Joe Cipriano’s microphone of choice is the Neumann U87ai, according to this article at the ProSoundWeb site.
A couple of things stand out to me in this article. One being that Joe brings his Neumann with him on the road. I do the same. I always want to provide my clients with the best possible sound, even if I happen to be traveling.
The other being what Joe does to get good voiceover audio in his hotel room.
I always set up on a desk, and put a towel down on it. I’ll usually pull the curtains closed and put my back to them. I’ll take pillows from the bed or the sofa and put them angled in a V behind the microphone, so I’m talking into the microphone with pillows behind it and drapery behind me. It works out well and sounds pretty good.
I’ve been doing this for the last few years, too. While I know that several folks have had great experiences traveling with a portable booth made from a small, collapsible crate stuffed with acoustic foam; I travel often enough that I want to have as little to take with me on the road as I possibly can. Using the drapes and pillows as Joe’s described here works very well most of the time. A few times, under the worst of circumstances, I’ve pulled a heavy blanket from the bed and thrown that over my head, the microphone and my laptop as a kind of make-shift booth.
By the way, my thanks to Tim McLaughlin for the link to the article on his voiceover blog.