Module 05
Voiceover
Home Studio
Practical Guide
2012
A
voice-over revolution
There
really is a revolution going on from your bedroom. The voice-over industry has blossomed from a small exclusive
clique of voice actors who trolled around the London Soho studios to a
world-wide internet delivered industry that anyone with the right equipment and
right talent can become master of.
In
this short jargon-free guide I will run through the basic equipment you need to
create your own revolution in your bedroom.
Let’s
start at the beginning:
Shopping
List
· Computer
with at least 4Gb of ram and decent size hard disc either internally or
external. If the computer is a P.C. it will need to be located away from the
microphone and ideally - even Macs make some noise. (iMacs and 8Gb ram Mac
Mini’s or fast laptops can be used)
· An
interface like a USB mixer to get the microphone into your computer.
· Or a
microphone with a USB connection like the Audio- Technica AT2020
· A
microphone.
· Mic lead
and mic stand
· A pair of
headphones
· Software
like Audition to edit your audio or FREE – Audacity software.
· Acoustic
sound tiles to treat the room OR/AND A Microphone filter like the RED 50
· A fast
broadband connection – more than 5Mb to upload audio files for clients
· A DECENT
DEMO for voice over sites – properly made with a slate
· SUBSCRIPTION
to voice agency sites (Voice 123, Piehole etc) nicely written with a lovely
thumbnail of you or an engaging Avatar.
The
location for your home studio
Somewhere
quiet, somewhere small – a box room or for example one voice artist I know has
turned her downstairs loo into a voice booth and then taken the mic lead and
headphone extension lead out into an adjacent room to the computer.
The
cupboard under the stairs is another place to locate your voice booth, so long
as there is enough room, you will need to take the mic lead and your headphone
extension lead out of the cupboard and into a nearby room where your computer
could be located.
A back
bedroom at the rear of your house away from traffic noise. Or a shed/office but you would be
better constructing a voice booth within the shed/office to help with adequate
sound insulation.
Vocal
booths
You
can buy ready-made vocal booths, they are expensive – about £3,000 - £4,000 but
if you are paying for a shed/office to be built that outlay might be worth it.
Treatment
The
microphone can be fitted with an acoustic baffle – a three-sided sound
treatment, for example The Studiospares RED50
The
walls can also be treated to ‘deaden’ the room Advanced Acoustics sell foam
tiles that are easy to fix and give your room a funky hi-tec look.
The
Mixer
Yes
you can do without a mixer and just have an audio interface straight into the
computer and ‘virtually’ mix using a software program – we have a similar
set-up here in our home studio, but it’s a bit complicated and took me several
days to get my head around it.
Another
better simpler way of connecting
to your computer would be to use a USB mixer, for example the Alesis Multimix 4
USB Mixer. You connect the
microphone to the mixer and use the USB port to connect the mixer to the
computer. This mixer is cheap but a little noisy.
Finally
you could buy a USB microphone like the Audio-Technica AT2020 USB. That works really well, the downside is
something called latency – a slight gap before you hear yourself in your
headphones from the microphone.
The
computer will recognise the mixer/usb mic as a sound device and you can make
the mixer the default device for you audio software.
‘Desktop audio, solved
The MultiMix 4 USB is a four-channel desktop mixer with a USB digital audio
interface built in. This compact mixer is perfect for using in basic
computer-recording setups, video editing and production studios, and portable
podcasting setups because it outputs not only line-level analog audio, but also
stereo 16-bit, 44.1 kHz digital audio over USB for low-noise, easy computer
connection.
The MultiMix 4 USB mixer has four input channels, all of which can accept a
1/4" line input. You can can plug XLR microphones into channels one and
two, including condensers thanks to the mixer's switchable 48V-phantom power
supply. You can also plug a guitar or bass
To
decipher the blurb the XLR input means you can put a balanced microphone in,
48v means it can be a good quality mic that has its own amplifier like the Rode
NT1-A and you could also plug in your iPod or iPhone into the stereo
channel. A word of warning – be
careful about using the bass and treble (high/low shelving) that can sound
great in your headphones but can distort your voice and make it sound boomy and
unnatural.
A
microphone
This
is the second most important instrument after your voice. Some artists swear by Neumann
microphones, the U87i being the most revered – they are very expensive, costing
thousand of pounds, so might be out of your budget.
Here
are a couple of choices for a couple of scenarios:
The
Rode NT1-A
Cost
about £135 First the blurb from play.com
The RØDE NT1-A has become an industry standard: delivering
the warmth, extended dynamic range, clarity and high SPL capability usually
only featured by some of the most expensive microphones.
Now available as the 'Complete Vocal Recording Solution' this NT1-A package now
includes everything you need to get truly professional vocal recordings-the
world's quietest studio microphone, a studio grade pop shield and shock mount,
a premium 20ft cable, dust cover, an instructional DVD with recording tips, and
of course RØDE's industry leading ten year warranty.
To
decipher the blurb – it’s a quiet microphone and has a large diaphragm that’s
better for picking up the nuances of your voice and best it comes with its own
shock mount and lead, all you need to do is buy a microphone stand and plug it
into a mixer or sound interface that has 48v ‘phantom’ supply to power its
on-board amplifier. (The voltage
is squirted down the mic lead)
But
if you are in a room that might be prone to picking up next-doors dog barking
or a pair of particularly loud wood pigeon’s wheezing outside in the garden
then this might NOT be a good choice of microphone.
The
Rode Procaster
Some
blurb from Rode:
Rode Procaster
The RODE Procaster is a professional broadcast quality
dynamic microphone, specifically designed to offer no-compromise performance
for voice applications in the broadcast environment.
Featuring a tight polar pattern and tailored-for-voice
frequency response, the RODE Procaster is perfect for every application where a
great sounding, rugged microphone with superior ambient noise rejection is
demanded.
To
decipher the blurb – it’s Dynamic that means it does not need a 48v ‘phantom’
supply, it has a pretty large diaphragm – which is unusual for a dynamic mic a
similar microphone to the Rode is the Electrovoice RE20 and industry standard
in US radio and a great deal more expensive than the Procaster.
You
will need to buy a good quality mic lead and mic stand for this microphone but
you shouldn’t need a shock mount as dynamic microphones are less prone to
handling noise.
A
microphone stand
I
would recommend an ordinary microphone stand that sits on the floor – you can
buy an anglepoise mic arm that can be screwed to the desk but that would be
more likely to pick up vibration from you and any nearby computer.
Headphones
Need
to be closed-ear to stop feedback into the microphone. I like the Beyer DT231 headphones they
are cheap enough to replace if you break them but good enough quality to
monitor your work. Expect to pay about £40.
Headphones
are often a personal choice though and thanks to the popularity of the DJ –
there are plenty to choose from.
Speakers
and amplifiers
If
you can afford it, buying a really good pair of speakers and a decent amplifier
that can be connected to your mixer will help judge the quality of your
sound.
But
neither is necessary and you will enter the complicated realm of mic-muting
(stopping the microphone feeding back through the speakers) or remembering to
turn the amplifier down when you are recording.
Software
Two
industry standards and one free.
Pro-Tools
Pro-tools
is the choice of musicians everywhere and the software manufacturer is right –
musicians love using Pro-Tools. I
personally do not – because I use audio software for making radio production I
find Pro-Tools to geared up for making songs.
One
of the most important things I do is copy and paste material between sessions
(the multitrack recordings) Jumping from one open session to another – you
can’t do that with Pro-Tools. But
it has to be a personal choice.
Adobe
Audition
Audition
for Mac and PC is another industry standard with thousands of radio stations
all over the world still using versions of this software.
Audition
is a good workhorse for voice recording and radio production, files can be
exported to industry standard.
Audacity
Its
free, it’s a little bit limted if you want to do complicated production but you
can record and edit your audio and export to industry standard files.
Geek
Warning
You
will need to get up to speed with your software – whether you choose Pro-Tools
or Audition or Sound Forge or Audacity.
You
will need to be confident to edit your work – a lot of clients want finished
edited files delivered by Email of ftp – You Send It or We Transfer.
You
will need to know what you are doing to get the very best sound, how to use effects
like compression to improve the commercial quality of your voice.
And
it doesn’t stop there you will also need to understand the different file types
– like mp3 – WAV and AIFF files and what your client wants.
Finally
And
of course most importantly you need to have the talent to read and understand
scripts have a voice that commercial agencies are interested in hiring.
The
demo dilemma
You
must have a good demo. If you
haven’t worked in the industry you will have to create a demo that can showcase
your voice without disingenuous use of real commercial material.
Once
you have secured work – that can be used for your demo.
Making
a demo and learning voice technique cannot be learnt from a book, you will need
to go on a course. As a Tutor I
teach a number of courses that include producing a commercial showreel, voice
technique and getting to grips with the nerdy geek side of the business –
mastering Audition and mixing sound.
