No, this isn’t about Seinfeld. Nor about “nothing.” Rather it’s time to celebrate the birthday of Neumann Microphone Company founder George Neumann. Read more at Kevin Readdean’s VO Meter blog.
Hello Neumann
Tools
Vocal care chart
Edge Studio has published a web page chock full of good information about keeping your voice in shape.
Take a look from the "black hat" side
My friend Greg Houser is not only an extremely gifted voice actor, he understands security extremely well. He’s written a superb article published at VoiceOverXtra called Beware the Hidden Spider’s Web
How to get good voiceover sound
With my thanks to my friend Kevin Genus for posting the link to the video on the VO-BB, check out this very interesting video, both a tutorial and demonstration of various microphones and recording techniques.
The Voice Over Mistake Chart
Edge Studio has many resources for voice actors. One of the best is their on-going and ever growing Voice Over Mistake Chart.
Do you fly with your microphone?
If you do, you might want to plan ahead to avoid challenges with airport security. My friend Bill Pryce recently had an encounter an at airport that turned out fine. Having had a very similar experience to Bill’s (I too travel with a Sennheiser MHK-416 microphone), I take the following steps to avoid hassles.
1. I keep my microphone in it’s original case with the foam windscreen and mic stand clip.
2. I do not leave the microphone (or the mic stand itself) in my bag. I take them out and put them in one of the trays at the security checkpoint.
3. I open the microphone case as I send the tray through the X-ray machine.
Since I started taking these steps I haven’t had any significant troubles going through airport security. If someone asks “what that thing is” I explain that it’s a microphone. Now and then this will lead to a brief conversation about why I’m traveling with a microphone and gives me a chance to talk about being a voice actor.
A comparion of the U87 and TLM103
On the ProComm Studio Services blog you’ll find a well-written article comparing these two Neumann microphones. My thanks to my friend David Houston for tweeting the link.
Pull it all together
Voice actor Linda Ristig has an article on VoiceOverXtra that gives you a look at Ping.fm, a site that can save you a lot of time and hassle once you’ve set it up.
Stand quilts
If you use a music stand in your recording booth, you know the challenge of finding something to dampen the metalic ring from the stand while also giving you a good surface on which to put your copy. Dad Popp has alerted me to a wonderful product that his Mom has developed called a Stand Quilt.
Flash and SEO
Mahmoud Taji has a superb post on Voiceover Universe about the use of Flash to build your voiceover web site.
Studio equipment being sold
My friend Janet Ault emails this evening with a quite remarkable list of studio equipment that’s for sale. Janet lives in the Phoenix area and through a series of connections is helping Brian James’ widow Kimberly sell what you see below. This is simply copied and pasted from the email Janet forwarded to me.
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Below I have a list of items I was preparing to sell. I arrived at these used prices with help of Rick Allen, a sales rep, and Clear Channel studio tech. Let me know what you think. These are pretty fair prices, but I will entertain offers! All wiring (Brian used good ones I’m sure) will remain intact for each piece that was in use.
Items that were in use:
Manley Massive Passive Stereo EQ with Tubes $3500
Focusrite Producer Pack ISA430 $1400
Telos Zepher Xstream $4000
Aphex Aural Exciter Big Bottom Base 204 $200
Drawmer Dual Gate DS201 $400
IsoBox $700 (not shippable–too big & heavy)
Items that are new & never used:
Focusrite Liquid Channel $2300 (never used, Brian paid $2500)
ProTools HD1 96 i/o, Core System $4700 (never used, in box, Brian paid over 5K)
Equipment roll-around rack $200 (never used, pre-assembled, not shippable)
Yamaha O1V 96 Mixer $2100 (never used, in box, Brian paid $2400)
There are also some portable studio cases (luggage style) on wheels that are new, never used. Brian was starting to build a portable studio so there are quite a few odds & ends here. I have several hundred in wiring too, so if you are in need of getting connected and need some wires, there are numerous items still in packaging here that you can have for less than what you’d pay retail. There are other pieces in boxes, such as a Matrix headphone amp (4 jacks), but there’s so much in his office it’s hard to go through it all at once!
I will also throw out there that he had an entire studio he was going to build, still in boxes, in my garage, still on the pallet … he purchased the furniture from RaXXess. If you or anyone you know (preferably local since it’s all very heavy and large for shipping) who is looking to put together a studio and in need of furniture, we can take a look into this stuff as well.
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If you’re interested, contact Janet Ault. She will help you get in touch with Kimberly.
Telephony Primer, part 2
My friend Liz de Nesnera follows up her excellent introductory article on telephony at VoiceOverXtra with a very fine article about the many different audio formats used in the telephony work.
A directory of voiceover casting sites
Mahmoud Taji emails this morning with news that he’s started a directory of voiceover casting sites. I have to admit there are a large number of sites listed (136 as I type this post) that I’d never heard of.
bobsouer.com
Then you’re going to love the new site called Convert My Files, Now!
A great big round-up of recording software
With thanks to my friend Dave Courvoisier for posting a link to this article on his blog, be sure to check out the exceptional article in EQ magazine cover all of the major Digital Audio Workstations.
Words to Hours
The folks at Edge Studio have prepared a set of guidelines if you need to convert from the number of words in a project to the number of hours it will be when finished.
Be prepared
From scouting to voiceover, be prepared are words to live by as Kara Edwards demonstrates with great clarity in her blog post today about Lightning and The Zap Cap.
VOX in the UK
I’m in a fabulous hotel in England at the moment, a place called the Chesford Grange Hotel. A bit later in the day, an annual event for producers and voice actors called VOX 2009 will be taking place here and running through tomorrow morning at breakfast. I’m looking forward to meeting a great number of UK voice actors and several producers in the next several hours. Photos and other thoughts will follow as time and opportunity present.
A new place for recording gear
My friend Greg Phellps recommends ZenPro Audio. Here’s what he had to say about the place on the VO-BB.
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When I find good people who know what they are doing I like to pass along the word. Not only does he deserve the business but you deserve to be treated well too. That’s part of what makes my friend Warren such a pleasure. He has just opened up shop as Zen Pro Audio.
A few weeks ago I was asking about what you would like to see as a voice over package.
This is the guy I was telling you about. He has put together some nice packages, check them out, but that’s not what he does best.
Warren, or Warhead as his friends call him has been in the audio industry selling gear for over 5 years. He’s been a home and project studio guy since the early 90’s, interned at SoundLab Recording Studios in Lexngton SC from 1993 to 1994 and learned the basics, and buying his mentor’s previous 8 track rig and setting up an office trailer in the backyard to charge $15 an hour to track local bands. “It’s been years, but yes I’ve edited with a razor blade a few times back then…!” he recalls.
Moved to digital in the early 2000’s and became active in online forums posting as “Warhead”, always appreciating the high end stuff but decidedly “bang for the buck”: He talked mostly about things he discovered that delivered high quality sound for a great price. He began writing online reviews for MojoPie.com, and received a Safe Sound Audio P1 channel strip for review and was blown away by it. Instead of reviewing it, he worked out a deal to import Safe Sound Audio to North America and it’s been that way for over 5 years. Now he sells dozens of brands and hundreds of products, most of which he owns or has personal experience with to help the customer make decisions that are right for them.
ZenPro Audio is his new venture
Warren really knows the products well and what will work best for a given situation. He is there to help you and makes it a point to really understand what you are after. In other words, the man knows how to SERVE his clients…he is not just a place to buy gear but more of a gear guru that you will find yourself going back to over and over again. The gear purchase is almost like a bonus to the education you’ll get…
A lot of guys in the gear sells business claim they can do this…but so many are limited to what the current push on equipment is…ever went into a store for a mic and came away with a new preamp because they were the “featured” product?
Your life, as far as equipment purchases go, just got a whole lot easier. Give him a call….tell him I sent you…you’ll find you like him right from the start. He’s a one man operation and how he manages to keep up with it all and still serve you like you’ve never been served before is an amazing feat all it’s own. Don’t take my word for it though…You could look up his name on Gearslutz and find out what others say about him…like, “the guy really knows his stuff”….”great guy to work with”….”amazing how he knows all this stuff”….it goes on and on….give him a shot…you’ll find out what buying gear is supposed to be like. www.zenproaudio.com
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The site looks like someplace worth exploring and Greg knows what he’s talking about when it comes to gear. Thank you for the good information, Greg.
World Digital Library
With thanks to my friend Jane Ingalls for sending me the link, check out the World Digital Library that launches tomorrow. Multilingual format, primary material from cultures around the world, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings and other significant cultural materials is how the collection is being described. Oh, and the price? Free.
This should prove a very valuable resource for many people, including us voice actors.
