 It's time for tech talk number 16, but we got lots to talk about tonight we've got stuff on some microphone stuff and Other things and your questions traps not bass not bass traps Yeah, you might want to you're not gonna want a bass tournament, but you might want a bass turn We'll talk about all that and more Tonight on tech talk and we definitely want your questions, please Please please please put them in the chat room for us tonight. We love having them I'm sure you have plenty of them. So stay tuned voiceover body shop tech talk coming up right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George 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 talent with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voice over body shop tech talk Voice over body shop tech talk is brought to you by voice over essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites comm where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and Now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Hey there wherever you are. I'm Dan Leonard. I'm George Whitton and this is voice over body shop or VO B s tech talk Yes, well boy a ton of stuff to talk about today We appreciate your questions if you're watching the show live throw them in the chat room And we'll be happy to answer them because we know the answers We may have varying opinions, but one way or another you're gonna get the right answer. Yeah, so Well, it's way better than Google. Yeah, say that right now but an interesting week here at the voice over body shop, you know dealing with people's studios and Lots of other stuff. Also, I need to make a little announcement. Yeah, if anybody wants help with their auditions I Will soon be offering audition direction For a small fee cool, but you got to audition for me. I'm not just you know I don't want just everybody's thing. Well, you can help, you know I want people who really know what they're doing Because directing is fun stuff, but it's vital especially because self-direction is so hard very hard So even our guests last week Eliza was asking Ella for notes right on her audition Right because getting another person's opinion sometimes is helpful. That's right. Ella's ten But she was doing a character voice of you know for a kid's show, right? So she asked him, sorry So if you get yes, we know you're here. I was hand there Anyway, so, you know email me and we can discuss that. I'll be happy to Audition directions or it's like what is who's the character? What's going on? Anyway, we got lots to talk about tonight and so what do you got in your update? Well, you know, I just I think of things that have come up lately and one of them is Playing around with your mic pickup patterns. Oh, yeah So, you know, we talk a lot about if you have a variable Yeah, we talk a lot about a lot of the mics that we talk about on the show are definitely simpler single Capsule single pattern microphones your VO1 a your AT 20 30 20 20 20 35 All of these mics are single pattern mics But if you happen to have a mic with more than one pickup pattern, which some of you may you may have a Well, I would say you 87 is the first one that comes to mind. That's of course a $3,000 mic But there are a lot of less expensive mics that have multiple patterns And one thing you can try with these mics instead of using the usual cardioid pickup is try Using a figure 8 pattern. Now, what does that do that makes the microphone behave really pretty differently? Yeah, so with cardioid, you know, it's picking up Mostly what's in front and not so much of what's behind with figure 8 It's picking up what's in front in a smaller sweet spot What's in back also in the exact same pattern in the back That's not what's interesting about it for a single voice. What's interesting is that it doesn't pick up anything around the middle tops sides and bottom right why is that useful if you're using your mic in a really small booths a really small space and You've got a big piece of glass right next to you or something like that If you put that mic in figure 8 now that big reflective thing That's making, you know, it sound like you're in a box. It's in a null zone. Yeah, it's tuned out Yeah, and so you're not so usually worried about the back the back of the mic in any good booths It's gonna be a dead. It's facing a dead wall, right? So that side of the mic is not picking up much of anything. It shouldn't be What else has happens is it gets a bigger More pronounced proximity effect and if you ever noticed if you have a chance to play around much I mean a lot of the mics we have here are not Multi-pattern if I'm playing with my ribbon mics which are definitely mics which are definitely figure almost always are figure 8 Yeah, that's right perfect perfect figure 8 in fact. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so those they're fun to play with but you know Using a figure 8 may give your voice more depth Because sometimes I think people tend to use proximity effect too much right the mic will reach further, right? Right because the proximity effect is sort of extended out from the mic So if you have in figure 8 you don't want to work it's so close You can afford to have the mic further away and some sometimes right and if you see pictures Say from the 30s or 40s where they were using ribbon mics in the big studio Way up here like this one is here pretty high sometimes Yeah, you know and but it sounds like the distance between somebody you're actually talking to which is with the effect That you're going for and I tend to think that a lot of people overlook that when they're doing their voiceover work Is they're like I'm concentrating on the mic and I try to forget that the mic is there Yeah So if you just happen to have a mic with more than one pickup pattern give it a shot try figure 8 All of you with those mics will also have omni Usually not nearly as useful for voiceover it gets rid of all proximity effect and now makes the mic sensitive to everything in the room Which is generally bad Especially got a really good room once you have a really good room. Yeah, so there you go figure 8 Another thing about acoustics and sound in your studio is bass traps And somebody actually asked on one of the forums about bass traps saying asking basically if I put bass traps in my booth Can I save money on my booths soundproofing? So in other words the thought being that well it traps bass So if I put them in my booth won't it trap the noise from coming from the outside? No, that's not what a bass trap does it sounds confusing But it's a bass trap is designed to Control the low frequency that's inside the booth. That's coming from your own voice That's what a bass trap is doing and in voiceover. We're using them often Into the mid-range, right? Let's say we're we're not trying to stop a bass guitar from resonating really low 80 Hertz stuff We're trying to control that low low to mid-range Bass traps most of the ones you guys are gonna find like the RLX foam Ones do a really good job in that critical 100 Hertz to 120 Hertz range But that's basically what we're talking about with a bass trap Right, it's not gonna stop bass from inside from the outside coming in right now and the thing is is You have to you have to understand what it is You're listening to if you have that sound of like you sound like you're in a booth Where you get these standing waves and It doesn't sound focused. Yeah, it sounds a little boothy Yeah, that's and what bass traps do is they essentially, you know, because we're dealing with a lot of 90 degree angles Mm-hmm And what the bass traps do is they prevent the sound from bouncing off those those acute angles corner bass traps Right ones that we shove up in the corners right in the corner Yeah I mean you'll find them in bigger recording studios that are like freestanding and stuff like that Or sometimes we're hidden in the ceiling right and and and what are they for to prevent? You know those those standing waves and really building up and but in us in a small boot They can be very critical because as we know small recording booths We're not really designed originally as Recording booths they yeah while they keep sound from coming in their primary function was to keep sound from coming out So right somebody could practice their trumpet or saxophone or they weren't supposed to sound good per se They were just supposed to trap the sound and said so we're trying to make these little boxes sound good and bass traps almost always Helps so trust us on that. Yeah Another thing is It's just been you know, these are things that they come up on forums that make me think Gear failure I would love I want to create like an awesome massive database of Gear that people are using that has failed on them And so I want and what I basically I'm gonna crowdsource this a little bit I'd love to have your input you folks out there watching and listening to the show as to what's the best tool for doing this Is it a survey thing like survey monkey? Is it a Google doc? Is what would be the great way to the best way to gather this information? Because I basically want to be able to start building this thing and have it be available to everyone Right again to then go ahead and look at and say oh wow I didn't realize this particular product has been failing for a lot of people. Maybe I should avoid it Might be good to let the manufacturers know that what's going on. Yeah, I mean they may well any legit good Manufacturer they would probably like to have this data, right? They'd want to know what products that are out there are the people are having trouble with yeah I mean most of these things are their solid state They really shouldn't fail. I mean what are some things that fail on these things, you know usually power supplies power supplies Switches and dials and buttons. Yeah things that move right and switches fail Plug plugs where you know if your connectors connectors where you plug your headphones in you walk away tears that yeah Broke a really nice USB ports. Yeah anything with mechanical connections fail But when it's something mysterious inside the box That's the stuff. I'm most concerned about I mean whatever can fail I want to know but that those things that are like mysterious failures I just had to throw it away kind of thing. That's that stuff. I'm really interested How many failures do you think are really caused by firmware more than? Perhaps the actual physical Structure of a device because we know interfaces. There are certain interfaces. We keep hearing reports of well This isn't working yet. I might as not working either. It's like Is it a design flaw? Is it a firmware? Design flaw. Is it an update to another piece of software that's making it not interact properly? So it may not actually be defective That's something I should put in the in that survey like it's not just what is it that you had that failed But what is it they had that you failed and what was what did you do at the time when it failed? Did you just walk away? Did you install something what caused that thing to stop working for you? So again, if it is a firmware update, we'll know. Yeah, I haven't had a lot of clients tell me I did a firmware update and my thing is dead now and I can't use it That's been pretty unusual lately in the old days. That was a bigger problem, right? But if it's say an OS update, yeah, that seems to be driving a lot of people nuts Yeah, some things just stop working because they literally will not work on your system anymore Right. That's another kind of failure too. So there's multiple ways things can fail Yeah, so anyway, I'm curious about that if you have ideas Send an email to the guys of EOBS TV. Tell us I got an idea on how to do this. We would really really appreciate it. Yeah Let me ask one more thing about This is just general information, okay, I'm really curious how many people out there would actually Dedicate an entire suitcase, right? Roll not not like a carry-on, but a whole suitcase. You have to check and probably pay back it for to a voiceover booth Like for your for your studio that you would take with you on traveling and going to hotel How many of you would dedicate that much of your luggage like something much larger than this? Do you think that's something that's inch of interest to you? I'm curious I definitely would love to know I mean send an email to you can send an email to the guys or And let us know how many people like that sounds interesting. I'm just curious. I see I find traveling With your voice over gear to be and I and I've been I've come to this conclusion if you're many years of doing this Unless you really have a pair of golden handcuffs, right? And you are making money you out there that yeah If you're really making money and you have to be you know update things overnight or something like that Or in one hour, right? Auditioning shouldn't be about the quality of your audio so much as it is the quality of your read if somebody there Remember most of these guys are listening to these auditions You know on their phones, right or their laptops or something like that If you record properly using your phone and your phone only in your car Using it so you're not you know using you're not talking directly into the mic and you're using the right, you know Probably and the rules like me still rules. Yeah, exactly my techniques still applies to an iPhone mic Exactly if you use it right in your car or in a closet full of clothes or something like that it if you're it's all about the performance and While it's not gonna sound the same as your home studio if you grab their attention with the way you read it And it's the audio is acceptable That's all you really need. So do you need to dedicate a suitcase? I used to auditioning no way Yeah, you know if you're if you have to finish a project You can't finish something on the road that you started in your own studio because it's gonna sound completely different So Would you I don't know I guess if you're you're into the technology of actually being able to do that Yeah, you would do that, but is it necessary, but that's just my perspective as a voice actor Yeah, I'm curious to find who gets around so the rest of this show is dedicated to your questions Absolutely got a bunch coming in, but we'd love to have more so send them in right away All right, and we'll get to those questions here on voiceover body shop tech talk right after these incredibly important denounce Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra comm Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success sign up for a free Subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition It's all here at voiceover extra comm. That's voice over XTRA comm As a voice talent you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do a break or don't look right on mobile devices They're not built for marketing and SEO. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites comm like our name implies voice actor websites comm just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control. No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change and our upfront pricing means You know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700 So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites comm where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Hey there, it's David H. Lawrence the 17th, and I'm very excited very happy to announce that as of today VO to go goes sponsorship with voiceover body shop is over Long-standing relationship. Bye-bye VO to go go and the reason I'm happy and excited about it Is that we're about to embark on a brand-new sponsorship arrangement with voiceover body shop with the new name of our website and our company The name is now VO heroes comm and there's a big reason for that I think that voiceover body shop and our company share a mission and that mission is not just to teach you how to do voiceover Really well, but to really help you become heroes to your clients your clients don't come to you just to do voiceover Your clients come to you to help them to save them to help them sell products and services to help them explain their company To help them narrate their audio book There's a million reasons why they come to you and it's all about making their lives spectacular And that's what we're going to do at VO heroes comm the new website is up I'd love to show it to you the heroes comm front page is basically a very modern clean look that tells you everything You need to succeed. It helps you meet our coaches What we do in three simple steps. We let you figure out if VO heroes is right for you We think it usually is if you're watching the show We have the same classes, but they've been heroically updated for VO heroes comm and again the look and feel is fantastic and The big thing that we wanted to do is we wanted to get off Facebook Because people have been telling us we don't want to be on Facebook. So now pro connect Which is our discussion group is on VO heroes comm when you want to talk about things with your Your your fellow pros in the VO heroes curriculum You'll be able to do it right on the site log in get all of the stuff that you want the workouts the classes the discussion The labs the recordings everything right there on one site clean awesome lovely and I'm very excited about our future now in a couple of weeks We're going to be launching officially with a great package great price lots of great bonuses Standby for that. You'll hear about it on voiceover body shop in the meantime Standby for more VO BS. I'm David H. Lawrence the 17th from VO heroes comm Before time began there was VO BS dot TV watch or else We'll be seeing mr. Lawrence again soon. We should be shouldn't we we should be Just got a lot of them there too. Anyway, so we love getting your questions But first we got to tell you what George and I do perhaps. This is one of the first times you've watched this show Could be or listened or listened to the show and you got to understand that George and I You know, there's a lot of guys that talk about home voiceover studios and what works for them Right, but what about for you every voice every every room is different every voice is different Everything is different every time you you need to set up a home studio It's a unique custom situation that has to work for you and not just your voice But your lifestyle, you know, how you know with what room you're gonna put it in we talked about that a couple weeks ago Why do you pick what room to do it in well? There's really only two guys that really have been doing this longer than anybody else And that's mr. Whitman myself And we don't say it Because we figure well, we're just great at what we do. We love what we do It's our passion. It's uh, it's been a quite a focus I'd have to say for the last 10 plus years. It's a niche in the world of niches But if you really need help learning about how to build a home studio or you want to build a voiceover palace We'll be happy to help Get ahold of us And if you want to talk to George about the stuff that he does because he does it full-time go over to George the dot tech or George the tech comm they both work There's ways to book me on there real time for a Consultation over the phone. I do actually make house calls as well when I'm in your area right now mainly Los Angeles obviously, but I am going to be at the end of next month in Montreal and Toronto and then South, Florida. So I'm gonna be on the road a little bit then Portland and Seattle the week after that So I'm getting around it. So if you're wondering if I'm gonna come to your area. Let me let me know That you're interested and Dan how about yourself? Well, you can find you you can find me over at homevoiceoverstudio.com Where I explain how I do what I do. I love working one-on-one with people me too. Yeah You know where it's you know again. If you're in LA, I love making house calls I actually bring a wrench with me No, I don't really do that. I bring a tiny little toolkit. I I've got some of those too You know, you know, but it's fun like like you know sniffing around people's homes and saying this might work Well, this is the place to do this right because people don't necessarily know what to listen for Yeah, to us. It's obvious because we we've done it for so many years and we know what what's going to work best We'll save you a ton of time and a ton of bad advice online. Oh God a lot of misdirection and confusion Yeah, that's what we're gonna save you trust us. We're gonna get to the point so check us out and you know, if you go to my website, you can also click on the specimen collection cup if you've already got a studio. Let's hear what it sounds like and We can go from there. So, you know, and you offer that that service as well get a sound check Yes, so let's get into all the fabulous questions from our fabulous audience. All right, let's plow through there's a lot of them So first one's from Rosie Goodman. Yeah, I believe I've worked with Rosie over the years a couple of times Yep, I understand biodynamic DT 770 pro headphones represents a fantastic set of headphones however for those of us on a basic beer budget not champagne budget I'm seeking advice. I'm sure you can suggest a less expensive set for catching those Extra little sounds during the editing process All right. Well right now. I'm not gonna plug anything in particular because I don't the world of Inexpensive headphones that sound pretty damn good is insane. They're there There are good jillions of them. Thanks to the iPod world and iPhone and mobile listening There's a million of headphones out there that not necessarily are designed for studio use But still have some really good sound quality And so I would recommend Starting out doing a little bit of research online if you're looking for sub I don't know $50. There are definitely a lot of options Yeah, I will name a few models that are in the professional realm though All right anything from Audio Technica starting with the ATH M20 and up M20 M30 40 50 All of them and are really good the 20s are not quite as good as the 40s But the 40s are just about as good as the 50s and as you go up from there They just get more fancy materials right higher quality builds, but the sound quality doesn't really change Dramatically as you go up in price. I'm not a big headphone user Yeah, you know I will use earbuds if I want to listen to music at night, right? But I know in the studio I use studio monitors if you're doing a session where you know, you can't have the monitor zone I'll use headphones, but I can hear in just about anything What really is the difference between these models that people would listen for it's like well This sounds good to me, but is that the right sound? Oh, man headphones are There's so much. They're so subjective. They're they're like mics, but nothing like mics like I can put the same Mic up on 20 different people right and get and be okay But if I put that same pair of headphones on 20 different people's heads Seven of them are gonna say they hurt my ears five say they're gonna they're too bright some say they're too dark headphones are super super personalized and The price that you pay for the headphones these days doesn't really Mean a whole heck of a lot as to how you think they're gonna sound I think most important is how they feel right that you can if if you're gonna be editing in headphones You gotta you're gonna be wearing them a lot. Um, so if you're buying headphones for voiceover Acting because you have to wear them for whatever reason. Maybe you're getting a lot of direction Then get something that's a closed ear headphone. Um our friend a booth junkie Uh mike dog audio just did a couple good youtube videos about this about types of headphones and why he does wear them in the booth He actually did one about that. Yeah, um, but yeah, you don't have to spend a lot But you can do a little google little amazon searching a little reviewed reading and things like that and find some good bargains out there But uh audio technica senheiser AKG those three have been making headphones for a very long time None of them make anything that's in the junk category and some under $50 right and what rosie was asking is like It's to hear those little subtle clicks and things that you're gonna hear that with just about any headphone pretty much I mean unless you're using a pair of crystal set headphones You know, you're gonna you're gonna hear those little subtle things Especially if they're sealed over the ear headphones like these are the harlan hogan vio headphones great and they're sealed I mean you hear everything Sometimes to your detriment. I won't get into that. Don't drive one. Actually. We actually just We just did an episode of pro audio suite. Yeah about being picky. Yeah, we just talked about When are you being too picky as a voiceover actor or a producer right and part of that had to do with headphones Because they they magnify every darn little sound and you go crazy trying to fix it all Yeah, so important points to consider. What a what a rant on that one. We got more to get through here Absolutely. Um next on the list So something about cloud lifters actually a friend of susan our producer had asked about cloud lifters. What? Um, she he she said that somebody recommended a cloud lifter to solve a problem that was Completely wrong about what this thing does. So right so a cloud lifter The roger cloud that developed cloud microphones Invented this cloud lifter thing. It's been knocked off by many companies. There's many products out there They're all going to be generically called cloud lifters now. Thanks to roger cloud What they do is they just basically boost the level of a dynamic or a ribbon microphone Um, they do it by taking phantom power in and then using a very simple circuit on the inside boost that signal theoretically without creating any additional noise or Uh, any coloration to the sound it just it's a very simple electronic circuit that raises the level um So these things work generally with dynamics and ribbon mics because they don't pass phantom power um So what they do is they take your dynamic mic or ribbon mic that is not very low output Not sensitive and makes it sensitive So now if you add one of these to a studio that has a lot of background noise from computers fans air conditioning What's going to happen? Yeah, all that stuff's going to get a lot louder now because you just added 20 to 25 db Of sensitivity to said microphone. Yeah, it's not a filter. It's an amplifier. It just makes the mic louder Nothing, that's it's all it does So if you get one of these and you're trying to make your studio quieter It's not necessarily going to fix it What it can do is if you're using a really cheap interface with one of these dynamic mics and you have the gain pegged All the way is louder can go and there's a lot of hiss What these can do is get you end up with less hiss Sometimes right so you're able to run your preamp at a much lower amount of gain And sometimes they end up sounding cleaner. So yeah that noise level will drop right They're fun to use. You know, I've got my collection of ribbon mics and ones I've built and stuff Yeah, you've got to have good output on them And you know the cloud lifters which was it was really designed for that for ribbon mics because ribbon mics You know, they went out of they went out of style in the in the 50s and 60s And uh, but they were brought back because they had that nice warm analog sound to them and a lot of guitarists And recording engineers were like, let's bring them back because we can capture them more accurately using digital Uh audio it's much easier to use these mics now with our current gear than it used to be Yeah, because you used to have big preamps and right god No wonder audio sounded like garbage in the 30s. Yeah, it was tough to get sound with the gear we were using um In terms of microphones another option. So if you're looking for a mic that is a condenser mic that's very sensitive But doesn't have that sort of A little bit bright sound to it that most condenser mics have nowadays You want it to be a little smoother? Maybe your voice is a little bit bright Maybe it's a female voice and it has a very bright curve to it There is one microphone that I've recommended a few times and I found somebody mentioning this mic on facebook I named scott f win and that is the i'm sure at ksm 32 um It's a it's a nice mic for Smoothing out what would sometimes sound harsh or sibilant on other microphones Um, so that mic is a little bit different from the norm And the nice thing about is it's not crazy expensive either right? I think it's in the four to five hundred dollar range, which is in the upper range that we usually recommend Yeah, yeah, it's not crazy expensive But if you are looking for a mic when people say I'm looking for a mic for a female voice or something I guess sigh because you know we can put almost any mic on any voice and make it sound good But still this mic will maybe complement some women's voices or just shrill sharp sounding microphone uh voices and male and man or sibilant voices And smooth it out a little bit. So I mean, I'm generally of the opinion And this is just from experience and being a voice actor and like I've used different mics and we've done mic shootouts here and people say oh dance sounds great as this or it sounds better on that one Why is there a varying opinion about because everybody hears differently? So My opinion is is the mic you have is the mic you have And there's not something mechanically wrong with it Right, it's going to pick you up as you exist. Yeah with maybe slight little different colorations But those are things that can be adjusted in post by producers by little Little tiny tweaks if people are like, all right, we gotta add more bass to the you know It's not like that and I think again people overthink What what these parameters are and that it's not that critical if you're sibilant It may not be the mic. It may not even be the recording. It may be what you're listening to it Oh boy, that happens a lot That happens a lot. Yeah, or or you're talking Into the wrong side of the mic which Which which we get a lot. Why does it sound so uh, why does it hollow and hollow all the bottom turn the mic around? It's a one sided mic. Yeah, we get that one a lot. All right. Carl Gillette, um from v obs dot tv Hello, all I have a tech question. My apologies if this has been covered my current Everything's been covered, but we're happy to re-answer this My current processing chain consists of isotope mouth de-click Some eq which is a high pass filter and a small notch at about 340 hertz It's sort of that nasally range. Um gentle compression and normalizing, but we'll be adding a gate to that Oof talk about the gate. Yeah, what is the best order for processing chain? Or are there always any always always always or never never never rules? Okay, if it depends on who you ask many would say never never never process anything But if you're trying to smooth out the sound that you're giving out for an audition trying to correct for a room issue or something like that Sequencing this is the way I do it. Basically. I recommend if you're going to use a mouth de-clicker do that while you're editing So you're going to edit you're going to de-click then edit because you want to hear the result of the de-clicker While you're editing because the de-clicker will screw stuff up. It will either Remove something it should it should not like a t or a k and you'll have a e a d or a t A t will turn into a d Is that right something like the dialect calls for that it takes a way that you know The sharp attack of words right or it will miss things that you want to remove so you got to do that first Then from there on, you know, sometimes I'll do normalization if I think the audio level needs to be corrected Um, then I'll do a high pass filter compression Now gating Um If you're using gate as a generalized term, okay I don't recommend gating because basically what a gait is is the sound will just disappear when you're not talking Right, it's just like you've turned the mic on off on off Sounds really unnatural and unsmooth and sounds like you chop the audio up By editing if it's set wrong if it's set wrong There's there's there's ways that you can use a gait An expander is really the more of the geekier term But it's yeah what we really want to talk about as an expander what that does is When you're not speaking the level of the background noise drops somewhat right doesn't go Total silence So then I would have that in the chain Then I use eq to shape a little bit a little bit brighter a little darker blah blah blah And then lastly I'll use a limiter Um, and I'm using that mainly just to make the level back up. I'm doing an audiobook I'm using it to slam the meters To get these crazy numbers that audiobook producers want Um, but generally that's the sequence that I personally use them But this is there is no always always never never it's at all in processing ever right It's completely dependent on the situation the voice the room the mic everything else And there's really no one size fits all secret sauce to this. Oh, no. No, I mean, you know, I Do I believe in processing if necessary? Yeah, you know, if somebody sends me some audio and I'm like, well, you know, you could adjust this just a little bit or something Most of these changes most of these processes Are very very minute Changes because if you're you're trying to overemphasize something One someone's gonna notice it and you don't you don't want that Uh, if by chance you're in a noisy place, you know, again, we were talking about If you're throwing out a audition out there and you're on the road and it's not your regular place It's okay to try some of these things As long as they know that you're not in your regular studio And don't try to fool right Yeah, don't don't think about this technology as the way that you're gonna get voice overwork the way you're gonna get voice overwork is taking acting classes and improv classes and Voice acting classes and learning how to be a good voice actor because the technology will take care of itself If you keep to the basic rules that we teach people about, you know, mic technique and acoustics And and setting proper levels, which nobody seems to understand You know, but we we try that's why that's why we're here on voiceover body shop to teach you what these things are about and Don't overthink this stuff and you know because that question I I cringe every time I see a question like that because it's like Like who have you been listening to and like well you can use this this makes me sound great Well, you're not you and you don't hire you right so that's that's been coming up a lot more in conversation with my clients So you don't hire you right so don't be saying that makes me sound great. Oh boy. Who cares? If it doesn't sound great to somebody else as we were saying before about microphones Well, somebody thinks I sound great on that mic and there's this one. No, he sounds better on that Well, that That creates the the answer right there. Yeah Next up Jonathan Orara said what makes the universal audio interfaces so great for vo These are the universal audio Apollo right this comes in arrow. Yeah. Are the virtual prams worth that cost? This kind of dovetails to what we were talking about yeah the You can get a fantastic sounding voiceover with a hundred dollar mic pram like a steinberg ur12 a scarlet 2i solo Yeah, absolutely You can get these really great sounding recordings with these tools So what you're buying when you buy an Apollo or something like that is a lot more complexity in terms of the signal routing Where things can go in and out of the computer from this app back to that app You're also buying processing and you're buying mic preamp emulation um That matters at a certain level I think if you've been doing this a really long time and you're doing a lot of live direct reads Live record remote record reads like source connect and that sort of thing Then you are definitely sometime there's no People buy them because they're really cool And I get they get to hire me to play around with their sound and that's all kind of fun But the people that really need it are the ones doing very fast turnaround stuff. It's almost always affiliates Uh promo and things where they have to be very quick and and it's got to be right on the other end because they're doing it over Yeah, it's being captured on the end and the other end and it's going it things are in a very rapid turnaround That's where processing front end like that recording through the processor into the computer Is really advanced. It's an advantage at that time and it were necessary sometimes Yeah, but I don't know is it or if the upgrade I have no idea. I cannot answer that question I can't answer that question all of this stuff every last piece of gear That we talk about Except for a couple like the herlin hogan voice optimized headphones or the vo1a or one of these None of this stuff was designed for voiceover. It was all designed for producing music The apollo series the the universal audio stuff when we've been to their booth at nam and at NAB and it's like it's amazing what you can do with it If you are a musician or or a producer or a sound designer like a good friend, uncle roy You're not you're in your closet Or you're in a booth and you're you know in your living room or wherever it is that you do this All of this stuff is not relevant to How good can you read copy because all the equipment in the world's not going to help you if you can't read your Way out of a paper bag Which i'd like to see um anyway uh Most of this stuff it's overkill for what you need now again if it's is it cool. Yeah, does it sound better? than another interface That's kind of objective and like you were saying you can get a really good recording You know I use a very simple interface. I hardly use any processing at all if at all When you listen when you talk to the sales reps, you know, they say the new mark two version Oh, yeah, gotta get that one the old one The converters are so much better and all this stuff That maybe matters if you're retracting 75 mics for an orchestra and the detail from all the mics starts to Nothing to the voice over. Oh man. You don't you don't need to worry about that Okay, moving on we've ranted enough. I think about that He also had a question about headset mics that are good enough for voiceover Especially for audiobooks and long form narration dan at one time you were Demoing some headset mics from dpa. Dpa. Yes. Dana. Did she try recording any vo with them? I tried a little bit We used it on the show one night and it sounded great on the show. It's a headset mic uh You had I think it's one of those things that You don't buy it because it'll be good for that You use it because you know how to use it and what to use it for Having it is not the same as the knowledge of how to I mean you you buy a special kind of paintbrush When you're painting you to do a very specific thing. Yeah, uh for audiobooks You know a good one will sound good Uh, but a bad one will sound like that sounds like a headset mic. It can be they can be thin And noisy so not lack lacking a lot of low end richness and very uh, not not clean Right. Unless you're spending I'm saying north of three or four hundred dollars. Yeah, minimum. Yeah, the dpa's were really expensive Eight eight nine hundred dollars. Yeah, but they were really built to do what what that is. Yeah, and uh, yes I mean the short answer is yes. There are headset mics that I could say for sure would be usable for Definitely audiobooks. Yeah, some voiceover work for sure. Um, people are doing, um Where they call it mo cap stuff. Yeah, it's or animation It's not uncommon now for them to have a lavalier mic Hell onto their forehead with a sweatband. Right just or or the hood they're wearing. Yeah, there'll be a mic right here Um, that is that the sound quality is very good when used correctly, but uh, um, generally they're just The ones that are good enough are still very expensive. So unless you have a really good reason Probably not worth the investment and finally a not question from our good buddy Fred north at rimes with orange He says, uh, you know, I take One week to attend a trips often my income is largely from retainer clients So I can't be off as much as I travel If I know I have a walk-in closet where I'm going I take my porta booth mic and interface if not I pack a suitcase with my pvc frame and moving blankets It works very well for my business and travel happens It works for fred But fred knows how to use it I'm assuming he needs it. Yeah, because he says he has retainer clients. So for him, it's a necessity. Um He will actually he's he will actually bring a suit That's amazing. I haven't seen anybody doing that yet fred. So that's really fascinating to To hear that but for some people they don't want to just they don't want to improvise when they get there They want to have something that They know is going to work. So that's half the fun of doing it though is the challenge of you know, where's the duvet? Shopping for some people that's fun and for other people's it's a nightmare. It's a pure nightmare. Yes. So anyway Well, and on that note, then thanks for that fred. We appreciate that. Um slipping it under the wire Okay, we got time for one more And I love the screen name. So let's make sure this is legit Yeah, which which means the The yeah, okay. Yeah All right, we either means he's a right a proctologist or so we have a proctologist who says hey guys How would you prioritize spending on equipment for a novice? Novice no kidding. Yeah against the following A mic sound treatment headphones and doll in other words, if you're just starting and on a fixed budget Where would you put your money first to last? Well, that's a good question. Yeah, definitely. Okay. Let's let's see acting classes If you've got a let's say you have $3,000. Okay, let's say some of you are starting with $1,000 800 that better go to classes and acting Um sound treatment for sure like acoustics is absolutely way more important than the microphone you're using sound of the room Is yeah far more important. That is definitely where you start with your money. Then you can get your microphone Headphones not so necessary as we've said on the show before And dot well nowadays there are several options that are totally scot-free audacity Oh ocean audio Wave pad there's a couple decent free ones out there. They're great ones and zeros are ones and zeros guys Yeah, they just they don't sound better than pro tools because It's just digital audio, which is digital audio what comes off the interface and right so, you know, that's there There you go. There's your prioritization of your budget. So Run with that and uh, good luck. Yeah, with your rectal examinations My friend my mom wanted me to be a proctologist says a whole lot about my mom Yeah, you can specialize in this Anyway, um, there we go. That's it. I think that's that's a lot of stuff Oh, he's a riot talking with you about this stuff That's yeah, we did already. Well, we'll be right back and uh, we'll wrap things up 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 rig 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, uh, I think they speak for themselves But I will give you my email. It's j michael at jmc voiceover dot com Now if dan will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show This is the time of the show where we get to talk about one of our wonderful sponsors source elements Those are the creators of source connect That is a software that voice acting pros are being demanded to have in their home studios By the commercial studios of the world How do I know this? Well, I've set up software for everybody on every platform and in every scenario you can imagine And this is the one that people are being requested to get It's a standalone application doesn't run on a google chrome browser So you have a lot more stability involved And this software has been tried and true tested improved the whole nine for well over 10 years now So if you really want to be establishing a business and voiceover that works with the top studios in the world Top agents that kind of thing make sure you have source connect locked and loaded in your studio Absolutely important. Go get a 15 day free trial at source dash elements dot com 15 day free trial You don't need an eye lock little usb dungley thing to get set up with source connect standard right away So go give it a try and tell them we sent you we'll be right back right after this Hey, it's time to talk about our good friend harlan hogan and voice over essentials And tonight voice over essentials announces a promo code to get a discount on their porta booths like this one here Now what with material labor and shipping cost increases? Not to mention tariffs and the straw that broke the camel's back a big hike in storage cost They had to raise prices on the booths by just a little bit Just ten dollars on the porta booth plus and twenty dollars on the porta booth pro But our wonderful v obs viewers can still get either of their booths for their original price for the next two weeks You should go to of course voice over essentials dot com easy to get there at the bottom of our page Just click the picture of harlan there and put either of their booths in their shopping cart and Enter the promo code booths 24 in the promo code field and click the submit promo code button That'll get you ten dollars off the plus and twenty dollars off for the pro Get a porta booth now at the original price at voiceover essentials dot com. Thanks a lot harlan This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our body shop Alrighty and ella is with us as she is with you all summer her last show of the summer She heads back to seattle on saturday. We're lucky you where it actually rains every now and again Next week on this show we will have a very special guest. I won't mention any names But uh, we'll see it's it's it's a secret it is and uh, but we will reveal that when the time comes Uh, who are our donors of the week? We've got ant land productions. Let me read that one Christy burns michelle blanker Sarah broages, broages. Yeah, philips appear Tray Tray speaks For you for you. Tray speaks for you Read that one Tom pinto and patty gibbons. Those are our donations donors of the week Who says our our education system isn't teaching our kids to read she's doing all right We get her to read once in a while. All right. Uh, hey show us your booths Uh, we've got um tom johnson's booth here. It's right. It's not his booth Is it it's his closet his closet booth? You know, I mean you can see his close working voice actor booth actually looks like you know I'm actually setting up a closet for a client and it's like well. Look you need a place to hang your clothes It's a big walk-in closet hang the clothes. I'm saving myself all sorts of effort So we got to go get a clothes bar for in there There it is. That's what it looks like and now we know what he wears Uh Let's see what else. Uh, make sure if you want to work with george, you go over to george the tech dot com And dan's available over at home voiceover studio dot com That's we'll get those in there. There we go. All right now. We caught her off guard I don't have a rapid fire already Let's see here. Uh, you want to be in our studio and watch the show live We're here every other monday, uh doing the show live and uh, if you're in the greater los angeles area Join us Because as you can see there's plenty of room Uh, and write to us at the guys at the obs dot tv and uh, if we're we got space for you like we do tonight Uh, come join us and enjoy the vintage microphone and vintage radio collection Yes, which is ever growing the new zenith am fm from 1950 that i found nothing is says mid-century modern The 1950 and it's handsome in the corner and it sounds great I mean i had to get a lube it up a little bit and clean the you know the contacts and suddenly came to life That's i didn't think it was gonna work, but there it is Uh, we need to thank our sponsors, of course, uh harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Source elements vo heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com And j michael colin's demos. All right. It's like radio lab. Good job colin's Collins yep j michael stop All right. Those are our sponsors Yes, and dan and the dan and marcy lendard foundation for the betterment of live web casting and uh, of course Are are in the chat room mike tonight mike marlino did a fabulous job in the chat room But even better than that is his mom Uh, so marlino who is our technical director and she gets it all done and we really appreciate that Uh, well that's gonna do it for us this week. Uh, join us next week Got any questions for us? Send them to us at the guys at v obs dot tv as you can hear we love answering your voice over home studio questions So, uh, if we do we we will do that for you. Uh, that's gonna do it for us this week. I'm dan lendard I'm george wittem I'm elah wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vo bs and remember if it sounds good It is good. Take care guys. Good night everybody. Bye