 Hey, it's time for tech talk number 47 We're gonna do the fingers anymore. We're oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot it doesn't work anymore That's right. We're gonna actually put a scoreboard up at number 47 47 47 speaking of scoreboards the bills are actually gonna make the playoffs this year may actually win the division the Eagles The Patriots Sorry guys anyway The bills need a chance I they look they look good last night against the Steelers, but Yeah, and the Rams and everybody else for that matter, but we're not talking about football We're here to talk about voiceover tech and if you have a question about your home studio about equipment or technique or You got a buzz or a hum or something like that and You want to know more about it, you know where the guys to talk about it So put it in the chat room right now if you're watching on Facebook and Yes, you needed that right about now didn't you I did my ear just love that and So if you got a question throw it in there because we're gonna do tech talk right now Here it is voiceover 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 Wittem 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.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 voice over 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, hi there. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voice over body shop or VO Be Tech talk talk tech talk talk tech talk tech talk tech talk Tech talk not tick-tock Anyway, not to be confused. Yeah, we got a lot of cool stuff to talk about tonight And by the way, this is our last show of 2020. Thank God Get out of this year. This has been My goodness, I mean, how have we survived this year? I mean, actually we've survived because everybody needed a home studio Yeah, if you're saying if you're talking about we meaning you and me Yes, yeah, you and me in a good year for business. Yeah, but by surviving by sheer will for a lot of us Yeah, yeah now with this you know this surge is like, you know, I mean I haven't gotten sick I hardly know anybody that's gotten sick. I mean, yeah here and there But man in some places it is really bad. Yeah, so, uh, you know our best everybody who's recovering and the rest of you Wear a mask wash your hands Yeah anyway Because of this pandemic Everybody's got to have a home studio Everybody and the thing is this will talk about this a little bit later when we talk about, you know, what's gonna go on in 2021 if you're gonna have a home voiceover studio, you got to do it right and The fact is is where do you get the right information? Well, George and I have the answer to that and that is Talk to one of us. We know what we're doing. We know what it's supposed to sound like Whistle and I think that's probably one of the issues that most people don't get they they hear stuff on the radio or they hear stuff on TV or they see stuff on YouTube and They don't have the right idea of really what it's supposed to sound like But because George and I have been doing this so long, you know, we know what it's supposed to sound like We know how to get you there, right? That's right. That's what we do. I do it over at George the dot-tech If you want help with your studio stuff on George the dot-tech is the domain a new website's coming in 2021 Yes Thanks to my friend the rentable voice acting websites.com. They're building Furiously Karen is burning the midnight oil Literally even the oil they don't have it's a tonica. I get it. It's got a last great days Her it's lasted like all of 2020 Yeah, and but that site will be up soon But in the meantime, you can still book services and get sound checks and and all that kind of thing over at George The dot-tech and if you want to work with Dan it over to home voiceover studio Dot-com home voiceover studio dot-com where I have the specimen collection cup which I earlier this year it my cup was running well runneth over it was Everybody was like it doesn't sound okay a lot of times it does But I will give you a very thorough analysis if you go over to my website scroll to the bottom of the page Go to the specimen collection cup click on the specimen collection cup It will open a drop box and there are specific instructions. I Want to hear your raw audio? I think that's a problem that a lot of people have is that they're like well I got to use all this technology. I got to use this compressor and I got it I want it raw because we want to start from a Ground base of which to build and if you get it right up front There's really not a whole lot you have to do on the back end So I want to hear your raw audio and see where it is. We need to make physical changes to get your audio sounding right So $25 audio analysis use the specimen collection cup Alrighty again the end of plug-a-palooza, but by the way, this is why we do this show This was the whole point ten years ago When it was like hey, let's do a show. It was all about presenting what you and I do which is This very this really narrow niche of home voiceover studios not everybody does this So we decided to do it and like they always said who's gonna want to watch a show about home voiceover studios Ten years later. We're still doing it So clearly there is a need Anyway, mr. Whitham you you delve into the internet you you're there constantly and probably more than usual because you're at home And you dig up all the interesting tech things from the voiceover world and what do you have for us this week? Well, I won't dwell on the MacBook Air M1 because you know, oh go on please. We're not supposed to be using these yet They're too new Don't go by this incredible piece of high value quiet easy to use reliable technology Don't do it. Why would you want to do that? That's what they're expecting us to do. That's the problem No, it's it's the MacBook Pro M1 is is proven now through a month now of testing by a lot of the youtubers that I watch and Myself included of just trying different apps to see what runs and what doesn't Overall, it's been pretty good, but it is still early days because there's not a lot of Native support for the M1 machines. There it is right there and Quickly meaning native support. What do you mean by that? Native support meaning like so what happens is when you run software on a new silicon the Mac It has to be translated from its native Compiled language or whatever. I know enough to sound like I know I'm talking about that It's the software that was that runs on these is written for an Intel processor and So the the processor uses a certain way of operating and the language has to be written to run on said processor Silicon has a different architecture. Maybe that's the right word And so software that was not written to run natively on the silicon processors or chipset Need to be translated so Apple has written this thing called Rosetta that does that for you and so far It's done it very very well I've I've tried a few of the popular recording softwares that we do use on Mac That I thought would work and the ones that I've tried so far have twisted wave audacity audition and Reaper those four I have definitely tested on the M1 Mac and of course is also running Big Sur So those are two big variables, right? It has to run not only on Big Sur But it has to be able to support the silicon Mac and that stuff has worked I've also tested a few pieces of hardware audio gear because that's also a big deal can in the computer and Big Sur support your interfaces and a few that I tested because I had the best guess that they would work Certainly have I the very first one I tested because it was handy and just because it's really awesome I was the mic port Pro 2 That worked without a hitch Then I tested out. What else did I test a road AI one? Again worked without a hitch I Surmise that any interface that uses the what it we call plug-and-play or the USB class compliant Whatever that is same thing anything that yeah, just doesn't require and a special console Talking about you Apollo Anything that doesn't require special drivers and a console and all sort of stuff to operate works You seems to be working beautifully Sean Daly a friend of our show and great guy voice actor in the biz who loves the technology He's gotten himself. I think an M1 Mac book pro and an M1 Mac mini Crazy Yeah, and but he loves the tech and he's been hammering on those two and he's had pretty good success I think he's also using RX RX 8 on the the new Mac M1 system, so It is supporting a lot of things but just keep in mind if you reach out for support from a lot of these companies and the audio interface Support teams and you say I'm on an M1 Mac with big sir They're gonna go. Oh look good luck to you because we haven't we haven't approved our software for that So I think a apogee the apogee stuff is official for big sir and Twisted wave has been working pretty much since day one on big sir So it's it's been a good experience, but not flawless. And so it's not it's still a little bit early Yeah, how long should people wait before they delve into that then it's this is tough. So, you know Always that guy saying don't buy the newest newest thing from Apple don't buy generation one Stuff from Apple because you're basically testing something that they've just you know basically finished developing That's kind of that's definitely true for the the operating system It's always a little wonky in the first few at iterations, you know the first few updates Hardware wise though, this is kind of interesting because the chip or what's called the SOC the system on a chip That's basically the entire computer other than the keyboard and screen and the battery That's something that's been in use in one form or another in iPhones and iPads for like 10 years So they they've gotten really good at that and so that's not I'm not so worried about it being unreliable and so far a Lot of watched a lot of content on this machine and it's proven to be stable and reliable So I'm not so worried about that It's just making sure that you're gonna not have any gotchas in the middle of your work day or at the point Where you need to deliver a file. Oh, I never thought that that website wouldn't support the new version of Safari or whatever It is, you know, so to answer your question directly at least three months I think is pretty safe and by then a lot of us, you know People that are that are crazy or did decide to buy a new one We'll have had chances to try it out And if you want to be in a conversation about all of this stuff, definitely join the Facebook group called Mac and iOS for B. Oh It's about 500 people in there and it's without me it'd be 499. Yes And and it's a good place to talk about all things new Apple anything Mac or Apple's related But especially it's it's where the conversation is happening about what works on these new computers Going in another direction. So I mentioned Apigee. Yeah, we've we've all tried and used and some of us really love the Apigee Mike and I've had good test good good results with it and we know it has pros and cons is extremely tiny That could be good or bad. Not very forgiving with plosives. You got to use it. Definitely not Easy to pop. It's kind of got tiny little fiddly buttons and knobs on the unit which make it a little harder to use But it works now. Here's what surprised me I got to do a booth remodel actually a booth move for Lori Allen And I'll I'll try to share some sound samples of her yeah of her studio now Lori had this very very narrow little studio as I recall she really did had to go into it sideways it was comically small if you want to see pictures of of Her new booth and one of me standing in the old booth after I tore everything out because I was I did forgot to take a before photo My I have it on Instagram George the tech one word on Instagram But it's it's it was very tiny and it worked fine because mostly what she was doing at home was quick auditions Maybe a promo spot or something for a Hallmark channel or whatever. She was doing mostly short things now It shows like the spots but like SpongeBob SquarePants want to go back into production, you know, and they're like well It's time we need to get back to work And so they shipped out kits to all of the actors So they all have the same computer the same software and the same mic and the mic they sent out was the Apigee Hype mic the newest iteration of the Apigee mic So it's kind of hard to believe and you can't you can't buy promotion like this, but there you go Apigee SpongeBob is being recorded on USB mics I Couldn't I couldn't write it. I was kind of trying to parse like She's got a 416 and you know, she's got good gear in here This is the mic they wanted to use and it started I put the pieces together and I realized there's a couple reasons for it one They can guarantee some level of consistency from actor to actor and To they can control it remotely. That's one thing. That's kind of cool about the hype mic, right? It has it's it's a digitally controlled mic you control the gain and stuff from inside a little app That runs on the computer and what they're doing for that show and this is happening more and more now is The show is being remotely engineered And I think this is awesome and I think this is the way things should be going and this is something I'd like to talk about later about predictions for 2021 is that more and more voice work Will be remote engineered not just remote source connect recorded But fully remote engineered where somebody acting the levels and the EQ and all that stuff The actor just make sure the system is up and running and The rest is out of their hands and so with the Nickelodeon setup They've got a MacBook Pro running. I think it's TeamViewer. I can't remember and so they they can do it They can as soon as she turns on the machine and logs in they're in there and they launch the software They're gonna use I believe it's garage band, which kind of scratching my head on why they chose that I'd love to talk to the engineers as to why they're using garage band, but that's what they're using and They're just recording her far. They're recording her on the computer and They're remote engineering it while she's list. Well, I think they're listening to her on Zoom I think that's what it is And so it's kind of odd, but this is you know Yeah, every production is coming up with their own solutions and workflows as to how they want to work And this is what they seem to be found to work for them So now so the engineer you don't have to worry am I clipping am I over driving whatever the engineer can just buy remote Pot down the mic turn down the gain a little bit as necessary and it's the wave of the future I think really I think it is I I for a long time I thought that this would be not only a brain a no-brainer for actors So they really can act and not think about the technology, but also so that engineers could continue having careers Because oh man, there's just so much less work for the audio engineers now because we're working from home So this seems to be a perfect marriage You know, I'm really excited about that. So yeah bottom line is USB mic They I mean we know that they can be good. Well, especially if the epigee USB mics They they've mastered the an interface inside a microphone to where it's Indistinguishable from some other mics and in fact if you get the mk4 digital the Sennheiser USB mic, it's sort of like the grown-up Apigee mic It's the Apigee on the inside and it's the sure I'm sorry the Sennheiser capsule on the outside So yeah, it's good stuff. So anyway, I thought it'd be kind of fun too because what we did was move studios for Lori We tried to do this just in like one afternoon. So it wasn't too disruptive But what I tried to pull off was moving everything gear and the acoustical treatment from a room That's roughly a foot and a half wide five feet long and seven feet high to a room that's at least twice that in dimensions so it's maybe about the same width, but it's twice as deep and it's got a taller ceiling and We just I just literally just relocated all the paneling and tried to rearrange everything and see if we could get away with it and The sound was good But the real test was if I had Lori record something in the old booth and the new booth Which through the miracle of time travel we could do I just had her pull up something from her old booth And then had her thing and she does today in the last minute. Thanks, Lori For the interest in the interest of science. I had her rerecord the same exact script Her sand here same signal chain the 416 and into the computer and well This is just so here are the two recordings. Let's see if you Dan I know you've heard this already. So I know you were cheating here, but this time Yeah, let's pretend. Let's let's see if you can figure out which was the old booth And which was the new booth and let me pot down Whatever's playing back audio right now because that's gonna get into the mix and we don't want that. There we go Okay, so here's sample one This is one of the studios and then I'll play the other one So what were the chances your parents would somehow find each other at that one party? Your mom didn't even want to go to and have you and what were the odds there? One single role of the DNA dice would produce not almost you but with freckles or almost you but with a louder laugh But actual genuine you one in four hundred trillion All right at studio one And here's studio two So what were the chances your parents would somehow find each other at that one party? Your mom didn't even want to go to and have you and what were the odds there? One single role of the DNA dice would produce not almost you but with freckles or almost you but with a louder laugh But actual genuine you Hmm. There we go. So those are the two rooms So Lori did a good job of being pretty consistent with Mike placement. I level matched them as to minus 20 Rms in twisted waves so they could be as close to that as similar as possible What are you hearing Dan? What do you what do you hear between those two recordings? Um? What what I heard, I mean, it's I mean the differences is totally subtle and subtle right? It's pretty subtle and the fact of the matter is is those subtle differences would make no difference to somebody who was taking that audio on the other end Is that it was clear? It was crisp. It was proper low noise. There's no background. No distortion at all they sounded very crisp and You know one had The slight feel of a slightly larger room, but that's okay and And and so whatever you did it wouldn't make any difference. I guess that the the question is it's not letting hairs Right, it's not gonna make any difference whether she books work or not She's yeah is who she is and the audio quality was excellent on both so right? So I mean if you heard them in a vacuum It was like if you didn't have them against to hear against each other you probably both of them are fine, right? I mean So yeah, so so I'm seeing one comment in the room that J. Horace says studio to sounds like she is closer To the mic she more present and that might be true actually I didn't you know I didn't want to make it. I don't want to be too hard on her and say take a selfie I was the exactly how from them from the mic you are But studio to is the small studio the really small studio, so she's in a really tight tight space and That has an acoustical effect And it also means that she could physically be closer to the mic She can't physically move very far away from it Whereas studio one first sample is the new space which is more larger in volume It's got to be at least twice probably three times volumetrically bigger and what's bizarre it would submit What's really interesting is that I'm using the exact same acoustical paneling Save for a couple of squares of one inch acoustical foam that she had from this little portable folding thing You know we just repurposed it that was it It's the same panels just redistributed which is an interesting challenge is like okay We're gonna move the panels to the new room well doesn't not the same size the height's different everything's different But we got something out of it that works pretty well if I'm gonna be a really a stickler about it I might add some more Paneling to control a little bit of mid-range, but it's it's pretty dang close So you know that was fun, and I'm glad that she was game to send us those samples because It's so rare in fact I can't really think of too many examples ever where I've gotten to have two rooms and have everything be exactly the same Except the size so that was cool Yeah, I am so it's it's interesting that the size of the room really isn't that much of a factor if you treat it right and The fact that and as I recall from that both everything was covered in here. You have some more open space That's right between tails, and I remember Bo Weaver telling us once about yeah I'd like having a brick wall behind me so it doesn't you know So my all the energy isn't sucked out of my voice by all this sound absorbing material And so I think it worked probably pretty well, and I think giving her the room to actually breathe Can you imagine her doing pearl the whale in her old little booth like this like where she can't move no no room To gesticulate it all of course pearl had a little tiny arms as a whale true That's true. Oh My god, so that was really cool. So anyway, that's that's it for my tech update But let's have a little talk about maybe as I alluded to 2021 Predictions we have some theme music it's time for 2021 Yeah, that wasn't the sample I wanted I wanted this one. I've used that one before 21 predictions. Okay, let's do it The first thing I have on this bullet list and Dan feel free to I will interject add some more to this I just came up with this but I Know you guys who are Windows users I got to just shake your head and think we're a bunch of Apple Ma so and so's but I think in 2021 Mac computer sales are really going to go up and increase and Windows based system sales are going to start lagging behind Maybe not at the really budget end because you know, there's a lot of people that just need a Basic computer and they cannot they can't get up to that $1,000 Apple Fresh well $699 threshold for a Mac mini But you know, maybe for them that that's not gonna be a factor but man for that $700 point of entry There there's just absolutely nothing that compares from the windows side custom made handmade Made out of parts from a yard sale that knows just nothing That's gonna touch what this computer is gonna be gonna keep can and can do and it's just gonna get better at a very rapid clip and this is because of The architecture what Apple has invented and designed and built in-house and their chips It's just remarkable and Intel is Intel and AMD AMD is starting to do better than than Intel with the PCs They have their rise in chips and they're really pretty impressive, but boy, I think I think there's gonna be more people really Thinking about making that switch From the windows platform People are very fearful if they've been PC the unknown. Yeah, that's like oh, I don't like it I tried it. I didn't understand it because you used it for five minutes when you use a Mac It learns how you work. It really is a very intuitive machine and you have to get used to it And once it is once you really get used to the process and how a Mac works. It's like Why did I ever do anything else plus I was there 15 years ago in that exact spot as same here? Absolutely, you know somebody at Banjo Emporium said hey, I've tried Mac. I'm like, no So I bought a Mac and I've never gone back. It's it's been rock solid. I've had Literally no major issues. I've never now granted when I give my computers to my kids and they spill a coke on it You know things are gonna happen, but What in my production work and the work that I've had Mac minis and MacBook Pros and airs They have been rock solid if you take care of them if you know how to do the maintenance on them and the maintenance on a Mac is much easier because it's easier to if something something stalls or gets, you know if you it's easy to get out of it and It generally it generally is going to save you when perhaps a PC will just Smoke will start to come out of it and that sort of thing and so I've always been I've always been a Mac person Really since I started doing voiceover work the core audio in a Mac just works better Yeah, I mean I came from building PCs and doing some light gaming I was never really hardcore, but I did play did a lot of remote gaming or internet LAN gaming And so when I moved to LA in 2004 I was still running PCs and doing everything I needed to do in PCs I think I still even had a rack mounted PC that I'd custom built But my clients out here were on Mac mostly and so I was really forced to adapt I really had to get up to speed I bought a Mac mini and after about six months and then Installing virtual machines so I could run Windows because I did still have to run a couple of things that are Windows only You know for support quick books things like that I that that was it, you know, I was able to finally let go of the PC and It's been good ever since but what if you still want to run Windows for whatever reason well, you can't you? Well, you can run Windows now. Well, actually the next thing is Windows VD. Yes, WVD Terrible name Crappy name when came up with that Windows virtual desktop Yeah, not a good name, but Windows virtual desktop essentially means imagine if your Windows was Netflix What do I mean by that? You could pay ten bucks a month and have Windows on Anything that could be on your on your Roku it get not that you'd want to but it could be on a Roku It could be on a on a phone or an iOS tablet or anything because you're basically Streaming a Windows server in the cloud somewhere in the world and it's your computer It's just virtual and that's something that's coming on the horizon It's going to be happening and so in the one way, you know, it's really interesting because Mac is going You know super amazing powerful computer chips next level performance all this and Windows is saying We don't have hardware. We can't we don't have that Advantage, but we do have Azure. We do have cloud. We do have that capability and that's what's gonna be happening How's that gonna help you as a voice actor? I have no idea. I really don't I can say that it would be helpful for me For if I have to again run specifically Windows apps for very unique situations It'd be kind of nice. I wouldn't have to have and deal with a virtual machine thing anymore Maybe for still running QuickBooks When I want it to be the same version my accounting account is on a Windows that could be nice There are situations, but I don't know how helpful it's gonna be for our world, but I think it's coming We shall see I mean now that tells me that perhaps now maybe my wife will get a Mac Because she can still run her Windows programs That Mac which yeah might might be a good solution to that problem because yeah, I mean I I don't know how to run this multitrack recording production over the cloud No, yeah, latency everything maybe not not for a while, but yes spreadsheets out macro for the Microsoft office all that stuff for sure I know we're running long. I'm sorry We're doing Virtualization of mics is going to just get cheaper and more accessible Meaning you I think you're gonna maybe not next year, but in the next two years probably get a USB mic That internally can sound like a lot of really expensive microphones It's happening using things like the Apollo and the Townsend lab sphere L 22 Cost of barrier of inch barrier to entry is about two grand There are some others. I think Let me think if I can think of the company name Antelope audio. I think it's trying to get into that world with the edge microphones So the price is becoming more accessible. It's coming down, but I think it next year or two it's gonna become really mainstream and That's gonna be interesting and how's that gonna change your life? I don't really know But for those that like I really want to 416, but I want it to be $300 Then you know that might happen Yeah, get a really old used one for 300 and if you can find one for 300 Yeah, I I tend to think that people tend to obsess about microphones way too much in voice Of course that the the the environment in which you record is so much more important. You don't want to have a lousy mic and It's easy to find a lousy mic because I'm getting a lot of people who are saying I got this one on Facebook With some weird Chinese name from some Chinese company. It's a USB mic for 45 bucks and it's It's just like well, yes, this is not a proper micro Essentially what it is is a Radio Shack Electret condenser microphone shoved into a tube microphone. It's oh, yeah It's a studio condenser mic. Yeah inside that grill is hidden a 10 cent microphone capsule Exactly, you know inside of a body of a mic and it looks impressive, you know Yeah, so unless you've got one of those Generally any good studio condenser mic over 150 to $200 is going to be just fine That's right. That's right. So Yeah, I the last one on the bolt list I really actually already talked about and that is remotely engineered voiceover sessions I think will become a lot more of the norm At least in the part of the voiceover production world where there actually are engineers involved as we know that a lot of them There are not, you know, a lot of that stuff you guys are doing you have to send it in finished But for the rest of the world where they're actually are engineers involved. They'll be more of it will be Remote engineered so that you enact as an actor don't really have to do anything Even worry about might gain and recording levels. I think that's going to become more Mainstream, so that's it. That's that's very much predictions. Yeah, but that's a very nice. It is it really is a niche thing Yeah, because you know, especially here in you know in Hollywood in LA where you have a lot of actors You know, we had we were talking about this last week with with with Everett Albur The fact is is you've got a lot of people who were not in voiceover who are now in voiceover because all the studio shut down And they're finding oh, this is really cool But because they were doing remote sessions And had no idea what they're doing is you when I found out it's like I I have to do voiceover But I don't know what I'm doing It's like okay put microphone here. Make sure acoustics are right. They'll take care of it. It's it's a very niche thing I don't think it's something that I think our general mainstream. Yeah over audience has to worry about Until they do Right well, I mean my hope is that if you get to that echelon of voiceover It will be a it'll be easier now as an actor. Yeah, just still be working from home But have the feeling of being engineered by somebody else. So that's my hope for sure Great. All righty. That's our predictions for 2021 21 get that music back What'd you think? We'll be right back after these messages with your questions on voiceover body shop tech talk Hello, welcome to voiceover body shop. It's a place where you can get your body shopped with voices. Come on Look at Dan's head. So shiny 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.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.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.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.com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice over body shop All right. It's time to talk about source elements and what a year it has been For source elements and their source connect software In fact, they've they've been really innovating and trying to find new solutions to serve The remote production world because it's all being done remote Almost entirely So if you want to see what they're up to you should definitely take a visit at source dash elements.com and see the new face Of source elements a whole new color scheme a whole new graphic design a new site And see what they're up to over there But really the thing that you're still as a voice actor going to be expected to have To audition for all those big buck gigs is source connect And the good news is you don't have to now Buy into a subscription or even buy the license outright. You can now also do Just two day licenses you can get a just a day play License for a smaller amount of money And so if you're not ready to commit or you really feel like that gig you're going to get is a one shot deal You can do that Which is kind of cool So if you want to be up to speed with what is really being used in the big studios these days The fact that pro tools is still king and the fact that source connect works as a plugin natively for pro tools Source connect is the way to go and yes. No I said to pro tools word. You don't need to have pro tools. Believe me. It just runs as a standalone app But get yourself up and running be ready to go And if you have any trouble, let us know I do support for Source connect for people that need one-on-one hands-on support at george the dot tech slash sc Thanks again, and we'll be right back to answer a slew of questions right after this This is ariana radner and you're listening to voiceover body shop v obs.tv And we're back You know one of the points I wanted to make about about you know apple products For example, as those people who are actually listening to our show right now as they're watching it, but also listening Our audio for the show is running through An 2011 mac mini my old mac mini. That's right If that's not proof that those machines last and stay relevant It's not just the audio either The zoom feeds that is being zoomed in from me to the show and our guest Is also running on that same mac mini Yep So what does that mean? It means that they're like They're like cars that last a long time, which is not a lot of cars Uh, yeah, no, they it's the uh Saturn of cars Yeah, that's it. What was it on on car talk? They were saying perhaps general motors should just change their entire line to name Saturn just redeem the company Saturn. It'll be fine So everything should be called apple Anyway, we got a bunch of questions here from you guys and we appreciate you sending them in Prior to the show, but we also like you sending them in during the show What you can do in our chat room is jeff holman is sitting there Taking down your questions and copying them and pasting them into our workbook here and we can answer the question live Let's go for this first question from hillary o' keith george She says how do I know the volume of i'm the volume i'm exporting my audio files with Is high enough Hearing me out. I recently did vo for my company's event site tutorial While I was recording it logic was telling me I was ranging between minus 18 db And minus 15 db, which i'm assuming you mean peak Not rms. Okay. Uh, it sounds plenty loud on my end Um, I didn't add any game when I bounced it and it wasn't until I watched the videos on youtube that I realized how quiet it sounded Um, does anyone does everyone hear minus 18 db the same? That's an interesting question. Um, is there a db range? I should shoot for every time Unless directed otherwise And how can I be sure i'm creating files that aren't too quiet or too loud for the greatest number of people? Oh boy, that is and here's why it's a problem She's using an re 20 Is she using an re 20? Well, she'll have a hard time getting really good levels with that question And that's when I saw this question. I'm like, oh, well, you're using a dynamic mic Don't that's one issue. Yeah. She's using that into a focus right scarlet focus right scarlet solo No additional amplification if you're going to use an re 20, which we don't recommend You really need to have another pre amp into the pre amp Because there's not enough if the output from an re 20 is so low You've got to really punch it and you've got to be too close to the mic And it doesn't sound wholly natural now for an aeration or something like that you can probably get away with it But for this particular thing there's it's not loud enough and uh She's using logic pro x on a 2013 mac still working um And using a an audio technology and the headphones by the way Have very little to do with what you sound like on the other end. It's how you're monitoring. Yeah Yeah, I mean it's like if it's not loud enough. Well because it's not loud enough You should yeah minus 18. Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead Yeah, the concern I have is that she only mentioned minus 18 as a value without the qualifier of is it peak Or is it average? Right? I'm guessing it's probably peak level. She's talking about if you are averaging minus 18 That would be plenty loud enough. Yeah, I'll be quite loud And that's that's the average level that we produce things for like broadcast podcasting or like audiobooks Right. Um and the problem with logic because it was not designed around what we do Which is mastering voice over for You know for video and games It's it doesn't it's not easy at least I'm not aware of an easy way of getting that information out of logic Getting a quick analysis of the audio and seeing what actually is the average volume That's super easy to do in twisted way. There's called analysis Um, it's very easy to do But to really answer the question once you find a tool that measures average volume or rms volume Shoot for something around minus 20 minus 23 to minus 20 db Average rms level and you are going to be probably fine, but there are no standards That's the problem. Well, actually there are some standards that have been set by the world voices Uh technical standards committee For peak level for for peak level, but what we yeah, yeah what I have found because I generally don't use any of these things Any of these diagnostic tools? I find that if you are modulating consistently Above minus nine and peaking between minus six and minus four You're gonna be fine And all this mumbo jumbo about you know rms and all these other things while it's important to engineers If you do it right up front and get your modulation right up front and give An engineer on the other end, uh, you know a tabla rosa a clean slate of what they need That they can manipulate without distorting the sound or you're having to giving too much gain It's gonna be fine So don't overthink this stuff and just because you see all this stuff about rms Doesn't mean you have to go take a class in audio physics So Yeah, that's that's that's a problem of logic. It just it's and you're gonna get a spec sometimes it says it's in your levels peaking At minus 18 Yeah, now trust me if you recorded a audition or at a commercial and the levels peak at minus 18 They're gonna be like, huh? What what's going on? I can't hear you. It's really really quiet It's gonna be like much much too quiet. So Yeah, watch out for that. Yeah, you want to average that but you know because it's going up and down and it's gonna cross over somewhere and but You want to be loud up front but not over modulate Question from richard a couple of queries about mic care Do we care about mic care? Well, of course, uh Can changes in temperature and or humidity affect the performance of a condenser mic to any significant degree? I don't think so. Mm-hmm You know, I mean some places are more humid than others But if you're in a really humid place generally it's air conditioned and the humidity is taken out of the air If you're in southern california, there's no humidity. It's all been burned off Uh, if you're suffering through recording voiceover like in a closet in the deep south or the north where east or something where it's really humid It could I mean the extremes it could it could it could cause issues, but you'll know I mean you'll hear it immediately in your audio You'll hear some weird artifacts noise Something called motorboating or the mic sounds like it's You know, you'll hear some weird stuff happen The good thing about like a sennheiser 416 is those mics were designed to handle horrible conditions And really really bad humidity So if you are in one of those places and you're concerned then use uh a 416 or an ntg 5 by road because they Are pretty much, you know, they can ignore that because they use I'm going down the rat hole here again, but I think it's called an rf Pickup it's a called an rf technology rf and that's that system whatever is pretty much impervious to condensation and humidity I think those factors have far more to do on the performance of your voice than they do on the performance of the microphone Well, yeah for sure if you're suffering at those if you're at those extremes where the mic cares You're probably at that point Absolutely miserable as an actor Yeah, really, yeah, you're gonna lose a few pounds in those hot places Anyway, second part of this question says what's the best way to store a mic when it's not in use I leave my road on its studio arm to minimize any handling impact and cover it with a loose fitting plastic bag to keep the dust off Would it also help would it what would it help to also include a couple of silica gel sachets In the bag to counteract any humidity or can they potentially cause damage to the diaphragm by drying out the air too much? Great show. Thanks as always This guy must live in new orleans Someone really humid really really really humid, you know, like, you know the Caribbean somewhere You know I've never even the dust off not a bad thing No, I mean if you're not going to use it for a long time, but they come in these nice little caskets Just keep them in their casket. They're nice and safe there Yeah, most quality mics have a decent case or a box or at least a satchel or bag that they come in If the bag is in if it's in a literally airtight plastic bag Then yeah, you probably should put something in there to make sure there's no condensation On the capsule, but you're not going to ever dry out a mic too much Unless you put it in the oven for Three 300 degrees would not recommend unless you're making brownies with it All right, you get thanks for that. Yeah, you get jeff holman's question. Alrighty Hey jeff Hey, mr. Source Connect he says what did you What did they say when you told them you couldn't log on with your new macbook m1 air? Did you get a workaround yet? If I had my ports mapped or source connect on my old macbook pro Would I need to get them remapped for my new m1 macbook air when it comes? two-part question not related to those two things but the first part was Logging in so i'm doing some early tests with the m1 macbook air And the version of source connect i'm demoing for this purpose for whatever reason because that's what they sent me is source connect pro And I was not able to log into my account They gave me a test account and the test account would log in So there are definitely some little quirks and I I still don't know if it's big sir. That's the problem Or if it's silicon That's the problem, you know meaning that is it something that happens when Rosetta does this little translation So it'll run on the silicon machine. I don't know and that's the thing It's where it's early days lots of testing to be done Etc etc so but yeah not a workaround yet I'm sure I will find out one from rebecca the developer head developer the owner of source elements Hopefully pretty soon now the port map thing is um Only if your new macbook Air your new macbook has a different ip address Which you probably would if you have two computers running on your network, they're going to have different ip addresses And when they do you need to have your ports remapped For the new ip address. So yes, they will need to be remapped Yeah, yeah, yeah people don't understand this port mapping thing It's essentially you've got a lot of gateways to get to the actual internet And they all have to line up just right so Yeah, you want to make sure that that will ensure the router doesn't see these the audio stream coming in from the other guy the other studio As malicious Right, that's what the port mapping is about because if the router doesn't like that signal That data it will just cut it off and you won't get a receive And that's why port mapping ensures that won't happen. Yeah now. Here's an speaking of source connect Here's a question from noreen reardon. She says Absolutely love your weekly show and 99 of what I have learned in the past eight months has been because of you guys Wow, thank you. I hope that's good. It is that is a good But here's a question Got a new in september macbook pro and still have my old macbook Which is working just fine because they plug them in and they work Uh, should I buy an iLock key so I can use source connect I pay monthly for standard on both max Right now the iLock license is only on my old mac I emailed iLock but have not received an answer because They're iLock. I have nobody's home I have not had to use source connect for the jobs that I That I have been fortunate to get but I want to be prepared if and when I do need it Thank you. Well, I mean it's logical to ask iLock that question But they are not known for support who is known for support is source elements though and they would be able to answer that question But I'll tell you right now. Yes, that's exactly the use case for having the usb iLock key It's having more than one computer but only one license And being able to move it back and forth. So that's precisely What the iLock key is for so yes, I'll keep it sweet and short and sweet Dan's got one right there iLock key right here. This thing is I got one too 12 years old And it still works So dan's got the og original old school plastic one and I have here the iLock three The latest version of it Yeah, yeah, this one has a hard drive in it and all sorts of things It looks exactly like a usb flash drive except it costs 40 plus dollars and it says iLock on it So anyway, all right good question. Yes, uh From j. Horace black with the larger space. Are you finding this is in dealing with lori allen's thing With the larger space. Are you finding that you need to put more treatment on the ceiling or other areas? Oh, yeah for lori allen's booth that we heard samples for earlier I probably will need to put some more treatment on the ceiling So what I did was I put two smaller panels on an angle between the ceiling and the wall For various reasons. It was actually easier to install it that way at the time And it looked cool and it sort of serves as a base trap So for several reasons I did that but that there's still a big chunk of ceiling that's still completely untreated So I might add another panel up there But also the panels Yeah, and the panels on the side walls none of them are that thick. They're all pretty thin because the old space was really tiny So, you know, I might add something thicker and add some more layers or density To control that but that's a yeah, it's again we're Trying to get away with fewer panels then really would I would normally spec for a room that size and That's the result and you get a little bit of resonance or a little bit of hollowness that comes some If especially if you get too far from the mic, right? So Distance to the mic is very very important Well, that's a lot of questions And we answered them all and we all answered and we answered them all correctly I hope so Find out if you've got a question for us email it to us at the guys at v obs dot TV there it is right there v obs dot tv the guys And we will answer that question. We're still getting some questions in but we're unfortunately out of time But we will answer those questions via email. Thank you for sending those in and Maybe we'll cover them in the new year when Life will be beautiful and the sun will well the sun's always shining here, but uh So anyway, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back to wrap things up for 2020 right after this Hello, welcome to voiceover body shop. It's a place where you can get your body shopped with voices. Come on Look at dance head. So shiny Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you stick around You don't want to miss this Power 1039 at target. We want you to come as you are be comfortable Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices Sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on All right, that's it guys time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos.com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Yep, it's time for gift giving for the vo person in your life. And that's probably you And right now at voiceover essentials.com you can get the 20 color led vo recording sign It's flying off the shelf Seriously, it's the holiday presence of 2020 from voe Now this multicolor led sign is perfect for alerting your household that you're recording and to keep it down It comes with a remote that can control the colors of your secret codes Get it now at voiceover essentials.com and the top stocking stuffer this year. It's the abs The adjustable boom stop no more droopy mics works with a tripod or a solid round base It's three ounces of protection for your expensive microphone Get them now at voiceover essentials.com. That's voiceover essentials.com. Thanks harlin You're watching vobs.tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I'm gonna go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich I still don't get the cheese sandwich thing, but whatever that's improv folks that improv acting Thank you. Anyway, uh, so we're gonna take some time off now But we'll put on a really good show from 2020 Uh on next week for the next couple of weeks and we want to wish you guys Merry Christmas and merry and happy new year anything's better than this year um And uh, stay stay stay stay smart wear a mask. You know, this is a real test of what I would call adulting Where we do really difficult stuff, which is Not go see people we love not travel uh with family or Hang out with friends that you know, we think are all safe, but But oftentimes aren't really um just be really smart about it. I canceled travel to see my folks this year for Christmas It's my daughter and my girlfriend We're gonna my girlfriend was going to get to see philadelphia and was such a cool place to go especially with the election and Not happening and uh, that's what we got to do. Um, so get your zoom on with your family Have fun find ways to have fun with your but the people close to you that you live with and you know Just play it safe folks, please. Absolutely. You know until they sound the all clear You know get vaccinated. Anyway, who are our donors of the week? We got those names you've heard before we got martha con don griffith steven chandler noreen reardon michael kerns christie burns graham spicer antlamp productions michelle blinker Mike gordon and dwayne desalvo a lot of familiar names there and a couple new ones Yeah, and if you go to our website it says there's a button there. It says donate now We'd love to have you help contribute to make this show a success Which is why we can bring you fresh content almost every week That's relevant to your voice over business and your career and your technology and your performance and all those things um What are we going to do in 2021? Cover all the stuff that's going to happen in 2021. I guess Ah another year another year of home studios and um, you know, if you guys have interested if you guys have topics you want to Have us cover If you have guests that you'd like to see We definitely would love your input. You know, we've been doing this show come march. It'll be 11 years We definitely can use fresh input I can tell you i'm speaking from myself and probably dan, you know, because We love to make sure we're covering people that you guys want to Hear from and so let us know Email addresses on the screen, but if you're listening it's the guys at vlbs.tv All righty Well, we need to thank our sponsors again for another fine year of support of our our little our little tv show here and podcast Uh harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vio heroes.com voice actor websites.com and jmc demos All righty our thanks. What a great year. Uh, we added jeff holman to our staff working the uh, the social media stuff Thanks to him the uh Speaking of jeff holman speaking of jeff holman, uh, and Our amazing technical director who's having a day, but she's getting it done No matter what she pushes through and it makes it happen Sumer lino hire her if you omg If you have a task that has anything to do with podcasting live streaming television production I mean, she's so multifaceted and a real pro and he's so nice to work with just not on monday night Exactly not for these four hours And of course our thanks to lee penny for continuing to just be lee penny. Well, that's going to do it for us tonight and for 2020 remember If it sounds good It is good. It is good. All right. I'm dan lennard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover Body shop or vio b Tech talk tech talk tech talk talk tech have a good 2021 guys. Good night everybody