 Hey guys, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 38 My fingers getting better by the way 38 yeah, we've been doing this for over a year and a half and we just don't run a stuff to talk about no We never do we never do we never do and we got lots of stuff to talk about tonight reflection on filters zoom The NTG for versus the NTG five Techniques all sorts of cool stuff you got in there That's right, and I come up with that all that minutes before the show Yeah, you had time to work on it this week. We're also gonna talk about software and simple software or complex software Interesting discussion plus a bunch of your questions coming up right now on voiceover body shop Tech talk from the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Whitton the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional video studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master Professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and each week They allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voice over body shop Tech talk Voice over body shop tech talk is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites comm where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over 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 It's time for voice over body shop because I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voice over body shop or VO BS tech This is the time when George and I get to be Dan and George because this is what we do when we get together aside from talking about other crap But we we which is this of the show that's right talking about this It's like well that you know this client asked this and this person asked that we got this piece of equipment and and it Just we could go on for hours I know And on and on and on Anyway, but if you need help with your home studio, I mean there's no question about it There's only one place to go. Well, it's two places actually you can talk to George you can talk to me because Nobody knows more about home voiceover studios than the two of us because combined We have seven centuries of knowledge About how it is you put together it seems to add up because that's all we do all day It's we talk to people on on on zoom or we're answering questions on email We've we've seen it all that we've seen it all haven't we? It seems that way. I mean I once in a blue moon a curveball comes at me. I'm like People usually hang their head and go, oh, no But it's so it's incredibly rare. That's for sure. We've seen pretty much everything every voiceover studio Yeah, and because of that people will ask a question like oh, we know the answer to that. I Mean and usually we usually do it's like oh, we've experienced that there's nothing new under the sun Even upon just hearing just hearing the audio, right? It's like, oh, we know what's wrong with that You know, it's like you know, you you live in Chicago and you have a window open next to the L You know, it's not so hard to pick out. Yeah, it's you know I got I had somebody called me this week and said I'm I want to be able to It rains where I am and I've got a studio in a garage and I The only problem is is that I hear noise when it rains Is there anything I can do about that and I said move to Southern, California? You know or It between rain, but it's just like or be patient. I Think that's one of the things is people it's gonna be noisy at for 30 seconds. So stop But these are the logical things that we talk about and and we we talk you off the ledge And if you want help with your home studio if you're starting from ground zero You have no idea what it is you're doing best to talk to somebody who actually knows what they're doing Because that's all they do so you can talk to George You can talk to me if you want to talk to George. Where do you go? You go to? George the tech is my domain to find all my services which can be booked live on the zoom zoom all of it's happening on zoom now Or we can do virtual stuff where you send me your files and I virtually engineer for you setting up processing and Filters and things that work well for certain on genres and auditions and such and such Or design a studio from the ground up if you're lucky enough to be ready to Really spend some money? I can help you with all that and Dan does a lot of the same stuff If you want to go use his special specimen cup head over to home voice over studio Dot-com there it is right there home voice over studio.com. I've got my specimen collection cup I'll listen to your audio for twenty five dollars. I'll give you more than you want to hear But generally I'll listen to something and within like we're always talking three to five seconds I know what's going on in there. You know, are you under a shelf? You know That's it's like are you under a shelf good because it becomes obvious after very very quickly that what's going on You can hear the shape of a room. You can hear the size of a room Most of you guys don't really know What to listen for and a lot of people haven't had the luxury of working in professional studios or you know commercial studios and Really hearing themselves in that context exactly they just don't know What it's supposed to sound like right? So you're an untrained ear. These are for trained ears so that's the place to go so check us out and That's why we're here. We're here for you and Let's get into the meat of tonight's matter That sounds almost delicious What's in your tech update this week? Well, you know, this is a no real particular order But the first thing that you know popped into my radar from my job today was you know those things that Pete They sell you at the Banjo Emporium to stick behind your microphone. We're now increasingly on Amazon. Yep those reflection filter mudflap Backstop thing of a bobs. I'll tell you what the ones that are designed properly to do what they're supposed to do Don't work great The ones were designed that are just knockoffs of what they think they actually do But they don't know what they actually do So they make something that looks like the real thing. They don't do anything So bit most the time when I see those in a booth They they either color the sound of the microphone in the negative way or they absolutely have zero effect They're basically acoustically transparent like Putting a piece of foam Behind you should all of a sudden change the sound of your microphone It's just doesn't do it doesn't do so they rarely just get rid of them guys, especially you folks in your Blanket forts and your walk-in closets. They just don't do a dang thing. Okay rat little mini rant over Somebody mentioned about zoom audio being asked to be usable for recordings like people saying can I I just I'm just gonna Record you over zoom for this What is the situation where zoom audio would be deemed usable for anything professional of production quality? I'm really thinking the only time it could be useful would be for am radio Because that's almost about the equivalent Fidelity that you're gonna get out of a zoom or any kind of video audio Conference tool, you know it the quality of the audio. Yeah, you're gonna sound like you're coming out of that Yes, this by the way, this is one that George A. Woodham sent me out of from a flea market and I've got it working Cool. Yeah, take it out. That's pretty neat. What was it called? I couldn't read it. Oh, it's an Emerson 760 I think from about 1952 Emerson. Okay, cool Little piece of trivia my first home stereo like my parents bought me and they had the record player on the top You know cassette in the front. Mm-hmm was an Emerson So I don't even know if my dad remembers that but it's kind of neat So anyway, those those zoom recordings useless record on your end and send them the file. Trust me It's the way to go Adobe audition I just I right before the show I scour Facebook groups to see what's popping up and Jack Daniels said on the on the audition Facebook group that a new update to Adobe audition Probably the latest the latest bleeding edge, which I know Jackie loves using the newest latest thing Cost him some real issues now in his case. He was he was using an Apollo system That could have something to do with it I don't know but anyway, he had to roll back to a previous version and Recover settings that he had lost in the process. It was a big old mess. So Just be a little bit of aware and mindful before updating Even things like Adobe audition that send you new odd updates all the time be very aware and especially with their their There seems to be a tendency of when you install new versions of it sometimes overriding the XML file Which is where all of your racks Maybe even your favorites things that you might use every single audition are stored and can get lost You don't know where those are stored find out and make a backup. Yeah, that's if you're not backing up your system You're crazy. Yeah, that's only happened to me once though, you know only it has to happen once right But I'm like, yeah, I'll so I'll get to reset him. It's fine. I Guess some people use a lot of them. Yeah, it's in the middle of a pretty anyway I think Jack's taking one for the team here because I didn't ask him permission to mention his name But he's no he knows us You know, you never update your software during a business day or at the beginning of a business week It's just not that in the middle of a project. Not a good idea. We'd be very very careful with that stuff Microphones I just I'm just finding that the I've been recommending the road NTG for shotgun mic Quite a lot lately. I'm having been using it now for a while I found that it's a pretty flat mic meaning. It's not naturally bright and So I find it's helping a lot with folks who are already using overly bright Microphones so that's one thing I've been happy about it with and also being a shotgun mic. It rejects more ambient background noise Definitely more so than a normal large diaphragm condenser Cardioid microphone does so it's kind of been a two-for-one win for a lot of folks and at around $300 and I keep I keep recommending them and they keep showing up on On Amazon for about $300 prime shipping. So good on your road. They're keeping these things in stock somehow It's a really great one. The new one the NTG 5 Just takes the quality of the mic and takes it up a peg in terms of just a little bit of upper frequency detail It's more sensitive. It uses actually a lot less game Really less game which is interesting for a road. Yeah Yeah, it's very sensitive the NTG 5 is But you could be quite happy with either one So it's $200 more for the five. So if you're a little budget conscious check out the NTG 4 So really really just had really good luck with those mics the last six months or so I'm just another random topic. How about recording your voice for video game characters You know, it's one of the things that's a technique that's used by studios quite often is that they don't use just one microphone When you're voice acting in a studio for video game characters and sometimes I think this is also used for animation And the reason for that is it's multiple folds of reasons here One reason is just simply having a backup microphone So if something goes wrong and that namely is going to be clipping or distortion happens on one mic The other microphone is going to be either a little bit lower game or a lot lower So it's not going to clip when the first one does or it might be further away So it picture it captures a different sort of Sound of your voice a distant sound of your so they're recording it on two separate tracks different. Yes, that is the key They are definitely recording to separate tracks But you can kind of emulate this a little bit with your most of your home setups in your interfaces Now I think you need to be a little careful about doing this because Let's say for example, we're using a scarlet 2i 2. Let's use this as an example You could take one microphone and split it into channel one and channel two of your scarlet Here's the sticky part if you're just using a normal Passive what do you call a splitter? That's just two pairs of wires that are sewn together. It looks like a Y Normally you have to use phantom power on only one of those channels If you had phantom on both the two phantom power signals are gonna literally short each other out and That could blow out your interface So if you want to do this technique, you might need to find a splitter that has something called a transformer in it We're also called an isolated splitter But you can try this and then you can record one mic into two channels into your Software twisted wave can do this you can record a stereo file and have left and right and just run the right panel Like 10 DB are so lower than the left and so that's a way to do it. Yeah, Dan Are you holding a phantom power supply? I am a Rolls phantom power supply just happened to have one in a drawer nearby There's another way to do it. You could turn off the phantom power on your scarlet Well, yeah, a little phantom power supply like that into one side of the splitter and that way only The microphone is getting power from one power source So again, I be careful. I'm gonna do this if you want to try it out Talk to Dan or I about how to set it up for your specific equipment But now you can record two channels one much lower than the other and have a safety track and I haven't been told that this is super popular I'm not being told that clients are being asked to do this or voice actors I should say are being asked to do this But it just seems like a really pretty easy way to deal with this and still get good levels when doing Video games There's actually an interface that has this feature built in even we've talked about it many times on the show It's the centrance mic port pro 2 And if you record it with the limiter on and it in stereo and you record a stereo file Channel 1 is the normal file and channel 2 or the if you're recording and twist away for example Left is normal right is down. I think minus 12 Db something like that and so you get that safety track built right in it's just part of the unit So pretty sweet feature and could save you from having to do another take on that character voice A couple more things This also came up recently those springs on some of our mic arms like this one right here They might sound like a guitar reverb And for some in some cases if that's the case for you I I haven't experienced that specifically with this mic arm But if you do have that issue in your studio just wrap the springs with some tape Maybe electrical tape even duct tape anything that will dampen the vibration of those springs That's an easy fix. I've even used little velcro wire ties Just one lap loop around each of the springs Eliminates the spring reaver effect of your mic arm So try that wrapping this up Wireless mics are fine, but avoid the brute Bluetooth ones So not all wireless mics are the same wireless mice are the same Some wireless mice are like the Apple ones actually Bluetooth And a lot of them are have their own little tiny USB receiver Dongle thing that they come with and those I find are way more reliable and the Bluetooth mice so if you want to be in your booth and Your computers outside and you want to be able to start and stop or mess with something on the computer Try it like there's just 20 $30 Logitech wireless mics Why say mics mice? The wireless mice with the USB receivers. I find them Way more reliable. So anyway That's it for all my techie tech tip stuff. Yeah, Dan and I were gonna talk about software But I wanted to say one more thing and that is about mic placement in Small booths now Dan Dan and I years ago did a video That was it's still hugely hugely successful on YouTube and it's a shot. It's a microphone shootout video and We tried a whole bunch of microphones at two different mic placements One was far like this And one was closer or something like that like that. Yeah, now I I've been recommending that fist Distant distance lately to people in small booths or smaller spaces Dan, what have you found? What are you recommending to people working in different size spaces? How are you? How are you figuring out? distance to the mic For different situations because I'm finding this placement is working a lot more Than I then for this placement right in a lot of cases right well I mean that generally what I do is as we know every room is different every voice is different every you know as we had Mark Cashman on last week talking about your different volumes of voices and Mike proximity is a very very important thing. What I try to do is I I'll start from here and if someone sounds too distant Based on what type of voice they're using I will say I get it an inch closer get a little bit closer You know as opposed Yeah, I mean you can start close and move back or you can start far back and move in but you got to find that sweet spot That's there and it's pretty small sweet spot, right? Yeah, it's it's pretty small. It's it's a couple of inches. Yeah Yeah, you know, yeah, it's not a it's not a big distance thing when you're in a small small space, right? So but a small adjustment right every room is different and every home voiceover studio No matter what the design whether it's the Taj Mahal of voiceover booths or it's a blanket for it It's individual to you and the quality of your voice So when you talk to George Aray, we're going to get you to the right proximity where your voice is picked up properly and at different volumes in which case, you know, you might use proximity differently or Adjust volumes and those are all the suggestions that will give you to make sure that you're your levels are staying consistent And that the mic is picking you up from its sweet spot. There you go count point counterpoint Sometimes we have a little debate that's about as debatie as I get I mean, you know, it's not a debate It's just a matter of your of a very specific adjustment and your specific situation. So that's why we we do this We we you know, it's not a cookie cutter thing. We give these guidelines, but you have to still Adjust right and where it sounds best, right and we will follow up with you I mean you send us samples after we work with you. It's like maybe an inch closer. Maybe you're a tad It's everything has to be tuned and really set to you anyway, right little talk about software Because the rate the the debate continues on the Facebook forums and various other places about oh, this is the best thing for voiceover Yeah Very highly debated topic. Yeah. Yeah, because what's best is of course highly subjective Because best for what, you know, the old argument was well Pro Tools is the industry Standard and I would hear that and go what industry are you talking about? So if you're starting off as a voice actor, are you mixing a 24 track sound track to some big movie or You know Lincoln Park's next album or that's no one track Mono one track Mono And why would you need 24 tracks unless you are doing sophisticated production now There are some that will argue that well, I need you know I'll put things on different tracks and different styles for different different styles and Generally I think what I found is if somebody learned on a certain system and they are proficient at it That's fine You know, right. Yeah. Yeah, the only times I'm finding that specific software is legitimately being requested requested is for work to picture You know video production right where you have to be able to see video playing in sync with the voice, right? And for that because there are no just single track editing Softwares that have that capability that I'm aware of you do have to use a multitrack environment for that I think I I'm not aware of anything as simple as sound forge or twist a wave That allow you to have video sync with it So you have to have that multitrack doll for that specific kind of work, right? And the good news is you don't have to use that software for everything though You could get for example Reaper and just set it up just for that purpose You know, it's not that hard to do it a little bit of tutelage But don't worry about your whole life doesn't have to revolve around that one program for that It's a specialty tool for that one special case, right? And that's that's more of a recent phenomenon because people can't go in the studios and they're being forced to do this So I'm thinking some smart Entrepreneurial software engineer at there is creating some software that will really help us voice actors Be able to do that somewhat salamence is doing it I'll say they got some new tools that are making that Kind of thing easier or for the voice actor and well not just for the voice actor But for the producer right um, you know They've got I think the newest thing they have out is called Let's see Source RTL Wow And it's a is a remote timeline a workflow or remote ADR Wow Using source connect and RTS which is remote time sync timeline sync That doesn't require the talent to operate a doll Right They only have to have source connect to do this So they are finding a ways where the actor doesn't have to have anything complicated Reaper pro tools etc They just have to have source connect so Yeah, they're they're working on this already this there's a demand and they are meeting it with tools like this Hi, this is you know necessity is the mother of invention. So that's what happens there So I guess the bottom line on this is if you're starting out and someone says this is the best software that you need to use It may not be the best suggestion because they're telling you To buy as I like to say a control room for a nuclear reactor to control a hamster running in a wheel I mean, it's it's pretty simple there. You it's it's not it's not that these more sophisticated and complex software packages and does Sound better. It's that they have more features to do more things that rarely have a whole heck of a lot to do with voice over And it's flexible blah blah blah right features more bells and whistles, right? But it's gonna take you longer to learn that than it is to hit record and go with something like twisted wave Rodacity because essentially all you're doing is using a cassette recorder longer to learn and harder to troubleshoot when think exact things go wrong and There's just more stuff to go wrong the more complicated the program. So they tend to be a just a little bit more high high maintenance Okay, all right killed that. I think that brings that to a nice conclusion. We got lots of questions from you guys God I love it. Thanks for all those in we're gonna take a quick break here and we'll get to those questions Right after those so stay tuned Hi, this is Bill farmer and you are watching the voiceover body shop. It's great As a voice talent you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do they break or don't look right on mobile devices They're not built for marketing and SEO. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites.com like our name implies voice actor websites.com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control. No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change and our upfront pricing means you know Exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700 So if you want your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options go to voice Hector websites.com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead now There's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer that place is voice over extra comm Whether you're just exploring a voice over career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voice over extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed learn from the most respected Talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voice over success sign up for a free Subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition It's all here at voice over extra comm. That's voice over X com This is Anthony Mendez. You're watching voice over body shop well as I mentioned before in the show we have this Amazing company that supports us source elements. It creates a source connect and other tools I mentioned as I said they they're not just making source connect Which you already should have by now Why don't you have it? You don't even have a demo of it yet? What are you doing? I thought you're a professional voice over go get it source dash elements calm dot dot dot But anyway, they have a new tool and I mentioned it earlier in the show and that's source dash RTL Remote timeline is what that stands for and this is a great tool that if you're being asked to do ADR work from home You don't have to have pro tools or Reaper or source one or studio one It's called it. You don't need any of these complicated DAWs If the studio knows about source RTL Chances are they are already using source connect and so are you so a source RTL the studio and you can work together seamlessly and work to picture and it's all done through the source dash RTL System there's a creator side the studio and the player the talent side All you guys have to have a source connect on each end and this system working via the web will connect the two worlds together It's it's a new innovation from source elements Clearly should be being used by more studios so get the word out to your Network of clients and people you work with Do anything to picture or ADR to give this a shot because it's a it's a it's a killer tool It looks like to me. It's gonna a huge problem solver. Anyway, that's source elements and source connect We appreciate their support. I'll be right back to answer a phalanx of questions right after this Hey guys, this is Tom also known as the voice of spongebob square pants And you want to fill your ear holes and your eye holes with Dan and George and the audio body shop Snales like it too And we're back here on voice over body shop tech talk number 38 Great discussion there so far, but we got lots of fascinating questions From the masses of people that watch the show Every week and we appreciate you sending us those questions. For example our dear friend Diane Costello merit writes in In reference to our discussion on the eyeball or on the flat the mudflap What about the chaotic eyeball, which might mean responses. Well, what about it? Similar Yeah, but the chaotic eyeball is basically I Don't know. Why do you think they give them away and all these voice over conferences? It's a huge profit margin God and you and you can use it for a volleyball. It's uh, I It's not it's not very good. Go ahead one and Say one and seven or one and eight. I don't know times I've heard it used in a certain situation and where it actually helps I think it works with the the apogee mic Pretty well. It calms the plosives because it's such a put plus of easy to pop Mike And you know it dulls the mic a bit So if it's overly bright if you have a really bright mic, it will dull the sound So I guess what I'm saying is if you don't like the sound of your mic Try shoving it in there and maybe it'll sound better But if you like the sound of your mic, it's not gonna make it sound better. I guarantee it Yeah, absolutely guarantee it. It will not sound better. No, I uncle Roy You know experimented with putting socks in there as well. Yeah, and then bagels and that seems that that seemed to help a whole lot Boy you get the next question. All right, this one's from CJ ring wall Asking regarding the Yamaha a g 0 3 and 0 6 series mixer interface gadget do achy boxes. I Don't hear much talk about these this interface anymore. I really like mine and I was thinking about buying a spare So I just wanted to make sure there were no issues with this unit that you have identified. Thanks. I Like the question actually you've got one. Yeah, it's works great I got I know I've several clients that have them and Generally, they work great. I actually Don't know of any failure issues. I don't think I've had anybody tell me well my Yamaha died Come to think of it. Have you Dan? I had one issue with it It but it's still by the way in the audio chain for our show because our director is talking through that and it's Yeah through to me so I can hear the director what happened with mine was as I pulled the you know The old walk away with your headphones still plugged in. Oh, yeah and cracked the the little the plastic ring where the headphone goes in yeah, and And then it was suddenly on one channel and okay, yeah like that So it was that's the only problem with it because the pre amp senator fabulous and it's fine And it's got some cool little stuff. It was I got it for when I do Webinars which isn't really necessary anymore because yeah, there's other ways to do it But it gave you an extra it gave you a loop back that allowed you to play audio back You know over over your own audio so from back from the computers It was like having a cart machine if you know that right your reference great for producing podcasts or doing webinars teaching and stuff like that Yeah, and and it's got it's got the built-in compressor and Some other effects that you could play with which we're very you know, which we're cool I think it's a great podcasting tool. Oh, yeah because of that, right? Yeah, you know Yeah, if you get the six, you know with with two mic inputs in it instead. Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, it's a good device It's more on the surface. It's more complex than others So it's got more things to understand more controls more inputs. It's a little more complicated than was most what most people need but and the guts of it the actual pre amp and the Ad converters are the same as Steinberg because they share the same manufacturing They're they're real shit. They're actually not bad at all. They just haven't been new in a while right and you know There's they haven't really updated them much So if you have one get another one as a backup no brainer have a second Yeah, I mean, I they could probably update the software a little bit Maybe give it a little bit more versatility fresh. Yeah, right as opposed to having like plug-ins So you don't really need an Apollo twin that you can have right 20 million plug-ins anyway, right next question is from Shelly in New York City On tech talk number 37 the last one before 38 You talked about being scammed by vendors slipping an inferior mic into an And an all an all-encompassing bundle the road folks offer an NT1 kit It looks like the same mic is it? Oh good question. Yeah So she said she started with the blue USB You know a blue Yeti USB, which evokes mass revulsion from everyone. I know my ear is unsophisticated But to me it sounds okay. Is that really bad? Love you show enough even though I can only follow about 50% well the the the question was really about the bundles and The road bundle is well you know road went the other way, right right? They well, they're a mic company, right and they came up with an interface see the AI one Yeah, so that's a that's a darn good question. It's it's like the flip-flop of the focus rights and the personas is right that released Mike's out road is a road my company that released an interface So they went the other way. I I'll tell you in my case in my experience the NT1 Bundled with the AI It's what it's called AI one right. What did they call it has been really good The I1 I don't like that It's I wish it had a dedicated on-off switch for the fan and power that didn't have to push the button on the front to do it I don't know quirky little nitpicky things, but sound quality wise headphone levels wise. I liked it It does the job. It sounds great. So I wrote is unique They they seem to be they seem to rarely screw much of anything up There they're very good and and that that interface works great So that that is a unique case there their Mike AI one bundle is a there's actually one I do recommend Right. Yeah, the focus right bundle they make that big red Mike. It's a little better than it used to be But man what a piece of crap that was I mean, which is a shame really noisy Yeah, and it's like, you know, why do you you know? Well, I bought it as a package, you know, and it comes with a pop screen and all this other stuff and it's like Well, you know a great interface will really bring out the crappiness of a lossy Mike Which it really does. Yeah So, you know the the road combo series is pretty good And I know our friend Harlan sells combos and stuff like that with Mike port pros and so when he sells a That's a different kind of combo, right? Right. It's a different product hit that he picked the Mike and an interface Right, whereas those others are like, I don't know How do you just just how do you how do you separate what those are? I would call it how Harlan does as a kit and Those are like combos or I don't know. Hmm Make sure you careful when you're buying anything that's pre combined Make sure you know where everything in the kit and that all of those pieces individually are good or Ask us or ask pros. Yeah, get professional advice. You get Jeff Holman's question. Hey Jeff Jeff's he's our chat room moderator. He was polite didn't put it at the very beginning My brother used to do video and audio production 30 years ago, he just sent me an old Sennheiser shotgun Mike He hasn't used since It's called a K6 But when I go to Sennheiser's website, it looks like the K6 is just a power module How do I find out what kind of Sennheiser shotgun Mike is attached to the K6? It doesn't appear to have any markings on it other than the word Sennheiser and what looks to be an outline of a light bulb and more importantly, can I use it for voiceover? Yeah, you could use about anything a lot of mics for voiceover, but does it sound any good? And that's what we care about. Oh, yeah the K6. So this was part of a series of modular mics That they had so they had a K6 power supply Which is where the plug the jack goes in on the back the XLR And then you would screw on different capsules and those can be little short ones to really long ones shotguns So I yeah, I don't know. I thought they would have a marking on there based on the the light bulb logo it sounds like it could have a Supercardioid Capsule because when I think of a light bulb shape, I think of that as a cardioid Shape, ah or super super cardio. Super cardioid is the heart like this and Super cardio would be more like that. I think so that could be what it is. It's a super cardioid. Anyway, try it out Jeff if it sounds good It is good everybody together now Yeah, so yeah, that's interesting one. Yeah, and you know a good quality Sennheiser Mike 30 years later if it wasn't abused and dropped and beat on it's gonna still sound great years and years later Yep, love my Sennheiser. It was built to be a road warrior. Most of the Sennheiser stuff. They're bill like tanks Yeah, uh, Will Hansen asks. Hello everyone. Hello, Will Just wondering what your thoughts are on a ribbon style mic for VO recording. Well, I just happened to have one right here Look at that one. I just because I have a ribbon microphone collection Yeah, you know, I considered that question many years ago when I was starting out in voiceover, you know online I'm like these are interesting and you could find them on eBay and they're worth more now than what I bought them for So which is kind of nice Here's and this is an electro voice v3 With you know variable Resistance on which is kind of cool Ribbon mics they were for a very specific purpose back then and They required a lot of amplification and They fell out of favor when condenser mics came around condenser mics were invented very early on as well But these were you know, I guess cheaper to build and you'll be more affordable, right and more affordable, right? but you know companies like Electro voice and sure and An RCA made some really high quality stuff That you'll still see on eBay and if you can get them to work. There's like one or two guys in the country who can refurbish these Guy named Clarence Kane and and Stephen Sank and they they refurbish the old RCA's and they make them sound fabulous what brought them back and Why you're seeing the major manufacturers like even you know road and electro voice and they all have a ribbon mic because with digital recording It brings out even more subtlety that these mics really reveal now. Are they good for voiceover? Who's our friend at a EA microphones that we interviewed West Dooley West Dooley who really explained? I mean what's great about a ribbon microphone is that it's got a figure 8 pattern that you can talk into either side And it's gonna work either way And and he I remember he demonstrated to us how you know you can whisper in it and really play with you know With two different voices lot of proximity effect and They're great for I think they're mostly used for recording guitars and things like that I wouldn't use them next to a good thing where you're recording a really bright source, right? Something is harsh edgy bright. This will soften it out. It was it out a little bit. It really is nice but for voiceover I Like I like using this if they if they can you do Roosevelt like a December 7th 1941 Day, you know, then you use a ribbon. Yeah, and I hear you know If you're trying to do something accurate and even then you know take a lot of the low-end off of it Make it sound like a like a nose rail. Yeah, yeah I you know, there's so many of them out and a lot of them now are active So they have a preamp built in to boost the signal which makes them fan-empowered ribbon mics weird, right? I've just been meaning to demo one in a real-world situation. I just never get around to it I've been liking the figure 8 pattern a lot like the Vanguard v4 Figure pattern is I really good the figure 8 pattern sounds great So by that meaning it should also sound great on a figure on a ribbon mic So I'll try one out one of these days It's just been a really long time for me to really do it in in the context of voiceover Well, you have to have a lot of clean game to make one of them work Because well, yeah, that's that's the whole idea that fan-empower thing is that they're supposed to be trying to fix that problem Right by adding some amplification. That's what the cloud lifter was for right and we're a friend Roger cloud Right, and that's a really high-quality ribbon mic right and then made the cloud lifter To help people boost their microphones. Yeah, you know and when he discovered people were using re20s for podcasts He's like I had this is fabulous and sold a lot of V's. Yeah. Oh, yeah Also a fat head which I have one which is yeah, I would always use on these to boost them up a little bit Companies are making those things now, too Yeah, you know and of course I learned how to build one and we had one back when we were doing e-wabs That's still there. He's a little broken called Frank and Mike, but it was the best sounding ribbon mic we had And I built it from usage for yeah, and if we should we used it on the show for a while You get Sam stout's question. Oh, this is for me then. Hey Sam This is from Sam stout and he says I have a 416 shotgun mic going into an Audient ID 22 and to get an input of about minus 12 to minus 6 peak level. I'm assuming I have to turn up the gain to around 4 o'clock Recording always sounds clean, but I'm wondering if that's unusually high Uh, unusually high gain setting or level. Thanks. No, it isn't Sam Actually, we talked about this on the show a few months ago About how the gain structure on that and the way to gain tapering on the pot Is uh designed that that is perfectly normal. In fact 4 o'clock is not bad I've heard people that I need to be have it set almost almost all the way and then they back it off Just a skosh To get good level depending on the mic. So Yeah, it's it makes it a little bit harder to make fine gain adjustments Uh for that reason right so but that is that's totally perfectly normal all the Audient ID series seems to be that way Yeah, I think people forget that again all of this stuff was designed for making music music and Music involves more sound pressure levels because when you sing you sing loud unless you're singing really soft like, you know If you're billy eilish, which in case you can't even hear her anyway, uh, but Mostly you're singing very loud and therefore it doesn't require as much gain voiceover as we learned last week You know, there are different voices, you know, you're 10 percent voice your 25 percent voice your 50 percent voice If you're talking normally You're going to need a lot of gain for A condenser mic to pick you up, which is why we use studio condenser mics for voice over Uh, so you can take it all the way to four o'clock as I like to say and there's a sweet spot on most On on most uh interfaces. That's like, you know between three and four o'clock now We discovered that on the id series That there's sort of a different type of way they have a different way of Pushing the low end that we've spots in a different place, right? It's like in the last 10 percent, right rather in the middle 30 percent, right and there's a lot a little harder. Yeah, right All right, josh keller asked dan george if either of you tested or investigated clean feed As an alternative to source connect. I know source connect is the standard But could cfb a disruptor have you checked out clean feed at all? I've heard of people using it for some forms of production of podcasts and things like that Um, it's another as far. I mean all these tools that run on chrome And this is another one of these tools that are just web soft services That run on chrome are using under the hood The exact same technology They all just wrap in different bells and whistles and features But it's still just running on chrome using an audio codec built into chrome which source connect now Literally it's called that source connect now Bad name. I told him this bad name when source connect now has been doing this for free all along It's always had this feature of doing live stream over audio over chrome Clean feed does add some bells and whistles and maybe some productions will find those useful Um, I haven't used it enough to say wow this thing is a game changer because it doesn't seem to be It's there's so many other tools that it's similar to That it doesn't really seem to stand out So I don't think it's going to be a disruptor anytime soon Because it's still just another rewrap of the same old technology Everybody else is using on chrome So my opinion, but uh, you might find out differently when a big paying job comes along and says we use clean feed And when that happens Let us know. Yeah, I and we're we'll be waiting with baited breath. Yeah, um Immanuel mendez Chumas arrow says first time here. Just want to say thank you to both of you opera singer stage actor who finally delved into voiceover Okay, I've seen your videos and are extremely they are extremely helpful. Thank you I've been building my own booth I I have mainly done audiobooks, which gives me a lot of room for noise floor that I can mix in my DAW Fix yeah that he can Yeah, that's right. You can fix my DAW Audition my yeah, my girlfriend is being set out for some big vo promos, etc I'm concerned that my noise floor isn't good enough for her stuff. I know they recommend 20 to minus 30 db However, what would be appropriate level in dbfs using source connect? What do clients expect your noise floor to be a lot? I don't know what number is he's coming up with there? That's the problem. Yeah, I mean we've we've addressed this before when you give a number You know you didn't know what the units are so you did say What does it need to be in dbfs? Which I think is db full scale um, but 20 to 30 db, I'm not sure what he's referring to Um, and oh he says thank you. You said my name right. Well, yeah, I would have made mincemeat out of that nicely done. Oh, thank you um 20 to 30 db, I'm assuming he's meaning like if you were to have an spl meter Like a little device with a little meter on it and a microphone recording The room tone And seeing what the level is that's maybe what he's talking about 20 to 30 I'm not sure but it's a pretty loud noise floor at the room I care more about what the meter shows me in my doll and that is recorded in negative numbers And so when you hit record and you just open up the mic and record room tone The peak meter should be going up and down below minus 50 to minus 55 Or better. Um, if it's much higher than that You might have some real issues could be rumble in there Rumbles not that big of a deal not not hard to fix But other kinds of noise may be a real problem. So we that's one of those things is very hard to Answer without hearing actual samples. So that's what our my sound check and dan's specimen collection cup Let's give it a come into play because I can't answer that without without actual audio to go by All right. Well after a name well pronounced that's going to do it for all your questions And we appreciate that you live in southern califera while you get to know those types of names And you say them right like living in buffalo you get good with polish names. Oh, right Anyway, all right. Well, that's going to do it for right now We'll be right back though because we have some important messages to let you know about and then george and I will wrap things up Right after those stay tuned You're watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I'm gonna go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you stick around? You don't want to miss this Power 1039 at target. We want you to come as you are be comfortable Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please Nuevo mexico necesita un cambio la representante michelle lujan grisham ha luchado por nuestro estado en la cámara de representantes Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys Time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos.com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom What question do we get most often far and away? It's how do I even get started in voiceover? And we have a great answer to that question. Take the vo heroes.com free getting started in vo course You heard right It's free and it's available online 24 7 at getting started in vo.com That's getting started in vo.com If you've been watching v obs and thinking that you need to get in gear and start your own voiceover career This is the course you should start with You'll learn about the vocal skills you need the storytelling skills you need the equipment you need the business skills you need And the mindset you need to have all in one single comprehensive online course taught by vo heroes David h. Lawrence the 17th This course won the backstage readers choice award four years in a row. And again, there's no charge. It's absolutely free Want to take it? Of course you do getting started in vo.com. That's getting started in vo.com So our good friend Harlan Hogan is on vacation in Maine. Isn't it gorgeous? Anyway, he wanted me to tell you that he hasn't missed doing any work while he's on vacation hanging out on somebody's yacht Because he's got he has poured a booth with him. This is a great unit It makes it easy for you to travel on the road and it's easy to take apart and put together All you have to do is zip it up or unzip it in this particular case And it all just folds up into a nice neat carry-in case The port-a-booth plus Plus the port-a-booth pro which you see right here the port-a-booth pro the bigger model is 369 99 The plus 199 99 and the bag is on sale for 49 95 But you can get it in a combo for 248 95 go over to voiceover essentials.com right now And get your port-a-booth plus or pro. This is Arianna Ratner and you're listening to voiceover body shop vobs.tv So our good friend Harlan Hogan Okay Fix that in post well as our our beloved Tom and Ray Malachi used to say you've wasted another perfectly good hour Watching voiceover body shop. This was great. This we love getting questions from you guys and it's just fun to talk about and It's almost like stump the chumps only you can't It really is Uh next week on the show another great guest if you think the breasts we've been having this year have been great Who knows who we'll have next time somebody even better Uh, we do have donors though people, you know, there's a way you can donate to the show If you really like to support what we do You know, it's almost like we're playing instruments out there in the park And you're like holding the hand out But if you like what you're doing, you know, I mean if if you see someone like who panhandling in a parking lot And they're just like panhandling or somebody's playing the accordion Are you gonna give money to the guy playing the accordion the guy just got his hand out? Yeah, we're kind of busking here. I guess that's right. I think that's the word I was looking for there That's the word and if you'd like to help us out. We really appreciate it Uh, and we have donors and you guys do it and they're great and this week we have We've got michelle blanker christopher epperson philips appear tray speaks for you Shelly avaleno dominant carlos Natasha or chevca. Yes, brian page Mr. George a with him my dad patty gibbons and diana bursal Alrighty, hey, you know, eventually we're gonna get out of here. Well, I'm we're still be in here But my my my good friends george and our directors who will join us back here in this booth Uh, and we'll start showing your booths again right now. It's nightline. So we like having the new set But uh, send us pictures of your studios. We've been getting a few over the last couple of weeks and some of them are really cool You know, even if it's a blanket for it. If it sounds good, it is good Uh, we need to thank our sponsors harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vo heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com And jmc demo us All right, giving them a little bit more extra added value there a little extra weight. Yes Uh, thanks to jeff holman in the chat room great job tonight getting those questions to us Sumer lino another kick butt job in the uh In the tech area wrangling the v mix windows gods Making it all happen from not even from here by You know all over zoom It's amazing and lee pinney for being lee pinney. Well, that's gonna do it for us this week Hopefully you're getting something out of this. You must be because you keep showing up every week You know, we get like 3000 you know views a week with this show and We went over 150,000 downloads of the podcast this week. So we really appreciate it at all We're here for you. We want you to be We we want your technology To not be a problem We want you to go out and be voice actors and let the equipment do the work for you and let us do that So your work can be done by your equipment without you having to do with too much with it Because in the long run if it sounds good It is good and that's gonna do it for us this week on voiceover body shop tech talk I'm dan lennard. I'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vo BS All righty. Have a good one guys. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye Stay safe