 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk Number, let's see. Where's they where's where do we find the I know it's 67? 67 I could put it on a bat. I can there it is right there tech talk number 67 Yep, there we go. All right. It's a long time We need your questions with that's what we do here as we answer your questions and home voiceover studios and We can only get those if you write them in the chat room and Jeff Holman writes them down and passes them on to us So we can ask them on our show. So stay tuned for all of that It's tech talk number 67 on voiceover body shop 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 Whitton the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voiceover body shop Tech talk Voiceover body shop tech talk is brought to you by voiceover essentials calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites calm where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt Vio heroes calm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training J. Michael Collins demos when Quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys How is that shocking to change when there's a pool back there and yeah, that's gonna be interesting We have to have a submarine in it That'd be different. Anyway, I'm dead Leonard. I'm George Woodham, and this is voiceover body shop or VO Tech talk tech talk tech talk. I got my buttons back. Oh good. Good to hear that Alrighty, we're here to talk about your home voice over studio Or studios, you know, whether you're in a closet in a booth in a car living room What's that in a car in a car in a camper in a trailer in an RV? Yeah, we want to tell Yeah, we get we have to get some pictures of people studios again when we get back here in the studio We're almost back. So that'd be fun. Yeah, I miss having your other students in here Yes, so anyway There's a thing about about a home voiceover studio it is a totally unique environment to you because every voice is different Every room is different and everybody's like, well, where do I put the panels? How do I do this? How do I do that? Every room needs to be custom thought out to you and to fit your lifestyle as a voice actor and people don't think about that like well I'll go on YouTube or I'll go on Google and I'll say, well, how do I build one of these? Yeah, they get some basic information about it But you may end up making a lot of different mistakes because that person built their studio for them and their needs Exactly and they're experts in that one studio Their voice might be a little louder or a little deeper or something along those lines And their budget might have been four times bigger. That's also in a major a major thought there. So Anyway, that's what George and I do is we work with you individually Yeah, we do our webinars and we and we have our show here every week and giving you all the right answers to your questions about your home voiceover studios But we are professionals at home voiceover studios or a bunch of people say yeah I know a little bit about that or I've you know, I helped us somebody build you know build their own nobody has built as many home voiceover studios as George Whitom and I and We look at each one of them. We ask the right questions. We find out what's going to work for you and That's how you get a studio that's going to work for you and we're not gonna let you use it until it sounds the way It's supposed to sound That makes sense to you George Absolutely whistle what it's supposed to sound like right and there's a way it's supposed to sound like and we know what that is and It's not necessarily crunching it with all sorts of processing. Yes We you know, there are stacks you can put in there that will you know make minor little corrections To make sure that it sounds the same every time you record in there But if you'd like to work with one of us and learn from the pros and get it right George if they want to work with you, where would they go? Well, you can head right over to my website and that's George the dot tech That's my place on the web to help you with all of your technical issues Get a sound check. Yes, I have my own specimen cup. It's just called a sound check If you want to get your audio checked out for 25 bucks I'll give you a bunch of notes on what I recommend Are things that need to be focused on or improved upon to get that sound that magic sound Of course, I can do processing presets for auditions. I can design total signal flows I can teach you how to use your gear. I can design your acoustics and I can design your entire recording studio whatever you need Yeah, I can help you out and Dan has his place on the web in a different place and that's called Home voice over studio dot-com. There it is Yeah, go on over to home voice over studio dot-com We're rebuilding the site now It's gonna look great because our friends at voice actor websites are Getting hit the way I want it. It's it. I mean, it's great now and the specimen collection cup is there down at the bottom But we're gonna move that to the top and then it'll be really easy to find and then you can submit your mp3's to me of what your Studio sounds like and I mostly want it raw because I don't want to hear what all the processing that you're throwing into it Because unless you really understand what it's supposed to sound like Chances are if you're using lots of processing to get rid of noise or to make your voice sound deeper or something along those lines you're probably not using it right because as I like to say You may like your audio you might be trying to please your own ears But you don't hire you and I you'd be amazed at how many people are not getting work because of the way They're over-processing their audio or they're not recording right and that's something that that's very very important to me And that's that you get work because that's why we're doing this as voice actors Yeah, it's fun being a voice actor But it's more fun when somebody actually pays you to do it so go on over to home voice over studio dot-com and Send me your audio and let's see how we can make your stuff sound the way it's supposed to sound like Whistle whistle that's right. So this week Somehow you found some stuff to talk about In your your tech update. What do we know a lot of new gear came out You know, I came out in the last couple of weeks So I kind of covered a lot of the new gear that I thought was relevant to you guys So I have a few other Random topics, but let's start off. I shouldn't bury the lead the MacBook the new MacBook Pro was was launched By Apple and I was there watching it live Excited to see what they had to offer and this was this was literally the day after we taped our last show the next actually might have In the day of I can't remember Anyway, so I I looked seriously into buying a MacBook Pro m1 14 inch for a cool 2 grand and you know, I looked at it and it looked like a decent value For what its performance numbers were like which were pretty mind-blowing, right? The the new processor can handle more RAM. It's got more graphics cores, etc. But the more I looked at it the more realized it's not the computer for me and Very very likely. It's not the computer for you if you're a voice actor Here's what I mean by that if you if you really need a machine that has capabilities that maybe Aren't something you need now But you want to be able to be able to do in the future in a couple of years from now And those capabilities I mean are Shooting and editing in 8k super high resolution video Working in Pro res formats that are used for product for professional productions Rendering 3d content stuff for like professional video production Then you'd be wise to make an investment in this level of MacBook Pro It's otherwise it's and basically looking at all of the pros and cons of this one versus the MacBook Air that came out the year before I'm actually gonna now sell the MacBook Air I have the 8 gigabyte version and just buy one with 16 gigabytes of memory instead Because that's the difference that will make my computer problem my computer Usability improve is having more memory everything else they've added to the to the You know to the feature list is completely wasted on me Frank HDR display, I mean, it's nice to have I don't need it the display on the MacBook Air is already amazing All the extra ports Yeah, it's a little bit nice, but there's still an any USB a ports the ones that all of our gear still probably has So you still need a hub So what's the difference? I still got a plug a hub into it, right or adapters So that doesn't really matter to me that much either and and the MacBook Pro is because it's designed for higher output and Needs to handle all that extra horsepower It's got a bigger battery and a larger chassis, which means it's bigger and heavier now The bigger battery is awesome. Nobody's arguing that not having a larger batteries and good But honestly the battery that's in the MacBook Air 14 or 13 inch to me lasts pretty much the whole day without without any issues already and so Really the next MacBook for me is gonna be another MacBook Air just with 16 gigs of memory and maybe a 512 gigabyte SSD I'm feeling rich. Maybe a 1 terabyte SSD. So You really I mean if you guys got the scratch MacBook Pro M1 the Pro chip and if you're really like a video geek the Max chip is insane But it's far far far more performance and horsepower than you need you're gonna end up overspending For something you'll just probably never take advantage of so yeah, that's my take it was so tempting But just doesn't make sense. I'm gonna save five six hundred dollars and just get a little bit more capable MacBook Air right and as a voice actor, you know, I I you know, I've got an old MacBook Pro from 2014 that still works great. Yeah great computer. Yeah, the batteries is kind of questionable sometimes. So it's time to Yeah But I I think it's time for me to go for the the M1 air because super portable great performance and The fact that it keeps it charge all day is great because I had to keep going back in the house and plugging that one in to Make sure that it's working. Yeah. Yeah, so I mean, it's it's just it obviously look at them in person Compare them try them out, but I'm still gonna probably stick with the MacBook air for my for my personal needs In terms of just other tech of some related some not to the voice over world. I Just had a little look There's just been a lot of things coming up in the last couple years that are related to power supplies What does that mean? That could be the little wall wart you plug into the wall That could mean the component inside your device that makes it work So like when you plug a USB cable into the computer, there's a little thing inside that box that allows it to power all the electronics That's called the power supply and that is going to make or break The quality of your equipment how it sounds how reliable it is and how long it's going to last in the long run And I just thanks to a failed power supply. It was able to acquire It's literally sitting by my dumpster a $400 55 inch Roku enabled TV Put a $60 power supply part in it and have it up and running and now have a beautiful TV That was like in flawless condition just because of a power supply So if you run into a gear that just dies for no reason Doesn't turn on anymore computers TVs anything a lot of times That's a discreet thing called a power supply that are not that expensive to replace and sometimes in some cases you can do it yourself It's actually not scary. There's no soldering iron involved. It's just plugging in some cables So just something to keep in mind Look the better the gear is the better the sound quality the sound quality the longer It's gonna last it generally comes down to how good the power supply is Yeah, you know, that's that's the thing here about it here in LA people throw out the weirdest stuff You know in my neighborhood it's chairs You know, you need a chair. I'll just walk around the block around, you know about garbage day Although I did pick up a $900 JVC subwoofer That my neighbor was throwing out and he thought it was busted and I like put a new power cord on it. It's like All it was a power cord. It was just a power cord. Oh my gosh Jackpot. Yeah, the missus is like we need to get rid of this big silver tumor in the corner of the living room Is there some other way we can do this? So Now I get to buy a really nice sound system for the tv. Oh, right But although it did make a nice end table Well, I'm impressed you're able to do that. I had a bigger subwoofer and an all 5.1 You know crazy surround system as well Now it sits on a shelf in my office and it's been replaced with a samsung All-in-one system. So now, you know, there is my There's my my whole five one system right up there With the receiver. Uh now it's just in the museum of retired technology um other thing that just stood out this weekend If you're looking for a new mic boom, there's a million of them road came out with a ps1 plus Which has a neoprene sleeve on it. Yes, that's right It has a sleeve that slides over the arm go scuba diving with it or i'm yeah I guess I guess the idea is they won't make any noise because they're wrapped in neoprene It's a very interesting idea. A lot of companies are making mic arms that don't need that They thought that was an add-on that would be helpful. I just thought it was creative And who knows if you need it or not, but it's out there Um and a little hack. I just showed you a second shot from another webcam I have a secondary thirty dollar webcam down here and what I've done is I put it on an arm And I placed it Right below the screen and what the the idea here is that if you're actually having a conversation with somebody The theory is that if you size the screen correctly and line everything up the right way You can let's say you're doing coaching Let's say I want it to look like i'm looking at dan right now I'm right now i'm looking into dan's eyes Does it look like i'm looking into the lens? Dan does it look like i'm looking into the lens? Of course, it looks like you're looking right into it So so now my webcam is literally just floating right in front of the screen And dan's eyes are right above the lens of the webcam So now I can have a eye contact conversation with somebody and still look like i'm looking at the webcam This is a thirty dollar webcam on a twenty dollar arm on my desk. So fifty bucks This is something anybody can do and if you if you feel like it's always awkward when you're being interviewed Interviewing somebody being coached whatever and you never know whether you should be looking at their eyes looking at the camera whatever Here's a little a little hack that did not cost that much money That you guys can try out in your own studio and if you're wondering how i'm switching cameras I'm just using an app right now called mini cam dan's got a second camera He's just switching it inside our video switcher right now But yeah, it can't most computers can handle multiple webcams And you can switch between them relatively easily so Anyway, if if you guys by the way, if you guys want to learn more tech stuff I'm planning on producing more and more Specific videos on specific topics like really specific like how do you set up? The personas Revelator i o 24 for a voiceover studio or for webcasting. I'm going to start creating more videos like that They're going to be over at vimeo.com slash gt t Did I say two t's gt t v o d Gt t v o d that's where i'm going to have my videos But if you have any ideas you can go to george the dot tech slash Go to my two tutorials on demand page slash two dash on dash on demand And there's a form on there and you can give me ideas like I want to learn about this I've always want to learn about that. I need to know how to use this Let me know what you guys want to learn and I want to be of service to you Yeah, so dan. Yes, you're going to talk about mic placement, which we can't over state Well, yeah incredibly important. Yeah. Well as as we as we like to say every week there are three well, I know sick 3.5 Things that are really important for your home studio. Of course, we always talk about acoustics Whether you know first off is your room sound tight? So there's no noise coming in from the outside And then there's acoustic treatment, which is the absorption and diffusion of sound So you don't sound like you're in the Taj Mahal Um, not that I've ever been in the Taj Mahal or know what it sounds like in there But I imagine if you start yelling in there one people will look at you and two, they'll be quite an echo uh, but That's really important. We always find that the acoustics of the room you work in is is by far one of the most important things You can you can do to make sure your sound is good the other thing is mic placement mic technique and we talk about this a lot because a lot of people like You know the one of my favorite things is you know, why does it sound weird? Because you're talking into the front of the microphone You know not you know at the top of the microphone as opposed to The proper part of the microphone itself that is going to pick up your voice problem I've been I've been experimenting for years and really and listening to other people in their studios And and what it sounds like to get your mic technique right My standard thing is have the mic upside down And in front of you About like that So it's at about the bridge of your nose the height of the bridge of your nose You have all of this room underneath to put your copy behind And you don't need a pop screen so you can go pump pump pump pump And you don't get any polices and even more importantly It's out of sight. I mean you can see it on the camera here, but it's out of my peripheral vision. So my copy Is what I see and I don't see the mic I find that especially people who are new when they have a microphone in front of them They have a tendency to talk a little louder, which is you know, unless you're doing animation Or you're doing car commercials You really don't want to be talking louder You want to be talking in a conversational tone and you want people to hear you the way Other people hear you when you're having a conversation with them So having the microphone at this height at the height of your ears The microphone will perceive you at the the the proper the proper height and distance And it sounds like you're talking to somebody else And that's why I recommend that now What I have seen a lot of people do Is have a microphone on a mic stand on their desk Not the best idea in the world unless of course, that's all you got But let let me demonstrate what happens now here. I am talking on this microphone Is that is that over modulating at all george? I think it's probably no I think it's sounding normal Can you scratch the black mic so I can know it's the Yep, it is on don't ever do that in the studio It's real important to mention that Yeah Now if you've got a if you've got a studio condenser mic a lot of people are putting them on on mic stands on the desk Not a good idea for a couple of reasons Number one vibrations will go through a desk. So if you've got your computer on the desk even with the uh The shock mod on there It's going to the vibration is still going to come through the desk and it's you're going to hear it And it's been amazed. I've been amazed at how many times I hear that and I see that in people's audio and I'm like where's the mic and they're well, it's on the desk We'll get it off of there Generally have a floor stand microphone stand Or you know one of these boom arms like this that is connected to the wall and not the desk So the vibrations from the desk don't go into it It's also way more likely you're gonna bump into it if you talk with your hands A lot of voice actors gesticulate It's Part of the acting process if it's on a stand in front of you or within that arms reach chances are you're gonna bump into that thing That's right. And and a lot of people do But I think people need to understand the idea of the pickup pattern of the microphone It's you we see this pickup pattern thing, you know in pictures and it's like this heart shape thing It's not a flat plane. It is a hemisphere that literally Surrounds the capsule of the mic And if you address the mic straight on It's important if you're a singer That you're really trying to get the subtleties of your voice Especially if you're uh, you know, billy billy highland shoot does doesn't doesn't sing very well at all The asmr singer And but So you can there's there's ways you can play with this and if you don't have room to hang it upside down for the time being One of the things you can do This is one of my favorite things to do Of course, you've got to turn the mic around This is the other thing. Why does my voice sound so muffled? because You're talking in the back of the mic talking into the back of the mic If you turn it around suddenly you you're talking again You can talk underneath it this way I mean if you got a desk stand you can raise it up a little higher and you can talk underneath the mic that way And I can go peter piper picked a pecker pickle peppers and there's no plosives I can still talk over the top of it and peter piper nothing there I can talk over here and nothing I can talk into the middle of the mic And you don't get plosives, but the second you start talking directly into the diaphragm You're gonna get that so you might say well, I just use a pop screen No, you don't use a pop screen Uh, despite what some people might say now is just my opinion If you address the mic like this You're gonna get plosives and the pop screen Helps a little bit helps a little bit You know, some people say well hold up a pen see if that stops it Yeah, that can do it too But you want to go through an entire 30 second spot with a pen in front of you or an audiobook or an audio I Hadn't thought about that one, but yeah so I would say get the mic off of your Your desk if you can and get it onto a onto a Floor stand I like using one with a metal A metal disc on it as opposed to the tripod because I'm a klutz and I'll fall over it And a lot of people don't have enough room to have the tripod there anyway But if it's like too heavy or anything like that you can always take a bag of sand or a Gallon of water and put that on there and counterbalance it An old weight plate from a from a barbell Of that all that works really well as well. So, uh, that's that's the real key when it comes to A mic technique Back to my mic Can I can you tell I'm changing mics here and I just a little bit prefer the vo1a a little bit more Do you okay? I do actually not that far off from each other actually Compare very favorably Yeah, but this is the harlan hogan vo1a that we use here is the official voiceover body shop microphone In this studio and as you can hear it picks me up as I exist and that's the most important thing uh, you want people to hear you As you exist and That's what they're hiring you for you're not the idea is not to sound great It's to sound Like you So do as I say or not That's the way I look at it and the people who do that all sound as good as I do If you think I sound good, but that's a whole nother story Um, Dan, I know they think you sound good because when I when I every time I I read the comments on our microphone shootout videos There's always video few comments like well your voice is awesome that voice is amazing like you always get a lot of good compliments Yeah from strangers Glad glad to hear that I want to hear that from the clients who want to hire. That's right. That's the most important thing uh, anyway Uh, we want your questions, you know, and I think we've got a couple coming up here It all you have to do you still got plenty of time Go into the chat room whether you're on facebook or you're on youtube And go into the chats in the side there or underneath or wherever it is the chats are Write your question if you've got a specific question about your home voiceover studio or voiceover technology Put it in there and george and I will be thrilled to answer it and we'll get to those Right after these important messages will be right back This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard 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 vo harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 for just $149 With free shipping from 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, weren't you? This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone But it's so much more. It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for rent When hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email It's j michael at jmc voiceover.com now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute. We'll get back to the show Well, it's time to talk about source elements the creators of source connect the tool You need to have in your voiceover toolbox if you're getting ready to work with The bigger gigs the ones that pay more and why do the gigs that use source connect tend to pay more? It's because those projects Have a larger production budget. That means they're hiring not just you a performer But they may have several performers They're going to have a recording studio at the other end that they're also paying to record you And the client might actually physically be there. They might be remote who knows But the bottom line is the client wants to see the sausage being made They want to hear it happening real time And they want to confirm that what's been recorded works for their brand and they want to do that All in real time sort of really the traditional way that this kind of work was done Collaboratively all physically in the same room But now a source connect the actor can be any place and actually even the engineer can be any place There's so much that can be done remotely now with all the different tools from source elements But as voice actors Source connect standard That's the tool you want to focus your energy on if you want a little help getting it up and running If it's a little intimidating when you head over to source elements website trying to figure out what what to do at source dash elements.com Don't worry. They're making some real improvements to their sign-up process They are working right now and improving the onboarding. But in the meantime George the dot tech slash sc We'll give you a little leg up on some of the Processes to get signed up But this is the tool you need to get be ready and have a studio that sounds up to par When you have all that together you need source connect Anyway, we'll be right back and we'll be heading directly into your questions right after this bumper You're still watching v obs Apparently so I love that one So straightforward. Yeah Yeah, we gotta get a few new bumpers, you know as as we move into the next year. I can you believe it's like almost Thanksgiving No No, I can't believe that I can't believe that either My goodness, where did this year go and there's some years you're like, you know, this year could go by a little faster This this was hurry up. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Okay All right, what do we got in questions here tonight starting off with the one and only jeff holman who gets all the other questions in here He says I saw on your vanguard review video that you were using the personas relevant revelator 10 Is it io 24? Yeah, it's actually io. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You had a myriad of effects dialed in to reduce the jet noises, etc Yeah, can you set up those effects for a client who has a relevator io 24? Much like you would build a stack for them. I imagine that's probably how that things design Yeah, I mean, um, yeah, it's it's controversial at best to add a lot of front end processing to a voiceover actors setup, um, but And you know, honestly one of the things that I think the revelator doesn't do that well is noise reduction because It has a gate and the gate has an expander mode But neither of them are that smooth in the way that they open and close Let me let me give you an example when I breathe Here sometimes it kind of chops the breath up. It doesn't have like a natural sound. It's like Like that it's that's the that's the gate thing opening and closing in a very sort of chattery kind of way It's very difficult to get it to not do that and and because it doesn't have something called a ratio control The ratio control is what most better expander's are going to have Which let you really gradually ramp in that noise reduction or the drop in the room tone Um, and that's I think it's it's one deficient thing I need someone from personas to show me the right way to use it. Maybe they're going. Oh, well, you just missed this setting But I haven't found out how to get it to work. Uh, it's probably it's 10 times down the menu Which is maybe I mean, you know, the beauty of it is really everything is pretty much right out in front and center They don't bury too much into deep deep deep menus, which I like Um, but it's it's probably its weakest feature really is is its noise gate thing Um, but other than that, I love I'm I love it. I love that I can have this ipad running the uc control app Uh sitting right next to me on my desk And I don't I don't miss having a physical mixer anymore because I essentially have one Um, everything I want to do is right here on the screen And as long as it's plugged into power the the ipad stays on all the time It's it's always ready to go and make make adjustments. So For $200 the thing it's still impressing me and and yes very very long answer to a short question I can set those processing settings up for you or more importantly set up all the other bells and whistles The mix minuses and the routing so you can do Zoom sessions and be coached or coach people or Playback your takes to the talent or the client. I I can settle that up. So it just works Yeah, make it easy. So it's like And you know, I think that's right. Yeah, I mean we talk about how how technology perhaps Perhaps we've reached a plateau Of you know, so there's like nothing new while you look at something like like the the revelator there or relevator What is it called the revel? Revelator like it's revealing. Oh the reveal thing the revelator. I don't know the name is not the best And they could have come up with something much better with the revelator. Yeah, it's it's They're taking that something that's in the price point of like an ssl 2 or You know just a little bit more than like a scarlet 2i 2 And adding a boatload of features Which can be a pro and a con Just asked martha con I set this up for She's had a heck of a process of learning it and getting accustomed to the settings because the thing is it's not just the settings in the Revelator that have to be right the settings and all of the applications you're using also have to be correct So what's what your what's your max system sound output setting? What is your input mic and speakers set to in zoom and in skype and everything else? What is it set to in adobe audition? All of them have to be set correctly and if they forget their settings or something like that happens Things go haywire. So you need like a little pre-flight checklist to make sure it's all working Alrighty question from youtube from jim mc nicolas. I love this question Because you and I are going to have the same answer and we're going to blurt it out at the same time Is tuning a room an art or is there a scientific way to do it? It's an art No question both. Okay. It's both but for us. It's an art. I think for us. It's an art Well, we're the the fascinating thing about the human brain is that the calculations that we do that we don't know about You know, I remember watching. I think it was like Maybe maybe you're too young to remember the amazing hemo from it was an old disney film There's a science film from the the late 50s, but it explained how if you're out in left field And somebody hits a hits a pitch You hear it you see it and it You're able to calculate the arc So you can catch it It's all math, but I suck at math, but you know, it's like doing all that in the background It's doing it and so when you and I walk into a room Or we're listening to somebody You know somebody sends this some audio It's like we can hear if there's a node somewhere we can hear You know what if it's too dead if it's too lively if there's some base reflex in there We trust our ears because we know what it's supposed to sound like Uh, and therefore that I think from the experience that we have to me, it's an art Uh, you know, scientifically, I mean we can measure stuff. I mean you can look at a spectrogram You can say, you know, if you clap your hands and you know, how much how long does it take the reflection to come back? Which is measured in milliseconds, but I look at the calculations that these acousticians use You know, I mean, I know oralex has a thing where they're like, well, let's Recommend how much foam you're going to use and that sort of thing. I have some really intimidating books over here on this bookshelf And have you read those books or do you have them just to impress people when you're doing a zoom session? You know every couple of years I buy another book on acoustics thinking that i'm going to get smarter And I just feel dumber because I It is like 97% physics and math equations, you know It's all algebra. I didn't do well in it's it's it's a lot of math and and So is it science or art? There are scientific methods to solving acoustics issues. They're in these books The acousticians that dan mentioned will use them. They'll help calculate rooms and I know guys that can do this the problem is When the room gets too small The the formulas don't work anymore and and or They end up putting so much treatment into that small room that guess what there's no room for you anymore That happened recently with a client of mine the room was going to be like four by six feet But the walls were going to be eight inches thick of acoustic treatment So it ended up having just enough room for a chair inside the booth and not much else But you couldn't sit on the chair Yeah, so yes, acoustically and technically scientifically it would have been great sounding but realistically Usability wise it would have been a pain in the neck or not workable at all So yes, that's why we will I think what we do now is so much more art and experimentation and a lot and less Straight up science because you can't find a book off of a shelf That shows formulas and explains mathematically and acoustically How to make a small walk-in closet or a whisper room or a studio bricks sound good Just ain't in the books right takes a lot of experimentation you get you got to hear it If you know what it's supposed to sound like It's actually pretty easy But very few people know that because they only know their own studio And and and what and you know, they're like they don't know what a note is or they don't know what bass reflex is Or something like that. We hear a sample of audio We know just like that pretty much what's going we can usually tell the size of the room the shape of the room All those sorts of things I think you can get earblind to your own sound and your own studio too Absolutely, you might have deficiencies in your studio But you're so accustomed to the way they sound or maybe you've come up with schemes to mask them That you know they it works you get away with it and then somebody else hears it out of context one of us And we're gonna hear some of the flaws in that space So right also your brain will tune out a lot of monotonous tones that are in your You know in your room town and you don't hear them. I mean they're there I mean if you listen, you know, I hear the refrigerator or something along those lines You don't hear that This guy doesn't have a brain It hears it. We're gonna hear it because we don't live in your space. So that's Part of the skill here Question from hungry boy, george. You want to take that? Sure. He says this is quick. So let's see How high is the gain on dan's mic right now? Asking on the harlan hogan. So how many db of gain is your roadcaster pro? Settings for that mic. Well, it's you know, it's right about there You know, that's your fader. That's my fader for this, you know, and I click on the one button and go to settings See if we can see the actual The gain display on the screen. There it is. See that 32 That's that's what it is. I'm I don't know. I doesn't say 32 db. I'm assuming that 32 Means 32 db of gain That's that's what it says sure, but it says 32. So there you go. Yeah, I mean, do I adjust it much? No, I actually I am a real set it and forget it kind of person, you know It's like I know what my volume of my voice is Uh, you know, but then again, I'll record something and I'll like, um, I know I'm going to be a little louder So I will back off the volume on the mic just a little bit So it doesn't over modulate, but I usually talk about like that and that's How I do that and you know, well, there isn't like this microphone It's very flat and I don't have to worry about any any coloration from it at all That mic sounds dangerously similar to a u 87 I've done it. I did a shootout of this mic in the u 87 at voice tracks west 15 years ago a long time ago um The the the via the Harlan Hogan via 1a Has a little bit more of a top end brightness to it a little bit more crisp top end But the mid-range and most everything else was almost indistinguishable Yeah, it's pretty surprising right and the fact of the matter is I don't believe there's an engineer out there listening to somebody in their specific space that they're in That can tell what microphone it is unless it's a really crappy microphone I so I I I tend to find that this discussion about You know, what's the best microphone for voiceover is is like I said, usually the one you got unless you have a crappy one I had a client who's been doing some I think an animation project or something I think it's animation don't don't correct me if I well, he's not list. Well, if he's listening he doesn't care but um Anyway, he was doing this job month after month and he was using um He was using a different microphone He then then the one that they wanted him to use And they were like it sounds great. And then out of the blue They said, hey, we would really love to start doing all your sessions on zoom or some video chat program So now they had to see What microphone he was using so he was like So he ended up buying the u80 sound Because he didn't want to fake it anymore But uh, it's just you know, the point was is he was doing the job and having no problems whatsoever Using a 416. Yeah, you know, you can always just like write u87 on the front of it Nail polish or something. Yeah Uh, Carl Gillette asks Uh, in general in generally speaking is a shotgun mic better A better choice for a small space than a large diameter condenser to help with a boxy sound I don't think that the a shotgun mic has anything to do with the boxy sound That's a little bit more of an acoustical situation and the shape of the room and and things like that If it's boxy sounding the 416 or shotgun mic will still Pick up on that boxiness in a lot of cases. Yeah, I mean, you know a 416 or any shotgun mic is a lot more directional Uh, you know, and I think sometimes if you got a bit of that kind of a sound You can always play with the direction of the mic to see, you know, how the room responds You know, depending on again, we're talking about mic placement here Um, you know, I think you know one of the things I failed to mention when we were talking about mic placement is distance Yeah, uh, yeah, I mean you you've made the very astute observation that in a very small booth Get it down to about a fist away And the larger the room the farther away you should be from the mic, you know Yeah, I've now got it down to fist thumbs up and mahalo Exactly. Yeah, I mean, yeah in a larger room you have more luxury of space and because you've got more space around you And a longer distance to any one wall or ceiling You now can have a longer play area around a larger play area Around around your mic But small spaces don't allow that Get get away with that. So and we have seen some pretty small spaces out there Yeah, what what you what you didn't mention was what kind of large diameter condenser pickup pattern, right? I think people get all those terms kind of commingled with A cardioid microphone, right and they can be cardioid figure eight Omni And I found out a figure eight mic if you just happen to have a mic with switchable patterns Is interesting to experiment with in a small boxy space Sometimes it negates a lot of that Side wall parallel wall resonant issues Um, and it's worth experimenting with so if you do have that capability Experiment you might be surprised how much better it ends up sounding. Yeah, sometimes it's people get confused by all the switches They might have on their microphones, you know, like Right, it'll have a polar pattern thing out Of course the more patterns are the more expensive the mic But it also has a a pad on it like a 10 db pattern some have a 10 or a 20 db pad You know and those should probably you know depending on on where you are You don't want to overplay. I generally like turn those off You know unless you start with the patterns start with your upside down cardioid heart shape first you know Put it on zero pad And flat high pass right and then if you hit record and you see a lot of A wave garbage switch it to the slopey line and turn on the high pass and then that's your next step Alrighty The anna anthony asks i have a personas pd 70 That's a microphone. I've never heard it up right now. Must be a broadcast mic must be with a triton fed head phantom It is a broadcast mic. Okay. It is called the personas pd 70 broadcast dynamic Okay, which somebody sold you for voiceover. I'm assuming don't don't use and then they they'll they'll say use a triton fed head or a Cloud lifter to to raise up the gain. So, you know The fact of the matter is is you're making if you're raising the game It's not going to stop any background noise. It's just going to make the mic more sensitive Uh, so it's not really worth it. Although these are great for playing with ribbon microphones as is the the triton fed head Which comes in this nice little cylinder that I keep in my desk and hardly ever use Um, she was looking at preamps, right? I'd like to add a preamp. I was looking at the personas to pre v2 I wondered if there is There were any other preamp choices that might work well with my current equipment. Thank you No, honestly More gear in your signal chain will not make more better sounding stuff So I've dealt with a lot of people with a insert dynamic mic brand here insert booster plug a Jig thing here insert cheap power preamp Thing box here and scarlet, right? I've heard so many you both have heard So many combinations and the first thing I do is Take that power preamp power that strip thing out of the box starts with rimes with Maybe x and um And uh take that out of there now. Let's hear it. It sounds like okay now Let's hear it sounds like without that other booster thing now. Let's hear it sound and sometimes Just the mic and the interface is the best sounding the level might be low But it might still have the cleanest overall sound, right? So boosting and boosting and adding all the stuff to very very inexpensive dynamic mic with a low output Not the place to spend money that you should really be replacing it with the right type of mic For voice over what why do you think there's so many people using these dynamic mics? I mean we see singers using them now I know I see a lot of singers including the boss using uh, you know an electro voice re 20 or the the sm7d They're great for singers because singers are loud I'm guessing they're watching a lot of youtube and podcast production and a lot of podcasts are on youtube And they're seeing all these mics being used they're seeing broadcaster mics and they're Confusing that with voice acting recording Which really is a different kind of animal with voice over it's all about very subtle Aspects of the sound of the voice and we need a very sensitive microphone to pick that up properly, right broadcast is about Shouting into the mic are not shouting but really kind of eating the mic and really getting your word out there and getting people That's right. That's what broadcast is about and for that you need a different kind of mic So right but not not for voice over not for conversational voice over. We don't talk half an inch from people's eardrums Right doesn't sound natural right last question. This is a great subjective question Yeah from tony hoover on youtube says if someone's on a very limited budget What would you consider to be a wiser financial investment? Soundproofing Or is it acoustic treatment? Glad you recognize the difference because a lot of people don't What would be a better and a wiser financial? Well, it depends on how noisy is the room you're in? I think yeah, I mean if your room is so noisy that You would need to spend money on soundproofing to make it usable You're you're not going to be able to you're not going to be happy You're not going to get A good product you you have to have acoustic treatment squared away first Always right that's your number one priority Is good sounding acoustic environment But if you're starting out with a space so noisy That this is even a this is even a debate up for debate. Which one do you start with? Then it's probably not going to work out Um, if you can only spend money on one It's not going to work out because you're if you spend all your blue all your money on soundproofing You're not going to have anything left for acoustic treatment. It's still going to sound pretty bad So that's a toughie. I don't think you can have one I don't think you can have You definitely can't get a professional sounding recording without acoustic treatment But you can get away with a lot of noise reduction and some tricky tools and processes used in the right hands to mask noises rumbles and other noises So Yeah There's my complicated answer to you. I I make sense a simple question. Yeah last question from j. Horace black Hey, george and dan. That's us Have you had much experience with the mic that maraschino uses that can be a 416 neumann and other mics with the change of a switch probably talking about The sphere 20 the you know that has mic modeling and stuff like that Yeah, the probably towns and labs sphere l 22. Yeah, which we've seen at the trade shows. We've talked about we've seen them at Nam Why do people want to use all these different mics? It's not going to change the way they read have you ever seen a woman's makeup kit Yes, well there's like 47 different shades of eye shadow There's your answer. Yeah Yeah, it's just people just can't help but try different things and what and get different, you know, they just they can't help it Um, they want to be able to have different tools and different, you know creativity And in the case of mara, okay, she's earned it, right? Yeah, I mean She's a very successful voice actor And she also happens to be partnered to George massive audio geek Who will be with us in a couple of weeks, that's right. You could ask him directly What he thinks of that mic, um, but clearly he had some influence over that decision. I'm sure Um, if in the right hands, it's an amazing thing Otherwise, it's unneed unneededly Unneededly is that a word go for it. It's over. It's just bulky. It's heavy. It's complicated It's got two cables coming out of it that you have to have two preamps There's there's a lot of baggage that comes along with using that microphone So, uh, you know, I wouldn't recommend it for everybody But uh, if you've already got a 416 and you're thinking about buying a u 87 This is about half the price And you're getting a u 87 Now chris, my friends over at neumann. They'd be pretty pissed at me for saying that there's no such thing as a fake neumann but um If you if you're on a budget and you want to have a few microphones at your disposal because you do A lot of different kinds of work or your producer And you need to be able to have those different tools at your disposal. It's a cost effective way to to do that all right As always mr. Wittem a pleasure to have these conversations with you and it's we love getting the questions So send us more you can send us questions, too If you just send them into the guys at v obs dot tv and we'll be happy to answer them Yeah, I even have a button that shows that if I can find there it is The guy is v obs dot tv Nicely done. All right, we're gonna come back and say goodbye and tell you what's coming up next on this show Right after these important messages. This is this is ariana rattner And you're enjoying voice over body shop with dan lennard and george wittem v obs dot tv Well, hello there as voice actors. We need to hear the clear 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 voice over career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com Where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? Hi, here. I am in my normal workspace with a question What's the biggest challenge you have with voice over? What's been the puzzle you need to solve the question you need answered? Well, david h. Lawrence the 17th and the coaching team at vo heroes dot com want to know They're creating new courses and training and they want to know what you need most And it's easy to let them know just drop an email to david at vo heroes dot com. That's david at And let him know what you'd like to know. Is it tech oriented? Is it auditioning? Is it about booking more work finding an agent podcasting audio books performance questions? Whatever it is that keeps you up at night that makes you scratch your head or what you've always wanted to know about success in vo Email david and ask the email address again is david at vo heroes dot com Yeah, hi, this is carlos ellis rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Are we here? All right. All right. It wasn't a train wreck It was not like the early days of e-wabs. It was not every week at zapallo 13. No, it was pretty good overall It's like we're fighting over who's going to control what shot That's the fun. No, they're live broadcast. That's why we do it live. So it's spontaneous And unscripted and and that's what makes it fun. And it's always energy doing it with you, mr. Woodham Let's see here next week on this very show I'm federal audio masters round table me george cliff zellman uncle roey jordan reynolds And tim freedland him confirmed. Yes. We're gonna. So if you got lots of great questions And you want lots of different opinions, although I think generally we agree on almost everything Well, maybe tim has some different ideas because he's a musician Then he's you know got these well cliff produces car commercials. So that's right He has some of his own things uncle roey is an emmy winning does Audio designer for the networks and stuff and these these are talented people and we just talked about jordan a few minutes but Tune in for that next week on this very show. We might have enough for two shows Which will take us past Thanksgiving and I can do the other things that I need to do um Let's see here. Who are our donors this week? We have shana pennington baird. Oh, yes. I con productions are good friend mark the con Don griffith stephen chandler sondra man willer robert ledum who asked a question tonight And and uncle uncle roey antlain productions antlain productions Alrighty, um once again If you want help with your home studio, you've come to the right place because George and I do that if you want to talk to george you go over to George the dot tech Yeah, and if you'd like to work with me Yeah, I know it's a hard choice go over to home voiceover studio Dot com and i'll be happy to help you out Uh our thanks tonight to jeff holman, uh who was in the chat room got us all those questions and helped us out And lee pennie for being lee pennie. We appreciate that well, you know something When it comes down to some really important things if it sounds good It is good and that's the bottom line my friends Anyway, i'm dan lennard and i'm george woodham and this is voiceover body shop or vo b Tech talk tech talk tech talk tech talk We will see you next week with the auto masters round table make sure you guys that one you're gonna love it Wait that's not the theme music is it now we gotta we have to use this one All right, I'll tell you it's a lot with because of all the features hot themselves on the side right it'd be cool if there was