To make a
living, voice over talents used to have
to physically go to gigs recorded in
commercial production facilities. Now,
gigs can come to them-in home studios
and through the Internet. But for many
voice over talents, newbie and old pro
alike, outfitting a home studio is
technically baffling. So, how do you
make that spare bedroom or corner of
your studio apartment (no pun intended)
into a functional voice over facility,
with decent acoustics and the
appropriate equipment? Let's take a look
at the basics involved in setting up a
home voiceover studio.
Selecting your studio space
A
studio of any size or recording purpose
starts with the space in which it will
be located. Isolation from outside
sounds is important. If you live in a
studio or one-bedroom apartment, then
try to locate your "studio" in a corner
as far from the door to the hallway and
away from windows. Also, a closet can
work well as a recording booth. Set up
your recording equipment just outside
the closet and your microphone inside
the closet.
If you
live in a two-plus bedroom unit or a
single-family home and can dedicate an
entire room to your studio, then you'll
have more options available for
controlling the acoustics of the space.
You'll want to make sure the room
doesn't sound too "echoey" or "hollow."
Treating these problems can be as simple
as putting some overstuffed furniture in
the room, along with a rug and some
drapes over the windows. Have a lot of
old clothes sitting in an attic or
basement? You can use them to create a
recording "booth" around your mic. Fill
three or four rolling clothes racks with
clothes and then position them on the
sides and back of your mic position.
Of
course, you can use professional
acoustic materials to control sound
reflections. You'll find an excellent
primer on acoustical treatment-in plain
English-at Auralex. Check out these
acoustical treatment production
companies, too: HSF Acoustics; Silent
Source; Vocalbooth; Whisper Room.
Selecting your equipment
Once
you have your studio space selected,
you'll need to properly equip it in
order to deliver pro quality voiceovers
to clients. With the latest in digital
recording technology and reasonably
priced pro microphones, you could spend
as little as $1000 for a very basic, yet
serviceable, home voiceover studio.
That's assuming you have a decent
computer sound card and speakers. The
list is quite short: $200-$250 for a
microphone. $40 for a mic pop filter to
prevent "popping" your Ps, Bs, and Ts.
$45 for a mic stand. $200-$250 for a USB
or Firewire digital recording interface.
$65 for shareware recording software.
$45 for headphones. $40 for cables. $100
for sundries. Bare bones, but it will
work.
Plug
your microphone cable into the digital
recording interface, which is a little
box that amplifies and processes the
signal from the mic. Plug the interface
into your computer's sound card. Plug
your headphones into the interface. Load
the recording/editing software. A couple
of adjustments to volume in and out and
you're ready to record. Voice the copy.
Clean it up with an edit or two. Then
convert it the voiceover sound file to
an .mp3 file, attach it to an email, and
send it off to the client via the
Internet. To learn more about the
equipment listed above, search the web
or visit online pro audio dealers. A few
good ones are: Full Compass; Sweetwater;
B&H Pro Audio; Boynton Pro Audio; BSW.
This
simple studio set up is serviceable, but
it has its limits. If a client wants to
direct you via the phone, then you'll
have to either hold the phone to your
ear while you record, or get a
hands-free headset. You could also buy a
gizmo call a phone hybrid that allows
you to speak through your mic down the
phone line to your client as you listen
to the client's direction through your
headphones.
Learning more
As with
any investment, you'll need to research
the equipment you'll need for your
studio, and how to install and use it.
See if you can locate a voice talent in
your area that may let you visit his or
her studio. Visit Mix Magzine or EQ
Magazine and check their archives for
articles on home studios. Local
production houses may be willing to make
suggestions, but, remember, by setting
up your own studio, you're indicating to
clients that they can cut out the
production house by working directly
with you. That may not sit well with
some production house owners, because
the home voiceover explosion has had a
detrimental impact on many commercial
recording facilities.
That's
a basic home voiceover studio in a
nutshell. If you can operate a home
stereo and have experience in front of a
computer screen, then you can put
together and operate a home voiceover
studio. With a little practice recording
and editing, and some promotion of your
home studio, you can quickly recover the
cost of your studio and add to begin to
add to your bottom line. Happy voicing!
©Peter
Drew
Peter
Drew, a freelance voice-over talent and
copywriter/producer with decades of
experience, is heard on radio and
television stations, corporate
presentations, web sites, and
messages-on-hold across America and
countries around the world. To send an
email regarding this article, please
visit Peter Drew Voiceovers at
http://www.peterdrewvo.com/
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