 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 80 The graphic words yes tech talk number 80 80 hours of voice over technology all accessible to you believe it or don't And if you've got a question for George or I about home studio home voiceover studio tech Throw it in the chat room either in Facebook or on YouTube if there's a chat room in there and if you're in there, you know, yeah, of course there's a chat room I see it right there Throw it in there and Jeff Holman will get us those questions and we love getting your questions Anything at all about home voiceover studio technology throw it in there right now So let's get into it George. You got some stuff from Nam Nam a little bit announcement from WWDC about Mac stuff a lot to talk about Alrighty coming up now voice over body shop tech talk From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Whidham the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience To help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and each week They allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and Having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voice over body shop Tech talk Voice over body shop tech talk is brought to you by voice over essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and Now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hello there I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham and this is voice over body shop or VO Bs tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk Tech talk. Yeah, we're here to talk about your home voice over studio technology My voice ain't a hundred percent there still getting over that COVID thing that Everybody's gonna get guys. I'm telling you it's out there. I'm hearing some of attitude to three times Yeah You know the vaccine yet stops you from getting really sick But it you know still can happen to you, but it didn't kill me So it's right survival of the fittest at this point. Yes, and we all know voice actors are the fittest anyway If you got a question for us throw it in the chat room We'll be happy to answer that we thrive on that because part of what George and I do I mean George does it full-time. I'm a voice actor, but I also spend a good deal of time Working with you and your home voice over studio You know, there's a lot of things that can go wrong. There's a lot of stuff. You don't understand people are intimidated by The mere fact that they've got to do this on a computer Despite the fact that you know, most of us have been using computers for probably You know 30 40 years Some people read too many forum posts there and that's the other thing there's an awful lot of mythology and silliness and Everybody's an expert in one studio Their own I was gonna say one up and ship. Yes. Yeah, it's like, you know, can you top this, you know I got this microphone. It's gonna be great. Oh, you got to use this channel strip. You got to use this It doesn't matter because every voice is different and every room is different So the only way to make sure that your sound is sounding the way it's supposed to sound like is to talk to the guys that actually know What it's supposed to sound like whistle So if you want to work with us We know the answers we can get you to get it done right. I had clients this week They're like, I have no idea what I'm doing and I got to come in tell them what equipment to buy and you know check out their space and See what it is. It has to get done and and George you do the same thing You know, we're talking to people all the time a lot of people getting into voiceover a lot of people that have been doing it professionally for many years But they after the pandemic, they're like, oh, I guess I have to have a home studio Despite the fact that you and I have been telling them for like 10 15 years that you have to have a home studio But do they listen? No, it takes something else to push them on But if you want to get the best instruction and the best consulting on how to get your home voiceover studio Sounding the way it's supposed to sound like and save a heck of a lot of time while you're at and money It's the same time. I mean because you know time is money You can time is money and equipment is expensive and it's not the most expensive equipment That's gonna make you sound the best. It's the best environment and we're gonna teach you how to do that And we'll be happy to answer questions on that as well So if you want to work with George over George the dot tech, where did they go? Well, you you nailed it George the dot tech my name is my address and That's where my home on the web is for all things tech and I have got free resources on that site quite a few of them actually I've got my My version of the specimen cup. I call it a sound check not quite as clever But same idea send me the audio in and I'll give you feedback about what I'm hearing and what could be improved Not the performance just the technology, you know, just the just the tech How's your mic placement? How's your room tone? How's the room sound etc? And that's all over there at George the dot tech but Dan Does a lot of the same kind of thing at his own place on the web and that's at home voiceover studio Dot-com I'll let Dan I was gonna click that one in sorry we both clicked at the same time and boom, it's gone All right. Yeah, home voiceover studio.com is where you'll find me and this the Supposedly the new site is going live and the specimen collection cup is now at the top of the page So when you go to home voiceover studio.com, it's right there and you can send me a sample for $25 I will Analyze your audio and I will tell you whether it's great or Where the shortcomings are and how to fix them? And if it's really bad or if you really want more Involved instruction, we can set up a full consultant ask anybody that's worked with me We have a lot of fun doing that and You know and I might get a little bit more into performance than you know George doesn't doesn't teach that stuff as a voice actor, you know, I've heard it all I've seen it all you you have a little bit more of a The what's the word I'm looking for expertise That's a simple word to explain it in terms of performance. Absolutely. You've been coached and coached and and Act yourself and you have for many years. Yes, it's like the Nixon administration. So You know are your mother crook, you know, that's the thing about impersonation You have to do the physicality. You can't go I am not a crook. It doesn't sound like Nixon You have to I am not a crook and I gotta get those jowls physical physicality is an important part of that So I can teach performance a little bit too And I get a lot into don't over project your voice, you know, it's conversational use your indoor voice things like that anyway, uh, go on over to home voiceover studio.com and You'll be able to find me there and see all the services I offer as well And now George, you were at NAMM last week or this weekend, correct? Yeah, just just by the time you're seeing this replayed It was a week ago. Um, it was a friday saturday sunday and actually was there all three days I did something really different this year and I came there as a support And reporter for office hours dot global a completely different place on the web where people are discussing technology in their own way And I just they wanted to do it live and actually have it be interactive like we do our show here But from the show floor and we managed to pull that off and I'll show you quickly first Just I'll I'll show you a little bit of a playback package of Of just what it looked like to be at the show this year Let's throw that in there. So here's a and I won't go for too long long on this but here is Uh, the set we got to use they actually had sets Created by akg and harman where the media could sit down and have interviews which was really really cool And then we just started walking the floor in this case We're trying to get to the tailor guitar booth for a specific meet with a meet and greet with a with a Talented guitarist who was going to give us a demo and they had their own set and everything and We took a nice stroll with our camera system on this This camera system that was built by noah sergeant Noah's shooting the handheld video so you're not seeing him, but noah from corporate streams.com built this rig Just to cover the nam show live streamed from two cameras through a switcher Through a thing called mr. Net that connected us to the you know to the satellite or whatever It was not satellite. It was just lte modems, but still and uh, it was it was Altaya a technological tour to force It was amazing if if I had the tools and the wherewithal and the motivation It's how I would love to have done the show and I got to do it So it was a blast being the sole reporter. We were supposed to have two Unfortunately, guess what the other one got coveted So I had to do uh, take the shoulder shoulder the entire load of being the reporter. Thankfully, we uh had a Crew back at a virtual studio That was anchoring the show and keeping the conversation going and then we had a panel of folks who are really on zoom Here we are Still we tried to find taylor guitar down at the end of the hall the absolute other end from where we were And there was nothing there It was a it was it was a mistake on the maps Oh my gosh, so I mean it took eons to make our way back up I mean I'll fast forward three minutes here We are now prepping to go into the taylor room and actually sit down with taylor's guitar guitar player there he is and uh And you know, I got to sit there and interview a guitarist. I didn't think I'd be doing that I don't know a dang thing about guitars, but You do it. They throw in front of you. So Anyway, we we had a heck of a great time in interviewing and talking to all these vendors like as dan and I have done in the past And uh That's it. There's a little there's a little quick overview of what it looked like to be it Nand this year wasn't nearly as intense crowded and overbearing as Before the before times. I know my ears are still ringing from the second time I went It was just people and people and people and you know with uh with covid now It's like you know, you can't gather people like that and someone you're gonna get something from somewhere Were there a lot of people wearing masks or was it not as many as you might hope Uh, maybe a quarter of the people there probably So, uh, yeah, so I I tested myself today nothing yet I might do another test in a couple of days and see but But it was it was quite exhilarating. It was it was fun. It was a little stressful at times Um being being ready to go live like four or five times when the up links keeps failing over and over While you're standing next to the guitar the keyboardist from dream theater Who's like a rock star legend, you know, and then that was really intense that was really intense But uh, anyway, we did get one package. We got a lot of uh interviews, but one that's probably relevant to us Um, I did manage to find in our timeline. I have the video queued up from youtube from uh our saturday coverage It's a five hour and ten minute long youtube video, but I managed to queue it up And uh, here we go. This is a this is a little just talk with Focusrite about your next interface to replace Your scarlet. Let's take a look I will pot that up as they say to an anaheim california And we've made it back to the other end of the hall to see focus right and what's new at focus, right? And to tell us all about it is john d nicola. How you doing john? I'm doing great We're really excited to be back here at the nam show for sure. I know we're all getting warmed up again, right? Yeah, exactly. So uh focusrite always innovating really some great products that are cost effective easy to use And now you guys have really stepped it up in the streaming podcasting world. Tell us what you got Yeah, exactly. So we have a whole new range of We have a whole new range of audio interfaces, uh the vocaster and for the first time We've developed this range specifically with the needs of podcasters and voiceover artists and et cetera in mind And so what we've done is um, for example, we have our You may know our you may be familiar with our scarlet interfaces the most popular usb interfaces in the world And so we've gotten a lot of great feedback from our customers From podcasters and streamers and they've told us and in our research We've realized that you know, there's a lot of features that are a little bit different that they need And so we decided and since scarlets were kind of designed with musicians in mind We thought why not go create a new interface from the ground up with all that great feedback And that's where vocaster comes in so Our idea was to take the barriers remove barriers make it easier to use And provide some of those extra features that these types of people need so you guys must have just gotten so much Feedback and probably listening to the community of users out there I I set up voiceover studios for a living. That's all I do right so scarlets are pervasive, you know So you guys I get a lot of feedback. I know it's helpful and based on the little teasers I've heard this seems to scratch a lot of itches Can you give us some ideas of what's special about this? Yeah, absolutely. So I'd like to start off talking about the microphone input The mic input Has automatic gain setting so that's a pain point that a lot of our scarlet's customers told us is just setting the Right recording level and so we take the guesswork out of that. We just go over here We can press this button and then we can talk into the microphone for about 10 seconds And it'll automatically set the gain level for you Another important part to mention about this mic preamp is it has 70 db of gain and so it's whoa Yeah, exactly a lot much more than many than most interfaces And that's going to be allowing you to you know, run those professional dynamic broadcast microphones without any kind of other preamp So that's a big one that we are a big request that we had as well so What's some of the unique features that allow it to be Fit into a workflow of someone who's live streaming or podcasting Perfect timing. So the next button over here is the magic wand or the enhance tool And what this does is it allows you to pick some presets That apply focus rate processing. So ecu compression all that stuff that you would normally do in post production It's going to give you that polished sound right out of the vocaster. So of course if you're live streaming, that's critical But even if you're recording, it's just going to get your recording sounding that much better right into the recording Rather than having to fix it after the fact So you have four presets. So you don't have to worry about needing you don't know how you don't need to Know how to use a compressor or ecu. You just pick the preset right there And then you can turn it on and off from the front of the unit We've also added a mute button which sounds really simple But you know for a voiceover podcast situation super helpful to have that feedback right there And you can quickly mute and unmute as well. We called it a cough button on the radio I was going to say that but uh, but yeah, I've been hearing that out throughout the show Um, so yeah, we so we have that and then we have some extra connectivity options as well That kind of fit into that workflow. So for example On vocaster two for the first time we've included bluetooth in the interface And that's a two-way connection. So you can do a phone interview And you know, you're going to get that audio into your show into the vocaster hub software And then vocaster hub will send a mix minus mix out so that the person you're interviewing can hear the show without hearing their voice Of course, so you're all set for phone interviews. You can also do that with a trrs connection on the back Because our vocaster one actually does not have bluetooth But you can get your phone in on that way and on vocaster two you can do it both ways So you can actually connect two phones So the vocaster one does have the trrs mix minus type thing i'm about built into Yes, it does and actually while we're talking about vocaster one That's the main difference is the bluetooth and then of course the fact that it has a single microphone input and a single headphone output Over here on vocaster two not only do we have the two mic inputs, but we also have two Headphone outputs and that's another thing that you know podcasters were requesting And I can see big dedicated knobs to control so a guest who's sitting there can easily know what knob to turn and just grab Yeah, yeah exactly. Yeah, it's great to have that because you know devices that rely too much on one big knob Can be a little confounding to use in a live situation It's fine if you're self-engineering and you're just taking your time But in a live heat of the moment you want to be able to grab something and so i'm glad you guys did keep a couple You know physical controls Yeah, absolutely and um another thing i'd mention is we uh one more Connection on the back is we do have a eighth inch camera audio output too So if you're doing video along with your show you can connect that audio directly to the cameras and record it directly to the Camera's memory card so you don't have to worry about that in post as well Oh, you don't have to sync audio you don't have to worry about getting the usb to sync up with the video capture Yeah, exactly and uh actually and you could even use this as a preamp This doesn't even need a computer to run So if you just want to use the preamp and the enhance mode and record right to your camera in the field You can plug this into a battery pack and do that as well It is really well thought out. I mean sometimes you know Sometimes I'd say We were a little made that maybe fake focus right was a little bit late to the party right But the advantage of that is you get to look at what everybody else has done and go I think we can do that better. I think there's another way to do that to set her Yeah, i'm really glad you brought that up because we've been researching and developing vocaster for a number of years And uh, like you said, we got to get a lot of great feedback and we tried to put as much of it in there as we could Well, we've got questions. Look at them queuing up on screen. So let's get to the first So I'd rather get questions from our audience Rather than spend time on the audience questions from the show But you guys can go find the full video just type in NAM office hours on youtube and you can watch the Entire thing which is really Five hours of it Anyway, so yeah, I think what focus right did was they they iterated on what's been done They they looked at the evo by audience. They looked at the uh, the revelator which I have right here They looked at the roadcaster and they took I think really honestly, I think they took the best things From each of those and baked it into this And it's 300 dollars Which we didn't get to but the the unit itself this the two is 300 the one is 200 Um, I think most people will be very happy with the one Uh, the fact that it has that trrs cable to add a phone patch mix minus Is pretty darn nifty. Um at that price point I I think they really uh may have nailed it But I'm gonna always as always wait until we've had time to play with one And I they told me that if I reached out to their marketing director that they would get us one to uh to test out So I want one. I want one. I want one. I gotta check it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah So, uh, yeah, so that was cool getting to be there and and soak all that in Um Let's see what else we can fly through here because I have a lot on here. Yeah Audience showed off the evo 16 It has eight mic preamps and it has that same auto gain setting feature. So If you're recording a band or a large podcast with five six seven mics It's awesome. You hit a button everybody goes. Hey mom. I'm george. I'm stiff and I everybody just talks away And it just sets everybody's game boom done. Um, if you're self recording your own drums, that would be sweet Then not have to set all those mic gains for that's cool. Um, also aes was basically wrapped up inside nan this year Right and they may have done this before I'm not sure but Um, I I popped up and I was really lucky to catch an acoustics presentation by Sam Burkow of s i a acoustics this guy designs. He designs big stuff Concert halls and etc really really impressive spaces and I was it was fun because They took questions and so after this whole thing about big expensive rooms and control rooms It's like so how do you acoustically tune a little three by five room the size of a closet for voiceover What would you recommend? You know and it really kind of stumped them because they just don't work on those spaces At all do and we do Yeah, so it was really fascinating, you know to see that And it kind of proves and reinforces my one of my discovery that Acousticians those big get big time guys with all the degrees and all the maths Don't know how to tune small spaces for for acoustically for vo in general I mean some probably do but mostly they don't so that was interesting if they were really nice And they said if we ever wanted to chat with them, um, we could and we'll have to reach out Um, w w dc just happened as well And uh, here's the very short version of the short version of of w w dc There's a new processor chip now. It's called the m2 So it's the it's the next step from m1. It's one better It's it's got a higher number, but it's got a higher number The new macbook air was released. It is slightly lighter than the current macbook air It is the screen is slightly slightly larger At 13.6 inches diagonal Um, they make it in four different colors, but not the fun colors I thought for sure they'd have all those fun iMac colors Nope, they have I think space gray gold Rose gold and silver something like that. So not candy colors anymore. Yeah, they don't have they didn't do those fun iMac colors for the macbook air surprised me Um magsafe charger is back, baby God the third version of magsafe is back. So now that was a dedicated charge cable for the unit Um, but they've maintained just you know the two usb-c thunderbolts and a headphone jack just like The current are the one that I have and the one that a lot of us have So it can go up to 24 gigabytes of memory. So that's good. There's more upgrade ability there But again, you got to do that from apple and the macbook pro 13 inch same deal It's just an incremental update to the one they released two and a half a year and a half ago Nothing really to write home about there m2 is like in general about 20 to 30 percent better performance than m1 Rush out and buy it. Heck no if you have an m1 macbook air you're fine If you're still thinking about upgrading from an intel machine It's fine. Then and they're selling both the m1 and the m2s On the store. I just checked. They also released mac os ventura while they announced it. I should say not released it They announced it. So that's the next os. They're moving down the coast. I'm hoping the next one's os mac os like Santa Monica or something we'll see But uh snard. Yeah ox snard. That's what am I thinking ox snard, of course And then camarillo and then hoax keep moving down Yeah, there's you know, and as I like to say there's more newness in it has more new things Um even less important upgrade too as I can tell but it has something called stage manager Which is a clever way of moving between windows Spotlight searching now searches text in images So that could save time trying to find stuff, especially if you scan and take pictures of all your receipts You can now just look for that. Um There's continuity camera what they're basically admitting is that hey The phone camera in your iphone is a lot better than the webcam in our computer So let's let you do that. So that's finally a feature built into ventura We've had our own third party tools to do this now for a while But it's now built in they're even going to sell a bracket Believe it or not a proper bracket to put your iphone on the top of your computer monitor Just for that purpose really interesting to see them do that Much better. I love I love the camera the camera even on a four-year-old iphone the camera is dramatically better Than the camera on your uh macbook air macbook pro or anything. Um last last one at least ipad os There's a thing called handoff now which works with stage manager Makes your ipad feel a little bit more like a mac you can actually now see Two windows sort of overlapping each other at times They're they're kind of making ipads more and more useful Let's get in there. Um, so that's the the new ios ipad os 16. That's so that's coming later So this was again, this was w w dc. This was for developers worldwide developer conference So I was really surprised they announced a macbook air A new hardware, but it is out it is there. So um, that's my wrap up on my Tech my tech news for the week dan you got anything to to to tie up our conversation Well, what I noticed is and yeah, I mean we've been sort of commenting along as this has gone along that yeah The manufacturers don't design stuff for voiceover We're just borrowing all this technology to to do what we do Until now kind of and yeah, I mean I mean they put the name vo in the name Yeah, it's true, but they also put the word caster in it. So They're sitting in the boardrooms of corporations thinking about what they're going to make and when it's podcasting when focus When focus right makes a box called the voice actor. Yeah, I will be Yeah, I don't see it happening. I don't see it happening either That would be a miracle. Yeah, but what's interesting is you know Because I talked to a lot of people who do podcasting too and as I always say just because everybody can do a podcast doesn't mean everybody should but The tech you know people are still intimidated by the technology and of course You know when you and I probably talk to people about podcasting We really take it from a voiceover point of view and not the Over-processed compressed kind of sound that people keep trying to do on podcasting So they sound like they're on the radio as opposed to just loud enough so people can hear you nice and clearly and you know, there's there's lots of discussion left about that and I mean, there's the way we do our podcast I mean we do the tv show that we're you know, our webcast that we're doing now and we just take the audio and we shove it out there as a podcast No one seems to complain. What is it? This there's people going for a certain sound. It doesn't make any sense to me Make yourself sound clear. No background noise. No vocal reflection And proper modulation now this this vocaster thing has an automatic game setter There's a whole piece of my general lesson that I can take out if someone has one of those Yeah, I mean we want people to know how to set game But honestly you're as an actor if we can take that one little step out of there and take the Maybe maybe it's not even about kicking the guesswork out of it. It's maybe it's about removing the anxiety about it Yeah, um, but if we can just do that You know, we've been able to hold up a phone and get autofocus and auto white balance for how long now So it's it's kind of funny how audio has been so so far behind in terms of auto settings that actually are good Yeah, um, but we're we're getting there. All right. Well, we got a ton of questions That's what we love about this show. We get audience questions and we'll get to those Right after these important announcements. Do not go a way This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our buddy shop And now a word from harlan hogan and voiceover essentials dot com Has this ever happened to you embarrassing The washers on these booms. Ah, they're not so great at holding up your expensive microphone And here's the answer the adjustable boom stop is great easy to attach and works like a charm No more droopy mic. 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Tell them to go over to voiceover essentials dot com Hey everybody, it's time to talk about source elements The creators of source connect and as you heard in the show last week with mac caloric This is a tool that lets you stay connected sometimes all day long To producing partners, you know, this is another way to think of a use of a tool like source connect We traditionally think of it as just a way to connect to a client's studio But what if you were to use it to connect to a partner's studio or an assistant's studio or a virtual engineer that you Work with who's going to help you become more productive in the use of your your talent as a voice actor What if imagine imagine if you had somebody that you could connect to in the morning Stay connected to throughout the day take a lunch break then connect in the afternoon And they just line up your auditions and your jobs for you and they do the recording Source connect can do this stably with extremely high quality and it just It's like the world's greatest telephone. If you've never had a conversation over source connect It's it's just amazing. It changes the way you communicate because it's So clear you hear everything from the other person and it's just a very natural way of of connecting So it's just I found it really fascinating to hear how he uses it But if you want to get it into your studio go to source dash elements calm and get a 15 day trial You don't necessarily need to buy it. You don't even have to license it Just get that demo up and running so you know how to use it So when that session comes along You're ready and tell them you've got source connect That's going to get you some more gigs and it's proven Anyway, this is george the tech Thanks for sponsoring us source elements And let's get back to those questions right after this Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio Well, okay. We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smart phone But it's so much more. It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for red This is your miracle when hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's j michael at jmc voiceover.com Now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show There we're back now. I like that view better. Okay, so We had a ton a ton of questions. It's time for the lightning round We sure do Where should we start with lidia meadows? Yeah, let's start with lidia meadows. All right for possible tech talk or dan or george What is a good travel setup for recording on the go? Um dynamic mic a zoom's thingy a computer interface thing of a bob combo, whatever What are you guys liking? I guess is what lidia wants to know Well, there's okay the first question I ask when somebody asked me this question is How much traveling do you do? It's like, you know If you're just starting out, it's this has to be one of your lowest priorities Uh, you've got to be able to record at home. You've got to be able to do auditions and stuff like that If you if you're well connected if you're you know, uh, uh, you know a top paid, uh, voice actor If you're somebody that's you know, as we like to say golden handcuffs doing promo work Very very tiny percentage of people that you really need to have a road unit That said Keep it super duper simple. Don't have to worry about all sorts of other things Especially since you're only going to be able to do auditions on the road or one-off commercials or stuff like that You can't do something on the road that you started at home. Certainly not audiobooks Uh, so for traveling, you know, I like uh, you know Epigy makes the epigy hype and the epigy mic They're fabulous. It really sounds like a 416 If you use it right there are techniques to it. We can show you how to do that and uh, But you know that in a closet You know and you're in your macbook or whatever and it sounds great. You just have to know how to use it Good mic technique. Yeah, I know we knew two ways about it So that's that's my that's my thing, you know, it's like yeah, it's a usb mic But it's like one of the best usb mics And it sounds really good if you use it properly Not very forgiving on plosives and stuff like that. So you have to use Proper mic techniques so there are no plosives A friend of a client or friend or somebody I saw recently in their setup They were using for travel use the Road video mic ntg and they did find it to be a really really good travel shotgun mic So that's something else that you can consider as an alternative if you want to have that Shotgun mic travel mic and dan you've got the little baby road video mic go to the go to and and I'm hearing I mean from what you sampled for me Or just just the tests that you did with it that thing blew me away for a hundred dollars Sounds great and usb too on top of that. Of course, of course, you have to get the special cable for it It's yes, that's another 30 40 dollars, right? Yeah cable. Yeah, I bought two just in case. Yes, good idea But it but it does work as a you know, it does work, you know, and the thing is is if you're just doing narration or something like that It's probably just fine Next question from elisha hurley for george the tech Okay, she's considering getting a recon van and putting a small studio in it What do you suggest for internet service as I travel that keep source connect ports open? And traveling places now you have expertise in recording in a van, don't you? Yeah Well, I've I've I've dem I've messed around with it. I've had clients doing it. Um This this this just depends on a lot of factors, but The thing that's probably the most enticing technology right now that a few people I know are actually experimenting with Byron Wagner Is the uh the starlink Yeah starlink, that's the technology that elan musk is uh Has released that he's flying Hundreds and now thousands of small satellites around the globe and spreading it with internet and quite good internet actually quite fast internet with quite low latency, so Um, you can't well some say they've actually managed to use it while on while in motion It wasn't designed for that, but um, it's uh the antenna auto auto aims itself once you get to your location You just set it up Um, and uh, you might want to check that out if you really do want connectivity in rural locations otherwise You know, you're going to be stuck with the fun of dealing with 5g 4g or whatever lte thing you can find And uh keeping source connect ports open is not often going to be a viable or even possible When you're doing mobile modems and things like that But you know what can who can answer that probably is is source elements. They Know their technology better than anybody so they may know things that I haven't even thought of trying yet. All right Uh from terry briscoe. Hello again guys. Thank you for sharing your insight as always Uh, so i'm trying to work my way up the microphone hierarchy And since I can't afford the 416 just yet I'd like to know both of your opinions on the mke 600 which is the uh mk, that's the uh, but this is like the entry level version of a 416 from their right product line Yeah, I haven't tried one. Uh, I think you have though, haven't you? I've heard it. I not too long ago. I think somebody said that that's what they were using and It sounded fine. I I didn't I had no complaints about it whatsoever. I don't know why I don't Hear it or even recommend it more often than I do For whatever reason I don't know and maybe because there's so many out there and you start forgetting about some of the ones that have been around Already for a while, but yeah It's worked fine in the in the cases that I've heard it being used Yeah, and he goes on to say the vocaster looks very promising So for us that are doing just vo in our home studios with the vocaster be one be sufficient and have pretty much the same features Yeah, it does now the bluetooth. Yeah, there's no bluetooth on that But I find bluetooth to be fiddly and annoying and I I I wouldn't want to use it. Anyway It's got the the trrs cable connection That with a phone adapter for your mobile phone your you know the headset a japt adapter for your iphone or If you've got a phone with a headset a check is a plug-and-play phone patch solution. So Uh, that's really really nice, especially if you're on windows where Sharing audio devices between different apps is a nightmare This now allows you to have a dedicated audio device just for Communication and you can use your primary usb interface connection for your DAW So that could be really helpful. I know for for sure. I've in the experimentations. I've done with the Sentence uh portcaster that that connection is really really useful and um, so nice to see it at that $200 price point Yeah, all right. You get the question from dave g Deji Dave says Most underused service question mark I'm assuming he's talking about our services Um, lennards sound check He made sure my niece's booth in new york city was kosher sounds like a plug for a sound check Um in doing in dan's case. It's the specimen collection cup, but um anything that will get you Our objective feedback about your audio that will take the guesswork out of it only for $25 is a no-brainer Um, I I am unbiased but um, and dave also says george You have done an effect stack for my twisted wave using a large diaphragm condenser But now i'm using a 416 and it sounds fine No any problems with that Thanks for reminding us to say if it sounds good it is good. Yeah That's the answer to that question or she or should he get another stack for the 416 Yeah, I want more money. So please order another stack, please Yeah, i'm happy to take your money Oh, no, if it sounds good, it is good. It is as always is the is always the case. Yeah, but if you're not sure let You know Reach out. Yeah. Oh, here's a great question. Dan. What do you do when there's too much copy for the time allotted for a commercial audition? Uh, he just ran into it last night on a on an audition Well, you know That was jeff. Yeah, jeff holman wrote that one. Um, the thing about Long copy now if you were in radio like I was that was always a problem. It's like, you know The salesperson I need this in half an hour, you know and you know give you a business card and say I need a spot But it's got to say this this this and this and this i'm like we have 60 seconds Uh, although I think a lot of commercials have gone to 15 seconds now You know, I remember advocating for that like, you know, 30 years ago. Look go to 15 second commercials 60 second commercials are you know, they're they're too long, but for some reason they still write copy that's too long Uh, what do you do when it's too long? Well, you have a couple of options one you tell the client, you know, this is Too long you've sent me 45 seconds of copy for 30 seconds and unless you want me to talk really fast and get it all in there Which is not what you want you want your message across clearly Can we cut this down as there's sentences we can take out and you collaborate with them to try and get it that way Uh, you can also try and speed it up a little bit But I have found in all of my career if that's the case diplomacy wins Because the client does not want there's everything in there. I mean they want everything in there But you learn to compromise and if it's on a national spot or it's a you know Something big from a big agency what on earth are they doing writing 45 seconds a copy for a 30 second spot? Yeah, I was gonna say if there if it's a big national spot You'll never probably never have to do that if it's a smaller, you know market and maybe Yeah, but but the good stuff is poetry the stuff them from the national you know national agencies is just it's like it's refined It's tested and it's 30 seconds So have you ever have you ever done? I I don't think you would ever do this Dan But maybe you would have you ever recorded the entire script and then use this the uh pitch and speed pitch and time Uh plugin and just sped it all the way up and then said okay. This is what it would sound like I I have done that You know and they're like, oh all right. Could you can we cut some of the copy? Yeah You know, is this sentence necessary? Is that sentence necessary? You know, I mean you gotta be diplomatic about it Yes, don't be snarky. No, it's the way to lose a gig. Yeah, right. It's like, okay, you know Can we work with this? You know, you've got way too much copy in here I mean I can talk faster, but this is what it's gonna sound like and that's not what you want And they're usually like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah It's like, okay, so Yeah, be diplomatic about it. I think is the best way to do it and uh You know try and get it You know in the time frame if you can if there's too much then you gotta say look, this is not 30 seconds worth a copy This is much longer Okay, you get the next one here This one is from Matthew King Uh, I forgot to ask I uh last I had the chance but what would be the ideal starter audio interface They're important too, right? Actually, what is an interface? Sorry for the obvious question What is hey an audio interface everybody has to start somewhere Matthew. It's okay, right What does this little thing do it does two things? Uh, number one, it has a pre-amplifier in it, which is really where the true quality of one of these things is Uh, you know, we've you know, we've talked about a bunch of different interfaces, you know about the the new uh Vocaster and the evo 4 and the evo 16 and all these things They all the ones that are over 120 150 dollars all have excellent pre-amps in them Now you were taught we were talking about the vocaster with uh at nam. He said 70 db of gain in there That's pretty good. If it's 70s do you db of quiet gain? That's even better It takes the low-level signal that you know your condenser microphone produces Uh and amplifies it Then the other part of it is where you see the usb plug on the back Is it takes that analog audio and turns it into The ones and zeros or plus and minuses that your computer understands as sound and gives a it has the actual sound in there And gives us the graphic representation of the waveform and some of the other things that you can get That's what the interface does and you can control the input gain from there Uh, a lot of people are liking these usb mics that have an interface Preamp and digital interface built into them But they're not quite as good as say a good solid unit like this. It also will provide Uh phantom power over here So you got to have that with a studio condenser mic and all good interfaces have that Except that that one. What was it the uh, oh the omni or whatever it was called a barringer unit No, no the mxl uh mic paint. Is that a well? No the mic the mic mic the mic mate has one on it Yeah, it's not a good one. And no, I didn't say it was good. But no, but a long time ago, uh Uh, omega what was the name of the company? But they had they had a preamp and an interface, but it didn't have phantom power Yeah, the lexicon alpha lexicon alpha. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah That did not have phantom power. No phantom power, but it also provides phantom power and that's what the interface does Uh, what would be an ideal starter interface? Focus write solo super duper, you know a third generation got a great preamp in it. It does super, uh, You know and it might be the only one you ever need and they're not expensive like 120 dollars for one of those But also the yamaha's the ago 3 or ago 6 Steinbergs the steinberg uh, you are what is it the 22 and the 12 and 12. Yeah, yeah, those are those are all very very solid Yeah, the thing is is pick. Yeah, not a barringer Yeah, even the best barringer is not as good as the cheapest focus, right? I think yeah based on the reviews I've seen and always get an interface where there's one knob per function I you know that focuster looks enticing But i'm telling you anytime one knob does more than one thing it can get a little more confusing to operate so If you're not a techie person Go with the units that have a knob for gain a knob for headphones a button for phantom You know, it's you're going to be happier But if you are techie and you like gadgets and you've not intimidated by it then those more sophisticated ones Have a little bit more flexibility Alrighty grace newton. Yes All right guys I've moved and I need to treat a six and a half By seven foot walk in closet with four internal walls in a rental home What is the first thing you would do? I would record some Voice over room tone in there and see how noisy it is in there It might be the quietest place in your home or it might not so that's true That's the best reason to use a closet is because it might be the quietest, but it may not be right and you've got to record that so We can hear What noise is actually there because most of the noise that you're you know, you think you don't hear Is still there our brains tune it out because it's always there and you don't hear it But this guy doesn't have a brain It hears everything and throws it on your hard drive and and we look at it and listen to it You hear that ceiling fan behind you Or uh, you know the attic fan or the refrigerator down the hall. Oh, Christ. Yeah calming Vibrating. Yeah, I like it in small, you know open apartments. It's like You might want to unplug your fridge You know just remember to plug it back in Uh, yeah, uh, and how would you treat it four internal walls in a rental home? Uh, well, you know orlex foam although, you know, I'm still finding harbor freight Moving blankets work great, but if you want to go a step up from there Uh, you know the vocal booth to go a producer's choice blanket blankets or audio mute Those work really great too and that doesn't take A lot to hang them up if heavy dense blankets. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, you're renting so I would get command strips hooks Go on imamazon type in command strict strips utility hooks Right and now you can hang a bunch of those blankets from grommets without any damage to the walls and That is going to take you a long long way and that's a pretty big size room. So It might seem small, but that's pretty big. So You might end up with really good results with just damping the walls with Moving blankets the heavy moving blankets. Yeah, the ones that weigh about 10 to 12 pounds per blanket They work great. It's a great solution for for a closet. Uh, especially a walking closet like that I had one over the weekend You know, it's like she had some of the really cheap foam No, not the orlex stuff and You know, I got it all on the wall and I'm like, no, it's still pretty reflective. So what did I do? Because you had a high ceiling Was it the foam that comes vacuum packed and then you unpack the bag you cut the back I'm I built her a cloud Hey, that's go and this is going in, you know in her That's gonna make a big difference. Yeah. Oh man, you can you can You know place it just the right height and and it will eliminate the the big room sound really fast Especially with a high ceiling, you know, and you know, it's amazing what you can do with with, uh, you know, weed covering uh, let's see Douglas voice guy gets the last question of the night and he said, uh Did focus right improve the headphone levels? Did you give it a listen on there? I imagined it seems like Every iteration of of an interface seems to have better headphone levels in it. I hope so I I didn't I didn't uh The nature of doing what I was doing doing those reports I wish I could have but at the thing I the guy promised if I get out If I get in touch with him that he would get us one to two tests so, um Then I'll know for sure, you know what the the output levels on the headphones are but They couldn't make it worse So it's kind of be better. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, it's got to be better. Um Let's just hope so they clearly listen to a huge amount of feedback from the users um When they when they invent when they when they developed it so the order I would be shocked if it couldn't drive Headphones uh adequately. Well, there's also a pretty long preview video or review video of this from mike del gaudio who's been on our show Aka the booth junkie um, if you go to youtube type in booth junkie vocaster and you'll see his Much much longer in depth uh review actually of the unit He's got enough subscribers that they send him those things before they even reach the nam show uh, that's uh, yeah, that's That's where he's at and he he will let you find you'll find out more Uh about in depth about the unit from watching his video. Okay, and that's the end Of the lightning round. Yay. All right. We got through all of those questions with the right answers No, we we made him up just right. That's right. All right Okay, we'll be right back to wrap things up right after these important messages So don't go away before time began There was v obs.tv Watch or else 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, uh 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 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. They'll try it yourself Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com where your vio website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great I figured it out. All right, so Oh my goodness, that's a lot of questions and a lot of answers I'm poops And it's and it's just monday. So Yeah, I know or whenever I didn't really have a weekend. So This feels like a thursday or friday to me right now I had the covet. I was kind of foggy this weekend. Like oh now I get it But today felt a lot better. All right, uh, who are our donors of the week? We'll start off with robert leadham steven chandler Casey clack jonathan grant tom pinto Shelly abuelino patty gibbons Greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions and martha con All right, you guys know where to go in case you're uh, If if you happen to need uh, something at at your home studio you go to either George the tech or Homevoiceoverstudio.com Uh, and that's where you'll find us and that's how we get it done for you And by the time you see this I will have the ability to order and sign up for my next webinar So, uh, that's twisted wave advanced on june 25th. Uh, so just head over to george the dot tech slash webinars Yeah, I love twisted wave We loves our twisted wave 15 years of twisted wave goodness. I think that's how long it's been since I've Known about it. Yeah, really since I think since uh, 2007. I feel like yeah, probably probably before you and I met so Yeah, because because you were using it on the on the uh, the thing you were selling the remote thing I remember the vio to go kit the vio to go kit. That's right That's right using twisted wave on that and it hasn't changed a whole lot except it is better Yeah, they just he keeps it updated makes it make sure it's debugged and Adds little nice little features without getting in the way. That's the key Don't get in the way of the user interface. Keep it clean. And that's what he does Yeah, and I hear he's got a pc version coming out. I hear I I hear it. I don't know if it's true, but that's what he said All right Well, uh, we'll uh, we'll be excited to share it with our windows brethren when it comes when it's available to beta test Excellent. Ah, we need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc demos demos Uh, thanks to jeff holman great job in the chat room tonight getting all those questions to us and uh, we appreciate that Sue wasn't here this week. I'm she's in boston. It was her birthday last week. Actually, that's right. That's right So happy birthday to her, but she didn't help us tonight. We switched off So tag team we we tag team so we could do all these things ourselves You know like that and like that and like that and like this That's what she does That's right. But uh, and of course, we got to thank lee penny for Just being lee penny. Well, that's gonna do it for us this week. We got another great guest coming up next week Uh, yeah, and then the fourth of july comes up and that's gonna throw our rotation into a bit of a A tizzy but we'll figure it out. Anyway, uh, that's gonna do it for us this week Look, it's not an easy business But really important that your audio sounds good. But the thing is if it sounds good It is good. I'm dan Leonard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vio B s tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk All right, we'll see you next time guys. Have a good one. Later everybody