Do you have a soft-furnished, quiet place to record?

Having the best equipment isn't everything when it comes to recording a professional sounding voice over. Yes we encourage you to get as top spec gear as you can get your hands on but at the end of the day, if you record in your bathroom it won't sound good. 

We ask you to find the softest furnished room in your house. Bedrooms, closets (walk-in closets are perfect if you're a fancy-pants) or even studies work. The idea is to reduce the amount of reflective surfaces in the room with the mic. Ever wondered why your voice sounds amazing when singing in the shower? It's because of the acoustics in the bathroom, flat surfaces that cause natural reverb. Although we're sure your Tom Jones impressions sound fantastic, let's keep the VO sessions in the quietest, softest place in the house.

Read more about recording from home here:

I'm a technophobe, is it even possible for me to set up a home recording studio?

Do you have a decent microphone, headphones and computer?

In order for you to proceed with our remote voice over demo creation service, we need to ensure you have equipment that is up to par. This enables us to provide you with the best service and ultimately a professional sounding demo that will get you jobs.

Microphone

We define a 'decent' microphone as a condenser microphone with a cardioid pick-up pattern. Any of that make sense? In case it doesn't, below are 3 of our recommended mics. 

Audio Technica AT2020 USB+

$150.00

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Neumann TLM102 (approx. $700)

Blue Yeti (approx. $100)

An important difference between the AT2020 and Yeti compared to the Neumann above is that the AT2020 and Yeti are USB microphones. It means that they're powered by the USB in your computer and also have build-in sound cards. They are in short, 'plug and play'. You can plug them into your computer and essentially start recording with them immediately (assuming you have the software). The down side is that the volume control of the mic (on the At2020) has to be done through the software (as opposed to a physical knob). The headphones also have to be controlled via your computer volume.

These mics we recommend for somebody who perhaps doesn't know the technical side of things as well or who may be on a budget. They're not the best mics in the world and we always recommend the highest quality equipment where possible but we're also realistic about how much things cost. To be clear, these mics will provide a good, professional sound if used correctly but there are better microphones out there if you have the money to spend.

With the Neumann, it requires a third party sound card. This is NOT 'plug and play'. Now, we know you may be thinking, "but this is more expensive and has less functionality than the AT2020", and you wouldn't be wrong. However, this is what professional studios use, and for good reason. This brand has been around forever and their mics last forever. If you want a long-term, quality mic purchase, Neumann is the brand. The TLM102 is their least expensive of their products but still produces excellent results. 

The third party sound card can be in a lot of different forms. The simplest and cheapest are below. 

CEntrance MicPort Pro (approx. $200)

Shure X2U (approx. $100)

Both of these require you to use a mic cable (XLR) to attach your mic then a USB (provided) connects to your computer. These little devices have the advantage that you can use any mic  with them (in case you upgrade) and you can also connect your headphones to them. Another handy feature is the volume controls of both the mic and the headphones. Having this gives you a little more freedom if you are in a session and you need to separately turn yourself or the client up or down in the headphones.

Headphones

You can use any headphones you like really. We recommend you use closed back over-ear headphones to prevent bleed-through into the mic. This means that the sound of your voice feeds back into the mic from the headphones and causes feedback or a weird phasey sound that isn't pleasant. Below are recommend or at least this style.

Sony MDR-7506 (approx. $130)

Computer

We're going to assume that you all have one of these. It can be Mac or PC, laptop or desktop, as long as it was bought in the last 5 years then we're certain it will be good enough to record. You do have to make sure that there's a fair amount of hard drive space on there though, audio files can be large and take up space. 

Is Source-Connect worth buying?

Firstly, if you don't know what Source-Connect is, we'll briefly explain...

Source-Connect is a high quality application (or plug-in) to record audio remotely over the internet. For example if I'm the voice over in Australia and the studio is in New York, assuming we both have Source-Connect, we can call each other. It's just like a high-quality Skype call. This is becoming a more common alternative to the pricey ISDN connection.

The standard version (which will suffice for a VO recording) is currently priced at $650 USD or a monthly subscription of $35 is now available. If this plug-in is trending the way other plug-ins are then they will inevitably get rid of the one time payment and insist you pay a monthly subscription forevermore!

Another option is rent-to-buy. This means that if you don't want to commit to the $650, you can rent the plug-in for $250 for 7 days and that money will be taken off the full price if you decide to purchase it in full later. This is a good option if you are unsure about the full purchase or need Source-Connect for a specific job.

A further option may be Source-Connect Now which is a free version that is run through your Chrome browser. However, this is only a possibility if somebody else (usually the studio that is recording) already has a full Source-Connect account. The user with the full account sends an access code to you to login online and connects with you that way. You just require headphones, a mic and a good internet connection.

NOTE: All of these options require a fast upload speed as well as download speed. We recommend plugging your internet in directly via an Ethernet cable (that's the network cable that looks a bit like a phone cable that goes into your router) for best performance.  

Do I need it?

Some of the jobs we get in won't even consider talent that don't have a home set up. They sometimes specify Source-Connect but usually studios can be flexible with how they connect. We recommend trying Source-Connect Now with another VO friend that owns it (if possible) and seeing how easy it is to use. Or even getting the 14 day free trial of the standard version. If a job specifically wants you to get it, and the money is good then we would say yes to at least renting it.

More info:

http://source-elements.com/source-connect/

What is ISDN?

ISDN stands for Integrated Services for Digital Network and is basically a way for two parties to connect to each other over phone lines but at a much better quality than a phone.

It uses technology that requires each party to have an 'ISDN Box' in order to code and decode (a codec) the signal to and from a studio (i.e. someone's microphone). These boxes can extremely expensive and have to be installed by specialists. It's also not always available in the area which can be a serious down side.

In the voice over industry they are used frequently to connect to voice over talent that may not be present at the studio recording them. For example, if the studio that is producing an advert is in New York but the client wants a voice that is based in LA, they will usually connect via ISDN. Depending on the codec this will use two telephone lines to spread the bandwidth over them both resulting in a high quality connection. This comes at a price of around $1 per minute per line. So an hour session would cost whoever dialled out around $120 in line charges alone! 

Whilst this technology has been around since the 80's, it is still used often. However, with internet speeds getting quicker it is getting forced out by products such as ipDTL and Source-Connect. These are far cheaper to initially buy and only requires a fairly decent internet connection.