The Ramblings of Some Audio Guy

Crispin Freeman's Interview With Voice Over Legend Jack Angel

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:01:06 PST

My buddy Crispin over at VoiceActingMastery has a fantastic sit down interview with legendary voice actor Jack Angel (a man I'm proud to say I've worked with as well). Broken into three parts, Jack takes us back to the roots of VO, and delivers a tremendous oral history of the Hollywood game.

Voice Acting Mastery Jack Angel Interview 01
Voice Acting Mastery Jack Angel Interview 02
Voice Acting Mastery Jack Angel Interview 03

Though I do need to send Crispin a little tsk-tsk for not knowing who Gary Owens is...
:-P

A Day in the Voice Over Studio Where My Toys Totally Saved My Butt...

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:21:32 PST

Ever have one of those days where even Murphy's law fails? One of those days where anything that CAN'T go wrong does?

Yeah that was a couple of days ago for me.

Gearing up for an early morning voice over directing session with a phone patch, our studio's main workstation decides it's too tired to show up for work, and wont boot up. I have no way to record. Rather than ripping a workstation out of one of our other booths, I happened to have my Zoom H4n on hand, and after jury-rigging some cabling, I have everything connected to record and send audio to our ISDN box. It was ugly, but it totally worked.

After the talent shows up we get word from our client that there are significant changes to the copy. No problem. We'll print it out and make some copies. Except for the fact that our network (basically an old router) has just failed, and wouldn't you know it, we use network connected printers. So not only can our computers not access the company email, but even if we were to download the files from our phones, we still wouldn't be able to print them.

Around the time we start talking about ripping apart one of the printer stations and are trying to find USB cables to connect the printers directly to a computer, I finally snap on a better idea. When I'm not working some VO, I also happen to be a tech blogger, and I just so happened to have received a review unit of an Android tablet. I ALSO own an HP Touchpad, and I needed to record two people in the booth at the same time. Hmmmm... What to do...

Thankfully the copy was in PDF. Downloaded the files to each tablet, set the screen timeout to over ten minutes, disabled notifications (to avoid any embarrassing bleeps or squawks during the session), and then used my phone to follow along. Boom.

All of this happened before 9am.

Mornings like that really test you. It's never about assigning blame, only solving the problem in that moment so you can actually get work done. It's also really satisfying to know that consumer gear is getting to a point where it can actually serve as a pretty functional backup to our main line work systems.

SomeAudioGuy VO Mailbag - What Should I Put on My Voice Over Demo?

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:00:00 PST

I've gotten this question quite a few times here on the blog and in person. It's a very easy question to ask which is actually quite difficult to answer. Here's my general take on demos.

As always, if this video helped you, you can always buy me a cup of coffee (left side of this blog page has a handy little button for leaving a donation), or if you're about to do a little shopping, clicking on the Amazon links to the left before shopping will help support this site at no additional cost to you!

SOPA, PIPA, and "Breaking" Hollywood

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:36:05 PST

I need to get something off my chest RE the SOPA/PIPA wrap up discussions.

Speaking as someone who works primarily in the entertainment industry, but also makes part of my living in the tech world, I need to ask a small favor of those crusading.

Can we stop using a two-faced argument to justify stealing? Please?

See, I just read the Pirate Bay’s pithy response to SOPA and the Wiki blackouts, and in the following days of discussion I’ve noticed two arguments rising to the top of most conversations.

1. Consumers want to consume media in the way THEY see fit, with no interference from the people who created it.

I completely agree. I think copyright and IP laws in this country are broken. I think Hollywood has done a horrible job of building customer relationships in an economy where consumers can create a lot of their own content. I think they’ve also done a tremendous disservice to their own industry by persecuting successful businesses which convert non-paying customers into paying customers (Netflix, Hulu, etc).

However, point one is often (and sometimes immediately) followed up with this next argument.

2. And the content Hollywood/Music Industry/Mega-Game Publishers produce isn’t something I’d pay for anyway.

Ok guys and gals. Ya’ll need to stop THAT crap right now. We (in the tech community) can’t keep having it both ways. From now on we have to admit to ourselves that if it was worth looking up a torrent, waiting for the download, and transferring to a device to consume, then it was worth some exchange of funds. This is the way business works.

If it doesn’t look like something you would spend money on, then don’t consume it. There’s so much terrific content available, why would you spend any time, this precious commodity, wasting it on dredge, stuff that you’re going to pan or trash.

Interesting then that we often hear that second argument, but if I scout some of the more popular torrent sites, I don’t see garbage, I see really good, well made, popular media being shared. It smells a little like hypocrisy...

It’s not a victimless crime. Now I think it’d be great if parts of the current media system could be broken and rebuilt, but along the way consumers stand to be just as victimized from their own behavior as the companies they’re trying to disrupt.

The consumer's pain will be two fold.
First, expect to see even more (and more subtle) tech legislation being pushed and supported by people who should absolutely not be the gate keepers of tech innovation. It’s coming. We’ve already forgotten that a bill similar in scope to PIPA was presented last year. It’ll come again next year. Count on it.

Sadly, the second consumer hit will be atrophy. If media becomes a less sound investment, less media will be produced, or will be produced at a lower quality. Don’t believe me? We’ve already seen an extreme example of this scenario play out in the anime world, most recently watching Bandai shutter production. Who will replace them? Who will fill that void? I don’t see anyone rushing in to service that market, and there’s no grass roots or fan-made animation capable of recreating that experience. That entire production infrastructure is gone. Done.

There’s been a lot of chest-thumping and soap-boxing about how to break Hollywood. Neat. What replaces it?

If you want to reform Hollywood, you have to vote with your wallet. No way around it. Continue to consume their product without paying for it, and you’ll embolden them, convince them they need to work harder at halting innovation. If you don't put a buck (or four) in from time to time, then you have no actual voice in this fight.
Supporting services which disprove media company assertions (that media streaming, rentals, internet radio, et al aren’t profitable) is probably our strongest positive counter argument to the broken DVD and decaying theatrical markets. They’re easier than free, and more fair.

[Quick Tangent: And stop that “Netflix doesn’t have anything good” BS. Seriously. If you really can’t find anything good on Netflix, then you aren’t looking, like, at all. And STOP that “it’s hard to find stuff” BS too. What? Will I need to come to your home and chew your food for you? Learn how to use a search bar, and explore some films beyond those you just saw the poster for in a multi-plex. Waaahhh...]

I applaud those of you who contacted your elected officials over this issue.
I really feel SOPA/PIPA would’ve been destructive not only to the tech industry, but also to the same media industry it was designed to protect. I say keep the pressure on for future fights. Keep writing emails and letters, making phone calls, but let’s widen the net. Let’s start including company CEO’s, producers, directors. Let’s start contacting directors of photography and supervising sound editors. As it stands, I can't tell you the number of performers, producers, and directors I've spoken with who have been in the infuriating position of receiving fan mail from people who proudly state they acquired their work for free.

What if every time you watched a movie or listened to an album you really liked, you sent an email telling the people behind it that not only did you enjoy their work, but you also enjoyed the experience of consuming it legally, the way YOU wanted to listen to it. The way YOU wanted to watch it. What if all those people also got a message from you when the experience of purchasing was bad?

Grass roots can work both ways people.
I really don’t want to live in a world where all media is free. What would I watch?

SomeAudioGuy Mail Bag: About Your Fat Head Review...

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:55:28 PST

I got this email from Scully about my review of the Cascade Fat Head II Ribbon Microphone.

Hello,Just listened to your audio sample of the Fat Head II. It definitely sounds fat. I'm wondering how far away you can be without sounding far away. How far were you from the microphone when you recorded that?Thanks.~Scully

My cascade review was pretty raw, and I had to move the mic out of my recording space and into my living room, which was messy at the time which is why I didn't shoot pics or video of the set up.
The FatHead was about 8 inches away from face mounted high (edge of the mic almost up to my eyebrows) and angled down aiming towards my chest. About three feet behind the mic I set up a packing blanket just to catch a little of the echo (but you can still hear a little of the ceiling ring).

How far you can get away from the mic will depend on where you're recording, and how hot your preamp is. In a large, REALLY well treated booth, hooked up to a loud solid state pre (like say a Grace m101) and backed up by a line activator, you could probably get away with a foot.

To get closer you'd need to tweak EQ, roll off some mid and low. I don't know that I would recommend getting closer than 3-4 inches though, as at that distance even a pop screen wont stop all puffs of air, and you risk damaging the ribbon over time.

Hope that helps, and thanks for reading!

Support SomeAudioGuy! Shop for Cascade Microphones on Amazon!

Talking Vampires and Zombies with Animation Super Star Crispin Freeman

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:00:09 PST

Crispin is genuinely one of the smartest people I know. His seminars on mythology are fantastic, so I couldn't help pinning him down and putting him on the spot for a little horror chat. Cuz I'm NOT a scholar, and I AM a zombie nerd...

Can't thank Crispin enough for dropping by. If you're interested in the craft behind VO, I would highly recommend checking out his Voice Acting Mastery site, and for more info on his classes and workshops head over to CrispinFreeman.com.

SomeAudioGuy and the Nokia Zip Line Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:21:40 PST

You guys know (of course) that when away from the voice over community I also moonlight as a tech blogger. I spent most of CES hanging out with folks from Nokia Connects, and one of the activities we jumped on (literally) was a trek through Bootleg Canyon with BC Flightlines to do some zip line runs down a mountain.
As we're a bunch of gadget bloggers, we had to turn it into a contest between man and machine...

Video Tutorial - The Proximity Effect and You!

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:00:08 PST

I've written about this topic A LOT, so it was just time to do a video demonstration of the proximity effect, and how it can alter the perception of your audition.

As always, if this video helped you, you can always buy me a cup of coffee (left side of this blog page has a handy little button for leaving a donation), or if you're about to do a little shopping, clicking on the Amazon links to the left before shopping at Amazon will help support this site at no additional cost to you!

Mini-Review: The Nokia Purity In-Ear Headphones

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:52:21 PST

I loves me some headphones!
Here's my mini-review of the Nokia Purity In-Ear headphones.
It's a bit rambling, but I did just get back from CES...

CES Hands On: Sync by 50 Wireless Headphones by SMS Audio

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:09:06 PST

So it appears that musician branded headphones are today what basketball player branded shoes were of yesterday.

I spent a little time at the SMS Audio booth in South Hall and got my hands on a pair of Sync by 50, a new pair of wireless headphones endorsed by Fifty Cent who I believe owns some kind of candy shop...

In a market recently opened up by the Beats by Dre line of gear, it’s fair to draw a few comparisons right off the bat. These are cans for those looking to make as much of a fashion statement as they are into listening to music. It’s also probably fair to say that the music most often listened to with these headphones will be bass heavy.

With the roar of the crowd on the floor, it was hard to get a good sense of what these cans will do to your music. The over-the-ear cup design was very comfortable, and provided decent enough isolation, nothing like inner-aural ear buds but I think I’d be able to wear them for longer periods of time than buds. I found myself wishing for some kind of noise reduction though, like my BH-905i’s.

Build quality is superb, smooth action on all pieces, nice weight. The design is subtle enough that the cans are flash without being too brand whore-y. Where Beats by Dre are becoming recognizable, Sync by 50 are still new enough that they’ll seem a bit more exclusive this product cycle.

Without turning the volume up too high, it was immeadiately apparent that these were THUMPERS. Mids and highs were still present, but that bass will rattle your eyeballs. I kinda liked it. They were thick, but not muddy.

I’m interested. I'll be getting my hands on a pair to give them a fair review.

Shop for SMS Audio Headphones on Amazon and help support SomeAudioGuy!

CES: The Scosche FreedomMIC Bluetooth Microphone for iPhone and iPad

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:36:39 PST

This is one of those gadgets I've been waiting for.

Small, discreet, and it connects to your iPhone or iPad over an established wireless protocol instead of some proprietary solution. The FreedomMIC looks like it could be the right solution for podcasters and vloggers trying to minimize the amount of gear they have to haul around.

Standard bluetooth range of about 30ft, and it records to a Scosche designed app available in the App Store. I wasn't able to try it out (since I was rocking Android and WP7), but I'll be curious to get my hands on one to see how it performs.

I'm really excited to see the number of companies developing audio gear for mobile devices. With cellphones shooting decent video, often the weak link is how awful the sound quality is using the dedicated microphone in most phones.

Babysteps, but products like this are a step in the right direction.

If you buy the Scosche FreedomMIC off of Amazon, you'll be supporting SomeAudioGuy!

SomeAudioGuy Interviewed by Nokia: First Impressions of the Nokia Lumia 900

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:25:18 PST

Hey guys, I normally don't write up consumer tech and gadgets here (I save that for YTR), but I kinda love the way this interview came together (i'm usually the one doing the interviewing LOL), and I did really like the phone.

I'm the one in the hat, beeteedubs...

Blue Microphones At CES

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:07:56 PST

I've been really hard on Blue in the past. I can't say I love the Snowball as a recording solution, but the company has made a lot of progress with the Yeti line of mics.

Meeting some of their company reps at their booth in CES, I was happy to find they were game to chat some audio, after they made fun of my "SomeAudioGuy" badge of course.

I was excited to see they had a Spark Digital on display. As we start relying on tablets and smartphones more and more for mobility work (I didn't bring a laptop this year to see if it could be done), hardware solutions are going to be vital.

The Spark Digital is the first portable solution I've found that can connect to a laptop via USB OR directly to an iPad via the Apple 30 pin dock connector. As we were on the show floor I obviously couldnt demo it, but it looks like it could be a fantastic mobile solution.

I'll be following up with Blue to see if i can demo the mic at their studio soon, and I'll make sure to give you guys the 411. More info on the Blue Spark Digital.

Support SomeAudioGuy by shopping for Blue Microphones on Amazon!

SomeAudioGuy Is Going To CES!

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:57:44 PST

Woot! At the airport now!
To be perfectly honest this post is mainly to try out a new blogging app, but if you'll be doing the gadget thing at CES drop me a line!

I'll also be dropping regular updates on my twitter account (@SomeAudioGuy) and on Google+, but not on Facebook.
Screw Facebook.

Many thanks to fine folks at Nokia Conects for hooking me up with a little Vegas vacation!

Cascade Microphones Fat Head II Ribbon Mic: A Review in Pics and Sound

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:40:32 PST

The elusive quest for “warmth”.

I’m a little bored to tears by the insane number of forum threads started by people looking for that “supa warm phat sound yo”. What we’re all looking for is a little texture, a little low frequency distortion, and a little character (inaccuracy).

In the VO world, the first line of attack for achieving this “warmth” is usually tubes. Tube premps, tube microphones, some kind of vintage-y glass bulb SOMEWHERE in our recording chain will warm things up a bit. Recently however, there’s been a renewed interest in other old school methods of audio reproduction. One area gaining a little momentum is the return of the ribbon mic.

It doesn’t get much “older school” than a ribbon. A super thin piece of aluminum is suspended in a magnetic frame. As acoustic vibrations hit the ribbon, the wiggling around the magnet creates the electrical impulse used to carry the audio signal. It’s similar to a dynamic mic, but is a LOT more fragile. That super thin aluminum strip can get torqued by drops or even hard ‘P’ puffs of air. Also, due to the nature of suspending the ribbon, all ribbon mics are figure of eight mics, so you’ll always have to contend with both the front and rear of the mic being live.

The Fat Head II is an inexpensive line of mics from Cascade Microphones. I happened to receive a Fat Head with the optional Lundahl transformer, which is more expensive than the stock microphone, but uses higher quality internals to provide a more even frequency response with less severe high and low frequency roll offs. I wasn’t able to test it side by side a stock Fat Head.

General construction is very attractive. The ribbon is mounted behind a lollipop style mesh grill. The mic body has a satin finish which feels high quality in the hand. It certainly looks the gig, and elicits immediate reactions when people encounter it in the studio. I was so taken with the look of this mic I used it for the top banner of this blog...

It arrived extremely well accessorized. A silver flight case contains a separate wooden box for the mic and double wired shock mount. The Cascade branded microfiber cleaning cloth was a nice touch too.

In use, the mic lives up to its name. The sound delivered could certainly be described as “fat”. It’s very sensitive to proximity and placement, and great care needs to be taken in arriving at a good arrangement for a somewhat accurate vocal recording. This is not a mic you crowd. The proximity effect on ribbons can be severe, and working this mic like you might a dynamic will result in muddy recordings. Once you find that sweet spot however, you’ll be treated to a very pleasant sound.

It’s a little hard to describe. In a word it’s smooth. This isn't a mic built for reference grade clinical accuracy. It’s kind of like using a soft focus and sepia filter on a photo. It’s maybe not the “truest” representation of what we’re capturing, but it feels good.

A couple concerns.
Can’t talk about ribbons without mentioning care. These mics are easily affected by bumps and pops. The magnets can pick up stray particles, so you should never let it rest on flat dusty surfaces. It should also never be stored horizontally as gravity will start to pull at the ribbon. Lastly great care must be taken to avoid connecting the mic to a preamp with phantom power engaged. The sudden surge of electricity can cause the ribbon to invert, which will stretch it out and alter the sound of the mic, prolly for the worse. ShinyBox has a video of this happening. It’s not pretty.

The signal coming off a ribbon is super low, so expect to use a REALLY hot preamp (something that can deliver at least 60dB of clean gain, though you’ll probably need more) to capture conversational speaking. You might also want to invest in something like the Cloudlifter CL-1 for two reasons. One, it’ll deliver about 20dB of gain, and two it’ll protect the mic against damage if you ever accidentally connect it with phantom power engaged.

This wont be a mic for everyone. The more extreme we get with effects on recording, the harder it gets to predict whether it will play well with a particular voice. I’d rate this mic as little better than a coin flip. It might sound great. It might sound pretty bad. As such, I can not recommend this mic as a daily driver, but it could be a fantastic companion mic for those times you’re wanting a particular vibe. At $350 it's not too much of a risk for those wanting to expand their mic locker.

Have you been questing for a "fatter" sound? Well, it wont get much "warmer" than this...

Take a listen to my voice on the Fat Head II!

Cascade Microphones - Fat Head II Ribbon Microphone VO Sample by SomeAudioGuy

Thanks to the DIY Ribbon Project for the Ribbon diagram, and Recording Hacks for sending the Fat Head my way!

Help support SomeAudioGuy! Shop for the Fat Head II on Amazon!

Kyle Hebert (Voice of Gohan) Pretty Much Sums Up How I Feel About That Bandai Situation

noreply@blogger.com (Audio Guy) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:19:47 PST

It's seven and a half minutes of honesty and reason. Enjoy.

Saying Goodbye to Paypal

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:52:41 PST

I've talked a lot about performance and booth etiquette on this blog, but VO is a business.

One of the most crucial aspects of any business? Getting paid.

Thanks to digital reach each small business VO player, out of necessity, has to have nation or world-wide reach. That means needing to have solutions in place for large companies with actual payroll and invoicing structures, and moving all the way down the chain to individuals paying for their business needs from their personal credit cards and checking accounts.

For the last several years, I've been using Paypal as my solution for that latter scenario. The bummer? I've never liked using Paypal.

We can all agree that fees associated with credit/debit card based services will always suck. That's a pain we can all just take for granted now. However, FOR those fees I would expect a decent service, and this is something Paypal has never delivered for me. Their service is painful to use.

The site layout is awful. There are always delays in doing what you want to do. They can invoice you and pull money from you nearly instantly, but moving money out of their system always takes several business days.

The site's security is draconian, which should be a good thing since we're dealing with people's banking and credit card information, but in practice it always feels like a barrier. Jokes online abound with people unable to log in to their accounts for the few occasions they need to actually use the service. This year alone, I've been forced to change my password on three separate occasions, and have been "selected" to "participate" in two security audits where I needed to re-verify all of my information. Each of these audits have taken my account offline for more than a week at a time. Wouldn't you know it though, during the audits, I could still deposit money into my Paypal account, but I couldn't withdraw it...

These types of actions don't really instill me with a lot of confidence in using their service. I can't imagine what I would do if I depended on it for mission critical invoicing.

So I'm going to stop using it. Goodbye Paypal.

I'm under no illusion that my meager protest will actually affect much change. Paypal is probably the most well known digital invoicing company on the planet, but my money is the only vote I have, and I'm tired of giving them my money only to be frustrated.

In the meantime, I'm looking for alternatives. Dwolla looks really interesting, and the fees are MUCH more reasonable (also, politically, anytime I can route my money without using a credit card, it just makes me feel better).

I'd be open to any suggestions you have as well.

My photography and helping a cause...

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:33:15 PDT

I'm an amateur photographer, and I've been shooting off and on since high school. It's one of the creative outlets I have to feed the soul. It's the perfect way to refresh after I've been listening to things all day long. It helps keep me sane.

Through photography I've met some wonderful people, lifelong friends, and have built fulfilling business relationships. I've not been paid very much for my work directly, a little from some stock sites, but the experiences I've had because of it have been invaluable.

At the same time both my family and my wife's family have been affected by diabetes, and health care has become one of our most passionate issues. I've always lamented that I'm not often in a position to do more.

From now on, whatever money I make from direct sales of my photography will be donated to the American Diabetes Association. It probably wont be a lot (unless you folks REALLY like my flower macros ;-)), but every little bit helps right?

You can see my work on my Smugmug account linked here: SomeAudioGuy on SmugMug, where it is available to purchase.

And if your family has been affected by diabetes, consider making a donation yourself. Donating to the American Diabetes Association helps them improve the lives of people affected by this disease.

Stop Spending as Little As You Can! Start Buying as MUCH as You Can Afford!

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:39:27 PDT

So I bitch a lot about setting budgets, but it doesn’t seem to be sinking in. I’m still routinely asked for what a person’s “cheapest” options are for getting a job done. How little can someone spend to, say, record really competitive auditions? How little can someone spend to get a “good” computer? Etc. Etc.

I’m REALLY tired of this question. Every time you ask someone like me that question you’re basically asking me to validate your desire to buy crap. Plain and simple. You want to buy something crappy, and want me to say it’ll be ok. You want to off-load the risk, thereby making it easier to convince yourself that it’s going to be ok, and when it’s (often) not ok, now you’ll have someone to blame...

Me.

I can’t tell you the number of frustrated responses I face when I refuse to support someone’s lowest dollar denominator line of questioning. The lengths people will reach to try and circumvent my refusal to answer would be funny if they weren’t so damn sad. “But if you WERE going to buy a really cheap piece of gear...”

Why wont I just help?
Two reasons.

First, it’s my reputation. Over YEARS of working in this field, I’ve built up a certain amount of “capital”. My reputation means something to people, and that means my opinion is valuable. Any content, repair, purchasing, writing, editing, or producing question asked usually involves some degree of risk, and my knowledge is seen as an asset to arriving at a solution. The more often I am wrong, without the ability to properly correct my mistakes, the less valuable my currency becomes.
By validating someone’s purchase, I may as well have recommended it in the first place. I refuse to have people walking around complaining about the gear I’ve “endorsed”, so I refuse to write up any kind of “booth in a box”, “recommended list” or other one size fits all solution.

Second, and more importantly for you, the “cheaper” solution often costs more in the long run.

Take USB mics. They take the place of interface and mic. You have NO flexibility for fine tuning the sound to your environment. To improve the quality of your recordings, you have to change that environment. So, for that uber-convenient “I Just Plug It In and It Works” $100 mic, how much time are you going to spend troubleshooting echo, room noise, etc? How much money are you willing to throw at room treatments (and so help me if I hear one more person say they’ll just throw a blanket over their head...)?
Maybe in your room you don’t need a condenser, and you’ll sound fantastic on a dynamic? Maybe the electrical sucks in your building and that dynamic is a no-go so you need a shotgun?
Surprise! Asking “How little can I spend?” Is almost ALWAYS a sure fire way to end up spending more than you need to, and wasting more time than you should, over the course of your career.

Let’s talk tech for a second.
The question of computer shopping has come up again recently from a couple family members and friends.
“What’s a good computer? I don’t want to spend a lot...”
First off, no system is JUST the brand. You can not compare a “Dell” and a “Mac”. That is nonsense, and no amount of marketing should ever convince you otherwise. You HAVE to sort by priorities, what the computer will be used for, and prices within different levels or tiers of systems. We would never directly compare a Ford Fiesta and a Bugatti Veyron as serious options for the same consumer.

[Quick tangent, I keep encountering this mindset that one brand (often Apple) is somehow objectively better than another. This is most often encountered by someone who ran a dirt cheap computer into the ground over years, comparing that old system to a REALLY pricey new system. Last time I personally encountered someone saying “Mac was better!”, they had recently gotten rid of a four year old, originally priced at $400 Dell, and replaced it with a brand new $2500 iMac...]

Now why shouldn’t you just buy the cheapest machine a company has to offer? Well having worked retail, those really aren’t “real” systems. They’re usually designed to get someone in the door so they can be upsold. Should you buy that system, you’re almost guaranteed a horrible, slow, buggy experience. As software becomes more and more demanding, the hardware will have a harder time keeping up. The components used will certainly be chosen for cost, will probably not be very rugged, and will be more likely to wear out sooner.
Things like processors and power supplies are critical. Under powered processors need to work at maximum for longer periods of time to accomplish tasks. This wastes electricity and produces extra heat. Running hot will reduce the lifespan of any tech.
Same with a cheap PSU. A power supply delivers a certain amount of electricity to the guts of your computer, but it has to pull MORE current from the wall to do so. The closer it gets to running at maximum, the less efficient it becomes. Older units could sometimes be as low as 50% efficiency, which means for every watt used by your computer a watt is wasted. The less efficient your PSU is, the higher your electricity bill will be, and the more heat will be belched into your home as waste.

So that’s the problem with lowest dollar denominator thinking. It feels good in the moment, like you’re getting a deal, like you’re “saving”, but usually it’s hurting you in the long run.

What’s the alternative?

I like to call it the “How much can I buy for...” method of gear acquisition. There’s one simple trick to it.

YOU HAVE TO SET A BUDGET FIRST!

See if you set that budget, then you can make informed purchasing decisions based on getting the most bang for your buck. You can make better choices about where to scimp on one area, to support buying a higher quality piece somewhere else. It should also help prevent you from drastically over-buying in one area, as it should force you to sit down and consider your entire chain or system, unlike those people who put $800 video cards into their $700 desktops, or people who put U87’s in their closets (but yours probably sounds great in there, no really, it’s those OTHER people’s mics in closets who don’t sound as good).

Come to me with a budget, even a low one, LIKE ANY SANE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER WOULD, and we can chat. We can explore some options, and come up with a purchasing solution.

Ask me again what’s the least you can spend, and I can’t promise I’ll be able to refrain from punching you in the face...

Chris Emerson Showing Off Some Accent Work

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:46:30 PDT

Voice actor extraordinaire, and pal of mine, Chris Emerson is starting to produce some fantastic vids.
Here's his most recent endeavor, an accent & dialect study using a monologue from Much Ado About Nothing.
Enjoy!

The Art of the Pick Up

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:46:10 PDT

No. This is not a post on dating advice. You can stop reading now if that's what you thought it was...

You guys have heard me rant a lot on my opinion of voice actors recording themselves. In short, I think it trains voice actors to be better editors than performers. Nowhere is this more evident than when I record a new talent for the very first time.
The established VA will have an innate ability to digest and analyze copy which will border on the intuitive. They've read words out loud to such a degree that they'll already have formed an idea of what their performance should consist almost before the rational thought sectors of the brain have kicked in. Watching a seasoned professional like Clancy Brown or Mark Elliot read through a piece of copy cold is a fascinating experience. They quite literally "feel" their way through the read, and largely before decision making skills have kicked in, their instinctive cold read is often better than most other "rehearsed" reads I will encounter.

Making Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes. Fact. No way around it. Doesn't matter how good you are, most days you will flub a piece of a recording. What we're discussing here is the disparity in tactics for recovering from a mistake. In my opinion, this is related to two elements of experience, reading comprehension and relationship with the director/engineer. The former the performer has total control over, the latter needs to be developed over the course of a session.

Reading Comprehension

You have to read out loud every day.
I've harped on about this before, but it is still the primary tactic one has to developing the skills necessary to be competitive in this field. You need to train like a pro athlete. You need to be in shape. It's part mental, part muscular, but it HAS to be done. The benefits are cumulative, and until you're receiving session and audition copy every day, it's the only way one can bridge the gap between those entering the craft and those established.
The pure immersion in language will make an individual far more flexible at finding their place on the page, a skill as necessary to the VA as "finding your light" is to the stage actor. As one progresses beyond simply reading aloud, eventually the amount of information one can retain will begin to increase as well, which will aid in making decisions within a piece of copy, absorbing punctuation and formatting as a secondary method of informing delivery.
At later stages of experience, the eye's ability to scan, the brain's ability to interpret, and the mouth's ability to mechanically deliver will seem to work independently of each other. This level of proficiency is most readily witnessed in ADR and anime dubbing, where the performer is reacting to multiple stimuli simultaneously (makes it an even greater shame that dubbing doesn't pay better).
Before you think that you're already pretty good at reading, know that I've worked with dyslexic VA's, blind VA's, and even a couple VA's afflicted with demyelinating diseases that routinely crush otherwise "able-bodied" people. You've got to be good. VERY good.

Relationship

Here the VA has far less control over the experience, as largely they will not be able to set the rules for the session, but there are still habits and behaviors which can aid in copy delivery.
Flexibility will be key. Listening to and interpreting direction is insanely important to developing a rhythm early in the session or audition. The better the director and actor communicate, the better the session will go.
Questions are important (within reason), especially to inform booth etiquette. Every director has different rules for how they like copy delivered, how they like takes organized, how they like pick ups to be delivered. Asking:

"Would you like me to say 'pick up' or do you just want me to take the line over again?"

is a simple way to know what is expected of you when it comes to correcting a mistake. Of course this is where flexibility will be important. If you're used to noting your pick ups, and they ask you NOT to note pick ups, then that might distract you from your usual method of delivering copy.

At no point is it acceptable to make a mistake and just continue reading. I typically encounter this from the newest and greenest VA's entering the craft, but every now and then I'm surprised by someone who should know better. If you know you've made a mistake, picking it up or asking for help is preferred. Just continuing to plow through a piece of copy (in a take we can't use because of the mistake) is a really bad habit to cultivate, and will probably cause friction during sessions.

How do I handle pick ups?

I'm a CRAZY purist when it comes to pick ups. I will not acknowledge a mistake during a take. I find it rude, invasive, and interruptive to the process. Hitting the talkback is often a shock, so I only jump in when I know the take will not be serviceable or usable to avoid wasting time.
I do not want my actors to note pick ups. I don't want to hear them say "pick up" or "sorry" or anything else.
First it is distracting. For that instant, the VA is no longer their character, but themselves, and potentially frustrated. Immediately following the pick up acknowledgement, it typically takes a few words to get back into the flow of a piece of copy, which makes a clean edit slightly less likely.
Secondly, it's largely unnecessary. I often know a VA has made a mistake before they will. It's my job to listen and facilitate.
If the vibe can be maintained, simply taking the line over again is the best way (again, my opinion) to maintain both the emotional and technical consistency of the performance should a mistake be made.
A personal pet peeve is the performer who leaves the mic between every pick up, or every take. It means the proximity to the mic is constantly changing, which means it becomes increasingly difficult to make sure audio from different takes will match.

Tackling Frustration

This is the easiest topic to discuss, but the hardest to execute.
You can't get frustrated, not with a high powered acoustically sensitive piece of equipment RIGHT UP IN YOUR FACE and cranked to eleven.
You must treat the mic as a film actor would treat a lens that intimately close. We can practically hear every nuance of the performance on your face, every tick, frown, smile, blink, everything. This is often illustrated by what I call "the grind", where one small passage will stump or tongue twist a VA. In trying to pick the piece up you'll hear a series of re-takes, each getting louder, more urgent, and faster than the re-take before it as the VA tries to power their way through the challenge.
Voice actors are generally some of the most passionate performers I've ever had the pleasure of working with, and often some of that passion will manifest in their eagerness to please. I routinely encounter VA's who will mercilessly punish themselves over mistakes. It's not necessary. As both a casting and session director, if you're in my booth I want you to succeed. Simple as that. I'm on your side because you are solving a problem for me. You aren't letting me down. You aren't letting yourself down.

I fully expect mistakes to be made. I'm there to help if they are, but how the voice actor responds to making a mistake is far more important than whether or not a mistake is made.

A couple pics with Tom Kenny and Jill Talley

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:26:32 PDT

Just had a really fun morning session with two GIANTS of voice over Tom Kenny and Jill Talley.
Just for fun I thought I'd share a couple pics!

First off Jill looking natural (I got some wacky takes, but maybe she might not like me posting them here): And of course Tom, who's already a human cartoon!

Review: The Brita Water Filtering Bottle

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:54:44 PDT

So, I don't normally review "lifestyle" products, clothing, that kind of stuff, but if you read my last article about staying healthy, an important component of that is staying hydrated. I consume a tremendous amount of water during the day, mainly because of the amount of talking I have to do while directing.

From a political perspective, I'm also very much against any kind of single-use disposable plastic product. I try not to use or buy ziploc bags or bottled water, whenever I can help it. Just seems like a waste of perfectly good oil and energy to throw stuff away like that.

Combine those two needs, and I've tried out several solutions to try and stay hydrated. The biggest problem (admittedly a "First World" problem) is I often don't like the taste of water whenever I fill up my bottle from taps or sinks. L.A. water often has a slightly sour taste.

For the last week I've been using a Brita Water Filtering Bottle. I'm very pleased with it. The plastic is BPA free, dishwasher safe, and includes a mini filter which connects directly to the sport nozzle. This helps guarantee that all water leaving the bottle is filtered. It's one of those "why didn't I think of that first" kind of ideas...

I can't speak to the claims of filtering contaminants (I don't have a lab handy), but it does significantly reduce the sour taste from my kitchen faucet. The filter should also function for about two months under normal use, though I'll probably need to replace it sooner than that.

In the brief period I've used it, the Brita has already kept me from reaching for bottle water at two of the studios I work for. If you're in need of some kind of water solution I would recommend checking one out. At most retailers it can often be found for about the same price as a comparable (but filter-less) Nalgene bottle.

After Four Years, My Voice is Starting to Come Back

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:46:52 PDT

To be a successful working voice actor pretty much means at some point you'll need to become a complete germ-a-phobe.

At some point you'll have to get a little obsessed with your health. Depending on your market, you'll likely be forced to encounter MANY people in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces, using equipment that's been biologically abused by other people.

Staying in shape, eating well, getting plenty of rest, these behaviors become important tools in the small business arsenal of the working voice actor. You have to count on your instrument, even when you're not at 100%. The human body can be surprisingly fragile, especially at those times we need to count on it most.

Almost four years ago, during the WGA strike, I had just left the talent agency I was working at. A genius piece of timing on my part, but I was getting some decent freelance work, and we were making ends meet. I can't say for certain if I picked it up from the agency, or if I acquired it from one of the studio gigs I did immediately after, but I somehow managed to come down with a case of whopping cough.

If you've never had whooping cough (Pertussis), I would highly recommend avoiding it if you can. For about five weeks I was racked by coughing fits that would so inflame my throat, that I would often be unable to respirate. Trying to breathe normally would often result in just swallowing air (being redirected to my stomache instead of my lungs), and getting air into my lungs often meant painfully slow, shallow breaths were neccessary. This creates the "Whoooofing" zombie-like sound associated with the name of the disease.

Recovering from the cough also had another consequence, it wrecked my voice.

Where I used to be able to play and shout with my actors all day, after the cough it only took a couple minutes of talking to completely wipe out my ability to speak. My character voices were gone. My chest resonance was gone. My nasal resonance was difficult to find. My voice lost most of its tone, and I was left with an airy facsimile of what I used to have.

I probably rushed my recovery, but I had just become a freelancer, and we needed the cash. It also doesn't help that I had MISERABLE health insurance during that transition. I'm still thankful that the infection was a mild one...

Returning to the present, over the last several days, I've been experiencing something of a return. Traces of my old voice are starting to come back, the vibration in my chest, the buzz in my face when I nail a good tone. I can push the volume a little harder. I can throw a little texture on it.

I really thought these features of my speaking voice were gone forever.

It's exciting, invigorating, and scary all at the same time. I don't want it to leave again. I want to protect it. It's like I got a little piece of my life back. Almost four years later...

So actors, stay healthy, eat well, get plenty of rest, and wash your damn hands.

Fun ISDN Session at The Voicecaster (photo blog)

noreply@blogger.com (SomeAudioGuy) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:20:17 PDT

So even though most of my work comes from directing voice over casting and production sessions, I also do a bit of engineering on the side. ISDN sessions can be kind of dull, as once you've set everything up, you're pretty much just babysitting.

Well yesterday I had a really fun day of ISDN-ing. I got to work with a great bunch of actors for a series of radio spots.
First up I had the LEGENDARY Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911, voice of the the Taco Bell dog and Rocko from 'Rocko's Modern Life). Not only is he a talented animation actor, but he crushed a dozen spots full of natural conversational announcer work. He's producing his own animated web series "Off the Curb" which looks like it'll be RIGHT up my alley.

Next up I had Larry Cedar, who happens to be a personal hero of mine. LONG before I was ever in this industry, I was a HUGE fan of Square One, which Larry was a part of. Most recently you might have seen him in the re-make of The Crazies. He's the one with the pitchfork...

And what session would be complete without a funny gal? Enter the lovely and witty Julie Wittner, who you can catch in the web show "Two Hot Girls in the Shower" starring opposite Kim Evey (producer of The Guild).

The session required her to eat cookies for sound effects. Thankfully she kept the mess of crumbs to a minimum...

Thanks for a great session guys!