I trust that it may be able to work But it's a hack and so basically no more actual fire wire in ventura. So it Thunderbolt includes the fire wire spec and it has for many years now But that spec is gone. They just said well, we don't need it anymore firewars long dead So I can take all of the firewire cables that are piled up in the closet here and use them for a clothes line Oh, yeah Line weave something I used to have a bin in my car that says fire wire and now it says thunderbolt I could call the fire wire out. Anyway, that's just a little funky update again That doesn't affect many of you, but it's a very small percentage may run into this problem um Universal audio sphere lx microphone. They now are selling this super amazing multi pattern Microphone that can emulate all the classic microphones very faithfully They're now selling it under the universal audio brand. It's no longer the towns and labs sphere Um, and they have their their entry level one Still a thousand dollars, but they have a less expensive one that it was absolutely all that you would need You don't need the $1,500 mic and so the price point For getting into these kind of modeling mics that pretend to be other microphones Um is getting more affordable that said you still really want to have an apollo To really get everything out of this in the most seamless way possible But you don't need to the apollo you can record the audio and add all that effects later So if you want to record into your towns and and then later apply a u 87 to it Well, you can do that Um, if you feel the need to do that if you feel it Honestly, the mic itself the the the sphere mic itself when you turn off all models sounds fantastic It's just if you're trying to get that as someone's like I insist that you're on a u 87 sound Well, this it does it pretty faithful Yeah, and you know what I think about all that. Yeah, if it sounds good, it is good You're trying to meet a client request. This is a way to do that. Yeah. Yeah Um, I oh I says it it's one mic with many faces and it could be a good gas problem solver Gear acquisition syndrome If you prevent you from buying a lot of microphones Or on the converse you could buy this mic try out like seven or eight or 12 mics Find one that was a surprise and then eventually save up the money and buy the real thing No, it could good could go the other way. Anyway, um I did a little survey I meaning the crew over at my other my other apartment The pro audio suite We started talking about what would be the ultimate audio interface and we decided to do a little survey about it Okay, um, I'm gonna figure out a way to share it with you guys and the way that you can see it or find it Maybe I'll I'll probably put on the facebook page It's obviously a forum link and it's hard to convey over the show But it's essentially a forum asking you what do you think is the ultimate audio interface? What features does it need to have are you happy with the one that you have? Etc. Do a little bit of market research Okay, so we're going to see what comes out of that stay tuned pay attention to the facebook group And we'll make sure that you guys find that link Um moving on Surprise from ssl. I just stumbled on this today Ssl now has a conferencing microphone. No, I don't I know that doesn't really matter, but it's just weird that If you know if you knew the lineage of ssl I think of a giant console that would fill this entire room Right that cost $300,000. Yeah, this is a little usb mic. That's a square like this For 150 bucks that plugs in with usb. So it is the antithesis of this Yet they sell one now and it's supposed to be pretty Amazing because it it has four mics and it auto mixes. So whoever's in front of the mic that's that's speaking it turns the other ones down So it's auto leveling. So if you're having like a conversation across the table, right? It's not hearing the room echoing because it turns the other mics down. So It's not as it's not that problem with the usual conferencing mic where it's picking up the room ambience It's really echoey sounding. So it's not like an omni pattern. It's it's all individual things or like Cardioids so it's picking up here and then it does all that automatically I also found it interesting that it also multi tracks So I guess if you're doing a podcast with this thing and I again, I can't vouch for the quality of it yet But you can stick it on a table like a card table around and sit literally the four of you around the single mic And it will not only live mix it for you, but it'll also four track record it for you So you can mix it later 150 dollars pretty nifty little Gadget if anybody's jones and spend more money and it's going to wanting to do a lot of that kind of recording It would really be simpler than rigging up four condenser mic way easier. Okay. Um, time for you to do some stand-up here joke time I just this is the dumbest joke, but it's right up my alley. Okay. Anyway the sound from a musician Onstage bounces off the auditorium walls to create To surround the audience the voice reverberates from The sound from a pigeon on stage Does not do this. Do you know why? The reason is acoustic Okay This is really stupid. It's awful. Get it a coup of the coup. It sticks It doesn't bounce around. Okay. I'll be here all week. Yeah. Yeah, that's my joke That's really it. It looked like a lot of stuff You cruise through it It's not a cruise through because we want to talk a little bit Dan, especially when we talk about The changing market and technology tell us where you're coming from. Well, you know Earlier this week. I was I've been doing a lot of listening to a lot of different people's Uh, you know files and saying well, this is good or your acoustics aren't right or there's a hum in there all the things that I do Whenever I am talking about, you know, making sure that your audio is right And then I started to think You know things have we've been doing this show now for 12 years and we cumulatively doing voiceover technology and home studio technology for probably 30 years combined if not more And It occurred to me that in the 15 years that since we've been doing this particular show What we've seen is we've gone from very simple interfaces uh fire wire which you were just talking about And it retired it retired and now a clothesline. Yeah, um and Every time this happens everybody's like, oh now we have to go to something new And you have to be trained on it um But the thing the thing is is every time there's a change in technology Generally, it makes it more user friendly. That's the idea. Yeah, and people panic about it One of the points was we and I sent you an article was talking about podcasting and podcasting went like this And then went like that. Now. Why do I bring that up because We're always talking about how in voiceover None of the equipment None of the equipment that we use was ever ever ever ever designed for voiceover it was all designed for recording music and producing music And we're just borrowing this technology to do what we do and adapting it to our purposes The thing is is that When podcasting came along You know, you know, I'm always saying you in boardrooms. They're thinking should we make a a voiceover microphone podcasting came along and Took off everybody's doing a podcast and as I like to say just because you can't do a podcast Doesn't mean everybody should and apparently people are realizing that because there were a lot of podcasts and now there aren't Uh, I mean there are but the ones that have big money behind them and have good distribution and things like that But a lot of the microphone companies and electronic companies Started making podcasting equipment not voiceover equipment Which gave us a little actually a little bit more versatility like i'm using the the procaster, uh, the road procaster Which was designed specifically for podcasting multi channels and and separating the channels and all that You know, you took one look at that and I took what I said But it's got all these features that would be really really good for a number of things One, it's got really good preamps in it. It's really easy to control because it's got sliders on it Uh, it was great for doing webinars because you could Change you know, but it'll add a lot of things in but all that comes at a cost Well wasn't cheap. Well, it comes at a cost of a learning curve Right. Well, you got it's got a software control panel, right? It's got layers and layers of menus, right? Right. There's a lot to learn inside that And so that flexibility comes at a cost, right? That is the More there's a greater chance of you making mistakes in the clutch because there's more things you have to know Right to make it work. Exactly, right, right, and you know, that didn't take me long to learn it because you and I Know the algorithms of how everything works. You throw a a you know a a dawn in front of me I'm like, oh, okay. All right. This is supposed to do that and you work your way through and you Generally can get up and running that very quick, but it has no gain knobs Keep that in mind darn the knobs are actually push buttons on a screen right the game That's not that intuitive, right? So there's pros and cons to all that tech, right? But all this tech has come along and then the question becomes well, what should I get to do voiceover? And then I'm usually telling people well, your audio sounds fine. Why would you want if it ain't broke? Why fix it? As long as something is working You should probably stick with it because A lot of this technology and we're always talking about this as well Is designed to help Your workflow as opposed to the quality of your audio if you're recording at 44 one or at 40 48 k And and you know and not at 96 someone was wrote to me the other said should I do it at 96 k? Like well, how big is your hard drive? Yeah Do you want it that good? It doesn't matter. That's for recording sound effects for A hollywood movie games, right or or or nature photographers trying to catch all that For voiceover you're you're this far from the mic. You don't need all that resolution to do Where I was going with this was that you don't necessarily have to upgrade all this technology Just because it's there everybody's like, I've got to have the newest and latest thing And you really don't if you've got something and it's working Unless it becomes obsolete because the software Doesn't work with the os anymore because you know apple's always updating their os Windows is like I think they're constantly in motion. It's randomly, right google It's constantly changing then google changes one thing and your website is like My email doesn't work because they changed one thing and it breaks all this change things But when it comes to voiceover strictly Try and keep it Simple we're always talking about keeping it simple Unless a piece of equipment is going to change your workflow. It's not going to change the way you read Copy and if you're capturing yourself properly in all the ways that we keep telling you what you should It really shouldn't matter However, if you happen to have gas Gear acquisition syndrome and you're a real geek and you want to play with that stuff Like george does and I do occasionally. I'm not a geek. I'm like what works and what works properly And what make you know if I I want to be able to hit record and do my thing In post you can do all my my thoughts are always in post and getting it right up front So I don't have to do that much post Yeah, yeah, of course And so I I don't worry about I don't really worry about the technology It's some of the cheap crap that was out there say 10 years ago Like yeah, you can dump that that one because it doesn't work anymore or because it's fire wire Or it was noisy or it was noisy or the chain, you know, one of the dial starts getting scratchy or something along those lines Yeah, so that's one way to to look at it. What are your thoughts on that and how technology has changed because You really keep up to date and actually I came up with a new term I you know, there's people are always saying well, I'm I'm I'm I'm technically inept or I'm I can't handle the tech. I'm intimidated by tech or I'm Amish Yeah, or something like that How many Amish voiceover people there are probably not a lot But the thing is is I've now come up with the new term. They are techno knots techno knots Techno N. O. T. N. O. T. Yeah, techno. No no Yeah Yeah, I'm I'm for one. I am frustrated that uh, the audio industry has not embraced the voiceover business despite the the evidence showing that there's a tremendous amount of People that need this equipment um and need equipment that's suitable for their needs Again, isn't hopelessly mired in firmware updates software control panels layers of menus On and on and on which is what we don't want. We just don't want that stuff in the way And so, uh, yeah, I'm I'm frustrated that that gear is either If it's on the analog side, it has way too many features because it's a mixer Right and it's mixing things. Right. We don't need to mix anything All we need to mix is what we hear in our headphones, right? And then you've got the digital side where you have unbelievable flexibility complete customization Like the interface we use to mix this show unbelievably flexible system it does unbelievable numbers of things It has an incredible Look at this user. Let me see if I could bring the user interface up just so you guys can see This is the user interface of what I'm using right now to mix the show, right? It has an unbelievable amount of layers of functionality Right on and on and on and on and on and on and it's perfect for doing what we're doing. Yeah, except that Having it doesn't make you sound better. It's knowing how to use it. Yes Yes, so I could make this thing be a fantastic sounding home studio interface But it would require paying a guy like me to program it get it working the way it needs to be And then I have to tell you don't touch anything Which is not the way I want to set up a home studio even with even in the analog days I didn't like to know that I had to You know had to worry that if someone would touch that button or that knob It would break things Or that button might get dusty and then if they don't press it every year a few times It will sound scratchy on and on, you know, it's like so. Yeah, it's it is frustrating. There's a huge hole I feel like in the market for Um, an interface system that is just for for us for for what we do, right, you know, and I want I want to see that change Yeah, I mean, there are some very simple interfaces Of course, you know, I mean and ones that are really good, you know the you know And they were suitable 10 years ago, right because nobody had to do playback Nobody had to interface with zoom right all your job was was to literally hit record Right and edit and then send the file that was all you had to do right But now it's like well, you're gonna be on source connect and then the client's gonna be coming in on zoom We're gonna send you a video as a reference and we'd like you to be able to share that video with the client Because we didn't pay an engineer to do that So it's your job and this is the kind of crap that voice over actors have to deal with Are saddled with and it needs to be easier for them No question about it But there are units that you know if all you're doing is one track Which is what you should only really be doing unless you're doing all these other things And generally if you move into the spot where you're doing all of that kind of stuff Chances are you're making enough money to be able to invest In that better equipment in order to do that if it existed if it existed. I'm just saying Check the survey I mentioned earlier in the show. I will put it on the website Fill it out. You tell us what your thing does or doesn't do what you need it to do And I just want to know more because I'm curious about what it would To solve those problems. Okay. I won't go into more detail. I cannot Mom's the word. Okay. If you've got questions for us because as you can tell Because of the troubleshooting we do You can tell that we actually know what we're talking about Live on the show. Yeah, just plug it in and this over here. That'll that'll change things Um, but if you've got a question about your home voiceover studio anything has to do with interfaces microphones acoustics because we all know that pigeons pigeons. Yes Because the acoustics are very important Um, any one of those things if you've got a question something that's bugging you or you've got a problem with your studio Throw it in the chat room whether you're on facebook live or youtube live or you're watching this via, you know, shortwave Shortwave still I yeah, I know several people still doing shortwave But the internet sort of killed that forever de-exing. Yeah, um, but still fun But anyway, if you've got a question about any of that stuff with your home voiceover studio Threat in the chat room right now and we will get to your question In just a little bit, but we're going to take a break right now and we'll be right back here on voiceover body shop. So don't go Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great From voiceover essentials.com. It's the relationship savior the multicolor led vo recording sign Not just a stock on the air or recording sign. It's our exclusive voiceover recording sign This brilliantly lit led 20 color beacon tells everybody at home, which is currently everybody Hey, I'm auditioning recording podcasting narrating or broadcasting here and a few moments of relative quiet would be very much appreciated What's more the wafer thin remote control lets you choose a multitude of options from color to brightness Flashing to fade in and out you can even set up your own personal codes red means i'm recording blue playing back green It's a wrap the voiceover recording sign get not one but two remotes is about to end Two remotes makes the sign even more valuable since your significant others can send you messages as well Or of course you have a backup if the dog decides to bury this cool thing in the backyard Order yours now for just 69 95 from voiceover essentials.com and I will just move out of the picture Well, it's that time in the show. It's time. We talked about sorry guys Didn't tell you we were doing a spotlight in the studio. It's time to talk about source elements again source elements The creators of source connect and my camera is over here Thanks for the reminder Source connect is an incredible Audio tool for connecting your studio with other studios around the world and it's really become Very much a standard And there's a lot of reasons for that. They've been around a long time. The tool's been available now for over 15 years But not just that momentum. It's workflow It allows the audio from the studio you're in your home studio in most cases But it could be another studio that you rent To do the session and it links you into their timeline It goes your audio goes right into the project directly Right in there and immediately is allowed to be played back and auditioned and listened to With the other elements of that production the other parts of the mix That could be voices from a television show because you're doing promo It could be just the sounds of nature because you're doing commercials for claritin Or I don't know what whatever the other elements of that commercial are all there And when they play it back your voices in there and the client gets to hear what that will sound like When it's all finished on the spot and they love that and that's what source connect can do So get yourself set up Be ready to use it learn how to use it and also make sure your studio is up to snuff But if you're not sure They will help you find that out. Believe me. Believe it or not They are actually able to help evaluate your studio as well as dan and I and you can get set up at source dash elements Dot com get that trial going over there and get familiar. Thanks source elements. Let's get back to those questions right after this Hey there. I'm david h. Lawrence the 17th and with my company vio heroes and my team of coaches and my community of voiceover talent We guide voiceover Actors along their journey And you may be watching v obs here And not nearly as far along as many of the other people who are watching You may not even have started yet And we actually specialize in helping you do just that So if you're watching all the stuff going on here on v obs and going I have no idea what they're talking about I don't know, but I really want to do this I'd really like to help you Please go to vio heroes dot com slash start That's vio heroes dot com slash start And you can take our getting started in voiceover class Which tells you everything you need to get started as a voice talent And I'd love to hold your hand along the way and help you with that journey Again vio heroes dot com slash start That's vio heroes dot com slash start This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lenard and george widham v obs dot tv Yes, and we are back Because we've got questions to answer We've got questions because people have written in questions, which means they go to the front of the line That's right. They sure do So if you want if you have a question for us during the week something comes up and you want to ask us about it You can write to us at The guys the guys Put it right up there. There it is v obs dot tv Yeah, and uh, I I am constantly on there going. Oh here's an interesting question And let's go with what was asked Uh eve florin asks Says do you know when source connect will release a version that is notarized? Because of privacy vulnerabilities and older software My techie husband seems to think it's a risk to install without being notarized Well Does that mean you got to go get a notary stamp on it or something or what does that exactly mean? It is kind of fascinating. There are a number of things I install for people on a regular basis that require You to tell apple that yeah, I know the software isn't um officially Allowed to run on a mac. This is the notarized thing Um, but apple still allows you to say acknowledge this fact and open anyway, right? There's this button that says open anyway, right? and um It's on the source element side. I think it's because that software has been It's pretty old It's source elements source connect standard 3.9 point 20 or whatever it is. It's been around a while, but it works But it works, right? And so they they They've decided to put all their eggs into the new version all the eggs in the basket of a new version That's been in development for a very long time But when it comes out, they'll have all those ducks in a row But for now they're relying on the fact that apple does allow users to Open an application anyway, even if it's not notarized The only reason to not open something that's not notarized would be to open install install and open something from somebody you have no F include who it is Like if it's from a completely random Website somebody somebody said here's a beta thing. I heard or this thing is free. It's amazing But you don't know anything about the company and they have no reputation. That's a bad idea Source elements has a long-standing reputation. They are trustworthy If you can't trust who you're installing and you have to do the open anyway thing Then I would be a little bit more concerned, right? Right. I get that though. And yeah, every app should do that It's it's apple protecting you and it's also apple getting everybody to send them a little bit more money It's a little bit of both a little bit of both. They don't have enough No, it's a good question. All right part two to that question Yes, which is more to the point about what we usually talk about. Yeah, not that source connect isn't something we don't We talk about She says I have a personas audio box usb 96 And in order to have my voice reach between minus 12 and minus 6 Yeah, sort of I have to turn the gain up so much that it raises my noise floor any advice for a different preamp It's what Mike is it that while that was my immediate question I have not heard back from her. I'm like, what Mike is it? But that has more to do with the microphone itself than the preamp because Yeah, a personas auto box audio box 96 Got the resolution. It's got a good preamp in it. It should not be a problem So what I'm thinking is if it's the mic It's she doesn't say if it's a an audio technique of 2020 or Yeah, something along those lines that is not perhaps the best Uh, Mike, a lot of them have a lot of self noise and the more gain you give it the more noise you're gonna have Right or and this is the one that always gets me because I I forget when I'm talking to people What Mike is it does it have a A pad on it Oh, yeah, does it have a 20 a 20 db pad or a 10 db pad people like oh that should I guess that's something important It should be on it cuts the sensitivity of the mic by 10 or 20 db And then you gotta really crank the uh The interface and that brings up the noise level So whatever mic it is if it has switches on it like an at 20 25 Has those switches. Yeah 20 35 has pads on the bottom right and a lot other mics have a pad switch You do not want to use a pad switch for a spoken word voiceover, right? Maybe screaming But any standard spoken word you do not want to make the mic less sensitive So also, I don't know if she could be using a dynamic mic. That's typically have much lower output Ah, I bet she's using an re 20 or an sm7 And if that's the case, yeah, you probably do have the gain maxed out and if you have to run the gain wide open His is your is what's going to result that is almost always going to happen on these very affordable audio interfaces Noisy preamps, right if if you happen to go to one of the retail online stories, and we won't mention any names um You know like banjo and gory or or the the bitter well, um I just came up with that one They are they're like they have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to voiceover No, they're they're recording engineers and their musicians and they have no idea that you're in your closet and they see People buying sm7s and re 20s and stuff because that's what people are using for because we were talking about before Podcasting podcast and youtube that's not voiceover And the sm7 is great if you're bruce springsteen and singin real loud into it. I know he actually uses one But for voiceover you need a studio condenser mic like this one And have it set up right in the right environment because shotgun condenser mic like we're like like that one Both of which I own um So that's I think that's an important thing that people need to understand is do not use a dynamic mic If someone says oh, you need an sm7 from sure Tell them goodbye because they have no idea what they're talking about stop using those No, i'm sure people. Oh just put a cloud lifter on it Which would make roger cloud very happy. He is already very happy about this. Yeah, he's fine. Roger's fine Right, so don't worry about it. There's so Tens of thousands of those great for ribbon mics, especially if you like ribbon mics But those are specialty type items for straight voiceover Get a fine quality studio condenser mic and that will probably solve your problem So as you can see the less can the less complete your question the longer the answer Because we don't know so many different variables. Okay Um Florida Dave. Yeah, no, I got this email today go to that website and see if you can share that go tools.com Uh, because what what what he what he sent us was this fascinating thing Where okay go tools or go to go to tools. Yeah So yeah go to tools has knockoff microphones and he sent me a picture and it looked like Annoyment u 87 Okay, uh, well two tools.com. Or is it something else? Well something like that Try that one. Well, well anyway The question was this is tempted to test drive this and see what the actual response curve They say frequency response curve one times one reproduce well known design Well one the fact that it's in bad english Gives a clue they these microphones that look like a tlm 103 and a u 87 and 103 bucks and i'm like should I test drive this? Uh, and of course then there's all this, you know, fake reviews on it underneath. Oh, this is one of the greatest things I've ever seen It's not with a z. Yeah go to tool. There you go. All right. Yeah You you cannot buy a good quality studio condenser mic that looks like a u 87 or a tlm 103 And think that it's going to do great for you. It's nonsense They've probably put an electret condenser microphone in it and said, oh, look it's a u 87. They even had like a blue Uh diamond logo on it. See that? Yes, they do. You know wait, that's not just any blue diamond logo It's but it says go to tools on it. Oh that's oh Okay, why don't you have a picture of an actual norm and microphone because the one they sent me does does not have that Anyway, the fact of the matter is unless it's yes These are like horrendous knockoffs. Don't even think about it. They're going after people saying, oh, they're only gonna buy They don't want to spend a thousand bucks. This one took to you know cost us, you know five ballad dollars to build And It's you know and they're charging a hundred bucks for it. Yeah, I'm just I'm I'm creeped out that the microphone that's on their website Is an actual Neumann Well, it has Neumann badging on it. Ah, okay, but that's the part that really bugs me. Yeah, and well, it should so So florida dave no Not yeah major red flag there man major red. Well, it's could you get lucky? Yes, you could get lucky Y'all want to get lucky the thing is you're not going to get any consistency from mic to mic It's a complete crap shoot whether yours is any good Um, and you know, it's a pain in the neck. Yeah, why bother? I mean, there was a thing with with knockoff for 16s a couple years ago. There was absolutely It's it's a very special mic made by the people at Sennheiser and they actually know how to do it Yeah, I should have thrown the right url in there because the picture was like what? It's a u87 it it looked like a tlm is 103 out of u87, but Not for 107 bucks. Not a fan not gonna happen. All right, you get the question from grease newton. All right, grace Uh, thanks to you guys and Byron my noise floor is pristine But someone told me they're investing in a shotgun mic. I always love the someone someone Did you ever meet that guy? I know lots of someone's because it it makes it because it reduces ambient noise And that seemed odd to me Is there any truth to that? Is there any truth to that? To a shotgun mic that that it reduces ambient noise. Well, it reduces sensitivity to ambient noise Yeah, so, you know because a microphone. That's a shotgun type mic is more directional Right and thereby doesn't want to hear more of what's around the microphone. It's more Direct it's more directional less sensitive to ambient but we can demonstrate that because if I go like that in front of a 416 and then I go like This on a 416 You can hear that it is the axis is very very narrow. Yeah, I'll mute your mic for a second. Okay, here is the Here's this microphone. So you can hear it picks up All the fingers moving the details Mouth noise then as I go over here It picks up far far less mouth noise it sounds more dull and so any sound that's like more Background hissy noise or you know white noise or room noise or whatever the mic is just going to hear A lot less of it, right? So but a 416 Is a great mic. Mm-hmm bless you Uh 416 is a great mic because it's very versatile and it's designed to pick up a human voice From a distance. So you don't have to really be on top of it Yeah, you can if you have a good room you can be pretty far away like I am right now In fact, you can see I can get pretty far away. I'm One of my about a foot And you can still I can still get a present clear sound but as I get closer It gets a little bit more focused a little bit more rich and as I get Closer you get a little bit of proximity effect and it gets more and more kind of a It's like a zoom lens, you know, it kind of zooms in the voice so 416 great microphone knock off Not good idea. Yeah Oh, right g. Yes of dave g says Acute this is now this one's designed for me. Okay, acoustic fabric worth the upgrade on my sound panels Or is this ant Yeah Okay, okay. Yeah, um Sound panels You can make sound panels really easy. Uh, there are companies that make really good sound panel The thing is is I have seen the made out of Fiberglass like, you know audio, uh, you know muting type fiberglass rock wool Um, amazingly and you see this on a new tube a lot in some articles old towels Old towels. Yeah, the diy perks guy, right works great You know now the moving blankets from harbour freight Okay, actually mentioned a place, but they're cheap And you know, they were having a giant liquidation. I was really afraid for the giants But the especially the liquid giant. Yeah. Yeah, but you know giant liquidation No, watch out They were they were like practically giving them away like four bucks a piece They smell like a chemical factor. They did not they did not the blue ones do the black ones are a little better They make now one that's like It's like eight feet across it can cover an entire booth with it. It's just amazing Uh, and it's green. So if you're like a green You know, uh, trying to get a green screen in in your back of your booth. You can do that Exactly just a little bit of quilting in it. Uh, but yeah No, it's the Blankets are great Duvets are great Uh, but the the question is is acoustic fabric. Is it worth the upgrade? Acoustic fabric if you're talking blankets great stuff. Uh, I'm still confused what the question means Acoustic fabric like I'm thinking of that. That's what you wrap your acoustical panel in right Isn't that what he's referring to? I'm not quite sure Because acoustic fabric is essentially acoustically translucent. It has no sound of its own right and it Sound will pass right through it right into the the absorption material. Exactly. It's like speaker cloth or something It looks nice It's designed to make your panel look nice or color coordinate with your studio or whatever But it should have no sound of its own So I don't know if that's what you're specifically talking about If you're trying to just upgrade what you already have and make it look pretty That's great. Yeah, some nice acoustical fabric, um, you know and and wrap those panels Yeah, now I now as people know I'm into antique radios And sometimes the fabric on something that's 70 80 years old just deteriorate off the yeah, exactly You got to replace it, but they make material for speaker grids for old radios, which is I guess acoustic fabric what's going on over there. Well, it's some carpeting or something I don't know, but it works. So it doesn't really matter. Yeah Uh, but I I will I will add those in but they make that type of fabric So is it worth the upgrade? It depends on what's on there now if it's working now Exactly. It doesn't really matter. Right Okay, Jeff that means I get to point them camera Jeff A little bit more a little bit more a little bit more keep going. Yeah, okay down and bingo go He's not really there, but I love it. That looks cool, man. Actually, I like that. Yeah You should get that printed on the shirt Yeah, ask your question George does source connect work for audio only or for video as well Does the source connect work for audio only I had the microphone off. Sorry about that. Um, say it again, Jeff Does source connect work for audio only or for video as well Source connect itself the actual source connect app is only carrying audio. There's no video signal It will synchronize video like if you if somebody sends you a video file and you do have to use A more sophisticated applicate twisted wave won't do this but you could do this in reaper or audition Or twit pro tools or sound studio studio one. It has to be a multi-track doll Then you can have the video that's on your computer play back in synchronization. It's called rts or remote transport sync So this is used occasionally for adr doing adr remotely because you need to lap match the lip flaps Right, so then you're recording along and the video is playing along and you're watching the and they'll like take it again Take it again. Take it again until Until you nail the take and it matches Um, that's one of the very few scenarios where I think the video is in is is ever a factor with sourcing but generally Very little video is being used in any source connect sessions that I've seen It's rare Yeah, sure. All right Uh question from carlin tools Watching us on youtube. I love that guy's name. I don't know why it's because it's george carlin carlin reminds me george And I love george and it's tools which who doesn't love tools use this drill What is not to love about that name carlin tools? Anyway, okay, anyway He says I use an apollo twin in my studio, which we're no longer really recommending it into people. Are we? Only if you hire me first Otherwise you're you're totally screwed Um, is there a travel version or a similar you recommend for traveling? Why do people buy apollo twins and why do people keep recommending? It has to do with The stuff it does that isn't really necessary Well, it's because people want to have all the extra bells and whistles like instant gain recall of certain gain parameters I want my game to be Precisely 43 decibels every time I do an animation session with Nickelodeon. Well, you can save that as a setting, right? Right or they want to have a compressor That emulates a six 1960s telechronics la2a. Well that's for some reason. Yeah, or they they um Want to be able to play back the audio to To zoom or something and have that all happen automatically. Well, it can do that too. It's it's flexible. It's routable and it's also Very confusing to use at times because of its deep software again the software side of it's very complex Um, but the only thing they make that's close to being travel friendly would be the solo It's still pretty chunky. It's still a box like this about this big. Yeah, you know, it's not small But the solo does plug in with thunderbolt 3 Which is any of the max from the last eight years maybe since 2016 And um, so it plugs in with one cable. So it's kind of portable. It's still not it's not a mic port pro In terms of portable, right? So the thing is is if you're on the road all those presets mean diddly Well, yeah, because those are going to be all tuned or set for your home studio So they may not be relevant to your travel Set up so you have to be aware of that So, yeah, your mileage may vary, right? I've tuned those for people that are traveling I've even tuned one for one of my clients who works in his tesla When he's between locations and he has to do a trailer Talk about rarefied air. This is very Doing this. Yeah, but it happens and then he loves that loves to be able to do that, right And and the the thing is is there are Really good rigs For travel like we've been taught we talk about the centric the centrants mic port pro 2 Has a limiter on it and then and the three and the mixer face They're much smaller the the size of a cigarette pack If you remember what those look like and no quality compromise Oh, none whatsoever and the sound is great And you know, we've recommended it to some very high-end people and they're like this is fabulous So if you're looking for a good travel rig if you're looking for an interface that's going to work really well on the road That's one or anything that's small, you know, but if you're looking for an apollo twin Substitute or something that does all the stuff that the apollo twin does because you want to do it on the road I'd say it's not really a good idea because you can't do the stuff On the road that you can do in your home studio. It's very hard to get it to match Like if you're trying to pick up something on the road and forget it that stuff I mean, maybe a word very hard. Yeah, if they change a word and I've done a tech I did it from a hospital bed once with my iPad Yeah, I will say this if you're super in love with the plugins from uad, they do have spark now Which is like letting you run uad plugins on your DAW without the uad hardware That is a thing now So you could still if you're really really in love with the avalon 737 or the whatever preamp Processing thing you can run those in spark uad spark And that lets you run those plugins and even twisted wave or whatever And get the same exact processing without the actual physical hardware So there is that work around it if the plugins are what you're looking for. Okay, now dave g has Clarification we always appreciate this further explanation do his question. Okay. This question is about the DIY burlap cover for sound panels versus acoustic fabric for all right the burlap covers Dave Does it work? Yeah, it's fine. I mean, are you are you inviting, you know, you're you're you're local senators or whatever in there You want to impress them? Yeah, you might want to do something but wasn't it wasn't there the company that had the coffee bags The coffee bean bags and I mean you could paint anything you wanted on them. Yeah, that was cool HTS acoustics Literally you can get them panels wrapped in used coffee bag Yeah, I mean that's a thing so don't worry about it the burlap works perfectly fine Yeah, if you're trying to get this like furniture grade fabric that looks really really high end Then by the upgraded fabric from like guilt the Guilford of Maine brand fabric HTS has a a fabric that's more like a Micro suede. Ah, yes And that that works pretty well, too Um, but yeah, otherwise they're all gonna sound if they're designed correctly. They're all gonna sound the same Right, it's just a matter of how they look in the fit and finish That's always something interesting as people at the aesthetics of their home studio like for some people It really matters But to me, it's like nobody needs to see how the sausage is made if you're in your closet around all your clothes and stuff What good is, you know, well, I want the nice fabric You know, I mean, yeah, I wanted red seats for my Camry, but You know, that's something I use every day and other people get in my car Right and then presses the heck out of them, but right, uh, that's important to you I mean, you might you know, you might be on camera a lot more these days and then it becomes more important to some of you guys So it's up to you, right? Whether it's a waste of money or not, that's up to you. Right. We can't tell you that that's up to you Right, so did I say that's up to you enough? Because because it is up to you Not you but the point damn Anyway, all right, that's gonna wrap it up. That's gonna wrap. Yeah, that's that's and I think that's plenty Uh, because I think we covered an awful lot of stuff tonight. You're not gonna You're not gonna get this stuff anywhere else George and I do this all the time There are people that are like engineers and they're like, uh, you got to use this processing and use all the it's not your job Your job is to consult with people who actually know what it is You're doing in your closet or your pvc booth or in your studio bricks or vocal booth to go or whatever That's right But every room is different every voice is different Every single home voiceover studio has to be tuned to you And it's it's not what you have. It's how you use it. Yeah, that's what we explained So that's gonna wrap that up. Okay, but it's not totally wrapped up because we got to take a quick commercial break And then we'll be right back to tell people what's coming up right after this 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 In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept To live online in a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself. 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Oh, yeah the industry association of freelance voice talent Of which i am currently the president and ceo of so you know it's being run well Not that it wasn't before we got wevo con coming up in May in orlando And you got to be a member to go but you want to go because it's a great conference Anyway, if you have need help with your home voiceover studio The best place to go is to go to either george at george the dot tech And and over at home voiceover studio dot com And that is going to do it for us tonight. We need to thank jeff holman Thank you, jeff coming in and doing the job that he does Sumer lino We're not even here tonight, but it's been a great job our audience Yeah, thanks to our audience here And that's going to do it for us. Awesome. Right. Well, look, this is not an easy business There's so much you got to know you got to be a good actor. You have to know the business I don't know the technology or at least you have to have the right technology And using it right because you've been told to do it right But the bottom line is If it sounds good It is good. I've been telling you guys this week after week I'm dan lennard. I'm george widow. And this is voiceover body shop or vo B s tech talk tech talk See you next week everybody