 Okay, now we're live it says you are live. That's how I know that's good Yeah, no, Ryan from road is Wanting you know to have an ear about he's like, hey, do you think it'd be a good idea to have the startup setting? I'll mention that actually When I talk about the roadcaster Later It's a great example of a product that can do really powerful things Easily mm-hmm, but with a little bit of digging around can get you into some very powerful features quickly or even get you in trouble Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't use a lot of the features on here. You know, I do use the master compressor and But that's about it, you know, and then you know using the mix minus on zoom, which is nice But other than that, I mean, I mean we we have the four inputs which we were using with the show but now we're using the the XR 12 which Is far superior? Well, I wouldn't even need the XR 12 with this board in the studio, but it's still it's the actually yeah No, actually that is actually entirely true Because Well, no, not quite. I thought I could through the console software, which is called road central I thought I could remote control the mixer and actually control the Levels right that you that looks like you cannot do that. It does not have a way to remote control it yet Although it says there is bi-directional MIDI control between your computer and the roadcaster Let me see can I control it I Can set up the matrix of the mix I can do a lot, but I can't actually mix remotely So since the unit would be over on your desk, I couldn't I can't do two can't be at two places at once That's the only reason I wouldn't use it in our show. I'd still use the Behringer. Yeah, but Yeah, this thing is extremely flexible Yeah, well the Behringer is nice because you can just do it on your computer in front of you Right or something it's right there in front of me like if I don't know if they have even even a reason to add that level of functionality But if they did Allow you to control the mix from the software road central then I could essentially sit at my workstation and Remote control it from As though I'm just sitting at your desk, right? I should be able to do that with this one though, too with the the first one Well, the faders can't be you can't move the faders remotely But on the new one the faders are digital Because you well actually it's not I'm not sure if they're digital But you can assign whatever you want to have show up on each fader, right? So they're all assignable whereas on the old one. It's you know, they're hardware Yeah, so I don't know if I don't know if that means you could control the levels remotely or not But it's all firmware. They could do whatever they want If they decide they want to do it Okay Sorry, but all the stuff that it does you just know If they do a big firmware update, it's going to break something Well, they've done a couple already. That's the thing road does an incredibly good job of Testing their firmware updates before they go out to the product. They do a really good job much better than personas that ever did with the Revelator revelator was like it was a night. It was a scary proposition when they would lease a firmware firmware update, but roadcaster I felt like I've always felt like if they do one and it's been and it's released to the public. They thought about it They've tested it Right. They've done some kind of beta unit usability testing before it's not gonna just you know Give you a cold punch in the face because they just removed a feature or whatever That's what they do with the personas. They just removed a feature on me and it just really threw me for a loop Yeah Well, looks like we got a bunch of people watching already. That's fantastic. Yeah, everybody Yeah, so if it's going on the chat room. Yeah, and the uh, got jeff holman there Supposedly there he is. All right um If if any of you were at veo atlanta, we'd like to hear from you In our second segment, we've got an interview for the first half hour with the with uh with anna collins who ran the show there and uh with george's daughter elijah who was Took part in a real special program there for kids And she did really well there and then uh in the next hour in the next half hour after that If you want to get on the show and tell us your your thoughts on what you thought of veo atlanta And keep it short Like we'll give you 30 seconds now. We'll give you a minute No, no getting on here so you can talk for 20 minutes That's why you can start your own podcast. That's right. Good luck with that. Uh Of course, we started doing this and we had no idea what we were doing 12 years later. It's like we still don't know what the hell we're doing. We're slightly more convincing now Two minutes Hey everybody, thanks for coming in. Yeah If you ever wonder what it's like putting one of these things one of those conferences together I said, yeah, didn't we ask her when they start the next one? She's like, so it's not like tomorrow. Yeah They they didn't pass out any comment cards You know or review cards or anything like that. Is that something that was done in the past? Yeah Yeah, I remember most conferences will do that. Yeah Well, maybe after everybody's had a moment to rest and stop traveling the world, which jmc is still traveling Anna Anna has traveled back to lixon burg Apparently, yeah, so once everybody's done traveling, I think jmc is here in la doing a doing a workshop with scott parking and Some others. Yeah, so maybe after they've done all that maybe they'll send out a survey I always a good idea Yep, always a good idea to ask your folks. Alrighty All right, we are at 459. Yeah, if you want to be online and you want to do and you do want to join us then we send you a special Um, a secret link a secret link and a special handshake Yeah How would how will we do that? Anyway, how will we send it? Do we have to send it secret or to just put it in the chat How did we do it before I think we just put it right in the chat. Yeah We just put the invite link in the chat Right, and then when people start filing in then we we can let them in either one by one or probably one by one, right? Right, okay All right Okay, hey Jeff it's five o'clock All right, shall we start it then do you know where your children are? All right, gotta thumbs up from our producer sue Here we go four three Hey, it's time for voice over a body shot, but we got a very special show tonight because George and I went to voice over at lanta last week And we're still recovering I I did not come home with covet. I had neither did I I came home clean. Thank you We're very grateful for that we are and we've got some great interviews from that and also if you Were there we'd like to hear from you on your impressions of it as well And we'll get to that in a little bit But right now let's get into the show and what we've got on voice over body shop right now Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials.com the home of harland hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect Vio heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training Voice actor.com your voice over website ready in minutes Voice over extra your daily resource for voice over success And by world voices the industry association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts dan and george Well, hello there. I'm dan lennard and on george wittem. And this is voice over body shop or vio Yeah, we just added that little thing with us rotating around that was part of vio atlanta That was so funny, but so great. Yeah, we figured I will just throw it in the intro. It's funny Anyway, we had a great time there But to explain to you what we're going to see for the next few minutes is A couple of great interviews that we did To give you a good idea of what it takes to put something like that together And again, we'd like to remind you if you are at vio atlanta. We'd love to hear from you You can actually come on the show and give us your comments Uh about what you thought of it, you know yay or nay or greater. Whatever and go back Yeah, did you like to batter versus other conferences you've been to what maybe you learned? Yeah, there were a minute keep it under a minute, right? Yeah trying to keep it to a minute So we can get a lot of people on exactly so if you want to be on put it in the chat room and Jeff holman will Will direct you all to where you need to go so you can be on the show Anyway, why don't we get to those interviews right now and uh, we'll talk to you right after these so don't go away here we go and You know, it's like I haven't seen you since 2007. I know I'm supposed to be meeting clients and meeting my own clients and meeting new But it's we're having just as much fun meeting all these all these vendor contacts industry folks and just Our colleagues in the business, right? Well, and of course, you know after the pandemic we were both suffering from massive hug debt That's right, which which we've been making up for in the time that we've been here Yeah, uh, but you know, it's it's great meeting some you know some new vendors and some companies that we haven't talked to before We're talking the guys from road and they've got that new microphone the uh, the the NT one aren't you one gen five Which is the replacement they told me it's going to completely replace the the NT ones And it's the new hotness and it's got usb with this magic sauce 32 bit float I know I've talked about it a bit on the show But we'll we'll have some time with that mic later on to really explore what that really means Yeah, so it's been fun. You know, I haven't been to a big conference in a long time. Well, nobody has So, uh, so it was good that you know, we're here and uh, you know Explaining to people what we do you're you're george the tech You know, I'm here representing world voices as president and getting people to know who we are and You know telling they should join and come to our conferences and all those sorts of things But how about that one panel? Oh, well, there was the one panel Uh, that paul struck where to yeah, what was what was so I was up on stage. You were in the audience What was I really I should have been the one up there because I I know how to explain that one a little bit better Maybe with more attitude, but It was it was about voiceover awards And you know, I have a very Strict interpretation of that voiceover awards is a sign check from your client And that that is justification and renumeration for this it's getting the next job From that client exactly the real award right Uh recognition awards should not have to be paid for It's like it should be your peers saying this person has done an important thing You know or that was a great performance But the categories are all sort of arbitrary and silly Um, you know, some people were defending it saying oh, but no somebody the you know the Stefan what's his last name? Um I'd never met him before so but you know, he was an interesting guy Stefan. Yeah, Stefan the the actor who's gotten quite a few words the multilingual actor And and he was saying well, I my business, you know doubled after I won this this award from from this particular organization That's kind of a tough metric to really. Yeah, I mean the fact of the matter Causation causation blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I mean, he's a multilingual actor and he's very good. He's got a great voice Yeah, he certainly deserves it. Yeah, I mean, uh, yeah But was that the reason that he got but what he was saying was that he marketed in himself Using that saying you know as a pseudonym Republic relations person to promote himself saying he won this award and You know, so that's what I say about those award shows like they are their real value is as a marketing tool for the actor Right, it's it's it's making you feel feel good. It's supporting your peers But at the end of the day you're running a business and it's supporting Your marketing that's really how I feel it's most important, but I also was glad that they talked about That rob siglin paglia talked about a little issue in transparency about the judges and there's a little bit of conflict of interest that occurs Or sometimes a lot and that was his biggest concern Yeah, and you know and then they were and then paul was talking about You know, I researched this company that's doing this particular thing and he did not have Favorable things to say about them. No, you know, we know paul He's not afraid to name names and and be a little bit Stir pot stirring. Yeah, he's not can be a little divisive But I think he you know, he had a good point to me. Yeah, but he moderated it very nicely You know, I mean, you know, there were other people on the panel and rob siglin paglia and current gilfrey And and you and you and you and you yeah, and and and you You being someone representing the the actual award shows because they don't run right, but he doesn't charge For running those awards. However, it's all part of a Conference that people pay to come to and that's an attraction to that I thought his transparency on that was really good I thought he's like, you know, this is a part of a three-legged stool He didn't use those words but we have this we have these organizations And at this that the wards part isn't profit-making right, but it's part of a profit-making venture that does help everything else So I appreciated that transparency and that was the thing in They were paul was looking for a word And I was sitting there with our good friend larry hudson and I'm like transparency And then Hugh said it. Yeah, transparency is very important. Yeah, you know, I think with any organization When you join an organization, what is it that they're actually doing? Are they really working for the benefit of the community or are they Driving someone to join their organization to market their products to them of which there is a lot of it's a delicate balance Right, but yeah, we just want people to be honest about it. And that's and that's how it fit in there So that was that was an interesting panel. Absolutely and right now there's there's a lot of stuff goes on at night You know, there's a lot of script reading. Yeah, debon rose performing in the other room playing lives Yeah, so it everybody is saying this has been a great conference. I mean I mean you when I hang out in the vendor area most of the time, but we have done all the conferences, right? We have done all and this is for for its scale and they say they say they've surpassed a thousand attendees at this point They're at a capacity now. They're sold out. Um, they're keeping it together They're nothing's falling apart of the seams too much, you know From the from the presenter side that we're on that on this end. It's been a very smooth process and I will be happy to come back Yeah, I'll come back. I mean last time I was here You know, it got a little monotonous at times and uh, of course the opening the opening ceremonies and all that stuff Made me want to sell amway It was it was a real gung-ho rah-rah. Yeah. So that was interesting, but But the best part is is really seeing the people we know Yeah, and the people who are are very very talented because some of the top talent in our businesses is here I mean, you know, uh, David noise here and scott parkin and lori alan. I didn't see lori, but I know she's here She's definitely here. I got I got I was lucky enough to have lunch with her. Oh, okay. She's doing great and You know and then I've met some really good people. Yeah, and I got to eat at the waffle house And we ate the waffle house. We had breakfast or dinner last night We were not sure what it was and my daughter Elijah who we're going to talk to in a little bit. Yeah, it was quite an experience Yeah, it's the white castle of the south. I think is the best way to describe it I mean the food was edible. It was okay. It was an experience. You know, I guess it's just the people It's the attitude. It's the way people see, you know, it's just a thing down here Right, but people are real cool. They're real nice. They want to help each other out. I like that Yeah, yeah, so that would that was fun and we were really hungry and it really didn't matter what we ate That's good. I know That's true. That's true But yeah, not to say anything bad about the waffle house, you know I mean they they they serve, uh, you know disaster people when they, you know, there's a disaster They're open 24 hours a day If there's a disaster and the place hasn't been knocked down by a tornado They feed all the that's right all the disaster work according to Byron Wagner who we've learned to You know, he's right about everything. He does his research. He does. He knows this stuff Well, we've got a couple people to talk to One of them here with us. My daughter Elijah is going to share about the kids program We also have a kind of a vip Yeah Anna Collins She's running the whole thing. She is the ceo. Yeah, and she agreed to come on. So we're gonna Take a break Go round her up And we'll see what happens outstanding Stay tuned And we're here with Anna Collins who is running this whole shebang at void vio, atlanta 2023 Has it met all your expectations so far? It has it really has um, it's been a dream come true in many ways and An incredible effort not only on for me, but from Lenores, Jessica Matheson, Kayla Jackson and so many other more incredible ambassadors that have volunteered their time It's just been yeah, really a dream come true and it has definitely met my expectations How much how long did it take to really plan this? I mean, I mean, there's bits and pieces here and there but But really pulling the whole thing together. What did what did it really take? A year We literally started The week after the last one finished to start negotiations with the hotel Um, do some preliminary work with the vendors to find, you know to help us bring the vision to life It has literally been 12 11 and a half months How much of how much did you feel like We're gonna have to do this over again And how much of it was like this is working We're just gonna like from an hr perspective from uh operations How much of it did you have to just start all over and how much did you get to adopt? Um 95% I'd say was new. Yeah, just because we had different operational methods. So and also What worked in some things because we were doing so many new stuff And adding so many like more sessions on a thursday and a sunday and also just you know changing the ticket ticket styles and We weren't quite sure what the numbers would look like, you know, that's always what you do and you start planning you Um, hope for the best, of course And you hope that you know you pull it off and you meet other people's expectations not just my own but of course other people's So Yeah, I do see familiar folks faces on the boots on the ground folks though Yes, like that. There's a number of people that are back from years past who are who are in some of the same roles Yes, every single one. I'm actually reached out. We had a call for volunteers and all of them said I want to help what can I do and they are my superstars. I really call them because that's literally what they are We've all said we want to help we want to contribute We want to develop and so generous with their time and they've just been knocking it out I'm just beyond grateful because they're obviously what helped makes everything run Well, we knew we were going to see uncle Roy like that's just a gift That's the important thing. Yeah, they've definitely been helpful. Like you said last night, you know, if there's a problem We'll take care of it and that certainly has been the case. We asked for something something has something has happened Uh, you know, it's not easy to find good help these days, but But in the voiceover community you you have a unique community of people that really want to help out This is a very large conference. We've got you know, what a thousand people here pretty close I I have noticed that the attitude is a little bit different It's it's got it. It's a little smoother running than we've seen in past There's a flow to it that works really really well And people are really enjoying themselves and that's that's really that's really important for for something like this What did it take to really bring all that together and what kind of ideas what things did you change? Well, it's quite a question Well, okay, I'll try to keep it short because I didn't be here for a while Well, first off, you know, we started off with great ideas and I did at the first thing I did After we took over was assembled an amazing group of advisory women who are and my husband too, of course you know, not just women but people who were like agents and casting directors and branding and Also just saying what would you like us? Because it really is about what your customer wants and I wanted to make sure we got as right as possible So they were all very generous and said here's some ideas and I said the week that I had this idea does it look right to you because You can plan a great conference, but if you're not planning for your clients that are your customers Which we see every single one of these people as they are clients. There are guests. There are customers Uh, so we wanted to make it an experience for them You can plan an incredible conference, but if you don't plan the right one or the right way It could come across the wrong way. So To get it as right as we could it's not always perfect. I guarantee you Not that we see it looks perfect from our perspective. What goes on behind the listen We do this show all the time what goes on behind the scenes is there's a fire going behind you. You have no idea That's the idea. Never let them see a sweat So and then starting off from there then coming up with ideas then reaching out A lot of the vendors were brand new. We had to find a group of vendors. I came back To atlanta to specifically meet with about 12 or 13 vendors over a couple days To see who was the right fit for Audiovisual for furniture for layouts for things like that too, you know, uh digital screens I mean lighting everything, you know, so we got close in different companies I think I have another battery It's important for you to have a lot of women represented and be a part of this team for you I mean, it's you came out at the beginning of the show who runs the world girls And that was great. I have a daughter. So I down, you know, for me, that's really fun. And so Were you successful in getting a team together that you feel really represents really did? I mean, it's it's important for me to have diversity in everything Um, both in all aspects of voice over, you know, because I'm not a voice over person myself I'm training slowly but my talents lie more in event Okay, that's good. So I wanted to make sure from a voice over perspective and also from a talent perspective from a cast From a director perspective that I got as many aspects Because I wanted to understand what would be important to the voice over community Not just what's important to me or to j. Michael, of course And of course, he understands it very well But I wanted also to get there and put saying if you're going to a conference What is something we could do to help improve it, you know, so Yeah, that's great. So it's also men. I have an incredible head of tech, which is, you know, Stephen George I've got Roy O'Cleason. I've got all these incredible I've seen Stephen and Uncle Roy back It's kind of a staple And also they've assembled a great AV team and I really rely on them to make I I'm not a tech person by any Such a mention. I just want to look really good and sound great And but they are the brains behind that part and I Kind of let them run, you know, as he see fits and he's just I mean, unbelievable. Amazing. I'm glad I'm not doing it I'm glad I get to just show it It is The AV is very impressive. I mean the big screen and all that that's not something you would expect to see at a You know at a voiceover conference, they're usually like, you know, low budget operations It's a high level. This one. This was really impressive. Really pro I was really thrilled when I saw it all put together because of course you hear a lot of quotes And you sell numbers and I'm not so good at feaks. We do meters But the ab company house of music I definitely got a lot of props to them because they were really great to work with and they really helped Our vision mind and j. Michael's version come to life and wanted it to feel And also the sound really good too because I remember other cameras are like, what did you say? You're sitting at the back or you can't hear so I'm like, why is there a conference of sounds gotta be good? So and also one of the people who see things like, you know, from the back I don't have to be like squinting or, you know, trying to scramble with I'm short. So someone's, you know Tall since the front of me that could be, you know, can't see so well. So Yeah, and I'll just, you know, when I did we had a had a vision We both had a vision of what we wanted it to look like and It's been unbelievable amazing and to see it come to life Now in a big commercial conference like this, it's important to have sponsors And there's some amazing sponsors here a lot of and and vendors that are, you know, that are showing people their wares and stuff and The vendor area usually is in a big open room. It's very echoey Why? Having it in a more intimate style the way you have it here was really nice because You'll find that the people that are in the vendor area are the people that everyone that George and I know Because we've been going to these conferences for for 15 years Yeah, and and so there those are all our friends and and yet we've met some new ones And we've made a bunch of new friends this year um What does it really take to convince people to come and sponsor and to be a vendor here? Well, actually to be honest j michael actually does a most like the sponsorships and everything too is really his specialty, but Um, some people have reached out some people were reached out to we all send like a A sponsor prospectus to a lot of contacts and a list of people that we you know, we'll see if they're interested in everything too so Yeah, um, it's very much it's kind of like a we we sent out we sent out messages We like we do like we're interested that people reach out to us. It's kind of a mix of both well, it's good because Sometimes there'll be you know vendors that are there And they really don't understand the voiceover market It seems that most of the vendors that are at this particular one They all are very very specific to to voiceover. They all seem really suited for this industry We definitely made it absolutely clear like what the conference was so there was misunderstandings there and also a lot of the people actually like presenters and also to have given us ideas of Who they could send it to or who might like to so it's been very much a A team effort in that way and of course I gotta give a lot of credit to my husband j mc collins because he's the one who Really, you know the presenters and the sponsors It's really been his and the schedule and everything too. I take care of the rest of a lot of the logistics All the all the nuts and bolts you're dealing with the logistics here I have to give absolute credit to him for that because that was really a quite a beast to put together for him So he is a force of nature and if anybody's gonna do it he will so And it's been great talking with you and and congratulations so far This has been fabulous and I think it as as everybody gets warmed into it even more It will continue to run smoothly. So congratulations. Thank you very much and thank you for having me both of you Thank you And we're back here at vio atlanta 2023 Uh talking to lots of great people We have a very special guest right now because there's a program That's running concurrently here For child voice actors We wouldn't quite consider you a child, but a young lady who i've known since the youth. Yes. She's one of the youths here It's a young lady. I've known since she was In small diapers Yes, I've known you for a long time um It's elijah wittome Hello, it's good to be here. Now you're participating in You know the young people's program or should we call it the youth's program call it the kids program kids program Okay, yeah, okay Uh, what what have you been doing? What kind of classes and Activities have they had? Well, they basically have been just doing like really fun games to like show the basics of voiceover like Little improv games and just fun ways to do like show the warm-ups and stuff like that like they are showing like There was this one game where it's you um would like basically There's two walls and then you would split into groups and line up on the wall and The person, you know teaching it. I forgot his name. So the scott No, it wasn't scott. Um, it was the person at the end But um, you would basically split up in the groups and what you would do is uh, it was for the gibberish class for like Dungeons and dragons Um, basically what you would do is you would pair up with people in the lines And then you'd basically have like a normal conversation But like in gibberish like you'd act like you're talking to them But like you're just saying random like random like No Exactly. Yeah, I love gibberish So they have fun things like that to like to basically Teach them the ropes of how things work in voiceover and loosen you up Loosen you up make you guys feel at ease with each other Just have a good time and then maybe tomorrow you get to you know get a little more serious stuff into Yeah, exactly So you've you've been studying voiceover. Well, obviously most of your life since your your old man seems to be involved modically Yeah, yeah, and uh, of course now you have you have that booth at home Which uh, well, you're moving to atlanta, but having the facility at home was pretty cool She's got two studios one one in la and one in atlanta. Ah All right Well, it's it's always important to have the kids help pay the rent If they can do it and in this day and age that's that's really that's the way it works That's the way we're yeah, but it it's it gives you the opportunity to see really what this job really involves And if you can learn it early on it makes a very easy transition to doing it full-time professionally and Do you do have you been have you booked any work yet? No, but I did do at least one audition like a month ago. I think it was for a real audition Yeah, like an actual legit audition, which I think was pretty cool. But um, obviously I didn't get it Because we haven't heard back, but I was I'm not surprised. I didn't get it because there was lots of more very talented people and more experienced people Auditioning for the role and I only have like five months of training so far. So um, but it was cool like Doing the audition seeing what it really be like if I was to do like an actual audition for like a show or a cartoon Yeah In mark and your coach is martha con And is that wire here because she's the coach and happens to be learning the kids program Or is there any other reason why it came possibly because uh, you shrug it on me last minute or like, okay, we're go I already booked the flight and hotels out pack your bags. Does it sound like you came kicking and screaming? No, I definitely definitely not There was there was a brief moment of of shock. Yeah, I was like, what? You know being in a large crowded room with strangers is not your first thing on your list of things to do But you've you've adapted to it really well Yeah, uh, it's definitely not scary as I imagine it should be obviously because you see you like to psych yourself out about things like that But yeah, it's been really fun so far. But yeah We haven't really seen the kids Out there. I mean they're they've separated off to a totally different part. Yeah They're kind of sequestered to the to the lower level downstairs Um, and I'm sure there's good reasons for that Keep them focused and and kind of keep them distractions away, right? Keeping do you guys feel like you can really focus down there? There's nobody milling around. There's nobody watching There's no parents watching definitely because the one of the main reasons why they didn't want Uh parents down there watching their kids doing it was because they didn't want them to feel like they need to perform When they were doing because they wanted to be A safe place to make mistakes be themselves be loose with it So but like if there is parents say they they're on a Mac thing is like, okay, I need to do good I need to perform for them So that that took an adjustment for me when you're coaching in my at home and in our studio because I wanted to That the first couple of times I was actually in the room. I was sitting on the sofa I was watching listening and eventually martha's like You should you should yeah, you should go you should go let elijah play and not feel like she's performing Which is the coolest thing. Yeah Marth has been really great The more she does this the more we're seeing that she is really She understands how to work with kids And and develop their skills and the more you do anything like Studying home studios and stuff the better you get at it and martha has really done that And she's fun to work with it and jake very very she's very easy to talk with and be loose with and just Have fun, you know, she's not very judgmental Can't be with kids, you know, which is why the parents aren't allowed in there, you know, it's like, you know Come on, you can do this better jenny, you know, I you know, like I work with parents and they're like Gotta set up the studio Let the kids be kids and that's really the best part of it Yeah, what's what's we know that voiceover isn't your first passion though No, it was not my first so so so what is your first passion right? What is the thing that you really enjoy doing? I really enjoy drawing Mostly like people drawing I want to learn to do more things like backgrounds and objects and animals and stuff like that But my main thing is drawing people or portraits um I've definitely put a lot of my passion and time into drawing A lot more than voiceover to be honest But I feel like I want to try putting a lot more of my daily routine and you know Reading more out loud because that's what I've been constantly being told to do is for especially for voiceover and stuff is to keep reading keep reading out loud To you know, make it easier to read scripts and stuff like that But uh, I've definitely put a lot more of my my passion and interests into drawing Have you've done any animation or tried to do some work like that? Actually, I have it was just simple animations But they honestly aren't that good because I don't really know where to start with animation I actually did take a school class because in fourth grade. I think before kovat started they had um an after school problem Program called hearts and you could do like extra like clubs thingies Um, and I chose animation because that was an option It was actually really fun. Um, it was we did it on paper So it was like it took a while for us to do at least one animation That's unfortunately all we got to do because that's when kovat happened And then we had the school just shut down. So we had to stop it It was really fun for the first couple months that I got to do it If you can do animation and voices you can bring your own characters to life Which is kind of cool. I know my son does that and you know, we He fortunately has a father with a voiceover studio as well. And you know, it's kind of fun So what do you what what are your future plans for you know after this? So you're gonna continue to pursue voiceover and uh, then really see if it's something you want to do or Something along with a lot of other things Uh, yeah, I think I would because at the beginning before this convention I was still kind of In between of like, do I really want to do this? Is this really what I want to do for a while? I think you were worried that committing to coming to this that there was a little bit of pressure on you That if your dad's going to bring you to this that you really have to give this a real go And I want to make sure that pressure wasn't really that you that Being here would inspire you to want to keep doing it And not that being here is like Well, if you're here, you better you better take it seriously, you know that kind of thing I don't think that um, honestly I know I had to go anyway, but it's I felt like it's not like I was like, no I really don't want to do this. I can't believe dad's making it. There was a moment where that you were feeling that The moment of shock when I sprung it on you Why would you do this? Yeah, but um No, I think I definitely after this really want to give it a go and maybe put a little bit more dedication into it, but um I definitely still want to pursue art and maybe Also a lot more voiceover Can I ask you something that maybe might feel a little personal and we can edit this out if you don't like to talk about it? um You're very new to wearing glasses How did how did that come to be because you were doing okay without them? So where does wide glasses now or how did that come to be? Well, um I've always kind of had a problem of skipping over words and sentences and you know Adding words and stuff like that I also had a problem of the like words would like mash together almost because it was like my eyes wouldn't focus on them properly and uh one day during a session Martha was like After the session you came in and I overheard you talking about like yeah I think she needs glasses or something like that Because she keeps on like mixing up words or adding in words or forgetting words or mixing up sentences and stuff like that because we were already Um considering about getting me glasses, but we just weren't like it was like a sigh of thought almost not like Oh, we weren't actually gonna do but it's like a possibility But I guess after Martha was like yeah, you need glasses and I was like, okay I guess I'll she said she said you should check to have your eyes checked Yeah, and just see you know, we didn't know so what was the diagnosis? What what are the glasses helping with? um, it's my eyes like to Rest at the sides of my eye sockets where it's like they like to be outwards or then inwards Um, it's called my eyes are divergent. I'm pretty sure that's what's called. Yeah, that's right. Yeah So the glasses help with that and it did you notice immediately once you got used to wearing them Did you notice that you could read your lines a little easier? Was it coming? Yes? I Before like I actually read any sentences. I kept on like Going like this like seeing the differences of like smaller letters or words That were like farther away kind of smaller. I did notice a big difference actually Um, it was like way clearer and it wasn't like kind of blurring up just slightly um, but when I did finally read sentences it definitely did get a little bit easier and um, Yeah, it was it was definitely way more clearer to see the sentences When I when I started back 25 years ago and doing voiceover and I hadn't done any for a while after being in broadcasting I remember going into a studio to cut some demos and looking at this good going That's what I knew I needed both of these too I thought I would never be someone that would wear them I hate to say that to say that you're destined to wear glasses is not really fair But you were kind of desperate what between me Between me and your mind your mom. Yeah She was three so It was kind of meant to be I was just kind of in denial for a long time So I was like not getting glasses. I'm fine I have two pairs of glasses Lashie's great talking to you. It's always a pleasure talking to you Especially when you come to the studio with your dad and uh and hang out with us But we're really proud of you for for looking at this and and and Seeing that you know, this is a potential career or part of a career So congratulations on coming out here and and sticking with it Yeah, it was this seems to be really a cool experience and um, I can't wait to do it tomorrow I just need a good good sleep because I'm very tired after the seven hours. It's been a 12 hour day for you actually 12 hour. Yeah, we started at nine. It's nine now Well seven hours of actually being in classes sure But no, yeah Go to bed Very tired I'm proud of you very much. I love you. Love you too Oh, that was cool. That was nice to hear her a week later after that, you know A lot has happened since we did that. She now lives there, which is crazy She actually moved across country with her mom and is living there and um, I'm still can't believe it, but Um, she's there Sorry. Oh, you'll you'll talk about this stuff live because I can guarantee it's going to trigger me, but She's she's over there, but she's got a huge industry to behind her and so many great contacts and People to interact with show biz and lana is a growing industry. Like oh, yeah, like crazy There's so many things she can access. So a little really looking forward to see what comes forward For her in the future. It was great. We could have her on. Thanks for having her Invited and having her be interviewed on v obs. Yeah So anyway, we're going to take a break right now And if you were at vio atlanta and you have some thoughts about it Put your you know, let let jeff holman in the chat room know that and we will get you On here and we'll talk about it and hear what you guys have to say and then We got more stuff to do with that So we'll take a break right now and we'd be right back with more stuff here at voiceover body shops So don't go away This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on The voiceover body shop as voice actors We need to hear the clear transparent and honest sound of our voices Harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 Provide both that accurate transparent sound with enhanced mid-range audio less bass and the creature comforts voice workers deserve Clearly different from traditional studio headphones. The upper mids and highs are clear as about no muffling or cross bleeding between frequencies Like a pair of studio monitors. The low is there, but at the same level as the rest of the spectrum They're comfortable like no other phones. I've worn that's because harlan used actual leather for the pads It's like putting on a pair of leather gloves for your ears They're also very light for their size as harlan made them from aluminum instead of plastic The headband is flexible like a watch band and the plug comes out for walking away Get the only headphones designed for vio harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 for just $149 with free shipping from voiceover essentials dot com I'm wearing those headphones right now actually and i'm smacking into the headphones smacking into my mic with them Anyway, let's move on and thank our sponsors source elements the creators of source connect. They were actually there In the house they were at vio atlanta and demonstrating Their their latest updates to their softwares source connect in nexus And there is some exciting stuff coming soon. We love this. We'll we'll keep you We'll keep you tuned in about what's happening In the in the source connect world, but there is new things on the near horizon that I can't share yet But it's going to be pretty cool It's going to really make it easier to interact with studios But at this stage of the game and as it's been for a very long time You want to make sure you're familiar on at least a basic level as how source connect works How it would work in your studio And what you need to do to be ready to use it and they have a huge amount of education on their site Really helpful support. We at george the tech, of course have the best support out there for third party software Hardware to assist if you run out of support on the source element side We even have rob rob himself robert marshal the co-founders of source elements Here at george the tech. He's one of the first guys who will answer the phone If you get on an emergency call with george the tech to help you But we are here to support you in your source connect journey and all things source elements So let us know if you need anything. But anyway, go over there get your trial get up and running with source elements and Be ready when the big gig comes into your inbox. All right, let's get on to the rest of that show right after this Hey, it's david h. Lawrence the 17th and we talk a lot in this business about moving forward with our career getting more information We often don't talk about Simply getting started. It can be one of the most immovable objects In in our life getting out of our own way and just simply taking the first step And if you're watching this podcast voiceover body shop For some tips on how to get started in voiceover or to change something about your voiceover career or to increase your knowledge in a certain area Check out vio heroes comms getting started in voiceover If you go to vio heroes comm slash start, you'll get all the information It's really cheap And I give you a lot to get started in the business But you might also learn something if you've been in the voiceover business for a while vio heroes comm slash start That's vio heroes comm slash start This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv And we're back Yeah, it was wonderful hearing from everybody that we talked to it at vio atlanta. I mean there were a lot of A lot of good conversations that we had with people that we haven't had in a long time I had a chance to talk with jim james allberger Yeah, who started all of this with the voice conference is back in 2007 7 I can remember 7 because I know I went to the second one. You were there 2008. That's how I know it was 2007 that's that's that's where you and I met so uh, yeah, it's 7 was the one that don la fontana Came to yes, he did wasn't in vegas. Yes, somebody once asked him while he was there Um, is there room in the business for all these other people to do trailers and he went Yes When I die And unfortunately he died about six months later So and look at all the guys doing trailers now But he's not that many It's about the most elite voiceover biz gig there is I think is this trailer still and nobody that was in that room Well, we'd love to have your comments on on on vega, atlanta if you were there and So we can we can add you on onto our broadcast here, you know, and and here's somebody who uh Who is a regular viewer of our show and he came up and and then Was just there the rest of the weekend rob Rob Ryder Reader reader writer writer writer it is Oh, man, it was great to meet both of you guys Uh, you know, I've been following your Following the show and following your admonitions and your training and your suggestions for a long time as you notice I'm right there with a microphone in the right place. But uh, uh, Boy george your daughter what a what a treat and what a sweetheart she is and you're so right about atlanta I got some friends in the atlanta production business and they are just busier than then Then they they're just making money hand over fist. It's quite a center I'm glad to hear that good good stuff out there because her mother her mother moved there for some greener pastors as well You know, that's why they're there and she's a photographer. So, you know opportunities will be a little bit more forthcoming to her there I think a little bit less Yeah, so looking forward to see what happens. Thank you for that. Yeah. Yeah. What were your overall impressions rob? Overall impressions were very strong first time I've been to to the conference and the the audiobook track was was especially strong with scott brick and susanne running that and With johnny heller and and all the rest of the folks I got involved in x sessions with johnny heller I then went on to apac in new york and That's more a networking thing. Oh man. I've just I was so overloaded and I did not get covid but The the the audiobook track was so strong if you atlanta I would highly recommend it for anybody who wants to get involved with that I stayed at the jewelry ran into lori alan never met her had breakfast with her Which was kind of fun. I did go to the waffle house and had breakfast at dinner Scattered smothered covered and chunked Yeah, that's the waffle house But but and it was I mean just so nice to meet you guys ryan white from road I got to talk to him and I'm going to be announcing an air show in kansas city And I'm going to meet with him out there this coming summer and And and the food that j michael put out there the the two lunches were unbelievably tasty and plentiful So, uh, I'm I'm definitely going back I never I had not initially intended to go and then my voice over excuse me my my audiobook coach Of hillary huber suggested well, yeah, but we'll have fun And so I showed up and I had way more than fun. It was totally worth it But primarily and no no doubt about it meeting you two guys was really Is really a really a treat. So thank you for that opportunity to spend that you gave me the time you gave me We were all in one. We were all in like one little clustered up group Shoved in there and Dan was over there at woevo the woevo booth. We were all right there So I want to join woevo too. So yeah, I'm good job part of the fam That's great to know. Well, anyway, thanks guys. I don't want to keep you forever. So, okay, we appreciate that Anyway, but thanks for being there. Alrighty if anybody else was there at Vio, atlanta, we'd love to hear from you and have your thoughts on it And uh, what what made it special for you and what was it good? Was it was it this? Was it that? There was so much to it though. I mean, there were so many sessions. There were a lot of x sessions You did an x session, you know, I I think for a big commercial Production like that where you've got all these people in there I I suppose the x sessions made sense What was it that you would that you did differently in an x session that you know that you or I would have done at a You know in an hour session or something Yeah, well, I had never gotten to do an x session before and I hadn't done a three hour live in person workshop in Long time. So I Honestly, I didn't know exactly the scope of what I wanted. What's going to be able to cover and so I went into it with a slide show that was kind of a I called it mic to mp3 and I just had to come up with some it's an old name I had from used years ago, right? But it was just it was just me answering people's questions and throwing a lot of things at them and seeing how they handle it You don't know what those 12 people are going to know. You don't know who they're going to be that sign up You don't know what their skill level is when they come in but with 12 people It really allowed me to make it a very just a free flowing Presentation rather than when I do my remote webinars my typical online webinars where okay I'm going to talk for one hour and 20 to 30 minutes Or 40 minutes for a really long time and then I'm going to answer your questions I wanted it to feel a lot more interactive. I wanted people to be able to interject Ask questions real time and make it feel like we're all in the same room Let's take advantage of that. So There was a lot of talk about mic placement You know after I did a pretty long spiel about acoustics And really demonstrated how bad acoustics work because the conference rooms I mean come on guys. These are rooms made for communication and they had zero acoustical treatment Just hard surfaces. They were so reverberant But it was so funny But um, yeah, it was a great way to demonstrate acoustics because it was a bad badly acoustically treated room And so people got to hear that and we got to talk a lot about mic placement and really get to talk about people's specific Situations what they are using what mic they're using How to make it work better for them? So That was neat. They're getting really that lot of one-on-one personal time And uh, so that I think it worked out really well Yeah, we shot that bit on friday night. Yeah, and then on saturday was the most fun because that was like We had a an audio masters. Yeah, we like to call them the round table, but it was a panel and on it was you me uncle roy Larry Hudson dan Friedman tim tippets and dav Whose last name escapes me because I hadn't met him before but uh, that was great because I think for the most part, you know, I got the first question And it was like what's most important. I said acoustics and everybody agreed and I'm like, okay, we can all go home now You know they uh, it was it was great to To have people who think like we do and you got to remember that People who actually work with home voiceover studios We come from a lot of different angles at it and some have a slightly different attitude about it But it's uh Overwhelmingly we're on the same page as we always seem to find About 80 of the time maybe more. We're totally on the same page 20 of the time we have some different ideas about how we should accomplish the details And we have a lot of clients who work with all of us or in a mixture of us You know some some have worked with uncle roy and dan and me or me and jordan or me and uncle roy and jordan All these different combinations tim tippets Which was great to see him there and and looking and feeling apparently feeling much better Clearly, you know and and um Hearing how everybody's worked with all these people It what happens is when people do this. Yeah, they learn a lot, but some folks tend to get hung up on that last 10 to 20 percent Where we have different ideas about how to execute things and that can get people In a little bit of i'm not trouble. It just frustrates them because then they're like, well, what really is the right answer And at the end of the day, we can't all hand it to you You you do have to make your own decision That's what the right we've been give we've given you a lot of the right information We've given you some different things like somebody came into my Excession she said I was told I should get a windows computer You're telling me I should get a mac computer Which is the right answer and all I could do of course again was give her my perspective and my experience Right. So that's that's the way it goes. You do have to make your own decisions at the end of the day You're running your own business. You have to steer your own ship But get the best crew you possibly can't Yeah, and Yeah, and jordan reynolds ran that ran that particular panel very very well. He did until his wife started to talk um and uh Oh, that's where things got interesting when mary stood up to to talk. Yeah Yeah, and she's like asking all of us these very detailed questions and you know, we all look at jordan and we're like Take it home What was that clearly that jordan's probably had to deal with with mary and try to answer for her or try to work with You know work on with her And she wasn't getting the answers that she wanted from jordan. So she asked the rest of us Yeah awkward It was very awkward, but it was still fun You know just lining up for a picture. I mean you don't get a picture of all of us together like that I mean, we are a very exclusive fraternity. I mean, there's other people that You know say they you know, they work with home voiceover studios and stuff Well, who was missing really that definitely could have been on stage with us was tim fielander Know what he was doing. Yeah cliff cliff zelman. Who was there, but he was he wasn't in that particular It was it was impossible to live ever at top big of a conference. There's so much going on That you still can't get everybody On stage plus you might I don't know if you noticed the very beginning. I was holding a glass of champagne Champagne. Yes, I the champagne toast was at the same time as our panel So I grabbed a glass and ran out to do the to do the panel at the end You know, you've got a great video of the glass sort of like in front of you the entire time and Perfectly. Oh, jeff gelder is in the yeah, jeff gelder. Yeah, jeff. Can you jump in jeff? Yeah, winner of the unicorn award for uh his annual holiday cd Yeah, that would be yeah the unicorn award was I mean, I have video of that whole thing too. It's 26 minutes long Um, it's really long trey is saving his voice. He's just getting over. Oh, damn Trey trey who's been a watch we've known trey. He's a fan of ours forever Yeah, um, he was there. We got this. I got to say hi to trey. He says i'm saving his voice getting over covet Yeah, a number of people came down with covet. I mean, that's the thing about a conference now is yeah Yeah, if you're careful You know, you wash your hands. You don't get too close to people. You're not going to get covet. So It's uh Yeah, I we're you know, we've got woevo con coming up in a month exactly a month and uh, it's uh You know, we're we're trying to come up. What's the policy going to be and we're thinking You know respect other people if they're wearing a mask and you know, don't make a political thing out of it Uh, you know people are entitled to uh, you know protect themselves People that wanted to protect themselves wore a mask. I mean it's different in every city In la it's it's you're free to free to do your thing if you want to wear one even when you when you don't want to wear one I think a lot of these conference halls a conference spaces people are very are becoming after three years of this Getting accustomed to some people have a mask on some people don't have a mask on right If you can't handle that at this point, just don't even show up to any conference Indeed. That's my opinion. Yeah. Well, it was a great show. Anyway, we We're gonna take a break here and we're gonna come back and wrap things up for this particular hour And then rack it for tech talk and if you got a question for tech talk throw it in the chat room now because George and I love getting questions about home voiceover studio tech So we'll be right back here at voiceover body shops. So don't go away You're still watching vlbs Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer That place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions Bringing you the most current information on topics like audio blows auditioning home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports. It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover Xtra dot com All right, I got to tell you guys a story About 10 years ago, my good friend Joe Davis gave me a call and he says, what can I do for the voiceover business? Now, Joe is a webmaster. He was primarily designing websites for midtown Manhattan law firms And he's like, I want to help the voiceover business. What would work? And I said, you know something And this is the way I stated it to him Your voiceover website shouldn't be a pain in the ass because it takes forever To create a website. You got to talk to your webmaster They'll charge you 25 bucks for adding a comma and then people start to become very elaborate in it And all you really need is your name your Your demos your contact information and a nice background And if he could create something that was templated That would be a lot easier So 10 years later. No, he started voice actor websites dot com and where we were doing uh They were they were somewhat templated, but people could design their websites and After 10 years now he has 30 people working for him. But now we have voice actor voice actor dot com which is It's it's amazing because Look at all the different templates that are in there All you have to do is go in there and you can do it for free to start That's right for free if you go into the uh into the home page here You can build it your website in minutes and you can get started for free Uh, there, you know, and then it's not really all that expensive But 20 a month to have your website the way you want it and Not only that but it also includes Where it gets hosted so you're on like that and george and i started started using this and it was Absolutely amazing because we were able to do it Literally in 10 15 minutes and we had a website why we had a website for for elijah We had a little website for my son jacob And there it was so if you want to try it go try it free over at voice actor dot com That's voice actor dot com. Let us know how it goes for you We are the world voices organization also known as wovo We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent voiceover is a complex entrepreneurial business Wovo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public to those already established in their voiceover practice And to those who want to pursue voiceover as a career membership benefits include a supportive and creative community A profile and demos on voiceover dot biz our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent Our exclusive demo player for your personal website Our mentoring program business resources and our video library our annual wovo con conference of fun and Educational weekend with other members with the chance to learn and network Webinars and great speakers and weekly social chats with other members around the world If your world is voiceover make wovo part of it world voices organization. We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rock in the voice of Rocco, and you're watching voiceover body shop All right Well, we got time for one more person who was there who was greatly honored and that was Jeff Gelder Jeff. How you doing man? I'm good. Can you see me? Yeah, we can see you. We can hear you You have 60 seconds go Aside from winning the unicorn award, which had lots of benefits to it. Uh, what was what was your impressions into the conference? That was definitely my favorite part. I have to say I would imagine but uh I thought that it was phenomenal. This was my first video Atlanta ever And that's the one I've heard it was the best one so far. Um, I hate to say it, but I think they might have raised the bar on the wovo I like Well, there's two different things so right. We'll have a hundred people. There was a thousand there. So ours will be a little bit more Yeah, yeah, I just I was excited about they had a lot of different speakers that I'd never seen in the last 10 years I've going to places like camaraderie the love in the room was huge I'm sure Yeah, it was a lot of fun and it was great seeing you there and it was great watching you win the unicorn award How are you going to use all of that stuff that they gave you? Oh my god, you know, it's a little overwhelming I'm still like I after they read the list for about 30 minutes And just I don't remember what's on that list We're about to get into it. I think in the next few days and figure out who gets what and how that works But already I've got this wonderful thousand dollar donation to the charity from Debra Wilson Which is you know amazing. So those are the best parts of it It's exciting to read out, you know some of the studio and the career and go to some other conferences and make some new demos Everything I wanted to do That's incredible Yeah, and and it's helping out your your charity for the annual holiday CD that you guys give out and that's a really cool project We'll talk more about it. Uh, you know, and you know as we go towards the holidays We'll talk to you about it and maybe maybe you can help promote it Thanks for being with us. I want to thank george team for the video. That was awesome to be able to see what happened remembering Yeah, it was like behind you off to the side in this other perspective So you got to watch the whole thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. It was really surreal Thanks for joining us. All right guys. Thanks. Alrighty Well, it's that time to say goodbye and get Get revved up for tech talk if you got a question for tech talk We do it live and if you're watching live You get to ask your questions and that's what we want to hear from you So we'll get to that in the meantime. So next week you're going to hear your questions answered on tech talk number 100 If you can believe that Yeah, 100 tech talks my god Oh Yeah, so stay tuned for that We need to thank our donors of the week like grace newton who I know is watching Hey, robert leadham steve chandler Casey clack Jonathan grant thomas pinto greg thomas Hey, dr. Voice antland productions martha con. Hey, martha my dear 949 designs christopher epperson sarah borges Phillip sepier brian page patty gibbons rob raider rider reader reader shuna pennington bard Don griffith Trey moseley. Hey trey diana birdsaw and Sandra man willer. All right. Hey join our mailing list too. So, you know what we're going to be doing on this show Every week as I send that out and you get to find out what's going on We need to thank our wonderful sponsors harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements voice actor dot com and world voices That's right. We are the industry association of freelance voice talent join us today Thanks to jeff holman for getting everybody together in the chat room And of course sumer lino for getting it done from the switchboard And of course lee pinney for being lee pinney. Well, look This was an interesting show. You got a little bit of a flavor of what view outlander was about Maybe you want to go next year, you know, and and hopefully not get govid But also learn an awful lot about the voiceover business, which is why we're here every week Doing what we do to help you out with your home voiceover studio and your voiceover career So make sure you're here for that Anyway, i'm dan lenard and i'm george woodham and this is voiceover body shop or vo bs close enough Stay tuned for tech talk You know at the end I usually try to I try to jump on the v the bs Yeah, so that by the time you hear it, you hear it with me, but this time I said it with you So to you it was off With that little bit well half a second delay. What are you gonna do? Alrighty, hey again, if you've got a question about your home voiceover studio because I get the impression. That's probably why you're here watching or listening so Got a question ask us because we know the answer and if we don't know the answer We're still gonna tell you something I think we've heard every question there is Anyway, uh, are we ready to sue to roll into tech talk? All right, let's do it count us in four three two Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 100 When you consider we we've we've done 250 shows that our last episode last week was episode 250 by the way to start our Thank you just to start our our 12th year and uh So if you had 250 and 100 that's three that's 350 weeks that we've been doing this show Yeah, baby We must be doing something right, you know Or as I continuously wrote remind John Florian over at voiceover extra when I said hey You want to sponsor a show about home voiceover studios? And he's like who's gonna want to watch a tv show about home voiceover studios? And I reminded him last week about that again And I think everybody needs to learn to not sound like this on tv. That's right Yeah, anyway So we got lots of stuff going on here. Um, you know, we were at vio Atlanta last week And I think you've got some video from that But uh, you know, we're here to talk about home voiceover studios And why do we talk about home voiceover studios? Because clearly nobody seems to understand them, especially if you're new to the business Or you've been a voice actor for a good long time, but you always went into somebody else's studio. You were talent Um, I was talent misinformation that has been spread and confusing people like crazy Yeah, and we want to straighten it out. We don't want to give you misinformation We want to give you the stuff that we know works And what works? It's different for everybody. I'm going to talk about that a little later on when we finish with your tech update Uh, the fact is we know what's happening. We've seen everything We at least we think we have until we've seen something we haven't seen before and that we get a question We haven't gotten before And of course trying equipment that we haven't tried before and seeing if it really works to help Your workflow is a voice actor. So where do you go for all that help? Well, you can work with either one of us Uh, if you want to work with george and have him teach you what it takes to build a really good studio Where do they go? You head over to george the tech and you can work with me and a bunch of others actually now including dan Um, there is a wide wide array of services available to you now And if you go over there at george the tech and look in the services area, you'll notice there's a lot in there Right, that's because we have services specific to different softwares, right? So if you are an adobe audition user, you can book time with one of our team members who isn't a pro at using adobe audition And you'll see their schedule and be able to book time with them whenever Suits your schedule It's really amazing to have such a great team of people Available just to help you out as well as all of our web and our content and next month Reaper is coming up. Uh, we're gonna be teaching reaper for those who really want to get complicated So anyway, that's us over at george the tech and meanwhile dan's got his home on the web over at Homevoiceoverstudio.com Yeah, we got lots of cool stuff over there, you know my philosophy which you know, I can go on about forever Everything is physical But we also have the specimen collection cup there and if you want to have your audio analyzed send it to me Uh, 25 dollars. I will give you your audio a very thorough analysis See if it's up to snuff And if it's not we'll make it snuffable I guess there's one way to put it And uh, all you have to do is go over to home voiceoverstudio.com and And if you want to work with me and get a consultation on how to build your studio or fix something You can go over there and contact me directly. So go do that Well, okay, so we're gonna start off our hundredth show How much has changed over a hundred episodes of this? I think my mustache has gotten a lot whiter Uh, yeah, well, yeah, we all have more gray. That's for sure And there's there's more tech coming out all the time with more different colored led lights on it But really A good studio mic good acoustics and good performance That's about 90 and that 90 hasn't really changed Yeah, really? All right. So what do you got in your tech update this week? I think we're talking starting off with something that somebody was asking about I believe I well the first thing in my tech update Yeah was is is the It's a product from sentrance called the Passport vo And so what this thing is is an audio interface that well I mean to be completely straight with you was really truly designed for voiceover actors I mean, I I'm saying it out loud right now and I almost have to pinch myself I have been wanting to help design and bring to bring to life An audio interface that's really designed for voiceover acting for many many years I've just found it to be an area of pro audio that's been woefully underserved Um, our friend Harlan Hogan has done a fantastic job of trying to serve the industry In so many different ways from the port-a-booth the vo1a microphone the voiceover headphones Which actually I'm using now and I really in this context doing live is it these are actually I like I like the way I sound better than I do on my buyers Really? Yes. Oh that's saying a lot in in live performance in playback I have different thoughts but in performance like we are now broadcast streaming I'm liking these the way I sound it it definitely Makes me feel clear and clean In present but the point is is that there's nothing there just hasn't been anything out there That's really got a lot of nuanced features that suit the voiceover user And let's be honest like a lot of you that are beginners may not need something that has the level of flexibility In complexity of this guy the the the passport vo It's called passport because it was a co-developed venture between the pro audio suite podcast crew with four of us And michael goodman of centrans and we came together over a few months. We surveyed our Everybody that we could get a hold of to tell us what you're looking for and at the end This is essentially what all of you asked for at least the top 60 percent This is what was the most voted on in terms of features As well as one or two features that maybe nobody asked for because they didn't even occur to them So we have a few curveballs in there But one of those things is the record channel two source switch. There's this little button at the very bottom It's a black switch. It's going to allow you to choose what you record on channel two Channel two is like this unused input that nobody uses because your mics plugged in the channel one And you're recording a mono track most of the time What could we do with channel two then it's like a hidden feature This lets you choose you can have channel two be a safety track where it records 12 db lower So you have some safety margins before clipping It could be what actually is plugged into mic two Which makes it work now like a scarlet two i2 or any two channel interface Or it can be used to record what comes back from communications And that means you are now able to do podcast production and record the caller on zoom or source connect Or you can just use it to record your coach, you know, you get coached on zoom all the time You want to capture what the coach is saying click that switch to comms and you're recording your coach or whoever's on the remote end so Just a lot of tools that we want to make sure are easy to exploit for voiceover I don't want this to be too much of an infomercial right now We're going to have time to do that more next week But or actually went by the time you guys are seeing this in replay This week this week is really when this product is supposed to be starting on its pre-sale So i'll just wrap it up here by saying stay tuned Uh watch the pro audio suite dot com website for more information It will be actually on sale on the sentrance website in their store And you'll be able to start buying it next week or actually for those watching out live next week For those watching the replay this week It's going to be 699 and we have to sell 100 units up front in order to get this thing produced I know there's so many of us. I would like to give one to There ain't no gibbies gibbies this time. We have to all buy one It's a group effort to make this thing exist and we're really proud of it. So anyway, that's That's the passport vo and uh if you want to know more about it. Well Just let us know we'll we'll fill you in And uh, stay tuned at the pro audio suite dot com All right coming up in my queue here Oh one more thing. Oh my gosh, if I hadn't said this If you saw this on the show if you do decide to buy one of these units, please Use v o b s when you check out it won't change the price But what it will do is let sentrance know you saw it here And then you will be by doing so you will be supporting us The show you'll be supporting the show by using v o b s coupon code if you do pre-sale buy one So thank you in advance Um coming up next also the roadcaster pro 2 is now physically in my studio And it's actually what were you what i'm using tonight to do the show Now it's so funny that on the heels of my the product i've helped design I'm talking about another product both products are about the same price almost well. They are the same price They're both $699 and if you look at them on paper you go wait a minute. Why is this thing also $699 Why is this little simple basic analog portable thing $699 and why is this super complicated Covered in led lights and touch screens also $699 Well, the roadcaster pro 2 is clearly targeted to production of voiceover of really podcasting live streaming We'd love to four people in the same room at the same time With the ability to add more people coming in remotely all in one live show And it can be live recorded. It can be live streamed It can be recorded multi-track and it can be recorded multi-track internally to the unit. It has a record button Right on the unit. Um very clever dan's been using one on his end of the studio the original version For quite a long time and the new one just takes everything that the original one had and takes it to 11 It's got more microphone preamp gain way more It's got flexible faders that you can choose what signal comes up on which fader it's got better routing for your headphones and your student monitors it It takes everything that if you had the first one you said it would be nice if And now this one has it. It's crazy. So, um, it's an impressive piece of kit Does a voiceover actor need it? No, if they made a version half the price half the size with half the features, but all the stuff that I like Then I would say go buy that Yeah, but they didn't and they won't and that's why we made the passport via Well, both have a workflow For voiceover now the the the the the procaster is really designed for podcasting But the first time I saw it it was like This would be very nice for voiceover and for the other things that I do in teaching and webinars and And that sort of thing Yeah, if you do things beyond voiceover and you are doing other things other types of production void, you know live streams webinars pro teaching Podcasting then the the the roadcaster Is quite a piece of kit again It's got three more mic preamps than most people would need It has sound effect pads that you don't really need but are fun You know, it's got all these bells and whistles on it that make it fun to play with but at the end of the day The additional functionality can get in your way When you're in a live session as a voice actor and you may want something simpler And that's where something that contrasts against it like the the centrance passport vio comes into play because you have Only what you need without distracting features and no Software control panels firmware updates or anything to keep to sort of burden you with complexity So very different ideas to get down a similar functionality that you know might that you might need um Moving on so waves some of you may use waves plugins If you do use waves plugins, then you already know what i'm about to talk about Because it made a huge this piece of news made a huge splash and splash meaning like a poop landing in a bowl Of water kind of a splash It did not go over well at all and what they said they were going to do was make all of the licenses From here this day forward be subscription only you have to have a subscription to get any current or updated version of your software end of story full stop End of people spoke and waves listened um, and so a week later they made a total about face and um, that is no longer going to be the case You will be able to buy waves plugins. You can buy them a la carte You can buy them and when you do buy them, they are what they call perpetual licenses And so you're not going to have to have a subscription to continue using waves plugins that you already come to know and love And depend upon like clarity So don't freak out. There was a lot of that happening. We don't need to freak out anymore because they uh, they really did listen they really did um pedal it back And uh, and they they they they made good. They made good. So kudos waves I sorry that they made such a misstep in terms of marketing and promotion and Kind of decision making in terms of how they would market and sell their product But they listened and they they did change. So there you go Anyway, moving on to a couple more things couple pair of headphones One of them I got to try at the at the vio Atlanta and I have a quick video package that uh, We can throw up here And the other one is a pair I actually have physically in my hot little hands From road because they were nice enough to give along with the roadcaster pro 2 that they uh, they let just take home from vio Atlanta They did also give me a pair of their nth 100 headphones and my quick quick take on the nth 100 hundred headphones is A beautiful piece of engineering really really nicely made Um, very comfortable in my on my ears But the sound characteristic the ecu curve is not familiar to me It's too different from anything else that I own for me to adapt to using or adopt using them right away These might be best for me if I was to use them while I'm actually producing a show live Just like the the harlan hogan cans. I like listening to myself speak through them live But I wouldn't want to make an ecu judgment when I'm tuning ecu because I know my other headphones better I feel kind of like the same way about these they they have a unique sound to them And that might be good for performance or good for people doing live announcements But maybe less or so for editing It's up to you and it's what you're used to hearing and you have to wear them to find out but Really nicely designed very heavy duty removable cord, which I think should be the norm nowadays, right? And and you can put them on both sides. There's a party trick. They put them on they put the plug on both sides Um cooling gel ear pads, which is pretty cool. It really does help Pull the heat away from your skin. So really interesting cans. I I'm I want to play around with it some more Maybe I'll do some of my live shows with them and see how they work for live production But um, they just their ecu is just too different for me to use for my critical listening type stuff And lastly speaking of headphones the audiotechnica athm 50x dash sts Uh has been released recently a very interesting pair of headphones And I have a video to accompany that if you would spool that up sue Uh, hey, this is george the tech. I'm here at vio atlanta 2023 inside the tri booth And i'm getting to try something that's new to me. That's really interesting It's an audiotechnica headphone the very well loved atm 50 headphones with a little extra party trick A boom microphone Not just any boom microphone capsule. It's the same capsule as in the 20 series microphones. That's right It's the same capsule as in the at 2020. So now you've got a good quality condenser capsule That's built into your headphones. So think about what you could do with this. You could record audiobooks in a comfortable Chair sitting back relaxed not with a microphone That you have to constantly address at the exact right placement You can be relaxed and record in a comfortable way You can physically move around while you're recording in very high quality with really high quality audio And get really consistent sound that's the other thing consistent Audio as you move around your space And I think that's a really compelling thing. It's something i've been Advocating for for quite a while is why not have a headset mic When you record voiceover, but most of them weren't up to the task the fidelity wasn't very good They're pretty noisy. They're made for sports casting this one. I think well, you guys be the judge I think it works pretty well Thanks to eric who let me borrow these and do this quick little test And you can mute them at any time by doing this Now the microphone is off And now the microphone is on really clever design XLR and quarter inch That's how it plugs in so it'll plug into standard pro audio gear And they have a usb version of it as well Which i'm actually interested in because I work on my laptop constantly and I need high end headphones With a mic very clever Audio technica killing it with these amazing new headphones with a mic All right, yeah, I did you notice the boom microphone mute didn't actually work It started to or less or you had a I had some processing to try to deal with the high high background noise in there But um, yeah, it it didn't cut it off So I don't know if I pulled it up didn't pull it up far enough to mute the mic But it didn't actually do it until it clicks. That's usually the indication. I guess that's what I guess that would it is But anyway, yeah, I had no idea. I mean, I think this is a First of all, I love all your technica headphones. I'm a headphone junkie as you guys have probably figured out by now and um and the fact that you can have a I'll be at a very low end condenser capsule still a quality condenser Mic capsule built into the boom of the mic Headset was I thought really cool idea and I think for people doing white podcast or doing a long form Narration e-learning or audiobooks. I think it could be really nice to use Yeah, I'd be comfortable to have that and you don't have to worry about constantly You know, you're getting your mic is in the right position all the time and you know And of course it's very important for gamers Because apparently that's what gamers do. I wouldn't know Yeah, yeah, they have that stuff They have a usb version of this for I would say is definitely gamer suited So it'll plug directly into a pc or mac and I think that would be that would be no printer Very good. All right well I want to talk about Something that I always say and that is every room is different If we get down to the basic basics here I get a lot of email from people saying Hey, what do I do? I have a room Like well, that's great. Do we all have rooms somewhere? But every room is different. There is no one size fits all answer to creating a home voiceover studio because Rooms are made out of different materials Everybody's voice is different. Everybody's using a different microphone. Even though they you know I'm still not convinced that you know, all these microphone selections really have very little to do with voiceover It has a lot more to do with with making music and stuff And there's a few microphones that are really good for doing voiceover But when it comes to the room Room selection is really really important Because as we know, what's my main philosophy? keeping sound out And making sure that there's no reverberation inside the space that you're recording And of course proper microphone technique and setting your levels setting your levels I think that's going to be a whole new discussion when we start talking about some of the other things that we can When it comes to voiceover recording gear But some rooms have you know in old houses you got walls that are still plaster Uh, most of them are drywall and they have some of them have 10 coats of paint on them You've got to be able to find the right space one that is quiet and I have come to the conclusion that is literally impossible in a home studio unless you have an actual booth Uh, that really cuts out the exterior noise So you've got to find a quiet room preferably one that is Perhaps in the back of your house or apartment not on the street Uh, not in the landing uh glide zone for an airport or takeoff Because I know people right below the Santa Monica airport. It's like how do you record here? Um, but if you can enclose yourself in something and seal it up That's really the key to keeping noise out and if it's got heavy walls Uh for those of you living in the east or in the northeast A basement is a great place Uh and you can actually build your own thing down there your own your own studio But from scratch or if you have a closet in a basement that also works really great Just turn off the furnace and all the other mechanicals and make sure you turn the back on when you're done. Um Also, how do you treat a room like that? There's no one size fits all for that as well When I go into somebody's house or apartment and they're like what how is this room? If it's a closet full of clothes That's fabulous. It's amazing because nothing Absorbs sound like a closet full of clothes go into your walk-in closet and start talking and you'll notice it's a lot quieter in there So make sure you do that Find the room and learn how to listen for exterior noise and that really takes Just maybe a little bit of zen time where you go What can I hear? Can I hear the refrigerator? No one no one recognizes that the refrigerator is there because your brain's probably tuned it out Or air conditioning or heating Or all sorts of noises that can happen in an apartment building or in your house So that's the first thing you got to do is you've got to find someplace really really quiet I know a lot of people say well, I can use I can use this filter and that filter and those filters I think if you're doing stuff live If you have to do a lot of remote sessions and stuff like that Yeah, you have to have that type of stuff if you don't have a quiet space to record But it's much easier to do auditions and stuff from a place that's really really quiet acoustically treating it It depends generally. I have to listen That's george. That's like one of the the the weirdest things about what we do somebody says I got a I got a buzz I got a hum. I got this I noise. I've got this thing And it's like yeah, so Everybody hears differently And I I think that's been proven everybody's you know their ears are all different They all perceive things a little bit differently use different headphones too So you hear things differently than other people in different headphones absolutely So what you need to do is Send us something if you have a question about if it sounds good Send george or I some audio because usually while you may not be able to hear it It takes us five seconds To know what's going on in your room if it's if it's noisy If it's reverberant if you're not using your microphone properly All those things we can find out very very quickly if we hear it Which is why I have the the specimen collection cup in my at my website And you know, that's that really is what works or if you're working with george You have to send us the actual audio So we can tell what it is and generally we can tell what if you if the room is Acoustically traded if it's quiet or if you're in an empty room Or if you're in a four by four whisper room with the stock phone that it comes with We have to listen to that one today again. It sounds like a tube. It sounds pretty pretty pretty boxy Yeah, not very good. Yeah, I mean and everybody describes these things very differently as well Right. Are you in a tube? Is it tinny? Is it, you know, you know, sometimes people have like those lights with a with a bell Sort of housing on it and they're like I get this ringing sound I'm like, do you have one of those lights with the bell? Yeah, get rid of it and all of a sudden the ringing goes away That's called experience. That's doing this for a long time and hearing everything that can go on So it's important to find the quietest space that solves so many problems And prevents us and you from doing a lot of additional stuff to make that room usable So there's no one size fits all we got to hear it and we have to see What exactly in here what exactly is going on in that room because every room is different every voice is different George your thoughts I mean, I couldn't have said it better myself. I mean I start to after I've heard after I've heard of 10 or 24 by four whisper rooms They're pretty they're pretty predictable, right? It's a product with the same size And I start to get an idea of what works in those, right? So I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time But everybody's closet it's a different size. Everything has its own unique set of challenges. So It's a very it's still a very non-formulaic Solution and the other reason for that is I've got all these books over here Which you can't see on acoustics And not a single one of these books has how do you tune a four by four? Booth or a small closet not a one None of them know how to do this. None of them studied it. None of them have models Based in mathematics on how to tune small rooms. It's a unique niche of things that we have spent a lot of time Doing our best to perfect and so that's why it's such a unique thing Yeah So if you're trying to set up a room, uh, or you're you're moving or something like that Always look for a room that is really really quiet or a closet that's big enough for you to actually fit in We've seen some people squashed into some very small spaces Uh, if you can if you have an extra room a spare bedroom something like that It can it can be very very useful and outbuilding, you know, you know Have it maybe have a she shed Or or a man cave or something like that that's away from the street. Yeah tough shed is great Uh, something along those lines if you can isolate yourself from the house and from street noise, that's a great thing Anyway, we got a lot of questions. We're gonna get to in the next half hour. So don't go away We got lots to come here on voiceover body shop We'll be right back This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lenard and george widham v obs dot tv As voice actors we need to hear the clear transparent and honest sound of our voices Harlan Hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 provide both that accurate transparent sound with enhanced mid-range audio Less bass and the creature comforts voice workers deserve Clearly different from traditional studio headphones. The upper mids and highs are clear as about no muffling or cross bleeding between frequencies Like a pair of studio monitors the low is there But at the same level as the rest of the spectrum They're comfortable like no other phones i've worn. That's because harlan used actual leather for the pads It's like putting on a pair of leather gloves for your ears They're also very light for their size as harlan made them from aluminum instead of plastic The headband is flexible like a watch band and the plug comes out for walking away Get the only headphones designed for vio harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 for just $149 with free shipping from voiceover essentials dot com Hey Another spot and this time we're talking about source elements the creators of source connect And a lot of other tools coming down the pipeline including their most currently updated version of nexus Which really allows studios to interact with their clients and their talent in a more seamless way It's pretty amazing. This tool allows studios or anybody that has to produce and record other talent Route audio in and out of their DAWs Very painlessly in a very logical way. It's really really well designed But honestly the voice actors out there You're the ones that really want to pay attention to what's going on with source connect I have a video about it on my website That goes into a lot of informational depth. I mean this video has been out since the beginning of the pandemic three years People are still watching it telling them. Thank you for doing this video. I now understand it better Since then if you go to source dash elements dot com they have created a lot of educational content On source connect what it does who it's for how it works how you get it and What to cost well It doesn't have to cost anything to get started you can get a 15 day free trial Or you can also do what they have they have a special little two-day licensing So if you don't want to commit to a subscription or buy out the license for life Yes, you can get these little two-day licenses Ask them how and they'll show you It's a great way to make a client happy when you need to Especially when you don't think you're going to be using it very often. Anyway, thanks source elements Let's get on to those questions right after this next spot Hey, it's david h. Lawrence the 17th and we talk a lot in this business about moving forward with our career Getting more information We often don't talk about simply Getting started It can be one of the most immovable objects In in our life getting out of our own way and just simply taking the first step And if you're watching this podcast voiceover body shop For some tips on how to get started in voiceover or to change something about your voiceover career or to increase your knowledge in a certain area Check out vio heroes comms getting started in voiceover If you go to vio heroes comm slash start you'll get all the information Uh, it's really cheap And I give you a lot to get started in the business But you might also learn something if you've been in the voiceover business for a while vio heroes comm slash start That's vio heroes comm slash start Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great All right, welcome back to voiceover body shop tech talk number 100 put that up again soon Boo boo Okay, that's a that's a lot of tech talk That's a hundred hours of tech talk. I mean Where else where else are you gonna get all this stuff? You know And one of the favorite things we do about tech talk is we take your questions and and we got a bunch of them Today, so why don't we get into those? Yeah, uh, here's one that was left over from last week from right from derrick sigh uh Starting out as a voice actor. I have the audio tech that gets at 2020 in a scarlet solo third gen and record in a wardrobe I think that means a closet. It could be a closet. It could be it could be like a shiffer robe Something along Like they sell those things at uh at ikea Um with two gik gik acoustic spot panels behind me with a curtain to cover the top to treat the space With a noise floor of about minus 60 to minus 54 db Will be the judge of that. Uh, I have a gain knob turned up 60 to 70 but my recording levels are around minus 28 to minus 21 db when Explain what that means. So every time I record I amplify it plus 5 to 7 db in adobe audition Is this just the nature of the mic interface simply not speaking loud enough or am I doing something wrong? I have the mic positioned upside down at eye level about six inches the hardware is all brand new when the latest driver is installed uh Chances aren't well crystal one. The first question is mac or pc. He said drivers Drivers that means pc. Okay, usually. Yeah, I mean there aren't a lot of drivers for stuff in in on a mac right Chances are there's a number of things that could be going on here Well for 60 is not very high on a scarlet. No, that's true There's a lot more you got a lot more gain in there, especially if you've got a third gen I mean those things have a lot of gain to them Uh, two things that I would suggest one Not be six inches from the mic maybe be Three inches to to the mic remember the rule of three if it's a really tiny room It's a fist if it's a you know a good size room That's you know like a small bedroom or something It's a fist and thumbs up And if you're in a larger room like the room i'm in you can do Mahalo Yeah, you can get away with a further distance the better the bigger and better sounding the room is yeah Exactly, but the room's got to sound good But chances are you're there's two things there one you're probably too far from the mic especially in 1820 20 Which is Not the most sensitive of the studio condenser mics And two you might play with being a little bit closer And so turn up your gain get a little bit closer and i'll bet you can get yourself back up to where he should be What do you think? Yeah, I yeah, I don't be afraid to goose up the gain a little bit if it's necessary Experiment with mic placement and distance Um, and but don't be so worried about the recorded levels look like anymore with 24 bit recording You can record raw audio with levels that need to app that need to be amplified 5 to 10 db or even more sometimes And not worry about an inordinate amount of noise being added to the audio If the noise is in the environment Well, whatever you do to adjust the levels later will adjust the noise too, right? So whether you add gain from the preamp or normalize later or amplify later Whatever that noise is will also come up. So you're not saving yourself by recording low levels So it's generally accepted these days people 24 bit If you're peaking Somewhere in the yellow range on the vu meter you're recording meters in your software If you're in the yellow, you can kind of let it mellow You know, don't worry too much We're going to normalize or boost the level in post and not even worry about Worry about that as much as we used to with 16 bit recording and holder analog gear All right Next question is from Ed Moskowitz You can get this one because 32 bit float is a a whole interesting discussion But it's getting a lot of press lately, isn't it? Ed asks in regards to the 32 bit float discussion In film and tv post and production It has been debated for quite a while with manufacturers like sound devices Having the option many of the studios were perhaps that has changed now Not yet capable of dealing with 32 bit float I'm seeing I'm assuming 32 bit float files So the question is are more studios now ready to utilize tracks recorded in 32 bit? In production at this stage of the game a lot of of file recordings are A lot of the field I guess I should say field recordings are done in 32 bits. So what's my opinion? Well, you need to deliver the files in the format that the client wants So if you're saying that post isn't wanting 32 bit files Then what you're surmising is is that no, it's not part of workflow for them yet They don't want to take 32 bit float files So if you're recording in 32 bit float, which is fine If you have the technology to properly capture it, which most of you do not yet But if you have the equipment to record 32 bit float If your software is capable of doing it and your Mac is set up to record it because sorry folks You on BC cannot record and capture in 32 bit float yet Then yes go ahead but deliver the files in whatever format the client wants that might be 24 bit wave More commonly that's probably going to be 16 bit wave files. So Capture in high resolution. That's fine Deliver in the resolution that they want, but it is all about production workflow And until 32 bit float becomes part of it. There's going to be no reason to record in that format Yeah, but we need to explain what is the difference between 32 bit float and say 32 bit and say 24 bit because whenever you're You know, you're setting up your file. You hit, you know new file It'll come up a dialogue box will come up and so you want this in you know 16 bit 24 bit 32 bit or 32 bit float Which as you were saying it doesn't it doesn't work on on on a pc yet I'm not sure why that is for audition. Yeah, but I mean You it's easy to do an audition. You just recorded 32 bit float. What exactly does that mean? Oh man. Well 32 bit float is an incredibly complex algorithm of mathematics, which is basically Saying that there's 24 bits roughly of of actual dynamic range, which by the way is a lot It's plenty And then there's eight more bits that will allow you to shift that range of 24 bits up and down as needed Well, essentially allowing it to float up and down so How it works in context what it means in context of what we care about Is that with the right amount right type of gear and set up correctly in your in your DAW and in your computer You can record without having to worry about mic gain Because the system has the ability to capture such an incredibly wide range of sound That the quietest stuff and a lot of stuff is all recorded without distortion on clipping And that's that's the very very short version of it if you head over to road's website or actually roads youtube type in 32 bit float Nt1 and watch the most recent videos that they released and it will do a really good job of explaining this more More clearly what this whole 32 bit float thing means But in the short version of it is if you're not set up with the right gear on a mac at this time There is zero reason to record Anything in 32 bit float don't bother all you're doing is making bigger files to take up more space It's extra wasted data. It's totally unnecessary. I still say 24 bit should be the kind of the norm across the board Um, don't worry about 32 bit float without the right equipment and workflow in your setup Yeah, I all right. So I experimented with it this week You know and see okay, you know, i've been doing a 24 bit for a long time. I'm like, let me try 32 You cannot over modulate it You know, and the thing is is if you even if you drive You know your your your interface You know in adobe audition you're using I was using the roadcaster Oh, the roadcaster may have 32 bit float recording it now. I don't know it may be But I I you know, I recorded it quiet. I recorded it loud And it came out fine either way I think the point is though you got to have a quiet Chain you have to have a good quiet mic like a road or an omen or something like that And an interface that is also very quiet Absolutely, and if if you've got white noise at a low level if you normalize it to into something else It's still there comes up So you gotta you gotta be careful with that But I I experimented with it a bit and I must say it sounds pretty good at 32 bit float And and then I just delete the 32 bit float after I send off the mp3. So it doesn't take up room on there The next question we have is from the one and only Jeff Holman. He says My on-camera self tape studio has hardwood floors and my self tapes have a hollow brag. Jeff. Yeah, really Echoey sound. Yes. They have a hollow echoey sound. What's the best way to better that keeping in mind I can't have visible foam or sound panels in the shot put a rug down. Would a carpet pad help too? Is there a certain kind of rug or pad that would help the most? I'm not a I'm yeah, go ahead. I I have some thoughts on it, but you go ahead. Sorry. You go first. I'll go Okay, Hugo. I'll go first In in a voiceover booth, I'd say, you know people like I've got a cement floor I got a wood floor. Should I put a rug down? Well, if you want, you know, if you're barefoot, maybe Uh, but I don't think the floor really has a if if you've got a solid floor This not it's not affecting the sound at all in a smaller booth In a larger space where you're doing self taping for for on-camera work Uh A rug always helps perhaps a nice shag rug. Although you'll probably end up tripping over some of the shag Uh, it's not too shaggy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean something that's kind of If you can diffuse the sound at the floor using something that has a lot of Texture to it that would probably help Although if you if you if you've ever been to a Grateful Dead concert They're always on some oriental rug or something like that to make the the stage not quite as reverberant And to keep the drums from sliding around that's right And I you know, I think Jeff that you know if you're sending in self tapes Uh, they know you're in a room. They know you're not in a professional studio They're looking to see how you're acting is more than anything else So I would say put down a rug. Let's see what it sounds like and if it doesn't work then Try something else. I would also ask what is your backdrop Jeff? I mean if your backdrop is Just the dry wall behind you that's the worst possible case scenario If the backdrop is a roll-down backdrop Then you can hide all kinds of stuff behind the roll-down backdrop because a lot of the sound Is going to pass through the roll-down backdrop and it's going to bounce off the wall behind it So you can hang a whole bunch of stuff on the wall behind the roll-down backdrop You can put stuff everywhere that's not on frame You can put two sets of Furny pads, you know furniture blankets on stands on either side of the camera There's all kinds of stuff you can do to kill off the reverb that doesn't see it isn't seen on camera So yeah, I would try a lot of these things just scattering them around just keeping them out of frame And it's all going to improve as you add more and more damping to the space But yeah, just start with the basics a nice five by eight Eight by whatever room we have for nice a nice plush area throw rug And that's gonna make a big difference because your microphone is likely overhead and Point it down at the hardwood floor Right or or use a lav mic. So you're you're close mics when you're when you're doing a self taping thing Yeah, also if you've got Remember the camera is only pointing in one direction If you're if it's bouncing off the wall behind the camera, you can put all sorts of stuff on the wall behind the camera I'm hearing some ridiculous expectations from actors doing on camera now on camera I don't see why you'd have to worry ever about hiding a microphone having to worry about it being in frame We're having a lav mic on one of these new road video mic go-to mics or the dji mics that you can just Attach to your your your shirt Um, we'll help a big big time and getting clean audio without reflection and bounce So that might at the end of the way be just the easiest way to deal with it Yeah, that's that's the latest thing a road has that that what is it to go Go whatever i think it's oh, yeah the the road just to go mic the video. Yeah, right It's just a thing you clip onto your pocket and yeah, and and it has a wireless to uh through bluetooth to your Camera or to your yeah what has its own receiver? Yeah, um dji also has internal recording as well So if you don't have a way to wirelessly send the audio to your phone easily it will also just Internally record too. So yeah, there's some really really cool mics in this space nowadays totally wireless and not cheap Um, but um affordable and if you're doing a lot of this kind of stuff It's part of your career than probably worthwhile investing in Yeah, but for voiceover you don't need a rug on the floor Unless you're you know a wood floor if you go into a lot of recording studios. What's on their floor? It's a wood floor So they're not they're not too worried about you're not talking down You're talking this way and that doesn't reflect off the floor very much Unless unless you have like a mirrored floor or something like that Reflects light and sound. Yeah, it's it's this holistic thing It's just the ratio of hard versus soft surfaces no matter where they are You know if they're on the floor the walls even the ceiling Um, the more hard surface there is versus soft the worst it's going to get So you got to just start sucking up that reverb wherever you can no question All right, we got time for two more questions here Jeremy Howard on youtube says I have a moving blanket vo booth about four by 2.5. So like this Anybody out there that's more than two and a half they're two and a half feet wide They're pretty wide And while there are no reflections my male voice does seem to get a bit boomy in the space Would you recommend bass traps and studio foam? And two is there a setting where I can change the speed of the playback? Well, let's get to the speed of the playback in a second. Okay When it comes to boomy If you're in a blanket booth And it depends on what what you're using for blankets here. He doesn't say oh, it's moving blankets Remember moving blankets Definitely will Will diffuse and absorb the sound so it doesn't bounce back to your mic But the sound also goes through and if you're in a larger room And you're talking very loud, which is another point. Everybody's over projecting You know unless you're doing car spots or doing imaging or something along those lines It's it's a conversational voice. You're just talking the way you're talking to somebody else Maybe a little bit of push with some some scripts the louder you talk the more the acoustics of the room come into play So that that that That's the most important thing there Your voice may be a bit boomy and that's because it's reflecting off of walls outside of the booth Right could be where the booth is if you if it's tucked into a corner Now the corner of your room is covered with the booth and now you're getting some base reflex off the corner So yeah, if you can move the thing away from the wall that could help quite a lot. You might try that too Yeah, I've done that many times with people with blanket boots. It's like, you know Maybe have it in the middle of the room or you know away from the wall in a corner Right corners are practical, but that's where the base really tends to collect Right because you've got you've got like a bunch of angles there say at the ceiling Where it's going off in two different directions there and then you've got the ceiling and then the down You know, yeah Waves will really collect in that corner and that will cause that So, you know, or you can always put a base trap up in the corner You might actually help that. Yeah, I've never put a base trap in a in a blanket booth because normally like you said You can move the booth, but if you're stuck in a corner That may be what it takes you might need to get something in that corner To suck up some of that low-end resonance or just use some cleverly tuned eq to sort of tune it out a little bit Because that actually can work quite effectively too. Yeah, so yeah, I've you know That's the great thing about a about a blanket booth that's made out of pvc or something like that Just move it around find the sweet spot in the room that's going to work for you You know, think about it. There's no there's no again one no one size fits all thing here There's lots of different things you can try and these are all things that George and I have tried 20 or 30 times When different people's rooms like move the booth. All right talk, you know, okay, the noise is coming from this way Don't talk towards the noise or don't talk with the noise behind you turn it around talk towards the noise You know simple, you know logical stuff Second part of his question. This is an interesting one I I I'm pretty sure there is Is there a setting where I can change the speed of playback in adobe audition if I'm proofing a script for accuracy And want to do it quickly I'm pretty sure you can compress it But I don't think you could I mean if you want to you just slide along And and scrub along and no I know you can scrub I did I'm doing literally doing some googling about it because I've never done it I've seen oh now now they want me to log in to read what I just saw in a google search. Okay I'll go ahead and do that. Um, someone said um check in edit preferences playback and in the line saying jkl shuttle speed Select the half speed option And now you can play anything either forwards at half or backwards at half speed Or you could do double the speed too apparently Yeah, so j makes it playback Let's see l makes it play forward at whatever speed you choose j will make it play backwards at whatever speed that you choose So it looks like you'll have to try it for yourself and see I've never done it But if these google searches are coming up with accurate information on the adobe support community site, which this has been marked as a correct answer Um, this is from 2017 Adobe auditions not known for removing features. Right. I would imagine that's still the same thing now Yeah, now, there's also software that's going to make Audio editing even easier that we saw it. It'll be o atlanta and that's hindenburg give that give that a look Because that's got some really cool stuff that allows you to really edit with the script right in front of you And it makes it very easy to to do that and I think with a couple of keystrokes It just sort of edits with the script Which is really good if you're doing e-learning with lots of different slides Or with audiobooks or something along those lines, but we'll talk more about that in a future show Uh last question from youtube from dave g We can answer this one pretty quickly. I'm worried about ai voices. Hold my hand and tell me it'll be okay. Please guys There is so much written about this I you know, if you understand the term uncanny valley Uh, these companies keep saying that They're it's getting real close and people say that they can you know imitate emotion I'm sorry. I still don't buy it and people are going to laugh at me There's no program out there that can make the thousands of decisions that my can go onto my head when I see a phrase How am I going to go up go down? Programming that to what would be a model of my voice is very difficult Now in the aggregate here in the big picture in the macro We pretty much are all agreed that it's going to take away some of the low-end stuff. That's monotonous like phone phone What do you know avi things phone answering things and voice systems like that Audio books are going to it. But you know, I've listened my wife listens to audiobooks and I'm like, that's an ai voice I can tell real easily they can say that you know, you see these things with deep fakes like which one is the real morgan freeman It's not hard But if you're not really trained for it, you won't you don't really notice Uh, I think that some of the low end low paying stuff may go the way of ai Certainly, there's a lot of youtube videos out there that have gone ai But I you know, I think it's important and and john bailey was telling us this a couple of weeks ago Be ready for it. Be prepared know which know what it is you do well That an ai can't and really try to exploit that There you have it and that's the name of that tune. All right As robert blake used to say before he went to prison um Anyhow, uh, we've got uh Just a few more things to tell you about but we'll tell you about them when we come back right after these important commercial messages Don't go away You're still watching vlbs Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer That place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions Bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books auditioning home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports. It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover x t r a dot com all righty You know as a voice actor Everybody needs to have a website at world voices We require that you have a web footprint. That means you need to have a website But a web getting a website if you've gone to all sorts of webmasters to say, yeah, I can build a website for you It can take a while Got to get a you have to find a server and and a host for it and all these things that perhaps you have no idea about Well, a good friend of mine, joe davis came up with something really simple and that is a way to build your voice over website in just minutes using A new website called voice actor dot com and you can build your website in minutes It has some really cool features to it. For example It's it's designed to be mobile responsive It you know your voiceover website will work on all devices and it'll show you both views It's easy to use the dashboard is built to allow you to create your site really fast George and I did it in 10 minutes and got sites up and running Edit yourself. They're super simple editor lets you manage your own website Always a pain in the butt that you know, if you want to add a comma or change the background color Yeah, I'll get that'll be that'll be 50 bucks for a webmaster. No, you have complete control because it's all templated And guess what it was built for voice actors by voice actors we all put input into what makes it good and That's what you need. You need to find a website that can build your website Simple easy and you can do it for free to start out That's right. They get they allow you to do for a zero dollars a month You get a site url. You get to choose your website Uh, the website template uh change templates at any time. It's easy to edit. No coding It's super duper simple go over to voice actor dot com And try it out. See if it works for you. If you don't have a website, you better get one now go over to voice actor dot com We are the world voices organization also known as woevo We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent voiceover is a complex entrepreneurial business Woevo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public to those already established in their voiceover practice And to those who want to pursue voiceover as a career Membership benefits include a supportive and creative community a profile and demos on voiceover dot biz Our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent our exclusive demo player for your personal website our mentoring program Business resources and our video library our annual woevo con conference a fun and Educational weekend with other members with the chance to learn and network webinars and great speakers And weekly social chats with other members around the world if your world is voiceover make woevo part of it World voices organization. We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is carlo cellars rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop well another hour has gone by And look how much you've learned in that one hour we shoved it's like taking a fire hose and Giving you all this information lots of stuff in there Uh next week on the show another great guest I have a couple of people that want to be on the show and you're gonna enjoy hearing from them So make sure you're there Uh april let's see it's april through so the same seven days. So I think it's the 20th. We're gonna be on again Doing it live Anyway, uh, we need to thank our donors of the week like robert ledum Thank you, robert. We love you. Um, steven chandler kasey clack jonathan grant tom pinto shelly avilino Greg thomas. Hey dr. Voice ant land productions martha con 949 designs christopher aprison sarah Borges phillips appear brian page patty gibbons rob reader No, it's writer. It's it doesn't matter Yeah, he doesn't care. Um, shana pennington bear don griffith Tray moseley dianna birdsall and sandram man willer All right, remember if you got him if you want help with your home voiceover studio Look, you can watch our show But you can talk to us each individually and we can help you out with any question by going to one to my voiceover site Which is home voiceover studio dot com or george the dot tech Where you've got Well, we got a discount code. We always do guys V obs fan 10 will get 10 off anything you buy on george the dot tech webinars tech support sound checks studio whatever whatever you need It's on there and use that code to get 10 off And if you're watching this show now in replay We are just announcing the way to pre-order the new Sentron's passport vo and all that information will be over at the pro audio suite suite Dot com. Alrighty need to thank our sponsors, of course without them We would just have a show without sponsors. Uh, harlan hogan's voiceover essentials source elements A voiceover extra Vio heroes dot com voice actor dot com and world voices dot org the industry association of freelance voice talent joined today join us in Orlando on may 5th through the 7th Thanks to jeff holman for really getting it together in the chat room tonight And on facebook and on youtube and wherever else there's a chat room And sumer lino for being here and making sure that everything looks like a professional tv show Which it sort of is and of course Go ahead go now go ahead. No, we gotta thank lee penny for being lee penny Yeah, I stepped on you even the leap anything But I wanted to say if there's there's one more way you can support our show If you decide that the passport vo is for you and you really want to get this new interface Please use vobs when you're given a coupon code area on the website when you check out over at sentron's website Use vobs and we will get credit for that and you know, it's a way of thanking us for sending you. I appreciate it All right. Well, that's going to do it for us this week Thanks for coming in or clicking in or tuning in or whatever they call it on the internet thingy this day this day these days Um But you gotta realize something we've talked about audio all the time That's really what george and I spend a lot of our time doing is Making sure your audio sounds the way it's supposed to sound like what it's supposed to sound like whistle But the bottom line is if it sounds good It is good. I'm dan Leonard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vo b as tech talk tech talk All right We'll see you next week tech talk tech talk