 Hey there, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 62 go figure. How we've been able to do it for you for all this time. Who knows? Anyway, George isn't here because he's still off on his glamping trip and But Tim is an accomplished engineer and has his own studio and helps people with their home studios. So I figured He's just as good. Let's talk tech. All right If you got questions throw them in the chat room a tech questions about home studios All that stuff we want to hear from you in the chat room right now so we can get to those Anyway, time for voiceover body shop tech talk Right now from the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Whidham the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience To help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and each week They allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest and VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voice over body shop Tech talk Voice over body shop tech talk is brought to you by voice over essentials calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connection for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes dot com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training J. Michael Collins demos when Quality matters and voice over extra your daily resource for VO success And now live to drive From their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hi there. I'm Dan Leonard Tim Friedlander and this is voice over body shop or VO Bs tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk Tech talk. We're gonna talk. We're gonna talk tech talk tech. We're talking tech That doesn't tick tock. I don't talk to talk. You guys want to know about home studio stuff And Tim and I happen to know an awful lot about home studios because we've built our own studios and Yes, yes and helped many many people build their home studios and You know it it really doesn't depend on who you are But it is a matter of having the right space in which to record as far as I'm concerned Most important thing. It's Acoustics is 90% of the quality of your sound. Absolutely. There's a lot of things you can do that go wrong with your sound but usually it's something exterior and So we're gonna talk about that if you've got a question again throw it in the chat room And I know Jeff Holman is in there Monitoring the chat room with like you've glued on it and we can get those questions Answered for you and those are important questions because they're about your home studio. Yes, so anyway Let's talk about our philosophies of home studios But first actually I have to remind you that one of the things that the George and I do when George is here is We help you with your home studios and we all have businesses Now I take it you suggest to people do actually have a system where you consult with people and say I'm gonna help you build your home studio. Or is it more along the lines of why don't you try this and why did you try that? It kind of it depends on what? I don't I don't do it as a living right People reach out to me and they ask I'll give some feedback And then if it's you know beyond that if I have the time I'll help more or also them to you and you and George If it you know something which you've done which I've done many times Yeah, you know beyond you know, whether I had the time or the capability or you know Sometimes it's it's something so unique that it's beyond my you know My capability of trying to learn something and figure out something that you guys already know Thousands of studios if you'd like to work with me all you have to do is go over to to my website Which is home voice over studio dot-com where I have my legendary Specimen collection cup Click on that. It's a drop box and you can send me an MP3 of your audio. I want it raw I want to hear what your space sounds like not what you're doing to your audio because generally people are messing with their audio too much and That's where they go wrong. Well, I got some audio today. That's like I have a USB mic and I'm using this interface Okay, you could be you know, and then I listen to the audio and I'm like, yeah, that's pretty much what's going on So yeah There's nothing I haven't heard although sometimes it's pretty amazing what you hear The people don't realize that the things that are going on in their space. Yes I actually somebody actually sent me a sample of them literally recording in a bathroom They were like, it's gonna work and I Watch I was like, you know, I'll say well, it sounds like you're recording in a bathroom They sent me a picture and I said you're literally recording in the bathroom Like that's not gonna work. They had they had put a towel over the towel rack to try and cover and cover a mirror Unfortunately because there are five other sides for their side usually tiled and tiled as well. Yes, you know And the shower door is open. Yep. Yep. It's amazing like I've gotten a lot of those too But if you'd like to work with me go over to homevoiceoverstudio.com and You know, if they want to talk to you, where would they go sound box? LA? Sound box dot LA. That's simple. Okay. Yeah makes it nice and easy So let's let's talk a little bit about our philosophies of home, you know home studios because First off, there's something I'm gonna do And this is something we're gonna promote with world voices Stop using the term home studio Because you know, we've been talking I've been talking to people all of them and You know and and producers and stuff like that and they're like, we don't trust home studios So we can change the nomenclature Okay of it and call it a personal professional Great and I think if people would start using that terminology Then when you say if instead of saying you have a home studio, which immediately invokes Thoughts in somebody's head of socks hanging on the doorknob or a bra or nylons or towels All those sorts of things that might be hanging out in your house recording in a bathroom recording in a bathroom In which case there'd be lots of those styles or no toes or they're on the floor I think it would behoove us all to stop calling them home voiceover studios and call them personal Professional studios. Okay. I mean you and I have personal professional studios. Yeah, you know I my actual ventilation system is in your Absolutely has been for years. It keeps it nice and quiet. Yeah cool and quiet. Yeah, that's and that's the whole point Yeah, but what's most important to you now? You work with a lot of people I'm sure you work with a lot of people remotely aside from bringing them into that fabulous facility you have You know because you're you're also a musician a very accomplished musician originally. Yeah. Yeah, but originally I'm a clarinet player originally classical train clarinet player with which was my undergrad degree Jazz guitar and then masters in music education. So music is is how I got started Is how the studio got started originally? I built the studio I did a lot of music for P90x2 and that was our very first job that I did in my in my studio was writing recording 14 hours of music for P90x2 and And over the years grew into a voiceover studio kind of based on the needs of the people in the community Yeah, that's how we got started. Yeah. Yeah, but what's your philosophy now? Coming from a music background. I've you know, I've been in there I've watched you work and you run that Pro Tools and you're running all this stuff that nobody should have to do It's your job to do that because you're working with all these It's not the software that makes people sound To you what is it? Well, it's It is a first of all, I mean first of all, it's the well It's the talent first of all if you don't have if you don't have the ability to do this And there's very few people that honestly that I've come across that Couldn't with work in the time and the desire to do it be successful at it But then it's the space that the space it becomes then the most important thing that you're dealing with and then from there Becomes finding something for me when I suggest Mike's is finding a Mike that's gonna pick up and represent your voice most authentically For the quality of your voice because some some mics are sound better on some people to my ear From a musical standpoint the tone and timbre and all these things that I that I listen for And I found this, you know, primarily for myself the very first time I ever used I was a studio and I used a sound deluxe Mike And everybody in the city went wow, that's what you really sound like Because it was the first time the microphone captured my voice as it sounded in Person in real so that that was you know, so I listened for a lot of those things my philosophy comes from instruments and how I Specifically dealt with parents buying instruments for their children when they're first starting out how to buy instruments so that's my philosophies based on that and It changed a lot over the years Originally my philosophy was well just go buy a $99 clarinet or $99 trumpet and if the kid doesn't like it No big deal you throw it away So problems with that that I ran into and when I was studying my master's at Boston University This actually came up this specific question came up and we had a long discussion over the course of Days and weeks about how do you? Talk to parents about what to buy their instrument not not every parent can go out and buy the best instrument and Sometimes you have to buy buy what you can afford right so my philosophy is to buy the best thing you can afford Invest in something that's going to be a quality you're going to have a piece of equipment is going to last and You're going to find something that is going to probably make you sound more the way you think you should sound if you're in a larger studio and Student who plays instruments that's easy to play easy to operate and makes them sound good is more likely to continue with that instrument So I've taken that philosophy into into voiceover that if you have a setup and you go into your studio Your space on your microphone and your equipment and you sound just as good as you did if you were at my studio or Lime, we need the big studios in LA. You're gonna go. Wow. I I really like doing this. I like the way I sound I'm really excited about it can sound I sound so good and I want to keep doing this Versus now I really wish that I could sound better at home and that I didn't sound so terrible on this microphone And I hate it because I hate listening to myself on on my microphone or this in the equipment that I have or it's too difficult to operate So my philosophy is basically by the best thing you can afford You're you're going to sound more like the way you think you want to sound From a musical standpoint and at the very least at the end doesn't work out You have something that you invested in that you can resell and probably make some money back on as opposed You're just having a disposable trumpet clarinet saxophone interface microphone, right? Okay, so we are very different in that Well not being a musician You know I can play a kazoo I can play three chords on a ukulele, right? That's about that's all you need on ukulele Anyway, that's every son add one more chord. You can play every song ever But I'm minor you'll be set. Okay. I know I know it My philosophy is is Keeping it to the basics You know, do I believe in having a great microphone? You know like you said you want to have the most expensive thing Get the best thing you can afford this thing you can afford. Yeah, it's always a matter of to me It's always the space. Absolutely. Yeah, where it where is it? You're going to be recording. Yeah, uh, we you know I find that if someone has a really nice walk-in closet You know that's in a reasonably quiet place I just saved them $6,000 walking closets are great. Oh, they're fabulous phenomenal, especially with lots of clothes. Yes Uh, so, you know, generally I'm always like let's find the best place in your place of residence. Yeah, that's quietest and that will You know not reverberate very much And if it's you know, if you've got a blank wall or it's in somewhat of an empty space How do you treat it? and I find Yes, especially with a lot of beginners The major problem they have is over projection That's what causes many many acoustical problems because the louder you talk the more the acoustics of the room Come into play. Exactly. So, you know, I teach people use your indoor voice. You know, you're only talking to one person Yeah, you know if you're listening on the radio. Yeah, there might be thousands of people listening to you, but there's only One person listening to you at a time and you're trying to get an emotional personal connection with them So you use your indoor voice like you're having a cup of coffee and you know, so can we talk about diarrhea? You know, you know that that's sort of not and well or we don't have to but but if you have to talk about it You know do it in a way that is in a very personal way because if you talk quietly And you've got a good microphone that's not noisy, which is really the problem I think a lot of people you know when they buy a cheap usb mic or a mic under say 100 bucks And we see a lot of or there's a there's a bunch that people have been buying under the 49 dollar range that have been I've seen way too many of these Yeah, and they're generic if it's a generic microphone on amazon It's going to sound like a generic microphone on amazon, right? You're better than that if you want to be a talent and and you can do better than that Don't buy stuff off facebook My entire wardrobe is based off facebook these days, man. They know me really well If it looks good, it is good, but you know when it comes to microphones, that's not necessarily the case Uh, but to me, it's always Acoustics first no sound coming in Minimal reflection. Yeah, and and I I learned that from you. I mean I changed my right That became my go-to after All of the Is definitely yeah start start with the space start with the space. Yeah, uh second is proper microphone tech And people don't if they're like is this proper mic technique I you know, I find why is the mic upside down so you don't So you get you can see your script And You're not you you really want to forget the microphone is there I mean sometimes you see, you know, you know video of people doing voiceover and they're like really getting into it I find especially if people see pictures of people Using a microphone like that. They're usually wearing headphones and there's always a pop screen And they have headphones on and really tie it there. Yeah, it's not a picture of someone doing voice It's probably somebody's singing Probably, you know, and and that's not the same thing when you're singing you're using a lot of SPL You're you're really pushing the mic you don't have to use as much game But when you're talking subtly and quietly you got to push the game and if you have an interface that has a preamp that's Not going to get hissing. Yeah So it's important that you use the microphone properly that you have a microphone that is Not overly sensitive, especially if you're in a marginal environment And try and you know find something that's you know 150 to 200 dollars you should be a good mic to start with And as I like to say, yeah, yeah You don't you don't buy great equipment to get work. You work to get great equipment Which I falls in line with your your instrument analogy. Yeah, absolutely And the better you become, you know, you buy a better guitar and then you sound better But you know a great guitar player can make a a crappy guitar sound really good That's true. You know how to you know, how to how to work the instrument If you know how to work the answer with the microphone And then the other thing also is make sure you know make sure, you know, which is the front of the microphone Because it is a surprising Amount of people. Why does it sound muffled? Wow, talking into the back of a microphone. Yeah, it's usually the reason for that. Yeah, that's that's one of the most common Problems that I've run into in this last 18 months is people just buying or talking into the bottom of the microphone Well, because you know, you see you know, you see it Black people look probably, you know, the the re20 right where you're talking in the front of it and they think oh Well, it's a silver microphone It looks like that microphone and a radio and so we're gonna like, you know, for 16 We're talking into the front of it Right, but this you're talking into the side of it because that's where the capsule is right and you got the name on I just got the you know So talk into the logo and the pickup pattern Especially here on the harlin hogan mic. Yeah, which is and it's so nice when that is I love it when that's the solution turn your microphone cool. There you go. It's amazing. Awesome. Thank you It's a miracle. Yeah, it sounds fabulous. And but I always preface it with Don't be offended if I ask you this question You're not the first person I've asked this question of and it happens more frequently than you think but Are you sure you're talking into the right side of the microphone? Right and nine times out of 10. They're like, oh, I'm not take the pop Let me take the the foam off the top of it. Oh, wow. It's not a front fire microphone Right, what we call a side address side address. Exactly. Yeah, you know, you have got you on the 416 here, which You know, it's there's also a different technique to that. But yeah, essentially the same It's it's all positioning and keeping the mic like at eye level And having your copy under here and forgetting the mic is there and do your thing as an actor We had you know, myrna valasco on last week and she was she was fabulous because She's just not into the microphone. She's just into doing the voice And that's you know, what should I do the character and into the character? Yeah, I think a lot of people get lost with the sound of their voice Absolutely, and that's not what voiceover is about now unless you got a great set of chops like tim freblader But you know, but you know, but even you know what this is now is a lot of non-announcer conversational people who don't do voiceover because they want that reality They want the realism in this and this is I mean I made a reference when myrna was here to the authentic authenticity that happens in that first read Because a lot of times in that very first read you have you're not thinking about how you sound You're thinking about trying to decipher the copy and figure out how to make your way through it And there's this realism authenticity that comes out in that first read right that A lot of times then gets lost as you try to Make this read better and sound more like you're doing voiceover or more like you're doing something with this With that with that read, right? yeah My last piece because this is three pieces. Okay. Oh, yeah. It's the acoustics. Yep It's microphone technique and the one thing that if you came out of broadcasting or if you've done any recording professionally It's setting proper input levels. Yes people don't get that. You know, you get little tiny waveforms You know, there's it as long as you've got, you know, a nice fat modulation and not over modulated And you've got the right mic positioning and you've got the right acoustics It's gonna sound as I say the way what it's supposed to sound like whistle There's a there's a way it's supposed to sound now How it ends up on the other end by the end user an engineer or a producer They're gonna do stuff to it. Yeah, not your job your thoughts I I agree with that. I mean, you know one of the Um, no, well and knowing what that what that level is of what what's a healthy record level I've actually over the over the last couple of years have started recording lower and lower Higher bit rate higher quality sample rate that I'm recording at right and recording overall quieter volumes that I could take that audio and Manipulator is needed. You've got a much bigger range as long as it's clean as long as it's clean. Yeah. Yeah um That's really my I mean, yeah I definitely I air on the on the side of less of less Volume when I record and then I can edit it up from there as needed when I you know If I do an audition I you know personally I produce my auditions listen them out as if they could go on right, you know Go to broadcast whatever that means. So they sound professional. There's no broadcast Standard or quality that we're going for but a professional sounding piece of audio that they could essentially throw into the spot And if they wanted to use the audition Um, that's where you know when I do my auditions. That's what I aim for right because a lot of times That's where it goes. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, and multiple I've seen probably three or four auditions in the last couple of weeks that said Send us a wave file because they made us use your audition That's great. I'm all for that like take this audition I mean, you know a lot of times you go in and you do the job and it's exactly like that It's usually audition is out of the great, you know And do what you need and they send you money and it's you're done. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah So, you know, so our philosophy is that pretty much the same like you said, you've learned from me, you know As a musician though, yeah There's a big difference between recording music and recording a voice. Absolutely. Yeah Yeah, and and you know, you can see I see it a lot with musicians are coming to do voiceover especially singers who are So trained and love the mic. Well, love so focused on the the pitch and the tone and the timbre and The placement of the voice because it has to be in that exact spot if you're doing opera You want to be in a certain area if you're doing If you're if you're doing musical theater if you're doing Broadway all these things have a sound to them Um, in addition to the character that that you're that you're portraying. There's a sound But they it's a whole different beast. It's a whole different beast voiceover versus music and to a certain extent The microphone what you're using in voiceover doesn't matter And I just said that. Um, thank you Whereas you come in and do music and I'm going through microphones and preamp chains and compression And trying different preamps find what's going to most authentically give me that Tenor saxophone sound the way it sounds In my face. I wanted to sound that way on the microphone Um, and the voice, you know, so I guess when you know when I go back to the my sound deluxe example earlier was that That microphone Makes my voice sound recorded the same way that I do in person And in that sense all some people are like that is your that's your mic right there because that's exactly what you sound like Right your recorded audio sounds exactly like you sound tone timbre pitch All that stuff sounds exactly the same way you do is if you're talking to me in person Right, but you have to have a sharp ear to do that And as a musician, I'm sure your ear is a little bit more tuned to that sort of thing than the average person But but if someone is just starting out Does that does that does that type of that microphone decision matter all that much not when you're first starting out It's it's there is a you want something that is going to Sound good And as you learn how your voice and what sounds good and what sounds right for your voice Then you can grow into microphone selections and you can pick from a 416 or u87 or the gefells um Rode any of these mics something that sound that sound right for your voice right You know I when I some people send me send me samples. I don't even ask anymore I do ask but I don't read right off the bat I'm not looking and saying oh They're using a u87. So I mean I expect it to sound like this. I'll listen to it first Right. I was like cool. It sounds like you it sounds clean sounds crisp And if I put that in with Other recorded audio that I have from other talent in their home studio. It would fit fine Great now. Let me see what microphone you're using Oh, yeah, perfect. I find that mic's gonna work great for you But you can't if by listening to different people with different voices in different environments You could never tell what specific microphone they're using not usually you can like a 416 you can you can use a pick out. Yeah 416 is a little more specific in its sound um But you know a u87 versus A u87 clone versus a road nt1 or a road nt1a a lot of times the road nt1a is I can tell It tend to be a little bit harsh To my ear in relation to other microphones that I've heard But no like if you've got a lot of times you can't really tell and a lot of times is a great example is that I I bought a u87 last year the middle of the pandemic because as a studio I need to be able to have a u87 the client's asking for a u87. I can say great I here's a u87 not a u87 clone or copy right A to a and beat him blind test everybody picked The clone as a better sounding microphone versus the u87 but You you put somebody on a u87 and you record that and listen back and you go. Yep, that's What voiceover is supposed to sound like? it's got such The right sound and it feels right right the u87 feels right It's the best way I can say it. Um when I hear it, but not for everybody. Nice doesn't sound great on everybody Um, but everybody hears differently. Absolutely. Yeah, and everybody, you know, you know to me, it's so it's always been about You know the idea isn't to sound great It's to sound Like you sound like you want to capture you as you exist And now a good microphone is going to capture you as you exist A a crappy microphone is going to not do that But what there you what's the cutoff between? a crappy and And a usable mic like you know, we can you know, and as we say when it comes to selecting mics It's like being you know at the the checkout counter in the supermarket looking at the candy and mince Which one do you pick? Right? Yeah, you know, so you know, you don't pick the generic Over here you pick, you know the stuff that you know, I guess the best way that I say it like there's just There's a few generic things out there that I've heard a few people buy or One particular brand people have been buying off amazon that is not Not working And if the only place you can find it is on amazon if it does not exist anywhere else, that's probably not the mic Smart. All right Now we know That our philosophies Not that far apart. There's no no Absolutely. All right, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to answer some of your questions Right after these important messages. Don't go away Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great From voiceover essentials.com It's the relationship savior the multicolor led vo recording sign Not just a stock on the air or recording sign. It's our exclusive voiceover recording sign This brilliantly lit led 20 color beacon tells everybody at home, which is currently everybody Hey, I'm auditioning recording podcasting narrating or broadcasting here and a few moments of relative quiet would be very much appreciated What's more the wafer thin remote control lets you choose a multitude of options from color to brightness Flashing to fade in and out you can even set up your own personal codes red means i'm recording blue playing back green It's a wrap plug in the seven foot long cord and hang it on a door knob or wall hook using the included chain For voice workers silence really is golden and gold is one of the 20 colors you can choose from Order yours now for just 69 95 from voiceover essentials.com. That's voiceover essentials.com Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. 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We are on voiceover body shop and uh We have to talk about one of our great sponsors great company, you know, we we you know We know robert marshall who's the president of source elements and is a guy that will help you out If we ask him But and it helps to know those types of people but they have a great product It's called source connect and for years and years and years The the professional standard in studio to studio communication was ISDN Yeah, had to have this expensive box and you had to dial the number and Usually you had to pay for the charges It was a pain in the tuchus. I'll tell you It's gone by the wayside Finally george and I had been doing this show for 10 years and we had been predicting the end of ISDN For 10 years happened last week I I saw the I saw it in the la times ISDN is dead um, but the best way to Today because everybody's got internet And an expensive way and an efficient way to do it is with source connect a lot of people are intimidated by Uh, you know, I have it you have it once you get it set up properly Which is that's the important step right there though And they will help you and they will help you with source elements. Yeah, they're great Tim will help you or i will help you george will help you we will Show you how it's not rocket science, but once it's set up. It's simply a matter of taking your mouse clicking on the icon putting in your password And and connecting it's not it's it really isn't that hard And what it does for you is it allows you and your microphone in your system in your studio To broadcast to another studio in real time They can hear you they can talk back to you and they can it's like being on the other side of the glass They can record you if they're on the other side of the country Absolutely and they can record you which is important right into your da I take take source connect right into my pro tools and record a track on pro tools as if That that quality and the person in my booth sound exactly the same And and that's what they get on the other red. It's you know, they've improved the technology on it. They've made it it it's it's reliable And you got to have it so go over to source elements dot com and check out all the things they have With source connect the different types of source connect that they have They start off with something basic you can buy it monthly You can buy a lifetime license And then you have it if you're if you're really committed to your voice acting and you're making money and you are Have to do remote sessions. You have to have source connect because ISDN is Is it really gone literally as of last week? They sent out the announcements last week for los angeles Um that they were going to be phasing out I lost mine in 2016 when they went from 49 a month to 750 a month I sold mine to bob sour in 2012 and he's still using it. Amazing. I have my codex and my desk It's in my rack it still sits there. It could be used as it could be used as a doorstop But anyway, go to source elements and check them out. Thanks for being our sponsor all these years. We really appreciate You're watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I want to go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich And we're back. All right Answering people's questions That's the thing about this show when george and I are working together on this the thing we love the most is answering people's questions We still we'd stab you you've got a question for us. You still got time to throw it in the chat room And uh, jeff holman will if you're still hanging out It will get that question to us and we will uh, we will answer that question Uh, first question comes from our good friend sitting out in the desert there jack de gole He says i'm having an issue with isotope Rx8 on my new macbook air m1. There's a lot of things in that sentence. Yeah, but I think it starts with rx8 And then air macbook air one m1 as well Yeah, now thomas who is the creator of twisted wave says it's not a twisted wave issue Uh, see trailing message we'll get there isotope says they don't support twisted wave Do you guys have any suggestions? Luckily, I still have my mini running os catalina without issues with rx8 Use your mini running os catalina without issues for rx8. There you go jack. I mean A lot of people use rx8 now. Here's something we were we were talking about our philosophies And this is this is one of the things that we sort of got into And that is almost every piece of equipment we use A couple of minor exceptions was never designed for doing voiceover. It was all designed For making music with the exception perhaps of the of this of the the 416 though. I gotta say we have done All of our all of our rap vocals for the last three years have been on the on the 416 and they sound phenomenal We do all of our mcs from for the urban renewal project. We've used this 416 It sounds amazing. It's a great mic. It's a great mic And you can hammer nails with it and it's it's a road warrior. That's what it's built for It was actually built for electronic news gathering And you know, it's a video mic But for some reason it the proximity works really really nice on yeah, but they're a tank I throw out my bag when I go on tour and just in my backpack no case or anything It's my it's my road mic too when I decide to take stuff on the road But most of it was designed for making music and with the exception perhaps of harlan hogan's vo1a mic Uh, you know, they were all designed for for vocalists or for instrumentation They're not sitting around in board rooms going Do we need to make a voiceover microphone? Right? They're not we're just borrowing all this technology And using it for our own purposes now. How does that relate back to rx8? And people want to what's rx8 rx8 is a sound cleaner uh To me it's like it was designed to fix old vinyl records Right, yeah, and it's great at that. It's fabulous But I find a lot of people really rely on it too much That they think well, I don't have to have I can have a marginal space Because I can clean it up without a different issue. Yeah, you know, I mean Usually something like that rx8 not only is it for cleaning up stuff, but it's for Manipulating the waveforms and digitally stretching it and doing stuff to it That generally you don't have to do Now why why does jack use rx8? I use it all the time. I and what do you use it for? I use it for all just all of those times that I want to salvage a great performance with a very minor tech problem um Plosive the plosive on it is great. The de clipper is phenomenal on there really can salvage I've salvaged You know, I you know, especially when I'm running if I'm running a session I get a talent who gives me something really loud unexpected to great performance I can salvage that 99% of the time with the de clipper really it can really get it down to what it is How does it do that? Amazing? I have no idea. It's magic. It's isotopes. They do what they do um The deak I use the deak the de plosive and I use the mouth that you have so they do have some Like they have mouth de click that I believe that they um developed I believe based on feedback from the audiobook community. I'm not I'm just a don't hold me to that one That's what I've heard um And I use that a lot of times if I have just some really like some mouth noise some mouth clicks that I have And a talent again or for myself. I use that a lot of times on myself Um for my raise, I'll just throw a real basic de clicker a mouth de click on there to get rid of the very subtle stuff That I want to smooth out on there. Do you do it individually? I do it. I do it individually on the section that I want to do it on. I don't wholesale do it on a track Um, especially like deep the deep breath is is in there But if you do that on an entire track, you end up you end up trying to cut You're gonna end up cutting off transient. So the beginnings and endings of words, right? And it's not gonna work, but it's a great great tool to use judiciously And knowledgeably and to just wholesale throw it on something And just say here de click this entire three hours of audio First of all to take you forever to do right, but um, you know, it's you're gonna end up with artifacts or issues in it A lot of times The um end up causing more problems than if you were to just isolate what you need to get At least that's the way that I operate is isolate what I need to fix right and fix those spots. Um This is you know, jack I mean, luckily still have a mini running os catalina without any issues with rx8. Unfortunately, you know the m ones I had one for a week and I ended up taking it back When I'm waiting for the next iteration to come out um But you know, I didn't have any issues, but I was running isotope rx8 and pro tools um pre pro tools being um, uh, you know unauthorized or approved to work with um With the m ones and it worked but it's so hit and miss and it's there's there's just it's just too much new stuff happening All at once to have any answer for that. I don't I have no answer for it Except to say that you have a mini running os catalina without any issues at rx8. So That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't use rx. I've got adobe audition and I just used a spectrogram in there Yeah, I mean how much how much do you have to do to your audio? To try and do that all that kind of stuff to me everything is physical if you've got mouth clicks Hydrate If you've got too many breaths and we I'm sure we both know people that apparently can't get through an entire sentence without taking a breath They have this decado sort of delivery Breath removes a whole other issue too. Yeah Be careful with that. Right. It's like yeah, I mean you got to be like an athlete You got to be in good condition. You got to be able to read an entire sentence Without taking a breath. Well, or it's the same thing that When we're having I'm not thinking about where I'm breathing in this conversation You're not thinking about where you're bringing in this conversation. You could talk for 45 minutes to not think about one One possible spot for breathing, but you give yourself a 30 second spot On you know in in a in a in a script and all of a sudden like I can't don't know where to Breathe in this spot. I can't get through the running out Be good to the end just if you talk Think it read in thoughts and not sentences of punctuation and your your breath will come much more naturally right Is he running twisted wave in Yeah, I I don't know. I am so unfamiliar. I I hate my first my reaction with the first time I open twisted wave. Yeah Uh, we're all my controls. No never do not again. I want to be able to control everything So I know twisted wave exists and I've seen it enough and I've used it enough times to know that I don't know enough about it to be able to answer that question. Well, it's it is he running twisted wave in rosetta Well, let's if you've got an m1, it's good. He's gonna probably have to be in rosetta. It's gotta be in rosetta anyway I believe so. Yeah until thomas fixes it or it may changes the the the programs Yeah, you know if you don't know what we're talking about there's a program inside the m1 chip or the new max That some programs do not work with it and it translates it in real time To work with the m1. Yeah. Yeah Go figure that's another another layer of Of possible places to things to go wrong. Unfortunately. Absolutely. Absolutely uh graces caheria I I bet I pronounced that right Uh, what is your opinion of the sure mv7 microphone for work? How does one get a sample out in today's times mp3? Thank you in advance a couple questions there Yeah, well one don't Uh, what's that don't use don't don't use the mv7. I mean, okay I I haven't used I don't have an opinion unfortunately. I I I can guess what it probably sounds like I hear it's it's it's a really cool sounding microphone If you're a professional voice actor use professional equipment, you know, if you're on the road you're doing auditions It's probably great because you can plug it into your iphone or your ipad And if you use it properly It's going to sound Okay, if you're in the right environment But is it going to sound as good as a 416 or harlin hogan v1a or You know various other professional xlr microphones I sort of doubt it. Yeah. Yeah, I do not know. I don't have I have not used it or experienced it to know What it is or how it works. Yeah, I I would I would not recommend it as a mainline voiceover microphone. You know, I would Get some professional equipment. That's the most important thing Uh, Dave g watching us on youtube. What is the silliest setup tim has stumbled upon in a home studio? Me too. Okay. Yeah. Well, I mentioned the bathroom earlier. Yeah, well somebody actually recording in a bathroom um pretty consistently I see just lots of microphone Reflection shield in a big wide open room And that just that concept in and of itself is silly because those reflection shields were made for musicians And they're They reflect they saw the reflection on one side of the microphone, right? Then you got that side and that side and that side and that side and that side and that side Exactly and that generally would be the silliest thing, but um the bathroom is by far the yeah the silliest One of the things that george and I did You know when we started out here in california, we want people to send in pictures of their studios And it's amazing the creativity people have at their studio. Oh, yes. I mean the best one I I can't remember her name. It was A bunk bed with mattresses turned upside down all mattresses. Oh, yeah, you know with a mattress sort of like hanging You know like that. Yeah, and It sounded okay. Yeah, you know and as george and I always say if it sounds good, it is good Which you clearly have heard before But you know I that was one of my favorites Walking into People's places and i'm like you're recording in here You know and they're or they're they're like stuck in a closet You know and it's like do you feel comfortable in here? Does this work for you in here? You know, uh, and then it comes down to the discussion of Do is it the room quiet if the room is quiet? right That that opens up all sorts of possibilities because then you're just talking about sound treatment and and and you know Stuff that's going to reduce the reflections. Yeah, but people recording in their living rooms Alted ceilings. I have to play you this audio after we're done What on earth is this person thinking people don't know what it's supposed to sound like Yeah, and they you know they said people say you've got a great voice And they they record themselves and they're you know 500 feet from the microphone or they're right on top of the microphone. Sorry, sir And you know that's There's I guess a lot of people starting out in voiceover There's a lot of stuff. They don't know what they don't know right. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, and I was like One of the other silliest things that I see a lot is people use garage band and use the voiceover preset in garage band And I've spent multiple Multiple hours Tracking down the point where they had turned on Now I go to if I ask using garage band the void if anybody ever knows use garage band It always has reverb on it right the voice over plug-in has echo and reverb Right, but the way garage band is set up You don't know that right unless you go in and take apart the preset And find all the hidden stuff that's there and the first time I found that I was like, why are you putting echo and reverb on your Why would you have a voice over plug-in? It literally is called I think it's called voice over right or it may be called voice narration plug-in preset and That's the silliest thing. I say as far as the dozz go. I just you just shouldn't You shouldn't shouldn't put echo and reverb on your voice No, that's not your job No, no an engineer like you you might be doing a spot mixing a bunch of different elements together You might and then you know how to use it and then do you find the the reverb that's appropriate for The space that the that voice is supposed to be in And the size of the room and the surface that they're on all that other stuff Right, yeah, I mean I I remember doing a pickup with somebody who just happened to be visiting and he says I did these things But the room wasn't that great You know, can I do them here? I'm like sure fine and then we found a reverb that matched the crappy sound of Right, yeah, so and and it worked really really well Uh, chris robin asks irt mic comparisons irt. Why do I not know what irt means? um Does how does a tlm 103 stand against a u87? It's comparing apples and oranges or persimmons and how's an f-150 stand against uh A dodger and a yada. Yeah I mean, it's it's you need the right tool for the right job. And if they're they're go if it sounds good It is good. Um, I mean, you know the 103 and the u87 are two very common Higher higher in mics that people Strive to achieve to own that I found right. Um, the u87 is kind of Kind of this mythical beast now there's a difference between the u87 and the u87 ai U87 ai is the newer version of the u87 and the u87 a lot of people really like for music Is the pre-1980 version of the u87s? before they changed over and changed Components and capsules so a lot of people who especially from music who are trying to find a u87 looking for that pre-1980 Or that 1980 version of the u87 and in voiceover a lot of people find are the purple badged u87 ai's that we'll see in in the studio a lot of times, right? I you know, I I've never had a tlm 103 in my studio if I can't say how it sounds I've heard lots of people on a tlm 103. I know the tlm 103 and the 102 tend to be brighter from what I've heard in my experience um But you know a u87 has a very specific u87 sound and a 103 is going to sound like a 103 which Tends to be a little brighter and crisper on and all from what from what I've heard in my experience I haven't had that experience. Yeah, I I've I had a 103, you know, I I had a You know 20 years ago. I was using Uh a 30 35 an 18 30 35 was my first microphone that came with something else Right. Yeah, and I used that for a while and then when my voiceover business improved I said I'm going to get myself a tlm one And I used it for many years and did my business improve afterwards Yes Now was it because of the tlm 103 or the fact that I had been doing voiceover for several years and got Better at it and moved away from my radio voice And trained myself out of it Once I got a 416 though The 103 ended up in its little casket and absolutely and I ended up selling and I just didn't use it anymore This thing is, you know, it it picks you up much cleaner like It's designed to hear the human voice From various different distances And it makes you sound real, which is why I like that now the tlm 103. What was it designed for again? It was designed for for music probably for vocals or horns or horn. Yeah, exactly. Um, You know, it's great microphone The germans make fabulous microphones, you know the the the neumanns the guffles the You know the the the akg. Well, that's You know that austrian and norman and guffill are the same the same company or flip sides of the Or they were Germany and one was west germany. Yeah, and now they're Together, uh, yeah, I had a guffill mic for a while But more of a collector's item than anything else. Right. It sounded fabulous. Yeah, but You know, I I'm of the opinion that it's not the microphone that makes you a great voice actor It's it's the training and all the other things and if you have a u 87 That's not going to make you a better voice actor. No, but if you can't read your way out of a paper bag It's gonna prove that you can't yeah, I mean you a seven something to build up to I mean, I you know I bought my first u 87 in december And and finally because I you know again, you know as a studio. I needed to have it I find I use the 416 for my own stuff most of the time 99 of the time and When we have clients given the option of the u 87 of the 416 it's 50 50 yep Last question from the one and only jeff holman Yes, do you like to stand or sit when doing voiceovers dan and tim? That's an how i'm feeling Yeah, same here. I mean, you know, you've got a stool in your studio I got a stool in mine, you know, if i'm if i'm doing a long format thing It was doing a long audio brochure this week And I said although I I tend to lean Yeah, you know and you know if if I if it's a high energy thing I might stand But most of the time i'm i've been sitting most of the time, but that's just because i'm old I stand 99% of the time unless something that's a long long form that i'm doing Yeah, or if i'm trying to you know if the character calls for if the reed calls for it Um for a lot of times I was Um for a while I was leaning on the back of a chair Yeah leaning into the mic because I was trying to do like that Go relax thing and lean on the back of a chair. I don't know that really helped Um, but no, I I stand most of the time and then you know at least for for myself I'm in and out of the booth boom boom boom back and forth So i'll do a couple reeds go out and listen to it come back in I don't you know I don't have the time to sit but something that's long form Absolutely, I mean every audio book that we've done We have you know, we do podcasts we have you know people coming and doing work with realm used to be cereal box Every single person because they're working for a three hour session right and they will sit for three hours, right? And you know how to you know how to you have to learn how to breathe differently You have to learn how to adjust your energy so that you can give that same performances if you're standing Right, you know, just the physicality changes changes your performance. Yeah, so yeah, I'm you know, I've I've been sitting a lot lately Right. Yeah, you know Anyway, thank you for all your questions and tim. Thank you for answering those questions Thank you for having me. This has been a fabulous session. All right, we're gonna take a quick break And we'll be right back to wrap things up after this. Yeah Hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop The first thing I want to share with you is the plan for these classes the The the five lessons that we're gonna do the first thing is we're gonna start with an introduction today And then we're also going to take a look at what I call the first discipline of voiceover And that is the art of voiceover commercials audio books animation and so on there's lots of them In fact some that you may not even be aware of And then in the next lesson, we're gonna take a look at the second discipline of voiceover And that's what I call the commerce of voiceover how to build your business How to do the things that any business needs to do but in particular how to do those things for voiceover In the third lesson and the fourth lesson because it's such a big topic. We're actually gonna do two parts We're gonna take a look at the science of voiceover and the science of voiceover is the technology that you need to know In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to live online In a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the You know what? This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop And we're back. All right To say goodbye, but i'm glad you've been with us today Next week on this very show We won't be on because it'll be labor day in russia shana and the mrs. Says you're not doing a show It's not gonna happen Not happening, uh, but i planned on that months ago So not a problem. Uh, but we returned september 13th with vocal therapist. Amy Chapman Who's fascinating a wonderful lady and we'll learn about how to take care of your voice Uh, then on september's 27th legal eagle rob siglum paglia will be And we have him on at least once a year and people have lots of questions about the legalities of voiceover Who knew that you could be liable because For whatever all sorts of weird stuff anyway, but he's the guy that he's the guy that knows all that stuff We need to thank our donors. Uh, for example, uh, george widom's senior But he's not george widom. See he's just george's dad george s widom. I think he's known brian page rob raider patty gibbons ant land productions michelle blanker christopher epperson Sandra man willer. Thank you for joining us sandra for a fairly new name for us phillips appear Trey mosley Shelly avilino a woman who i've smoked several cigars Neither her nor there and thomas pinto. Tom pinto. Tom pinto. Yes, all righty Uh, again if they want to get in touch with you over at the the sound box How did they do that sound box dot la? All right, and if you want to Want some help with me with your home studio and you want to learn it from from the ground up Which I specialize in for people who haven't done it at all Go to home voiceover studio dot com and uh, see what I do and get in contact Uh, we need to thank our sponsors harlan hogan's voiceover essentials been with us since day one 10 years ago You know, they said I wouldn't last anyway, uh voiceover extra Source elements the makers of source connect voiceover heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc Demo's when quality matters Uh, we'd like to thank jeff holman for getting it done over in the chat room Getting us all these questions that we love answering sumer lino for getting it done again as our amazing director uh take a bow and uh And of course lee pinney for being lee pinney and tim freedlander. Thank you and thank you for being my guest host The last couple weeks. That's been great. I this is this is this is really what we don't get to talk very much We don't no, especially over the last eight lots of people at least talk to ourselves all the time Maybe that's that's that's true. We do talk to ourselves in a booth Anyway, uh, we'll be back next time. We're back and thanks for joining us Uh, i'm dan Leonard Tim freedlander and this is voiceover body shop or vo B s tech talk tech talk tech talk take it easy guys