 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 100 When you consider we've we've done 250 shows at our last episode last week was episode 250 by the way to start Just to start our 12th year and So if you had 250 and 100 that's three that's 350 weeks that we've been doing this show Yeah, baby, we must be doing something right Voiceover body shop tech talk is brought to you by Voiceover essentials calm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements the folks who bring you source connect Voheroes calm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training Voice actor comm your voice over website ready in minutes Voice over extra your daily resource for voice over success and by world voices the industry Association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George So we got lots of stuff going on here You know we were at VO Atlanta last week, and I think you've got some video from that But you know we're here to talk about home voiceover studios And why do we talk about home voiceover studios because clearly nobody seems to understand them? Especially if you're new to the business or you've been a voice actor for a good long time But you always went into somebody else's studio. You were talent I was talent misinformation that has been spread and confusing people like crazy Yeah, and we want to straighten it out. We don't want to give you misinformation We want to give you the stuff that we know works and what works It's different for everybody. I'm gonna talk about that a little later on when we finished with your tech update The fact is we know what's happening. We've seen everything We at least we think we have until we've seen something we haven't seen before and that we get a question We haven't gotten before And of course trying equipment that we haven't tried before and seeing if it really works to help Your workflow is a voice actor. So where do you go for all that help? Well, you can work with either one of us If you want to work with George and have him teach you what it takes to build a really good studio Where do they go? You head over to George the tech and you can work with me and a bunch of others actually now including Dan There is a wide wide array of services available to you now And if you go over there at George the tech and look in the services area, you'll notice there's a lot in there, right? That's because we have services specific to different softwares, right? So if you are an adobe audition user, you can book time with one of our team members who isn't a pro at using adobe audition And you'll see their schedule and be able to book time with them whenever suits your schedule It's really amazing to have such a great team of people Available just to help you out as well as all of our webinar content and next month Reaper is coming up. We're gonna be teaching Reaper for those who really want to get complicated So anyway, that's us over at George the dot tech and meanwhile Dan's got his home on the web over at home voice over studio dot com Yeah, we got lots of cool stuff over there, you know my philosophy, which you know, I can go on about forever Everything is physical But we also have the specimen collection cup there and if you want to have your audio analyzed send it to me $25 I will give you your audio a very thorough analysis. See if it's up to snuff And if it's not we'll make it snuffable One way to put it and I all you have to do is go over to home voice over studio calm and if you want to work with me and get a Consultation on how to build your studio or fix something you can go over there and contact me directly So go do that Well, okay, so we're gonna start off our hundredth show How much has changed over a hundred episodes of this? I think my mustache has gotten a lot whiter Yeah That's for sure and there's there's more tech coming out all the time with more different colored LED lights on it but really a Good studio mic good acoustics and good performance That's about 90% and that 90% hasn't really changed Yeah, really? All right, so what do you got in your tech update this week? I think we're talking with starting off with something that somebody was asking about I believe I'm well the first thing in my tech update. Yeah was is is the is a product from Sentrance called the passport vo and So what this thing is is an audio interface that well I mean to be completely straight with you was really truly designed for voiceover actors I mean, I I'm saying it out loud right now, and I almost have to pinch myself I have been wanting to help design and bring to bring to life an audio interface That's really designed for voiceover acting for many many years I've just found it to be an area of pro audio. That's been woefully underserved Our friend Harlan Hogan has done a fantastic job of trying to serve the industry in so many different ways from the port-a-booth The VO1 a microphone the voiceover headphones Which actually I'm using now, and I really in this context doing live is it these are actually I like I like the way I sound better than I do on my buyers Really? Yeah, that's saying a lot in in live performance in playback I have different thoughts, but in performance like we are now broadcast streaming I'm liking these the way I sound it definitely makes me feel clear and clean in Present, but the point is is that there's nothing there just hasn't been anything out there That's really got a lot of nuanced features that suit the voiceover user And let's be honest like a lot of you that are beginners may not need something that has the level of flexibility In complexity of this guy the the the passport VO It's called passport because it was a co-developed venture between the pro audio suite podcast crew with four of us and Michael Goodman of Centrants, and we came together over a few months. We surveyed our Everybody that we could get a hold of to tell us what you're looking for and at the end This is essentially what all of you asked for at least the top 60 percent This is what was the most voted on in terms of features as well as one or two features that maybe Nobody asked for because they didn't even occur to them So we have a few curveballs in there But one of those things is the record channel to source switch. There's this little button at the very bottom It's a black switch. It's going to allow you to choose what you record on channel two Channel two is like this unused Input that nobody uses because your mics plugged in the channel one and you're recording a mono track most of the time What could we do with channel two then it's like a hidden feature? This lets you choose you can have channel to be a safety track where it records 12 DB lower So you have some safety margins before clipping It could be what actually is plugged into mic to which makes it work now like a scarlet 2i 2 or any 2 channel interface or it can be used to record what comes back from communications and That means you are now able to do podcast production and record the caller on zoom or source connect Or you can just use it to record your coach, you know You get coached on zoom all the time you want to capture what the coach is saying Click that switch to comms and you're recording your coach or whoever's on the remote end so Just a lot of tools that we want to make sure are easy to exploit for Voice over. I don't want this to be too much of an infomercial right now We're gonna have time to do that more next week But or actually went by the time you guys are seeing this in replay this week This week is really when this product is supposed to be starting on its pre-sale So I'll just wrap it up here by saying stay tuned Watch the pro audio sweet comm website for more information It will be actually on sale on the Sentron's website in their store And you'll be able to start buying it next week or actually for those watching out live next week For those watching the replay this week It's gonna be 699 and we have to sell a hundred units up front in order to get this thing produced I guess I got to buy one I know there's so many of us I would like to give one to There ain't no givies givies this time We have to all buy one with it's a group effort to make this thing exist and that we're really proud of it So anyway, that's that's the passport VO and if you want to know more about it Well, just let us know we'll we'll fill you in And stay tuned at the pro audio sweet comm Alright coming up in my queue here Oh one more thing. Oh my gosh, if I hadn't said this if you saw this on the show If you do decide to buy one of these units, please Use Vo BS when you check out it won't change the price But what it will do is let sentrants know you saw it here And then you will be by doing so you will be supporting us the show You'll be supporting the show by using Vo BS coupon code if you do pre-sale buy one So thank you in advance Coming up next also the roadcaster pro 2 is now physically in my studio And it's actually what were you what I'm using tonight to do the show Now it's so funny that on the heels of my the product I've helped design I'm talking about another product both products are about the same price almost well They are the same price. They're both $699 and if you look at them on paper you go wait a minute. Why is this thing also 699? Why is this little simple basic analog portable thing 699? And why is this super complicated covered in led lights and touch screens also 699? Well, the roadcaster pro 2 is clearly targeted to production of voiceover of really podcasting live streaming Would love to four people in the same room at the same time With the ability to add more people coming in remotely all in one live show And it can be live recorded. It can be live streamed It can be recorded multitrack and it can be recorded multitrack internally to the unit It has a record button right on the unit Very clever Dan's been using one on his end of the studio the original version For quite a long time and the new one just takes everything that the original one had and takes it to 11 It's got more microphone preamp gain way more It's got flexible faders that you can choose what signal comes up on which fader It's got Better routing for your headphones and your studio monitors it It takes everything that if you had the first one you said it would be nice if And now this one has it. It's crazy. So, um, it's an impressive piece of kit Does a voiceover actor need it? No If they made a version half the price half the size with half the features But all the stuff that I like Then I would say go buy that Yeah, but they didn't and they won't and that's why we made the passport vio Well, both have a workflow For voiceover now the the the the the the procaster is really designed for podcasting But the first time I saw it it was like this would be very nice for voiceover And for the other things I do in teaching and webinars and And that sort of thing But the new one is like beyond voiceover and you are doing other things other types of production Void, you know live streams webinars pro teaching podcasting then the the the roadcaster Is quite a piece of kit again It's got three more mic prams that most people would need it has sound effect pads that you don't really need but are fun You know, it's got all these bells and whistles on it that make it fun to play with but at the end of the day The additional functionality can get in your way When you're in a live session as a voice actor and you may want something simpler And that's where something that contrasts against it like the the centrance passport vio comes into play because you have Only what you need without distracting features and no Software control panels Firmware updates or anything to keep to sort of burden you with complexity So very different ideas to get down a similar functionality that you know might that you might need Um moving on so waves some of you may use waves plugins If you do use waves plugins, then you already know what i'm about to talk about Because it made a huge this piece of news made a huge splash and splash meaning like a poop landing in a bowl Of water kind of a splash It did not go over well at all and what they said they were going to do is make all of the licenses From here this day forward be subscription only You have to have a subscription to get any current or updated version of your software end of story full stop End of people spoke and waves listened And so a week later they made a total about face And um that is no longer going to be the case you will be able to buy waves plugins You can buy them a la carte you can buy them and when you do buy them They are what they call perpetual licenses And so you're not going to have to have a subscription to continue using waves plugins that you already come to know and love and depend upon like clarity So don't freak out. There was a lot of that happening. We don't need to freak out anymore because they uh, they really did listen they really did um pedal it back And uh, and they they they made good. They made good So kudos waves. I Sorry that they made such a misstep in terms of marketing and promotion and Kind of decision making in terms of how they would market and sell their product, but they listened and they they did change. So There you go Anyway, moving on to a couple more things couple part headphones One of them I got to try at the at the vio Atlanta and I have a quick video package that uh We can throw up here And the other one is a pair I actually have physically in my hot little hands From road because they were nice enough to give along with the roadcaster pro 2 that they uh, they let just take home from vio Atlanta They did also give me a pair of their nth 100 headphones and my quick quick take on the nth 100 hundred headphones is A beautiful piece of engineering really really nicely made Um very comfortable in my on my ears But the sound characteristic the ecu curve is not familiar to me It's too different from anything else that I owned for me to adapt to using or adopt using them right away These might be best for me if I was to use them while i'm actually producing a show live Just like the the harlon hogan cans. I like listening to myself speak through them live But I wouldn't want to make an ecu judgment when i'm tuning ecu because I know my other headphones better I feel kind of like the same way about these they they have a unique sound to them And that might be good for performance or good for people doing live announce But maybe less or so for editing It's up to you and it's what you're used to hearing and you have to wear them to find out but Really nicely designed very heavy-duty removable cord, which I think should be the norm nowadays, right? And and you can put them on both sides. There's a party trick. They put them on they put the plug on both sides Um cooling gel ear pads, which is pretty cool. It really does help Pull the heat away from your skin. So really interesting cans. I I'm I want to play around with them some more Maybe I'll do some of my live shows with them and see how they work for live production But um, they just their ecu is just too different for me to use for my critical listening type stuff And lastly speaking of headphones the audio technica atm 50x Dash sts Uh, has been released recently a very interesting pair of headphones And I have a video to accompany that if you would spool that up sue Uh, hey, this is george the tech I'm here at vio Atlanta 2023 inside the try booth and i'm getting to try something that's new to me That's really interesting It's an audio technica headphone the very well loved atm 50 headphones With a little extra party trick The boom microphone Not just any boom microphone capsule. It's the same capsule as in the 20 series microphones. That's right It's the same capsule as in the at 2020. So now you've got a good quality condenser capsule That's built into your headphones. So think about what you could do with this you could record audiobooks in a comfortable Chair sitting back relaxed not with a microphone That you have to constantly address at the exact right placement You can be relaxed and record in a comfortable way You can physically move around while you're recording in very high quality with really high quality audio And get really consistent sound that's the other thing consistent Audio as you move around your space And I think that's a really compelling thing. It's something i've been Advocating for for quite a while is why not have a headset mic when you record voiceover But most of them weren't up to the task the fidelity wasn't very good They're pretty noisy. They're made for sports casting this one. I think well, you guys be the judge I think it works pretty well Thanks to eric who let me borrow these and do this quick little test And you can mute them at any time by doing this Now the microphone is off And now the microphone is on really clever design XLR and quarter inch That's how it plugs in so it'll plug in the standard pro audio gear And they have a usb version of it as well Which i'm actually interested in because I work on my laptop constantly and I need high end headphones With a mic very clever Audio technica killing it with these amazing new headphones with a mic All right. Yeah, I did you notice the boom microphone mute didn't actually work I started to or less or you had a I had some processing to try to deal with the high high background noise in there But um, yeah, it it didn't cut it off. So I don't know if I pulled it up Didn't pull it up far enough to mute the mic, but it didn't actually do it until it clicks That's usually the indication. That's what I guess that would have been anyway. Yeah I have no idea. I mean, I think this is a First of all, I love all your technica headphones. I'm a headphone junky as you guys have probably figured out by now and um and the fact that you can have a I'll be at a very low end condenser capsule still a quality condenser Mic capsule built into the boom of the mic A headset was I thought really cool idea and I think for people doing live podcast or doing a long form Narration e-learning or audiobook sick. I think it could be really nice to use Yeah, I'd be comfortable to have that and you don't have to worry about constantly You know, you're getting your mic is in the right position all the time and you know And of course it's very important for gamers Because apparently that's what gamers do. I wouldn't know Yeah, yeah, they have a usb version of this for I would say is definitely gamers suited So it'll plug directly into a pc or mac and I think that would be that would be no printer Very good. All right well I want to talk about Something that I always say and that is every room is different If we get down to the basic basics here I get a lot of email from people saying hey, what do I do? I have a room Like well, that's great. Do we all have rooms somewhere? But every room is different. There is no one size fits all answer to creating a home voiceover studio because Rooms are made out of different materials Everybody's voice is different. Everybody's using a different microphone even though they you know I'm still not convinced that you know, all these microphone selections really have very little to do with voice over It has a lot more to do with with making music and stuff And there's a few microphones that are really good for doing voice over But when it comes to the room Room selection is really really important Because as we know, what's my main philosophy? keeping sound out And making sure that there's no reverberation inside the space that you're recording And of course proper microphone technique and setting your levels setting your levels I think that's going to be a whole new discussion when we start talking about some of the other things that we can When it comes to voiceover recording gear But some rooms have you know in old houses you got walls that are still plaster Uh, most of them are drywall and they have some of them have 10 coats of paint on them You've got to be able to find the right space one that is quiet and I have come to the conclusion that is literally Impossible in a home studio unless you have an actual booth Uh, that really cuts out the exterior noise So you've got to find a quiet room preferably one that is Perhaps in the back of your house or apartment not on the street Uh, not in the landing uh glide zone for an airport or takeoff Because I know people right below the Santa Monica airport. It's like how do you record here? Um, but if you can enclose yourself in something and seal it up That's really the key to keeping noise out and if it's got heavy walls Uh, for those of you living in the east or in the northeast A basement is a great place Uh, and you can actually build your own thing down there your own your own studio But from scratch or if you have a closet in a basement that also works really great Just turn off the furnace and all the other mechanicals and make sure you turn the back on when you're done. Um Also, how do you treat a room like that? There's no one size fits all for that as well When I go into somebody's house or apartment and they're like what how is this room? If it's a closet full of clothes That's fabulous. It's amazing because nothing Absorbs sound like a closet full of clothes go into your walk-in closet and start talking and you'll notice It's a lot quieter in there. So make sure you do that. Uh, find the room And learn how to listen For exterior noise and that really takes Just maybe a little bit of zen time where you go What can I hear? Can I hear the refrigerator? No one no one recognizes that the refrigerator is there because your brain's probably tuned it out Or air conditioning or heating Or all sorts of noises that can happen in an apartment building or in your house So that's the first thing you got to do is you've got to find someplace really really quiet Uh, I know a lot of people say well, I can use I can use this filter and that filter and those filters I think if you're doing stuff live If you have to do a lot of remote sessions and stuff like that Yeah, you have to have that type of stuff if you don't have a quiet space to record But it's much easier to do auditions and stuff from a place that's really really quiet acoustically treating it It depends generally I have to listen that's george That's like one of the the the weirdest things about what we do somebody says I got a I got a buzz I got a hum. I got this I noise. I've got this thing And it's like yeah, so Everybody hears differently And I think that's been proven everybody's you know their ears are all different They all perceive things a little bit differently use different headphones too So you hear things differently than other people in different headphones. Absolutely So what you need to do is Send us something if you have a question about if it sounds good Send george or I some audio because usually while you may not be able to hear it It takes us five seconds To know what's going on in your room if it's if it's noisy If it's reverberant if you're not using your microphone properly All those things we can find out very very quickly if we hear it Which is why I have the the specimen collection cup in my at my website And you know, that's that really is what works or if you're working with george You have to send us the actual audio So we can tell what it is and generally we can tell what if you if the room is Acoustically traded if it's quiet or if you're in an empty room Or if you're in a four by four whisper room with the stock phone that it comes with Which got to listen to that one today again. It sounds like a tube. It sounds pretty pretty pretty boxy Yeah, not very good. Yeah, I mean and everybody describes these things very differently as well Right. Are you in a tube? Is it tinny? Is it, you know, you know, sometimes people have like those lights with a with a bell Sort of housing on it and they're like I get this ringing sound I'm like, do you have one of those lights with the bell? Yeah, get rid of it. And all of a sudden the ringing goes away That's called experience. That's doing this for a long time and hearing everything that can go on So it's important to find the quietest space that solves so many problems And prevents us and you from doing a lot of additional stuff to make that room usable So there's no one size fits all we got to hear it and we have to see What exactly in here what exactly is going on in that room because every room is different Every voice is different George your thoughts I mean, I couldn't have said it better myself. I mean I start to after I've heard after I've heard of 10 or 24 by four whisper rooms They're pretty they're pretty predictable, right? It's a product with the same size And I started to get an idea of what works in those, right? So I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time But everybody's closet. It's a different size. Everything has its own unique set of challenges. So It's a very it's still a very non-formulaic Solution and the other reason for that is because I've got all these books over here Which you can't see on acoustics And not a single one of these books has how do you tune a four by four Booth or a small closet not a one None of them know how to do this None of them studied it. None of them have models Based in mathematics on how to tune small rooms. It's a unique niche of things that we have spent a lot of time Doing our best to perfect and So that's why it's such a unique thing. Yeah So if you're trying to try to set up a room, uh, or you're you're moving or something like that Always look for a room that is really really quiet or a closet that's big enough for you to actually fit in We've seen some people squashed into some very small spaces Uh, if you can if you have an extra room a spare bedroom something like that It can it could be very very useful and outbuilding, you know, you know heaven Maybe have a she shed Or or a man cave or something like that that's away from the street. Yeah tough. She has great Uh something along those lines if you can isolate yourself from the house and from street noise, that's a great thing Anyway, we got a lot of questions. We're gonna get to in the next half hour. So don't go away We got lots to come here on voiceover body shop We'll be right back This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lenard and george widham v obs dot tv As voice actors we need to hear the clear transparent and honest sound of our voices Harlan Hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 provide both that accurate transparent sound with enhanced mid-range audio Less bass and the creature comforts voice workers deserve Clearly different from traditional studio headphones. The upper mids and highs are clear as about no muffling or cross bleeding between frequencies Like a pair of studio monitors the low is there, but at the same level as the rest of the spectrum They're comfortable like no other phones. I've worn that's because harlan used actual leather for the pads It's like putting on a pair of leather gloves for your ears They're also very light for their size as harlan made them from aluminum instead of plastic The headband is flexible like a watch band and the plug comes out for walking away Get the only headphones designed for vio harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 for just $149 with free shipping from voiceover essentials dot com Hey Another spot and this time we're talking about source elements the creators of source connect And a lot of other tools coming down the pipeline including their most currently updated version of nexus Which really allows studios to interact with their clients and their talent in a more seamless way It's pretty amazing. This tool allows studios or anybody that has to produce and record other talent Route audio in and out of their DAWs very painlessly in a very logical way It's really really well designed But honestly the voice actors out there You're the ones that really want to pay attention to what's going on with source connect I have a video about it on my website That goes into a lot of informational depth I mean this video has been out since the beginning of the pandemic three years People are still watching it telling them. Thank you for doing this video. I now understand it better Since then if you go to source dash elements dot com They have created a lot of educational content on source connect what it does who it's for how it works how you get it and What to cost well It doesn't have to cost anything to get started. You can get a 15 day free trial Or you can also do what they have they have a special little two-day license thing So if you don't want to commit to a subscription or buy out the license for life Yes, you can get these little two-day licenses Ask them how and they'll show you It's a great way to make a client happy when you need to Especially when you don't think you're going to be using it very often. Anyway, thanks source elements Let's get on to those questions right after this next spot Hey, it's david h. Lawrence the 17th and we talk a lot in this business about moving forward with our career getting more information We often don't talk about simply Getting started It can be one of the most immovable objects In in our life getting out of our own way and just simply taking the first step And if you're watching this podcast voiceover body shop For some tips on how to get started in voiceover or to change something about your voiceover career or to increase your knowledge in a certain area Check out vio heroes comms getting started in voiceover If you go to vio heroes comm slash start, you'll get all the information Uh, it's really cheap And I give you a lot to get started in the business But you might also learn something if you've been in the voiceover business for a while vio heroes comm slash start That's vio heroes comm slash start Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great All right, welcome back to voiceover body shop tech talk number 100 put that up again Okay, that's a that's a lot of tech talk That's a hundred hours of tech talk. I mean Where else where else are you gonna get all this stuff, you know And one of the favorite things we do about tech talk is we take your questions and and we got a bunch of them Today, so why don't we get into those? Yeah, uh, here's one that was left over from last week from all right from derrick sigh uh Starting out as a voice actor. I have the audio tech that gets at 2020 in a scarlet solo third gen And record in a wardrobe. I think that means a closet or it could be it could be like a shipper robe Something along like they sell those things at uh at ikea Um with two gik gik acoustic spot panels behind me with a curtain to cover the top to treat the space With a noise floor of about minus 60 to minus 54 db will be the judge of that Uh, I have a gain knob turned up 60 to 70 but my recording levels are around minus 28 to minus 21 db When explain what that means so every time I record I amplify it plus Five to seven db in adobe audition. Is this just the nature of the mic interface? Simply not speaking loud enough or am I doing something wrong? I have the mic positioned upside down at eye level about six inches The hardware is all brand new and the latest drivers installed Uh Chances aren't well crystal one the first question is mac or pc. He said drivers Drivers that means pc. Okay. Usually. Yeah. I mean there aren't a lot of drivers for stuff in in on a mac Right Chances are there's a number of things that could be going on here Well for 60 percent is not very high on a scarlet. No, that's true There's a lot more you got a lot more gain in there, especially if you've got a third gen I mean those things have a lot of gain to them Uh two things that I would suggest one Not be six inches from the mic maybe be Three inches to to the mic remember the rule of three If it's a really tiny room, it's a fist if it's a you know a good size room That's you know like a small bedroom or something It's a fist and thumbs up and if you're in a larger room like the room i'm in you can do Mahalo Yeah, you can get away with a further distance the better the bigger and better sounding the room is yeah Exactly, but the room's got to sound good, but chances are you're there's two things there one You're probably too far from the mic, especially in at 2020 which is Not the most sensitive of the studio condenser mics And two you might play with being a little bit closer And so turn up your gain get a little bit closer and I'll bet you can get yourself back up to where he should be What do you think? Yeah, I yeah, I don't be afraid to goose up the gain a little bit if it's necessary experiment with mic placement and distance um And but don't be so worried about the recorded levels look like anymore with 24 bit recording You can record raw audio with levels that need to app that need to be amplified Five to 10 db or even more sometimes and not worry about an in an inordinate amount of noise being added to the audio If the noise is in the environment Well, whatever you do to adjust the levels later will adjust the noise too, right? So whether you add gain from the preamp or normalize later or amplify later Whatever that noise is will also come up. So you're not saving yourself by recording low levels Um, so it's generally accepted these days people with 24 bit If you're peaking Somewhere in the yellow range on the vu meter you're recording meters in your software If you're in the yellow, you can kind of let it mellow, you know, don't worry too much We're going to normalize or boost the level in post and not even worry about um Worry about that as much as we used to with um 16 bit recording and older um analog gear All right next question is from ed moskowitz You can get this one because 32 bit float is a a whole interesting discussion But it's getting a lot of press lately, isn't it? Ed asks in regards to the 32 bit float discussion In film and tv post and production It has been debated for quite a while with manufacturers like sound devices Having the option many of the studios were perhaps That has changed now Not yet capable of dealing with 32 bit float I'm seeing i'm assuming 32 bit float files So the question is are more studios now ready to utilize tracks recorded in 32 bit? um and production at this stage of the game a lot of of file recordings are um A lot of the field I guess I should say field recordings Um are done in 32 bits. So what's my opinion? um Well, you need to deliver the files in the format that the client wants So if you're saying that post isn't wanting 32 bit files Then what you're surmising is is that no it's not part of workflow for them yet They don't want to take 32 bit float files So if you're recording in 32 bit float, which is fine if you have the technology to properly capture it Which most of you do not yet But if you have the equipment to record 32 bit float If your software is capable of doing it and your mac is set up to record it because sorry folks you on bc Cannot record and capture in 32 bit float yet Um, then yes go ahead, but deliver the files in whatever format the client wants That might be 24 bit wave more commonly. That's probably going to be 16 bit wave files. So Capture in high resolution. That's fine deliver in the resolution that they want But it is all about production workflow and until 32 bit float becomes part of it There's going to be no reason to record in that format. Yeah, but we need to explain What is the difference between 32 bit float and say 32 bit and say 24 bit because whenever you're You know, you're setting up your file. You hit, you know new file It'll come up a dialog box will come up and so you want this in you know, 16 bit 24 bit 32 bit or 32 bit float Which as you were saying it it doesn't work on on on a pc yet. I'm not sure why that is for audition. Yeah, but uh, I mean You can it's easy to do an audition. You just recorded a 32 bit float. What exactly does that mean? Oh man, well 32 bit float is an incredibly complex algorithm of mathematics, which is basically Saying that um, there's 24 bits roughly of of actual dynamic range, which by the way is a lot It's plenty and then there's eight more bits that will allow you to shift that range of 24 bits up and down as needed Well, essentially allowing it to float up and down So how it works in context what it means in context of what we care about Is that with the right amount right type of gear and set up correctly in your in your DAW and in your computer You can record without having to worry about mic gain Because the system has the ability to capture such an incredibly wide range of sound That the quietest stuff and a lot of stuff is all recorded without distortion on clipping Um, and that's that's the very very short version of it If you head over to road's website or actually roads youtube type in 32 bit float Um nt1 and watch the most recent videos that they released and it will do a really good job of explaining this more More clearly what this whole 32 bit float thing means But in the short version of it is if you're not set up with the right gear on a mac at this time There is zero reason to record Anything in 32 bit float don't bother all you're doing is making bigger files to take up more space It's extra wasted data. It's totally unnecessary. I still say 24 bit should be the kind of the norm across the board Don't worry about 32 bit flow without the right equipment and workflow in your setup. Yeah All right, so I experimented with it this week You know and see okay, you know i've been doing a 24 bit for a long time I'm like, let me try 32 you cannot over modulate it You know and the thing is is if you even if you drive You know your your your interface uh You know in adobe audition for using I was using the road caster Oh, the road caster may have 32 bit float recording it now. I don't know it may be But I I you know, I recorded it quiet. I recorded it loud And it came out fine either way I think the point is though you got to have a quiet Chain you have to have a good quiet mic like a road or neumann or something like that And an interface that is also very quiet Absolutely And if if you've got white noise at a low level if you normalize it to into something else It's still there it comes up So you gotta you gotta be careful with that But I I experimented with it a bit and I must say it sounds pretty good at 32 bit float and And then I just delete the 32 bit float after I send off the mp3. So it doesn't take up room on there Next question we have is from the one and only jeff holman. He says My on-camera self tape studio has hardwood floors and my self tapes have a hollow brag jeff Yeah, really, right echoey sound. Yes, they have a hollow echoey sound What's the best way to better that keeping in mind? I can't have visible foam or sound panels in the shot Put a rug down would a carpet pad help to Is there a certain kind of rug or pad that would help the most? I'm not I'm yeah, go ahead. I have some thoughts on it, but you go ahead Sorry, you go first. I'll go. Okay, Hugo. I'll go first In a voiceover booth, I'd say, you know people like I've got a cement floor. I got a wood floor Should I put a rug down? Well, if you want, you know, if you're barefoot, maybe Uh, but I don't think the floor really has a if if you've got a solid floor There's not it's not affecting the sound at all in a smaller booth In a larger space where you're doing self taping for for on-camera work Uh A rug always helps perhaps a nice shag rug. Although you'll probably end up tripping over some of these shag Uh, it's not too shaggy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean something that's kind of If you can diffuse the sound at the floor using something that has a lot of Texture to it that would probably help Although if you if you if you've ever been to a Grateful Dead concert They're always on some oriental rug or something like that to make the the stage not quite as reverberant Uh, and to keep the drums from sliding around. That's right And and I you know, I think Jeff that you know if you're sending in self tapes Uh, they know you're in a room. They know you're not in a professional studio They're looking to see how you're acting is more than anything else So I would say put down a rug. Let's see what it sounds like and if it doesn't work Then try something else. I would also ask. What is your backdrop? Jeff? I mean if your backdrop is um Just the drywall behind you that's the worst possible case scenario If the backdrop is a roll-down backdrop Then you can hide all kinds of stuff behind the roll-down backdrop because a lot of the sound Is going to pass through the roll-down backdrop and it's going to bounce off the wall behind it So you can hang a whole bunch of stuff on the wall behind the roll-down backdrop Um, you can put stuff everywhere that's not on frame You can put two sets of Furny pads, you know furniture blankets on stands on either side of the camera Um, there's all kinds of stuff you can do to kill off the reverb that doesn't see it isn't seen on camera So yeah, I would try a lot of these things just scattering them around just keeping them out of frame Um, and it's all going to improve as you add more and more damping to the space But yeah, just start with the basics a nice five by eight eight by whatever we have for nice a nice plush area throw rug And that's gonna make a big difference because your microphone is likely overhead and Point it down at the hardwood floor Right or or use a lav mic. So you're you're close mikes when you're when you're doing a self taping thing Yeah, also if you've got Remember the camera is only pointing in one direction if you're if it's bouncing off the wall behind the camera You can put all sorts of stuff on the wall behind the camera I'm hearing some ridiculous expectations from actors doing on camera now on camera I don't see why you'd have to worry ever about hiding a microphone Having to worry about it being in frame Um, we're having a lav mic on one of these new road video might go to mics or the dji mics that you can just attach to your your your shirt Um, we'll help a big big time in getting clean audio without reflection and bounce So that might at the end of the way be just the easiest way to deal with it Yeah, that's that's the latest thing a road has that that what is it to go? Go whatever I think it's oh, yeah the the rogue just to go mic the video. Yeah, right. It's just a mic Right. It's just a thing you clip onto your pocket and yeah, and and it has a wireless to Through bluetooth to your camera or to your phone. What has its own receiver? Yeah, um dji also has internal recording as well So if you don't have a way to wirelessly send the audio to your phone easily it will also just Internally record too. So yeah, there's some really really cool mics in this space nowadays totally wireless and not cheap But um affordable and if you're doing a lot of this kind of stuff It's part of your career then probably worthwhile investing in yeah But for voiceover you don't need a rug on the floor Unless you're you know a wood floor if you go into a lot of recording studios. What's on their floor? It's a wood floor So they're not they're not too worried about you're not talking down You're talking this way and that doesn't reflect off the floor very much Unless unless you have like a mirrored floor or something like that Reflects light and sound. Yeah, it's it's this holistic thing It's just the ratio of hard versus soft surfaces no matter where they are You know if they're on the floor the walls even the ceiling Um, the more hard surface there is versus soft the worst it's going to get So you got to just start sucking up that reverb wherever you can No question. All right, we got time for two more questions here Jeremy Howard on youtube says I have a moving blanket vo booth about four by 2.5. So like this Anybody out there that's more than two and a half they're two and a half feet wide They're pretty wide And while there are no reflections my male voice does seem to get a bit boomy in the space Would you recommend bass traps and studio foam? And two is there a setting where I can change the speed of the playback? Well, let's get to the speed of the playback in a second When it comes to boomy If you're in a blanket booth And it depends on what what you're using for blankets here. He doesn't say oh, it's moving blankets remember moving blankets Definitely will Will diffuse and absorb the sound so it doesn't bounce back to your mic But the sound also goes through and if you're in a larger room And you're talking very loud, which is another point everybody's over projecting You know unless you're doing car spots or doing imaging or something along those lines It's it's a conversational voice. You're just talking the way you're talking to somebody else Uh, maybe a little bit of push with some some scripts The louder you talk the more the acoustics of the room come into play So that that that that That's the most important thing there Your voice may be a bit boomy and that's because it's reflecting off of walls outside of the booth Right could be where the booth is if you if it's tucked into a corner Now the corner of your room is covered with the booth And now you're getting some bass reflex off the corner So yeah, if you can move the thing away from the wall that could help quite a lot You might try that too Yeah, I've I've done that many times with people with blanket boots It's like, you know, maybe have it in the middle of the room or you know away from the wall in a corner Right corners are practical, but that's where the base really tends to collect Right because you've got you've got like a bunch of angles there say at the ceiling Where it's going off in two different directions there and then you've got the ceiling and then the down You know, yeah Waves will really collect in that corner and that will cause that So, you know, or you could always put a bass trap up in the corner You could try that, yeah I've never put a bass trap in a in a blanket booth because normally, like you said, you can move the booth But if you're stuck in a corner, that may be what it takes You might need to get something in that corner to suck up some of that low end resonance Or just use some cleverly tuned EQ to sort of tune it out a little bit because that actually can work quite effectively too Yeah, so, you know, I've I've you know, that's the great thing about about a blanket booth That's made out of PVC or something like that Just move it around find the sweet spot in the room that's going to work for you You know, think about it. There's no there's no again one no one size fits all thing here There's lots of different things you can try and these are all things that George and I have tried 20 or 30 times when different people's rooms like move the booth All right talk, you know, okay the noise is coming from this way Don't talk towards the noise or don't talk with the noise behind you turn it around talk towards the noise You know Simple, you know logical stuff Second part of his question. This is an interesting one. I I'm pretty sure there is Is there a setting where I can change the speed of playback in adobe audition? If i'm proofing a script for accuracy and want to do it quickly Um, I'm pretty sure you can compress it, but I don't think you could I mean if you want to you just slide along And and scrub along and no, I know you can scrub. Um, I did I'm doing literally doing some googling about it because I've never done it I've seen oh now now they want me to log in to read what I just saw in a google search. Okay I'll go ahead and do that. Um, someone said um Check in edit preferences playback And in the line saying jkl shuttle speed Select the half speed option and now you can play anything either forwards at half or backwards At half speed or you could do double the speed too apparently. Yeah, so j makes it play back Let's see l makes it play forward at whatever speed you choose j will make it play backwards at whatever speed that you choose So it looks like you have to try it for yourself and see i've never done it But if these google searches are coming up with accurate information on the adobe support community site, which this has been marked as a correct answer Um, this is from 2017 Adobe auditions not known for removing features. Right, so imagine it's still the same thing now Yeah, now there's also software that's going to make Audio editing even easier that we saw it at lbio atlanta and that's hindenburg give that give that a look because that's got some Really cool stuff that allows you to really edit with the script right in front of you And it makes it very easy to to do that and I think with a couple of keystrokes It just sort of edits with the script Which is really good if you're doing e-learning with lots of different slides Or with audio books or something along those lines, but we'll talk more about that in a future show Uh last question from youtube from dave g We can answer this one pretty quickly. I'm worried about ai voices hold my hand and tell me it'll be okay. Please guys There is so much written about this I you know if you understand the term uncanny valley Uh, these companies keep saying that There it's getting real close and people say that they can you know imitate emotion I'm sorry. I still don't buy it and people are going to laugh at me There's no program out there that can make the thousands of decisions that i can go on in my head when i see A phrase how am i going to go up go down Programming that to what would be a model of my voice is very difficult Now in the aggregate here in the big picture in the macro We pretty much are all agreed that it's going to take away some of the low-end stuff that's monotonous like phone phone What are you avi things phone answering things and voice systems like that? Audio books are going to it, but you know i've listened my wife listens to audio books and i'm like that's an ai voice I can tell real easily they can say that You know you see these things with deep fakes like which one is the real morgan freeman. It's not hard But if you're not really trained for it, you won't you don't really notice Uh, I think that some of the low-end low-paying stuff may go the way of ai Certainly, there's a lot of youtube videos out there that have gone ai But I you know, I think it's important and and john bailey was telling us this a couple of weeks ago Be ready for it Be prepared know which know what it is you do well that an ai can't and really try to exploit that There you have it and that's the name of that tune. All right as robert blake used to say before he went to prison, um Anyhow, uh, we've got uh, just a few more things to tell you about But we'll tell you about them when we come back right after these important commercial messages. Don't go away You're still watching vlbs Huh Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer That place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics Like audio books auditioning home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com All righty You know as a voice actor Everybody needs to have a website at world voices We require that you have a web footprint. That means you need to have a website But a web getting a website if you've gone to all sorts of webmasters to say, yeah, I can build a website for you It can take a while Gotta get a you have to find a server and and and a host for it and all these things that perhaps you have no idea about Well, a good friend of mine, joe davis came up with something really simple and that is A way to build your voice over website in just minutes using A new website called voice actor dot com and you can build your website in minutes It has some really cool features to it for example It's it's designed to be mobile responsive It you know your voice over website will work on all devices and it'll show you both views It's easy to use the dashboard is built to allow you to create your site really fast George and I did it in 10 minutes and got sites up and running Uh edit yourself. They're super simple editor lets you manage your own website Always a pin in the butt that you know, if you want to add a comma or change the background color Yeah, I'll get that'll be that'll be 50 bucks for a web page. No, you have complete control because it's all templated And guess what it was built for voice actors by voice actors we all put input into what makes it good and That's what you need. You need to find a website that can build your website Simple easy and you can do it for free to start out That's right. They get they allow you to do for a zero dollars a month. You get a site URL You get to choose your website Uh, the website template Change templates at any time. It's easy to edit. No coding. It's super duper simple. Go over to voiceactor.com And try it out. See if it works for you. If you don't have a website, you better get one now Go over to voiceactor.com We are the world voices organization also known as wovo. We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent Voice over is a complex entrepreneurial business. Wovo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public To those already established in their voice over practice and to those who want to pursue voice over as a career Membership benefits include a supportive and creative community a profile and demos on voiceover.biz Our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent our exclusive demo player for your personal website our mentoring program Business resources and our video library our annual wovo con conference a fun and educational weekend with other members With the chance to learn and network webinars and great speakers and weekly social chats with other members around the world If your world is voice over make wovo part of it world voices organization We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rock in the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Well another hour has gone by And look how much you've learned in that one hour We shoved it's like taking a fire hose and Giving you all this information lots of stuff in there Next week on the show another great guest I have a couple of people that want to be on the show and you're going to enjoy hearing from them So make sure you're there Uh april let's see it's april through so the same seven days. So I think it's the 20th. We're going to be on again Doing it live Anyway, we need to thank our donors of the week like robert ledham Thank you robert. We love you um, steven chandler Casey clack jonathan grant tom pinto Shelly avilino greg tomas. Hey doctor voice ant land productions martha con 949 designs christopher aprison sarah borges philips appear brian page patty gibbons rob reader No, it's rider. It's it doesn't matter Yeah, you don't care. Um, shawna pennington bear don griffith Tray moseley diana birdsall and sandram man willer All right, remember if you got him if you want help with your home voiceover studio Look, you can watch our show But you can talk to us each individually and we can help you out with any question by going to one to my voiceover site Which is home voiceover studio dot com or george the dot tech Where you've got Well, we got a discount code. We always do guys Vobs fan 10 will get 10 off anything you buy on george the dot tech webinars Tech support soundcheck studio whatever whatever you need It's on there and use that code to get 10 off And if you're watching this show now in replay We are just announcing the way to pre-order the new Sentrance passport vo and all that information will be over at the pro audio suite suite Dot com All righty need to thank our sponsors, of course without them We would just have a show without sponsors. Uh, harlan hogan's voiceover essentials source elements voiceover extra Vio heroes dot com voice actor dot com and world voices dot org the industry association of freelance voice talent joined today Join us in Orlando on may 5th through the 7th Thanks to jeff holman for really getting it together in the chat room tonight And on facebook and on youtube and wherever else there's a chat room And sumer lino for being here and making sure that everything looks like a professional tv show Which it sort of is and of course Go ahead go now go ahead. No, we got to thank li penny for being li penny. Yeah, i stepped on you Even the li penny thing, but i wanted to say if there's there's one more way you can support our show If you decide that the passport vo is for you and you really want to get this new interface Please use v obs when you're given a coupon code area on the website when you check out over at sentrence's website Use v obs and we will get credit for that and you know, it's a way of thanking us for sending you. I appreciate it All right. Well, that's going to do it for us this week Thanks for coming in or clicking in or tuning in or whatever they call it on the internet thingy this day this day these days But you got to realize something we've talked about audio all the time That's really what george and i spend a lot of our time doing is Making sure your audio Sounds the way it's supposed to sound like what it's supposed to sound like whistle But the bottom line is if it sounds good It is good. I'm jan lennard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vo B s tech talk Tech talk, baby. All right We'll see you next week tech talk tech talk