Podcasts about source connect

This week, it's all about the front end — microphones for voiceover. George recently ran a live webinar comparing a wide range of mics from the Audio-Technica AT875R to the mighty Austrian Audio OC818, and we're diving deep into the results. From self-noise to low-end roll-off, polar patterns to punchy midrange, we break down what makes a great mic for VO, including:

This week, it's just AP and Robbo flying the plane—and they're kicking around an idea that's been brewing for a while:

Join George the Tech as he flips the script and interviews his co-host Darren 'Robbo' Robertson of The Pro Audio Suite podcast. Discover Darren's extensive 30+ year journey in the audio industry, from his initial foray into radio production studios to mastering digital audio workstations and producing demos. Explore memorable anecdotes from his career, his intricate work with Source Connect, and his collaborative podcasting experience with industry veterans, revealing tips, techniques, and the evolution of podcast production. @proaudiosuitepodcast theproaudiosuite.com @voodoosound4501 voodoosound.com.au 00:00 Introduction and Early Days 01:48 First Steps in Pro Audio 03:51 Radio Production Studio Experience 08:21 Transition to Digital Audio Workstations 09:59 Mentorship and Career Highlights 16:04 Working with Voice Actors 18:30 Loyalty and Generosity of Sponsors 20:10 The Mojo Radio Show Origins 22:35 Podcast Production Insights 25:29 The Importance of Audio Quality 29:18 Challenges and Changes in Podcasting 32:55 Creating Voiceover Demos 39:50 Conclusion and Future Plans Website: http://georgethehtech Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/georgethetech Instagram: @georgethetech Podcast: http://theproaudiosuite.com

In this edition Ashea and Julian are joined by Source Elements technical co-founder and CEO Rebekah Wilson and principal inventor and co-founder, Robert Marshall, where they deep dive into the beginnings, the middle and the future of Source Elements, and why it's at the forefront of seamless, stress free remote recording.About Our Guests:Robert Marshall: Principal inventor and co-founder, overseas product development concepts and sales & support teams. He is the recording /mixing engineer for SUM1 in Chicago and works daily with our remote tools around the world in that capacity. He also has an extraordinary daughter who just started film school who is showing that the next generation is full of talent and good spirits.Rebekah Wilson: Technical co-founder and CEO, overseas engineering and product teams and general business functions. Originally trained as classical & electronic composer in conservatory-style, before source elements she toured as a composer/performer and worked in an experimental music institute in Amsterdam, work that merged into her interest of using tools such as Source-Connect for networked music performance and avant garde music, primarily as teacher and researcher.

Join George the Tech at VO Atlanta 2025 as he provides an exclusive demo of the much-anticipated Source Connect 4 software. George connects with Robert Marshall from Chicago to showcase the software's impressive features, including noise filtering, dropout restoration, and seamless session backups. Discover how Source Connect 4 enhances workflow efficiency for both voice talents and studio engineers, with improvements in transport sync, multiple connections, and uncompressed audio replacements. Stay tuned for an exciting sneak peek at the upcoming video camera integration, set to debut at NAB. Upgrade seamlessly if you're already a subscriber, or learn more at source-elements.com. @Source-elements 00:00 Introduction to Source Connect 4 at VO Atlanta 2025 01:10 Live Demo with Robert Marshall 02:10 Testing Source Connect 4's Reliability 04:44 New Features for Voice Talent 06:47 Enhancements for Producers and Engineers 08:47 Upcoming Features and Final Thoughts - We are pleased to announce our upcoming webinar, Source Connect 4 for Voice Actors with Robert Marshall, on April 14th at 3:00 PM PT! Are you feeling uncertain about the necessity of upgrading to Source Connect 4? Are you unclear about its new features and functionality, or what will happen to your existing Source-Connect 3 license? This webinar is designed to address all your questions and concerns, providing voice actors with the essential information they need to navigate this new version. JOIN US ➡️ https://link.georgethe.tech/y-sc4rm - Website: http://georgethehtech Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/georgethetech Instagram: @georgethetech Podcast: http://theproaudiosuite.com

Anne Ganguzza (00:05.233) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and today I am so excited to be with very special guest, Luanne Regis. Luanne is a veteran voiceover agent and talent agency executive with over 30 years of experience. Her career spans everything voiceover, all voiceover, including... heading up scale departments at two LA boutique agencies, running the celebrity division at a top bi-coastal theatrical and commercial agency, as well as launching her own Chicago voiceover department in 2007. After a year at Sound and Fury Casting, she now owns and operates her own talent representation agency, Regal V.O. Luanne, thank you so much for joining me today. Luanne Regis (00:57.621) and thank you for having me, Anne. Anne Ganguzza (00:59.929) I love this. So I had such a wonderful time meeting you like fleetingly at MAVO and was so excited to get the chance to talk to you and work with you as well. You're gonna be coming up soon as a guest director for me on my VO Peeps group. So I'm very excited about that. And so for bosses that don't know who you are, give us a brief, kind of a brief. Luanne Regis (01:06.115) Yes. Luanne Regis (01:16.777) I can't wait. Anne Ganguzza (01:26.981) bio of you more than what I've given in regards to your evolution through the years as a talent agent and representative. Luanne Regis (01:37.067) Sure, of course. So I'll try to be brief because it is quite a long speech. And you know, voiceover, just, people ask you, how do you get into voiceover? And I'm like, I sort of really just fell into it, which I did. You know, back in the mid nineties, I answered an ad, they were looking for a voiceover assistant, an agent, and one of the partners at a boutique agency was looking for an assistant. And I thought, this is great. Let me just try this. And I quickly liked it. I liked the fact that Anne Ganguzza (01:41.124) Ha ha ha ha! Luanne Regis (02:04.703) The voice can really be anything. It has nothing to do with your aesthetic, what you look like, how tall you are, what color your hair is. I loved that. That to me was a very creative aspect for VoiceOver. And I started there and quickly became an agent, a scale agent, and was there for about five years. I have seen the business really, really grow and change to... And right around the early 2001s when all of the theatrical agencies were getting into voiceover because they poo-pooed and they snubbed their noses at voiceover for so very long, a major theatrical agency wanted to have a voiceover department. And so they plucked our entire department from the boutique agency, which was Special Artists, which is where I worked since the mid-90s. And we took our entire business, SpongeBob and all, and set up shop at Innovative Artists, which was the Anne Ganguzza (02:56.229) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (02:58.751) Bicoastal theatrical agency that I was at for 16 years, including what you mentioned in my bio, starting a Chicago voiceover department for them in 2007, just after the birth of my daughter. So I was there for 16 years and you wake up one day and you have 800 clients because you represent not only, we came with not only our voiceover department intact with all of our amazing clients, but we also were there to represent. Anne Ganguzza (03:00.314) Yes. Luanne Regis (03:26.591) their clients and they have a really healthy roster, a very well known TV and film actors. And that's where I began doing celebrity and overscale voiceover and really enjoyed it. But you know, like I said, you wake up one day and you have 800 clients and that's a lot to manage, especially in the way in which I agent. I was taught voiceover agenting by one of the best, she's a mentor, Marsha Hurwitz. you know, it's... Anne Ganguzza (03:29.735) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (03:43.441) Yeah. Luanne Regis (03:52.321) All hands on, it's more like a manager. It's not just submit an audition and whatever happens happens. It's you pitch, you sell, you call producers. We don't do that anymore because the business has changed. But you're on the phone, you're calling producers, you're selling people, you're saying, I think you should really listen to Nancy Smith. She's really good on this read. That's the way I voice over agent and it's really impossible to do that with 800 people. Anne Ganguzza (03:55.589) Yeah. Luanne Regis (04:20.641) 800 clients on your roster. So I went back to my small boutique agency, Roots TGMD Talent, which is formerly Tishman Agency. the owner, Kevin Motley, who's a dear friend of mine, had recently sort of reshaped his agency, gutted all of the promo and trailer announcer type guys, which was an avenue in which advertisers weren't going down anymore. And we built a really great roster of actors, well-known actors. Anne Ganguzza (04:28.993) Yep. Luanne Regis (04:50.761) working actors, which is all I know. I know about actors in voiceover as opposed to voice actors. And was there for four years doing that until the pandemic. And then after the pandemic, I thought, you know what, I want to try my hand on the buyer's side. I always wanted to try my hand at being on the other side of the business, not just rapping. And so I worked at Sound and Fury, which is one of the, if not the top voice casting companies in the entire country, if not the world. Anne Ganguzza (05:14.928) Mm. Luanne Regis (05:18.941) And you know, really enjoyed my time with that team. They're like a family to me. And I missed representing talent and agenting. And so after a year, I decided to go back to it, but do it on my own. And believe it or not, I kept a lot of clients with me even as I left the agenting side and went over to the casting side because I have a a really lovely roster of very loyal talent. Some of them I've had since I started in the mid 90s and you know they were very sad to see me leave the agenting side. So they sort of held on to me even while I was on the casting side and once I decided to jump back they were like well we're still here for the ride let's go and that's how I sort of built my roster, my independent roster I should say and again it just they just come at me. I have agents and managers and Anne Ganguzza (05:56.687) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (06:13.909) theatrical agents and commercial agents just wanting to work with me and they throw all their clients my way and I don't refuse them because I love to Anne Ganguzza (06:21.827) love that, I love that. You know, it's interesting because, you know, as we're talking, you're kind of going back and forth between casting and agent and manager. And, you know, for the benefit of our boss listeners, what is your definition of the difference between the responsibilities of each? Because I think it's important for us as voice actors to know when we're trying to develop relationships, you know, to understand. what is encompassed in your job because that makes us able to communicate with you easier and help you, because I really believe it's a partnership no matter what you're really looking for. And so I think it will help us as voice actors to work with agents or casting directors better. Luanne Regis (06:57.664) It is. Luanne Regis (07:06.443) Well, the reason why, and that's a great question, and the reason why the transition from agent to casting director back to agent was such a seamless one is because a lot of what my job entails as a voiceover agent is casting. We work with casting directors, but agents also work directly with buyers and producers, and they come to us looking for talent. And we sit there and cast. Anne Ganguzza (07:22.287) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (07:28.657) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (07:33.555) in pretty much the same way a casting director who gets paid to do it does it. I sit there, I go through my roster, who's right for this? And I do essentially do a casting. And so a lot of my agenting is casting, but that's just sort of like the day-to-day job of a voiceover agent. Again, back in the day when we had booths and actors would come into our lobby and read and have, you'd be distributing copy, you know, back in the day, pre-pandemic and all that. Anne Ganguzza (07:41.307) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (07:48.07) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (07:58.631) Look at Luanne Regis (08:03.611) A big part of my job also was directing talent, not just sitting at a desk and agenting. I would go into the booth. I need to know what my talent does. I need to be able to sell that person. So in order to do that, I'm in the booth, I'm directing, and I really, really love that directing process because it's, again, it hinges on such creativity. It's so creative. They get to play around. I get also to play around with them in terms of what they can do, what their range is. Anne Ganguzza (08:07.974) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (08:15.109) Right. Anne Ganguzza (08:21.264) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (08:32.991) And that's how I know what my clients can bring to the table so I can effectively sell them. So it's casting, it's directing, it's obviously selling. It's very managerial as well because I'm, like I said, very, very hands on. you know, like for instance, many times I go into the booth with a client and we'd spend an hour in there if we have the time. And the last five minutes of that hour really is recording the copy and auditioning. Anne Ganguzza (08:46.767) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (09:02.342) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (09:02.561) but the previous, how many ever minutes, spent catching up. How's your wife? How are the kids? How is life? How's your mom doing? Stuff like that. That's how you get to really know clients because what they share with you in the booth, you bring that to you as you're casting. You bring that to you as you're selling them. You have to really know them inside out. That's more of a very managerial, I think, position as an agent. Anne Ganguzza (09:08.646) Right. Anne Ganguzza (09:16.238) Right. Luanne Regis (09:30.641) not all agents agent that way. I just learned to do it that way. So it's manage it's managing talent. It's selling talent, agenting obviously, but it's also casting and directing talent in the booth. And then of course your negotiations skills come into play. Your knowledge of contracts, your knowledge of legal, legal procedures, as far as contracts go. That's all encompassing as a voiceover agent. Anne Ganguzza (09:33.484) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (09:48.355) Sure. Anne Ganguzza (09:54.34) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (09:58.767) It's such a broad base of that you need to have. And you said something before that I thought was so interesting. You said you had been working with, and it really, I think it goes to show the evolution of the business. You talked about actors who did voice acting rather than voice actors. And so I caught that little tiny nuance right there, which really speaks to your amount of time and experience in the industry. Luanne Regis (10:00.82) It is. Luanne Regis (10:16.416) Yes. Yes. Luanne Regis (10:23.829) Yes, yes. Anne Ganguzza (10:25.509) Because how often, like what would you say, I guess now in your, because you've been in business for so long, you must still, I suspect, deal with actors who do voice acting, as well as voice actors. And what are your thoughts on how you work with, let's say, actors now who do voice acting, or voice actors differently? Do you spend as much time, or how does that work today? Luanne Regis (10:33.877) We will. Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (10:53.737) The reason why for me, it's actors in voiceover, not only was I brought up in the business knowing that, because when I started at Special Artists, they were mainly a commercial, on-camera commercial agency, and this predated me, obviously, but when they started their voiceover department, they used their on-camera actors as the basis for their voiceover department. Anne Ganguzza (10:56.25) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (11:10.118) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (11:21.253) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (11:21.853) I come from a track record where the agents who taught me used actors and put them in voiceover and made them successful. The voice of SpongeBob, Tom Kenny, was a comedian, an actor. We put him, he made that transition because of how talented he is. So I do feel voiceover is not just a voice, you're acting. Anne Ganguzza (11:29.339) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (11:35.44) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (11:49.35) Sure. Yeah. Luanne Regis (11:50.529) You're bringing copy to life. You're selling copy, but you have to bring it to life. You have to connect with the product. You have to connect with what the words are saying. So at the end of the day, it really is about acting, which is why I favor having someone who has an acting resume, someone who's done work, because they have a certain measure of experience that they can bring to the voiceover table. Anne Ganguzza (11:59.761) Sure. Anne Ganguzza (12:08.358) Sure. Anne Ganguzza (12:15.463) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I love the emphasis on acting because even for something like I specialize in a lot of the corporate e-learning, the non-broadcast style stuff, but in order to really bring that material to life, and sometimes it needs a lot of help, just saying, because it can be a little bit dry and boring, you have to, I mean, every company, and I think whether you're dealing with commercial, Luanne Regis (12:27.894) Yes. Anne Ganguzza (12:41.959) Right? Any type of copy. mean, if you're dealing with a company or a client, they're ultimately, I mean, unless you're doing entertainment, right? Ultimately, they're trying to sell something. And so there's always a story. I good companies, I would say that, you know, it's marketing 101 that, you know, stories really sell better than, you know, Luanne Regis (12:49.375) Right. Absolutely. Anne Ganguzza (13:03.322) cold heart announcing facts sort of thing. And so if you can be the actor that can tell the story or understand the story that the company wants to sell or tell, that's gonna help them to sell. So I love the emphasis on acting. Luanne Regis (13:04.437) Yeah, yeah. Luanne Regis (13:14.749) Absolutely, and it really, you're absolutely right. When you say, a story, that is really what it is. I was telling actors yesterday, you have to, when you get a script, you create a narrative behind that script that those lines will support. Whether it's right or wrong, it's truthful and it's authentic. But you do have to connect with the product. You do have to connect with the lines. You do have to connect with the script. And the only way you do that is if you make it part of a story that you're telling. Anne Ganguzza (13:36.142) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (13:45.703) Yes, absolutely. And I think that's what so, at least with students when I'm working with them in the corporate narration or the e-lin, like what story? I'm delivering information. I'm like, but there is a story and you have to keep the listener's attention for longer than 30 or 60 seconds. This is not a 60 second commercial. And so even if I... Luanne Regis (13:58.849) We resist. Luanne Regis (14:04.372) You too. That's right. Anne Ganguzza (14:08.642) I think if the story doesn't make sense, right, if they're reading the words and they're like, well, I would never really say that, or you know, you have to create the scene in which those words make sense. And I guess my question to you is, what would you say is the main difference between on-camera acting and voice acting? Luanne Regis (14:17.173) That's right. Yes. Luanne Regis (14:26.939) on camera acting, you have so much more at your disposal. You have what you look like, you have the physicality of being on camera. And this is why I love voiceover, because with voiceover acting, you have to basically emit all of that just vocally. Whether you're in the booth and you're, you where you see the animation characters, they're in the booth and they're using their hands and all that, that's all well and fine, but that does not translate on camera in the way it Anne Ganguzza (14:31.59) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (14:44.708) Yeah, yeah, through your voice. Luanne Regis (14:56.417) would if you were an on-camera actor. really does have, so again, we go back to is telling that story. If you have a story to tell, it's gonna come out in the words, it's gonna come out in the smile, it's going to come out in the warmth that you bring out, or not the warmth, or the cold, or whatever it is, the stories that you're telling. But it all comes from the heart, it all comes from here. Anne Ganguzza (14:57.062) Right. Luanne Regis (15:22.313) as opposed to you being able to use your hands to gesture in a way that conveys whatever you're trying to convey in an acting, you know, when you're acting. Anne Ganguzza (15:26.49) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (15:32.231) So what would you say when you're working with talent? time is precious these days, so I imagine that you probably don't have as much time to work with talent, let's say on a job or an audition, as you would. What are the types of things that you find you're telling your talent to do most in terms of, know, either following direction better or their performance-wise? What are the kind of tips or tricks that you're speaking to most? Luanne Regis (15:40.437) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Luanne Regis (15:59.487) Yeah. Well, it does vary from project and script to script, obviously, but a lot of it is what I just said, you know, creating that story, creating that narrative. A lot of times, and this specifically relates to commercial copy, a lot of times you get a script and you have no idea what the storyboards are. You have no idea what the visuals are. You just have maybe two or three lines and you sort of have to put it together. At that point, you have to make a very specific creative choice. This is the story I'm going to tell. Anne Ganguzza (16:02.171) these days. Mm. Anne Ganguzza (16:18.566) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (16:25.562) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (16:27.957) So that's one tip and we just spoke about that. There's a lot of non-announcery, non-polish, non-slick directives nowadays and I always have to tell my clients, so here's what I want you to do. I don't want you to think about yourself on mic. I don't want you to think about yourself up there as a speaker or as an announcer saying something. I want you to sit and talk to a friend at a bar and you say what you need to say and you come from that place. so that we can get you conversational, we can get you casual, and we don't have you coming out of the box like you're making a grand announcement. A tip, a trick I use sometimes is I will have them slate their name after they've done their session, after they've done their audition, because once you slate your name, Luanne Regis, you sort of go into this, okay, I'm here, I'm announcing mode, I just want you to tell me what you have to say on your copy, you can save the slate for later. So that's just one of the tips that I use. Anne Ganguzza (17:05.296) Sure, sure. Anne Ganguzza (17:17.808) Right. Anne Ganguzza (17:25.06) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (17:25.375) you know, the conversational thing, just sort of like bring it back home. If it's something that I feel they need to be a little bit more intimate with, I give them situations like, I want you to read this bedtime story to your six year old, or I want you to sit with your child and have a one-on-one conversation with him or her. you know, I just give them a place from which to emote so that we can bring that emotion into the copy. Anne Ganguzza (17:48.752) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (17:52.803) Speaking of emotion, find, for me, just on longer copy, because if you have a particular energy or emotion and you continue for over a minute or two or three, with that same energy, it doesn't necessarily allow the story to flow. And I feel that people might get into the rhythm of this particular emotion or this particular... Luanne Regis (18:03.958) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (18:14.887) Energy and I feel with with any good story right energy in your story changes and evolves and it can evolve throughout like the course of one sentence even and the energy you start with in the beginning or the story that you tell in the beginning isn't necessarily the same story that's happening or evolving when you're halfway through or three-quarters of the way through and for a lot of for a lot of my students I find that you know if they're if they forget Luanne Regis (18:25.502) Absolutely. Luanne Regis (18:37.152) Right. Anne Ganguzza (18:44.119) about the story halfway through, then it starts to turn into this kind of just into this, let's news, news broadcast read or, you know, something like that. And so in the middle of the script, do you ever have to kind of redirect or give another scene to help this through? Or are you finding that for the most part, you're working with with top caliber actors that already are doing that or have done that? Luanne Regis (18:51.041) Yeah. Luanne Regis (19:09.279) Yeah, know what, an actor is gonna find his or her way, again, depending on the story that they want to tell. The seasoned actors, the really good actors understand how to flow in and out, how to make a change, or how to sort of navigate around certain things. And I'm glad you asked that question, because one point I really wanna bring to mind is sometimes when you're directing talent, I can't tell you. Anne Ganguzza (19:13.723) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (19:18.042) Yeah. Luanne Regis (19:37.663) Yes, I can give you a line reading. Yes, I can tell you how to do it. But I want you to color it the way you would color it because that brings a certain uniqueness that no one else will do. You might put a pause in the middle of the copy for effect, or you could take a beat, or you could do a slight, And someone else will not necessarily do that. that... Anne Ganguzza (19:39.748) Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (19:44.613) Right. Anne Ganguzza (19:50.395) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (20:02.822) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (20:02.827) Completely changes the way that copy gets conveyed to to the audience. So a lot of times it's it's what you do specifically and not me directing you into that read because I want it I sort of wanted to come from you I want you to bring that that authenticity to it because at the end of the day authenticity is what will May not book you the job, but it will have the producer go. Wait a second. What can we hear what? And that's what you want to do Anne Ganguzza (20:27.787) Mm, it might get you on the short list. Luanne Regis (20:31.357) Exactly. That's what I'm glad you said that I was seeing this exact same thing yesterday. It's like, yes, you want to book the job, but don't focus on booking the job. Focus on wowing whoever's listening, focus on making an impact. So maybe you weren't right for that job, but perhaps you bring you back in for something else. Anne Ganguzza (20:42.17) Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (20:48.133) Yeah, yeah. And also I think then you're really, especially if it's an audition that you're submitting to your agent or casting director that is very familiar with working with actors in regards to, well, okay, it can showcase right away that you're an actor. And if you're an actor, you'll be able to follow direction no matter what the direction ends up being. Cause I have a lot of times people will say to me, but that's not what I hear in the actual commercial. Luanne Regis (21:00.321) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (21:06.037) Yes. Anne Ganguzza (21:16.229) you know, it sounds completely different. And, you know, I'm always like, well, you know, it really depends on who's directing you at the time and what the client is listening to and what they hear in their head as being the way they want the copyright. So you have to be versatile enough to be able to take any direction. I've turned in for me as a coach, I've turned to almost saying, well, here, I'm coaching you on how to get the gig, not necessarily on the final product, because Luanne Regis (21:17.878) Thanks Luanne Regis (21:22.251) That's right. Luanne Regis (21:28.415) Yes, yes. Luanne Regis (21:45.429) Right. Anne Ganguzza (21:46.129) Coaching you to get the gig is gonna make you the most authentic actor that you can showcase in the first or second sentence. So for me, Luanne, coming in in the first or second sentence is so important with a connection to the copy. Talk to the importance of maybe that, the first few words that come out of the actor's mouth or in the copy, how important is that? Luanne Regis (21:50.145) That's right. Luanne Regis (21:58.719) Yes. Yes. Luanne Regis (22:10.145) very, very important because again, when I worked at Sound and Fury and we got 800 casting, 800 auditions from one casting, they're listening and they know right away if this person's gonna nail it or not. So you wanna come in just hitting the mark immediately. even, obviously I don't have 800 clients, but you see that process with a casting director. They don't have the time to listen to the entire script if they feel you didn't hit it within the first. Anne Ganguzza (22:24.079) Mm. Anne Ganguzza (22:28.027) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (22:39.929) Or maybe not even hit it if you didn't do something in the beginning that made them go. let me keep listening because time is money and they do have to get through all of these these auditions and the same to a certain extent with me I mean I listen to every single audition all the way through but I know by the second or third line if someone has nailed that piece of copy or not just because obviously I have the the experience in the years of the instinct but again, it's that You can't put your finger on it. It's that je ne sais quoi. It's like, yeah, let me keep this. wow, she did that? Okay. It really is important to nail whatever you want to nail at the beginning of the copy as opposed to saving your best for last. Anne Ganguzza (23:24.047) Yeah. Now, I love that you said you listen to the auditions all the way through. Now, why? Why do you do that? Luanne Regis (23:32.085) For several reasons. One, and you said something that I wanted to sort of bring back to the forefront, so I'm glad you asked that question. A lot of times, again, I'm a casting, I'm sort of a casting director when I age, because I'm putting people on stuff and I'm wondering, is she right for it, is he right for it? I have to listen throughout the whole thing. One, because it's my client and they've done the audition and I need to hear what they did, they may not be right for it. Anne Ganguzza (23:33.732) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (23:48.848) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (23:54.715) Mm. Luanne Regis (23:58.805) That way I know, you know what, I'm not gonna put him or her on this anymore because I don't think they're right for it. Or I hear something that they do and I think, you know what, I've got something else that, I've got a different role that I think she's right for. I don't think I put her on the right role. I think I need to get her on this other one. So it gives me a clue. It clues me into what my clients can do, what they can't do, even as well as I know them, even as much as I know their range. Anne Ganguzza (24:04.314) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (24:23.494) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (24:25.481) I still am learning a lot about them as we go along. So it behooves me to listen to everything that they do. Anne Ganguzza (24:33.53) so interesting. I love that you listen all the way through because it shows that you really care and that you really care about your clients and you care about making the best fit and really choosing the best person for the job. That just requires a lot of, think, integrity and I love that. I think that's amazing. Plus, I think it's so interesting because maybe even... Luanne Regis (24:36.417) Mm-hmm. It does, yeah. Yeah. Luanne Regis (24:47.359) Yeah. Luanne Regis (24:52.883) Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (24:57.946) You know, people that you've known for a long time, I mean, we continue to grow and evolve and learn and discover. I find with myself, like, I discover new things about myself and it impacts, right, my acting in the booth. And, you know, in lots of different ways where all of a sudden I'll be like, well, gosh, I've been doing it like this for years and goodness, I should have maybe thought this way. And it just will bring something different out in me, which is kind of cool. And so that's just kind of being the lifelong learner sort of. Luanne Regis (25:02.678) Yes. Luanne Regis (25:12.607) Yes. Luanne Regis (25:27.05) Yeah! Anne Ganguzza (25:27.483) you know, always trying to grow my skills and craft. And you think like, well, have I reached this point? Well, now I've done it and I'm an actor. But I feel like you never quite reach the point where you're never not learning. Luanne Regis (25:31.583) All right. Luanne Regis (25:42.129) No, you always are learning and you're always trying new things and I'm always learning things about clients. I'm like, I didn't know you did that. That's good for me. I can sell you in a different way now. it's a learning process on both ends. Anne Ganguzza (25:49.508) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (25:53.05) Yeah. Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (25:59.142) So the sell, okay? I wanna talk a little bit about the sell. When you're trying to sell a talent, what is it when you're communicating with a client for a particular spot? So what's involved in the sell of it on your end? I'm just curious because I've never, I mean, I've cast people, but I've never really been had to like, hear my choices and then the client will ultimately make the... the end result, but when you're really trying to sell a talent, like what goes, what sort of qualities are you selling in the talent? Luanne Regis (26:36.605) So you're talking about me selling to a buyer a casting director or okay? So then it would it depends on if it's the buyer's a casting director or if the buyer is the actual buyer the producer the the ad agency or something You know if it's a casting director. It's because I want that person to understand He can do this what you're asking what you're asking for me to cast for you This guy can do this so I need you to Anne Ganguzza (26:39.876) Yeah, to a buyer, yes, yeah. Anne Ganguzza (26:45.766) Mm-hmm. buyer, right, Yeah. Luanne Regis (27:05.161) I send links, send if it's stand-up comedians they're looking for, I send a link to their stand-up. One of many different ways I keep all of my auditions, so I will curate a specific sample of voices so that they can hear. For instance, if they're looking for something specific, I go back and I pull auditions that they've done for that specific character and I said, listen, here's what he's done for me in the past. That's one tool I use to sell. Anne Ganguzza (27:20.75) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (27:32.622) Mm. Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (27:32.833) And that's to a cast director if I want to convince her that this client can audition for her on a project if it's a buyer the actual buyer the producer the ad agency or Yeah, well, it would be the producer of an ad agency because if it's animation is it's casting directors You know again, it's showcasing what they've done before showcasing the stuff that they've done showing them listen to this Anne Ganguzza (27:40.218) Got it, got it. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (27:48.357) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anne Ganguzza (27:55.206) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (27:59.647) I know you're looking for a guy that can do this. Listen to him right here. He's done this before. He's auditioned for this before. He's actually booked this before. Here's a spot that he's done. And you might want to listen to this. So that is, that's what I'm pushing when I'm speaking to producers. Sadly, don't get, don't have, agents don't have that direct link to producers anymore. It's really become so remote now and remote, in the sense of remote recording, but. Anne Ganguzza (28:12.003) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (28:16.624) Got it. Luanne Regis (28:27.433) remote in the sense of we're far removed from these producers. I used to be able to pick up the phone and call a producer at Leo Burnett and say, listen to Nancy, she's really great for this. You want to hire her. And they would hire her. But they themselves, the producers, they're removed as well from their clients. Now it's the client, Walmart, that has to make the decision. The producer used to be able to make the decision before. Anne Ganguzza (28:30.181) Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (28:47.59) Sure. that's a, I'm so glad you made that distinction because I think for a lot of voice actors, they don't really know what happens once they submit that audition. then what is, like what's, how does my audition traverse, you know, to either get to the ears of the person who's hiring and who is the person that's hiring, right? You know, because I think if you're my talent agent, right, and I'm auditioning for you. Luanne Regis (29:03.478) Yes. That's right. Luanne Regis (29:11.638) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (29:17.219) What I love and what I've heard from you is that you must have a little file of me where you're keeping all my good auditions and you're keeping all the spots that I've done and I like that, right? You didn't just trash my audition if I didn't work for that particular spot, but you're like, okay, so you've got like bits and pieces of me there. And then, so if you're working with another, let's say, casting director, right? You can then send those files and sell me in that way. But then if you're actually talking to the client directly, Luanne Regis (29:22.527) Yes. Yes. Luanne Regis (29:28.619) Nope, keep everything. Luanne Regis (29:43.236) Right. Anne Ganguzza (29:47.342) Which is something I'm like, well, I've not been in this process. I speak with my clients directly, but probably not on the scale that you do because you're working on a broadcast scale. So I have a client that I've worked with for years and they'll ask me, who do you think would be good to do this for me? And I can refer, which is. Luanne Regis (29:55.937) you Luanne Regis (30:00.394) Right. Luanne Regis (30:05.569) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (30:09.817) on a small scale compared to what you do. Because you're talking to big time producers and agencies that have multiple projects going on. And so for me as an actor, I never quite know what happens once I submit that audition. So it's really nice that you just kind of explain that process. And the fact that you said you don't always get to talk to the producer like you used to be able to, which is what I sometimes I assume and I don't really know. Luanne Regis (30:11.457) Yes. Anne Ganguzza (30:36.548) you know, depending on the agency, depending on who it is and what your relationships are, which I think it comes all down to relationships. But you're right, now even the producer is removed because it really comes down to like, let's say the client Walmart or whoever that might be. So that's a very good thing to know from my perspective. Luanne Regis (30:42.518) Yes. Luanne Regis (30:53.621) And I'll tell you the reason, I'll tell you the reason for that, Anne, and I want to make sure people understand this because it was a very drastic change. think the reason that I was able to, first of all, be able to pick up the phone and call a producer and they would actually book, or the producer would call me and say, who do you have for this? We need to cast this job right away. Who do you have? book David Pasquese. He'd be great. And they would hire him. So how many ever years, 10, 15 years ago when, you know, the big Anne Ganguzza (31:09.666) Mm. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (31:15.611) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (31:23.113) ad agencies, the DDB Needhams, the Chiat Days, you the big ad agencies, they had the bulk of the work, they had the majority of the work. And as time went by, these smaller agencies started picking up work. So the ad agency now sort of lost the power to be able to make that decision because they themselves are trying to hold on to their accounts. So they no longer can say, I can hire you for this Walmart voiceover. Anne Ganguzza (31:25.37) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (31:29.821) mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (31:41.527) Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yes. Makes sense. Luanne Regis (31:49.953) they now have to check with the head of marketing or whomever at Walmart. That never used to be the case. They used to be able to pull that trigger and go, great, let's hire him. That's no longer the case. And I do firmly believe it's because of that change over in, in work, a lot of ad agencies lost clients, a lot of ad agencies are afraid of losing their clients. So they're really at the disposal at the mercy of their clients to make every single decision. Anne Ganguzza (31:52.944) Sure. Anne Ganguzza (32:20.359) That's very interesting and that really speaks to this, think also the size of the industry over the years that has really increased greatly. Luanne Regis (32:21.248) Yeah. Luanne Regis (32:25.183) Yes, yes. It has, yeah. No, it has. You've had a lot of these smaller or maybe ad execs from ad agencies sort of offshoots and go off and start their own small companies, and they're now getting the big jobs. They're now getting the big work as opposed to those big multimedia conglomerate ad agencies that they're not really getting those accounts anymore. Anne Ganguzza (32:41.616) Sure. Anne Ganguzza (32:46.544) Right? Anne Ganguzza (32:51.686) Well, and now also I think technology, mean, gosh, technology has certainly evolved over the years. And now a lot of times, like you said, you'd meet in the, and I from back in the day when I would go to a studio for a callback, and gosh, that's almost not the case too much anymore. But I miss the days when you would see all your voiceover friends in the lobby. And even though you'd kind of be a little bit nervous, you'd all be like catching up and seeing people you hadn't seen in a while. Luanne Regis (32:55.179) Yeah. Luanne Regis (32:59.188) It has. Luanne Regis (33:09.491) I know. Luanne Regis (33:14.185) Yeah. Luanne Regis (33:19.137) Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (33:21.375) And I kind of miss that. with the digital evolution and people having their home studios and the internet and I think a lot of those agencies too, mean, went online, am I not correct? Yeah, yeah. Luanne Regis (33:23.497) Yeah. Luanne Regis (33:34.943) They sure did. They sure did. Yeah, they really did. And to speak a little bit, I'm just going to hear my pet peeve about that. Again, I remember a day when ad agency would hire a studio here, hire a studio in Chicago, hire a studio where they are, and they would connect. Now that cost, because we've had a situation like the pandemic where everyone sort of had to get set up to record from home, a lot of ad agencies haven't gone back to that, gone back to hiring studios. Anne Ganguzza (33:49.52) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (33:59.366) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Luanne Regis (34:04.277) they figured out a way, wait a second, we don't have to hire a studio. We don't have to incur that cost. We can keep that budget under control and pass that cost on to the actor. That's one of my biggest pet peeves of the consequence of the pandemic where actors have now had to become engineers, incur their own costs for studios. I'm like, wait a second, you would hire a studio in New York and Los Angeles back in the day. We're like, how is that? Anne Ganguzza (34:29.489) Yeah. Luanne Regis (34:34.37) What do I know what you're doing. Anne Ganguzza (34:36.282) Yeah, and they're not necessarily, you know, claiming, I am correct in the assumption, they're not necessarily saying, well, hey, I've got a home studio. I should be charging for that studio. I should be tired. Theoretically, right, they are, but I don't know anybody that really, like, has a line item that says, hey, this is my studio cost, right? Luanne Regis (34:45.825) No! Luanne Regis (34:53.957) No, no, the actors sadly have had to fall in line, you know, and now we've gone, it's just everyone is now remote studio required, home studio required. I'm like, wait a second, you would hire a studio back in the day. I just think it's unfair because now the actor should be concentrating on his audition and he should be concentrating on the creative aspect. He should not be asked to upload stuff. He should not be asked to be an engineer in his own session. You know, it's just the way of the world now. Anne Ganguzza (34:58.35) Yeah, it got absorbed. Anne Ganguzza (35:03.504) Yeah. Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (35:23.567) It is such a luxury to be directed even in my home studio now. It's just, and it's lovely for, I will say at least they're Source Connect so that an engineer can take what I'm doing back here in my home studio and engineer it and I don't have to upload and he can just take it. That is a luxury. And also the fact of actually having a director is a luxury these days. And I love it. And I kind of wish we went back to it. Luanne Regis (35:27.403) Yeah. Luanne Regis (35:39.711) and do his own thing. Yes. Luanne Regis (35:47.198) Yeah. Luanne Regis (35:52.757) I know. Anne Ganguzza (35:53.33) And you never know, mean, maybe that will happen, maybe that will not, but I think in the end, right, is it not all driven by the customer, right, the client, like it's Walmart, like what do they want? And so ultimately, what type of voice are they gonna look for? How are they gonna hire? And I think that's something as a voice actor, we need to consider the business aspect of it, because how are we going to kind of shine in front of all of... it seems like obstacles, maybe not obstacles, but there's so many paths to getting hired these days, you know, and yeah. Luanne Regis (36:28.031) Yes, there are. And let me go back to a question you asked earlier about what happens when that audition goes off. And it's really important for actors to understand, because you don't book a job, that doesn't mean you weren't on a short list. That doesn't mean that you weren't listened to and someone was vying for you and that just, the client or whomever came in and said, no, let's go with a woman instead of a man. doesn't, you have... Anne Ganguzza (36:53.264) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (36:54.205) I have no idea what happens once it leaves my, you know, my coffers because no one says anything. And then you get on a short list and you have one of five on a short list and that's great, you're excited. And then it just goes away. But for me, that's a win. Like someone listened to you and someone put you on a short list and someone considered you for this job. And even beyond the short list, you don't know who listened and went, wow, I really like him. You know what I mean? It's like, there's so many. Anne Ganguzza (36:57.574) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (37:08.42) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (37:20.496) Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that you brought that up. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Luanne Regis (37:23.837) intangibles and actors need to understand that just because you didn't book a job doesn't mean you weren't right for it. They could have changed their minds, changed the specs, changed the age, changed the gender. All of those things sort of are out of your control. Anne Ganguzza (37:36.432) Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (37:39.791) Yeah, there's so many aspects that are out of your control. And I think that's one of the most important things that a voice actor can also do is try to understand that and not let the mental, like, my gosh, I don't know what happened, or I'm not good enough, or that self-sabotage, get to them. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges that a lot of voice actors face is imposter syndrome that, because they didn't hear anything, they assume, right? Luanne Regis (37:53.119) I know. Yeah. Yeah. Luanne Regis (38:00.788) It is. Luanne Regis (38:06.399) Yeah, that's right. And by the way, that's another aspect of my job as an agent, to sort of manage their expectations and manage their disappointments. I had an actress tell me last night, she said, you know, I'm really just very dejected and sort of tired and fatigued with these auditions. I haven't had a callback, I haven't had this, I haven't had that. And for me, you know, I need to... Anne Ganguzza (38:15.171) Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza (38:19.792) Mm-hmm. Luanne Regis (38:32.841) I do need to boost her up, at the same time, I do need to understand her frustration and it's real. So, you know, my job there is to sort of maybe go, okay, let me reevaluate, reevaluate, excuse me, what I'm sending her. Maybe I'm not sending her the things that she's really gonna nail because at the end of the day, as an agent, you don't want to keep sending an actor hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of auditions and they're not booking because that debilitates them. Anne Ganguzza (38:38.63) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Luanne Regis (39:02.207) So part of my job is almost like a therapist of sorts. It's sort of like manage how they feel. Okay, let's do this then. Let's sort of reevaluate what we send you. Let me pull back a little bit so that you don't feel burnt out. How can I help you? Because obviously I believe in her. I don't want her to just go silent and not do auditions, but I have to kind of hold her hand along the way. Anne Ganguzza (39:06.086) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anne Ganguzza (39:26.727) Right, Sure. Luanne Regis (39:30.187) That's another aspect of the voiceover agent's job, at least mine. Anne Ganguzza (39:31.706) Yeah. Yeah. I love it. this has been such a wonderful conversation, Luanne. thank you. Thank you. Well, it's been a pleasure. And I'll tell you what, I cannot wait to have you as a guest director for my group, for my VO Peeps guys. So make sure you take a look for that coming up soon. Luanne Regis (39:37.824) I love your questions, the way. Your questions are very pointed. Luanne Regis (39:47.711) Yes, I cannot wait. Yes. Luanne Regis (39:54.08) Yes. Anne Ganguzza (39:55.916) And with that, I will give a great big shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. You too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at ipdtl.com. Luanne, this has really been amazing. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Luanne Regis (40:08.373) Thank you, Anne, for having me. I really do love talking about this stuff. Anne Ganguzza (40:13.146) Bosses, have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Bye. Luanne Regis (40:16.033) Bye!  

Ever wondered how to get the absolute most out of the PASport VO? This episode of The Pro Audio Suite is your deep dive into everything you need to know about setting up, optimizing, and troubleshooting this powerhouse of an interface. From default settings and compressor behavior to multi-computer setups and even game streaming, we break it all down. Whether you're a voice actor, podcaster, or producer, this guide ensures you get the best audio possible with your PASport VO. In this episode, we cover:

Anne welcomes Heidi Rew, commercial voice actor and co-founder of Atlanta VoiceOver Studio. Heidi shares her journey from radio to voiceover and offers insights on booking jobs and finding success in the industry. The BOSSES emphasize the importance of perseverance and training, highlighting their own experience of steady climbs in the industry. They also discuss the qualities of a good coach and the value of personalized instruction. They advise newcomers to discover their unique voice and niche through training and collecting feedback. The BOSSES share their thoughts on overcoming self-doubt and the importance of perseverance in the voice acting industry. They emphasize the need to uncover personal insecurities and fears in order to succeed in business The BOSSES also discuss the importance of demos, online presence, and easy accessibility for potential clients. Anne (00:01.142) Hey everyone, welcome to the V.O. Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and today I am so excited to have very special guest, Heidi Rew, joining us to the show. Hey Heidi, yay! Oh, awesome. So a little bit of information about Heidi for the bosses who are not familiar with her. She started her career on air in radio, but was introduced to voiceover by her coworker who eventually turned into her husband. Heidi Rew (00:12.922) Hey, Anne! So glad to be here. Anne (00:29.922) She is mainly a commercial voice actor and has voiced national TV commercials for Jiffy Lube, Secrets Resorts, Redfin, Kohl's, Danimals, and Baker's Chocolate, excuse me, and probably many, many more. And about eight years ago, she and her husband started the Atlanta VoiceOver Studio, a training and recording studio. Heidi, thank you so much for being with us today. It's so exciting. Heidi Rew (00:54.092) Oh, I am so excited to be here, Ann. And we already talked, Ann already talked, she was our guest on the Atlanta VoiceOver Studio podcast. And it was so good, we had to do a part two, which is the first time that's ever happened. So yes, I'm so excited to be here, Ann. Anne (01:09.166) Well, thank you so much. And I'm actually going to just turn around and ask you some of the same questions that you asked me. For those bosses who are not familiar with Atlanta VoiceOver Studio and Heidi, why don't you start off by talking a little bit about yourself and what that journey was like going from radio to VO? Heidi Rew (01:15.77) Okay. Heidi Rew (01:25.654) Yeah. Yep. I always wanted to go into radio. That was kind of my career goal. And this handsome coworker came in my studio one day and was like, hey, do you do voiceover? Because I could listen to your voice all day. And I know. He always says that's like his one and only line. But it worked. And he told me all about the voiceover industry, kind of got me going. Anne (01:44.754) What a line. I love it. I love it. Heidi Rew (01:55.554) And I really did think, oh, this will just be something that I do on the side. And then five, six years after that, things were changing at the radio station. And at that time, then Mike and I were married. And so to find on-air jobs in another city for both of you is really, really almost impossible. And so. Anne (02:13.527) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (02:20.19) things had just changed and Mike was like, why don't you just quit and just do voiceover and on camera stuff full time? And so that's what I did. And there we go. Anne (02:28.658) And there you go. Now, when we were talking before, we were discussing about agents, and it took you four years to book a job with your first Atlanta agent. Let's talk about that journey, because I'll tell you, for me, when I started, I'm gonna date myself, I literally, I was working for four years before I even thought. Heidi Rew (02:36.059) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (02:39.622) Yep. Mm-hmm. Anne (02:53.406) about an agent because back then we didn't really have like Facebook groups or there was there wasn't a lot of ways to communicate with other people in the industry, which I believe is one of the reasons why you might have started your studio as well to like see people face to face and Heidi Rew (02:57.088) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (03:07.075) Yeah. Heidi Rew (03:10.734) Yes, totally, and have that community. Yeah, I had a great agent here in Atlanta. And I would get auditions and everything, and just wouldn't book. And I thought, I really suck at this, obviously. And I would ask my agent, I said, you know, gosh, why? Anne (03:12.939) Yeah. Anne (03:18.091) Mm-hmm. Anne (03:22.903) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (03:30.026) Richard, it was Richard Hutchison management who's, he's retired at this point, but I said Richard, why haven't you dropped me at this point? You know, and he said Heidi, because you're doing good auditions. It just sometimes takes time. Just keep going, keep going. And I did. And then year five was when I started booking a lot. It's when I booked a national spot that ran three years, gave a sag health insurance for three years. Anne (03:32.215) Mm-hmm. Anne (03:41.91) Mmm. Mm-hmm. Anne (03:54.754) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (03:56.162) So it was just one of those things where it just took some time. And I had some other clients on the sides from self-marketing and a smaller agency that I was with in Florida. But yeah. Anne (04:03.817) Mm-hmm. Anne (04:07.862) Now do you think that it had, I mean, was there, was it possible that maybe you were needing feedback? I'm assuming four years your performance, you know, was improved, you know, and that is, takes a lot of resilience sometimes. I mean, I remember my early career as well too, and it was difficult. I mean, when you didn't get feedback or you didn't book, it was kind of like, oh my gosh, now. Heidi Rew (04:16.995) Oh yeah. Heidi Rew (04:21.658) Yeah. Heidi Rew (04:24.986) Mm-hmm. Anne (04:36.734) Now what do I do? I mean, do I even belong in this industry? I mean, did you ever run into any of those feelings? Yeah. Heidi Rew (04:39.154) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (04:42.794) Oh gosh, yeah. I mean, I would tell Mike, like, you liar. No, I'm just kidding. Like, what in the world? I don't have a good voice, obviously. But he really was always, he's always been an encourager of mine. But a big part of it was, you know, I was doing radio full time, full time. And also, you know, I was on air, so I was doing like events on the weekend. I mean, it was busy. And so I really. Anne (04:47.524) Hahaha! Mm-hmm. Anne (05:02.187) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (05:09.322) voiceover was a side thing. I didn't do the kind of training that I needed to do to get to that level. I was very lucky to even get on with Richard at the very beginning because, I mean, you know, all I had kind of was Mike's training and tutelage. And that is why I say to so many people, too, that, you know, one, you never know how long it's going to take to book, so keep going. But also, right, but also, Anne (05:11.106) Mm-hmm. Anne (05:16.514) Mm. Anne (05:24.76) Mm-hmm. Anne (05:32.142) Right? For that overnight success. Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (05:36.982) you do need to train and I, you know, if I had trained more, who knows that four years could have been shortened to a much shorter time frame. Anne (05:41.559) Mm-hmm. Anne (05:45.91) Well, you know, it's so interesting because, you know, I just was looking at your website again, and your studio offers, gosh, everything. And you have a team of coaches that basically covers every genre. You know, I think anything that anybody ever would want to do in voiceover, you guys cover at your studio. So let's talk about coaching because we had a discussion about it on your podcast. What is it that you feel Heidi Rew (05:56.08) Yeah. Anne (06:17.387) key qualities or qualifications of a good coach and what you look for your own team and for yourself. Heidi Rew (06:19.407) Yeah. Heidi Rew (06:23.83) Yeah, well, you know, first of all, one of the things that we really look for is for people that have a heart to teach and that aren't just in there to make extra money or to be known that they really care about the students that they're trying to reach. And then a big part of that is we Anne (06:33.996) Mm. Heidi Rew (06:48.898) With Atlanta Voice over Studio, we have three values that we run our decisions through and really have just kind of been the compass for our business. And one of those values is grace. And Mike and I define that as meeting people where they're at. And so we always talk about that with the instructors of like, you have no idea where somebody is gonna come in, whether they walk through the door or they appear on the screen. Anne (07:03.691) I love that. Anne (07:12.106) Yeah. Heidi Rew (07:14.458) You know, you have no idea where they're at. And so our goal is to find out where they're at and how do we get them at least one step closer to their goal, if not two steps. But that's the goal. It's like really meeting people where they're at, which was huge during COVID. Like that, oh my gosh, that was so helpful to remember. So those are some of the biggest things and just being able to really personalize the... Anne (07:23.086) Mm-hmm. Anne (07:30.878) Oh my goodness, yes. Heidi Rew (07:43.01) the instruction to each person, which kind of goes with that meeting people where they're at. It's just not everybody responds to the same type of technique or you know what I mean? Like you really have to find what works for that person, you know? Anne (07:45.205) Mm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Anne (07:48.938) Sure. Yeah. Anne (07:54.414) True. Very true. Anne (08:00.702) Yeah, and it's very much a personal journey, I think. Because it is a creative journey, and I do feel that that. Heidi Rew (08:04.868) Yes. Anne (08:10.934) Gosh, everybody reacts to it differently. Everybody learns in a different way. And I know that just from my years of teaching in front of the class, that you do have all different types of students. And I think it's even more important to meet them where they are when you're talking about something as a creative endeavor that is so deeply personal to them. Because any, you know, any... Heidi Rew (08:20.804) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (08:28.098) Yes. Yeah. Anne (08:34.218) any frustration or any kind of like, you know, roadblock can be really devastating. And that can, you know, that can affect performance like this. And so I think it's so important that you have teachers who care that I love that, that you have, I mean, that's where I always talk about. Heidi Rew (08:41.064) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (08:45.57) Oh my gosh, yeah. Yes. Anne (08:54.238) My students with eLearning, you've got to be that teacher that has a heart that cares. And that's important when you're... It's a journey you're taking these students on. And it's a delicate journey. Yeah. Heidi Rew (08:58.364) Mm-hmm, yeah. Heidi Rew (09:03.962) Yeah. Yes. Because your voice, that is really important. And there have been some people that come in that have been told certain things about their voice or believed certain things about their voice that are not right or not correct. And to be able to show them, like, hey, you actually have power in your voice. And you thought that maybe you didn't, or you thought that it was. Anne (09:15.547) Mm-hmm. Anne (09:24.438) Mm. Anne (09:31.303) Yeah, yeah. Heidi Rew (09:33.65) You know, some of the biggest ones that we've had come through the studio is like I always Was kind of told that I was weak because of the way that I sounded Man that does that does something? Yeah That is hard. So to be able to help them discover that and how do you? How do you find that empowerment through your own voice? You know, that's That's really crucial Anne (09:42.374) Mmm. That's a hard, that's hard to take. Yeah, gosh. Mm-hmm. Anne (09:56.844) Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. So then let's talk a little bit about then as they're on their journey discovering, like where, you know, thinking about where do they feel the most passion or joy or where does their voice fit in the industry? What advice can you give, let's say people just entering in this industry in order to find their niche? And I don't know if like, I think niches can be ever evolving, I don't know about you, but you know. Heidi Rew (10:15.182) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (10:23.458) Yeah. Heidi Rew (10:27.939) Oh, 100%. Yeah. Anne (10:28.994) How do they discover that? What's your best advice for that? Heidi Rew (10:32.894) So one of the things that we do that's really important, but you can do this whether you're working with a private coach or whatever, but we have one of our foundational training is called the Beginner VoiceOver Intensive, and it's a three month thing. It has like this curriculum that goes with it. So one of the weeks that we do, you go into the booth to record and you do just a bunch of different spots that are in different types of tones and specs and everything. Anne (10:57.719) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (11:00.022) And then your class and the instructor will write down what they feel like is your natural three top reads. Just you as yourself and that you can just, as you're speaking, it just comes so naturally. You don't have to push it or force it or anything. And then they also write down descriptions about your voice. So maybe it's like, you know, Anne (11:09.158) Mm. Mm-hmm. Anne (11:17.614) Sure. Heidi Rew (11:27.314) grandfather that always has a funny joke. You know what I mean? Like it's like that warmth caring but also he can be funny and you know what I mean witty. So they write down all that stuff so then that person that comes out of the booth they have all this vocabulary of some of their strengths with their voice right which is kind of just the step one of figuring out like where do I fit you know what is that uniqueness that I can bring to the table. Anne (11:30.955) Mm-hmm. Anne (11:43.571) Yeah. Anne (11:50.812) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (11:55.334) So you can do that even with like a private coach. They can help you discover that. But another thing that's really important, I think, is just be a collector of data, you know, yourself. And because it's, we forget so quickly when people give us like specific encouragement or things of like, oh, I really love, you know. Anne (12:08.289) Yeah. Anne (12:18.698) Mm. Heidi Rew (12:22.294) the way that you've got that texture in your voice. It kind of feels like a warm blanket or whatever. Anytime somebody says something about your voice, write it down. Collect that data because then you're going to have this whole data set of stuff that you're like, oh, this is me. This is who I am. This is what I can bring to the table. And then when you do that, then you can kind of figure out, okay, what is, what are the specific genres that maybe Anne (12:25.08) Mm-hmm. Anne (12:32.911) Mmm, great idea. Anne (12:42.19) Mm-hmm. Anne (12:50.379) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (12:51.627) that I would fit in the best. So, yeah. Anne (12:53.214) Yeah, that would cater to those qualities. Yeah, it's so hard to assess. It's kind of like, I think that's why self-direction is so difficult, right? I mean, you have to assess where you're at by yourself. And I think that I love the fact that you have a whole class where you have other ears involved in the process and other people helping, saying, well, this is what I hear. And it can really help you to help define where your space can be and where your niche can be. Heidi Rew (13:05.437) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (13:16.315) Mm-hmm. Anne (13:22.826) and also where you might want to grow. Because I think there are a lot of times somebody will say something about your voice that you didn't expect. Like somebody will say, oh my God, that's a great character. And I'm like, but me? I've never thought about doing character work or animation work or that kind of a thing. So I think that the process with a great coach or another set of ears that can help you. Heidi Rew (13:22.894) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (13:33.818) Mmm. Heidi Rew (13:44.409) Mm-hmm. Anne (13:46.382) to establish that can really help you to grow and then can help you to develop your ear. I think there's a whole science to developing an ear, which is it doesn't, that doesn't happen overnight. Heidi Rew (13:49.134) Yes. Heidi Rew (13:52.63) Yes. Yeah. Heidi Rew (13:58.006) No, I still feel like I'm fine tuning my ear. And as things change, you know what I mean? Like I've grown up learning that polished sound and that polished sound in commercial is just like, so many people don't want the polished sound. And it is so hard to like make sure that I'm hearing the right things, yeah. Cause I wanna default to that, so. Anne (14:01.01) Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah. Anne (14:06.951) Mm-hmm. Anne (14:13.866) Yeah, yeah. Not be perfect. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's so interesting. So outside of performance, right, what would you say are key factors for any boss out there in order to grow their business? What sorts of things outside of, of course, keeping their performance, you know, and I say coaching and training all the time, but what else is important for a successful business? Heidi Rew (14:44.71) Yeah. So personally for me, I am all about relationships. That has been one of the things that has helped me create a sustainable full-time voiceover career. It really is. Not only do I seek out relationships and I don't seek them out for like, oh, what can you give me? But I have the mentality of like, give more than you can, more than you get. Anne (14:51.531) Mmm. Anne (15:06.164) Mm-hmm. Anne (15:14.375) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (15:14.682) But I just think that the more relationships that I have and the more people that I know, the more potential opportunity is gonna come my way, because of people that they work with, people that they know, they like and they trust. And so I am really a big proponent on creating those relationships and maintaining those relationships as best as possible over the longterm. And that has been... Anne (15:24.502) Mm. Mm-hmm. Anne (15:28.415) Mm-hmm. Anne (15:38.168) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Heidi Rew (15:41.654) That has been one of the biggest things that during times where things aren't, I'm not booking as many commercials or whatever, that those clients come back. It's just like, it feels like magic. Yes. Anne (15:53.098) right, in those lulls. Because I think the biggest difference, right, in our businesses is that, you know, as opposed to it, because I worked in the corporate world, you know, I expected that paycheck and got that paycheck every other week. And now all of a sudden, we've got, you know, our own business, which, ooh, now we got to hustle. We got to go get that business. We have to nurture those relationships. And we have to sustain, which I think you said the word sustainability, which I really love, because over the years, I mean, my gosh. Our overnight success, which for me has been how many years? Like 10, something like that. I mean, it's been sticking with it. Talk to me a little bit because you've been in the industry for a long time. What is it that you say, what would you say is key to success in terms of having a career that can continually, I guess, evolve along with the times and be sustained for a long time? Heidi Rew (16:26.769) Right. Heidi Rew (16:30.811) Yeah. Heidi Rew (16:46.61) Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I want to share really quick this, I don't know if you've ever read James Clear's Atomic Habits book. It's so good. But he gives an example of bamboo. And bamboo, if you've ever seen, there's a bamboo forest here in Atlanta that's on this beautiful hike. And it's just so gorgeous. It's so tall and everything. Well, bamboo, when they first are planted, you don't see hardly anything for five years. Anne (16:55.398) I have not. Anne (17:04.96) Mm-hmm. Anne (17:15.467) Mmm. Heidi Rew (17:15.598) and then all of a sudden within six weeks, they shoot up like, I don't know how, I'm gonna say 90 feet, that's not true. You can fact check me on that if we have fact check. Anyways, it's something along those lines, very, very tall, in about six weeks. And the reason why is because they develop such a strong root system. Anne (17:23.607) That's tall. That's tall. Anne (17:34.461) Mmm Heidi Rew (17:35.314) that that's what they're doing in that five years. So you don't even see you're like, what's going on? Nothing's going on. And actually a lot is going on so that way they can stay strong for years and years. So that's part of it is, I think, you know, creating a good foundation. But I think the other part and I think this is really true and I don't I can't give anybody a certain like applicable thing to do to discover this. But the problem about. Anne (17:42.122) Wow, yeah, I love that. Heidi Rew (18:04.558) becoming a voice talent, especially if you're in another, you know, job or whatever, is that it's all on you to do every, you are the business, right? And sometimes the biggest hindrance to growth is ourselves and things that we find ourselves doing, you know. For me, I, one, I want people to like me. I want to do a really good job. Like I don't ever want to not do a good job, obviously. Anne (18:14.058) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Anne (18:21.07) Mm-hmm. Anne (18:32.973) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (18:34.886) And I can get really caught up on my performance and it just makes me want to go I'm done. This is too much I want to quit well that has nothing to do with my business. It has nothing to do with numbers It has nothing to do with data. It's all on me my own Insecurities my own you know fears about things so I think that The more that I'm able to uncover things about myself like little hiccups that I put my own way Anne (18:45.27) Mmm. Heidi Rew (19:01.99) actually the better my business is, you know, and it's just it's easier to not have to face those. I think when you are in another business where there's a lot of other people coming to your aid, you know, and being able to do things and, you know, make up for your weaknesses and everything. Anne (19:12.147) Oh yeah, absolutely. Anne (19:20.01) You know, it's such a thing when we talk about, you know, having moments of doubt and wanting to give up and wanting to quit. I mean, you know, self-sabotage. I mean, we talk about that quite a bit. I mean, what can you, what's your best advice? What can you say to those bosses out there that are just, they're like frustrated. I, you know, I'm not booking any work. I can't continue to, you know, fund. Heidi Rew (19:32.486) Yeah. Anne (19:47.334) this career if I'm not making any money at it. Because that just happens quite a bit. I hear that a lot from talent. Heidi Rew (19:54.83) Yeah, of course, of course. I heard there's a wonderful psychologist, Angela Duckworth. She's written books and everything. And she said something that I will never forget. And this one thing will help so much. She said, don't quit on a bad day. If you're having a bad day and you want to quit, do not quit on that day. Now, if you have a great day and you just booked a great thing and you still want to quit, OK. Anne (20:11.906) Mmm. Heidi Rew (20:24.39) Then quit, because you know that it is, it's not the challenges that are coming your way, but it's just the actual job itself. But if it's those challenges and those hard days, push through, because I mean, there are, I still have days like that, and I'm how long into my career? Like, it's crazy. And you think, and I think. Anne (20:41.578) Right? Isn't that true? Like, and we've been in this forever, right? And we still have days. Heidi Rew (20:49.314) If people looked at it, you're like, but you're making a great full-time income from this job. And there are still days that I want to quit. And I just think, OK, you know what? I don't quit on a bad day. And then also, sometimes I do quit just for the day. You know, I'm like, Anne (20:54.442) Mm-hmm. Anne (21:02.879) I like that. Don't quit on a bad day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I like that. I'm quitting for the day. Heidi Rew (21:10.046) I am, I'm either burnt out or I've got just too much. I need to quit for today. I need to go on a walk. I need to do something else for my mental health. And then tomorrow, jump back in. Anne (21:12.607) Mm-hmm. Anne (21:23.102) Yeah, I like that. So what are some important tools that you would recommend for voice actors in order to further their career? Heidi Rew (21:34.822) So I will say that I have had a CRM since I started, but let me tell you, this CRM is, I mean, it's Google Sheets. Like that was my CRM for years. And I honestly, and yeah, and same, I'm literally right before we got on here, I've been trying. Anne (21:42.145) Mmm. Anne (21:49.334) Yeah, yeah, yeah. My name is Google, too. That was my CRM. It actually still is. OK. Ha, ha. Heidi Rew (22:01.382) to migrate all of my clients over to Voice Over View. Because listen, my system works for me. I get it. The only problem is a search function. I don't like that because I love to be able to go, I don't have a great memory. And so I mean, I just had a session where I booked a job. And the guy was like, hey, Heidi, we worked together years ago on this. And I'm like, ugh. Anne (22:05.011) Uh huh, uh huh. Anne (22:08.992) Yes. Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (22:28.654) So I'm typing in word war, you know what I mean? Like who did I, what was this? And I found it, it was fine, and I have all my notes there, but I really do need to be able to quickly search things. Because two, if you've been in this business, you probably are the same way for a long time. The people that are at one company that you worked with years ago, they may be at a completely different company. And so you need to be able to reference things and search things. Anne (22:29.559) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh gosh, yeah. Anne (22:40.162) quickly get to it. Mm-hmm. Anne (22:50.122) Yeah, yeah, mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (22:56.618) So that CRM says no matter what you do, have a way to track your clients. Have a way to track your clients. And don't get frustrated if it's not perfect or whatever, but just start doing it. Start putting those notes in there. Because again, relationships, that's so big. And if you get to the point where you're booking a ton, it's really hard to keep track. I know it sounds so weird, but it's just like, I can't. Anne (23:03.263) Yeah, that's yeah. Anne (23:22.592) Yeah. Heidi Rew (23:23.138) Remember this the guy that I was talking to about his kids softball game that weekend that I would love to mention to him You know in the follow-up email And so you really so that's that would be my first tool for sure and then the second tool to be honest with you and I would say maybe you can't do this at the very beginning of your career, but a bookkeeper Anne (23:29.558) Mm-hmm. Anne (23:49.338) Oh gosh, I'm right there with you. Right there with you. I say over and over again, my accountant is the best investment I ever made in my business. Yep. Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (23:53.422) I mean, and I- Heidi Rew (23:59.126) 100% I agree. I agree. I mean, I, when I was learning QuickBooks, I mean, I remember crying at the table in front of my CPA and accountant, like I was like, I just, I didn't make, make it make sense, you know. It was so, so hard. And so it is, oh my gosh. Anne (24:08.862) Oh god, I know. Anne (24:19.486) And it's tedious too. It's not, if it doesn't bring you joy, outsource it. That's what I say. Ha ha. Heidi Rew (24:25.63) And do you like reconciling? Because I hate it. I hate it and it is the easiest thing. It's like, come on. Anne (24:28.174) No, I hate it. I hate it with a passion, but my accountant loves it. I mean, that's why they're an accountant for a career. They love numbers, for the most part. Yeah, I can't stand it. Yeah. Heidi Rew (24:35.522) Exactly. Oh my gosh. I hate it. I would just dread it. I would put it off and then all of a sudden at the end of the year I have to reconcile like months and I'm like okay. Anne (24:45.218) And I've had my accountant, I want to say, for a good eight years or so. She knows me so well. She knows my business so well, which is really wonderful. And she's not anywhere near me. So we use QuickBooks online. And literally, the two of us can meet once a week or every other week. Heidi Rew (24:49.654) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (24:57.922) Yeah. Anne (25:02.13) to kind of go over things and she can generate numbers for me. She does my taxes. I mean my taxes I don't even have to prep anything. That's the cool thing is that you know before it was like Oh my god tax season was just you know the end of the year would come and I'd be like Oh god, I've got to get everything together And I've got to somehow figure out how to do and QuickBooks keeps updating and you know It's like trying to make things simpler, but I don't like it and so it's just like I don't want to spend time Yes Heidi Rew (25:09.186) Right. Heidi Rew (25:17.529) Yeah. Heidi Rew (25:25.654) Yeah. So what we're saying is don't quit on a bad day or on tax day because it can get better. Anne (25:32.062) Yes, or on tax day. I can't tell you though how wonderful it was to have taxes done, you know, so. Quickly, I mean, literally, I just said, hey, it's April. Are we all set? She goes, yeah, I'll have your numbers tomorrow. Literally, it was like, oh, god, I didn't have to really organize anything. Every time I would get something in the mail, my forms, I would just forward them to her. She had it, and it was just, boom, she was able to do it. And it was wonderful. So those are some good business tools, a CRM and an accountant. Anything else? What about, let's talk about, Heidi Rew (25:40.728) Yeah. Heidi Rew (25:51.492) Yeah. Heidi Rew (26:02.906) Yes. Yeah. Anne (26:10.364) What about demos? I mean, I consider a demo a portfolio of your product, and your product is your voice. Let's talk about demos. How important are they these days? There's been some discussion out there about how important really is the demo. I mean, isn't the audition more important? What do you think? Heidi Rew (26:11.252) Yeah. Heidi Rew (26:16.182) Yes. Yeah. Let's talk about. Heidi Rew (26:22.734) Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I think that the demo is still important for a lot of different reasons. I mean, one, if you do want to get on with an agent, you need a good demo. And it needs to be really, really good. Anne (26:38.518) Yeah, kinda need a demo. Because you can't audition at every second of the day. And your demo is kind of there as the representative voice of you when you're not available to audition at the very second that a client might want to hear your voice. Heidi Rew (26:45.187) right. Heidi Rew (26:50.342) Right. Yeah. Plus, I think that being able to be ready for a demo, and I'm speaking more, I will say I'm not an expert on a lot of the demos, but commercial demo, you know, we do at Atlanta VoiceOver Studio. We let everybody else do all the other stuff. But also, that's kind of your way of going, I'm ready to do this. Like, as a talent, I feel like when Anne (27:06.647) Mm-hmm. Anne (27:16.63) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (27:21.426) to do a commercial demo, then it also shows to you, like you need to be able to, it's kind of like just showing your work, like I'm ready, look, and here's what I can do, yeah. You know, we, so we actually, we used to have like a long wait list for our demos, and now we hardly, we don't have a wait list, and part of it is because we put all these like barriers for people. Anne (27:29.598) Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Here's my work, yeah. Anne (27:40.279) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (27:46.394) before they did their demo. So I think people are scared. They're like, oh gosh, there's a lot of work to get to that. But we're like, well, you know what? That's fine. We're not out to be a demo factory. Anne (27:48.125) Mmm. Anne (27:55.606) Well, I kind of really respect that because, you know what I mean? It's one of those things where nobody will ever come and say, well, you guys are just a demo mill. And that there are prerequisites. I mean, I always put a big, huge disclaimer saying, I'm not gonna produce a demo if you're not ready because you need to be able to replicate that sound. I mean, and so I do feel demos are an important tool. Heidi Rew (28:04.974) No. Heidi Rew (28:09.185) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (28:14.455) Right. Heidi Rew (28:19.042) Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Yep. Heidi Rew (28:25.488) Yes. Anne (28:25.99) for a business. What else? What about, I mean, I feel like every voice actor needs to have an online presence. Website slash social media slash... Heidi Rew (28:32.994) I 100% agree with that. Yes, you need to have a website. So with Atlanta Voice Over Studio, we have these industry pro workouts where we'll bring in agents or creative directors or casting directors or whatever. I've had several people that have been our industry pro that have said, you know what? We wanted to book somebody. Anne (28:45.329) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (28:55.586) We couldn't find them. Or they're like, I love this voice, and then we couldn't find them. They had no website. We couldn't search for them. You need to be searchable these days. You need to be searchable. Anne (28:57.402) Ah, interesting. Mm-hmm, yeah. Mm-hmm. That's a wonderful, yeah, I love that you brought that up because I mean, I host workouts as well with agents and casting directors and yeah, an online presence, a website, and a way to get to your demo or a sample that can be downloaded and passed around. Heidi Rew (29:20.23) Yes. Yeah. Anne (29:23.73) I think I can't tell you the amount of times I've gone to a website and you can't download their demo or there's not an easy way to get in touch with them. Like where's the contact information or there's a form somebody has to fill out. And I'm like I just really give me an email address or a phone number or you know so that I can I can get in touch quickly because you don't want to make it too hard for somebody to get in touch with you and everything. But I'm afraid to maybe post my phone number to for spam. I'm like really? Like I mean you're a business. You're a business. Heidi Rew (29:32.203) Yes. Heidi Rew (29:38.312) I know, yeah. Heidi Rew (29:44.343) Right. Heidi Rew (29:50.706) I have my number, phone number up there, I know. I agree, I agree. Yeah. Anne (29:54.826) a phone number or some way to get in touch with you. I mean, I will say that I literally, this is on a personal note, there have been some vendors, some very large vendors that have foregone phone support and gone completely digital where they'll have like a chat bot on their website, which I think is fine. But when you've got those problems or those questions, or you need to contact them for, you know, something that isn't covered by their chat bot, Heidi Rew (30:09.873) Hmm. Heidi Rew (30:17.967) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (30:23.247) Yeah. Anne (30:24.31) Being able to contact somebody either in a Zoom, a video meeting or a phone call is really, really helpful. And a lot of companies I know to save money have foregone that tech support or that phone support. And I will say right now, I don't know if that's gonna last very long because there are always those conditions where people need to get in touch with you, like quickly. Heidi Rew (30:31.776) Yeah. Heidi Rew (30:39.067) Hmm. Heidi Rew (30:49.154) Yeah. And this is for vendors. No voice talent have done it, right? Or. Anne (30:52.96) Yeah. Well, I always, I mean, I make sure that people can get in touch with me in any which way. I'm like, here's my email, here's a phone number, here's a Zoom link, here's a Source Connect link, here's an IPDTL link. Go ahead, get in touch with me. And I deal with spam. Yeah, I deal with spam, you know, and it's just, it's just it. I mean, there's lots of spam protection filters in place. So for me, I would rather have somebody be able to get in touch with me because gosh, they might want to hire me. But. Heidi Rew (30:58.926) Right. Yeah. I agree. Heidi Rew (31:08.546) I know. I even put it on my social accounts too. Heidi Rew (31:14.358) Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep. Heidi Rew (31:20.218) Yeah, of course. Do you think that it matters what type of genre you're into? Because I know commercials, I mean, they move so fast. I lost a job just the other weekend because I couldn't do it. I literally had Lasik surgery, so I couldn't get it done. But they needed it right then and there. And I couldn't do it. But I couldn't do it. Anne (31:30.391) They do. Oh, all the time, because you can't respond in time. Mm-hmm. Anne (31:40.698) Yeah, yeah. Anne (31:45.854) Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, I know if I can't contact somebody, if they don't get back to me right away, I'm like, well, fine, I guess you don't want the work. I mean, sure, you don't want my business, that's fine. I'll just go find somebody that does. So, gosh, so what's next for you and the Atlanta VoiceOver Studio? What's in your future? Heidi Rew (31:47.822) So that's another reason why I'm like my phone numbers everywhere and Heidi Rew (32:01.102) Yeah. Yep. Heidi Rew (32:07.954) Gosh, honestly, some potentially big changes. But not, yeah, I don't even know if it's, so the place that we rent, the lease is up in October. And our original plan was to buy something. There's just not a lot available in Atlanta right now that's the size that we need. And Anne (32:15.905) Ooh, sounds exciting. Anne (32:24.322) Mm-hmm. Anne (32:34.064) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (32:36.534) and stuff so we'll probably move spaces. So that's a big thing, that'll be a move in October. And yeah, so I don't know, we're gonna have to change some things. To be honest with you, the studio has been wonderful, it's grown so much. I mean, we're about to celebrate eight years this summer, which is crazy. Anne (32:42.117) Ooh, that's a big thing. Anne (32:56.622) Mm-hmm. Wow, that's fantastic. Heidi Rew (33:02.198) But it's been a lot on Mike and I. So it may even be changes of like we fine tune things or we shrink some of the things that we offer, to be honest with you, because it's a lot of work on our part. And we try and take the weekends off, but you know, we don't take a paycheck either from the studio. And so that's been like, ugh. Yeah, I know you do. I know. Anne (33:04.579) Mm-hmm. Anne (33:09.403) Mm-hmm. Anne (33:14.034) Yeah. Do you have a day off? Anne (33:19.314) Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'll tell you what is funny. I don't have a studio and I work six and a half days a week. So, and I really try not to because you're right. I think for my own creative mindset and health, it's important to have that refresh time. So. Heidi Rew (33:32.964) Yeah. I know. Well, and let me ask you this too, because this is something that I think we've experienced is like we, Mike and I love to give to people. And that's been the thing with Atlanta VoiceOver Studio, but if you keep giving and giving and giving, it's really easy to get burned out. And you're just like, I... Anne (33:43.8) Mm-hmm. Anne (33:54.95) Yeah, it is. It is. Heidi Rew (33:57.03) wasn't able to fill up and we recognize that too with like it like COVID was really hard going through all of that and then coming out of it and yeah I you know it yeah. Anne (34:05.281) Yeah. It is hard, it is hard. And I know I did that with Vio Peeps for a long, long time. I mean, you give, you give, you give. Vio Boss, this podcast is one of those, I wanted to give back. And if you're not careful, it will burn you out. It is one of those things. And I thought, well, maybe I'll give up the Vio Peeps and it'll just be Vio Boss. And I couldn't do that, because I don't know, I liked my bird, I liked my little Peeps bird. And I love my Vio Boss. And I, so. Heidi Rew (34:17.722) Hmm. Heidi Rew (34:22.331) Yeah. Heidi Rew (34:30.307) I know. Well, and we like to give. Yeah, it's not, yeah, it's not gonna stop, but it is a tricky thing to try and find that balance of like, how do I fill back up myself so I can give to other people, so. Anne (34:39.322) Yeah, it is. It's yes to navigate. Yes. Well, absolutely. Well, you guys have just been amazing and you're just an icon in Atlanta there. And it was so wonderful to actually get the opportunity to have you on the show because you guys are bosses and you are a boss. So, yeah, thank you so much. And we really appreciate you sharing your nuggets of wisdom. Heidi Rew (34:51.402) Uh... Heidi Rew (34:59.05) I know. Oh. Anne (35:17.406) when you have self doubts. Because that really means a lot to people out there that think, gosh, she must have it all, because she's been doing it forever. And it really helps to know that we're not alone out there. And so I appreciate your transparency. So, yes. Heidi Rew (35:19.026) Mm-hmm. Heidi Rew (35:25.188) Mm-mm. No. Heidi Rew (35:29.476) Yeah. Heidi Rew (35:33.146) Yeah, thank you so much for having me on, and thank you, VO Bosses, for letting me be with you in this moment. Anne (35:39.314) Yay, yay, awesome. All right guys, a big shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. You too can connect and network like Heidi and I. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week.  

Posted on YouTube June 14, 2024. Audio edited by Kiara Horowitz. Met Eli Harris at the Salt Lake Animation Expo and he is a professional in every sense of the word, nicknamed "The Image Maker" because of the inspiring passion that comes from his voice acting. His advice, tips, and experience were fun topics for discussion! From his LinkedIn bio: I am Eli Harris, an award winning actor and voice artist in the industry. I am also known as the outstandingly smooth and versatile voice of several brands which has earned me the title of “The Image Maker” in the entertainment industry. -- Originally, I am from Central Virginia (Lynchburg, Virginia) where I started my acting career at age 6 for the Cherry Tree players. After graduation, I joined the military as I live by the set of values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal courage. Only after the passing of my late mother in 1998, I decided to pursue my biggest passion in life that is the performing arts.

Guided Sleep Meditation to Attract BIG MIRACLES in Your Life Prepare to embark on a journey of transformation and manifestation with our guided sleep meditation designed to attract big miracles into your life. As you drift into a deep state of relaxation, you'll tap into the unlimited potential of the universe to manifest your deepest desires and wildest dreams. Key Features: Deep Relaxation: Sink into a state of profound relaxation as soothing music and gentle guided imagery lull you into a peaceful slumber. Release tension from your body and quiet the chatter of your mind, allowing you to enter a state of receptivity where miracles can unfold. Manifesting Miracles: Harness the power of your subconscious mind to attract big miracles into your life. Through the repetition of positive affirmations and visualization exercises, you'll program your subconscious to align with the energy of abundance and possibility, paving the way for miracles to manifest effortlessly. Connection to Source: Connect with the divine source of all creation as you journey into the realm of sleep. Feel the presence of universal energy surrounding you, guiding you, and supporting you on your path toward realizing your highest potential and greatest desires. Awakening Your Intuition: Open yourself up to divine guidance and intuitive wisdom as you surrender to the flow of the universe. Trust in your inner knowing and allow yourself to be led by the subtle whispers of your soul, knowing that miracles are unfolding in perfect timing and divine order. Gratitude and Surrender: Cultivate an attitude of gratitude and surrender as you release any resistance or attachment to specific outcomes. Trust in the wisdom of the universe and surrender to the process of manifestation, knowing that everything is unfolding for your highest good. Embark on a journey of magic and transformation with our "Guided Sleep Meditation to Attract BIG MIRACLES in Your Life." Awaken to the infinite possibilities that await you in the realm of dreams, and prepare to manifest miracles beyond your wildest imagination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guided Sleep Meditation to Attract BIG MIRACLES in Your Life Prepare to embark on a journey of transformation and manifestation with our guided sleep meditation designed to attract big miracles into your life. As you drift into a deep state of relaxation, you'll tap into the unlimited potential of the universe to manifest your deepest desires and wildest dreams. Key Features: Deep Relaxation: Sink into a state of profound relaxation as soothing music and gentle guided imagery lull you into a peaceful slumber. Release tension from your body and quiet the chatter of your mind, allowing you to enter a state of receptivity where miracles can unfold. Manifesting Miracles: Harness the power of your subconscious mind to attract big miracles into your life. Through the repetition of positive affirmations and visualization exercises, you'll program your subconscious to align with the energy of abundance and possibility, paving the way for miracles to manifest effortlessly. Connection to Source: Connect with the divine source of all creation as you journey into the realm of sleep. Feel the presence of universal energy surrounding you, guiding you, and supporting you on your path toward realizing your highest potential and greatest desires. Awakening Your Intuition: Open yourself up to divine guidance and intuitive wisdom as you surrender to the flow of the universe. Trust in your inner knowing and allow yourself to be led by the subtle whispers of your soul, knowing that miracles are unfolding in perfect timing and divine order. Gratitude and Surrender: Cultivate an attitude of gratitude and surrender as you release any resistance or attachment to specific outcomes. Trust in the wisdom of the universe and surrender to the process of manifestation, knowing that everything is unfolding for your highest good. Embark on a journey of magic and transformation with our "Guided Sleep Meditation to Attract BIG MIRACLES in Your Life." Awaken to the infinite possibilities that await you in the realm of dreams, and prepare to manifest miracles beyond your wildest imagination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts: Darren "Robbo" Robertson Robert Marshall George "The Tech" Whittam Andrew Peters Special Guest: Matt Calrick (https://www.mattcowlrick.com/) Sponsors: Tribooth: The best vocal booths for home or on-the-road voice recording (Code: TRIPAP200 for $200 off). Austrian Audio: Making passion heard. Main Topic: Setting Up a Home Studio Introduction: The episode kicks off with the hosts introducing themselves and their sponsors. The main discussion revolves around recommendations for setting up a first home studio for voice-over work. Key Points: Building a Booth: Robbo shares how he built a recording booth for his wife in their walk-in wardrobe, using clothing for sound treatment. Microphone Recommendations: Sennheiser 416 NTG5, NTG1, NT1, OC16 Audio Technica AT875R Interface Recommendations: AI1, SSL2, Micport Pro, Steinberg UR series (IXO12, IXO22) Headphones: Closed-back models like Audio Technica ATH series and Austrian Audio Hi-X 15 DAWs and Software: Twisted Wave recommended for its simplicity and cross-platform capabilities. Additional Insights: Importance of a good recording space. Flexibility and longevity of audio gear. Importance of connectivity for remote sessions (Zoom, Source Connect). Conclusion: Investing in quality gear that can be used both at home and on the road. Recommendations for a balanced setup: Tribooth, Sennheiser 416, and SSL2. A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear..  https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson #ProAudioSuite #HomeStudio #VoiceOver #AudioGear #Podcasting #Microphone #AudioInterface #RecordingBooth #AudioProduction #StudioSetup

In this special episode of The Pro Audio Suite, join hosts Robbo, Andrew, and George as they dive deep into the latest advancements in remote collaboration technology with Source Connect Four. Joined by special guests Rebecca, Ross, and Vincent from Source Elements, the team discusses the game-changing features and improvements that make Source Connect Four a must-have tool for audio professionals. The episode kicks off with introductions and sets the stage for an in-depth discussion on Source Connect Four. Celebrating the recent accolades and advancements in remote collaboration with Source Connect Four, the team explores the groundbreaking features, including the Auto Restore/Replace function, which has been improved and made more user-friendly. They also delve into the future integrations with Nexus and other platforms, promising further enhancements for audio professionals. Discover how Remote Overdub Sync revolutionizes the overdub process, ensuring seamless synchronization in remote recording sessions. Exciting news for iOS users! Learn about the upcoming iOS compatibility for Source Connect Four. Wrapping up with congratulations and gratitude, the team reflects on the insightful discussion and looks forward to the future of remote collaboration in the audio industry. Tune in and stay ahead of the game with Source Connect Four, the ultimate solution for remote audio production! A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear..  https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson   loading Summary In this podcast, the Source Elements team celebrates their success and discusses the latest updates to Source Connect 4, including support for Dolby Atmos, improved user interface, and the Restore Replace feature. The software has been redesigned to simplify remote connections and enhance the user experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote recording technology, making it a necessity in the audio industry. The podcast also explores the potential integration of Source-Connect and Nexus, as well as the benefits of Source-Connect's remote overdub sync system. Finally, the host expresses gratitude to various individuals as the show concludes. #SourceConnect4 #DolbyAtmos #RemoteCollaboration loading loading Timestamps (00:00:00) Source Elements Wins NAB Best in Show (00:01:40) Source Connect 4: Dolby Atmos Support (00:05:52) Source Connect 4: Improved User Experience (00:08:36) Recorded Files in Pro Tools (00:10:08) Port Forwarding Simplified in Source Connect 4 (00:11:10) COVID's Impact on Remote Recording Technology (00:16:11) Streamlining Remote Audio Engineering (00:20:03) The Future of Source-Connect and Nexus (00:22:27) Remote Overdub Sync in Source-Connect (00:24:27) Farewell and Gratitude Transcript : Y'all ready? Beat history. : Get started. : Welcome. : Hi. Hi, hi. Hello, everyone to the pro audio suite. These guys are professional. They're motivated. : Thanks to Tribooth, the best vocal booth for home or on the rote voice recording and austrian audio making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from source elements and someone audio post Chicago, Darren Robbo Robertson from voodoo radio imaging, Sydney tech to the Vo stars, George the tech Wittem from LA and me, Andrew Peters. Voice over talent and home studio line up learner. : Here we go. : And welcome to another pro audio suite. Thanks to tributh. Don't forget the code Tripap 200 to get $200 off your tributh. And austrian audio making passion heard. Just imagine a New Zealander, an American, a Canadian, an Australian and a half Englishman walk into a podcast. It's just happened. We have, apart from Robert Marshall, we have Rebecca Wilson, we have Ross and we have Vincent from source elements. : Ooh, here we are. : Wonderful. : An Argentine too. : Can you talk from our laughter who is here? : Yeah. : And welcome to the party in Las Vegas, by the sounds of it. : Now, we should say the award winning team. : Yeah, I was going to say there's a bit of a party going on because there's a new trophy in the cupboard. By the sounds of things, there is best in show. : We're holding it up right now. It's brilliant. Shining blue and it says, nab. Best in show. And it's gonna go under Robert's trophy case. : Exactly. I don't have a trophy case, but I have a trophy shelf. : Trophy shelf, yeah. : So, Phyllis, in best in show for. : Remote collaboration, remote production. Yes. : This is the new baby source connect four. Yeah. : Yes, it does. Atmos, amongst other many cool things, source Connect used to do and more than it does now. : So go and fill us in on the atmos thing because that's a massive leap forward. : Yeah. It allows you to have all sort of the raw atmos stream, so not just a rendered mix going across a remote connection, so someone can listen, but instead it gives you the flexibility to send what's called the bed. Then all the objects, these are all separate audio channels, as many as it will be, as many as 128 and the time code. And then most importantly, the metadata that steers all these objects around so that whatever the receiver has, as Atmos does, is it just conforms it. It renders it specifically for their speaker setup. So you could have a stage mixing a film with, say, 20 speakers and a director reviewing that mix in real time over source connect with, say, twelve speakers or even ten speakers. And maybe another person's connected at the same time and they just have headphones. So they're getting it as binaural. : It takes a lot of the thinking out of the equation, right? You just let the renderer on the remote side deal with the translation. So just lets the host, or the mix host, if you will, put one stream up and have it divvy out to everyone accordingly. : So everybody's end basically decides what it's. What it wants to hear. : Exactly. : Yeah. : Right. : Well, no, they'll hear the same thing. They'll just experience it in spatialization differently. : It'll be optimized for their speaker set up because it'll be coming out of a renderer directly on their side and. : The spatialization would be compatible from what you hear in binaural or 5.1. It's what someone's hearing in nine 1.6. But just with that lesser detail, I. : Guess the end goal is sort of like listening parity, which is almost impossible to achieve because everyone's going to have different speakers and configurations. But this is the most optimized version to get closest to that. : It's not like we're dropping like, you know, one of the voice channels so you only hear one side of the conversation. : It's the purpose that Atmos was made for so that there'd be one deliverable and then whatever your speaker set up. The person with the really nice speaker setup doesn't have to compromise for the person with the really simple speaker setup. : And the other way around. : And the other way around. The other person with a simple setup is not sort of burdened, in a sense, by having something that they can't play because of someone who has a really fancy system. So Atmos is like a deliverable that lets you play back anything from stereo all the way up to, you know, huge speakers arrays and 15 and 20 speakers even at home. : I think I have kind of an alternate kind of take on this which is basically like a bit of a tangent from that, that angle of it, but it's basically like these. Getting into a really tuned listening environment is a really expensive moment. You only get so many hours in there and the ability that now you could be working on a laptop in headphones through the Dolby Atmos renderer and building a mix towards your big mix session where you're going to actually sit in that room. That's kind of like what I think is at stake. And what's really exciting about this is you could be working on 5.1 before when you were working like in a stereo setting is you weren't able to know that it was going to translate. Exactly. This is kind of, or even at. : All, you kind of use tools like I had the, the waves thing that lets you take five one and make it binaural and you'd kind of have an idea. : I think most engineers I know would say they do their best work when like they, the client leaves and they get to work on something by themselves in a bit. So now the ability that you could be working towards this grand big spatial mix in a laptop setting and then transmit that to a listening environment that you can get into or physically get there, that's the real exciting prospect. : It kind of feels like equity, really like true equity. : Let's bring it back into more of the realm of our listeners, I guess. And AP and I have been having a bit of a play around with source connect four. Thanks very much to you guys. And the biggest step forward I see is firstly the GUI. You know, it looks so much more SmIc, so much more professional, so much more user friendly. But in terms of operation wise, the biggest step forward is the old queue manager, which now becomes restore replace. In source connect four we were like. : You know, we've spent 20 years honing technology and then we thought now we need to hone the user experience. It's really an internal focus for all of us. : Now the queue manager so often was just, people never read the manual. It didn't, it didn't work automatically enough. And then people would just go, what is this thing? I don't know. Shut it down, let's get on with our session. It wasn't something that they thought to ask for because they never had anything like it before. : It's weird, I've done so many sessions where I've said, are you using Q manager? And I get the answer, no. What's that? : Yeah, we just have one extra step to go, which is to be reading your session file automatically, your pro tools or logic or other session file, whatever we can. And then you honestly wouldn't have to do anything. And you've got restore happening all the time without needing to configure anything. : For me, the other awesome one would be for it to work even after I've shut down source connect because there's so many times that you shut it down and you go, oh, I shouldn't have done that, should I? : But you know, well we have reconnection logic built in now or like a new method where you know, if somebody does shut down, you still got work to do, you can bring it back up and it'll reconnect and it will restart. But we also, you know, if you shut the program down, then it can't do it anymore. That's the same. : But as far as, like, uploading the data maybe ahead of time or right away so you don't have to wait for the talent or worry if the talent shuts their system down. : This is maybe the most important thing about source page four. We've redesigned it from scratch, completely rewritten every line of code so that we can add these features that we know everybody wants. So the plan was the very first version on the first day. It's pretty much feature to feature for source connect three because we just need to get it out. : Right? : Yeah. : With doggy connection. : Okay. All right. Some more extra cool stuff. : There's a lot of cool stuff to. : Get you to want to upgrade, but then what you're talking about, like, hey, let's upload, you know, the whole session to the cloud so that the engineer can get it later on. All of that stuff can come now because with built hooks into all of this technology. : Sure. Well, let's pick through a few of them. AP and I were talking, we were looking at that restore replace page. AP noted the recorded files area and was wondering if that was sort of a hybrid of the old source connect now where you could actually record directly to the cloud. Is that the case, or is that actually looking at my. Well, in my case, my pro tools folder going, these are the files you've recorded so far. : Exactly. Those are the files that you've recorded in Pro tools. What I would originally say the Qmanager or the auto restore. Auto replace system recognizes as ones that it knows what they are and who they were connected to. And if there's any audio to fix or replace, restore or replace that it can do it. So those are your recorded files. And then the other one you might see in there is the uploads, which are files that maybe someone else recorded that you are uploading data to, to either restore someone else's file or replace data in someone else's file. : Okay. Because I think AP, you sort of liked the idea of recording in the cloud, didn't you? : Yeah, that's one of those features you're. : Technically recording there, and we can make that recording more available. It's actually, I think source connect three had that, but it had some flaws to it. But exporting the connection, if it's not there already, will be there. : AP has been playing with twisted wave too much. That's the problem I've been playing. : Yeah, indeed. Just going to ask about port forwarding. How does that change? Or has it changed in source connect four? : I got this one. How does that change? No more port forwarding is necessary. : Yeah. Nice. : Basically. : We find a way through your connection path and make it work. You don't have to go into your router and figure out anything complicated. You don't have to call us in a panic. You decided to take a vacation, and then you get called for a job. But nothing like that. It's just gonna work. : So source stream is available. Mac and windows. And port forwarding, especially in the pro version, is available if you want to use it. It does kind of. It's the ideal path for the connection, if it's available. And if you can lay out the red carpet for source connect, it appreciates it, but it's no longer required. : Only very strict networks and, you know, corporate environments. : Yeah. : My question is directed at you, Rebecca, and I'm wondering what hand COVID played in the development of source connect four, the one we're seeing now. : You know, it's still a complicated thing to process. What happened to the world in 2020? We all changed. It was a one of major cultural shift for them, us as humans. And so, of course, that can only be reflected in technology. And the main thing that changed, I would say, for us, is that we realized we kind of know what we're doing with the Internet, which was really nice to find out. It was really, you know, it wasn't a pleasant situation at all, but it was nice to know that we were able to help. That was really satisfying. If you could have called anything in that situation satisfying. And then it said to us, hey, I think that we have an idea what's gonna be needed the next 1020 years, because we've already been doing it 20 years. You know, Robert and I, the team are all young spring chickens, and. : And I have a cane. : We've still got some ideas left. I don't know, maybe just a certain insight that we have from doing this so long. It was like, now the world's ready for us. : I think what happened in the pandemic is a. All the doubters went, oh, remote really does work. And for us, what we realize is that remote is no longer just like the talent's remote or the client's remote, but remote is everybody's remote, and they all have different roles. And how to put those roles together in the most cohesive way became more what SourceConnect four was about compared to what we thought source connect four was going to be prior to the pandemic. : If you think about source Connect, like source Connect pre COVID was something that was nice to have, and then when COVID hit, it was something you had to have, and that changed the whole game. : I thought, well, Andrew, honestly, you and I, you know, we're from the South Pacific, from Australasia. I wouldn't say that source connect was a nice to have. It was kind of a, you know, whether it was source to nature or something else, we had to have something or how on earth we were going to work internationally because plane tickets are expensive and, you know. : Yeah, that's. : I think. : I think so, yeah. But I'm thinking from my point of view, like, as a voice talent, working with studios like you, historically, you just drive it. I go to Melbourne or Sydney or whatever it was for a job. And, you know, you managed to convince people that, you know, you can actually connect with to my studio if I work with someone in Sydney or wherever. But it was kind of a luxury, really. And people would just use local talent, pull up in their car park and go into their booth. But once COVID hit, it was not like that at all. It was a different game. : I think, especially here in Australia, there was a massive resistance to home studios, to the point where owners of studios would refuse to work with remote voice actors because they figured they were trying to steal their work. So. But COVID sort of put a whole new perspective on that, I guess, really, didn't it? : Yeah, and there were people. There were people that were actually literally coming out and black banning talent for having a home set up. : Yeah, that guy's got a home studio. He's stealing my work. : Prior to, like, up to. Prior to the pandemic, or did that subside at some point? : Yeah, I think it was. Look, it was. It was softening, but it was still there. : I think what the pandemic did is kind of shift the focus from the studio to the operator to the engineers at those studios. Right. So I definitely spoke to a lot of people in those places that said they got more work because they were able to do so much of it remotely. : Well, I know that's a fact for a lot of studios where they were able to, like, have engineers at home and at the studios, or just because clients weren't in, they were able to do just more work. Like, yeah, everybody could be put to work. All you needed was more licenses of whatever it was that you were using, like. Like pro Tools and Source connect and whatnot. : Yeah. : The irony of this whole thing. When COVID hit, all of a sudden studios were calling me because they had to get out of their commercial studios and set up at home and asking if I could do tests with them to make sure their source connect was working. : Wow. : Right. Or weren't some talent going to your place just to do sessions? Because they were, you know, they couldn't go all the way to the studio, but somehow they could give you COVID. : Exactly. : I don't know how the rules were, but I seem to remember you were hosting some talent at your place. : Yeah, there was a few that came here because they got out of the city and they were living sort of coastal, so they couldn't get in there anyway. And I was asked if people could come here that were living locally, and of course I obliged. : The amount of tech that was pushed on to pretty much every operator in a remote setting was, I think, probably one of the humbling parts of the pandemic. Right. Because, you know, it was, it was once you have every role get remote, then all of a sudden, like, I know a lot of audio engineers that know nothing about networks. Yeah. You know, like, it's like literally everyone has kind of thrown this wrench of technology and different roles now I got to be it as well as engineering. Well, that's what support was here for. : Yeah, I mean, I was just thinking like literally a big part of like source connect helping in pandemic was just a huge heavy load of tech support. And it wasn't just getting talent on boarded, but it was almost teaching a lot of people like how to work remotely or how to like not just do a remote ISDN, like to freaking have everybody be remote and lots of people routing. Yes. : So you know, all that's kind of, I think that's what source connect four represents. I think a lot of the learning of that is how to streamline exist, make the UI, make it make sense for you so you don't really need to think too much. The getting rid of the eye lock and the port forwarding requirements. I don't know if we talked about ilock, that's the thing. We've experienced that probably in huge volumes right at the start of the pandemic. : What's this? : What is this Iloc thing? : I need something physical and I can't. : Go out and get it. : You didn't need it physical at the time. Another account? Is it going to cost me anything? No, it's a free account and you know, you can't verify or you can't easily set somebody up because there's just more email verifications for new accounts that are created and God forbid the account that you created in source elements, that same account name is not available in Ilog. So now you have two different account names to remember and like two different passwords and. : Yeah, and people are losing their passwords because they use one thing for one account, one thing for another account. : So that's gone. : No more eyelock. : Wow, you heard it here first. : You heard it here, folks. That's right. Exactly. : Breaking news. : Bravo did say that he would like the UI to be bigger. : Bigger, small. : Can't see shit. : Smaller the GUI. : Oh, smaller the GUI. : It would be nice to be able to scale it like I want to see. I love the size of it as it is for now, but even when you've hit that little four corner box and it squashes down to the sort of send and receive meters and then the menu underneath, for me, it still takes up a lot of space on my screen. : And you can make it smaller. Yeah, you can grab the corner and push it in. : We're in the final mile of quality of life improvements. A lot of the stuff that, you know, those sort of smaller bits are just, they're gonna get done in the next couple months and. : Absolutely, I mean, you've embarked on a massive job. But that was one of the observations that I sort of, I did say to rob, but is I wanna see it big when I'm setting up the session and when I'm getting everybody connected. But once everybody's connected, I've got three screens in front of me, I've got my edit on one, my mix on another, and then my third is dedicated to picture for video. Source connect plugins, meters, all the rest of it to keep them out of the way. So the less space that can take up for me, because I really only need to glance up and see if it's metering. If someone says they can't hear something. : Can I throw in a future feature that I don't think is a spoiler because I really wanted. Yep, we plan to separate the UI from the engine and you could run it from like another screen or an iPad. And to me that's the sweet spot there, especially for, you know, people who are running, you know, big installations. They can walk away and, you know, oh, source Kinect five is not working and they can look on their phone. Oh yeah, oh, it's working now. : Right. : Why should they have to go back. : To the machine room and what about integration with Nexus? : I think you're going to definitely see Nexus and source connect integration and just further integration across the whole product line going towards that platform. : I think because I was telling Robert on a previous episode, it wasn't all that long ago, I had a session where I had a voice talent up in Brisbane somewhere. I had a creative sitting in the airport and two guys in the agency here in Sydney, and then the client was also online from, like, Perth in Western Australia or something like that. And there was another talent in Adelaide and it was this massive session. And if you could have seen my poor old thirst screen with meters and everything else going and all the rest of it, it becomes a logistical nightmare trying to remember where you've put everything and who's on what. So combining that all together would be quite impressive. : Can't say exactly what you might see, but I think sort of connect and nexus are surely more communication. : Well, that's actually a really good advancement that you've reminded me that you've, you've put into four. Here is the fact that all your connections appear in the one place. I think that's, that's amazing. : And they cross connect for you. : Yeah. : So they all hear each other without you having to do a thing. : Right. : You can pull multiple outputs, everyone record on everyone on a separate track, and. : You can even give them different inputs. : Right. : Right. You can send them different things, but they will all send to each other. : Yeah. : Can I make it so that person doesn't send to that person? : That's the plan for sure. We want to have a more project based style where you could decide what role is everyone playing? What do they hear? What do you hear? : What do you want them to hear? Who hears what? You can make everyone hear each other in a round circle and you could really play the game of like, tell this story to the next person and when it gets back to you. That is not the story I told. : Yeah, well, it's. I mean, the way you've set it up now, it's almost a well and truly upsized source connect now, right? : I'd agree. In a simple sense, it is like source connect three and source connect now. Sort of merging together and becoming each one, giving the best of what they used to do so you get the benefits. Yeah. : The autorestore replace being like, now you actually truly have an acquisition system that's like, bit accurate, right? : Yeah, yeah, exactly. : Never mind the browser, you're not going to get that there. : We know where every sample and frame is. : Speaking of frames, we have a system called remote Overdub sync which instead of remote transport sync where you are to deal with latency on a project. If someone is singing or doing ADR, going back to ISDN, the original method is to send timecode into sync. Two timelines on either side. So one chases the other networks, but there's a lot of setup on either side. So the remote overdub sync ideas that you can send to the talent whatever they need to hear and whatever they need to see and they perform if it's ADR and they sing and that performance gets back to you and you record it. And while you're recording it using the remote over dub sync system, you hear it in sync and when you hit stop in your daw, you see the waveform and then a moment later, a couple of seconds later, you see that waveform jump back in time to be where it should have been had there been no latency between you. So you can overdub, really just connect and overdub. You don't have to tell people to load up this timeline and click this button to synchronize. : No more comments of that doesn't look right to me from the back of the room. When you're recording with the talent, are. : You thinking or is it going to happen for iOS by any chance? : Oh yeah. : Yes. : I'm a big icad fan. I really love mine. I use it mostly as a music score player to play piano and I would love to use source connect on it and it's definitely happening. : AP is only asking you because he's trying to create the world's smallest voiceover roadkit. It's a purely selfish motivation. : I get it. : He just needs to use a trrs cable. And like, if Andrew just needs to talk to me about how to make things. : Uh huh. Absolutely. You would have the world's smallest road case. Indeed. : That's not the only thing that I've got the smallest of, but that's another story for another day. Thank you guys. Thank you Rebecca. Thank you Ross. Thank you Vincent. And of course Robert. : Congratulations. Congrats. : Thank you. : Thanks Andrew. Thanks, Jorge. : Well, that was fun. : Is it over? : The pro audio suite with thanks to Tribu and austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging from George the tech Wittem. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic, or just say g'day. Drop us a note at our website, thepro audiosuite.com. #ProAudioSuite #SourceConnectFour #RemoteRecording #AudioProduction #Podcasting #AudioEngineering #Podcasters #VoiceOver #PodcastProduction #AudioTech

Join us for a special live broadcast from the bustling floors of NAB 2024 in Las Vegas! This episode dives deep into the latest trends and technologies shaking up the audio industry. We're bringing you the inside scoop straight from the heart of the action, featuring: Exclusive Interviews: Robert opens the bag in whats in SourceConnect four, which is set to revolutionize how we handle Atmos and multi-channel audio streaming. Product Spotlights: Discover cutting-edge products like the new vocal booths that promise unparalleled sound isolation, even on noisy show floors as their VP of Marketing Freddie Gateley joins us for a chat. Tech Insights: Learn about the tech that's driving audio innovation, including the latest in virtual set technology that could change film and TV production forever. Live Demos: Experience the power of Austrian Audio's OC 707 microphone, designed to deliver exceptional sound clarity, even in challenging environments. Whether you're an audio professional or a tech enthusiast, this episode is packed with insights that you won't want to miss! A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear..  https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson   loading Summary In this podcast, George and Robert explore the latest audio technology and trends from the NAB show, including the launch of SourceConnect four, which enables end-to-end Atmos audio streaming. They also discuss the impressive soundproofing capabilities of their trade show booth and the advantages of prefabricated booths over custom-built studios with guest Freddie Galey. The hosts delve into the logistics and costs of shipping vocal booths internationally and highlight Vocal Booth's diverse market applications. Additionally, they share their experience using the Austrian Audio OC 707 microphone for recording on the road and discuss the advancements in virtual production technology showcased at the expo. The conversation also touches on the extravagance of Las Vegas and the use of wireless technology to record podcasts in a crowded convention setting. #AudioTech #VocalBooths #NABShow2023 loading loading Timestamps (00:00:00) NAB Highlights with George and Robert (00:00:57) Streaming Atmos Audio with SourceConnect Four (00:04:35) Soundproofing Magic at the Trade Show (00:05:57) The Value of Prefab Booths (00:11:26) Shipping Vocal Booths to Australia (00:15:12) Vocal Booths: From Testing to Pets (00:19:00) Building Recording Booths for Any Space (00:22:12) Recording on the Road with Austrian Audio (00:24:17) Virtual Production Advancements at NAB Show (00:28:53) The Excess of Las Vegas (00:29:55) Wireless Tech Powering Podcasts at Convention (00:32:24) Wrapping Up and Staying Connected Transcript : Y'all ready? Beat history. Get started. : Welcome. : Hi. Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the pro audio suite. : These guys are professional. : They're motivated. : Thanks to Tribooth, the best vocal booth for home or on the rote. Voice recording and austrian audio making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from source elements. And someone audio post Chicago, Darren Robbo Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging, Sydney Tech to the Vo stars, George the tech Wittem from LA, and me, Andrew Peters. Voice over talent and home studio line up. : Learner. Here we go. : And welcome to another pro audio suite. Thanks to tributh, it's your freedom. The golden handcuffs. And don't forget the code TripaP 200 to get $200 off yours. And austrian audio making passion heard. Now, lots of things are being heard at NAB as we cross live to George and Robert. : Yeah. We are here at NAB 2024. Hello, everyone. We're in Vegas, baby. : What happens in Vegas instead of. : Well, not today. : Yeah. I hope the sales keep on going outside of Vegas. : That's right. But we don't want the money to stay in Vegas. We want it to go with us. We're all here to make money. That's the bottom line, we have to admit. : It's true. It's very true, actually. We want to show our stuff. That's what we really want to do. And then if it makes money, very. : Gordon Gekko of you, I must say. : Yeah, exactly. Very few people leave Vegas. : I'd be buying everybody and dismantling their companies if I was Gordon Gekko, wouldn't I? : Yeah, something like that. : Yeah. Greedy's good. I'm not in on that name, but I'll google it later. : It's that movie where he's like the Wall street guy, and he just buys other companies and destroys them. And all the union people are like, no. And he's like, fuck you, capitalism. : Yeah. So we're. I'm here because of vocal booth. Vocal booth.com. We've done a little story about them already and what I've done with them. But we're here. I'm here because I wanted to hang out with them and meet all of their customers and help them make. : Then it might be the right decision. : And Robert is, of course, here with source elements, and he's helping to promote the launch of SourceConnect four, which is doing some very impressive stuff. : Yeah, we got nominated for our best in show award. Specifically, we made source connect four. The upper end version is going to be able to stream Atmos end to end. And that actually doesn't sound like that impressive because it's possible to stream multi channel audio right now. But the difference is source connect four will be able to stream all the bed, all those channels, all the objects which could be up to like hundreds and 128. And the metadata for all those objects so that the receiving side can render that locally for their system on the fly. And then you can do that for up to five connections simultaneously. So you could have a director monitoring an Atmos mix and the stage could be on a 25 speaker system. The director could have a twelve speaker system. The producer could log in from another location and just receive on binaural and maybe the writer logs in and they're at home and they only have five. One. And all those things can be rendered locally for each system so the stage doesn't have to dumb down or render down to the common denominator. Yeah, that was great. : Mind bending stuff. : I think we need to add a caveat to that though. You can do all that unless you're on the australian NBN. : Well if you have Andrew's Internet then all you can do is half a channel. : That's right. South of Melbourne. Not so great. Sydney. No problem. : It seems that way, doesn't it? : Yeah. : But seriously though, is that dependent on your connection? : Well yeah, if you're streaming 128 channels of audio we figure on the realistic side you need at least five megs upload. But really each person and it can add up quite a bit. So we're really talking about people with really good pipes. But the intended audio audience for a product like that tends to be mix stage for a feature film. They're sitting on top of a ton of bandwidth. And then on the home side, most people's download, I mean you can get a gig download without even thinking about it. : Yeah. : So yeah, it'll take your average podcasters. : Not going to use it, let's be honest. : Of course. : Or you just need George's cell phone that can get a gig from. : Yeah, we can get on 5g here. I can get 1.2 gigabit download. : Wow, wow, wow. : Inside a building. : I'm moving to the states, so I'm done. : I think the towers are in the building. : Yeah, no, there are definitely microcells inside this building. So it's. Anyway, to try to paint the picture. We are in the middle of the heart of the central hall. It's about as central as this show kind of gets. The main stage is about 150ft in front of us, right down the hall, which has tremendous sound levels. There's music playing. There's presenters. It's all kinds of stuff going on and yet we can get away with recording in this noisy environment until, uh oh. : Bing bong. : Hello, we have a guest. Until that door opens, you can hear the noise. : I think we should do that again. : Yeah, yeah, let's hear that again. : Before and after without all the talking. : Over. Take two. Take two. : Silence. : Open the door. : Wow. : And then close the door. : That's crazy. That's insane. : It is really good at a show floor because I've been to plenty of booth demonstrations at shows and it's really a hard, like, this is, this is as bad as it gets. You know, if you were doing a sports thing and who knows what's going on outside. Maybe not NASCAR racing, maybe not Formula one, but who knows, like a football game, you could probably get away with quite a bit with some stuff like this. Especially if it's, you know, off, you know, place in the right place. : Yeah. : Well, we've got another folk, another folk here. Yeah. Freddie Galey, which we've spoken to before. You betcha. How you doing, Fred? : I'm doing awesome. : He's the reason we're all, at least I'm here. And this is the reason why we have this booth here. : That's why we have the booth. : How many years of nab for you now? : This would be. Oh, when was my first one? In 2012? 2013? : I think so. So that was after we teamed up because guy was the first one that we. : Yeah, we were. I just, you know what? My Calvin, our owner, just sent me a photo like a couple days ago and he happened to be the one that we were down there and I said, source elements here is 2015. : Wow. : Yeah, it's not been a while. : And. : I've been coming to these spottily over the years, but I'm so glad that I came to this one because the, the quality of the, of the people that attend nab are top notch. I mean, these folks are not just creatives, but they're like education directors, station directors, managers, just incredible high level people here and they understand the value of this thing. The first thing I'm always impressed by is when you tell them what this, this is a big booth we're in, what, eight by ten? : Yeah, this one's an eight by ten platinum plus. Or a double wall with an extra layer of mass loaded vinyl. : Yeah. And you know, if we were at a music convention, you might tell them the price and a sticker shock might roll over their face, but not at a show like this, because people understand the value of what this thing does. : What's something like this? Like 15,000? Yeah. : So the basic one of this one would go out as seen here at an eight by ten. And the platinum double wall, including all the shipping be 23,000 shipped. : And the shipping is like two, three. : Grand on the chunk of it. : It's pretty stiff, but we pay for the shipping, so that's your out the door price. : That's what I love. These guys price everything shipped in the US, which really takes away any of the mystification of what stuff credit really. : Costs and, like, parts and materials and someone to build it. You're spending that much money, at least, and then double it for the frustration. : I've done a lot of custom studio designs and builds with contractors, and it's excruciating. : Yeah, excruciating. : Like, I. One of the things I get hard to do so often is, should I build or buy? And the build argument is so strong now more than ever, because construction's so damn expensive. It's very frustrating to deal with contractors. Not that they're bad people. : They don't understand the details of, like, I even did it now, and my contractor, I said, put these little rubber pads underneath the floor, blah, blah, blah. Do not screw the new subfloor to the old floor. What did they do? : Yes. : Thousand screws in it. By the time I got home from work, it's like, it's done now. My floor is coupled, and I didn't want it coupled. : You can spend gobs of money way more than this thing for something this size, and then have one mistake. One screw goes through his timber, short out the build, and it's ruined. : You ruin the whole. : That's a couple. Yeah, yeah. : One of the things, too, that I've had clients and stuff in the past is they've called us. They were already pretty well down the road with somebody, and then they were like, I'm just gonna see about having some. A prefab. And we came in, they're like, oh, you guys are a third the cost, and you can have it here this month. Yeah, game on. Let's go. And then that was the other big thing for them, too, is they were like, hey, I'm not modifying my real estate, so this is not going to be something I have to try and resell. This pool house with a recording studio in. It's like we just take it each. : Part of the art, right? : You have to include that cost, which is once you want to sell it, you've now modified some basement room to something that people don't want, and then you got to put it back, and that'll cost you at least half as much to undo it all. : Yep. I know. Watching Joe Cipriano's custom built studio I designed 15 years ago essentially be dismantled and destroyed because the people that bought the house don't need it was rather heartbreaking. : If there's one way to devalue your property, build a studio. : Unless you're very lucky. : Yeah. Unless you actually find you're just lowering the pool of people that want to buy your house on resale. Seriously. I had a real estate agent, and I was talking about building my studio and this and that, and I was like, definitely do not get rid of that bathroom. But all in all, I was like, you're devaluing your property by building this huge studio in it. It's like, well, I'm not moving in my case, but if you don't know or you're building, you know, buying an investment house and you might be planning on selling it, building a studio in there will cost you at least as much as a prefab booth. It will cost you more to get rid of it, and you will be frustrated by the whole process, and it will take you longer. : It's a serious commitment. Yeah. : What's even wild, too, is that recently, schools have been getting into that, too. I had one school that built an entire second story out of an acoustic floor just to be able to put our booths in on top of that so that they didn't have to later demo all the sheetrock and all the studs and everything. They're like, let's just put 17 big booths up here, make it look like it's all one structure, wood veneered, and wire all the h vac and everything into it. But later, we can just get rid of it. : Do you know one of the best tricks I've seen? You buy a booth, and then you just build the simplest wall in front of the booth, and the whole thing looks like it's built into the house, and it's only been one wall with one stud and one layer of drywall, and it looks like Joe Cipriano's place, practically. : Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. : So, gents, down there in Australia. : Yes. : What do you guys have in mind? What do you want to know? : I actually have a quick question about the booth you're in, because every Aussie and every Englishman is asking, yeah, it's great. 23 grand in the states. But if I want one down here, what's shipping going to cost me, and I'm Bhop. : Funny you brought that up. : 50,000, 100,000 australian. What's the conversion rate is off. : It fluctuates. : We've been seeing NAB is very international. So there are Qatar people from Qatar, Dubai, Europe. And you guys, did you ship something overseas not too long ago? : Well, even just thinking about Australia is just this last year we did University of Sydney down there and we did. I mean, containers full down there and they did a whole room full of booths and stuff. So logistics are the big thing down there. So if it's something going to Sydney or going to a port city, that's not too big of a deal. We have really good air options, we have really good freight options for the ocean options as well. And if we do a full container down there, it's really easy. We can even get that dropped off at the place and then it's almost like having a trailer. : So we're talking group orders. Maybe get together and do a group order or something, then fill a container. : Yeah, exactly. You know, we can always use somebody consolidating stuff over there. : So the shipping, the 23,000 for this booth shipped, that's continuous us states or is that. Yep. : That's going to be anywhere where we don't have to cross borders. Because then once we do get into, like, Canada, of course, we've got all the tariffs and fees and stuff that has to go in there and somebody has to be grabbing it on the other side. It's usually. It's funny how it's really not sometimes that much more. Sometimes it's like an extra $150 on our freight side to get it over there, but on. And that's if they're taking care of all the tariffs and all the import duties. We can do that. We can act as brokers for people too, though, and make it pretty easy. But again, it just depends on the level of. : It's a really world market now. I mean, we are doing build outs in the US where the windows and doors come from, China. This is not unusual. This is all happening right now. So things moving between continents is not nearly. Now, I know there was a little problem besides missiles. Yeah. ICB vocal booth. Intercontinental ballistic vocal booth. : I'm sorry, it just crossed my mind. I don't know what. : Filters. Filters, yeah. So, yeah, no, it's not unheard of. Would you buy maybe a little one off, four by four? I don't know. It depends on. Because you're sharing a container when you're doing like, one booth. Yeah. : And we do international crates, and so we can get it priced out just for a crate. The hard thing is that that is even a fluctuating market. So we've seen, all of a sudden it'd be dirt cheap, like, where we can get something down there for $1,200 shipping, but then we'll see it, like, just absolutely spike. Like, of course, we saw weird things during the whole COVID pandemic, like ships that were just sitting out there with stuff rotting on it. So it was just astronomically up and down, so you never really knew. But we do really quick turnarounds on quotes, so that's something that it's all up front, like, you know, order the boot and then find out how much shipping's gonna be once you guys, when somebody's happy with the way that the quote is, they're ready to go ahead and move to the next level. We're on the phone with our logistics. : Guys and we got it done. : So AP's just texted me, he'll take a container load, please. : Right. : Right away. : When you're all done with the container, you can just line it with double wall and make a booth out of the container. : Maybe we should line it with other things to pay for it. : Yes. : There you go. : Exactly. I think this just became evidence. : Hello, ASIO, if you're listening. Yes. : Yeah. So what's your biggest market? Is it people like myself, like a voice over talent? Or is it more studios, as in, you know, commercial studios? : I'm guessing it's broadcasters and production companies. : Yeah, it's funny. Our biggest market, probably. I mean, if we wanted to talk just dollar wise, it's going to be education and corporate, even testing. So those are the biggest ones that are getting really big boosts. So some of these will be 16 by 32ft and nine or 10ft tall. Some companies, like Medtronics or Philips, respiratronics or something, they'll be doing really big production stuff and want to move all their testing stuff inside because they're in a bigger factory. And so this is something that they can pop up right in a factory, bolt to the floor in there, and have a whole way of stuff coming in and out. : Bolt it to the floor. You're gonna couple it and then you're gonna get all those vibrations through the. : Yeah. : And so again, what they're all about is they don't need an anechoic chamber, but what they need to do is have all that equipment out there and bring it down to a level that's good enough for their testing inside. And so even inside of that big booth will be other booths. : Oh, wow. : Yeah. So it's a big crazy thing. But again, to bring a level down to another level and to another level also, we've been doing a whole lot of stuff with Apple and Amazon and stuff too, and their testing departments. And that's just one of the most consistent things that we have. : And then what stuff do they need? : A big thing that we designed for them is custom testing enclosures. And so this will be stuff to test all of their small. I don't know what my NDA can let me say, but you all know. : What Apple devices, that they all know. : What Apple branded devices about the size of an iPad or the size of generally portable things. Portable. So a lot of stuff in the testing facilities where they'll want to stack up like maybe 15 or 20 of these and have run localizations on all of those and not have them talk to each other. So they don't need like an insane level of isolation, but enough to where they're just not straight talking to each other or maybe even like speaker arrays or weird things on the inside and then even up to that. So, like, booths that are this size that they can go in and then have stuff kind of bounce around even. We do a lot of stuff like in the broadcasting world and stuff like the Nielsen Corporation that the Nielsen ratings and stuff too, where they build living room sets inside of our booth. So they have big 16 by 32 sets. : Wow. : And they're all dressed out and they have robotics arms and stuff, but they can build all those living room sets, put all their listening devices in there and then run all the tests around. And they have, like, I can't remember, they run like 32 of their own little tv stations in the back. And so they can broadcast to their own little closed circuit. Not closed circuit, but just a very small power thing and then test how this works across all of their tv stations and what it sounds like in this living room and what sounds like in that living room and if this thing is working and stuff. So again, that's the crazy thing about vocal booth, is that we never know who's gonna call and stuff. So we do get the people that, you know. Yeah, I'm unfortunate. : I rarely say no. : It sounds like, you know, yeah, we pretty much say no to very little. : Do parents ever call and they just wanna put their kids in the booth, actually. : Okay. So recently I did get a call and somebody wanted one for. They wanted one of our ant boxes that would perfectly fit a dog crate. And so they could put their dog in there because the dog had anxiety issues and he could be put in there. And we have ventilation and everything. And that crate slid right in there. And the dog could sleep in a nice, very quiet environment when they went to work. And then we had later one that somebody bought a three carat diamond for their parrot. So that thing was driving people crazy and the neighbors crazy when they go to work. And so they both. And I don't know. I mean, you don't ask questions. : Polly's got a booth. : We just don't say no. : Back to this. Back to the dog crate one, though. It's school holidays here, so I'll take four of those, please. : Absolutely. : And they stack nicely. : Yeah, yeah. Nice one. : What, the children or the boots? : The serial killer. Did the serial killer want an environment to do his thing in? : A less eating Las Vegas hotel food for too many days in a row. : Haven't had that customer yet. : There was somebody who wanted their entire bedroom put in one. : Oh, wow. : What were they getting up to in there then, I wonder? : I don't think. : I didn't ask, but I don't think it was all about what kind of sound was coming from the inside, but from the outside, so that's okay. They actually, it was one of the writers on Jimmy Fallon's show. And they were like, I get done writing after the last show is done and we get too busy and I might not get home until 08:00 in the morning and done writing, and then I'm in Manhattan and this is a nightmare stuff. So sent a booth, and from our booths, they can all be built from the inside out. They have nice ventilation and everything. So he just built it right into his bedroom and then threw all the bedroom set and everything aside. : That's very interesting. Your boots can be built from the inside out. You can put the floor in a corner and you're not screwed. You can put it in the corner. You don't have to, like, build it in the middle of the room and then shove it in the corner. : That's huge. : I have built enough booths that that's a big deal. Like, I didn't even realize that. That's really. : That's huge. : Yeah, we put all the stuff on the inside because so many places you want to maximize your, you know, your. Maximize your space. And so some people will even call, they just have an alcove like that. That's a big thing with corporations stuff, too. They're like, we've been given the area where the printer used to be. And that's our recording studio now. And so, yeah, no problem. As long as you get there from the front, build all the sides, and even with really short ceilings, we can build it right up to within, like, two inches of the ceiling and then slide light in, you know, the ceiling panels so that you don't have to go up and above and lay them down and then put that final wall in there. And that's a. : That's a really big deal. I mean, building booths is, you know, building your own built in booth is really frustrating, but it's still a task. It was. : It. : I mean, it's gonna, like. I'm sure you guys can put this thing together in, what, like, 2 hours or something, but if your first time on this, you're gonna spend the day building this thing. : Yeah. : At least the day. How good you are with instructions and how far it is you have to bring the panels or whatever. It just depends on the people and. : How it's like going to Ikea. : I was just there yesterday. : Very heavy Ikea, insulated with Romo. : Okay. : So funny enough, Ikea has actually become one of our clients, as last time. And we just sent him one of those little wrenches. : Yeah, yeah, yeah. : We seem to have lost our Allen key. : Yeah, that's right. : Well, you've got a few leftovers, like. : Yeah, yeah. : What do I do with my missed. : Yeah, yeah, totally. : On that wall. : You guys don't mind, I've got. I've got some clients and stuff to see out here, too, but it's great talking to you guys down there. And always a pleasure. So, Freddie, thank you for letting us enjoy. : Cheers. : Love having these guys around, and it's been fun. : Thanks, Freddie. Cheers, man. : Thanks. : Cheers. : Now listen to the door. Here we go. : Let's hear it again. : Seriously, it's good. : That's very good. : It is good. : That mic is doing good, too. From the distance, it's picking him up really clearly. It's hard to tell how it really is when you're the speaker. : Yes. : But when you turn it on him, it's good. : For most of you are probably only hearing the show. This is really an audio show today, and we are using the austrian audio OC 707. I promised I would make this my on the road mic. : It's a tighter polar pattern than the. Than the OC eight, I think. Right? : I think so. Like, I'm. So we're. Right now, Robert and I are equidistantly across from the mic, and it's still getting both of us. But it's a little more diffuse. Right? It's not as focused. : It's got a good presence. Like, that's even more presence. I hear that. And that's just rotating the mic, like, 30 degrees or something. : So very cool. It's definitely not. It's not a wide cardioid. It's a more narrow, maybe almost hyper. : I think it might be hyper. I don't know, but it's. I think it's doing well. : Yeah. Well, it's weird, because in this booth, we have other mics. We have some earthwork ethoses, and we have some other gear. But I opted just to go single mic handheld, which sounds old school and weird, but the nice thing about that is I can essentially engineer this. So I'm controlling and mixing manually. This is an old school thing, but I'm literally mixing the three of us. And because we have one mic, we don't worry about fading and crosstalk. We can get away from the glass. That's. This booth has a lot of glass because it's all about showing off. And, yeah, it's working out really well. : It's funny you should talk about mics, though, because the file I sent to you, that was done in the back of the car with the austrian audio, Cc eight, I sent to one of the engineers at big radio network here. And he said, what mic is it, and where do you record? I told him, CC eight with the mic four pro in the back of my car. And his reply was, nuts. Absolutely nuts. He couldn't believe it. : Right? : Yeah. : So from now on, you're doing all your sessions from your car? : That's right. : Yeah, exactly. : Exactly. : Well, I gotta say. So I don't know how much time you've had to really see the joint. I've only walked one lap of the central hall briefly, because, honestly, I've had so much to do here, I've not had a chance. : I mean, I walked one row down, so just the aisle. We got a pretty good boot spot. So we're on, like, a main aisle, but I just got to go all the way down and back. And I did see one thing that was really impressive. So do you know what a video wall is? : Yeah. : Like an led screen. It bolts together and is modular. : Not quite. More like, okay. You used to shoot stuff on green screen. Why shoot on green screen when we already have the whole background shot? : Oh, yes. : So now they have this thing. It's a $4,000 box, which is like. This is like million dollar shit. And now it's like $4,000 box. You can build the whole environment virtually. Or if you go through a bigger process, you can shoot it all from multiple angles. It'll stitch together. Then you shoot it with an iPhone or some camera that has the same thing that you use for VR. So wherever you move the camera, the video behind you moves in the exact same way. So you get the same angle. And all the parallax. Not only that, the thing controls all the lights that you set up around it. So if you turn it to a place where you say, this is dark, the lights will go down and. : Whoa. : Yeah, well, this is million dollar stuff. Like, I don't know exactly how much the real deal stuff is, but this is like $4,000, I think. : I remember seeing it here the last four, five, six years ago, and it was extremely, like, science fiction and extremely expensive, and it's. Now it's accessible. So what do they call it? Virtual sets, right. : Well, it's more than a virtual set, but yes, it's a virtual set, but now it's. I thought they call it a video wall or something, and it just negates the need for. Because a virtual set, you're sitting there just looking at a green screen. But on this thing, the actors, like, running around doing this thing, and they look behind, and if there's a character, they can make eye contact with the screen. They can act and feel it much more than pretending that they're talking to a green screen and imagining what's there. They can focus their eyes in the right places. : Right? Yeah. : Well, there's a couple of guys I know here who set up a thing called Dreamscreen, which you can google, and that's the same thing. But they've got massive sets with the whole back of the set is giant video wall. And they've shot a lot of films there. In fact, they were up for Metropolis, the remake of Metropolis, the Fritz Lang film. : Yeah, it's. : Oh, wow. : Except bring your own screen. : Yeah. : But they said it will work with projectors, so you can stitch together multiple projectors and fill a, you know, who knows how big of a wall. : Well, they did a. They did a big thing here. One of the first things they did was a series called fires. It was all about the bushfires drama. And they, of course, could actually, you know, have the. Have the fires actually happening with the actors on set, on the screens. So the actor, even though they had, like, the, you know, the car there was on fire or whatever, they had blah, blah, blah. But they had the screens in the background so the actor felt like they were actually in the middle of a bushfire. : Whoa. : Wow. : Yeah. This is the kind of thing you see at nab. It's all the traditional stuff, like mics, camera booms. Um, but you're seeing way more of this virtual type production. There's. There are apparently 150 different classes here on AI stuff alone, because there's a huge amount of education that comes along with it. We're just. We're just here for the expo. You know, we're here to sell. But there's a huge education component. : I mean, that's. That's the problem with being an exhibitor, is that you can't do it. You can't see all this stuff. It's like, it takes an nab. You can probably do in a. It'll take you at least two days or three days to really see everything. : And your feet are gonna kill you. : Yeah. CES is insane. You'll just shoot yourself when you're done. But as an exhibitor, you get to stand on your feet all day. But you only get to see your own stuff because. : Yeah, so. So I haven't seen anything too revolutionary. There's another company here that does soundproof windows, which I've known these guys forever called, literally soundproof windows. And they have an entire Conex shipping style container that they've converted into a quiet space so they can show off all their doors and windows. And it is damn impressive. As quiet as it is in here, takes it down another ten to 15 decibels. : That's. That's like a whole other level. : That's, you know, that's probably a hundred thousand plus install. : Yeah. You're not shipping that to a residential place, and you're not building that on your own in a day. : This thing's on a. This thing's on a flatbed truck. It's trailered in, and they've used it in am show and stuff like that. You know, so it's. I'm staying a whole extra day tomorrow just so I can start seeing things that I haven't been able to see. Yeah. : Because if you lose weight. No, it's impossible to lose weight here. That's my problem, actually. : You know, a six dollar order of onion rings at the Westgate is enough to feed like a starving family. : Yeah. And they don't even talk about the buffets. : I ate a $30 omelet this morning because that's. It was a buffet. And all I wanted was a damn. Yeah, that's Vegas. : Right. : Well, let me tell you. I mean, we just had the Sydney Royal Easter show here, which is like our big carnival of the year, I guess in Sydney, a cup of lemonade was dollar 18. : What? Oh, my gosh. : Yeah. $18 for a cup of lemonade? : Oh, my gosh. : That's ridiculous. : Well, the other thing I want to mention is that, you know, again, we've been talking about source elements and their new product. We're using Nexus right now as our communications portal. So we're all communicating real time over Nexus, and we're using source Connect 3.9 because that's the version we have currently installed. Third four just dropped, but we're using that. And the amazing thing is, we're doing all that on my laptop, which is running on a battery I don't even have plugged in. We're using a mic port pro, which is also running on batteries. And we're using a hotspot on a phone connecting all this via wireless to a mobile, you know, a mobile data connection. And we're doing all which. : That is mind blowing because I've been to so many of these conventions where usually you have to come in with three separate cell phone connections and you do what's called bonding them into one. When you get 100,000 people here with their cell phones, the towers just bog down to a crawl and you have to brute force it with three parallel connections. You're just doing it like a pedestrian turn on my hotspot. : Yeah, yeah. If you're on Verizon here, you're in good shape. If you're on t mobile, you're pretty well screwed, because Verizon, which I should. : Mention the source elements booth, is using a Verizon connection, which they were very gracious to provide us with. And we hooked up and it was a gig. And I was like, gigabit. : Yeah. : Gigabit connections on wireless. : Wow. : So we've been just leveraging all this technology to do shows from here. We've been recording from this booth. I've done. This is my fourth podcast since I've gotten here, and it's just incredible we can pull off these days. And, you know, and by the way. : Everyone, I like to point out that this, in a show floor that's really loud, is much better than most of the audio I give. : Yes, indeed. : This is a true fact. Actually, talking about the amount of bandwidth you've got there. I'm just looking at my hamster, and he's giving me the hairy eyeball saying, give me a break. I'm puffed out. : Yeah. : Yeah. So it's been great, guys. So I'm watching a ton of people outside the booth that are, like, circling. They want to come in and they're. : Going to start huffing and puffing and. : Like, they're being tutting and rolling their eyes. Is that what's going on? : We'll put a. Yeah, no, no, no. There's just people that want to come in, so. : And I need to go huff and huff. : You do HR puff and stuff. : Exactly. : That's right. : All right, we're out. : Yes. : Well, that was fun. Is it over? : The pro audio suite with thanks to tribers and austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittem. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic, or just say, g'day. Drop us a note at our website, theproaudiosuite.com.  

Robert Marshall is co-founder of Source Elements, the company that offers Source Connect. He is the visionary behind the idea of leveraging internet connectivity to make post-production faster and more productive. He holds degrees in electrical engineering and music composition. In this episode, we discuss How Source Elements/Source Connect came to be How Source Connect works In what ways can Source Connect help VO talent Can you only pay for Source Connect for a single booking? Do you need to run a backup during your session? First look at Source Connect 4! What Robert sees the future of VO looking like [CLICK HERE](https://bit.ly/3uPpO8i) for 15% off a Voice123 Membership ($359 tier and up) Terms & Conditions (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CcYMkdLxWfbmwbvu-mwaurLNtWYVpIBgkJpOQTYLDwc/edit?usp=sharing) Learn more + Sign up for Source Elements HERE (https://www.source-elements.com/) *Follow Atlanta Voiceover Studio Here: * facebook.com/atlantavoiceoverstudio instagram.com/atlantavoiceoverstudio twitter.com/atlvostudio tiktok.com/@atlantavoiceoverstudio YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/gGPFePt8Rfs Atlanta Voiceover Studio & ProVoiceoverTraining's Classes & Workshops www.AtlantaVoiceoverStudio.com www.ProVoiceoverTraining.com **Sign up for FREE weekly VO tips: https://bit.ly/AVSemail

This week, Robbo, Robert, George, and AP dive headfirst into the digital abyss of archiving audio sessions. It's a showdown of practices, preferences, and pure paranoia that none of us want to miss. We're slicing through the magnetic tape of mystery to answer the burning question: To archive or not to archive? That is the question. Especially for voice actors like AP - is digital hoarding a necessary evil, or just a fast track to a cluttered hard drive? We're peeling back the layers on why every beep, click, and voiceover session might just be worth its weight in digital gold. Robbo, with his trusty naming convention stolen from his days at Foxtel, shares his vault-like approach to keeping every sonic snippet since Voodoo Sound's inception. That's right, folks - for a mere $25, Robbo will keep your audio safe from the digital gremlins, guaranteeing that not even a rogue magnet could erase your audio masterpiece. Then there's Robert, with his tech fortress of JBODs and RAID arrays, ensuring not even a single byte goes awry. It's like Fort Knox for soundwaves over there, proving once and for all that redundancy isn't just a good idea; it's the law in the land of post-production. But wait, there's a twist! Robbo shares a cautionary tale that's straight out of an audio engineer's nightmare - precious recordings lost to the abyss of DAT tape oblivion. A horror story to chill the bones of any audio professional, reminding us all of the fragility of our digital (and not-so-digital) creations. As for AP? He's the wild card, questioning the very fabric of our digital hoarding habits. But when push comes to shove, even AP can't deny the siren call of a well-placed backup, especially when clients come knocking for that one session from yesteryear. We also get a deep dive into the eccentricities of backup strategies, from George's cloud-based safety nets to the analog nostalgia of reel-to-reel tapes. It's a journey through time, technology, and the occasional Rod Stewart office painting gig - because, why not? So, gear up for an episode that's part backup seminar, part group therapy for data hoarders. We're dissecting the digital, analog, and everything in between to keep your audio safe, sound, and ready to resurface at a moment's notice. Don't miss this electrifying episode of The Pro Audio Suite, where the backups are plentiful, and the stories are even better. Who's backing up this podcast, you ask? Well, let's just hope someone hit record. A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson Summary In the latest episode of the pro audio suite, we dive into the world of audio archiving and discuss the various approaches and philosophies toward preserving our work. We're joined by industry professionals including Robert Marshall from source elements and Darren 'Robbo' Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging, as well as George 'the tech' Wittam and Andrew Peters, who share their personal strategies and experiences with archiving voiceover projects. The conversation opens with a discussion about the importance of having a naming convention for files, with insights on the methods adopted from professional entities like Foxtel. Listeners will learn the value of archiving everything, as shared by Robbo, including the practice of charging a backup fee to clients to cover the costs of maintaining archives. George introduces his once-a-year protocol of transferring data to an archive hard drive, emphasizing how affordable data storage has become. However, he also highlights the importance of staying current with technology to avoid the obsolescence of media, sharing anecdotes about DA 88 tapes and the need to keep track of archival materials. The episode touches on practical voiceover tips, like not necessitating a workstation at home and utilizing a laptop as a backup plan for voiceover recording. We also cover the worst-case scenarios such as dealing with corrupted audio and the advantages of modern backup solutions. The discussion moves on to cloud storage, specifically iCloud, and its benefits for voice actors who might otherwise become digital hoarders. The team debates the challenges of booting up from an external drive on modern Mac systems like the M1 or M2, offering insights into the workaround solutions which may require additional purchases. Listeners are reminded of the great offers from our sponsors, such as Tribooth for the perfect home or on-the-go vocal booth and Austrian Audio's commitment to making passion heard. The episode comes to a close emphasizing the professional edge of the podcast, all thanks to the contributions of Triboof and Austrian Audio, and the craftsmanship deployed using Source Connect, with post-production by Andrew Peters and mixing by Voodoo Radio Imaging. The audience is invited to subscribe to the show and participate in the conversation via the podcast's Facebook group. #VoiceOverTechTips #TriBoothTales #ArchivingAudioArt Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction: Tributh Vocal Booth (00:00:42) Archiving Discussion with Robbo (00:07:34) Talent Experiences with Archiving (00:13:17) Digital Media Frailties (00:18:48) Tape Transfers Before Auctions (00:21:27) Backup Plans in Voiceover Work (00:27:39) Importance of Redundancy (00:31:04) Apple Silicon Booting Limitations (00:35:25) Podcast Credits & Reminder to Subscribe Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready? Be history. Speaker B: Get started. Speaker C: Welcome. Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone to the pro audio suite. These guys are professional. They're motivated. Speaker C: Thanks to tributh, the best vocal booth for home or on the road. Voice recording and austrian audio making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from source elements and someone audio post Chicago, Darren. Robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging, Sydney. To the Vo stars, George the tech Wittam from LA, and me, Andrew Peters, voiceover talent and home studio guy. Speaker B: Learn up, learner. Here we go. : And don't forget the code. Trip a p 200 and that will get you $200 off your tribooth. Now, Robbo and I were having a bit of a chat the other day about archiving, which is something I strangely do, and I don't know why I do it, but I do. But there are different reasons for archiving, and mine is obviously completely different to Robert's. And of course, it's completely different from Robo's. So how much do you archive and how far back do your archives go? Speaker A: Well, as I said in the conversation yesterday, I actually archive everything. I could pretty much pull out any session I've done since voodoo sound existed, which is fast approaching 20 years. But I do charge a backup fee to my clients, so they pay $25 for the privilege. And, look, to be fair, whether they pay it or not, I do archive it, but it's a built in cost covering for me to be able to go and buy a couple of hard drives every year. But I reckon if you're going to do it, the most important thing for me anyway, is having some sort of naming convention. So I actually pinched mine off Foxtel when I used to freelance there. The channels had a three letter prefix. So I give all my clients or podcasts a three letter prefix, and then I use an underscore, and then it'll be what the thing is, whether it's a program or imaging component or whatever, and then the name of it, and then the month, and then an underscore, and the date the day of that month, and then an underscore in the year, and then usually. Sometimes after that, if it's a revision, I'll do underscore r two, r three, r four. And then each year is on its own hard drive or hard drives. So if I need to go back and find something, I've just got an external hard drive player, shall we call it? I can't think of what you call them, but you just plug your hard drive in and it turns up on your Mac, and I can just go through and find what I need. But, yeah, I've got clients that are sort of expecting me to do that. As you and I were talking about yesterday, I don't know whether maybe voiceover artists are expected to or not, but as I said, I kind of thought it would be nice to be able to. : I do it only on occasions if there's any chance that they're going to come back and want to do a revision or they're going to lose something, particularly if it's a massive session or something, that I've actually done the edit myself. I'll keep it, because you can bet your life that they're the ones who are going to come back and say, have you still got that thing? Because we've lost it. Speaker A: Yes. : It's like, no, I haven't, actually. So I keep all those things, but I was keeping day to day stuff and it was like, what's the point? It's like that stuff's already been on the air and it's off the air, it's gone. So why am I storing that for other people? But, yeah. Interesting. What about you, Robert? : I have a couple perspectives on this, I guess, from just sort of a mix operation point of view. What we have is what you call, it's a JBOD, just a bunch of drives is what it stands for. And it's controlled with the raid controller. So there's eight drives in this one, and it's not that big, actually. It's only, what is it? Like maybe two terabytes or something? And across all eight drives are all of our jobs that are sort of current, essentially. And the way the JBOD works is that it's an array. And so you can literally lose any one of those eight drives can just completely go to crap and we won't lose any data. You just slide a drive back in there and it heals. Speaker B: A raid five or a raid six. : Raid six, actually. Speaker B: Right. : So you can lose two out of the eight, I believe, is what we are. And we've had it over the last ten years. When we bought it, we just bought a whole stack of the same hard drives. And we've only had to use like two in the last ten years. So that's like kind of our live job. And then what we do, we would have all of our live jobs on that drive. And then if we ran out of space, we would peel out whatever, we would just go for the jobs that aren't active. So some of these jobs that we have were on that drive and have never been. They just keep on coming back, essentially. So they're always on the active drive. Meanwhile, the people that come in and do one thing and then they're gone, you never see them again. They get moved off, and then we would make two copies of that. And what we've been doing now is like, I'll go home with one and Sean will go home with the other. But however it goes, they're just basically on dead drives, or they're not spinning anymore, they're just sitting on a shelf so we can access those and then what we have. So last for a backup of the main drive. Ray, if the building was to burn down, I was using time machine and then taking a drive home every now and then. But we started using backblaze, which is just a really good service. It's like cheap for the year, and it just backs up. As long as the drive is spinning, they don't charge you. I think by the size, it just has to be an active drive. So that's our off site backup. And then we just have a database, which is really just a spreadsheet where a job comes in. We have like a naming convention, and we name it by the job name and then a job number, and there's a database that has basically every time that job was ever touched. So to us, these are all like a bunch of little rolling snowballs that get bigger and bigger and bigger and jobs come back and they get added to, or they just never go away. And they're always on the active drive. And that's how we do the post operation, the music operation. When I'mixing a band, I just have like a hard drive that sticks around with me for a while and then eventually it gets put on a shelf. And I have a lot of these drives that are sort of just dated. And I've used source zip a lot back in the day when I was low on hard drive space. But the problem is some of these drives are 40 pin ide drives, and I keep around a one firewire case that has a 40 pin. Like I can plug in any one of these hard drives. And then others are SATA. And those are really easy with the USB slots or the USB docking for the SATA drives, but it's looser. I just basically go by date and the client will say, hey, I did something with you, and I'll just go rummaging through my hard drives and hopefully find one from that date. Every now and then you may do two hard drives in a year, but those are my two systems. One is very stringent and good. And the other one is loose. : So George, do you know any other talent who know archive their sessions? Speaker B: I think the vast majority barely are functional on a computer that I work with. So they have extremely minimal protocol. : I know a lot of talent that don't even make a backup to be honest. Speaker B: Yeah. As far as they're concerned, once they got paid they could care less, it's gone. Some people are more data processing type people like me and they like to keep everything they've recorded. So what I would tell people, which almost never comes up, but my protocol is I have an archive hard drive that I will dump things onto about once a year. So I'm basically clearing space off of my local drive, cloud drives. I use Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud. So stuff's in different places for different reasons. My business is on Google Drive, right. So every single client folder is on Google Drive at all times. And there's something around a terabyte or so there. And that's not that much because I'm not doing multi track productions or in most cases any video. Right. It's just small numbers of files. But my client media folder is on disk anyway because it's bigger than what's on my disk. But what's on disk is about 250gb and there's roughly 32,000 items in that folder. : Wow. Speaker B: And then it's funny, I just have 26 folders, ABCD and so forth. And the biggest folder is the letter C. So statistically there are more people by the name of C and I go by first names, right? So first names with c are the most common. Then s, then j, then a, then D, then m. It's kind of funny, I have all these weird statistics about names because I have 4000 clients. So it's really interesting to see some of the names that are so common. : I've got stuff. This is how stupid it is. I think I'm actually an order. I've got files here. Like I keep a folder for each client and then every session gets put into the folder, right? I look at some of them and even looking at the folder go, God, I haven't worked with those guys for years. And then you open the folder and look at the date of the sessions. It's like that was like 15 years ago. What the hell am I keeping that for? Speaker B: It's amazing, right? Well, data is cheap. It's really cheap to store data. I mean it's never been cheaper, so it's kind of like there's no harm in doing it you just have to eventually clear house. You're eventually going to fill your cloud drive or your local drive. So you have to have some kind of protocol to then move things. : You eventually have to take it into your own domain and not have it up on the cloud. Speaker B: Right. : And there's an old thing with data, though, which is you don't have a copy unless you have two copies. Speaker B: Right. True. This is what I think is interesting. So all these cloud storage scenarios have not changed price or capacity in many years. They're all still $10 for a terabyte or two terabytes. And that hasn't changed in a long time. : The meaning of a terabyte hasn't changed. Speaker B: Right. So what they're doing is they're making progressively more money per terabyte over the years. Yes, because their cost of storage is dropping, dropping, dropping year after year, and they're just keeping the price the same. : But they are continuously having to reinvest. Because another thing about archive and storage is that any. And this is the problem I have. It's like an archive is not a static thing. It must be moved and massaged, and you have to keep it moving with the technology going forward. Because if not, you end up with things like, I've got archives. I mean, I've got analog reel to reel tapes, plenty of those with stuff on them. And I can dig up the deck to play it back. But once you don't have that deck anymore, you just don't have it. And I've got dat backups and exabyte backups. Remember those, robo? Speaker A: Yeah, I do. : And CD Roms. And then. How about this one? That happened to me. I did a whole huge. One of the biggest albums I ever did, and I backed it up to a stack of dvds, dvdrs, dvdrs, like four gigs each. Four gigs each, I think. Were they four gigs each? Is that how much they were? I think so, yeah, four. Speaker A: And then dual layer were eight or something, weren't they? : Eight, right. Okay. And these were some crappy ones. Within three years, I went to play those things. And basically. Data rot. Yeah, it's gone. That's when you learn the lesson. And so if you don't keep your data moving, you don't know what's going to happen to that physical device that's holding it. And not just what happens to it, but what happens to the ability to even use that type of device or that type of software that reads it. Speaker A: Here's the interesting thing, right? I dragged out an old laptop case that I used to store all my dats in when I used to sort of freelance. And I always had dats, especially for radio imaging of bits and pieces that I would drag around with me. And I had to pull it out the other day. And this thing's been sitting in my garage, right? So not temperature controlled, not dust controlled, nothing else. There's about 60 dats in this thing. And I've got an old. It's not even on a digital database. It's an old sort of folder that's got like each dat has its own master and all that sort of shit. So I pulled this out, right? This is stuff that I recorded when I was still at AA in Adelaide. So we're talking 1996, right? I dragged this dad out and my trusty portable Sony Walkman, the TCD D 100, dragged that out, put some batteries in, plugged it into my Mac, chucked the dad in, going, there's no way this is going to work. Hit, dialed up the track number, play, bang, spun up to it, played it back. Pristine. Absolutely pristine. Speaker B: No glitches, no static. : I've had the same thing happen where the DaP machine has been completely screwed. And then you have to get a new DAP machine, but at least you can get those. But when the dat tapes go, you're kind of sol. Exactly your sol. Maybe you can find a read pass that works, but for the most part, that part of the tape is just like screwed. But that kind of thing happens even with files. I had a road. No, not a road. A zoom road. You'd be happy to know it's a zoom. And it was like a zoom recorder. Recorded the files, full concert, got home to play it. Files, complete silence. And it turns out that basically the zoom didn't like the little SD card. It was too slow, it was too this. And every indication was everything was fine until that file got big enough for the SD card to freak out. So all these mediums, even the new ones, still have their frailties. And I know dats are really known for being frail. Like, look at it wrong and it's never going to play back. Speaker B: Well, they're really pro media, right? The pro devices that use media like solid state media usually have redundant disks. They all have two slots, whether it's SD or CF or some other high speed. They'll always have a double slot because they have redundancy that's totally pro level. That's for doing like. : Because if you don't have two copies, you don't have one. Speaker B: Yeah, that's like when you're doing mission critical. You cannot afford to lose what you're doing. My daughter's a work at. : Exactly. : Yes, indeed. Speaker B: The oldest media I have still in a crate in my parents basement are DA 88 tapes, which were high eight digital tapes, and I don't have a machine anymore. I really don't recall telling my dad it's okay to sell my remaining Tascam Da 88, but apparently he did happen. : So I was just at La studios, and they still have their PCM 800 in the rack, which is a Sony version of a D 88. I still have eight at's around. And then. Speaker B: Yeah, I have no idea if those D 88. Some of them will work somewhat don't. I don't have a machine. I don't have any ide drives anymore. Everything's SATA. But one day I pulled up this Corboro box with like, 15 SATA drives, and I realized I could just go to Costco and buy $100 hard drive and literally put that entire box into one hard drive. And I could probably do that. In fact, I think three or four years ago, somebody said, hey, do you have this thing? And I went, I think I do. And I pulled out the archive drive and it wouldn't mount. I was like, okay, this is going to happen. Speaker A: But here's the other thing, right? And this is the thing that annoys me, and I've made this mistake, is you've got to keep a track of this stuff because you're always trying to sort of downsize your archives, I guess. And this is the classic mistake that I made. For years, I carried around these 15 inch reels of analog tape, right? Stereotape. My first demo of commercials and stuff was on this stuff. And when I finally landed this place called take two, which was my last sort of full time post production gig, they still had a quarter inch machine. And we're talking 2001, 2002. And I thought, right, this is probably the last time I'm going to see one of these. So I transferred it all carefully, professionally onto dats and all that. I had about three dats of stuff. And about two years later, I went looking for them. Do you reckon I've ever seen them again? I've lost them somewhere. But whereas a 25 inch reel. Sorry, a 15 inch reel, that's pretty hard to lose, you know what I mean? So it's like, you got to be careful. : Yeah, well, it's funny, when I was a kid, this is slightly off topic, but I suppose archiving in a strange way. But during summer holidays, a mate of mine, we used to go and try and get jobs. And his brother was a painter and decorator and he used to get us out, know, doing a bit of labouring for him. And he said, oh, do you guys want to earn some money? It's like, yeah. Yeah. So we jumped in his transit van and we took off down to London and ended up working in a recording studio. And we were painting Rod Stewart's office. : What, pink. : And he had above this. I can tell you exactly what color it was. Mission Brown and burnt orange. : I knew there'd be something like pink or orange. Yeah, there you go. Speaker B: Brown and orange headphones right here. : Yes, that's right. Yeah, it was pretty funny. But the recording studio downstairs, they just used to bin all this quarter inch tape, just throw it away. So it was bins full of. My dad was in electronics, so I thought I might just help myself to some of those. I mean, they're throwing them away after all. And it was just seven inch reels. So I just grabbed a whole bunch of seven inch reels out of the bin, took them home and didn't play them for some peculiar reason. We just recorded over the top of them. Speaker A: Right. : God knows what was on those tapes. Speaker B: Can you imagine? : So check it out. One of the studios that I freelance at one of the gigs they had was transferring before auctioning off these tapes that this janitor got out of a recording studio in New York. It was CBS or something. Turns out it's like the masters or some early tapes from Dylan's first. Speaker A: Wow. : So they auctioned them and then in order to prove, like, they had to have one playback, I don't know, they ended up supervising the transfer. But literally, it's, know, these tapes, they were supposed to go through the bulk erase, but not all of them would make it to the bulk erase. And this guy apparently was kind of into folk music and just happened to pull these out. And they just passed around for years and years until finally some grandparent or somebody is like, we're going to auction these. Speaker A: Do you reckon they stuck them in the microwave before they played them back? : Well, it's not the microwave. You put them in the dryer, in the dehydrator. Speaker A: I've heard stories and stories. It was always the microwave for me. We always used to nuke them. And you'd get one playback, but. Yeah, I haven't heard of the dryer. : But that's getting that tape. Because you ever seen one that does it, that you don't do that to? Yeah, well, it peels like it peels. It's the scariest thing. It goes through that pinch roller. One piece of tape comes into the pinch roller and two pieces of tape come out. One is the original tape. The other one's the oxide that briefly looks like a piece of tape until it crumbles into dust. Speaker A: Yeah. And the other is the back. : And you're just like, because it's playing. And you're like, okay, I should just let it play because this is the. Speaker A: Last playback should have been rolling on this ever. Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? But going back to the Rod Stewart thing, was it Steve Balby on this show that was talking about. Steve was the bass player for noiseworks and his next band was what was greedy people, electric hippies. And they needed multi track to record their album. So they snuck into the archives and stole a couple of the noise works ones. : Yeah, they stole some multi track tape from somewhere. Speaker A: Yeah, it was noiseworks. They went and stole. : Over some band's archive. Speaker A: Well, his first bands. Yeah, the previous band, they stole their previous band's multi tracks and used those to record on. : Okay. At least it was theirs. : Bad archiving there. Speaker A: I know. I guess the other thing that this whole subject leads to, and I guess, George, this is more up your alley, is the thing that always terrifies me is if I've got a remote session, I'll set it up the night before and I'll test everything and I'll save it and make sure that I don't really shut anything down. I'll just leave it all working. But the thing that terrifies me as I'm walking back into the room, know what's gone wrong overnight when the computer's gone to sleep? Has something ticked over or something gone wrong? And I'm going to open up the computer and I'm just going to get into this panic that something's not working. Is there anybody out there in voiceover land, George, who has a plan b? Or who's ever thought about having a plan b? Like, okay, so if my main computer, for some reason just cocks it and I can't get a sound out of it, what am I going to, pushing a broom? Yeah, what am I going to do? Speaker B: I mean, the plan b is most people have a desktop and a laptop, so the laptop is the plan b. That's pretty much it. Home studio voice actors systems are pretty, let's face it, low end. I mean, you don't need a workstation, a $5,006 workstation to do voiceover at home. So you really just need another computer. And for most people, that's going to be the laptop. : It's the travel rig. Isn't the travel rig the backup rig, too? Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I've had clients run and grab their travel rig when something completely goes haywire with their Apollo or whatever, and they're panicking, and I'm like, just pull out your MacBook, plug in your Micboard Pro, plug in your 416, and get the job done and move on. And the client will be happy because you're in your studio, which sounds amazing, so don't worry. Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: So that's the backup plan for any really true busy professional voice actor. : When I used to really panic about capturing audio that it wouldn't go wrong, I would actually have two microphones. I worked at two microphones, one going to the main computer and one going to the laptop, and I'd have them both recorded. Speaker B: Yeah, that's like BBC, remember? Wasn't like the 70s where they would literally duct tape. A second mic was for the television show and one was for the film. : You would see that many microphones. Exactly. Speaker B: That's true, because they didn't have distro boxes and splitters and stuff back in those days, I guess. But, yeah, we've never gone to that extent. In the beginning of my career, I did have clients running pro tools that had a DAT backup. That was definitely protocol. Pro Tools was so glitchy. : Yeah. You would run a dat backup with a dat tape. In fact, the way we ran the DAT backup was that you would record the talent in stereo, and then you'd put the clients on the left side so that you had both sides of the conversation. But the talent was always at least isolated on one channel. If you ever needed just the talent. Speaker A: There you go. Speaker B: Yeah, I retired. Dat backups were my clients 15 years ago. But Howard Parker had one. He had a Dat recorder, and he would just hit record every time he'd walk into the booth on the dat and rewind it, because we just didn't know if he'd walk out in a half hour later. And pro Tools had a 61, whatever the hell it is. Buffer. Speaker A: One of those fun errors that pop up that you got to go google what it means. Yeah. Speaker B: As a voice actor who's solo working at home in their closet or their booth. And at those times, we didn't necessarily have a second monitor, keyboard, and mouse in the booth. So you don't want to lose a session. You don't lose in a half an hour, an hour or 2 hours narration. That's the worst. The worst ever is when there's a nonsensical glitch during a two hour session and you don't know what's happening. You have no idea. And meanwhile, the audio is basically garbage. It's like static. : That's why sometimes in a session it is a good idea when you're like, okay, this is good. Stop and record a new file. Because computers like, if something's going to happen, it's more likely to happen to a big file. Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon for a file that was really big to be more likely to get corrupted, essentially. Speaker B: Well, I have set up a modern equivalent to the DAT backup which is getting like $100 task cam, flash recorder, real basic one. And then plugging an output from their interface or their mixer into that and then saying, listen, you're doing a phone patch. It's a two hour narration. You do not want to lose that work. Just hit record on that thing over there. Now you have a backup. You'll almost never, ever need it. But the one time that you need. : That freaking backup, if you don't make the backup, you'll need it. If you do make the backup, you won't need. Speaker B: It's like if you don't bring an umbrella. : Exactly. Speaker B: It's going to rain. : Exactly. Speaker B: That is an absolutely dirt cheap and extremely simple. You can even have a scarlet two I two. And as long as you're not using monitor speakers plugged into it, you can just use the outputs, put it in direct monitor mode and it'll just send whatever you're saying straight out the back line into your Tascam. Like I'm saying, $100 recorder. The basics, the really basic one. And record. : Yeah, it might be through like a little 8th inch connection. It might be mono, it might be analog. But you know what? It's going to be something compared to nothing. It'll probably be. No one will even know that it wasn't necessarily a digital copy. Speaker B: Yeah, it can be a 16 bit 44 or 48 wave. It's fine. I've set this up for a lot of people and when I go to their studios or I talk to them, they almost always say I haven't used it in a long time because they're so used to it being reliable until. Speaker A: It doesn't work, until the day it falls over. Yeah, exactly. Speaker B: And that's why I have clients that hire me and I work with them on a membership and like a contract and I check their systems out on a regular basis. Like, I do maintenance. I check. How much drive space do you have? Are you backing up? Is the backup working? Oh, crap. The time machine backup hasn't worked for six months. And you had no idea you filled. : Your time machine drive. Exactly. Speaker B: Or you filled your time machine, or whatever it is. It can sometimes just corrupt, get corrupt. What's my time machine right now say? It says cleaning up. I don't know how long it's been saying cleaning up. Maybe for a month. I have no idea. I just clicked on. It says cleaning up. So redundancy is really important for those big jobs that, where you're the engineer. : Essentially, the thing that starts to separate really pro operation from. It's like if you're there with a backup when someone needs it, and they're like, I didn't even expect you to have it, but you have it, you're delivering, and I think there's. Speaker B: Yeah, of course. I'm keeping everything I ever do. It's all in the cloud. At any moment, someone will email me and say, my computer crashed, I lost my stacks. I also can't find the email you sent me with the stacks or the email you sent me with the stacks. The links don't work anymore because it was another cloud based system that I don't use anymore. Right. I'm like, no problem. Within, like, ten, I can literally be on my phone, go to Google Drive, put in their name. We would just right click on that thing, and we would get the share link email to the client. I'm like, here's your folder. Here's literally everything I've ever done for you. And they're always grateful, and I never charge for it because I feel like we charge a pretty penny for what we do, and it's just one of those things that's so incredibly simple. It's not like I'm trying to keep online. I'm not trying to keep an online storage of, like, two terabytes for a client. These are not big folders. A big client folder is 2gb. Speaker A: You got to be careful what you keep, though, too, don't you? Because you can become a bit of a hoarder very quickly. You really can. Speaker B: Data hoarding, what's the problem? It's digital. Data hoarding is like, I could care less. Again, I'm not dealing in video, and I'm not dealing in big projects. So I can keep thousands of folders, which I do, and I don't care. It's no skin off my back. Speaker A: See, I used to back up all my video, too. All the videos that came in for tv commercials and stuff and the revisions. And I used to keep every video back, all that up. After a while, I just went, man, this is crazy. So I keep it for, like, it ends up two years now because I basically have two hard drives that I rotate. So when one's full, I'll take it out, stick it aside, get the other one, put it in and erase it and go again. So, I mean, I figure two years is enough. Speaker B: I feel like for any voice actor, it's an absolute no brainer to use some kind of cloud storage iCloud or Google Drive. ICloud is essentially automatic. The second you put anything into your desktop or your documents folder on any modern Mac, it is in the cloud. It just is. And so it's kind of a dirty trick to get you to upgrade your cloud, because it will fill up very quickly. But if you're not the kind of person that wants to think about another service and pay for another service and shop for one, and then think of a way to just use the dang icloud. It's built in, it's automatic, it's cheap, $10 a month for two terabytes. It'll take you a long time to fill that thing up. Just to me, it's a no brainer. And if you're on windows, there's an equivalent in the Windows side. I just don't know what it is. One drive, I think. Speaker A: Yeah, I heard you mention time machine before. Can I give a shameless plug to someone who's not a sponsor of the show, but something I've used for years and I love is carbon copy cloner, which is. : Yes, I love carbon. I use the Jesus out of that. Speaker B: I used to use it. I don't use it anymore. Speaker A: Such a good piece of software. Speaker B: Yeah, no, the beauty of that was you could have a secondary disk that was plugged into the computer that was literally an absolute copy duplicate of your computer. So you could literally have the system drive crap out, hold down, and you. : Can use that as your targeted backup. I used to point my hard drive at home to the hard drive at work so that it could get onto the back blaze at work. Speaker B: Oh, wow. Speaker A: Yeah, wow. There you go. Speaker B: That's a hack. Well, yeah, I mean, just to have. That was a nice thing. Now, here's the thing. Here's a little gotcha for all us Apple people. If you're on an m one or any of the silicon macs, they can no longer boot with a dead system drive. So if your system drive in any silicon Mac is toast. You cannot boot to an external USB drive. Speaker A: Oh really? Speaker B: There you go. Speaker A: I've got one running. I've got a backup running, so that's no good to me. Speaker B: If the internal drive system is blown away, it's unaware of any external drive. Speaker A: Why did they do that? Speaker B: I don't know. Ask Tim Apple. : It's Macintosh. That's why they did that. Speaker B: Yeah, Apple. Apple. : Because it's the slow progression of your computer into an. Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, right. Speaker B: Yeah. : That's annoying. I mean, I live and die on option. Booting the computer and having like some. Speaker B: I'll check. I will re verify that. But when the silicon Macs first came out, this was a bonus contention. People were talking. So here's just what the first search result on Google says. If you're using a Mac computer with Apple silicon, your Mac has one or more USB or Thunderbolt ports that have a type c connector. While you're installing macOS on your storage disk, it matters which of these ports you use. Okay, well, that's totally irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the answer I'm looking for. How do you start up your m one or m two from an external drive? There's another thing. It's not easy as it used to be and likely requires that you purchase. : I mean, you used to be able to boot up a Mac from the network. Speaker B: Yeah, I'm reading this article from Mac World. I'm just skimming through it. Awesome. I don't want to say something that's untrue, but this is what I recall day one when it came out. This is what somebody said. Speaker A: That's really annoying. Speaker B: So yes, you have to have a certain type of drive. Actually, this article mentions Bombich's carbon copy cloner. Speaker A: So we'll boot from that. : No, it just mentions carbon to copy your drive probably. Speaker B: Yeah, they're explaining the entire process. But that external drive has to be formatted in the correct way. Let's say you buy just a random hard drive, like a western digital, and you plug it in and then make that your clone. It will not work. : You have to be. You always had to make it like guide partition. I think it was something like that. It changed over the years. It used to be even like hfs plus. And then it's. Speaker B: Yeah, now it's apfs. : Yes, the container. Speaker B: Yeah, it's apfs. So I know we're going down a rabbit hole here, but yeah, this is the kind of thing you have to think about if you're really wanting to have redundancy and have a system that can essentially crash and be online within a minute. And for most voice actors, that's going to be just too frustrating and difficult to maintain. And for them just to have another computer that can plug in and go is really the most practical thing to do. : That is kind of like the ultimate backup. Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to get rid of my Mbox pro and my 2012 Mac Pro, but I think I might hang on to both of those and they might just be my backup. Speaker B: Well, if it's easy for you to plug those in and get back, right back to work, then it's worth keeping. Speaker A: I reckon that's the thing. I might just sit them in the garage, put them away in a box and seal it up and I can just grab them when I need them. Speaker B: Yeah, sounds good. : Sounds good to me. Speaker B: Sounds good to me. Speaker A: Well, who's backing up this podcast then? Speaker B: Oh shoot. Speaker A: Did you hit record? Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over? Speaker C: The pro audio suite with thanks to Triboof and austrian audio recorded using source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the tech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic, or just say good day, drop us a note at our website, theproaudiosuite.com. #AudioArchiving #ProAudioSuite #SoundEngineering #BackupStrategies #DigitalHoarding #AudioProduction #VoiceOverTips #RecordingStudioLife #TechTalks #AudioPreservation  

The Voiceover Actor Road Map About Emma: Emma O'Neill is a multi-award-winning voice actor specializing in radio and TV commercials, TV narration, TV promo, and corporate training videos. Outside the booth, she's a fitness and wellness enthusiast, and has been a certified yoga instructor for more than 25 years. About Mike: Mike Tobin is an accomplished, Montreal-born, award-nominated voice actor, MC, and event announcer who has made his ultra-fluent bilingualism the cornerstone of his brand for more than 20 years. He also loves technology and is an avid Mac enthusiast. What it's like to be a voiceover actor in Canada. And it can be very isolating and very lonely. So when you have people that understand the business, they understand the hustle. They understand the self-doubt that can come with things during slow times, or, you know, I was talking to somebody yesterday, and it was, you know, why them and not me that you can get into these spins in your head. And when you have someone who understands all of the levels of that, it's just; it makes you feel less crazy, it makes you feel less alone, it makes you feel like, you know what, I can reach out to Mike today, I have a little bit, and with Mike and I, it's great because we work so closely together, we've kind of gotten to this place where if I'm losing my mind, he's calm, and if he's losing his mind, I'm calm, so it's like, oh, this works, this is great, thank you. The universe's wind blows at different times. Part of this comes from our leaning on using accountability groups, which is a big part of our experience. So we do have our accountability groups that we lean on, but sometimes you just need one person. Weekly accountability group: At the beginning of every session, I say, okay, what did you do from this last week to this week? And in the end, what are you going to do? And we get into that and how important that is. So, I love that you guys are talking about weekly accountability. There are the things that are there regularly. There are, of course, auditions. Audition has to play a big part in every voice actor's life. There's only a few things you're going to get. Unless you're getting direct clients, which is another part of it, which is marketing and following up and keeping on top of all the business aspects of it, it's so huge. Many people who are creative, artistic, and talented get into this industry and this business—all the things that put a voice to a microphone, but then everything else. It can be very scary and intimidating for them because, after all, it's the voiceover business. You can have clients around the world. It doesn't matter, especially now with the connectivity that we have with Source Connect and other technologies. So it comes from all over the place. I love that you said that voiceover is a global industry. I love that. It's just because there's so much possibility. What do you think is the most important thing starting in Voiceover? Coaching. I always say coaching is the most important thing. There's voiceover, and there's voice acting. And there are people who don't do commercials. They don't do video games. They don't do audiobooks. They don't do character-based work. They do e-learning and corporate and stuff like that, which is still character-based, but it's much more accessible to the average person. You're not necessarily fully fleshing out a character. There's a commercial promo TV narration, things like that; you are fully fleshing out a character, but you still need to understand the nuance. Acting is acting. Period. End of sentence. It's got nothing to do with the sound of your voice but everything to do with the connection to the story. So, you need to understand the story you are telling. Once you understand the story you're telling and who you are in that story, whether you're just the storyteller or actually participating in the story, you can do whatever aspect of voice. So I think that with that, with getting it telling the story, this is the difference between voice acting and voiceover, is that I think that with AI coming in, and it's not going to go away. We need to work with it and understand it that as a voice actor, to be able to connect with the story, that part of voice isn't going to be taken over by AI. Because a computer can't yet do that. Acting is key. Learning the craft is key. I will say that people need to have some foundations in business in general. So they need to educate themselves and train themselves on basic things. I was listening to a show on the radio recently. They were talking about how many people now entering the workforce force don't have what we call many of the soft skills that are just expected of people in business, how to write a good email, how to handle yourself on a telephone call, how to, handle yourself in a meeting, either face to face with a real person or over video conferencing. So, many of the soft skills required to have a successful business need to be there to support your craft. The craft is great. You need it. You need to train to differentiate yourself, but if you can't deal with people, sell yourself, and market yourself, you'll be a great actor but won't make any money. Talk to me about AI. What are your thoughts about AI? AI, synthetic voice, generative voice, anything that is learning. It's not going to go away. And it's something that we need to be on top of, and I watch other actors who are much more advanced in their career than I am. When this became a thing, they jumped on it immediately, created their own avatar voice, and are using it for all sorts of things. I think with any new technology; there's always the fear, right? And because, yes, anything new, especially in technology, can be used for not the greater good as we're seeing already, there are also fantastic things that can come from this. It's just like a voice actor putting, creating your own synthetic voice. You can use that for pickups and long-form narration. You can use that; you're getting on a plane on vacation, and your agent's I need this audition now. And you're like, I am sitting on the plane. You've already got your different voices put into whatever version you're using, whatever platform you're using. So, the 11 labs. For example, you can put feed corporate, your corporate voice in your radio voice in all of your different voices and create like voice one through 10. And so this particular copy, you just feed the text into the AI and it spits it back out in your voice. And you just like. Let them know this is my AI voice. It's not actually me, but at least they get their copy in my voice. They can hear the basics of how this would sound and I can do and there's been so many stories of people doing that and getting off the plane, they've booked the job. Let me ask you, because devil's advocate here, my question is aren't you afraid that they will then take your voice and then just use it and not pay you? I am a cautious skeptic when it comes to the state of AI in voiceover right now. And part of that I think stems from looking at past disruptions of industry. If we take, for example the music industry. The music industry was disrupted in a big way when file sharing started. And to, to what Emma was saying nefarious characters, even though people didn't think they were doing any harm by, sending 500 files over the internet, over Napster in the middle of the night that led to some big changes in the music industry. I would say, you don't need to look very far and headlines and things like that is that the artists still haven't really recovered. I would think I think that there's ripple effects that even go beyond You know the fact that a stream only pays zero point zero zero, whatever how many cents? And I could you know one could argue this is what possibly led to the craze of crazy concert ticket prices and things like that because artists want to make their money and that's where they can do it. To bring it back to voiceover. I think what Emma said that it's not going away, it's there. We need to make ourselves aware. We need to find a way that we can. Leverage this into our own business model. I really praise people like Nava who are doing great things for the industry and who really have our backs and are trying. But like any technological thing the industry, and the technology itself moves forward very quickly, and the legislation and all the protections and the ethics of the whole thing tends to have to catch up. And that's the concern. I agree with what you say that's the concern is there. Is someone going to take our voice and use it without our consent? That is a big worry. But What I'm hearing is that there are technologies that are coming into play that will hopefully protect us. Are we there yet? Doesn't sound like it, but it's coming. So things are moving at light speed. So definitely a finger on the pulse. Let's keep our head up and eyes open and we'll see what happens. It's the importance of having a contract going back. This is a business. You have to have a contract with all of your clients and a contract can be as simple as an email exchange. Once it's writing, it's a contract, but AI specifically working with companies to create synthetic voice to create your own synthetic voice and allowing them to then use said voice to create content. The contract has to be rock solid and there are loads of people in this industry who are really well versed in contract that are willing to review contracts for you. So it's talking about contracts, understanding contracts, what needs to be in the contract, so that it's, this is for this job or for this series of jobs. It's not for anything else. If it changes, you must come back to me with the change. And like I was saying, there's a lot of different technologies that are coming in that it's like, you can water stamp your audio that is not audible to the human ear, no one would ever hear it, but it's, you can track it. I really hope that those technologies that are going to help protect our voice prints and things like that really come to fruition in a very robust way. You go on YouTube, for example, and you search I was watching a video on how to use this AI technology that's built into some of the photo and video editing software. And the person, the content creator says, I'm going to show you how to do this. And this is the tool that you use. And then he says look, when you do this, you'll see that it. It puts a stamp, like a watermark down at the bottom that it says it was created with this technology. Now, let me show you how to remove that watermark. Hopefully we don't experience that kind of thing. What's one business skill that you think is super, super important? I think one of the skills that needs to be honed for many people is the ability to search for information and to vet that information on your own to decide is this good, valid information or is it not. Because we live in an age you can learn to do anything. YouTube University, let me tell you, if your washing machine is stuck and won't turn on, there's a YouTube video that's going to tell you how to fix it. I'm saying the skill to be able to find information that you need. And decide, is this from a source that I trust, is vetted, and then to take that information and take action upon it. I think that's a really critical skill, not just in voiceover but in anything. Networking. Learning how to network and understanding that networking is about relationships. It's not about shoving your business card down someone's throat. It's not about dumping your demos into someone's inbox. It's about getting to know who you're speaking to as a person. Because people are people, at the end of the day, yeah, as a casting director, as a coach, it's a producer, it's a roster, whatever. It's an agent. It's a person. It's a person who has interests outside of the acting world, outside of voiceover. Yeah. Get to know people as people. Build your network and make it into your community. Connect with people as humans, become friends with them. And that's how you're going to build your business is by having people as friends.  

Last week AP unboxed the new Mi Creatore set from Austrian Audio, this week we are putting it through it's paces. While its name implies that it might not be up to the rigours of professional voice over work, our tests might convince you otherwise... A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson        Summary In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, we explore the audio capabilities of the Tributh vocal booth and Austrian audio equipment. On offer is a $200 discount code for listeners, invigorating discussions on the mastery of mic technique, a review of the sound quality of an Austrian Audio microphone, and the fantastic audio benefits of using a cardioid and hypercardioid pickup. Our panel pointed out the similar sound quality Austrian audio provides across varying price points, the possibilities of using the equipment in a stereo pair setting, and the pros of using a heavy-weighted stand. The episode concluded with an appreciation for the Pro Audio mic's simplicity, without any DSP, and its excellent headphone amplifier. This might just be an addition to your audio equipment wish list! #ProAudioInsights #MicTechniques #AustrianAudioReview    Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction to Tributh & Austrian Audio (00:01:01) Sample of Austrian Microphone (00:02:30) Cardioid Vs. Hypercardioid (00:04:46) User Feedback Request (00:08:31) Integrating Multiple USB Mics (00:11:53) Pro Audio Weight Material & Origin    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready?,Speaker B: Be history.,Speaker C: Get started.,Speaker B: Welcome.,Speaker C: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite.,Speaker A: These guys are professional, they're motivated.,Speaker B: Thanks to Tributh, the best vocal booth for home or on the road. Voice recording and Austrian audio making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from source elements and someone audio post Chicago. Darren robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging. Sydney to the Vo stars. George the tech Wittam from La.,: And me.,Speaker B: Andrew Peters, voiceover talent and home, studio Guy.,Speaker C: Learn up, learner. Here we go.,: And don't forget the code trip a P 200. That will get you $200 off your purchase of the fabulous Triboof and Austrian Audio Making Passion Heard. And George.,Speaker A: GeorgeThe, tech TPAs for your discount codes and on over. If you need help.,: We all need help. I desperately need it, I'm told.,: Now, talking of Austrian audio, though, we did an unboxing on camera. That was last week. But anyway, this week we're giving you a sample of what it sounds like. And I keep popping. That's really naughty. This is the my creator. This is what the microphone sounds like. Any thoughts, chaps?,Speaker A: So this is just absolute, because right now mine's a bit hyped. I'm going through my 8118 and I'm definitely hyping it up quite a bit more than probably is necessary. So I'm going to flatten mine because I want to have a really good comparison. Okay. This is the eight one eight with no processing. Totally flat.,: Okay.,Speaker A: And let me hear you again.,: I'm on an unprocessed OC 16 then for a comparison, too.,: There you go.,Speaker A: Got it?,: Oh, yeah. And I've got a feeling I know it's like it's a bit of a weird test because different voices, but my feeling is listening in the headphones to both of you two. This one is closer to the OC 16 than the eight one eight.,: That was my first thought, the first time I heard you on it. Was it's very close to the 16?,: Yeah.,Speaker A: I'm looking to see what pattern I'm into because you guys would be on cardioid. I may not be. So I'm going to check mine.,: When you guys keep talking this one, because I'm pretty sure see, I keep popping.,: There's no professional on the other end of the microphone. That's the problem.,: Yeah, that's right.,: There's also no pop shield.,: If you've got shit mic technique, get a pop guard.,Speaker A: All right, well, now I'm on cardioid, which sounds a bit more natural. I was on a hyper before.,: It does, but it's not as hyped. It's not quite as 4160 sound.,Speaker A: Well, here's the thing. Like on the A one eight, when you're in cardioid, it's a true single capsule cardioid pickup. So you're actually only using the front capsule. So this would be more similar to you guys, because now I'm actually using a single capsule. When I go to hyper, the rear capsule comes into play and that's being mixed in out of phase to create that hypercardioid. So it definitely changes the way you sound on the mic.,: Did you flick it across it in.,: While I was talking, didn't you?,: Yes, it's the opposite to what you were telling. What I was hearing was the opposite to what you said, Robbo, because I think in hypercardioid there's more top end.,Speaker A: In static, it might be a more scooped sound, like more bass and more treble.,: Yeah, maybe that's.,: Yeah, could be.,: Maybe that's.,Speaker A: And this is more mid forward. Yeah, this sounds more mid forward to me.,: Yeah.,: But to me it's not as sort of hyped as this 16 or the creator that AP is on.,Speaker A: And we're hearing your mic, Robo, flat or are you still going through a change?,: No. I'm sending to you guys on source. Connect unprocessed. So I do have some processing in Pro Tools, but you guys aren't hearing that?,Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. It definitely sounds more hype.,: Let me turn it off. Hang on, maybe you are. Let me turn it off.,Speaker A: Hang on.,: Does that make a difference? Hello.,: Oh, yeah.,Speaker A: You sounded a bit like I was pretty hyped sounding earlier. When I turn this on, you get that extra sizzly top end. Yeah, I'll turn that off. And now I'm flat.,: Okay, so now we're all flat. Some kind of a noise gate going on there because all of a sudden I can hear.,: I did have a gate on.,Speaker A: Oh, yeah, me, too.,: Yes, I should have a gate on.,Speaker A: This will be an interesting post mix. You have to decide, Robbo, now, whether you process it in post or leave it. Totally.,: Well, that's the thing. I think I might just have to leave it.,Speaker A: Perhaps disclaimer this episode is raw.,: Is raw. Absolutely.,Speaker A: Just some limiting for the master.,: We're going bareback, but don't Google that.,: Isn't it interesting, though, that and we talked about this in the preview when AP was unboxing. It that Austrian audio have taken the time to make sure that all their products have a pretty similar sort of sound, regardless of price point, even, really, isn't it?,: Yeah.,Speaker A: The voicing of the capsules.,: Yeah.,: I mean, when you can say that an eight one eight, which is what, $1,500 or something, would that be right?,: I don't know. US?,Speaker A: About 1200.,: Yeah. So one $200 US. And you can say that it's reasonably close to the My creator, which is whatever we said that was 100 and something. Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it?,: I'd be curious how this would sound. As I mentioned, when we're doing the unboxing in not a perfect environment. I mean, I've got to say that I'm sitting right next to a laptop computer screens. There's nothing in here that's diffusing any sound whatsoever except my buff head. But apart from that, there's nothing else. So it's not ideal, but I'm kind of thinking of more of a tight sort of environment where you're trying to obviously control some kind of ambient noise in a room that's pretty lively if you're traveling. How this would take to that, that's what I'd be interested in. And the other thing is how it takes to EQ as well. Could be an interesting one.,: So the other thing, though, is that, I mean, this is effectively also a stereo pair, right?,: Yeah.,: Because it comes with the stereo pair.,: Yeah.,: So it'd be interesting to hear it with that open.,: Well, imagine if you were doing here's an example. If you were a voice that did animation.,: Yeah.,: You could space these two mics out by maybe 18 inches or something, and then you've got one capturing the loud source and one if you could actually split them because they can be stereo. So I guess you do, you just monitor left for the one and right track for the other one. And then if you did start overloading the mic that's closest to you, you've got the backup behind you.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: There's a lot of clever ways to use it when there's two separate mic capsules versus a mic that has a stereo mode. Like the ever popular The Yeti from Blue has that multi pattern switch where you can go from omni to cardioid to stereo to figure eight.,: Right.,Speaker A: Well, the mic like this, you have way more flexibility. You can make an XY pair, you can make a Blum line, I think, whatever it's called. You can adjust how you want to use those two mics. Like, you could literally put up a stereo XY pair in front of a string quartet or something and record that.,: But you could even fake it with if you had the two like, instead of doing XY, you just reverse one, stick it basically so the capsule is almost touching each other right. And get some kind of weird omni going. I don't know how that would work.,Speaker A: Yeah, that should work. It's two hemispherical patterns connected in the center. You might have some phasing issues at the center, but yeah, it's more flexible to have two separate microphones to manipulate and do. You can just do so much more.,: Yeah.,: I'm just curious how this microphone actually does sound to the people listening. I mean, if you're listening to it and you like it, just leave a comment down below the notes and stuff. But what I'm hearing is very pleasing, actually. And I'm quite surprised because I did think being a USB mic, that there was going to be inherent issues. The price point, I thought, was going to be an issue for it as well. But I can't really hear anything now.,Speaker A: Roblo, now, I'm not trying to make more work for you, but I'm going to propose something, is that we leave part of the show unprocessed and then you process the remainder of the show the way you normally would. So we can hear what it sounds like raw, and we can hear what we all sound like through your production.,: Through the magic of podcasting. Let's move to the processed show now.,Speaker A: Exactly.,: The point I was going to make was that as a podcaster, if you were a podcaster and you were on, I don't know, let's just pick out a yeti, or you had a chaonica eyeball or something that you were sort of using and you wanted to up your game audio wise.,: I mean, step one, tick hello for.,: 100 and whatever bucks we were just talking about, you've got a new mic.,: That'S automatically going to do that.,: Yeah.,: And it's got an interface built in, so you're set that's it exactly.,Speaker A: I like that. Oftentimes we'll kind of shy away from a USB mic for anybody that's producing content, because it's just a mic. So if you want to add a second person or you want to interview somebody else on site, in physical person, it's not as easy to integrate multiple USB mics, but here you just have that second mic and you've got a two mic system and away you go. It's a clever way, it's sort of an analog, old school way of doing it, but the simplicity of it, I think, is the key here.,: Well, the other thing, too, thinking about.,: That without thinking too deeply, but hearing.,: You say that, and it occurs to me that even if you had more than two people, with some clever placement of those two mics, you could almost.,: Mic up maybe three or four people.,Speaker A: Well, yeah, you could have two and two.,: Yeah, that's right, exactly.,: If you had three, you could have the host on his own and then with some clever mic placement, you could place the other one so that you.,: Were picking up two.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: It all comes down to the room. The room has to be good.,: Yeah, absolutely.,: If you were in a concert hall or something, you probably wouldn't want to yeah.,: But you can also get lav mics. I think they're doing a lav mic as well. That goes with know, that kind of podcasting and all that kind of it's. It's really clever. Here's a thing, I always watch Bandru do this.,Speaker A: Podcastage. Is it podcast age or podcastage?,: Podcastage. It sounds like sort of being tied up and pod hostage, kind of, yeah. I'm being held hostage, so I'm going to tap on the desk. He always does that. So tapping on the desk and this is not ideal, as I said.,Speaker A: No, I mean, I can hear that you're tapping on the desk, but there's absolutely no thumping or rumbling or anything.,: No, it's not actually in the mic stand.,: Oh, now you can hear it now on the stand.,Speaker A: I'm getting it.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: And what stand are you using? Are you using that?,: The gravity?,: Yeah.,Speaker A: So that thing actually is helping a lot to isolate the mic from your desk.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: See, what helps a lot is mass, right. Weight.,: Yes.,Speaker A: So if you have that mic on a very lightweight stand, like a little folding tripod, it probably wouldn't do as well. But putting on a very heavy weighted stand on rubber like that, that's a pretty good package.,: Yeah, yeah, I think it works.,: A I will. I'll stick the link to that mic.,: Stand you're talking about in the show notes.,: The gravity. Yeah, it's a German design. I don't know where it's made. Probably China, but it's certainly designed and engineered.,: It's made out of heavy steel.,Speaker A: Chances are it's coming out of China.,: Yeah.,: Where's the steel from? Oh, I'd say probably a hole in the ground in Australia. But anyway, that's another story.,Speaker A: Another story.,: Yeah. But the conclusion for me of this mic is just bloody good. It sounds fantastic.,: I have no issues with it.,: I like it.,: Absolutely.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: No issues at all. It sounds like you it sounds like you unmested with.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: Because we've all heard the USB mics. We've tried a lot of things, and some of the other companies are trying to be really clever with lots of onboard processing DSP, and sometimes those settings are on by default. You don't even know it. So now you're already mucking up the audio without even realizing it. And these guys are going on a more purest way, just like we're not going to muck with it. There's no DSP. It's just this is the way our mic sounds. This is the way it sounds. And that is a very familiar sound, which is a very good thing. That's what we want to hear.,: Yeah, great.,: And also, if anyone's interested, the headphone amplifier is extremely good, so that's a plus.,: Yeah, very nice.,Speaker A: So we figured out the knob is a multifunction knob that controls your headphone level and the monitor blend or mix or balance, as they call it.,: Okay.,: So the mix between you and me. Okay, very good.,: Well, there you go.,: Austrian audience, well done.,: Something else to add to the shopping list.,Speaker A: Christmas needing to just add it to their shipping list and send one to.,: The rest of us.,: Well, that was fun.,Speaker C: Is it over?,Speaker B: The Pro Audio suite with thanks to Triboof and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our website. The Pro Audio weight.       

The Austrian Audio MiCreator is a new type of creative tool. Equal parts high-quality condenser microphone and simple audio interface with USB-C ® connectivity, MiCreator gives you the flexibility to create what you want—how you want. Just plug in and start recording in top-notch audio quality instantly. Or expand your setup using MiCreator's additional input to achieve stereo recordings, record an additional sound source, and more. And whether you're recording at home or on the go, you can create with confidence thanks to MiCreator's ultra-durable metal housing. Catch the video version here: https://youtu.be/vJBR0tBBUaw AP got his hands on one and we figured we'd share his early Christmas day unboxing it as our first video episode... A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson    Summary In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, our hosts George Wittam, Robert Marshall, Darren Robert Robertson, and Andrew Peters unbox Austrian Audio's new Creator Studio. They humorously discuss their first impressions, visual appeal, and play around with its innovative features. The product, a comprehensive home recording solution, impresses them with its sleek design, changeable magnetic panels, dual microphone system for stereo recording, and high audio quality. Furthermore, they touch on Austrian Audio's partnership with Passport VR, presenting the Pro Audio Suite version of the headset that boasts stunning sound quality. The episode is packed with enjoyable conversation, honest opinions, and valuable insights into the latest in audio technology. Don't forget to subscribe and join their Facebook group. #AustrianAudioUnboxing #ProAudioSuitePodcast #HomeRecordingSetup    Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:52) New Audio Tech from Austria (00:01:22) Austrian Audio's Home Recording Innovation (00:03:59) Microphone Customization (00:06:30) Mic Functionalities (00:10:25) Austrian Audio's High-Quality Mic (00:14:58) Passport Vo Mic Modes (00:19:24) Praise for Austrian Audio    Transcript Speaker A: We have something special inside this box which we're about to reveal. Stick around, 54321.,Speaker B: Let's go.,Speaker A: Welcome.,Speaker C: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite.,: These guys are professional.,Speaker B: They're motivated with tech. To the vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Element Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robert Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Tribooth, Austrian Audio making passion heard source elements george the tech Wittam and Robbo and AP's, international demo. To find out more about us, check theproaudiosuite.com line up, Leonard.,Speaker C: Here we go.,Speaker A: And welcome to another Pro Audio suite, this time on camera, thanks to Tributh. Don't forget the code. Trip a P 200, $200 off your tribooth and Austrian Audio making passion heard. Now we're about to divulge something new from Austria.,: Cracking into a box.,: It's not even Christmas yet.,Speaker A: I know. This is it.,: I can hear the bells.,Speaker A: Well, you see, I have my Santa beard on.,: He's got the ho ho ho beard. I'm not talking about the white beard.,Speaker A: At least he gets three hoes every year. I'm lucky to get one.,: What's in the box?,Speaker A: What's in the box?,: Come on, show us the box first. What's it say on the front, Mr. Peters?,Speaker A: It says my Creator Studio.,: Nice. This is the Austrian audio. This is the new now, I've actually.,Speaker A: Had a play with this. And you've actually heard this robber? You heard what it sounded like?,: I have.,Speaker A: And so did you guys hear did.,: You get a blind listen?,Speaker C: Yes.,: Like, you did have a blind listen.,: It was one of those conversations. What mic am I on?,: Oh, I love that.,: I love and Robert was on some crappy audio technical thing.,Speaker A: But then he says to me I said, what am I? And he goes, Is that a microtech Gaffel? I'm like, no, it's a USB mic.,: He's like, holy shit. Not yeah.,Speaker A: So, anyway, so it comes with USBC comes with the does it come with two cables? Yeah, it comes with the TRS and jack. And that's for what is that? Well, that's a di on the end of that cable. That's just an unbalanced jack and a TRRS. So if you want to di into the microphone, you can use that. So di your guitar.,: So, wait a minute.,: Is that an output cable or an input?,Speaker A: An input cable.,: An input cable, yeah. We should actually mention that this is sort of Austrian Audio's nod to home recording, sort of, isn't it, really?,Speaker A: Absolutely.,: So it's not just a microphone? No, it's a microphone and an audio interface.,Speaker C: Correct. Yeah.,Speaker A: So, anyway, so you got that so unbalanced into a TRRS, into the back of the mic.,: Your normal USB, that quarter inch unbalanced, would go into a guitar or a keyboard or some instrument. Got it.,Speaker A: It's really cool. They also chuck in this, which I thought was really good because when you look at the bottom of the mic, you know when they got the small I don't know what it is in Imperial, but when you got the smaller thread in the mic, I thought, oh, that's going to be great. Trying to get that onto a stand. Standard mic stand.,: Call it quarter 20. Is that the camera standard in the US? Yeah.,Speaker A: Well, it's not actually. Is it camera? I'm not sure. Anyway.,: Is it really small or like the middle?,Speaker A: No, it's kind of like yeah, that's quarter 20. But they chuck that in an adapter, which I thought was really cool, because.,: When I looked at it so it goes from quarter 20 to five eight, which is the US imperial, whatever you call it. Microphone stand.,Speaker A: We call it Imperial, but I don't know whether imperial. Imperial.,: Yeah. We are the Imperialists. I always forget that.,Speaker A: Exactly. Now, inside we're being reminded that more.,: But that's another story. Anyway. Yeah. So what else is in that?,Speaker A: Well, this is kind of cool. You get the two magnetic panels, so if you want to change it from black to red, you can.,: What do they do?,Speaker A: Sorry?,: What did they change?,Speaker A: I'll show you. I'll show you in a moment when I get the mic out. Also your standard, like that thing you.,: Never read, that thing you throw in the bin.,Speaker A: If all else goes wrong, then maybe you'll look at that at some point.,: I have a huge bin full. You know what I use those for? It's the archive of all the crap I have bought in the last ten years in one box.,Speaker A: Well, I can tell you what these would have been used for years ago. Would have been perfect filters, but business cards, not doing the good old days. Anyway, you can't put those in your pool filter.,: Don't be silly.,Speaker A: I wouldn't be surprised what's in there. So here it is. That's the Austrian audio. My creator. And I can tell you, you would say it has some heft nice. Okay, but if you don't like the.,: Black keeps it simple, doesn't it?,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker A: If you don't like the black, you just go, now it's red.,: Nice. You could do they think of everything, don't they?,Speaker A: Same on the back. Chuck that on there. That one doesn't want to go on. Oh, yeah, it's on.,: See, that would go well in your booth with the red lights.,Speaker C: AP.,Speaker A: It's just perfect. It's my colors in here. Red and black.,: That's pretty cute.,Speaker A: So that's cool. But this microphone now, I don't know technically how it all works, but it's got on the front, it's got high, low and mute. Now, I do know the mute is when you're either using the other microphone that you can attach to this, or if you're using a di oh, I see what I did wrong. You take those ones off.,: That's why I didn't oh, I see, the replaceable guy.,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker A: But I think that this mute is for if you're running a di. I think that's how it works.,: Okay, so that mutes the di.,Speaker A: Is that what you I think it allows you to monitor, like, if you use something in the back here, you've got the in out and you've got the out. Now the out from here would either be your headphones or you run this other lead. In fact, that's the point. Where is the other lead? I'm sure there's supposed to be another one that goes out of here and into the other microphone. If you have the two and speaking.,: That will be with the other microphone, I would presume.,Speaker A: I'm guessing it makes sense. I've not opened this box, so I don't know.,: So it's not one box, it's two.,Speaker A: Two boxes.,: It's a double unboxing.,Speaker A: Double unboxing. Top that. Oh, yeah.,: There you go.,: Unboxings for the price.,Speaker A: Yeah, the leads are in there. Okay, that makes sense. So let me just get this one out.,: So what's the idea here? Do we have a two mic system?,Speaker A: Yeah. So you can run it as a stereo mic. So you can say you want to do like an acoustic guitar or something and sing. You can actually one mic on or you could do two mics on the guitar. If you're just doing that, like, you've.,: Got a vocal ensemble that you need to record. You can do it in stereo. You can put one left and one.,Speaker A: Right, but also, like, even for what we mean if you're doing interviews yeah. So then you have the if I.,: Was doing, like once I recorded a podcast down at Bondi Beach, so I can imagine I would have lapel mics on the guests and then have one of those on a couple of stands just recording Ambience in the background, even.,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker A: So that's the second part of the.,: Stereo, which okay, so that's the primary and secondary.,Speaker A: Yeah.,: Mic. That's the secondary.,Speaker A: So it has a link and an out. So if you're connecting the first mic to this one, you go into the link with the TRRS, whatever it is in there, and then your out becomes your headphone out. So it actually bypasses the headphone out of the main mic and then takes it into this one.,: Whoa, that's pretty clever.,: That's cool.,Speaker A: Yes, that's the other one. This is if you get the studio set, you don't have to buy them both.,: Yeah. This is the full studio set. Or you can get just the main mic as a single.,Speaker A: But I can tell you the quality and for the money, I don't know what they retail it. I haven't looked.,: I shall check.,Speaker A: But the quality of them is like it's really weighty.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: Now I don't know whether they just.,: Yeah, well, what I heard of it, it sounds brilliant. I mean, we'll obviously do a test in another episode, but from what I heard of it for 30 seconds or so earlier today, it sounds awesome.,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker A: So you get another couple of cables in here. What are they? Okay. Oh, you got an adapter. Okay. So you can run that into maybe a mini jack into that, and then split that into the back of the other one.,: That could be a lavalier.,Speaker A: That could be for the lav.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: So the whole system set, which is what you have there, apparently, which has the master mic, the secondary mic, the color change panels, 1232 audio cables and a USB. And I'm seeing something else you didn't mention. It looks like there's a stereo bar. Did that come with your kit, too?,Speaker A: No, I haven't seen one.,: Okay. Because on the website, it actually also has a stereo bar. Hang up this whole thing on there, maybe because you have a preview package. Yeah, they didn't have the full retail kit, but the retail kit also has a nice zippered case. Everything goes into and a stereo bar, too.,Speaker A: Okay, that makes sense.,: And that whole thing is 299 us.,Speaker A: That's crazy.,: It's a good price, isn't it?,Speaker A: For what you get, honestly, and what it sounds like. I mean, look, I didn't listen to it until about half an hour ago when we set them up, and I just was talking to Robbo and Robert and to me, it sounded really good.,: Well, for me, the sound of it is on par with the 16 that I'm on, to be honest. It sounds brilliant.,Speaker A: Yeah, it does, actually, because I was thinking, like, even for what voiceover guys do when you're on the road, just chuck that in your bag. Yeah.,: Nothing in what you were doing when you were talking on that before when I was listening, there's nothing in there that you would make you go, there's no way I'm using that for a voiceover.,Speaker A: And it also doesn't need a shock mount because I don't know where you can see this, but it's actually suspended in rubber.,: Wow. Yeah. See, that's cool.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: They suspended the capsule. That's right.,Speaker A: And you can also it's really nice, swivel the capsule to whatever you want to do.,: I know they're a sponsor of the show and people are going to go, yeah, you're only saying that because but I'm sorry, I'd say this anyway. These Austrian audio guys, they're so on the ball with this stuff.,Speaker A: I agree.,: When companies that make high quality products step into this creator space, they are now competing on price. Right. So they have to cut corners. But the thing is that the miniaturization of electronics, the quality of the capsules and the electronics are so good that they can cut all those corners, add more features and still have sound quality that rivals their studio mic. And that's the craziest part of all, because I can't wait to actually hear it and test it out.,: Yeah, like I said, I was listening on Source Connect now when I was listening to Andrew, and he'd only just thrown it up. So it probably wasn't in perfect position either for him.,Speaker A: Terrible, actually.,: And it sounded brilliant. I mean, it sounded like this. Yeah.,: I decided, in solidarity, to throw I had my other mic up. Of course, I just brought up the Austrian audio. I felt left out, but yeah. So what do you perceive you might find this good for? Do you think you could do some take it on the road with you, or what do you think you might do with it?,Speaker A: Absolutely. I mean, that could be well, that's it.,: That fits in your Vespa, right?,Speaker A: Does fit in the vespa. You're reading my mind, George. You're reading my mind as you, um san Diego nice guys.,: You know, you've just come up with a new test for the show now, every time we test new gear, is it is it Vesper worthy?,Speaker A: It is vesper worthy. I mean, you think about, like, I chuck the road case on the Vespa when I go on these tours, and this would be perfect because I don't have to worry about an interface. There's your microphone, everything. Just one cable and a mic stand. Boom.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: So little nitpicky stuff. And maybe we won't know these answers until you've used it for a while. Does it have a no latency monitor? So for headphone use, you can hear yourself.,Speaker A: There was no latency when I was monitoring at the back. The other thing that was really interesting.,: You plug your headphones directly into the mic.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: And then to hear yourself, is that the knob? Is that what that big knob?,Speaker A: Two stage knob. I don't know what else it does, but when I had it and it.,: Was showing, you click on the knob and it changes modes.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: The other one might be gain from the other mic coming.,Speaker A: I think one is gain and one is monitoring.,: Is there a gain knob on that second mic?,Speaker A: No.,: So I wonder whether that's it coming in there.,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker A: So it would be this will be operating everything, I'm guessing.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: But the other thing I thought was really interesting, I don't know what the gain is on this microphone itself, but the headphone gain was really loud, right?,: Oh, really? Yeah. Did you get good levels in your can in your head?,Speaker A: I had to turn it down. It was too hot coming from you.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: But yeah, it was very loud.,: Wow. Cool.,Speaker A: Yeah.,: I'm really looking forward to you doing a test with that now. I really want to hear it, put it through its paces.,Speaker A: Well, it'd be interesting to see what it sounds like in a not so well, in fact, we heard it in a not great environment because I was sitting right in front of the computer screens. But, I mean, if you're on the road and you're doing the so called pillow fort or something, which is not ideal, particularly for a microphone like this, which is. Would that be a large diaphragm? I guess it is, yeah.,: I've been looking through the manual documents, and there's a document called my Creator Faceplate Customizing.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: Wow.,Speaker A: So that means you can have your own design. Yes.,: I saw that they give you EPS, Adobe Illustrator files, PDF, and so you can literally have your own Faceplate design to your spec.,: And they will make it for you, I guess.,: Yeah. They give you all the ability to customize.,Speaker A: You've given me an idea.,: I know what you're going to say. I'm with you.,Speaker A: What am I going to say? Vespa?,: You say, I can see us making.,Speaker A: Our own well, actually, I was thinking about me then, but yeah, you're right. Well, they're both thinking about us and me and whatever. That's not a bad idea, actually.,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker A: Maybe we should talk to Austrian Audio about the Pro Audio suite version of.,: The that's right, absolutely. To team up with the sentence Passport VR.,Speaker A: Well, you don't need it because it's got an interface in it.,: It is a two for one, isn't it? So that knobs functionality is twofold, as you discovered. One mode, it's gain for the mic, and the other mode it's headphone.,Speaker A: Yeah.,: So I wonder what controls the gain from the secondary mic then.,Speaker A: I wonder where that I think that probably does as well. Let me go back to the other mic.,: The switch on the front, if there is a three way switch for the microphone gain, if this is at the lowest mute position, the visible red marking on the switch signals that the mic is muted on the input side. This is a so called hardware mute. Regardless of any other mute in any other program, your mic is muted, which is very important. That's why in the Passport Vo, we have a hardware mute button.,: The swear button. That's right.,: Yes, exactly. So it has the swear button in the form of that little switch. However, this only applies to the signal from the internal microphone. Anything connected to the other input jack is not needed.,: From the back of the room, he's still going to hear get.,Speaker A: Yeah.,: And then it has a low and a high gain mode. So I suppose you have to experiment and figure out which of those positions you want to use.,Speaker A: I think I had it on high gain, but I would imagine if it's a super loud source, like in front of a guitar cab or something, and you're going to pull it down to low.,: Yeah. Very cool.,Speaker A: But it's great. And it's hard to actually I know, watching on camera and stuff, but it's hard to explain how solid this thing feels.,: Well, you can see it. It looks pretty solid.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: So I'm guessing it's it must have a steel chassis.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: So the outer the ring around the mic and the ring a ring around the chassis and the ring around the mic, I suppose are probably steel as opposed to aluminum.,Speaker A: Oh, yeah.,: Imagine how flimsy it would be if it was just plastic, too.,Speaker A: It's funny because the panels behind those fake panels that you can change is actually plastic behind there, but the actual front, the surround, all this kind of stuff, and all this is metal.,: Nice. You wouldn't want to drop it if it was only plastic or something. Flimsy absolutely. You'd be in trouble.,: So it also does have an internal pop shield over that cap.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: And it says if that's not sufficient because you have poor mic technique doesn't say that, but they have the OCP eight, which is an Austrian audio pop screen that you can add on to.,Speaker A: Oh, so it fits over the top of this cage here.,: I guess. So they don't show a picture, but it's in the manual.,Speaker A: I'm curious. I would like to know what that capsule is in there, though.,: Yeah, well, you never really know because let's say it's the same as the OC 16 capsule. Theoretically, it wouldn't be a great thing for them, maybe to advertise that, because then you're saying, well, you can get that capsule in a $200 mic. Yeah, $400 mic. But there are different mics for different use cases.,Speaker A: But I think the OC 16 has the same capsule as the OC 18. And the eight one eight, it's just the electronics and the assembly are different. The electronics, they've trimmed quite a bit of that down. And also the OC 16 is made in China.,: And this is also probably made in China.,Speaker A: Yeah, definitely.,: Kit yeah, right. Again, it's price point. They're having to create product at a creator competitive price point, which is fair enough. Think about who they're competing against. They're competing against the likes of the Yeti, the Blue Yeti, and that's $100 to $200, depending on the model and stuff. So, yeah, that's what they got to do. But I have no doubt that if they're going to put their name to something like this, it's going to have the sound quality you expect. Yeah, we'll do some more testing.,Speaker A: Sounded great. I mean, I think it's fantastic. I'll muck around with it more and we'll do an audio podcast using it, so anyone watching this can listen and check it out. But, yeah, I reckon it sounds good. Austrian Audio, you've done it again.,: Win a winner.,Speaker A: Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Which makes me hungry.,Speaker C: Well, that was fun.,: Is it over?,Speaker B: The Pro Audio suite with thanks to Triboof and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our website. Theproaudiosuite.com.     

WAVES director of training and development Michael Pearson Adams (Gomez to his Aussie mates) joins us in part 2 of a chat about plugins for Voice Actors.  A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson    In this episode of The Pro Audio Suite, we dive into part two of our discussion with Michael Pearson and Adams Gomez. We kick off by tackling the prevalent issue of hearing loss, exploring how it affects professional audio and the struggles people face in finding headphones that suit their hearing capabilities. Pearson expresses his ambition to build a chain for monitoring, specifically for those with hearing loss. We also delve into audio tools like the C Four Multiband Compressor and F Six Dynamic EQ, discussing their features, capabilities, and best applications. The conversation emphasizes the importance of tailoring preset tools to individual preferences, supporting efficiency in producing quality and personalized sound._QMARK #HearingLossSolutions #ProAudioSuite #TechForHearingLoss   Timestamps (00:00:00) Intro: The Pro Audio Suite (00:00:39) Building Hearing Loss Monitor (00:07:36) Volume & Monitors in Mixing (00:11:29) Multiband Compressor vs. Dynamic EQ (00:12:12) Development of C Four Plugin (00:14:01) The F Six: Parametric EQ & Music Dynamics (00:17:16) Discussing Presets (00:22:10) Quality of Presets (00:28:24) Podcast Recording Technique: Source Connect & Voodoo Radio Imaging   Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready? Be history. Speaker B: Get started. Speaker C: Welcome. Speaker A: Hi. Speaker C: Hi. Speaker A: Hello, everyone to the Pro audio suite. Speaker C: These guys are professional and motivated with tech. To the VO stars, George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo, Austrian audio making passion heard source elements George the tech Wittam and Robbo and AP's international demo. To find out more about us, check ThePro Audiosuite.com line up. Speaker A: Learner. Here we go. : And don't forget the code. Speaker C: Trip a P 200. : That will get you $200 off your Tribooth. Now, this is part two of our conversation we had with Michael Pearson, Adams Gomez, if you like, from waves. This week's discussion kicks off in a different place. We're talking about hearing loss. Speaker B: I don't know. I don't want to take this off the rails too far, but something that's come up in the last couple of weeks, more than once. So it seems to be. Well, I wouldn't say maybe it's a coincidence, but maybe it's just the sign of the times and the fact that my clients are all getting older, but people are having a hard time finding headphones that work well for them anymore because of hearing loss. The topic came up. One person asked me about having their hearing aids tuned for professional audio. Another person asked me about just choosing headphones that are better for their hearing. And nothing that they tried worked well, probably because they have severe hearing loss. : I was going to say Friday, but normally ice cream, right? Speaker B: So what I'm getting at is I've been starting to want to build a chain for monitoring, specifically, especially for those with some hearing loss. And I'm wondering what other tool set you think might be useful. Like, if I was going to build a studio rack for a monitoring chain, is it just EQ or. I'm actually looking at compression and EQ together, because if you've lost some hearing in a certain band and you boost the bejesus out of that band, that could be bad too, right? Speaker A: Two syllables. F sIx. Speaker B: F six. Okay. Speaker A: F six. : Six. Speaker A: Floating bands of multiband equalizing compression gives you the ability to choose the threshold on each and every one of them, move them around, and actually decide how each of those bands is compressed or expanded based on the reaction of the voice coming into it. To me, that would be the best starting place for you to create a chain like that would be that plugin. Speaker B: Because it's obviously the only person that can decide if it sounds right is the listener. Like the person that has a lot. So the way I would have to do it would be to log in remote source, connect in remote into their screen, load the plugin, put it into a chain, and then just hide everything. Speaker A: And give them the macros and name the macros appropriately. Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, that would be the end result. Exactly. But to have that ability for them to sculpt the sound of their own headphones in a way they never could before, this sounds like the right tool to attack that. I want to start looking into building those chains for people because hearing loss is an issue. Speaker A: There is a risk there as well. And I talk about this in a completely different way for this than I would if this was music. So, for example, in the music world, we have the lowest latency, as in zero latency vocal tuning, plugin, wavestune, and Wavestune live. And there's always been a lot of stigma about, oh, you can't have tuning. It's like one of the best things a tuner can do, if it's used properly, is give the singer confidence. Not fix them, but give them confidence. So if it's on in the monsters, it gives them confidence to remember that they are good and they can do a great job. And that in itself, that confidence minimizes any sharp or flat notes because they're not nervous. Now, on the other end of that spectrum, George, is in a voiceover world, the first thing that comes to my mind as a concern by creating a chain that lets them hear it properly is making sure that they're not hearing. To use an analogy, to make sure that they don't think they're in a Porsche when they're in a VW, as far as other equipment, because audio processing can make you sound amazing, but it also could hide multiple issues with the track that you're recording if what they're monitoring isn't what's being sent to the client. Speaker B: I would never recommend someone who has loss of hearing loss unless they are an actual engineer with years of training. I would never suggest that they go into this thinking that they're going to fix their own monitoring themselves without the ears of another engineer or an engineer with good hearing or trusted hearing that can make a judgment, help judge them on where those settings should be. I know they could dig themselves into a heck of a big hole. It cannot be a replacement for everything else that we talk about. Proper acoustics, noise, floor mic technique, et cetera, et cetera, et know. : Well, usually with hearing loss, it's the upper frequencies that go first. So my idea would be to talk to Yamaha and get them to build headphones that sound like NS ten s. Speaker B: Well, the headphones that you have, you're still using the Austrian Audio 55s, right? The X 55s, yeah. Remember when I reviewed those with you and I thought they were too mid range forward? Right. I didn't like the way they sounded. Yeah, correct. But for you, they were a great match. Right? Yeah, that's the thing. And so headphones are, again, extremely subjective, but it can be a maddening process to try out a lot of different headphones. Like this client of mine. : What was the headphone that rang out your ear from the inside? And then I tried your curve. How did that work? Speaker B: They were really uncomfortable. Yeah, really? They had in ear plugs that plugged into the inside of your. Like, they literally went into your ears. And then they had a surround cup that went around the outside of the ear. : It was a little. Speaker A: That sounds horrible. : They sound like my in ear, like. Speaker B: The one they're called Noritones or Nora something. I can't remember what they were called. I returned them. But the idea there being that, yeah, you can make corrections to a point and then eventually your hearing loss is going to be too poor. : Well, also, you can't correct it when you can't hear at some point. Speaker B: Right. : So just cranking it up, you just end up with feedback through your hearing. Speaker B: That is true, yeah. Well, I mean, my friend is an optometrist or optimist. My friend is an audiologist. And they said the danger is if you do continue to boost, let's say four K, two K, whatever the frequency band, you're still subjecting that SPL on the eardrum or more, you're continuing to cause damage. So it's a tricky situation. But thanks for the F Six recommendation. I'll look at. Speaker A: So there's a couple of things about that while we're talking about it. I just want to mention briefly, for all you lovely people out there, quick analogy. On my phone, I have a setting on my phone, just in the basic phone settings that limits the loudness that is allowed in my headphones on my phone. And I can change it to whatever DB I want. And I have it set fairly conservatively because I value my tool. That makes me money, my ears. But then on top of that, I also have a pair of very large monitors here in the studio that I have a mark on the output knob on the audio interface that I do not go above because at that point I know that I'm damaging my hearing. So my advice is always get used to listening as low as possible, because you can, and this is something that Jeff Thomas told me Robbo, years ago when I was his student, was if you can hear everything at a low volume, then it'll sound great loud. If you hear everything when it's loud, you won't hear everything at a low volume. : You do have to stay at the right place when you're mixing within the Fletcher Munson curve to make sure that you're know if you're listening too low and you don't ever check it out up there for just a moment. And I'm not talking about hearing damage level, but you'll just lose the bass in the high end. It's just sort of the way the ear at lower levels loses the outer extremities first. : I think like anythinG, though, I think checking your mix on different monitors. I mean, I always check at different volume levels. I mean, different levels. Yeah. The dim button is regularly used for me. I'll listen to it in a pass and then I'll dim it and switch monitors and have a listen that way and just flick around. I mean, you could muck around with a mix forever, I guess. But I think they're the two essential things is volume and different monitors. : I'm constantly surprised when I think back when I was living in Sydney and in excess had Rhino Studios, rhinoceros, and I was there for. They were recording. I think I was there for Kick and X. I can't remember. No, it was definitely kick. Speaker A: It was kick, yeah. : So I was in there for Kick and I remember sitting there when they were recording and stuff and it was. Speaker A: Chris Thomas English showing our. : Know and then someone, oh, we're just doing a playback of one of the songs I think was going to be the single. I can't remember. Come and listen. So we're into another room to listen to the playback. It was so fucking loud. I don't even know what the song was. I have no idea. I don't know what they were hearing because I couldn't hear anything. : It's probably what you need. The first single was it? : Probably. : I hate it when people, when you're in a room and it's really loud and you're just like, I don't want to be in here and you got to get out. But not. You really shouldn't go above 80 or you should keep that at maybe the top average. Speaker B: Average. Yeah, maybe peaks of 90 to 100, maybe. It is amazing. The iPhone has the ability now to monitor your surroundings. And it will actually. Or the watch, I think, more so. And that's almost like a reason to get the watch. I keep trying to not buy the damn freaking Apple Watch. I'm like, I don't want another addictive gadget, but the fact that it does monitoring the noise levels around your environment and lets you know, yo, you were in an unsafe noise level environment, just so you very. Speaker A: That's cool. Speaker B: It's a really good idea. I mean, it's almost a reason to get one of those things. : Tipto can't hear what you're hearing in your headphones, unfortunately. Speaker B: No, it can't do anything for headphones. No, you're absolutely right. Absolutely right. : I wanted to ask a question a little bit more if Gomez is here. So I love the C Four, and I use it like an EQ, and I use it like a compressor, and it's my deesser, and it's just like, whatever the hell you want it to be. And the F Six is kind of a dynamic EQ. The C Four is a multiband compressor. You see how the different frequency bands work, essentially, like, you're able to tune the F six more precisely. That is very true. But what are the other kind of differences between, say, a multiband compressor and a dynamic EQ? Speaker B: Oh, boy. : What uses. : Wow, that's a can of worms. Speaker B: This I want to hear. Speaker A: Okay, so firstly, let's talk about the C Four, right. The C Four was a plugin that we developed, not for studios, but we developed it for live. And it kind of was a mixture of. Okay, so let's deal with something that gives you compression, expansion, bit of limiting dynamic EQ, normal EQ, and then has this one floating band, which we honestly didn't think anybody would use. And then everybody lost their shit over the floating band of the C Four. Sorry, not the C Four. So when we updated it, when we went to the C Six, we put the floating band in because people are. : Like, that's so funny. Do you know what? I lost my shit over in the C Six? What was the individual key per band? That's so awesome. It's like, automatically duck it. But you don't have to duck the whole music. You can just sort of carve out some frequencies for the voice, and it doesn't sunk the music, like, fell out of nowhere. Speaker A: Well, the beautiful thing about it is it lets you apply per band, compression, expansion, upward expansion, and to a point, dynamic EQ. This was a tool that, again, is still very much a broadcast person and live person tool. And we found a lot of studio people, not all studio people. I'm not going to generalize, but we found a lot of them were like, we just can'T work out the use case for this. : Deesser. Yeah. Why have a Deesser when you can just have a multiband compressor with little compression on the high end? Speaker A: Because it's not the way you're thinking with your broadcast and your post production hat on. Not your music production hat on. So now let's go to one of my favorite products, the F Six. The F Six is literally, okay, so everybody loved the floating bands in the C Six, so let's just give them six floating bands. What we did was we took our best code of parametric EQ and let you boost, cut, define change the thresholds, cues, everything on it, so that your EQ basically flows with the music dynamics. And it's not just a static boost or a static cut. One of the best things that you can do with the F Six is go, okay. Right. So use it as an EQ if you want, but then if you actually, then choose. Okay, cool. So on this one I'm going to make this a mid or a sides processing channel, and on this one I'm going to use this one with an external side chain. So you can have all of these things going on. And every single one can have a different side chain if you want to. : The F Six has a separate side chain for each band. Speaker A: Yes. : Very sick. I kind of think of one of the differences as being the multiband approach where you have the filters that are always going to trade off with the next frequency band. Sort of keeps you in line, keeps you more flat, and you're kind of doing more general sculpting. Whereas the F Six being you got bandwidth, you can overlap things, you can poke a hole in this and not in that. Speaker A: I use it for poking a hole in the mix all the time. : I'd say that it's much more possible to get lost in the F Six and it's possible to, obviously with the C four you can do crazy stuff as well, but just that nature where the bands don't overlap and you're always dealing with sort of an equal amount across the board. Speaker A: Having the crossovers and the visualization of the crossovers between these plugins has helped people a lot, but I actually find more people in user land for us get confused when they're talking to me about, okay, so talk me through the C Four. And this comes down to development and research and design as well. It's like C Four, I find, confuses people on getting the best out of it. Way more in 2023 than the F Six. The F Six, they look at and go, oh, okay, cool. All right. I understand it because we made it feel and look more like an EQ than compression, but it's both. Speaker B: Yeah. I really like the design of that. I'm going to start exploring it more. I've played around some others, and this one looks more powerful and more flexible. And to be able to set up a deesser that's really precision and de harsher and do all that dynamically, that's very compelling. I can set that up in a chain. Speaker A: Yeah. I love this plugin. I really do. : It's the go to plugin in my template, to be honest with you. Speaker A: Thank you. : Oh, really? Speaker A: Thank you. : Hey, I want to throw one at you, and you could maybe dispel a bit of an argument that I've had with a few people. I want to talk about presets for a minute, because the presets that come with wave stuff are usually very good. There's no arguing with that. But I come across two schools of thought. I come across the people who basically go, I love the such and such preset on this plugin. So I put the plugin on the track and I turn it on and now don't really play with it. My argument would be that, yes, it's a great preset and it sounds good, but it's designed around someone else's voice. A different instrument. A different sounding instrument. Whatever the case may be, it's always going to need some tweaking. Would you agree? Speaker A: Firstly, when we're talking about presets, I feel like this year, well, actually, in the last two or three years, we've kind of moved across a big bump of discussion, and we've gone from presets are bad, it's like it's cheating and all this kind of crap to presets are great. Thank God these software companies put so many of them in. Let me just take you through for a second. So everybody knows how these presets come about and how much time goes into them. So one of the first things that happens is the product manager and the team at Waves, or whichever other company I'm going to guess they do roughly the same. Clearly not as good, because we're awesome, but it's like the person who knows the plugin best is usually the product manager. And so a lot of those initial presets will come from the product manager, because the average plugin he's in charge of it through development. And that could be up to five years sometimes of living with that tool and working through development, QA testing, beta testing, going back, fixing things back into it again. So you get to know this tool intimately, and through that, you get to create presets because of your intimate knowledge of that specific plugin. But then what we do is we have an artist relations department run by a mate of mine by the name of Gitai. Barack and Gitai will take these software tools, these plugins, and he'll reach out to all of our artists that are waves endorsed to artists, everybody from like the Chris Lord Algis, Tony Maseratis, Eddie Kramer's, through to Manny Marrican and Andrew Shepp's and all the others, Armin Van Buren, Dead Mouse, anybody that's. But he will reach out to the ones that are relevant for the kind of person that will use this specific plugin, and we then ask them to create their own presets. And that's where you end up with the categories of different artists names in those plugins. So in that case, yes, you are dealing with that person working on presets in their room. So if it says Andrew Shepps, it's done in the ceiling space of his cottage in Worcestershire. It's a lovely sounding space. He's got really nice setup. He's got PMCs. The room sounds amazing. That's where those presets come from. And a lot of people will say, well, it's Andrew Scheff's preset. Must be amazing. Yes. For him. For you, it's a starting point. It's a starting point. Take that great starting point from that dude with a lot of experience, and then save as your name and tweak the hell out of it so that it works perfectly for you. They are a starting point. They are a shortcut. They save you hours upon hours of working out how to get what somebody else has already done for you. Speaker B: Yeah, I tell my clients that, get my custom presets made, this is a starting point. You can use this happily for many years, and some do that clients come back five, six, seven years still using that preset you made or that stack or whatever. I'm like, really? I wasn't a very good engineer back then, but whatever. If you're booking, that's great. But, yeah, I tell people, if you're only going to do one thing, get one preset that's eqed to you, everything's dialed into you, and now you have an awesome stepping off point. To copy or make a duplicate from and go crazy. Now you can always return to home and get back to a starting point that works well. So these presets that you guys have designed. Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: They're not custom to tuned EQ or whatever exactly to that, to your voice, but you're knowing that the parameters and the ranges of the parameters and such are in musical or tasteful know. : Yes, perfect. I couldn't put that better myself. I'm going to use that on my next Facebook argument, George. Speaker A: So we create these presets, and by. Speaker B: The way, let me say, Michael, not everybody does good presets. I can tell you a very big company whose daw I use, and their presets are horrendous. So you guys really do put in the effort. Sorry, go ahead. Speaker A: We really do. But what we try and do is we try and make sure that we're giving people a starting point that saves them time. And also take into account presets are there to give you an idea of what the potential power of the plugin is. So a preset might not, if you go through the presets, it might not be what you're after right now, but if you use the preset browser and just flick through them, you're going to find that, oh, my God, it can do that. Fantastic. Save that for later. I save presets that I want to get back to with my initials and that way I can go through them and I can type in MPA and it brings up and it goes, okay, cool, I need to get back and mess with that one or that one or that idea. : It's funny, isn't it? We talk about presets and things, but it's also choices of microphones and preamps as well. I was doing a session this morning and I said, what do you want? You want me to use a large diaphragm mic with 1073 or do you want me to use 41 six with a grace? And they're like, oh, 41 six with a grace. So it's kind of like an analog preset, if that makes any sense. Speaker B: Yeah, as long as you know what you used. Like, if you have to come back to that project again, if you've got more than one chain, you do have to do the extra documentation as a voice actor to make sure that. : Do you know what, though? You don't, George. Because that bloody 41 six, there's no way you're going to miss that one. Speaker B: Well, no, that mic is distinctive, but, yeah, no, the more chains you have to remember and preset and store the little bit more of a responsibility. You're going to have to keep track of that later down the road. You got to pick up that a year later. Having two distinct options is smart. Having 17 variations, maybe too much to keep track of. : Sorry about that. Speaker B: To have this mic and preamp as a combo you use, I have clients that have two mics, two preamps, or three mics, two preamps. What do they want to do? Well, they want to hear every combination of those three mics and those two. I'm like, no, you don't. You don't need to hear and use all three combos of every permutation. Once you have two chains or three chains maybe, that are like, go to. Just go to it. : You just find things that you like that work, that are convenient, like, they technically work together, they sonically work together, they're packaged right. Speaker B: There's gear. FOMO, man. It's FOMO. People are like, there's something new, there's something new. What can I make it better? I'm like, I get it. Speaker A: And this is kind of why, obviously, we've talked about creative access subscriptions from waves before. One of the beautiful things about a subscription is if yoU're on, say, for example, the essential, you've got 110 plugins that you can mess with. And then rather than actually buying them, if you decide, no, I don't need those plugins, then cancel the subscription and go and buy two or three of them instead. It's totally up to you. Speaker B: Like a mega demo. Yeah, pretty much the ultimate demo of every plugin. Yeah. Speaker A: There is a very good argument for having an overwhelming amount of tools and finding that it degrades your work because you can't think about what to use at the time. A perfect example is, and I'll take this back to, this is 2008. 2008, I get a phone call from a mate of mine, Brian Gold, who owns a post production studio house in Detroit. Detroit. : I know him very well. He's a great guy. Speaker A: Yeah. And he rings me and he goes, mate, we need Mercury bundle for all the rooms. I'm like, I'm happy to help. How many rooms you got right now? And he goes, 13. So he had 13 rooms at Gold Sound. At that point in time. He had just put in decommands, icon consoles, plus HD, six protools. : Was this when the Mercury Bundle had the TDM pricing? And then the native get. Speaker A: Don't spoil my story. And Brian says to me, he goes, so I'm going to need mercury bundles for all those, I said, mate, for that I will personally fly in, install them all, give you a huge hug, and then get you drunk. So Brian then drops the bill on this, which is at that time, TDM Mercury was $13,450 each. And he bought 13 of them. And then he rang me and said, give me another one. I'm going to have a floating one. So there's 14 times 13,000. You do the math. So I go into the studios, and by this time, I'd known him and his team for a while. Lovely people. Brian's still a really good friend of mine, and I go in and I install all these mercury bundles and I go, okay, I'm going to come back in three months. I come back in three months. These guys, after I've taken them through all of these plugins before, they were still using the four plugins that they were used to, that they'd been using for the last two or three years. So there is a point where you have to look at this and go, okay, how many tools do I need and which ones am I going to use? And is too many degrading my work or improving my work? : You're going to use the ones that give you the sound you want, the sound that you want, and the sound that you like. Speaker A: Yeah. : Okay, so I get one plugin, and the plugin would be Gomez Avox. Speaker A: That's it. Arvox. It's one of the most epically simple and productive plugins you can buy for a simpleton. : I want to go simple. Speaker A: Well, that was fun. Is it over? Speaker C: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio Recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic, or just say, good day. Drop us a note at our website, theproaudiosuite.com.

WAVES director of training and develpment Michael Pearson Adams (Gomez to his Aussie mates) joins us in part 1 of a chat about plugins for Voice Actors.  A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson    Summary In this episode of the Pro Audio Suite, we introduce our special guest MPA, also known as Gomez from Waves. We deep dive into the realm of audio plugins, focusing on user-friendly options for the less technically inclined. Gomez explains how these streamlined plugins can simplify tasks, such as noise reduction and reverb clean-up, in audio recordings. However, the debate ensues on the importance of pre-recording room preparations and the potential overuse of reduction plugins. The discussion also touches on the advancements in AI technology for handling audio issues, the concept of "best edit," and the niche specificities of various plugins like Clarity DXD Reverb and Dereverb Pro. Use code Trip200 to get $200 off your Tribooth. #AudioEngineeringSimplified #ProPluginInsights #KeepingItSimple    Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction with George Wittam and Robert Marshall (00:00:38) Discussing Noise Reduction Plugins with MPA Gomez (00:08:38) Mastering Extreme Editing (00:15:50) The Art of Invisible Editing (00:16:48) Exploring Plugin Niches    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready? Be history.,Speaker B: Get started.,Speaker C: Welcome.,Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone to the pro audio suite.,: These guys are professional.,Speaker C: They're motivated with tech. To the VO stars, George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo, Austrian audio making passion heard source elements George the tech Wittam and Robbo and AP's international demo. To find out more about us, check ThePro Audiosuite.com line up.,Speaker B: Learner. Here we go.,: And don't forget the code. Trip 200 to get $200 off your Tribooth. Now, we have a special guest today, MPA, known to us as Gomez from waves, is here to talk about some simple, let's put it this way, plugins for people like myself. A simpleton when it comes to audio engine. Simple people. Exactly.,: Right brain, folks. Right brain. Not simple, just right brain.,: Yes, exactly.,Speaker A: And I guess that's where the premise for this episode came from, really, was about keeping it simple. Because I was reading a Facebook post from a guy who was proclaiming the fact that he'd sort of been doing a session in a hotel room and hadn't bothered to build the pillow fort or do anything to negate the sound of the room, and then recorded his session and then used some sort of noise reduction plugin, like clarity, like whatever, like RX, to clean it up. And my first thought was, well, you're making the plugin work harder than it needs to, and that means that you're going to end up with artifacts in the audio that you want to keep because you've got this thing working so hard. Whereas I would prefer to hear, as an engineer, I would prefer to hear that you've done what you can to negate the room and then used a noise reduction plugin. If you feel it is absolutely necessary to just clean up what little artifacts are left, because there's less chance of that doing any sort of damage to the audio that I want to use. But then also, for voiceover artists and people who aren't techie, the words ratio attack time release time threshold mean nothing. So how do you use these plugins? And I guess the reason for getting you on, Michael, was to sort of, you know, what can they do?,: The thing with Pillowforts, from a pro point of view, and an advisory point of view, is people can actually go way over the top with those to the point that it degrades the sound more is not better. And I say the same thing to somebody. It's like when I'm advising them. And they say, well, we've been recording the voiceovers in the clothes closet. And I'm like, okay. And the result, they're like, well, it sounds really muffled and horrible and dead. There's no higher or mid or high frequencies. And I'm like, okay, so the first thing I want you to tell me is, is that cupboard filled with coats? If it's filled with things like coats and nothing else, then you're basically killing your sound. If it's filled with things, that is a variety of different kinds of cloth and material, you've got a much better chance of it just stopping audio dead rather than absorbing it. You don't want everything absorbed. You want it not bouncing around the room. The other one that I always love is when somebody goes, yeah, well, I put pillows and stuff around me. And I said, well, where in the room are you? This is next to the window. I said, you mean that floor to ceiling window in most hotels? Yeah, that's the one. It's a beautiful view. I wanted to see the view. It's like, well, the view is killing.,: You right now, bouncing off the window.,: Yeah. So there are varying levels of problem that need to be looked at. And that's literally one of the first things that we do when we're helping somebody is go, not only tell me that, yes, you're doing a pillow for this, I want to know what kind of clothes are in those closet. Not in a creepy way, but are we talking heavy winter coats? Are we talking big felt coats? Are we talking dresses, jeans? What are we talking about? How high?,: But at some point, do you solve the problem acoustically so much that you don't need a waves product? Or at what point is it like, okay, well, I can't actually bring in, or maybe I don't even want to go through the extent of flipping the mattress up on its side to put it along a wall.,: Flipping a mattress, as far as I'm concerned, just says more like you're worried about an assassin. So nearly every single masterclass I do with my waves hat on, I spend as much time telling people about the fact that I want you to use as few plugins as you possibly can to making sure that you're just not overdoing things. And it's one of the biggest problems is that people throw plugins on with way too much kind of ease and breeze without actually really thinking about it sometimes. And that also degrades. So you have to really decide, is this plugin going to fix something? Or am I just putting it on because I've heard it helps.,: You don't hear it helps, but you heard it helps.,Speaker A: Yeah. But the other thing is, too, Gomez, is that you should exhaust all your options in terms of getting a clean recording before you even put a plug in.,Speaker B: Yeah.,: Right.,Speaker A: To just open up the mic in the middle of the room and then go, oh, well, I'll just chuck a plugin on. In some cases, you're going to have to work that plugin so hard to get it cleaned up that it's to the detriment of the audio. Whereas if you've done everything, you.,: Absolutely.,Speaker A: And then you only need a tiny bit of plugin to get that tiny last few artifacts out of there, then that's a much better way of approaching it.,Speaker B: Right.,: There's also the positioning in a locality, too, of your face and your mouth to the microphone, even when you're in a. You know, if you're. If you're in a room that's really kind of echoey, entirely like a normal hotel room or anything that's got wooden floors, like this room, for example. I have no plugins on this because I didn't have time to put any on. But the simple reality is the closer you get to the microphone, the more chance that you've got of mitigating some of those issues without putting anything on it at all, and then you've got more of a chance of, okay, so what do I need to put on here? Clarity VXD Reverb or clarity XVX D Reverb Pro are definitely plugins that I wave a flag for the amount of effort, the amount of years, and the amount of time that we put into them. And people shouldn't buy them or try them just because somebody said years. There's just as many things out there that sound amazing, that somebody created in a month. But we did that. There's so many samples that we fed into this AI, like hundreds of thousands. And because of that, the result is it really works. But again, like any plugin, you can't overdo it. So my best suggestion with a plugin like Clarity VX de Reverb in a hotel room or an office or somewhere where you are, that is not your ideal place, or the place that you know is take it all the way to the extreme and then pull it back.,: Just a quick question for you. So if I was in a position where I couldn't actually manage the room that well, I've done everything I possibly can to control whatever artifacts, particularly reverb in a hotel room or whatever. If I use clarity VX de Reverb, is it destructive? So when I'm sending the file off to an engineer, can they?,: That depends on your routing. What platform are you using it in? How would you be setting it up?,: Well, I'm just saying if I give it too much, is it going to.,Speaker A: Do damage to the audio? Yes, it will do damage to the audio. Like anything over compressed, over noise reduction, overuse of noise reduction. You can even over EQ. Really?,: Yeah, definitely.,Speaker A: Anything like that because you're fucking with the audio. So you're changing the audio. Yes. It's, as Gomez said, hundreds of thousands of samples. But if you make it work too hard, it's got no choice but to start eating into the audio you want to keep. I would presume Gomez is.,: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Which is why I say take it all the way to the extreme and then work your way back.,: Yeah.,: And by the way, I give that advice for pretty much every plugin. It's like if you really want to know how to use subtracted EQ, go to the extreme and then move your way back. Same with compression and everything else, but with something like an aipowered de rumor, which is effectively what clarity DXD Reverb is. It cleans up the noise and the reverb in the room. You are going to get to a point where you're basically saying, okay, I've taken it out of automatic mode and I'm just going to get what it gives me on extreme and it's going to kill your audio file. However, I will tell you that it's very hard to do that in clarity. Any of the clarity plugins, because way back when we released vocal rider. Remember vocal rider?,Speaker A: I use vocal rider all the time.,: Okay, so Vocal rider was one of the first plugins that we ever designed and developed that was focused specifically on identifying the frequency range and spectrum of a human voice. So if you put vocal rider on like a drum, it's not going to work as well as a human voice. It's not even going to know what to do with it. You put it on a guitar, same deal. It's not going to know what to do with it. This is also why we then released bass rider. And then we focused that on the spectrum and frequencies for bass. Now, going back to vocal rider, that was our first jump into that field of, okay, so we want this to only understand what's going on with the human voice. Now, let's move forward to 2021, 2022, when we released Clarity VX this is very much designed around the human voice, and we've actually created it in such a way that it's hard to really mess it up. But depending on how much noise you've got and how bad the room is, especially on the pro version of the plugin, where there's more to tweak. Yeah. You can over dig yourself into a hole with the simple one with just a big knob in the middle and a couple of small switches. It's really hard to mess it up.,: Can I ask you, when does it go from being reverb to being resonance? Or maybe early reflections? Right. Because there's a certain point where Reverb is the artifacts or the room itself. When it gets to a certain size, maybe less than, I don't know, six by 8ft or something, reverb no longer is the same problem anymore. Now you're dealing with, like, pressure zones and early reflections. Are we getting to the point yet with AI where we can start actually dealing with that stuff too? Because you sound like you're in a tube. You sound like you're in a box problem. Are we getting to the point where we can fix that too?,: I figured that's part of the room, part of the reverb.,: It is part of the room. And dereverb it totally is. We can fix that.,: That's awesome.,: Yeah.,: Because that's much more complex than just a reverb tail.,: Well, that's always been the problem. Most other, there's been various de reverb plugins out there. And to be honest, what I used to use before clarity came out with a dereverb is you just take a waves C four and you put it all the way on expand, and you can tweak each frequency band and you can kind of sit on the tail. And none of the other products out there could get rid of the early reflections, which were really the telltale sign of you being in a small space, right? Essentially, yeah.,: There's a lot you could do with clarity VX, just the noise fixing plugins. But with de Reverb, we went all the way. And it's down to the little nuances of reflections as well as the big tails and everything else. It's like we want to make you sound like you're in a room that has no reflections. And that's one of the reasons why one of the controls you have is basically controlling the presence of the plugin. And it kind of takes your voice and makes sure that you're telling the plugin. Okay. So now that we've cleaned up that noise. I want you to take my voice and focus more exactly on that. And then the plugin will go, okay, right, so now you're in a cleaner room and you've got the ability to take your voice and put it right out front. So the other thing that you can do is you can basically choose which neural network you want to use. So if you're doing spoken voice, pick one for spoken voice. If you're singing, then use that neural network. You can choose whether you want stereo or whether you want mono. So if it's just a voiceover and that's it, then you can actually tell it, okay, I'm just dealing with mono single here. And it's going to work in a different way, but it will clean it up really nicely for you.,: It's funny, though, because it is quite subjective. Because I do remember I was away in April, and I obviously had to work while I was away in some pretty weird environments. And I sent a file to Robert. And I sent the same file. In fact, I think I sent it to all three of you, George and Robbo. I got feedback from Robbo and I said, would you use that? He said, yeah, I'd use that. And I got one back from Robert saying I wouldn't be happy if I received that. So to me, that is a sign of the whole thing being a bit subjective as well. Some people have no problem with it, and some people have a major problem with.,Speaker A: Audio is subjective, I guess, in its own, in and of itself. Audio is subjective, I suppose.,: Yeah. But the question, of course, is. So if that's the case, would I use it for Robo? No. Would I use it for Robert? Probably.,: It also depends on your listening environment. I mean, I can tell you that if I'm listening to something in this room, in this home studio, through my speakers, then it's going to sound different to if I'm in British Columbia at EA Sports in their mastering studio, and the same voiceover would sound probably completely different because they're listening to. There I'd be listening through PMCs, and here I'm listening through Adams.,: They're in a very expensive room, I would guess.,: Yeah. EA Sports has, I think, about 28 rooms right now.,: I heard the video game industry is doing okay. Like there's a budget these days.,: Their audio rooms are insane. You know, when a company like EA Sports stops calling itself a headquarters and calls itself a campus.,Speaker A: Welcome to the Voodoo Sound campus. Can I just say too, by the.,: Way.,: Campus is a road.,Speaker A: Yeah, campus is a row of tense. Let's have a look at something else. Speaking of games, say I'm a voiceover artist and I've just finished recording an hour or so of gaming voiceover and I look at the file and I think, oh, shit, that's a little dynamic. And for whatever reason, God knows why, but I feel like I should put some compression on it. But the word ratio to mean means nothing and attack and release time. What's a good one for that?,: Something really transparent and relatively hard to screw it up too badly.,: Yeah, well, everything. You want everything to be the best edit that you never heard. If somebody is listening to something and going, oh, there's a plugin on that, then you failed. It's as simple as that. So the term the best edit I never heard is one of my favorites.,Speaker A: I use it all the time. I stole it off.,: You did, didn't you? Yeah, I did, yeah. So now that I've said that, I forgot what you asked Rob.,Speaker A: So something like, I mean, my thought would be Avox, but you guys also have all the one Knob series and all that sort of stuff for someone, a compressor in the hands of somebody who knows nothing about what they're doing but needs to put a tiny bit of compression on something.,: What's a good one in that case? Yes. Rvox. So in studio rack I have a chain that I save and it's just my voiceover chain for this specific microphone. And the first plugin on it is clarity VX de reverb. The second one is Avox and the third one is one knob brighter.,Speaker A: Such a good plugin.,: Which one, sorry, let me say it in another.,Speaker A: Move back to Australia.,: There you go, one knob brighter.,: Brighter.,Speaker A: One knob brighter is such a good plugin and I think we've talked about this before, but Slate digital do a similar one, fresh air, but they're both equally good and I guess, I suppose, like clarity and all the other noise reduction plugins, each seems to have their own sort of niche that they work best in, I suppose. I think one knob brighter on voice is awesome, but Fresh air on it across a mix for me, just gives it that little extra bit of sheen.,: Oh, absolutely. And fresh air is. I nearly look at fresh air as something that's more comparative to something from us that would not be anything to do with restoration or eqing of any kind. There's a plugin which I'm trying to remember the name of and good God, I can't remember it for my life now, but it lets you adjust the width of each of your frequency groups, like low, mid high, mid high, lets you monitor them or stereo them. And I embarrassed that the product name has gone out of my head. But yeah, that's the one that I usually compare more to, to the air one from those guys.,: When do you make the leaps from clarity VXD Reverb to dereverb Pro?,: Realistically, if you're not producing the audio yourself, then from my perspective, clarity DXD Reverb is totally good for you. That's kind of what you need, right? Yeah. If, however, you are taking on and you're doing post production and you're dealing with everything that's coming in from multiple voices, multiple places, and you've got a multi track in front of you and you're dealing with that on a day to day basis, then that's when pro comes in because that's where you have the ability to control the tail more so you can smooth out the tail. You've got independent knob rather than just a simple fader for presence. You've got something that we call a strength multiplier. You've got the ability to go into every single part of the frequencies and choose which ones you really want the plugin working on and which ones you don't.,: Is that that EQ curve looking thing across the middle?,: That's the one of the graph? Yeah. The one that says strength and frequency.,: Right.,: So effectively that's exactly it. To strengthen frequency, it's like, okay, rather than just a knob, what we did was go, okay, right. So we're dealing this for the seasoned post production guy or somebody of that ilk going, okay, so this is where that room is. Let me focus all that and bring out. I don't want much of the strength on that part, but I do over here between three and eight K, it's very tweaky. Oh, it is. Very now.,: But if you were trying to match, like, if you had five different sources and you wanted them to sound like they're literally in the same space, sounds like the level of tweakability you would want to have.,: Absolutely. But if you're a voiceover or you're somebody that's doing your own stuff and you're doing it, or you're doing a podcast and you've got a guest coming in and they're on their MacBook Pro microphone and they're sitting in a kitchen on a tiled floor with a window behind them. And that's the kind of thing where honestly, just use the normal one with the one big knob in the middle. It's like a lot of plugins. You can get yourself into a hole really quickly unless you've got the expertise to be able to deal with it. Which is also why we released two versions of these. One of them is a quick fix, and by Quick Fix, I do not mean degraded quality at all. It's exactly the same neural engines, but it gives you less tweakability so that there's less risk of you messing it up yourself. And then you've got Pro, which has more tweakability, plus a limiter built in, plus width control, plus tail smoothing, plus the ability to get more neural networks and an analysis of both mono and stereo. It gives you a lot.,: Yeah, that was just part one of our chat with Michael Pearson Adams or Gomez, if you like, from waves. We'll be back next week for a continuation of this conversation, and we're also tapping into something which is kind of topical as we age, because some of us are doing that. We'll be talking about hearing loss and how best to manage it when you do this for a living. So join us next week. More chats about hearing, more chats about plugins, and more chats with Michael Pearson Adams from Waves. See you next week.,Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,Speaker C: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austria and audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the tech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic, or just say g'day. Drop us a note at our website, theproaudiosuite.com.     

They sound great, look incredible, and have a distinct sound that makes them unique. But how should you look after your Tube/Valve mic? From keeping dust out of the capsule to preventing it from overheating, what's the best way to care your your investment? A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson    Summary In this episode of the Pro Audio Suite, hosts Robert Marshall, Darren Robertson, George the tech Wittam and Andrew Peters dive into an intriguing discussion about unique microphone handling techniques and the associated benefits. They answer a listener's question on why some people hang their microphones upside down - a technique often linked to protecting the microphone from overheating and avoiding dust accumulation on the capsule. They also introduce a discount code "trip a P 200" to get $200 off your Tribooth, recommended as the best vocal booth for home or on the road. Additionally, the team humorously integrates tire chat, sponsored by Canadian Tire, into their discussion. Don't forget to join the conversation on their Facebook group. #ProAudioSuite #MicrophoneTips #TriboothDiscount    Timestamps (00:00:00) Welcome to Pro Audio Suite (00:00:45) Hanging Microphones Upside Down (00:05:39) Trivia: The White Michelin Man    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history.,Speaker B: Get started.,Speaker A: Welcome.,Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite. These guys are professional. They're motivated.,Speaker A: Thanks to Tributh, the best vocal booth for home or on the road. Voice recording and Austrian audio making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from source elements and someone audio post Chicago. Darren robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging. Sydney to the Vo stars. George the tech Wittam from La. And me, Andrew Peters, voiceover talent and home studio guy learner.,Speaker B: Here we go.,Speaker C: Welcome to another Pro audio suite. Don't forget, if you would like to get $200 off your tribooth, use the code trip a P 200. We had a question sent to us about microphone position particularly. Why would you hang your microphone upside down?,Speaker B: The answer is pretty obvious, if you think about it.,: To get to run all the blood out of it.,Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.,Speaker C: Yeah.,: So you can record Pink, who's famous for singing on stage, hanging upside down.,Speaker B: There you go. There's another good answer to dry it out. Well, there's that as well. That's right. Yeah, exactly.,Speaker C: Or you could record like Brian Wilson in a beanbag.,: I think the new thing with microphone should kind of be like how gangsters will hold the gun sideways. I think we do the gangster style sideways microphone.,Speaker B: Right.,Speaker C: But here's another reason, a serious one. And this is a fine example of a microphone that should be hung upside down. This is the Microtech Gafel M 92.1s, featuring the original M seven capsule. And inside is a valve, or for our American friends, a tube, the EF 86 tube, which, of course, generates heat. And what does heat do? It rises. Rises, affecting the capsule. But if you hang it upside down, it goes out the bottom.,: The heat avoids the capsule.,Speaker B: And we have a wiener.,: And there's another reason. And also it gets it out of the way of the script and all that stuff.,Speaker B: Yeah. And it looks cooler, too, I reckon.,: Yeah. Those are the practical reasons for voice actors.,Speaker C: The other reason you hang your mic upside down is dust as well. So you don't get dust inside the.,Speaker B: That'S a good one. Keep the dust off the capsule, probably. Yeah, absolutely.,: And you should turn the phantom off because a polarized capsule will attract dust.,: Oh, see, I've been trying to think of good reasons to tell people to turn off phantom. I usually tell people, don't worry, just leave it on.,: I'm pretty sure a polarized capsule will attract polarized dust.,Speaker B: There's the two schools of camp. There's the school that says, Leave it on because turning on and off all the time is crap. And there's the school that says Turn it off. Because for all the reasons we've just mentioned yeah.,: I think you should therefore just turn it on to, like, 24 volts phantom when you're gone.,Speaker B: You think so? Half?,: No, you're taking me seriously.,Speaker B: Are you standing by that robert, are you going to pay all the police pay because you my mic claims? Because I want nothing to do with that.,Speaker C: No, not absolutely. But I always turn everything off anyway.,Speaker B: When I yeah, I turn off it. I put my computer to sleep, but I turn everything else off. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's the best way. I mean, God knows what's going to happen.,: Sometimes if you leave stuff turned on and the right thunderstorm comes by, kaboom. But if it's turned off, it might not quite get hit as hard.,Speaker C: That's one thing well, I bet people don't have because I've got the what do you call it, the CyberPower thing. So if we do get a major surge, it blocks it.,Speaker B: Yeah, I've got surge protection stuff on mine. But I always come back to my grandmother, because if I was talking to my grandmother when I was living in a state, when I was working in radio and there was a storm coming, she'd say, oh, I better get off the phone, there's a big storm coming. Okay, right on and see you later down the phone. She made me paranoid.,: Especially if it was like the cordless phones you had at your house back in the day when cordless phones first came out and they had the big antenna. And there used to be this guy that would walk around the block and he's like, this is so great. Because it was 900. Could go a good distance farther than WiFi. But yeah, if you're walking around with a big antenna coming off like.,Speaker C: The umbrella.,Speaker B: So if you hang your mobile phone upside down, do you still get struck by lightning?,Speaker C: No, and don't hold me to that.,: Yes. Are you sticking with that one, Rob?,Speaker B: I didn't know that. I want that court case either.,Speaker C: No way.,Speaker B: Right.,: How about we make a pair of headphones that are purely metal band made to wear in the rain?,Speaker B: There you go. Put them inside the voiceover bodysuit. Yeah.,Speaker C: With a large antenna. Like a lightning rod.,Speaker B: Yeah, lightning rod for the voiceover bodysuit. There we go.,: They can have little pokey things that get a really good contact on your temple so that when the lightning hits.,Speaker B: It just goes like, oh, look at George. There we go. George has got the metal band on his headphones. Look at that. They're cool.,: I like, George, that's too bad.,Speaker C: You know what you could do, though, just to if you wore the metal headphone and you put a lightning rod sticking out the top, then you run a wire from each side down your body and then connects to a metal plate on the bottom of your shoe. By right, you should be earthed and you should be okay in a lightning storm.,: Right. You're doing the same thing as you do to a whole house.,: Yeah.,: And we might need to do this for the voiceover bodysuit. What's it called? The lightning rod. Isn't that what you install?,Speaker B: You know what it's called, Robert? It's called the self charging device.,: The voiceover bodysuit is so goddamn soundproof that you can use it in a lightning storm.,Speaker B: There you go.,: But you need the additional add on option of these.,Speaker C: The optional lightning rollers.,Speaker B: Just gets sillier and sillier. We got to do it one day. We got to come up with a prototype.,: Didn't you send a picture the other.,Speaker B: Day, the Michelin Man? The original Michelin Man. Yeah.,: Do you know why the Michelin Man was white? Was wrapped in white tires?,Speaker B: I didn't know that either until I saw that. I know what you're going to say, so I'm not going to answer that.,: See if anyone natural rubber back in the day was white.,Speaker B: Yeah, they're white.,Speaker C: Of course they used to be white.,Speaker B: Natural rubber is white until they started dyeing it black. That's why the Michelin man's white. Always wondered that.,Speaker C: Now I know because my grandfather was a chauffeur back in the 1920s. And the car he used to drive, I can't even remember what make it was now because it was so long ago since I've seen any photographs. But that had white rubber tires, which, being a chauffeur would have been a bitch because he had to clean them all the time.,: Clean them all the time, absolutely. I'm sure that's why tires are black now.,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker B: Was that where white walls came from? Because the tires were white? But then we were driving on the black bitumen road, so the rubber became black on the bottom. The sides were still white, maybe.,: Yeah, probably.,Speaker C: I think when they make white walls, they actually take the black off and it's white underneath.,: I think that's how they do it.,Speaker B: There you go.,: Yeah, they wanted that white look. They wanted that classic, like a tuxedo for cars.,Speaker C: Imagine if you had white tires and you did a burnout. It confused the shit out of people behind you. They go, what the hell is a lane marking here? What am I supposed to do?,: Yeah, all of a sudden, people are like, driving in your direction. If you did a big spinning burnout, they're like, oh, over here.,Speaker A: Oh, shit.,: Check it out online. There are some red tires, some blue tires, just so that when you do burnouts, it leaves crazy colors on the street.,: Yeah, you could get like a red, white and blue tire and then you could be very patriotic about your burnouts.,Speaker C: Yes, you could. You could.,Speaker B: You have to change the name of the show now. The Pro Audio Suite and Tire Chat.,: Yeah, just general brain spillage sponsored by Canadian Tire.,Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,Speaker A: The Pro Audio suite with thanks to Triboof and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our website theproudiosuite.com.     

In this episode of The Voiceover Gurus Podcast, Linda invites Australian voice actor, Matt Cowlrick, to discuss the essential elements of a successful career in voiceover. Matt shares insights on how having a diverse range of accents and vocal ranges can help voice actors tap into a broader range of opportunities and build a long-lasting career. Listen and learn about how Matt has made it work for decades. About Matt: Matt Cowlrick has been a full-time voice actor for over a decade. He records every day from his personal Source-Connect and ISDN studio, mostly in the genres of commercial, corporate and animation/character.   He works in multiple accents and vocal ranges with some of the biggest brands in the world. Select national campaign voice work includes TD Bank, GMC, McDonalds in Canada, BabyBel, Scrubbing Bubbles, Hilton, WorkDay in the US, Trex Decks in the UK and VistaPrint in Australia. He has performed promo work for AMC, Discovery, and Paramount+. Some of his animation and video game credits are Pirate Express (TELETOON), My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Chuck's Choice, World of Warcraft and Littlest Pet Shop and Loki and additional characters in Marvel Super Hero Adventures.   Visit Matt's production company website: https://www.timbersound.ca/#about And consulting website: https://www.timbercreative.ca/   FOR MORE INFO ON THE SHOW, PLEASE VISIT: Coaching Website: https://voiceover.guru/  and https://learnwiththegurus.com/ Linda Bruno Voice Actress  https://www.lindabruno.com Alyssa Jayson Actress and Musician http://www.alyssajayson.com Join our Circle Community: https://the-voiceover-gurus.circle.so/home

Source-Nexus I/O is a plugin and virtual driver system that upgrades your workstation with a versatile audio input-output routing solution, tailored and customizable for streaming audio seamlessly from both DAWs and Desktop applications.  It Automatically connects to Source-Nexus Review for effortless streaming.  This week's episode is the soundtrack to a walk-through of the new interface we recorded with Robert. It's an in-depth look at a game-changing software you can't afford to miss if remote sessions are a part of your day-to-day business... You can see the video on our YouTube channel.. https://youtu.be/uxzEsSiJyQA A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, the team introduces Robert Marshall from Source Elements and discusses the company's new communications platform for media professionals, Nexus. This platform enhances remote work by enabling content creators and voiceover artists to bring audio directly into a standalone app, and set up online review sessions with clients. Nexus also simplifies audio routing, making it easy to use, even for non-technical users. The platform, priced at $11.95 per month, promises a lot of value and utility for users. In future iterations, Nexus plans to provide more improvements and functionalities, making it an affordable, powerful tool for media professionals. #ProAudioSuite #SourceNexus #HomeStudioSolution   Timestamps (00:00:00) Welcome & Sponsor Shoutout (00:00:53) Intro to Source Connect (00:07:56) Discussing Buffer Setting (00:14:41) Nexus Tech Support History (00:20:23) Source Connect for Video Editing (00:26:16) Pro Tools I o Routing Issues (00:28:41) Source Connect Pricing (00:30:59) Broadcast vs Communication Users   Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready to be history? Speaker B: Get started. Speaker C: Welcome. Speaker B: Hi, hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite. These guys are professional, they're motivated. Speaker C: Thanks to Tributh, the best vocal booth for home or on the road voice recording and Austrian audio making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from source elements. And someone audio post chicago Darren, robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging, sydney to the Vo stars, george, the tech Wittam from La. And me, Andrew Peters, voiceover talent and home studio guy. Speaker A: Line up. Speaker B: Here we go. Speaker C: And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite. Don't forget the code trip a P 200 to get $200 off your tribooth. : And don't forget Georgeth tech TPAs for your deals. Speaker C: Man indeed, indeed, indeed. And don't forget demosthework.com. Anyway, that's enough plugs now we're talking. Speaker A: About Source elements.com today. Speaker C: This is a first for us, the first time we've been seen on camera, which sorry about that. It's the way it goes. Speaker A: No, scary. : Oh, crap, I forgot I should need to stop picking my nose now. Speaker C: As long as that's all you're picking. Speaker A: Yes, that's got your balls. Whatever you do. Speaker C: So this is the new source nexus. Speaker B: Robert yeah, we just released this and really something that I guess if a lot of our crowd are voice talent, at least initially here, this is kind of showing more of the client side or our new version of a client side application kind of shooting down the middle. We had originally made Source Live, which has a really high powered server assisted video streaming system and it can have a lot of, I think up to 20. We tested up to 26, 25 or 30 people. We just ran out of people to test with. But it shouldn't have any limits on the number of connections. So the idea here was to take Nexus, which has started to become sort of a slightly more commoditized concept. Nexus going way back how many years ago? I'm not sure, but it feels like probably at least ten, maybe a little bit more, maybe 13 years ago or so. Nexus comes out and really sets this genre for how to construct post sessions so that you can have your talent coming in on Source Connect. You can have your clients in on various meeting platforms, you can have a remote connection. Nexus was also used for bringing in sound effects, feeds and other monitorings of other types of things, things that you would normally patch into a patch bay in the hardware world. This is now all starting to happen application and Nexus is this patching center, as the name implies. But that capability has been slightly commoditized. You have all kinds of things like even UA and Apollo has our virtual drivers built into the interfaces and interfaces are coming out with loopback connections and blah, blah, blah. So here we are innovating and saying, what was Nexus originally used for? And a lot of it was used for integrating these communications platforms and we thought let's make a communications platform that's a little bit more built for media professionals. And on this side, the initial sort of intent is for review and approval. So you can imagine either you've got clients on the gateway here and they are meeting and then there's a talent connected and the engineer can patch all this together using Nexus actually. And they would have a session where talent's connected in on source connect and the clients are all here on a meeting platform. And so here's sort of a meeting platform that's more designed for media professionals and specifically like a review and approval workflow. Here's kind of what it looks like a little bit. One of the first things with Nexus is it has now a plugin dedicated for it that does a lot of this template setup. People used to have these crazy templates for Pro Tools and now if you oops, what I should do is share my screen. So here's Robert's Screen. So the first thing that Nexus has besides this meeting room looks pretty similar to a lot of things but here's one big difference. There's a plugin that's included with it. And the plugin has, as you can see, my talkback coming in here has the input from the mix. So I can hear the mix actually right here. The mix is also sent to the broadcast input, which we'll talk about in a split second. And then here's the chat return. So if someone says hello, we will see this meter bounce. Speaker A: Hello. Speaker B: There you go. So that's how I hear. And this takes care of all the mix minus and all the routing that people would have to do in one drop of a plugin on the master fader. Yeah, you don't have to change your session structure. You don't have to mix to a bus. So you can separate the people from what you're listening to and make them mix minus. Essentially, this does it for you. And so here's this broadcast input. But over here in the gateway, I've got this broadcast section. So now I can send my mix separate from my communications input, which is not something you get to do with zoom, et cetera, et cetera, all the other ones. So here's a high quality stereo communications feed without having to have problems with my talkback conflated within it and those kinds of things. So now you guys might notice that if I just literally go over here and this might be loud. Here's a rock tune in this session and then as easy as that is it's a good level right I put it down to -20 because we have to blend it with this stuff and. : Coming back to me in full stereo. Like high fidelity. Speaker B: Yeah, high fidelity, full stereo. Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Speaker B: That's the whole point. But really it's like I don't want you looking at my screen because there's too much stuff there. And whatnot what you really want to see is this. So if I jump back out and I share my window, you can't see what I'm doing because I'm not sharing it, but I'm basically sharing again. But this time, instead of doing entire screen, I'm picking window. I'm picking that Pro Tools video window. So now we can play this spot that we using as a little ADR demo. And right now that's more stuff to talk about later, the remote ADR workflows, but here's just a review and approval thing. And so a lot of voice sessions are not synced to picture. You're just, hey, read it three times. All right, I'll cut that in and you see it happening. And essentially, here's the core of that session. I can have a talent connected. I can bring the talent in through here, actually through a new plugin, but I can't really talk about that. But the classic connection where you have Source Connect and a plugin on an Aux track. So here you can see I'm receiving from source connect. This is the original Nexus plugin. And so there's from Source Connect, and that's popping over to my record track over here. And then an Aux send from receive of Nexus. And I can send the chat over to the talent. Speaker A: So you don't have your talent on Nexus then? Is that what you're saying? Speaker B: You don't want to? Because then you have all right, everyone mute their mics or you don't have separation, essentially. So what you have is you can have the talent join Nexus. And one of the first we plan on kind of rolling out updates rapidly. And one of the ones that's up on the dock is a no audio button, meaning not just mute your microphone, but mute the whole output. So then the talent can be here. The talent can look at the picture, see the clients and record. And within the realms of that latency, you can even record sort of with pictures as long as the engineer slides it back. And it happens a lot over these remote systems. You just kind of deal with the latency a little. : Can I ask you about the buffer setting? I now see in my window? It says off no buffer right now. Speaker B: Yeah, right. Another thing. So stuff you can't do in zoom oh, the broadcast, which is really high quality, is giving me a little bit of trouble. You can add some buffering on your side. So maybe that connection is going to be a little bit more latent, but it's going to have a stronger connection because as you know how it goes with all of these Chrome type things, it's all up to the way Chrome really decides to treat the audio. And Chrome loves to drive latencies as low as possible and just say, screw it, I'm going to stretch audio and mask all kinds of stuff and quite frankly, make up more audio than I'm actually broadcasting just to kind of make communications work. And if it is high quality, that's nice, but it's not my goal. My goal is just communications. Just by adding to that buffer, at least we can protect that audio stream a little bit and make sure that clients aren't hearing. So, for instance, the way I do it, when I send my talent to the clients, I'm sending them through the broadcast input so they hear that voice record from the talent in really high quality. Whereas we're over here the chat. Even though there is a broadcast option on the chat, you don't really need it. And that way you also have echo cancellation built into here and you're optimizing the way things are. You're not all eggs and all echo canceled. Good enough for a lawyer's meeting or the other side, something like Source Connect now was where it's just like wide open, pure audio, but then you have feedback issues. This is kind of trying to blend. You got clients who are used to the business meeting. You've got Vo talent and playback that needs to be high quality. Put all that together in the right. : Way, that's always challenging a lot of things. It's an all or nothing proposition. It's either Zoom equality or everybody's in a high quality and it's just you introduce new problems, especially the client is not prepared for that. Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that's like for people that aren't initiated in this stuff, it's easy for us to say stuff, but we do this day in and day out. At least I do. : Obviously, we always have headphones at the ready. Speaker B: Yeah, we're actually getting it pretty good on the iPhone and iOS devices, and those have their own challenges. We have a warning right away that says, like, if you're going to use this for communications, we can't really give you as high quality broadcast audio. So there's another thing that's unique to this is there's a mode to it where you can just join it for the broadcast audio, which is a case where maybe you do want to have a sidecar zoom meeting. Some of the issues with a sidecar zoom meeting with a high quality broadcast on the site is now Zoom is unaware of its echo cancellation. So the high quality audio broadcast echoes through everyone's connections because it doesn't think that that's part of its initial input output. It doesn't catch it in its algorithm as well as when it's all integrated into one platform. But yeah, you can join this and just use it for the broadcast, or you can use it for the meeting, but when you use it on the iPhone, if you just want to use it for the broadcast, you'll get high quality. But if you use it for communications and the broadcast, the broadcast unfortunately gets stepped on. And I'm sure you've seen some of that happen even when you just get a phone call. As soon as the iPhone thinks it's in a communications mode. It's like it's doing that good enough for communications, make it intelligible kind of thing. But still there's people that might be driving. You might have a producer who's just really they just want to make sure the session is flowing well. They're not listening to it in the same way that the writer and the art directors are, for example, worrying about what time is it and are we going to have to pay somebody overtime if this goes any longer? Yeah, but that's pretty much it. The idea is it's trying to be really simple about it as well. Speaker A: It's very cool. I mean, as you say, it takes zoom out of the equation, which is the best bit. Plus, as you say, we're listening to the talent in broadcast quality as well, which for me as an engineer is a big thing. I don't want to have to listen. Speaker B: And in any session you do, you can remote heise it in just like one drop of a plugin. You don't even have to think about it. So one of the unique things about the review plugin here is that you can bring your talk back in from any input in the whole computers. Right now I'm using same as system, which is picking up this road NTUSB actually. So same as the system setting or picking it up directly. And that can be my Talkback input, which is on a trigger with a slash key. Or if you're on a Pro Tools HDX or HD native system, when Pro Tools launches, your audio interface is exclusively owned by Pro Tools. And if your Talkback mic is going to that audio interface, how do you get it in there? Here you go. You pick it up on the side chain. Speaker A: Nice. That's clever. Speaker B: I like that you tell this thing. So say my input is I don't know, it wouldn't be one of these buses, but I don't even have a hardware input. Yeah, so in this case but then you just pick your input there and then here you'd say use key input. That covers all the HD native and anybody else with an exclusively run hardware audio system. There's a few others out there. I'm trying to think of what they are, but maybe like a Fairlight, for example, and that CC one card that they have and things like that can make use of that input. Actually, come to think of it, I'm not too sure Fairlight has gotten around to putting side chain inputs on their plugins yet. That's a different issue. They could sure use it. Because I remember I did a tech support thing the other day for a Fairlight person and what I ended up doing is making an Aux channel, dropping a Nexus plugin and picking up making the Aux channel the input for his talkback mic and then just sending it off to a virtual device like Nexus 23 24. So then over here on the review plugin. I just went over and picked up Nexus A 24 or whatever and got his talk back into the system, even. Speaker A: Though, yeah, that's clever. Speaker B: It took an extra channel. It'd be nice if fairly put in a side chain on their plugins. And I forget what other exclusive systems there are, but there are some plenty, I believe. Speaker A: Well, it's very cool, mate. You must be pleased with it. Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's funny how it's exactly a year. We went to AES last year and showed a prototype of this and we put the prototype together in like the month or two before AES, I think. And it was like that kind of thing where you make 80% of the progress. We had a review plugin that looked a lot like this stuff was functional. And then the whole last year has been spent like the details. Speaker A: So was the idea, I mean, Nexus One, shall we call it the original Nexus? For me, it's no secret I've talked about it on this show a million times. I love it. Looking at this and watching you use it now was the idea to take something that was really useful, but probably you needed to have a bit of a tech understanding and make it a bit more user friendly. Is that what you were trying to do? Speaker B: So we would find things like this. You'd get someone and they'd buy Nexus at that time. It's like 295 at the time. But they'd be on the phone with one of our tech support people for another 45 minutes an hour. We're building a template for them. It's kind of expensive, honestly. And this isn't everybody, but there's like a certain level of users I just need to do this thing and well, what you need to do is kind of complicated. That's fine. Can you show me? And then you show them and then next thing you know, when they get stuck or something, they're back at it. And originally Nexus didn't even include live tech support. Try to simplify because some of these people, george, I know you know this syndrome where people get set up with something that is barely at their capacity to remember, especially if you're setting it up for them. Because it's a different thing when you brew something up in your head. But if someone's just like, Here you go, whiz, bang, boom. And then you're like, oh, fuck, I got to get off the phone. See you later. Have a good day, sir. And it worked. I don't even want to close my computer. So the idea was this first one is just to take that whole kind of set up and distill it into here. I mean, here's your classic mix minus is what this is. : Just because someone's a talented engineer, mixer, whatever, it doesn't mean they necessarily are trained and know how to build some of the really routing and stuff. Speaker B: Those are different I know exactly how that is. I mean, that's kind of how I got my start. Like, I was a sound designer and mixer at Cutters, and there's sort of operators I was always involved with even. What equipment are we going to buy? How are we going to set up? How can we be more efficient, are we going to do our storage? I mean, there's so many aspects. : You were like engineer, technician, really. Speaker B: I was a little bit of like the I didn't do all the soldering because there was also like a whole department of full text. But I was like the liaison and I would define and get my hands very dirty doing the stuff for the audio department because you're also an audio department in a company that was originally a video company. So the video texts are videotechs and they can do what you want, but they don't know the same stuff. They know exactly how to run an Avid and premiere and all those things. And then audio is kind of a weird thing. So, yeah, it came out from you're setting stuff up and then here we are making the stuff that we trying to simplify these things. Speaker A: So I guess the important point to make here too, especially for content creators or for voiceover artists, is all this techie stuff in the background. Especially if you're a voiceover artist, that's not your responsibility, that's the engineer's responsibility. All you need to do if you're a voiceover artist is dial into the Engineer on your usual source connect connection. Yeah, but dial into the audio engineer on your usual source connect connection and bang, you're in. But if you need to run sessions or if you want that connectivity, then you've got all this in Nexus as well. Right? Speaker B: So first thing I was going to say is there's engineers that they just want to walk into work, go, where's my talkback mountain? Where's the mic pre for the talent? Where do I search my sound effects? And I just want to run that way. Yeah, they're not worried about like, am I on the latest version of this and that and what do I have? They're more of the artist type of engineer and not so much of the tech kind of engineer. And they're doing a lot of great work, but they're just not into it as much. And so a lot of those people, as you said, sometimes especially is what's happening these days is people are going freelance a lot. And a lot of those people had the support of a big team in a post house like that. And now they're freelance and they're leaning on either companies and people like George or some of our tech support. And so the idea is to simplify this, but here's something that a voice talent could do with this. Imagine you have clients that think, and I'm going to say think that they can save money and time by having the Voice Talent record themselves and then just throwing a bunch of audio takes and poorly, poorly noted stuff at Audio Engineer to say just put it together. And somehow that's going to save 1 hour of an Audio Engineer's time by making them edit stuff after the fact. And Robbo, you and I both know that they will get more of what they want quicker for less money if they just do a supervised session with an engineer on the line. Nonetheless, it happens to a lot of Voice talent. Andrew knows this and they are like, can you play that back for me? Speaker A: Yes. Speaker B: Now, as a Voice Talent, all you got to probably I think this is stereo only. We should modify this for mono, but you could just make a master fader in your daw and chuck this on it. And now you can do playback without thinking about it. You just play it back. You're broadcasting your mic. You want to do a playback, especially if you use the push to talk. You can mute your microphone. So the playback is nice and clean for them, but they're probably not recording you anyway, so they just want to hear it and decide if. So this could be useful for a talent who just needs to have a very simple playback system. And one of the things also that's going to come out pretty soon is a standalone version of this plugin because it's also useful for video editors. They want to share their video edit screen and what they're working on with clients in exactly the same way we are in Pro Tools. But the video editing systems don't have quite the same idea of always a live ongoing mixer. So in this case, you would just use Nexus to bring the audio directly into the standalone app. The audio from your system essentially like a copy of your audio from the system. And then you can have your Talkback mic selected directly. And now someone running Final Cut or Premiere can easily set up a review session with their clients so they can work remotely as well. Speaker A: Cool. Speaker B: So it does have a couple of applications. There some other fun stuff. You hit the Talkback button and it dims things. So for example, if you can talk over it, when you're like right over here, this happens and that happens and it dims the mix. And you can just decide what you want to dim just by selecting here what gets dimmed when you dim. Speaker A: Nice. Speaker B: If you do need to run with Zoom or something like that, there's some preferences here. You can send your Talk back to your broadcast input. Like I said, Zoom can't differentiate these things. So that way you could use this with a Zoom type setup or whatever. Just a traditional meeting. : Google meet, right? Microsoft. Speaker B: This is a funny setting. Normally this is off and we take away the master fader for the engineers. So that they don't end up turning their whole mix down and printing it. But if they do want to have their control of their mix of their own level, then they can turn that preference on and have is that just. Speaker A: For if what you're sending. So that's effectively what I'm sending out my mix bus, is that right? Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. So if you were to somehow move this fader and then mix everything down yeah, it's down. You might bounce down at like negative something bad. Speaker A: But if you're recording and things are a bit hot, at least you can trim it a touch, right? Speaker B: Right. If you want, you can turn this on and you can control your monitor mix a little bit easier without having to change your master fader. But when you mix down, you want to either make sure you put this puppy at zero you can type the numbers in here, by the way, too, or you can do the preference and just turn it off. So there is no way, there's no fader. It's gone. Speaker A: See, the thing for me is in Pro Tools, and you might correct me if I'm wrong here, but when I have a session and I save memory locations, right? So I'll create a new session. I'll create a record section as a location memory, and I'll tell it to remember the tracks that I'm viewing and the zoom and all that sort of stuff, and the mute and the mute and all that sort of stuff. And then I'll create another section which might be Mix, and then I'll have other tracks. So when I slip through and when I go to each memory location, it's muting and unmuting master faders. So on my record section, my record master fader, I would have this Source Connect plugin on it. But then when I went to my next one, if I was doing the mix and I opened up that memory, it would be a different master bus, which wouldn't have that on there. So that would negate that forgetting to turn it off. Right. Speaker B: It's like the old SSL boards that would have, like I forget what the modes are called, but like mix down mode and tracking mode, and it would do a whole bunch of switch arounds to deal with queuing and things like that. Yeah, you're kind of like switching your mixer into different modes depending on what you're doing it's one of the favorite. : Things with Twistawave is being able to hide the little volume slider on the bar at the top because people will slide that thing down. Don't even realize why it's so quiet. Start recording at a higher level or doing all kinds of weird stuff. No, that's just your playback, dude. So I love that. I can hide it, make it disappear. Yeah, you can't touch it anymore. Speaker A: Opening a hole. Speaker B: That's why we put this here, because it's just like we were trying to make this thing the idea a lot with this was to reduce tech support and try to which ironically is the. : Idea of the Passport Vo is to also reduce support, which is I'm actually frankly a little concerned about. Speaker B: It was kind of funny when Andrew and I talked about doing this episode, he's like, and then all you need, you need this and Passport Vo. And I was like, with this, you just kind of need a basic two out interface. Like you could just do a road AI one. Speaker A: See, if you buy the Passport Vo, you don't have to pay $15 a month either. See, there you go. Speaker B: That's true. How many months is that at like $600? The Passport Vo is a piece of hardware and it's beautiful in its own right. And even though it does cover a playback workflow, there's many differences. I'm personally not worried about it. Speaker C: The thing we sort of don't touch on, which is something that's kind of more common than it was pre COVID, is once because I lived remotely for seven years before a mate of mine who's an audio engineer moved here as well. And when he decided to move here, it was like, thank God for that. At least I've got some kind of support. So things go wrong in here, at least I can give him a call. He'll just pop around and fix it for me. So all these things that make life a lot easier and technically support you in a kind of roundabout fashion are perfect for people like myself or Pip the audio engineer, just so we don't have to sort of go, shit, I've got no one around here to fix anything. Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I like it too, even though I know what to set up. It's like couple tunnel or however you say that. Having to set up sessions and do things and do all your routing when it is nice. Oh, I started this little thing. I wasn't planning on doing a review, but now someone wants to hear it. Hold on, put the plugin on there and you're not changing things. And so it's just convenient even if you know what you're doing, it's like, why work harder? Speaker A: Look, I can't tell you the amount of times Nexus has saved my ass since I've had know just that fact of being able to get stuff out of the box, out of the software, out of the software, where you kind of think, holy shit, how am I going to get this out of here and into there? Nexus is usually the answer. Speaker B: I'll give you the craziest thing I solved with Nexus. One time this guy was desperate and he had some problem with his audio interface. I forget he had like an input and an output device and he couldn't use the same device for input and output, but one device was only running at one sample rate and basically end result is you couldn't get these. Two things to aggregate together and work as a single device for Pro Tools. So he ended up with Pro Tools kind of like me right here, where he's got no input. I think right now with my Pro Tools interface, if we go to my I O setups, you get in these weird situations, no inputs. Speaker A: Wow. Yeah, look at that. That's crazy. Speaker B: Got nothing, right? Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: But you're like, I need some inputs. So you just drop a Nexus plugin on a bunch of aux channels and like, hey, inputs. Speaker A: Yeah, that's clever. Speaker B: And I just sidewired his whole Pro Tools system. Speaker A: There you go. : Sometimes the Pro Tools I o routing is confoundingly frustrating. I mean, I've tried to set it up for people. I feel like every time I try to customize the I get, I confuse myself. Speaker B: Half the problem with the Pro Tools I O is that you're all good, and then you get a session from somebody else, and then your I O set up is cluttered with a bunch of other shit from somebody else. You're like, yeah, what are these things? I never created them. Can I delete them? And then if you really get into it, sometimes Pro Tools picks the wrong output. You can have many differently named things going out, the same physical output, so you're hearing everything where you want. Then you're like, I don't need this output. And proto's like that's being used in the session. Make sure that you don't screw yourself, because if you delete that output, then who knows? Yeah, it is interesting. Nexus kind of puts all that routing just on the top level, and for some people, it's a little bit easier. : To see, I think, so it makes more sense to me, that's for sure. Speaker A: So give us the sell, Robert. What's the sell, mate? How much a month? Speaker B: We are trying to make this very affordable. So the idea is that what other people would spend in, say, a streaming service and a high quality streaming service I won't name any names, and they're cobbling together different services to make things. Our Nexus is right now, and we hope to keep, at this point, 1195 a month. And we're just going to add to it. : That's cheaper than my Netflix subscription, man. Speaker A: Yeah, it is pretty cheap, I'll be honest. Speaker B: It's cheaper than, like, middle. I don't know the Zoom pricing exactly, but I believe at least one of the lower tiers of Zoom is like, $20 a month, I think. Does that sound right? : Cheaper than Zoom pro. Speaker B: Yeah. And then with Zoom, you got to add other services. So really, with Zoom, you're looking at at least $30. Speaker A: Well, with Zoom, you still got to have Source Connect, right? And all that sort of stuff. And at least with this, with the broadcast setting, you can get away without that for a while. Speaker B: You yeah. I mean, with this, you might still have Source Connect, but you might not need a separate broadcaster. Some of these users are often trying to put things together in more affordable ways or I don't know. This is designed to be a lot of bang for the buck and we're going to add a lot to it and a lot of very specific industry type workflows built within so that you can get your job done easier. Speaker A: What about podcasters and video creators and all that sort of stuff? Speaker B: Right now there's the record button, right, that we're actually using, but I'm not sure exactly how it's going to be presented, like, which overall tiers. But yeah, the ability just to hit record and then collect all those files easily. It's not going to be the direct to Daw workflow that maybe a higher end podcast might use, but for a simple, I just want to collect files and send them to the engineer who's going to edit them together. And never give that engineer bad files, by the way, people. It's very rude. Speaker A: Jesus. Take your own advice for once. Speaker B: Will. : Pot calling the catalog. Speaker A: I was going to say absolutely. Do as I say, not as I do. Speaker B: That's right, exactly. : Robert, let me ask you this. So from you're in this case, what would they call you? The host of the session? Speaker B: Yeah, I'm the host. It's my room. : Does the host get to see the settings on the guests? So as a host, do you know that a guest is using broadcast versus communication? Speaker B: Yeah, which we're not using right now. You would see the HQ there, I think. Got you. Yeah. There's going to be some of that stuff. We plan to have like a button where you can see what the bit rates are of the connections and things like that. But right now this is 1.0. That's right. Speaker A: This is the beginning. Absolutely. Speaker B: Yeah. Speaker C: But it's funny because I've talked to you about the client of mine in Dubai, the studio there that I do a lot of work with. I've been talking about this, and they're super, super keen. And that's why they want to get this as part of their workflow because it just tightens everything up, everything's in one place for them, which is good for them and bloody good for me. Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. : I was confusion about should I mute this or mute that? Should I unmute this? You don't want to be listening to this, but only be listening to. Speaker B: Yeah. Andrew, for you, you're recording in Twisted Wave, and so when they ask you for playback, you have to play back at a twisted Wave, right? Speaker C: Well, no, because I usually use the bigger machine and not the one I'm using here. So it's wavelab. Same thing, though. But I just don't play back. Speaker B: Right, you just don't play back. No. In a later iteration, when we get the standalone version of this, you'll be able to just pipe wavelab right through it as your system output and then you can do playbacks. Speaker A: That's opening a whole nother can of worms. Speaker B: This is feeding the animals at the zoo. Speaker C: Correct. It's like, I know I can, but should I? This is the question. Speaker A: But at least you've got the option, though. You can make the moral decision, but at least you've got the option there. You might be recording a podcast and you might want to play something back or something. But in a voice session you might go, well, listen, you might take the stance to, well, you're not paying me to be an audio engineer, so no, I don't play back. Not that you would tell them that. Speaker B: It's creatives. It's like, imagine you've got an art director and a writer and they're just like, what song do we want on the spot? What about this one? What about that one? And they're playing stuff over the cell phones before it's like, here, you could just be like sharing what's on my desktop. Check out this song. I don't know. I like this one. They're just playing each other's itunes library at each yeah. Speaker A: Well, there's the other thing you could do, too. You could almost with Nexus, if you can get an analog line into whatever it is you're using and you can plug your phone in. You could plug a phone call in through this as well, too, couldn't you? You could have someone listening on the phone. Speaker B: I don't know that one day you don't actually. Maybe you can order this and order a phone number. Speaker A: Yeah, well, there you go. I just think the amount of times that I've had sessions where the client's been on holidays or the creative has been stuck in the airport and I've had someone on a phone as well and you can still throw them into this mix. Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the way I throw people on a phone call into my session right now is I'll use even like FaceTime is a really easy one. You can get a phone call on FaceTime and FaceTime shows up on the Mac and Skype if you buy a phone number from them. The nice thing about FaceTime is, like, everyone has a phone in their computer just by the nature of it. So that's like one way to just. Speaker A: Make Nexus your input and your output of that. Absolutely right. Speaker B: Exactly. Speaker A: Yeah. Very cool indeed. Well done, sir. Speaker B: Thank you. : Bravo. Speaker B: We are proud. And if anybody has questions, source elements.com, check it out. Speaker C: Indeed. Check it out. Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over? Speaker C: The Pro Audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our website. Theproudiosuite.com.  

YES they are our sponsors, BUT they also make great gear. Point in case this week is their new MiCreator range for Content Creators. We take a look at what's on offer. A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, we discuss the latest products from Austrian Audio - the 'my creator studio', 'my creator satellite' and 'my creator Ylav'. We explore how these products are catering to the rapidly growing creator category that includes podcasting, vlogging, and songwriting, effectively replacing the conventional home studio. We noted Austrian Audio's strategic move into this space given their impressive engineering track record. Upcoming in the podcast, we will be testing an ISO booth to gauge its isolating efficiency. We also discuss the difficulty in finding unbiased reviews for new products and how important transparency is when recommending products. We mention our pleasant surprise at Austrian Audio's enthusiasm to join us as a sponsor, further expanding the opportunities for our listeners to gain insights into their products. Be sure to subscribe to our show and join the conversation on our Facebook group. #ProAudioSuite #AustrianAudio #CreatorRevolution   Timestamps (00:00:00) Welcome & Introductions (00:00:40) Austrian Audio Studio Release (00:07:33) ISO Booth Arrival (00:09:32) Michael's Shipment Delay (00:13:45) Trustworthy Product Reviews (00:18:43) Sponsorship Discussion (00:23:55) Podcast Production Details   Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history. Speaker B: Get started. Speaker A: Welcome. Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite. Speaker A: These guys are professional and motivated with tech. To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George the tech. Wittam and robbo and AP's. International demo. To find out more about us, check thepro audiosuite.com. Speaker B: Learn up learner. Here we go. Speaker C: And don't forget the password. Trip a P 200 to get $200 off your Triboof. Now, talking of product, one of our sponsors, apart from Triboof is Austrian Audio. And Austrian Audio have been busy lately and just released some new product, which is my creator studio, my creator satellite and my creator Ylav, which is an interesting thing for Austrian Audio. I didn't think they would get into this or particularly the Mylav thing. I didn't see them going that way. But what do you think, just a first look at this product from Austrian Audio. Speaker B: Well, I would say they are reading the tea leaves, as you could say, and it's just they have to have a product in this category. The creator category is a massive category. It kind of encompasses podcasting, Vlogging, songwriting. If you make content, you're a creator. And so this is like we are creators today because we're making a podcast. So this is who they need to reach out to. It's no longer the home musician or the home studio. It's the creator. This is the category that's replacing the quote unquote home studio. And so they're entering that market. And if their engineering track record so far is any indication, because this is new and none of us have one, I think they'll nail it. They haven't really missed a beat on anything they released so far, and I think they need to be very careful to make sure that brand stays gold. It's really concerning when companies release something half baked or just not quite up to par, even though it's at a lower price point. So obviously it's not going to be made in Austria in the same lab as the OC eight one eight. Right. : It's interesting. It's got one knob. I wonder if it's like that one thing where we couldn't figure out how to use it because the interface was like two buttons and everything happened. Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'm looking at it closely on screen and I don't have the software again, but it's got a three position switch on the face of the body of the mic itself and it's got high low mute. So that leads me to believe that it's just a very simple two position gain switch. : Yeah, but it talks about low latency monitoring, so it's got some stuff going on as a creator. It talks about low latency monitoring without any trouble. Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's got a volume balance knob, which I would say probably is that. So it's a volume control and it's a blend control, assuming that's what Bal means. Speaker C: Unless it could actually be when you plug into the micreator studio, you plug in the micreator satellite to create a stereo mic. Maybe that switch actually doubles as that to get a blend between left and right. I don't know right. Speaker B: Don't know yet. Don't know yet. : I'm looking for a manual. Speaker B: It's got a nice engineering industrial design. Not sexy, just kind of utilitarian looking. A square ish rectangular body and then the microphone capsule on top, which kind of has that cool retro look where the capsule is suspended inside a rim. And it's a nice looking design if it holds up to the abuse of what creators do, which is, to be completely frank, not take care of their gear. In a lot of cases, you just chuck things in your bag. I'll talk about another one of our friends rode, right? Speaker C: Yes. Speaker B: One thing I love about my rode wireless mics, the little wireless mes I have the cheapy ones is they're so light and so basic that I can just kind of I mean, I stick them in a little bag. And throw them in my gear bag. And they're so inconspicuous and they're so simple to operate that when I do need to use them as long as the battery is charged. And that's important. But as long as they got a charge on them, they're just so easy to deploy. Like within 30 seconds, I had it plugged into my iPhone. I launched the Road, I think they call it Capture road capture app. And I'm capturing my mic on my camera, the mic on my talent, and both cameras, the front and the rear. And I'm automatically shooting video and audio. : Is that all down to three files? Does it give you them separately or how does it do it? Speaker B: Yeah. So what it's doing and I would like to control this, but I can't. So what it does is it makes two video files and then each video file has a two track audio to go with it. So each video has both the microphones on ISO tracks. So what I do is when I bring why does it make two videos. : Like front and back or what? Speaker B: I can set it up to do that. Yeah. So you'll see a video I'm going to release soon, which is the interview of the owner of Vocalbooth.com. And I use that feature. So you'll see a video of me and him talking to each other. I'm behind it, he's in front of it, and you'll see it's just switching between the two of us. I'm using software to do this switch back and forth. And all I had to do was actually isolate the two audio tracks so I could get a better mix because I ended up having both audio tracks on both shots. So I had to kind of isolate them so you didn't have doubles, right, if that makes any sense. But this reminds me of that kind of, like, creator's tool, simple USBC plug and go. Looking at the back of the microphone now, I'm actually finally saw the rear of it. There's a few more functions, a few more jacks. : Well, the plug in the satellite mic is one. Speaker C: Yeah, that'll be the out. And then you get to the satellite mic, and then it's got an input and an output. And I'm assuming that what you do there is you get the headphone monitoring will come from the out, from the satellite, I guess, yeah. Speaker B: I mean, I look at this as Austrian audio saying, those road systems are cute, but we make good mics. So let's do the same idea. Forget at the wireless mics. This is really more for musician creators. So let's be able to have two mics, but all plugged into one USB. : This is a little bit of a RODECaster, I think it does. Speaker B: It's a little bit of a road type. Yeah. : Because it's recording both the lavalier mic and the close up mic, I guess. Speaker B: The lav or the satellite mic, which. : Looks like I think it records both. Speaker B: Yeah. The satellite mic looks like just another of the same capsule, just without the rest of the brains. It's just a little it's got a TRRS microphone cable, and it goes to the slave. It's like a master slave. We don't use that anymore, do we, the terms anymore? But it's kind of like there's the primary secondary, or whatever you want to call it. Speaker C: That's really interesting. Interesting product. We'll try and get our hands on something, at least one or two of those, just to check them out. Also, in the next few weeks, someone is sending me an ISO booth. I think you've done a demo on. Speaker B: Those sending you an ISO booth. So if they're sending it to you and it's for isolation, that already makes me concerned that it's not going to be very good at Isolating. Speaker C: Well, you know the big thing, you stick your head inside the ISO booth. : Yeah. The gray one that makes you want to vomit once you're in there for. Speaker C: A while, probably we'll find out when I get it, but it's going to be shipped to me in the next week or so. : Brush your teeth. Speaker C: Yes. Speaker B: Are we divulging who this is yet? Are we going to wait until you've used it and then you're going to. Speaker C: Mention we'll wait till I've used it. I just want to check it out. : Isn't it Isovox? Speaker C: Isovox, yeah. : Yes. Speaker B: They're going to send you their new. Speaker C: Cheaper one, the Isovox Two, I think it's called. Speaker B: Oh, they're going to send you Isovox Two. Speaker C: Yeah. Speaker B: Okay. : Aren't those things like, $800? Speaker B: I did a video review of that. How long ago? Five years ago. They're going to send you one of those? Speaker C: Yeah, I think you did the Isovox one, is that correct? Speaker B: I did the isovox two. I have the video loaded right now on my screen. Speaker C: Wow. Yeah, because the distributor that brings in Austrian audio into Australia have got them. : Yeah. The isovox two is like $1,000. Speaker C: So it's just going to come down for a week. I'll play with it and then we'll use it on one of the upcoming episodes and see what we think. Also an update on the passport vo. I've seen a bit of correspondence flicking backwards and forwards, mainly to you, George. How's it? Speaker B: Well, you know, the bottom line being I think Mike is being very transparent, but this is the truth is that he had a backlog of product to ship because of a part supply issue. So that really took the energy away from our product for a few months that we thought he would have been working on our product. So that means that our product is still in essentially, it's in design phase. We were the Envisionaries Envisionaries the vision visionaries for what we wanted, but it comes down to actual circuit design, and that is what it takes to get this thing really built. And so Michael is in that stage. He's in the circuit design stage. We were hoping this would have happened three months ago. It didn't, because he's been trying to basically relaunch and redeliver or deliver a whole bunch of their products because of a USB chip problem. Speaker C: Yeah. Speaker B: And so they had to literally redesign the boards for four products, get them back into production, get them delivered and shipped. So they've done that. So now if you do want to go buy a micport pro Three, they're actually shipping. They're no longer on preorder, as they've been for quite a while, as well as the mixer face and the portcaster and things like that. Speaker C: And the English Channel, I think, is number one. Speaker B: Yeah. Well, there's another one that's the English Channel, which I hear a little birdie said that we might have something to test out at some point. Speaker C: I think one is being shipped to Robo. I know that. I'm pretty sure that's happening, so that could be interesting. Speaker B: The English Channel is a fully analog piece, right? : Is it a preamp and EQ or. Speaker C: Just a preamp and limiter compressor? Preamp, I think it's got everything. Basically, there's a channel strip I got. Speaker B: To double check because they also have this soapbox, and there's a little bit of an overlap in terms of what does what, so I'm double checking that right now. But the Channel well, the English Channel. : Is but he only sent one to Robbo, right? He didn't send them out all over the place. Speaker B: I don't know. I thought he asked for my address, but I could be wrong. Yeah, but the English Channel, he didn't. : Ask for mine, as far as I know. Speaker B: Okay. Speaker C: Oh, mine. Speaker B: Tim's fighting words. The English Channel includes a studio mic, pre dynamics processor with gate compressor and DeEsser and parametric EQ with sonic enhancer and a streaming USB audio interface with SD card recorder. So it's essentially it's a little mini rack of three products. That's the English Channel. Speaker C: Yeah. : I didn't realize English Channel had a recorder on it. Speaker B: Well, it's the soapbox, the black cab and the portcaster. Yeah. Speaker C: All in one or linked together? Speaker B: Well, yeah, all combined in a cool little rack that they all lock into and connect together to make it feel like one product. : I think it's all those together. Oh, is he sending you the whole string? Speaker C: Holy shit. Speaker B: I don't know, but that would be pretty slamming. I was the most interested in testing the soapbox because that's kind of like a DBX 286. : I think the Preamp is the most interesting one if it's a decent external preamp. Speaker C: Yeah. Speaker B: Well, the soapbox is the preamp. The Black Cab is a five band spectral processor. : It's an EQ five band. It's a three wait, hold on. Speaker B: Well, they call it a five band. : Black Cab is just a three. I'm looking at it right now. It's a three band parametric q gain. Speaker B: And it must have a high shelf and a low shelf. : Oh, yeah, it does. Speaker B: No, it's got HDF. Yeah, it's got a pad that makes it five bands. And then there's the podcaster, is the recorder side of the whole thing. Speaker C: Yeah. It's interesting with sentrance because I've sort of been scouting around as well because I got an email from Michael that sort of inspired me to go down a rabbit hole on the Google. And I found some really interesting reviews, particularly on MixerFace, that was written by Sound on Sound magazine. And anyone that knows Sound on Sound knows they're pretty an authority. And they're good. : Yeah. Speaker B: Beyond reproach, would you say? Speaker C: I would say pretty well beyond reproach. Yeah. And they rave about Sentrin's products, so that was quite nice to read. Speaker B: Good to see. Yeah, I know a lot of the reviews. I mean, it's probably more likely to find a pretty honest review in these traditional print magazines than I would say you're going to find on a YouTube channel these days. I know that YouTubers are being forced to divulge that the product was sent to them, but that is part of the whole. Those that want to give the most impartial reviews tend to be the ones that actually go buy the products. Right. And so it's getting increasingly difficult to find reviews of brand new products that were not gifted to the reviewers. : I can tell you that I bought the Mixer. Speaker C: Bo Weaver. He's got a mixer face from memory as well, isn't he? Did he get one? Speaker B: He may. I don't recall particularly, but I think so. I think he's always been an early adopter. Whenever something new came out that was portable, he was all over it. Speaker C: Yeah. Speaker B: So I'm sure he had one. Yeah. Speaker C: Well, if that's the case, then I should put my hand up and say, I bought my OC eight one eight. : Yes, you did. Speaker C: Yes. : That's what started the whole thing. Speaker C: It was because I just bought the thing and loved it. That was the beginning of getting into bed, so to speak, with them. Speaker B: I bought my Rode wireless. Mics. Speaker C: Good work. Speaker B: It's about the cheapest thing they make. : But I bought my Rode Wireless Mics, but I didn't buy this guy, which I do like. I have to be honest, I think the NTG Five has been quite a good mic. Speaker C: Yeah. Speaker B: Now, we're on a new topic, but when I recommend product, I do try to defulge that I know or I have some kind of a relationship with that vendor. I do try to say that if it makes sense in the context, but it's proving your integrity. If you're listening to us right now, honestly, and you don't know who we are, first of all, Google us, okay? And second of all, we all have worked in this industry a really long time. We have very large client bases of trusted people. And if we're going to shill a product that was given to us by these vendors, we're going to use them, you're going to hear them, and you're going to get our god's honest thought about those products, period. There is no reason we're not going to go out of business because we told you something didn't sound good. It ain't going to happen. Like, we're just going to keep right on chugging whether we like something or not. So we're always going to be very straightforward with what works and what doesn't, you know what I mean? Speaker C: But the thing is, if it's something good, you want to share that information with people. I mean, I know the Austrian audio, particularly the OC 8118. I know quite a few people have bought them on my recommendation and love them. So it's not they've bought them and just going on, great, thanks for that. I've just shelled out some cash and. : You haven't gotten any commission or anything for that? Speaker B: No, really? : In fact, we should talk about that. Speaker C: Yes, indeed. Speaker B: No, we don't. We get product, we get to use it. We get to use it in the real world. We get to do our shows with the products. You hear us using the products, we talk about them. That benefits them, the vendor or the manufacturer, that benefits us because we get to use the stuff and talk about it with authority. And it benefits hopefully, you guys, too, because you're going to hear us say what we like, what we don't like, and what works, what doesn't, and that kind of thing. So hopefully everybody wins and they find that there's some integrity. There's going to be people out there who say, well, screw those guys, they got that thing for free. I've immediately written them off as an authority on that product or impartial reviewer, and that's fine. What are you going to do? Speaker C: Yeah. And we do get stuff for free, and we're quite happy to disclose that we're not going to lie to anybody about the product just because we got it for free. I mean, if it's free and it's junk, we'll say it's junk. Like the product. The Austrian audio thing. When I approached them to come on as a sponsor, I was expecting a big no. But no, they were happy to listen to the podcast and were happy to get involved. Speaker B: Going back, do you remember why you approached them? What caught their attention to you? Speaker C: Well, first of all, I had been reading about these microphones coming out and I was actually the barbecue at a friend's place, and the guy who is the distributor for Austrian Audio now had told me some time ago that he said, I've got something special up my sleeve that's coming out. We're going to be distributing this new microphone. And I'd forgotten all about that. And I saw him at the barbecue and I said, oh, Mark, I've seen this great new mic. It looks fantastic. It's called the Austrian Audio. OC. Eight one eight. He goes, Mate, that's the one we're bringing in. I went, Holy shit, you're kidding. Looks great. He goes, It's fantastic. And then they did a bit of a launch just when COVID had kicked off, unfortunately, and I went to this. Speaker B: I'm familiar with that problem. Yeah. Speaker C: God. And it was all the product launched. Speaker B: Exactly like three months before the friggin Pandemic. We're trying to sell a portable product whenever traveling. Speaker C: Then I went to this function that Group Technologies here in Australia are put on. So they had Austrian Audio down there, they had a whole bunch of other products they bring into Australia from Europe and all over the place. And I met Martin, who's the CEO of Austrian Audio. He was there just talking to people and demonstrating product. And so I had a good chat with him and he was telling me about how Austrian Audio happened and what the capsule they put into the OC eight. One eight was actually from all the R and D they were doing at AKG, trying to replicate the C Twelve. And it's all the stuff about microphones that they got from famous people just to try and get some kind of sonic signature from the C Twelve that they could base their new OC 8118 on. So that was when I first got it. And I bought one and just loved it and kind of went from there, really. So I was talking to the guys here and I said, it'd be really nice if they became a sponsor. Would they be interested? And it's like, Talk to Walter in Austria and see what he says. So I did. Speaker B: And they said, you did it the old fashioned way. Speaker C: Old fashioned way? I didn't use a pen and paper to write a letter. Speaker B: No, but you had a relationship, you made a connection, you had a relationship, you just reached out and that's how it works. Whereas a lot of influencers, it doesn't work that way at all. The influencers just getting inundated with emails from the marketing departments of all these different products saying review our product please. And that's not at all what happened and how things work around here. Partly because we're kind of in terms of the internet of personalities, we're small potatoes. We do not have 20, 5100 and 3 million followers. It ain't going to happen. So there's not that motivation for companies to get these products into our hands. Like bandru? Speaker C: Yeah. Speaker B: From podcastage and those guys nor do we want to be in that position either. Those guys, it's a grind for them. I've talked to Mike Delgadio, the booth junkie and other guys like them and it's a grind for them. They just oh get I have four more of these things to get reviewed in the next know or whatever. It becomes just sort of a grind. And we're not in that position either, which I'm really grateful for that we don't have to. It's just not part of how we do things and how we make money. We just get product, we talk about it, use it and then we just do our thing. Speaker C: Yeah, and we're not just a product reviewer either. I mean, we're more not at all brainstrust. Speaker B: If this is your first time listening to us, go back a year or two. Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's more of a brains trust and a place where people can listen in and just use us as a resource to get some information about anything they might want to do in their home studio, including buying an Austrian Audio microphone. Speaker B: I've gotten some really good anecdotal just literally a man on the street. People I meet at events. Great compliments about the that's well that's know I really enjoy your shows that you podcast. Pro Audio Suite podcast, you know, it resonates with people. I am told about this show I showed up to Joseph Brando's promo masterclass and three different people at lunch there were like, hey, I love that's. Great. People are hearing really they really enjoy it and it resonates with them and there's some value that they're getting from the show. Speaker C: Well, I do know that there's quite a few dealers in Chicago that resonates with them as well. : Definitely. Speaker B: Well that was fun. Is it over? Speaker A: The Pro Audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say g'day. Drop us a note at our website. Theproaudiosuite.com.

Like it or not AI is here, and it will only get better. Where does that leave Voice Artists, Podcasters and Content Creators who currently have no protections in terms of owning their voice? Tim Frielander is an award winning, voice actor, studio owner, advocate, and educator. Tim is also the Founder and President of NAVA, The National Association of Voice Actors as well as co-owner and editor of The Voice Over Resource Guide. His work with NAVA puts him at the coal face of negotiations with the like of voices.com and the AI seeding debate. We have him on the show next week to give us an insight into where we might be headed in terms of a compromise, what protections we might be able to put in place, and most troublininly the short amount of time we have to get it done before it may effectively be too late. A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson      Summary In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, we explore the controversial topic of AI voices with special guest Tim Friedlander. Voices.com has reportedly promised not to use people's voices from their database without permission, but the potential misuse of audition files by clients remains a concern. We discuss the fairness of voice synthesis, highlighting Nava's call for consent and compensation for voice actors. Listeners will gain insight into the problematic quality of AI voice samples and the potential threat to new voice actors as AI begins to replace human voices in certain sectors. We also delve into the future role of agents as potential AI voice libraries, and the necessity for clear licensing fee structures and strong protections before the end of the year to prevent misuse. #VoiceAIControversy #FairVoicesCampaign #FutureOfVoiceActing    Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:43) Voices.com's Promise (00:03:31) Copyright Laws and AI Voices (00:11:50) Review of AI Voice Samples (00:12:59) Risks of Recorded Audio (00:14:25) Dangers of AI (00:19:57) AI Replacing Human Voices (00:23:26) AI's Impact on Visual Artists    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history.,Speaker B: Get started.,Speaker A: Welcome.,Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite.,Speaker A: These guys are professional and motivated with tech. To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo Austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George the tech. Wittam and robbo and AP's. International demo. To find out more about us, check thepro audiosuite.com.,Speaker B: Learn up learner. Here we go.,Speaker C: And welcome. And don't forget, if you want to get a discount of $200 off your Tribooth trip, 200 is the code you need now, this week. Very topical. Of course, this AI thing will just not go away. And I know that there was a conversation about that place. I don't even like saying it. Anyway, I will say it. Voices.com supposedly have promised not to farm out people's voices from their database. Tim Friedlander has been involved in this and has written an article, which is what I saw. And Tim is joining us. G'day Tim.,: Hello. Hello. I'm here.,Speaker C: So what's the backstory to this and how did you get involved?,: The backstory to the AI voices.com thing goes back to about May when Davidcirellianvoices.com announced that they were releasing Voices AI and for the voice acting community, that was a huge concern, basically for the main part being that many people have been uploading audio to their website through their website for 20 years. So theoretically, Voices.com or either of these sites has 20 years of very high quality data and audio that they could use to synthesize our voices. So through Nava, which is association that I run along with Karen Guilfrey and a board of directors, we reached out to David and Stephanie and had a week of conversations with them to get the assurance that they had never been uploading or using or doing anything with auditions or files that have been uploaded through their website. And out of that came our Fair Voices campaign or the Fair Voices pledge that we launched. And we reached out to the other online casting sites, six other sites, to get the same assurances from them and also to make sure that they had changed their terms of service. So Voices.com at the time changed their terms of service to very explicitly say they would not be using any audio files uploaded through their site for machine learning or synthesized or synthesizing voices.,Speaker C: Was that backdated or is that from that point onward?,: The terms of service were from that point onward, but they publicly at the time and in various blog posts and other written areas have said that they have never used audio files for that. The caveat being is that once the audio files are uploaded and sent to a client, it's possible that the client then could take those audition files and use them. We don't know and haven't seen any companies per se who we know are doing that but over the last ten or so years, a lot of these companies have been working in the AI TTS sphere and very potentially could have been using that audio for training. We haven't seen it yet explicitly that we know of, but the inability to track our audio files and to know where the audio goes once we've emailed it out or uploaded through a website makes that a real possibility.,: So to give this some perspective, is there any sort of copyright law or anything in place at the moment that protects someone from having their voice turned into an AI voice without their permission?,: That's a great question. Short answer is no. We've been working with the Copyright Office. I gave a presentation to the FTC last week at a roundtable. I've spoken with multiple lawyers and people across the country and across the world. We're working with a group in Europe to help with the EU AI act. Most actors, voice actors, we give away our files as a work for hire, and the understanding is that that audio will be used for this very specific project. Unfortunately, that also basically gives the person we've given the audio file to the copyright and the ability to do whatever they want to with that. We're currently looking at the possibility that since most voice actors record from home, if from like a music perspective, we could theoretically be the owners of the master files, because a lot of times there's no contracts that are signed. But that's an early we're in the early stages of of exploring that. But there are copyright law does not currently protect the voice actor. It protects the copyright holder, which 99% of the time is the company who hired us. Wow. The only other thing we could fall back on is right, right of publicity. But those laws are only really in California and New York, where the strongest laws and then there's possibly biometric and privacy laws, but those really are only strongest in Illinois and Texas of all places, privacy rights.,Speaker C: So is there a way of know? We've talked about this before having some kind of fingerprint of, your know, if anybody uses your voice, it's quite obvious it's yours because it shows some kind of a fingerprint in the waveform, potentially. I don't know how that would work, but there must be someone who's got.,: Something nobody does currently that we know of. I've spoken with people at DARPA and at NASA. We are currently working. We've gone very deep in this conversation to try and figure out a way to do this, what we can do. And actually, I'm working on this with another company that I started about three years ago to create voice prints that we can then use to match a human voice to a synthetic voice and also to match a human voice to a human voice to say that they're the same person. You could theoretically, if we can get that software in place lock down a voice. So if somebody tries to upload it to a synthetic voice site, it would be locked and would be flagged as basically essentially DRM for voice is what we're trying to do. But the only thing really that you could do that might stay is some kind of spread spectrum watermarking that you could do within that. But it'd have to be embedded so deeply in there that you could rip this into Pro Tools or rip it into something else right. And transfer it between audio files or different Daws and strip out. If it's frequency, then it's very easy to pull out frequencies. Most of the stuff that's out there watermarking is pretty easy to bypass currently.,Speaker C: Well, you just have to get clarity or something and it's gone.,: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.,: So what's the compromise future from your perspective then? Would it be a point where Darren Robertson is selling his voice sample disc to AI people? Or would you rather not see AI at all?,: I'm a musician primarily. I was in Seattle in the was on the cusp of playing live and really exploring music when napster and everything hit. And from a consumer perspective, that was one of the most eye opening things that I'd ever seen. The ability to now have access to a massive amount of audio that I'd never heard before. Not anti technology by any means and definitely not anti AI. I've worked with a synthetic voice company. I have know people who are working with synthetic voice companies. The issue right now is that a lot of the foundational models, a lot of the foundations of these AI generative engines, synthetic voice engines are built on somebody's data and more than likely they are being built on the literal voices of voice actors. So we become the foundation of a lot of these models. What Nava has been asking for is consent, control and compensation. And it's the same thing that all artists are asking for, musicians are asking for, models are asking for, is if you're going to take my data and what makes the essence of me. My voice or my image, or the way I walk or the way that I speak, the cadence that I have, the way that I stand. All of those things are very personal to all of us individually. And that data is basically being turned into data, right. What makes us is being turned into data and put into these synthetic voice engines or these synthetic generative engines or generative AI to produce images and videos and photos and voices that are based on real humans and sound like and look like real humans. So we try to find consent, control and compensation for those and really consent to say yes or no. You can make a synthesized version of my voice.,Speaker C: So if we're talking about AI voices, we're not going to stop. It's already out. I mean, the thing's going to happen.,: They're out there. Yes, correct.,Speaker C: How do you perceive we control. It?,: The only thing that we can currently do right now. And this is part of what this discussion at the FTC came up with last week, is really, I think, from a consumer perspective, a consumer safety perspective, I think that there is so much danger in disinformation and false. Information and just absolute lies that are out there that can now be easily replicated and put into a video or an audio or something that is not very easily detectable. It's almost impossible to tell a synthetic voice from a human voice that are done well. It's hard to tell a synthetic image from a factual image. The laws and regulations currently our laws and legislation, I think, is currently the only thing that we can really do on a broad scale to help stem the tide of the damage that's been done already. And going forward, we have to have very clear contracts and agreements in place that either do or do not allow for the use of somebody's voice to be used in a synthetic voice or generative. AI. That's partially what the WGA and SAG afterstrikes are about. AI is the top of that list of things that are concerns, and it's a top concern for anybody who is in the arts right now that creates anything that any of that could be put into a synthetic engine of some kind and have a new creation made out of that. We just came out of a pandemic where we relied on artists, on musicians and filmmakers and actors and voice artists. And the first thing we do out of that pandemic is try and replace those people. That's really essentially what's happening. There is some accessibility. There are places that there is an argument to be made for doing things that a human couldn't generate. But when it's done to replace somebody, when it's done just to save money, that's where the concern comes in. And we know that money, those savings, are not going to be passed along to the consumer. A video game is not going to be cheaper for somebody to buy because it has synthetic voices. A movie is not going to be cheaper at the movie theater because it's synthetically generated. So they cut out the people. They cut out the people who actually make this work, and then that money just goes to the company that gets to save that money at the expense of everybody.,: Why would voices.com say the quiet part out loud? They're a bit like Uber basically going like, hi, please work for us. Make us money, and then we're going to put all of our money into figuring out how to make driverless cars so we don't need you see bitches.,Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.,: They did. I don't know if anybody saw the news last week, but David Cicearelli is out and Morgan Stanley is it morgan Stanley who was the venture capital whoever gave them the money, they replaced him at the top. My guess is that they either went all in on AI and it's not paying off, or they weren't seeing this is all purely speculation. This is just what we can have for conjecture in this place. So I know nothing for fact, but they invested a massive amount of money in them, what, $18,000,015 to $18,000,000.07 years ago. And if they went all in on AI, I don't know if anybody's heard.,: They lost all of it.,: Yeah, they lost all of it. Has anybody actually have you guys heard their AI? The voices AI their samples. They're terrible.,: Never heard it.,: They're terrible. They are terrible. But they were done with consent, control and compensation.,: Is it better or worse than voicealo?,: I haven't heard that one. But most of what I deal with, I deal with Eleven Labs and Play HT are the two that I use most often, for example, for samples in that. And both of those are phenomenal. They are really good. And voices. AI is nowhere. It sounds about ten years old, the technology, from what I heard, and some of the voice actors who had their voices synthesized, who participated in this are not happy with how that voice sounds.,Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to say, just to lighten up a bit, there's an old gag that could actually be modernized and you can ask the question, how many voiceover artists does it take to change a light bulb? And the answer is none. You get an AI to do it.,: That was a drummer joke.,Speaker C: I know we can update it.,: It.,: Just hasn't happened quite yet.,: I was going to say. Yeah, exactly. I've heard that one before somewhere. So the thing that occurs to me though, Tim, is it's great that we're protecting voice actors and all that sort of stuff, but obviously there's a crapload more voice samples out there. I mean, how many podcasts are there out there? And YouTube content creators and all the rest of it? All these places they could go mining for voices.,: How do we protect know? Currently we can't currently there is no protection for Know. This goes into Know, we talk about this being more it's with anybody who has recorded audio is at risk. And that voice actors just happen to be the ones who make a living off of our recorded voice most of the time, but doesn't mean that others aren't making a living off of what they have on the podcast and YouTube. And even those who are just hobbyists at this, who just have a little bit of recorded audio, some twitch stream. I can currently record all the audio off this and make a synthetic voice of anybody on this conversation right now, as can anybody who's listening to it.,Speaker B: Right.,: And it's easy.,: What work does it really kill, truly kill? Like in the short term? I can see it taking out a crapload of elearning and other things like that.,: It takes that out that's any of the stuff that is purely factual, a lot of times talk about factual stuff where I just need information read. A lot of that stuff gets taken out right away, which if you can license your voice to that, then you can still have a career as a voice actor. One of the things that I think is the dangerous part of this, and this goes for any of the arts, is that a lot of these places that are going to be replaced first are where a lot of voice actors, a lot of artists learn. This is how you cut your teeth and you come up through the industry. You do the free jobs, you do the cheap jobs, you do the entry level jobs. Those entry level jobs go away right away because it's cheaper. But a lot of the times it's better. Unfortunately, it is better. The audio quality of a voice actor who's just starting out, who is using a USB mic in their living room with hardwood floors and the refrigerator running and the AC is going to be at risk for sure, and I think rightfully so.,: I'll give you another one, is the company that doesn't hire anybody, right. And they just see the AI voices as it's better than having Mary Jo read it because it's going to take her a long time and whatever. And so just type it into the system. And there's our video. It's our instruction video on how to use our garden hose absolutely or something. And yeah, it's going to take out I don't see it initially taking out real voice acting, but I agree, just like conveying voice, it's just going to plenty of AI voices I'd rather hear.,: Instead of the president of the auto.,: Workers union, for example. One of the things that we've seen, I think, that's been most hopeful in this is that those who work with voice actors already or don't want to replace voice actors, those people who are already working in the creative sphere, who are the producers, who are the directors, they're the people they say, I would never replace a voice actor. But it's all of those people who don't who have just need a voice actor for this one time, need a voice actor for this one training video, this one thing here that they would go to a friend or a referral or wherever it might be, to the online casting site and cast somebody who's new. They're not going to do that anymore. And we're not going to see it's very hard to tangibly find the damage to this because we're not seeing auditions going out where they're saying we're going to audition a human versus an AI. And the AI gets the job. They're just not even going to bother to do the auditions in the first place. And we're never even going to know if it was a synthetic voice. So this is partially why, again, laws and legislation. There's a Senate bill out that NAV is endorsing senate Bill 26 91, which is a labeling act of 2023, which is going to require all anything AI generated to be labeled marked same thing as you would with food. I think consumers have a right to know if what they're taking in is synthetic or human, whether it's emotional, spiritual, food. We have a right to know what we're interacting with. I think.,: I want to know when I'm in the Matrix personally.,: Right, exactly. Yeah, you want to know you're in the Matrix.,: I'm sure it puts to bed a lot of political issues. Mean, you know, imagine sitting there listening to a radio broadcast of Joe Biden declaring war on Russia when it's actually not really you know, there's all sorts of issues that this raises.,: Well, that as well, but also it raises the possibility of doubt. And the Donald Trump tape from years ago, if he could say, well, I never said that that's a synthetic voice, and prove that it's not my synthetic voice. Prove I actually said that. Right, so you're running into proving to both sides of that and we're coming into election.,: All sorts of possibilities raised, considering some of the possible candidates, right?,: Yes, absolutely.,Speaker C: Is there a way of a voice actor to say, okay, I'm going to actually upload to say someplace where you can license a voice from you actually give them all the information of your voice and then there's a license fee. If people want to grab it and use it for something, then they pay you a license fee the same as you would do with library music.,: Absolutely. I've been pushing that example for a while. I think that one of the ways that both Europe with the GDPR and with FTC are approaching this is that we don't need to make new laws or new regulations. We just need to enforce the ones that exist and put this into use. The precedent, I think the precedent of music licensing can directly go into voice. You have a licensing fee, you have a usage fee, you have a generation fee. If you generate new content from this, then I get paid a certain amount for the generation. There's companies out there that do that. Vocal ID veritone was one of the earlier ones that did that. And there's a licensing fee that they have in place for that. And the actors who do that have the consent to know where their voice goes. We're working with a TTS company who reached out to us and we're helping them with this exact same thing of helping to license their deployments so that the voice actor knows where their voice is being used, but also get paid for the original creation of that model and then know where the voice goes from there. There's lots of possibilities. The one possibility that unfortunately, none of those things really exist right now. The only possibilities happen is people just can upload your voice anywhere they want to create a synthetic voice and use it. And there's nothing really stopping anybody, even the AI sites. Right now, all you have to do is click a button that says, yes, I have the right to upload this voice.,: And at what point do you stop?,: I mean, at what point do you stop anybody?,: If you blend two people's voices or three people's, at a certain point, you're.,: Like, it's becomes you know I mean, that's what Siri Alexa, Google voice, those are, you know, they're all blended voices, multiple people put in together and to create a new voice. So now you have to get into now you're talking about songwriting splits, right? Now you're going to talk about splits and points on a song, right? So I've got three voices. We all get an equal split of the usage of that voice, or does it not become an issue because it doesn't sound like anybody? Therefore, there's no conflict. Voice actors, you're also going to run into conflict. Right? What if my human voice is doing Pepsi? My synthetic voice can't do Coca Cola. And if it does, who's going to be held responsible for or or a voice that just sounds like me? At what point how do you draw the line there? How do you even know this voice sounds a lot like me? Is it my voice or is it not my voice? It's a voice that sounds a lot like me. Do I get into conflict because of the similarity?,: It's just like this actors are impersonated. It has to be like, all voices are synthesized, right?,: Yeah, exactly.,: From a synthetic voice saying that all voices are synthesized, including this voice.,: Yeah. Right.,Speaker C: But can you see, like, if you look into the future of the role of the agent, will the agent all of a sudden become a library of voices that can potentially be used for AI? Would that be the shift?,: I have honestly have no idea. I think there's going to be a we're already starting to see a split of human only no AI, and then those who are willing to have a conversation with it and explore it. I'm not by any means advocating to replace humans with AI voices, but we also know that this technology has been around for years, right? And it's been being built for the last 20 years, ten years solidly for synthetic voices. It's here, and we can just pretend that it's not going to have an impact and hope that it doesn't have an impact. Or we can go directly to these companies, which is what we've been doing. I've been speaking with the CEOs of these companies to try and talk with them about great, this is why voice actors are concerned. This is why artists in general are concerned. But this is what we're concerned about. And we know you have a lot of money. Eleven Labs just they're worth $100 million, or they got an investment of $100 million a month ago or so. Right. They have the money to pay the voice actors fairly for the foundation. And if they can license that, the better audio they have, the better foundational model they can create. So if those voice actors who want to do that have the right to say yes, it's the right to say yes as much as it is the right to say no. You should have the right to say yes if you want to. I think.,Speaker C: I reckon there's going to be a scramble with voice actors all trying to get themselves uploaded onto one of these business sites so they can be licensed out.,: Yeah, some of them have. Right now, there's really no clear understanding of what that licensing fee would be. We've seen similar jobs on the casting sites that on one job is paying $500, on the next job it's paying $20,000. And they don't appear to be any different. We just don't have enough a lot of people who are casting don't have enough information to know about where those files are going to be used. Voice actors don't know really enough about how they're going to be used either to know what to ask, and agents don't know what to ask either. Like just so many unknowns out there about what to even ask to come up with what a fair usage would be. Because there's so many potentially so many uses out there that we can't even comprehend right now that we can't even imagine of that they could be used for. So it's really hard to tell. That generation is kind of what we're looking at as kind of a generation fee is what we're kind of really interested in.,Speaker C: Well, it's going to be interesting to watch how this all unfolds, but it's.,: A massive can of worms, isn't it?,Speaker C: It is incredible.,: It is a massive can of worms. Yeah. Visual artists are being hit massively, obviously, right now. They're some of the most hard hit because those images are so distinctive and the styles are so distinct that when they come out that it's obvious it was trained on those authors. There's two lawsuits against multiple lawsuits against AI companies right now from authors who have had their books ingested into these and used as foundational models to train these things. And the thing is, once it's trained, you can't untrain it.,: Well, AP, was it? You saying that there's a film in the Cam with starring James Dean?,Speaker C: Yeah, that's what I'm told is sitting there waiting to go. So James Dean is going to be a co star of a New know you've used motion capture. So they've got an actor that actually can walk and move like James Dean. They've just done a motion capture and then they built James Dean over the top of his skeleton, so to speak. And if that thing becomes a hit, you can see they're going to drag them all out.,: Right.,: And then Elvis really isn't dead.,: Yeah, right, exactly. We talk about that for vo. Like speech to speech, too.,: Well, that's the thing. How would you license that, Tim?,: It's performed know the James Dean performed by so and so. You want to give the motion capture person the credit for it. Like speech to could I could know. Karen Guilford vice president uses example a lot, which is she could narrate audacity of Hope and then put Barack Obama's voice over it. So it would be the voice of Barack Obama performed by Karen Guilfrey.,: Right.,: So as read by Barack Obama performed by Corn Griffin. Yeah. As puppetry.,Speaker B: Yeah.,Speaker C: If I was the ad agency for 711, I would actually get an AI of Elvis and have him in a 711. And finally, it's true.,: Slurpee in one hand, donut in the other. Is that what you're saying?,: When does Elvis become public domain?,: A long time. Long time. It's a space to watch, isn't it? It really is.,Speaker C: And the space will be filled by AI.,: Yeah, it's interesting. And I think we've got three months left. I think we have about three months before something dramatically so you think there.,: Is a time frame on this? Because I was actually sitting here thinking, god, how long will this take to sort? But you're saying you think there might be a time frame on it?,: I think we have, if anything, any legitimate and strong protections need to be in place before the end of the year. By the end of the year, it's going to be too late for us to have any kind of protection. The technology is moving too quickly. It's exponential. And it's going to be beyond our control or potentially beyond the control of those who actually are running the systems. At one point, without fully taking your entire system offline and destroying your models, it could potentially get to the point where there is no control, there is no ability to consent, there is no ability to even know whose voice is being used. They're just a multitude of generic voices that one company gets paid when you use their voice, but nobody has any idea who the human behind it is or where the content came from anymore.,: Watch this space, people.,Speaker C: Yes, indeed. Indeed. Exactly. By the way, this is actually really not me. I'm on holiday.,: This is my not hard to do.,Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,Speaker A: The Pro Audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say g'day. Drop us a note at our website. Theproudiosuite.com.     

Like phono cartridges, headphones and loudspeakers, the microphone is a transducer – in other words, an energy converter. So it should stand to reason that they all sound the same right? Well we all know that's not the case. So what colours the sound? And how can we use these "tweaks" to our advantage in the studio.. A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite     George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson    Summary In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, George Wittam, Robert Marshall, and Darren Robbo Robertson explore the complex dynamics of microphones. The team deliberates on how mic's are each individually tuned by their manufacturers to produce a unique sound, and the way this sound is received is subjective to each person. They discuss how modern condenser mics are so similar to one another and the importance lies not so much in finding the right mic for a specific voice, but rather the right mic for a particular situation. They emphasize the value of a flat mic which can be customized through EQ, and argue against choosing a microphone based on its prestigious model. They also discuss combos that work well together like the coupling of a 41 six and a neve like preamp. Listen in to gain more insight into the world of professional audio. To connect with the hosts and find out more, visit theproudiosuite.com. #ProAudioSuite #FindingTheRightMic #AudioEngineeringInsights    Timestamps [00:00:00] Introducing the Pro Audio Suite Team [00:00:35] How Microphone Sounds Differ Based on User Perceptions [00:05:20] The Versatility of Flat Mics and Helpful Recording Tips [00:09:04] Choosing the Right Microphone: Mics vs Preamps and Selling Opportunities    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history.,Speaker B: Get started.,Speaker C: Welcome.,Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite.,: These guys are professional.,Speaker C: They're motivated with tech. To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo austrian audio making passion heard source elements. George the Tech Wittam and Robbo and AP's international demo. To find out more about us, check theproudiosuite.com welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.,Speaker A: Now, this week I saw on a very large voiceover forum a question about someone wanted to buy a microphone and wanted to get a microphone that suited their voice. And another conversation happened when I was doing a session with Adrenaline in Vegas and we talked about U. Everybody expects you to have that because that's the industry standard. But the point was that if I had a U 87 and Adrenaline's got a U 87, they would sound completely different because they're in different environments.,: Yeah. This is where things get really interesting, right? What is it that makes a mic sound the way it sounds? Right. There's a lot of factors, right? There's the capsule, there's the electronics, there's other factors. There's the actual designer. A mic is tuned to sound a certain way. It's tuned by the manufacturer, it's tuned by the designer. They make an aesthetic judgment right, of how that mic should sound. How a mic should sound to that person is a unique subjective thing. That's why vintage microphones especially are so varied. And this is why I think modern condenser mics are so non varied. They're all way more like each other because the commonalities are. So they're just table stakes now of what a modern condenser mic sounds like. And that could be because of a couple of mics, could be because of a 41 six, could be because of a U 87. But whatever it is, there are sounds that of mics, there are voices of mics that are now considered like a reference point. And everything that's different is now just considered a vintage sound or a different sound. There are variations, the word colored, color, there's coloration.,Speaker A: Exactly.,: The thing is funny though, is like, we don't want a non colored mic, right? If we wanted a non colored mic, we would be using dead flat omni mics or something, right. But we all kind of agree that's not exactly what we want the sound of our voices to sound like either. Right.,: We want the boost and like the hyper reality thing. And a mic can bring that focus. But I kind of think the difference isn't so much like the right mic for the right voice. I think much more that it's the right mic for the right situation.,: Yeah. And situation, the space, the context, like.,: The space for you to deal with the microphone if you're traveling, like your whole situation and all the appropriate stuff.,: The background noise, is it going to be an outdoor setting.,: One mics sound better than the other. But if this one's better at cutting out noise or focusing better in a tight booth, then this one the pros outweigh the cons. Then every now and then you get that weird thing that happens where something like the 416, which was, sorry, the 40 116, where something like the 4116 was designed to reject noise and be a mic for a specific purpose which might have some compromises. And then over time, people find that they actually like the compromises for the effect. And there we come back to the word color and the color and the sound that it has. And so you have something like the 41 Six that has that cut, which was really a byproduct away of its initial design to reject noise and record just the voice and made it a less ideal microphone in a true I'm flat kind of respect and more here I am for the situation.,: Yeah. It's not a quote unquote musical mic. It's a utility mic that makes voice rise above or cut that Robert mentioned. That is what makes that mic character work for many voiceover scenarios. But maybe isn't the best mic for a voiceover where it's not a voiceover, it's an audiobook. There is no music, there are no effects. It's a voice and a vacuum that isn't you don't necessarily want a mic that cuts. So it is a little bit of that. There's also mics that I will hear on a voiceover's, voice that I don't just subjectively, I don't like the way they sound. I don't like the choices of how that mic is voiced. I don't like the EQ. Again, sometimes they call it a vintage sound. Right. And some of those quote unquote vintage sounding mics to me are subjectively. Not what I would want. Will they work? Yeah. Can I EQ it later? Sure. And we've said on the show before, the flatter the mic is, the better you can EQ it, the better you can get the sound you want.,: You're not fighting someone else's EQ. The way I think of it, if someone gave you a nice flat piece of metal and basically said, give me a curve, you'd have a pretty easy time doing it because you'd have one thing to create. If someone gave you a big curved up piece of metal and said, give me a smooth curve, you'd have trouble making a smooth curve out of it because the thing's already curvy in a different way.,: That's a good analogy. Yeah. If that metal had several little bumps and bends in it and they said, make it a perfect smooth curve. What a pain. How much work you have to put into that thing to get that piece to yeah. I don't know. The science of it is it's not a science. It's completely subjective. You can chase the perfect mic for your entire life, Andrew.,Speaker A: Yes, you can.,: Is that a problem.,: I think you can play to certain mics and use them in different ways. It's not like Bob Dylan with harmonicas, but if you're doing a certain type of read, really, you can get more out of a 41 six than some other mic that doesn't have that same proximity in that focus or something at the same time. If you're going for a really smooth pillowy kind of thing, maybe an 87, but probably not a 41 six.,Speaker A: But I wonder, if you were just if you could only have one mic to do everything, would it be a 41 six, OC eight, one eight? An OC eight one eight, and then you can do everything. But it's funny, this discussion the other day, though, where it said if you actually put in the gear you have in your home studio and you had 41 six, u, 87 Avalon, everyone would go, oh, yeah, well, they're professional, they got all the right gear. Right, but it might be all the wrong gear because it might not work in their situation.,: Yeah, exactly. I would say, really, if it's really a valuable pursuit for you, it's just something you've always wanted to do. Maybe you've been in this for ten plus years. It might be worth it for you to invest in a modeling mic. Because now you get to have the fun, the pleasure, the pain, whatever, of trying out a humongous variety of microphones and trying them. Now, here's the thing. Do not record these models of mics to impress yourself. You will end up picking the sparkliest, shiniest, prettiest sounding microphone, I'm guaranteeing you that, and that is not necessarily what you want. So you may want to do that exercise and then send that recording to somebody else, a trusted producer, engineer George the tech, offers mic check. We will evaluate and rank a whole bunch of mic samples and we will tell you subjectively, or I would say subjectively, what is the best of the top, maybe the top three for your voice, ranked from best to worst. So that's what you want to have. Don't try to impress yourself. Unless you are a producer and you spend your days producing and you've heard a lot of voiceovers and a lot of different contexts, I would not try to evaluate yourself. I think that's a tricky spot to get yourself into.,Speaker A: Well, interestingly, out of the choice I did for a session the other day, I offered the OC eight one eight through the Neve and I offered the 40 116 through a Grace and they went with the 4116 through the Grace and loved it.,: And this was an industrial yeah, it.,Speaker A: Was actually a training industrial film medical thing.,: Did you read it all in a vacuum or did you hear the music that they were going to put behind it?,Speaker A: No, I didn't hear it, it was all in the vacuum.,: Yeah, but I can see why it's funny, because after you get like a long form thing, in a way, you probably end up wanting the smoother mic after a while.,Speaker A: It certainly has something and depending on the voice, it certainly brings things out in a voice that could be quite appealing.,: Yeah. It's also the combination, because I don't know if you spent the extra energy to do the other combination, the neve.,: And the little bit of too many variables, but.,: A neve is a colored preamp. A Grace is an uncolored preamp, so that combination of color and uncolored could be a pro and a con, depending on what you're doing, too. So you may have found out that the 41 six neve was the best combination. Yeah, it's hard to say when you're changing multiple variables, it's just a matter of luck and opinion. They're going to say, you gave me two choices, I picked choice B in that case was what really worked out well. So, yeah, I think some people find the coupling of a 41 six and a neve like preamp is a good combo.,: I think it was the 41 six. It was the 41 six with the Grace, wasn't it?,Speaker A: Yeah, and it sounds great. I mean, it must admit, it does actually sound really good.,: Sure, it's clean and just on a dime. I imagine it'd be pretty similar to like a John Hardy and a 41.,Speaker A: Six, which is yeah, or a millennia.,: Or millennia, yeah, millennia especially.,Speaker A: Yeah. But it's got that there's something about it that the combination of the 40 116 and the Grace just has this kind of and it's a really weird term, but kind of a 3D thing going on, if that makes any sense.,: That is one of those audio terms. It's funny.,: Yeah, it is a funny audience term. I don't know how to describe things as 3D yet, but I'm working on it.,: They pop out.,Speaker A: So, anyway, the conclusion is there isn't one. Really?,: You're not going to like our answer.,: The right mic for the voice in the right situation, in the right time, in the right place.,: Yeah, I think the bottom line, there is no right mic for the voice, because the voice is not in a vacuum. It's working in a context of a space and of a production script. A script, a style. Yeah, right.,Speaker A: Oh, on that note all right, anyone want to buy some mics? I've got plenty.,Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,Speaker C: The Pro Audio suite with thanks to Triboof and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the Tech Wittam don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our website. Theproaudiosuite.com.     

The Sennheiser 416 has become an industry-standard tool. Being a  “shotgun” mic (or in tech terms a super-cardioid) the microphone is extremely sensitive in a very narrow field. For this reason, it is often used on film sets where the mic needs to be a little farther away from the actor's mouth (so it's not in the frame), and the production team wants to capture the actor's voice without capturing background noise in the room. These qualities also make it extremely versatile for use in home voiceover studios!  But who first decided a Shotgun would be great for Voice Over, and why is it now an industry standard?  A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson Summary In this episode of the Pro Audio Suite, hosts George Wittam, Robert Marshall, Darren Robbo Robertson, and Andrew Peters take a deep dive into all things related to professional audio equipment. The discussion covers the technicalities of the legendary 41 six microphone, its proximity effect, and how its placement profoundly influences the output. Renowned rock and roll voiceover artist Steve Britton's microphone technique is highlighted, including how he utilizes the aggressive nature of the mic to enhance his voice. The hosts also discuss other microphones such as the eight one eight, the SM Seven, and the 4116, comparing their various characteristics and potential uses. Additionally, they touch upon potential changes in the industry due to the advent of AI voices. The podcast concludes with advice for individuals dealing with their own audio issues, encouraging listeners to explore and make the most out of their equipment like iPhone mic, acknowledging how surprisingly good it can sound when used correctly. Check out theproaudiosuite.com for more information and use the code Trip a P 200 for $200 off your tribooth. #ProAudioSuite #VoiceoverTechTips #TriboothDiscounts   Timestamps [00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to Pro Audio Suite [00:00:30] Exploring the Proximity Effect of 41 Six [00:03:33] Voiceover Pioneer: Ernie Anderson's 41 Six Influence [00:07:44] Microphone Showdown: 416 Vs. SM Seven [00:12:16] Unraveling the Versatility of Eight One Eight [00:17:56] Mic Recommendation: Small Diaphragm Shep [00:23:19] Debunking the Myth: Foam on 41 Six [00:25:32] The History of Headset Mics [00:30:25] AI Voice Realm: A Threat or a Boon?   Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history. Speaker B: Get started. Speaker C: Welcome. Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite. Speaker C: These guys are professional and motivated with tech. To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo, Austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George the tech. Wittam and robbo and AP. International demo. To find out more about us, check thepro audiosuite.com line up learner. Speaker B: Here we go. Speaker C: And don't forget the code. Trip a P 200 that will give you $200 off your tribooth. Now, I've been playing around with the proximity effect of the 41 six, the legendary 41 six, and I've never really set it up to shoot straight down the barrel. Speaker B: So what's your default placement? Speaker C: Usually slightly off to the side. Speaker B: Okay. So still relatively level, but just coming pointing at you a little bit off to the side. Speaker C: Yeah. And pointing down. So pointing down but slightly side. Speaker B: Got it. Speaker C: This way is still pointing down, targeting the mouth, but going full it straight at it. And I did one read like that, then I followed it up with one slightly to the side, and then I followed that up with an eight. One eight. But I know we've talked about the proximity effects of the 41 six, but I actually couldn't believe the difference. It shocked me that it was so bright and it's how I remember the 41 six sounding. Speaker B: So what you're saying is like, you've kind of detuned the mic, you've detuned it to calm down. What makes the mic so aggressive? By using that placement and then when. Speaker C: I put it back holy crap. Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's what that mic? Speaker A: Well, it's interesting because there's a guy who AP and I know and have both worked with a guy called Steve Britton, who's sort of the big know, rock and roll voiceover guy, and he actually uses it to his advantage because he's not so hyped. His natural voice is not so sort of steeped in those sort of high mids and highs. So he actually gets right up on it. The best way I can describe it is he pretty much swallows the thing when he does a voiceover and uses it to his advantage because it sort of obviously accentuates that part of his voice that isn't really there naturally. The only deficit is that from an engineer's point of view, that as soon as you touch anything in the highs, it just blows up. You've got to be so careful around up there with him when you're sort of mixing him. Speaker C: Well, the strange thing about his voice is you think you're going to have to play with all the lows because it's such a big, deep voice, but as soon as you touch anything, the highs just go mental. Speaker A: Well, yeah, and that's the way you've got to work with Steve's voice, is rather than sort of additive EQ, it's subtractive you've really just got to sort of balance it by taking away some of that deeper stuff that's there in bucket loads. And just leave the top alone, otherwise it will just destroy itself. I've seen people with three DS's on a track trying to get rid of it once they've started sort of trying to get that typical radio cut through, which is the biggest mistake. And as soon as you say start again, but don't touch the highs, just cut some lows, they go, yeah. : Okay. Speaker C: So my question is with the 41 Six, it was the guy who was the voice of The Love Boat. Was he the first guy to use the 41 Six for Ernie Anderson? Speaker B: I don't know if he was the first, but he was certainly the most well known for it. : I thought Don LaFontaine made it really popular. Speaker B: Well, Ernie is the one who's caught on camera using that mic on video and other things, where he's in the studio at ABC and he's literally doing know. : And I got to imagine someone just did it because, like, here's a mic. It's the one that the freaking news guy uses. But here you go. Say the word. Speaker C: The story I heard was not like I think he was a bit paranoid and he didn't like being in the booth because he thought people were talking about him. Speaker B: Right. Speaker C: And so he wanted to sit out in the control area. Speaker B: That's right. Speaker C: And he couldn't use a normal large diaphragm, couldn't use a U eight seven. Speaker B: Out there, every damn thing. Speaker C: So one of the guys on the floor came up with the idea of using the 41 Six. That's what I heard. : Why don't you use this razor blade to record your voice? Speaker B: Yeah, it's probably a 415 or whatever they had at the time. : Yeah, probably a T powered 415 at the time. Yeah, I got a couple of those. Those sound a little bit different than the four. Speaker B: Little bit less distorted. Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Speaker B: That sound, for whatever reason, better, for worse, it's become the character of what a voiceover sound sounds like. Like when you listen to a voice recorded with a close up mic, I think we've gotten incredibly tuned what that sound is. It's become what was the word you used? Robo? Standard, but something else. Speaker A: Yeah, I did, didn't I? I used a big word printed benchmarked. It's a benchmark. Speaker B: Benchmark, yeah. Kind of a benchmark, yes. So I've been hearing that mic with my clients and promo people for so long. So when I hear another mic, right, upside of it, if it's an accurate mic with very little color, such as the OC 8118, it sounds well, it sounds like this here. Here's a 41 six of Andrew and then the eight one eight. So this is what a non accurate mic and then an accurate mic sounds like side by side. And then you did it in two different placements, right? Speaker C: Yeah. I did that was because of our discussion a couple of weeks back, where we were talking about placement with the 41 Six, which I'd never I thought, yeah, well, whatever. : Andrew, where do you like the 416? Speaker C: You'd be surprised where'd you like that. He's got a dark brown voice. No, he hasn't. Speaker A: Well, if they say that your voice is chocolatey, you can tell them why. Speaker C: Yes. Getting a bit messy now, is it? Speaker A: Yes, indeed. Speaker C: I always had the 40 116, sort of like facing down, but to the slightly to the side. So I'm sort of almost not quite side addressing, but you know what I mean? That's how I had it and I got used to that sound. And then after our discussion, I thought, I wonder if the proximity, I wonder what it really is like. So I moved the mic and went basically pointing straight at me, but slightly downwards towards my mouth, and I couldn't believe the difference. It was just like two different mic. It was two different mics and it was the old get a toothpick and stick it in your eardrum kind of sound that you get with the 41 Six. : Yeah, which is the other reason why I think engineers like it, because you get a voice recorded on that and it's just going to cut through everything and you don't have to do a lot more to it. It just sort of has this pre processing that works for a lot of that in your face advertising. Speaker B: The Hamburger Helper of microphones. : Yeah, it's just like in your face advertising. Right there, done. Speaker B: Here's what it sounded like. Here's the samples. I got them right here. Speaker C: The MercedesBenz GLE SUV is the complete package. The MercedesBenz GLE SUV is the complete package. The MercedesBenz GLE SUV is the complete package. So that's first one was straight down the barrel, second one to the side, and the third one was the eight one eight. : And you can hear it, it just gets less and less edgy, less and less. It does. Speaker A: The interesting thing about the 4116, and I guess its impact on the industry, is it's been copied a few times, probably, or tried to be copied. But I'm on an NTG five right now and it's probably the closest, I reckon, that I've heard. : I don't know. The NTG five has got more bass. I'm on an NTG five, too. I think the NTG five is a warmer mic. Yes, it does have that shotgunny in your face thing, but it's a little bit actually bigger sounding, but it's not necessarily more cuddy. I think this the eight one eight. You could take it and EQ it to do what the 416 does. Speaker B: Oh, yeah. : Pick up more room. But the 416 is just sort of like there it is, it's going to. Speaker A: Put done for you. : It's a cut. Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: I'm so used to the way that bright cut condenser mic sounds that I add EQ to my own mic because I want it to sound more like that bright, condenser mic sound. Right. Now I'm talking into the Earthworks Ethos, which is a very flat mic. And if I cut my what is it, ten khz? Six DB shelf, basically. It's not a shelf, but it looks like one. Then it sounds like this. Right, and it still sounds good. It just doesn't have that top end, that bright sizzle. : I think the extreme difference would be go from a 416 to an SM Seven. Speaker B: Yeah, well, the SM Seven has like this kind of this mid range thing that I've never been a big fan of the way that sounds. Speaker A: For voiceover. Speaker B: Yeah, for voiceover. : Do you like the PL 20? The Re 20 better than the SM seven. Speaker B: Yeah. Personally, radio voice, the PL 20 is the Re 20 without that big basket on it, the front, right. : No, I cannot tell you the difference between them, actually. I believe they are the exact same, just years difference. Speaker B: Oh, got you. : For this year to this year. They made the Re 20 and then they I think the PL 20 was before the Re 20 got you. Yeah. No, I think that as powerful and big of a mic. And no matter how much Rush Limbo wanted to gold plate his, I think the SM Seven beat the PL 20 in overall installations since the Pandemic, at least. It's like, holy cow. Did they get the SM Seven out there on podcast? Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Speaker B: I don't know who they have to thank for it, but Joe Rogan is probably high up on the list because he's been YouTubing his podcast for quite a few years now. : I mean, there's an ad campaign that I've never seen an ad for an SM Seven. That's marketing. Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. : Yeah, you need it. And I didn't even tell you. Speaker B: I mean, I just installed a podcast studio and the mic was not chosen because that's the best mic. It was chosen because that mic was seen on another podcast. Yes, exactly. Because the owner is and the 416. : Has got that, too. And so it's like, yeah, the SM Seven, you can abuse it. And it's going to be pretty consistent and whatever dark and warm. And it has that thing for radio where it's not going to pick up. It's just going to seem to pick up the voice and not the other stuff. Right. Like the 416 has got the cut. Speaker C: Yeah, the SM seven. SM Seven b basically eat the things anyway, and they're built like a tank, which is perfect. : Yeah. You can abuse the whole mic and you won't hear. I mean, I don't know how Howard Stern gets away with abusing his Neumann condenser the way he does and you never hear it. Speaker C: Can you explain that one's? Speaker B: Still a mystery. : It's like it should just be like. Speaker B: This kind of shit all over the. Speaker A: Place because it's not connected, I'm sure of it. Speaker C: I don't think it's connected. It's a fucking prop, isn't it? : It's a prop, yeah. Speaker B: Now this sounds more like an SM seven B, doesn't it? This is that it does a little. : Darker fatter, a little bit less top. Speaker B: End, a little bit more mid bump around one k, couple of DB. Now it's like an SM seven. I could go to the low frequency and boost up the bottom end. Now, they would sound even maybe a little bit more. : So in the spirit of don't send us a processed voice. Stop using 416s because they sound too processed already. Speaker B: Yeah, stop using them altogether. Speaker C: But it's kind of weird, isn't it? We're like, we get a large diaphragm mic or something and then we try and EQ it up to sound like a four one six. Just use the 41 six and be done with it. Speaker B: Really? I've caught myself doing that where somebody's like, okay, here's a sample of my 41 six, here's a sample of my TLM 103, can you make me a stack for each of these two mics? And over the time I'm just like, okay, I'm not going to touch the EQ at all on the 41 six. : Yeah. And then you're going to make their tail on 103 sound like a 41 six. Speaker B: What, did you resist the urge? I used to, I used to, but I resist the urge and now what I'm doing is I'm mostly just going to do corrective EQ. Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: When there's like a harshness, a nasal, some resonance in the booth, then that's it. : I think with the TLM you could give it a little bit more of a glassy sound and not so much of an upper mid, but a way airy high frequency kind of airy boost and make it nice and it'll still have some sort of I wouldn't call it cut, but presence, literally. But it'll be different than the 416, which has that frequency that every speaker has. It's like four k, eight k all packed in there. It's like your worst speaker on earth plays back those frequencies, for sure. Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt, yeah. Well, and the eight one eight, well, it's the polar opposite, isn't it? : I think eight one eight is like the TLM. You could just give it like a glassy airy sound, you're not cornered into the sound of the four six. I think the eight one eight could be more of a chameleon than the 416. The 416 does its thing and that is it. Speaker C: Yeah. It's a one trick pony, that's for sure. Speaker B: It's a one trick pony, but the way you manipulate it is by placement. Speaker C: Yeah, well, that became obvious. Yeah, absolutely. It did sound like two different microphones just by moving it. Speaker B: I mean, the first time I saw. : A 42 different voice actors sometimes, yeah. Speaker B: The first time I saw a 40 116 in an audiobook production facility, I. Speaker A: Was like, yeah, that seems like for. : A long term thing, it's like that's a harsh mic to be listening to 8 hours of the same person. You'd want nice pillowy mic? Speaker B: Yeah. So I don't know what post they were doing on the audio. I'm sure they were doing some EQ. : It's like listening to classical music on NS Ten s? Yes. Speaker A: I was going to say you'd be pulling the earbuds out halfway through mowing the lawn. You'd be going, Jesus, my ears are bleeding. Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. : Well, maybe it's good for the lawnmower. You're mowing the lawn. It's like I can hear 4K. Speaker A: I've got Ebays in to stop going deaf, but I'm going deaf anyway. : Yeah. Speaker B: Here's a little test. Tell me what this is. Speaker C: The MercedesBenz GLE SUV is the complete package. : That is either the 416 straight on, I think, or maybe to the side. Speaker B: All that was was the eight one eight with a shelf high shelf on it. It was an eight DB shelf starting at seven. : Wow, that's a shitload. That's a lot of DB. Speaker B: It's so funny. I opened up the Au filter plugin, which is like a really simple four band EQ. And the setting I had last loaded, wasn't that's what it was? It was just like an ATP shelf at seven k. Wow. I was like, all right, let's see what that sounds like. That's what that sounds like. : Sounds like so the 416 is boost at. Boost at. Speaker B: But if you ran that EQ on the 416, well, you would get this. Speaker C: The MercedesBenz GLE make it stop. : D 416. Speaker A: Try selling a MercedesBenz with that sound. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my goodness. Speaker B: Off brand, for sure. Yeah, but it's weird, there's a lot of commercial work getting booked, especially female voice stuff. That is really bright. : Yeah, it is. I used to say a lot of the times, depending on the 414, some females didn't work as well with a 414 because their voices were already kind of airy and then you get that really top end mic on it. Yeah. And it's like they overcompensate and sometimes like a U 87 worked better because just sort of try to pick up some of those lower mids. Speaker B: I used to recommend the Rode NTG three all the time for women because it was a very dark, flat and warm mic and so it worked really to their advantage a lot of times, in fact. Speaker C: That's funny you say that, because that's the mic I got for Somerset for Interg three, because it just did not sharp and nasty. Speaker B: So, yeah, it's funny, when you have a good mic that gets all the information with no distortion, you can really EQ it. And when you have a mic that is pre filtered, pre EQed and arguably has some degree of distortion, it's much. : Harder to correct it like anything with audio, it's easy to work with a blank slate compared to trying to uncompress. Speaker B: Oh, boy. : It's impossible or unds. Speaker B: Right? : Or UN crazy 416 EQ something. Because no matter what you do, the fix that you apply will create other harms, and you'll just end up with Swiss cheese in the end. So these broader, flatter, big diaphragm mics or what's interesting is, I think, to get a really accurate voice, I've not seen anybody try to record voice with, say, like a Km 184. And sometimes you see a lot of the opera singers what's an opera singer set up, like, a nice small diaphragm away from the singer? Speaker B: Yeah. Distant placement. : Distant, right. And then you get that just like that is what it is. There's no proximity. And I'll bet you for some people's voice, maybe something like a really pure small diaphragm condenser would be pretty interesting. That's why I was curious about those rode TF. Mics. Speaker B: Yeah, TFI. : Those look pretty high end small diaphragm condenser. And I bet you those would probably. Speaker B: Wait, didn't one of you guys get the small diaphragm Austrian audio? Speaker C: Yeah, robert's got them. : I got the OC eight. I got the OC eight. And those are good. I was going to say, I don't think they're sheps killers. They're closer to 184s. They're not sheps, but they're much closer to like honestly, they're much closer to, like, 450 ones. They're a little bit less full and very good for symbols, but not necessarily the whole I think a really good small diaphragm mic like a shep would be amazing on the right person's voice. But you'd have to have the right booth, right? There's no way, you know, you can. Speaker B: Get a chef's headset microphone. I actually demoed it once. $2,400 headset mic. It was an ultrasound headphone. $600 headphone with a chef. : And the microphone is like a pencil. It's like a pencil, yeah, it was pretty big, actually. Speaker B: It had a big windscreen. It was for sports casting. It had a big gooseneck on it. And it was like this ridiculous contraption that I was able to get a demo of one time, and I used it. It's on YouTube somewhere. $2,400 headset. Headset mic. : Chefs and BNKS. Man, not cheap mic. Speaker B: No compromises. : Yeah, they are good, though, definitely. I mean, Neumann's, too, but those are like, chefs. Doesn't even try to make a 103. They're like, you're going to make $1,000 microphone. Ha. We'll make a $7,000 microphone. Our cheapest mic is $2,000. Speaker C: I would love to, at some point, find out how the 41 six did become so prevalent. : Honestly, I always hurdles, don LaFontaine. I remember I was shocked when I found out, like, really? 416? Speaker B: Just for the record, it was not the mic that was in this booth when I met him. Like, I never saw him using that booth. : The 416 was not the mic that Don LaFontaine used, not when I met him. Speaker B: I mean, I worked with him in 2005, but he'd already been recording for 20 years by that point. : Andrew, when did the 416 become all the rage, because when I started in 1998, it was like, u, people are using shotguns, but I'm just an early engineer who's like, shotguns are colored. You only use them because you have to because you have mitigating circumstances. Why would you ever use a shotgun in a perfectly clean booth? And I start working on higher end commercials, and you start finding these voice talent who are using it. And actually, come to think of it, cutters. We had VIP 50s until, like, the early 2000s VIP, and then we got these Mylabs. Okay, very interesting mic. Rectangular diaphragm. So the skinny side of the rectangle is supposed to give you the best of a small diaphragm mic, and the long side of the rectangle is supposed to give you the best of a large diaphragm mic. Speaker B: Far out. : But they were good. We even had some voicemail go like, what's that mic? Like, I need your setup. And one guy bought one. But by the early 2000s, we put 416s in all the booths, and eventually that was just the mic. Like, the VIP 50s got pushed to the side, and everyone who walked in just got recorded on a 416 by default. And that's by 2005. I feel like we were just all 416. So Andrew, I don't know. When do you feel like the 416 took over? Speaker C: Because I was in radio until 97, so I didn't really see any commercial studios because everything was done in the radio station. So there was from memory, I don't remember seeing any shotguns in any radio stations. It was usually SM seven. : You still don't true. You still don't see shotguns in radio stations. Speaker C: Well, you do here now. You do see them in the production areas. Speaker B: Really? Speaker C: Absolutely. They're all 41 sixes in the production areas of radio stations. So the first time I saw a 41 Six would have been probably late ninety s ninety seven. Ninety eight, I guess. : So that's when it started taking over, in, like, late 90s, early 2000s. Speaker C: Yeah. And then they became everywhere. And a funny story, actually, because I had to do a job when I was in La. So I had to find a studio. So I went to La Sound. Speaker B: And. Speaker C: Of course, they had the 41 Six there. But I was talking to I won't mention the person's name because he's pretty high profile and might get the shits with me, but I was talking about the 40 116 with this person and about the foamy, and he said, no one in this country would ever have the foamy on their 41 six. It just doesn't happen here. I don't know why you guys do that. That's ridiculous. That's crazy. Never seen it before. : Well, usually you just put the normal you put the normal steadman screen windscreen in front of it. Speaker C: Yeah, I sent him a photograph. There's me in the booth, La Sound with the foamy on the 41 six. So they definitely had the foamy on. Speaker A: Well, there you go. I always use the foamy. I used to, because there's plenty of people who didn't know how to use the mic, used to get up all over it and just make it. : Here's a funny one. Even Harlan Hogan's vo one A was based on an older MSL. Model. Was it based on or was it just an older MXL model? Speaker B: No one will really know except him. But they say it's, I think, a 1006 or something. : It's a 1006. Speaker B: And I have two of those and they sound amazing. : I got several. Speaker B: A really fucking good cheap mic. It's a really good cheap mic. : It was the first $100 large diaphragm mic I bought for me, too. And then I won't say who in Australia modify one. Speaker C: Yes, I know who that is. Yeah, we'll leave that bit out. Speaker B: So the chef's headset is the HSC four VXP. It's the model number, if you want to look it up, and very unique mic. And the capsule on it is what probably you're more interested in. And they make different versions, so they have a strong proximity compensation model so you can get it, like, designed to actually compensate for proximity effect. Which is interesting because, again, Sports, they want the boom right up in front of their mouth to reject background. : Let's start let's start putting, like, parabolic mics in the booth. Speaker B: I know you talked about that. That would be crazy. Well, the capsule, which is funny, I'm looking at an ad for the mic and they don't mention the capsule, but I think I did in my video. I have a video on YouTube from years ago. If you just search for Widows World episode 90 Headset Mic Roundup, you'll find this video. And I actually try out a bunch. : Of the Kip Winger headset mic roundup. Speaker B: I mean, I was trying from really cheap crappy stuff all the way up to the ships and everything. : The stuff that you start out with the mics that only pick up S's. Speaker B: Right, or have no low end response period, they just roll off below 200 something. : If you des them, they go silent. Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Well, there's just been a tradition of bad sounding headset mics for so many years. : Sure has. I mean, do you remember that audio technica that I was playing around with? Is it the really cheap one headset mic? I think it might have been a dynamic and it didn't even have the headset. It's just a head warning mic. But it didn't even have headsets. Speaker B: I use those in many aerobics or fitness studios where budget was an issue because they could be destroyed and it wasn't a huge loss. But, yeah, those are classics. But audio Tending, it just came up with a headset mic. That where they graphed basically an at 2020 capsule onto a headset boom. And it's like a $200 headphone with a 2020 capsule. And it's pretty freaking bad. I mean, it's pretty good. Again, comparing it to what else is out there, it's pretty good, but it's. : Still well, that's the reality. Honestly, if someone gave me a voiceover recorder on a cell phone, I'd get it on the yeah, you find a way and I'd find a way, and I'd freaking bass synthesize some stuff and make it sound as good as it can go. And unfortunately, with a lot of clients, they're like, okay, sounds good. I understand the words. Sounds like a commercial to me. But we know there's a huge difference between all that stuff. I don't know. I still don't like it. But I've had a couple of voices. Now I've run into the tiny, basically rode video microphone, USB video mic. Speaker B: Go two. : Yeah, it's like your pinky. Speaker B: That's probably because I've recommended it to a bunch of people. : You can blame me for that one. Yeah, it's like it's okay. Speaker B: It's $100 mic. : Yeah. The flaws are exposed much quicker and the escape routes are smaller. Speaker B: It's probably marginally better than the phone mic in the iPhone. Just it's a shotgun, so it's a little bit more directional. Yeah. At the end of the day, I'm blown away with, when you use the iPhone mic correctly, how good it actually can sound. It's crazy. : Yeah. And especially if they start putting, like, arrays of microphones in there and doing. Speaker B: Beam forming, they're doing I don't know which vert well, they're already doing that. I mean, you don't realize it, but they are doing that. They use three capsules and it's a beam. : Oh, the microphone and the iPhone is a beam. Speaker B: They have been for quite a while. I even had an LG phone. It was like a V 40 or something. It was probably six years ago. And I could steer the microphone pickup pattern front to back, depending on who using the little slider on the screen. And I could say, make it pick up the guy in front of me and then make it pick me up, and I could go back and forth. So that's been around in cell phones for a while. But anyway, I had a lot of fun doing interviews with the new rode wireless kit with the wireless me, because the rode capture app on the phone will shoot both cameras. So I'm shooting a video of me and shooting a video of the guest. And they have a mic and I have a mic. So when I'm done, I have two videos and two audio tracks to manipulate and post. And it's amazing how good of a production you can make from that, really? : From your pocket. Speaker B: It's crazy. Yeah. I posted a couple interviews. Speaker C: Was that the one with the woman from Heil? Yeah, I saw that. : This is why we're all out of business. Speaker C: I thought you'd actually done some naughty shots, but I didn't realize you were actually live with your bits to camera as well. : What's going. On with the AI voice realm? Has that calmed down or are people still freaking out on AI taking over? Speaker C: I haven't seen much like it's less. : A little bit less discussed recently? Speaker C: I haven't seen much at all. Speaker A: What microphone do you use on an AI voice? : How many drummers does it take to change the light bulb? I'll tell you the same number of voiceovers it takes to read a book. Speaker A: None. : Because you just get an AI to do it. Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over? Speaker C: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Robbo Got your own audio issues? Just askrobo.com. Tech support from George thetech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say good day. Drop us a note at our website proaudiosuite.com.

If you don't know who Marc Scott is, you should. The VOpreneur is helping Voice Artists around the world navigate the nightmare that is marketing your Voice! This week, we have him on the show to talk about everything from emailing leads to the Red Socks... Find out more about him and his great services here: https://www.vopreneur.com/ A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson    Summary On this episode of Pro Audio Suite, voiceover and marketing coach Mark Scott is featured. Mark shares how he started his career in marketing out of necessity to make it in the voiceover industry. Now, he helps other voiceover artists navigate their own marketing journey. Covering a range of topics from social media strategy, dealing with rejection, the power of micro habits, and avoiding distractions, Mark provides valuable insights on how to set yourself apart in a saturated market. He also emphasizes the importance of continually bringing in new prospects to maintain success. The episode also dives into his experimentation with affiliate marketing and his innovative use of national days for promotional sales. He shares his approach to gifting clients, stressing the importance of showing appreciation. The discussion also touches on techniques for enhancing creativity, a crucial skill for both voiceover work and marketing. #VoiceoverMarketingGuru #ProAudioSuitePodcast #MarketingInAudioIndustry    Timestamps [00:00:00] Pro Audio Suite Introduction [00:00:39] Guest Introduction - Marketing Guru Mark Scott [00:01:27] Mark Scott's Journey to Voiceover Marketing [00:03:21] The Challenge of Offline Marketing for Voiceover Artists [00:08:49] Pros and Cons of Social Media in Marketing [00:10:37] Cultural Influences in Marketing Strategies [00:11:42] The Power of 'No' in Building Relationships [00:13:55] The Impact of Micro Habits on Growth [00:17:05] Distraction - The Enemy of Marketing [00:20:56] Tailored Marketing Advice for Voiceover Artist Andrew [00:28:49] Mark's Recent Marketing Endeavors [00:31:48] The Danger of Complacency in Successful Businesses [00:33:04] The Art of Gifting in Business Relationships [00:34:27] Capitalizing on Unconventional Sales Opportunities [00:36:36] Sparking Creativity for Social Media Content [00:42:30] Pro Audio Suite Closing Remarks    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history.,Speaker B: Get started.,Speaker C: Welcome.,Speaker B: Hi. Hi.,: Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite. These guys are professional. They're motivated with tech.,Speaker C: To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo Austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George the tech. Wittam and robbo and AP's. International demo. To find out more about us, check thepro audiosuite.com line up.,Speaker B: Learner. Here we go.,Speaker C: And don't forget the code. Trip a P 200 to get $200 off your tribooth. This week we have a guest. He hasn't as many kids as Robbo, not as cute as Robert, not as smart as George, but he's one of us, and that counts for something. Would you please welcome the marketing guru, Mark Scott. How you doing?,Speaker B: Mark, I see what you did there. I totally caught what you did. Somebody's been listening to my podcast and playing off my opener.,Speaker A: Who would do that?,Speaker C: Exactly.,Speaker A: Really?,: Cheeky monkey.,Speaker B: Look at you guys doing your research.,Speaker A: I appreciate know we go out of our way. We do work hard.,Speaker C: We do indeed.,: Don't speak for yourself. I just show up.,Speaker C: Actually, I was lying before. I'm the same. Yeah. So the question I have to get the ball rolling. How did you sort of end up being like the voiceover marketing guru?,Speaker B: Because I needed to make money in voiceover, and I had to figure out how to do it. I'm one of those voice actors, show of hands, who's been ceremoniously, dumped from their radio career, right. And defaulted into voiceover. And I wasn't making any money when I first started in Voiceover, and I was like, I know I can do this. I know there's a way to make money. Casting sites will only take me so far. And so I started figuring out, at first by accident and then with a little bit greater intention, how to actually market myself. And I remember I read a book that Gary Vee wrote. Everybody knows Gary Vee in the marketing space and in that book, Gary Vee said, you should write a blog. And so I thought, all right, well, if Gary Vee says I should write a blog, I should write a blog. But I didn't know what to blog about. So I just started blogging about all of the marketing stuff that I was learning while I was on this journey. And I guess the end result of that was people thought that I was a marketing guru. And so I just roll with it.,Speaker A: Is that how you see yourself?,Speaker B: I mean, now I do see myself as a voice actor and a marketing coach for voice actors. And even though that was never the original intention, voiceover was obviously the original intention. The coaching thing was just one of those things where I guess you get to a point where the market kind of dictates it when you start getting a lot of people emailing you saying, can you help me with this? Or do you offer coaching? Or I got invited to speak at a couple of conferences and I was like, man, maybe there's something to this, maybe I should roll with this. And I think the best part of it is that it helps to keep me sharp. I can't get complacent because I'm helping other people and having to stay on top of what's going on and having to pay attention. And so that keeps me sharp too.,Speaker A: Because marketing yourself is a hell of a job, isn't it? It takes a lot of time.,Speaker B: It is.,Speaker A: Is that something that you sort of, as part of your coaching, you're teaching people, is how to best use their time as well, to fit all this stuff in, to run a database and to do prospecting and to send emails and are you sort of helping them with their time on that as well?,Speaker B: Well, I mean, the thing that I always joke about is people ask me, how many marketing emails should I be sending? And my response is what you're really asking me is what is the minimum amount of marketing that I can do and still get away with it? Because this is not what voice actors want to do. Right. They sign up to be in the booth and do the recording, but the reality is, if you're not in the booth and you're not doing the recording, it's probably because you're not doing the marketing. So it takes time. Yes, but for me, it's like, what else am I going to do if I'm not recording? I might as well be spending my day making new connections, getting in front of new people, so that I can open the door to do more recording down the road. Right?,: It's probably better than obsessing on whether you have the best microphone for voiceover.,Speaker B: Yeah, I think so.,: It's much better use of your time, I can tell you.,Speaker A: Yeah, because marketing is something that I mean, I'm basing my assumptions here on the Australian market, but 20 years ago, a voiceover artist marketing themselves was unheard of because you had an agent and they pretty much did all that for you. So it's only a sort of recent thing. Do you find that maybe that's part of the issue is that voiceover artists in general have only just recently been thrown into this situation and they're madly trying to figure it out without really anyone to sort of base their marketing strategy on or whatever. Do you find that maybe we're all a bit new to this?,Speaker B: It might be an oversimplification, but I think looking out at the macro level, I think there's probably three different classes of voice actors. There's the voiceover veterans who were around in the glory days of voiceover when it was all agents and in studio, and your agents did everything for you and they brought you in studio and obviously the industry still exists like that in certain areas, but not in a lot of areas anymore. Then there was a group of voice actors who kind of came in during what I call the glory days of online casting. And so for them it meant signing up for a Pay to Play membership, submitting auditions on Pay to Play and maybe they had an agent or two as well. And for voice actors that have come in, we'll say the COVID era voice actors, the glory days of online casting are over. It's not really a sustainable way to build a full time business. Obviously the agent model has shifted a ton and so I think those voice actors are more in tune with the fact that marketing is how this gets done. And I think that voice, like, I came in the glory days of online casting and I was in denial for a while, but when I started seeing things change on the Pay to Play, I knew, okay, I got to figure out a better way. And I don't happen to live in a New York or in La or a Chicago where the full agent model may still work for some people. And so I do think that for a lot of voice actors, they're creatives. They operate from the creative side of their brain. They want to be in the booth doing creative things. And marketing, I think, comes from the other side of the brain and so it's not a natural fit and that's why they don't think about it initially, it's why they don't necessarily want to do it. Can't blame them for that either. But it opened up the door for somebody like me to be able to come in and help them with it because I'm actually not a creative. So I operate from the business side of my brain first.,Speaker C: Yeah, it's interesting though, because winding the clock back, I remember when I like, you finished my radio career and moved to Melbourne 25 years ago. I got into voiceover, got an agent and I was sort of started working, but it was a slow thing. And I walked into a studio one day and I remember sitting and waiting to go in. They had no idea who I was, they just had a name on a piece of paper that I was coming in to do a voice. But I watched the way they communicated with the talent that was leaving and it was like, hey, see you Matt, blah, blah, blah, whatever. It was all like face to face. They knew each other, so I thought there's got to be a way of shortcutting this so I can actually become visible to them as opposed to just being a name on a piece of paper. So I went out and found a photographer and I got a whole bunch of shots taken. And the brief was there were certain colors that I wanted to do, but I wanted to make it look like I was releasing an album on a CD. And I was the singer, so I was the artist on the front cover, which I did. And so I produced all these videos, which in those days was VHS for on camera stuff. I did a bunch of CDs with this picture on it and it was an immediate shortcut because I just did every studio, went to every studio, dropped these kits off with my demo and all that kind of stuff, and it was amazing. When I walked in, they knew who I was because on their desk was my photograph on the CD and everybody else just had their name and a contact number.,Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say at that point in time, probably nobody else was doing that. So it makes it so much easier for you to stand out. Right. That's how you get noticed.,Speaker C: Yeah. And it worked. It was like, it was an immediate shortcut. I probably saved about six months of traipsing around the studios.,Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.,Speaker A: Is there an online equivalent of that today, do you reckon, Mark, or is it just a slow slog?,Speaker B: I mean, social media is I wouldn't call it a shortcut. Can you get lucky on social media if you find the right audience or hit the right niche or do the right thing? Of course, I've seen many voice actors who have gone viral on TikTok or on YouTube or on Instagram, and that has led to opportunities. I wouldn't say that it's necessarily the norm for it to happen quickly, but I do think that if you use some of those tools consistently, over time, you start to build a following, you start to get recognition and people start to notice who you are and pay a little bit more attention.,: Yeah. I can tell you from someone who's started his business at the beginning of social media, it's been a very long slog because you do just spend time building up the brand and the name recognition and establishing yourself as an authority on the subject of something. So, yeah, it's a way to do it. It's definitely not the fastest, I would say.,Speaker B: Yeah, I would say now, I don't know that I would release the VHS, but I would say that there's a full circle coming around. Like I've had some success doing things like postcards because everybody else is doing email and inbox and social media and nobody's sending anything through the mail anymore. And so that's one of the ways that you stand out. So walking into a studio today and dropping off a package, nobody's doing that again now because everybody's doing email and social media, so there might be a full circle opportunity to kind of jump the line a little bit in that regard.,Speaker A: Will that be the next episode of your podcast, Mark?,Speaker B: Yeah, maybe I'll bring you guys on the show and we'll talk through that one.,Speaker C: As far as countries are concerned, do you find the attitude towards marketing changes depending on which country you're marketing yourself into?,Speaker B: I don't know if the attitude changes as much. I think maybe the platforms change a little bit. Like for example, I've got some clients in South America who don't do email at all. Everything happens on WhatsApp. And so if you're emailing them and they're not responding to you, that's why. Because they don't actually operate on their inbox, they operate out of WhatsApp. And so that's a little bit different. I think the whole North American 24/7 hustle culture, I don't think that necessarily plays the same way in certain European markets where they actually take time off and leave the office and end their workday. And so if you're dropping marketing emails in their inbox at eight or 09:00 at night or whatever, I don't know that that necessarily lands. So I think there's little things, little nuances maybe from country to country, region to region. But at the end of the day, we're all trying to accomplish the same thing. We want people to hear our voice and if our demos are great, then hopefully that does the selling for us.,Speaker A: Yeah, well, talking about email, I've heard you mention a couple of times that no hearing no is actually a good thing. Do you want to explain that to people who maybe haven't heard you talk about this before?,Speaker B: I think that when we're sending out our marketing emails, obviously we want everybody to say yes and we want everybody to hire us and we want every email that we send to be a potential opportunity. And so when we get that rejection, our natural instinct is to take it as know, I might not be any good or maybe my demos aren't good enough or maybe my studio stinks, I need to call George. Whatever. Right. We start to go into all of this negative spiral of everything that's wrong with us when the reality is maybe they don't use voice actors or maybe they've already got a full roster or maybe there's just nothing that fits your voice or whatever. Right. There's 1000 reasons why they don't need you. Only one of those reasons is they didn't like you. But by them just telling you no straight up now, you know, so you don't have to put any more effort into building a relationship with that person going forward. And so much of marketing is building relationships. I would rather devote my time, my effort, my energy to building relationships with people who are potentially going to hire me than spending it on somebody who was never going to hire me in the first place. So the sooner they tell me no, I'm not interested, the better it is for me in that regard because I can devote more time to better prospects.,: Yeah, kind of the same thing as like unsubscribes. Like whenever I send out an email campaign, there's a certain percentages of unsubscribes, maybe a half a percent, but I used to be like, oh man, people don't want to hear it. And it's like, no, that's good. Now you've weeded it down. Now the ones that are left are the ones that really do want to hear from you. And that lets you know people that's true from you, because they're telling you they don't want to hear from you. It's not a bad thing.,Speaker B: When I started building my email list, I took it so personal. Like, I wanted to call up every person who unsubscribed and be like, did I say something wrong? I'm so sorry. Right? You don't want that rejection, right? But now the unsubscribe is a gift in that sense, because now you know that's somebody who was never going to work with you anyway, so focus your attention somewhere else.,Speaker A: I want to take a bit of an off ramp here and head in a different direction, just for a second, because you and I have one thing in common that I know of and we're a bit of a fan of a book called Atomic Habits from a gentleman who I've been lucky enough to interview for an hour or so. A guy called James clear. And his book talks about how micro habits can actually change our lives. Just little things that we do every day that become a habit, can actually change our business, our family life, anything that you want to change, really. And I was wondering if you, in your time of reading James's book and sort of thinking about the things that he's spoken about, if you might have like three habits or so that a voiceover artist should get into in terms of their marketing if they want to become more successful.,Speaker B: One of the things that I talk about all the time with email marketing is send ten emails a day, which is not a big number when you break it down. Ten emails a day, that's not a big number. That's something that realistically, you could probably do in about an hour. It doesn't seem like a lot ultimately, but if you do that five days a week, you just sent 50 emails. And if you do that consistently for a year, that's 2500 emails. And if you get a ten or 15% response rate, that's 200 and 5275 prospects that are now in your database. After a year of just sending ten emails a day, like just focusing on one simple, small task that's an hour out of your day at most, but can create an exponential growth opportunity for you if you do it consistently for a year. And so I think the same applies to social media, though, too, right? Like if you post once a week or twice a week, but you just do it consistently, you get into that habit of doing it consistently, not sharing an update when you've got an update and then falling off for 30 days and then coming back. And now you got to start all over again with the algorithm, and you've got to retrain the algorithm, right? I think some of those simple little things that you can break down into daily tasks that you can accomplish in 10 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour to send those emails or whatever, it does make a big difference, and it's important. I work with voice actors. There's a group of voice actors that I coach for an entire year. Every year, I build out a mastermind group, and in December, we meet. I meet with each of one of them one on one, and we set the big goals for the entire year. Like, when I get to the end of the next year, these are the things that I want to accomplish. And then the next step from that is breaking it down into, okay, what does that look like over individual quarters? What does that look like over a month to month basis? And then, what does that look like on a day to day basis? So that you don't just focus on the great big overarching goal for the entire year, but you're breaking that down into more bite sized pieces, right? It's the whole idea of eating the elephant one bite at a time. And I think that's the concept, basically, of the micro habits. And that's why I love that book. I think everybody should read that book.,Speaker A: It's a ripper, isn't it?,Speaker B: It really is.,Speaker A: What do you think's the biggest enemy of doing? Easy to for me, it's so easy. If I'm getting on to do my socials, it's so easily to get distracted and go, oh, look what my mate Sean posted last week. And look at this, look at that. Do you reckon distraction is an enemy of our marketing?,Speaker B: 100%. There was a study that came out, and I know I'm going to get the numbers wrong, but it was something like, for every time that we allow ourselves to get taken off focus, it takes, like, 26 minutes to get back on track or something like that, right? And so one of the things that I say with social media, and I teach this to voice actors, like, okay, you're going to use LinkedIn because you think that that's a really good platform for you based on the type of work that you want to get. One of the things that you got to do on LinkedIn, if you really want to gain traction, is you've got to be consistent. Okay, what does that look like? And I say set a ten minute block in your calendar every morning and use an alarm. And when that alarm goes off after 10 minutes, get off. Because social media is designed for the endless scroll, right? Like, they've literally engineered these sites to keep us there as long as humanly possible. And so you have to be intentional about getting off and moving on to the next task. Otherwise it is 2 hours later and you're still flipping through reels on Instagram or whatever. And so I think you've got to be very careful about stuff like that.,: Yeah, I had to come up with a hack for me, I am one of those keep many tabs open in Chrome, people, all the things I use to run my business, all the different software websites, everything is like tabs, right? So what I do now is I check Facebook and then I close the just that one little thing keeps it from looking at me and taunting me to click on it because it's just not there. And that's my little hack.,Speaker A: James Clee would be proud of you mate. That's an atomic habit.,Speaker B: So often during the day my phone is not in my office because it's too easy, right? It's too easy. Apple lets you set up the custom focuses in the operating system and so I can set a custom focus that the only people that can text me or get a call through to me during certain times of the day. When I'm in that focus is like my wife and my kids, right? Everybody else can wait at that point because I don't want one ping on your phone. One notification is never just let me just check that one text or let me just answer that one email. It's always 25 minutes later and checked the weather and checked the stock market and went on Twitter and had to look at Instagram or whatever, right? And so it's too easy to lose the time.,Speaker A: Is that a thing for you if you've got that set up on your phone? Does that mean that there's a time of the day, I guess given outside of voiceover sessions and stuff but is there a particular time of the day that you do this sort of work?,Speaker B: When it is available in my schedule because my days are very unpredictable but I try to leave certain parts. Like you can't schedule a session with me before 11:00 a.m. So the first couple of hours of the morning, that's time when I can really just focus on my business and you can't schedule a session with me after 04:00 in the afternoon and so there might be an hour or two after 04:00 where I'm focused and that's where I'm going to do my things. But then if I have spare time in a day where somebody hasn't booked me for whatever reason, phone goes into the focus and it lets me settle in to do whatever the task is that I need to do. 30 minutes of deep focused work is so much more productive than 2 hours of periodic distracted work in between checking socials and text messages and getting yourself into a.,Speaker A: So let's let's, let's get a little bit micro on know, let's take Andrew as an example. Andrew's got an agent here in Australia. He's got an agent in the States. He does work that he drums up himself out of Singapore and Dubai. What should a media strategy for someone like Andrew, and I'm not asking you to give him a freebie here, but in general terms, what sort of things should Andrew be thinking about if he's going to go out there now and market himself and drum up some more work?,Speaker B: What kind of work is Andrew looking for?,Speaker C: That's a very good question.,Speaker B: Probably particular genre.,Speaker C: I'm just kind of thinking the things that I probably do mainly, which is promo work, TV promos, radio imaging.,Speaker B: Then.,Speaker C: I do quite a lot of mainly commercials, long form stuff. So I do like everything really. But I guess the main thing is what I'm booked for is the imaging or promo and also the soft sell sort of luxury product kind of voice.,Speaker B: So one of the things that I think you could be doing is looking at you got a great voice, you got that you sound like a TV promo documentary.,Speaker A: God, don't strike his ego anymore, please.,Speaker C: Oh, come on, someone's got two.,Speaker B: You have the kind of voice that people will sit and listen to on TikTok. You do. And I think there's one of two things that you could do. I think that you could either just do it straight and record yourself reading promos imaging, stuff like that, make some videos in the studio of you doing that as just a way to demonstrate, but also give people the opportunity to hear your voice. Or I think there's an opportunity to go in a completely different direction. The person I'm thinking of in particular is Christopher Tester. He's a voice actor out of the UK who is a classically trained British RP theater actor. And he goes on TikTok and reads monologues know, plays and historic books, different things like that, right? And he's created this whole niche with videos that constantly are going viral, but then people are also constantly writing him and saying, hey, do this one next, or do this one next, which keeps the audience coming back, keeps them watching, keeps the videos going viral. But it was a demonstration of his acting ability and so people end up booking him for voiceover work specifically because of that, because they're seeing his acting abilities. So I think if you could come up with a fun way to do some social media content that highlights your voice but demonstrates your skill, I think that's one of the things that could be done in a relatively short amount of time every day, dedicate 30 minutes to it. Making videos for social media doesn't need to be a complex task anymore. If you've got an iPhone or whatever, you've already got a superior camera and you've got a studio, so you've got great audio, so that's really easy. And I think that would be one thing that I would be looking at. And then the other thing is, I would set a target for myself of I'm going to connect with whatever it is, five radio station program directors every day. And maybe that's going to be through LinkedIn, or maybe that's going to be through email, but it's just getting yourself in front of a few new people every day, and that number is going to change. Right. For a successful working, six figure talent who doesn't have a lot of time, right? They can contact 2025 people a week and just keep some new, fresh people in the pipeline. For the voice actor who doesn't have a whole lot of work right now and is still trying to build their business, you're going to contact ten or 20 people a day and work at filling up and creating that pipeline. But those are two things that I think that you could do to open up some opportunities for yourself. And that one's okay. That's okay. It's on the house.,Speaker A: There you go. And I'll be expecting to see the first video tomorrow. Andrew? Yes.,Speaker C: I wonder what I'll do on TikTok. I dread to think we're going to.,Speaker B: Premier it with the podcast episode.,Speaker A: So you know what's interesting in hearing you talk about that, Mark, is that how niched our marketing needs to get. Then? If we're aiming for a TikTok audience, do we really need to niche it down to, okay, I'm going to do it about acting, or I'm going to do it, or is there any scope anymore for just that I'm a voiceover actor and I can pretty much do everything? Or do we need to niche all our marketing down?,Speaker B: I think that it's possible to do a niche that has absolutely nothing to do with voiceover whatsoever. If it is a niche that you have a skill in or a passion in, and you can connect with an audience in. The best example of that is Stefan Johnson. So he's an American voice actor who does food reviews on TikTok, and they're hilarious, irreverent, fun. And the guy's got I don't even know at this point, he's probably got ten or 11 million followers on TikTok. Every video he does, I think, goes viral. That pretty much is the way it works. Now, he is not talking about voiceover. He's just talking about food and snacks and fast food and doing his reviews, who's got the best burger, who's got the best pizza, whatever. But because he reaches such a broad audience, so many people are watching his videos, it's inevitable that somewhere in that audience of millions of people are people who make buying decisions about voiceover for whatever, from the local video production company to the executive producer at a cable network or whatever. And so that has opened up a door for him for tons of voiceover opportunity. And so I think sometimes we limit ourselves by getting too focused on the voiceover box and thinking we have to. Be in the voiceover box. And so is there something that you can talk about, that you are passionate about, that you love, that you have a skill for, that you have an education for? Whatever? Is there a way that you could create content around that that highlights your voice still or highlights your narration skill or your acting skill or whatever? Doesn't specifically have to do with voiceover, but I think the two tie themselves together eventually.,Speaker A: Now people out there are going to go, it's all right for you, Mark, you've been doing this for a while now, you've got it down pat. I'm just a lowly little voiceover artist sitting in my home studio. I have no idea where to start. Would your advice be just bite the bullet and start?,Speaker B: Yeah. Because your first video is not going to be your best video. The first email that you send is not going to be the best email that you send. The first social media, a post that you create is not going to be the best, but you've got to get the first one out of the way to get to the next one, which is going to be a little better. And the one after that, it's going to be a little better. Honestly, if I go back to, let's say, 2008 910, somewhere in there, when I first started doing a little bit of email marketing, it is honestly an act of God that I ever booked a voiceover at all because I can go back and look at some of those early emails and be like, what the heck? I didn't have a clue what I.,Speaker C: Was doing, but I was just exactly.,Speaker B: Doing it and then learning as I went, getting incrementally better. And that's what opens up the door to more opportunity down the road. And so, yeah, I think it's really easy to get perfection paralysis, right? I've got to have everything lined up before I got to have the perfect camera, the perfect audio, the perfect studio, the perfect backdrop before I can make my first video. Or I've got to have the exact formula worked out for the ultimate marketing email before I can ever send the first marketing email. And we let that become a crutch or an excuse that keeps us from just doing the thing when the reality is it's just like voiceover. My guess is, and you guys could probably attest to this your first time in the booth and your hundredth time in the booth, I'm hoping on the hundredth time you were better, you get in your reps and you get better over time.,Speaker A: Yeah. So, George, I know you're deep in marketing. George, the tech at the moment, is there anything you reckon Mark could I'm.,: Writing virtual postcards on a website right now.,Speaker A: You're deeply engrossed in this interview then, George, I can see.,Speaker C: Yeah. But I'm thinking that that postcard idea is an absolute cracker.,: Yeah. I mean, I just received a postcard from a consultant who's doing some financial consulting for me, like a financial planner type person. And I was like, oh, I haven't gotten a handwritten thank you card in the mail in a really long time. In this case, it looks legitimately. Like, she legitimately handwrote this card and sent it to me.,Speaker B: Yes.,: And I thought, man, if she's got time to do that, I mean, we have time to do that now. My handwriting sucks. It just does. And I could pay my assistant to write these cards, which I might consider doing. And there's also these websites where you can do, quote unquote, handwritten postcards and send them out and they mail them for you and they print them and they do all that stuff. So it's something I'm considering trying in those postcards, having a little coupon code for a please come back. But I have been in absolute, hardcore, full court press marketing mode for the last three months. For George, the tech, you say when you're not working, you need to be marketing. And sales really slumped in the summer this year for us. And I was like, okay, I can either get really frustrated and figure out ways to just start cutting costs and slowing things down or really just go for it hardcore. With in my case, the thing I've been really ramping up is affiliate marketing. And that's been where I've been focusing my energy. And I've got some great advisors around me. I talk to my own marketing and strategist person almost every single week. And I need that accountability, someone to follow up with me, someone to tell me, hey, we had that meeting and I told you to do all this stuff, so go do it. Because it's an insane undertaking to run this business, keep everything functional still, keep my clients happy and on time and keep all the marketing and the biz dev all going. And that's what I've been doing the last few months, actually. I started to realize I'm actually kind of enjoying doing more biz dev. And the shift of my time, of my day is it's legitimately shifted. I don't do as much billable time as I used to, but we have other people doing more billable time and that's awesome.,Speaker B: It brings up a whole other point, though, that I think is important to consider, and that is there comes a point when you've been doing your marketing and it has paid off and business is going really well and you're busy and you're in the booth consistently or you're doing studio builds consistently, or whatever it is that your thing is that you're doing consistently. And what's the very first thing that often gets cut from the schedule? It's the marketing.,: Yeah, the marketing.,Speaker B: And then complacency sets in, right, complacency sets in because you've built a successful business. I've got a successful business, everything's running, firing on all cylinders. But one thing that this industry will teach you over and over again is that clients don't last forever. And so if you are not constantly bringing new people into the mix, then you don't have anyone to replace those clients that ultimately fall away. And so complacency is one of the most dangerous things for any voice actor or business owner for that matter, who's built a successful business. Because it's really easy to work to get there and then when you get there, to relax and enjoy it. And that doesn't mean that you can't relax and enjoy it. Obviously, I don't market the same way now that I did when I was building a full time business, but it's important that I never just stop, that there's always something new coming into the pipeline.,: Yeah, well, the thing that always happens at the end of the year is everybody wants to get out their holiday cards and all that stuff, right? And holiday gifts. And the problem with the holidays is it's too damn busy to do all that stuff, right. Like by the time you're thinking about it's time to be doing my holiday stuff. Now work is like firing all cylinders. You're really cooking. And that seems to happen almost every year for me. And how do you decide and again, not expecting extremely specific answer, but how do you decide about gifting? Because I know some folks and actors and myself included, some of your clients spent more with you than others this year or over the last five years. Is it a very simple mathematics? You just look and say, okay, someone spent more than X, I'm going to give them X? Is that kind of how you look at it?,Speaker B: Honestly, it's something that I don't do a ton of. And one of the reasons why is because there are so many potential pitfalls. And I mean, I guess it depends on where you're working. I do a lot of work for corporate, right? It's a lot of corporate and Elearning and stuff. So it's a lot of corporations. There's a lot of rules around gifting and you can actually get yourself into trouble doing that. And so it's not something that I do a lot of, but I do always make sure I make a point of sending thank you cards or letting them know that I appreciate them and all of that sort of stuff. I do think that there's something to be said for that. I was going to mention too, you got me thinking because you mentioned about the holidays and it's such a busy time and everybody's doing marketing over Christmas and New Year's or Cyber Monday, Black Friday, blah, blah, blah. One of the most successful sales that I ever ran for my coaching was on Groundhogs Day. I ran a Groundhogs Day sale because who the heck runs a Groundhogs Day sale? And so when every other voiceover organization is running a July 4 sale or a Labor Day sale or a Black Friday sale or whatever, I was like, I'm going to do a Groundhog Day sale and see how that goes. And I had no competition on that day. And so that's a little bit outside of the box when you're thinking about so can you look? There's a national day for everything. George and Uncle Roy post them every day. There's a national day for everything. You need to find a national day for something that is related to audio, sound, studio, microphone, whatever. And let that be your big marketing push day when nobody else is thinking about it or nobody else is doing it. Own that day instead of trying to compete with all the noise on a Black Friday or a Cyber Monday or whatever.,Speaker A: Don't talk about Uncle Roy around. AP. He's got huge marketing issues with Uncle Roy.,: But yeah, I mean that whole top of mind, that Uncle Roy thing, that whole top of mind thing that Uncle Roy does with that finding literally a reason to every single day post something, it's a smart idea, it's top of mind.,Speaker B: And now he's associated with it, right?,Speaker A: Yeah, he's that guy.,Speaker B: So you got to find your thing that you get associated with by default. Find that holiday, find that thing and make that the George the Tech day, the George the Tech event.,Speaker A: So we're sort of making our own Black Friday, is that the deal?,Speaker B: Yeah, I think that there's something to be said for that and it doesn't mean you ignore all of those other opportunities. But doing something special on a day that has some sort of relevance or significance but nobody else is doing it, it is one of the ways that you can potentially stand out.,: Love it.,Speaker A: So just quickly, just to sort of wind this up. Creativity is a big part of what we do in our work, obviously being voiceover artists and audio engineers and George doing what he does and that obviously needs to be reflected in our marketing. Is there any rituals or any sort of thing you do around creativity to sort of spark ideas in terms of what you might post on social media or what you might say in an email? Or do you just open up a blank email and hope the words come out?,Speaker B: Yeah, I spend ungodly amounts of time staring at a blank iPad pro with an Apple pencil in my hand waiting for the idea to hit so that I can write it down because it doesn't come. Believe it or not, that creative side doesn't always come naturally to me. But one of the things that I have gotten so much better at over the years and George, this could specifically apply to what you're doing. I am paying so much more attention to what my audience is talking about. So I have a Facebook group with 6000 plus voice actors in it. And the questions that they're asking in that group, the things that they're complaining about, the pain points that they're very obviously struggling with, every single one of those becomes a seed for a video, a podcast topic, a social media post, a course that I might eventually create. And so I've gotten to a point now and this is one of the perks of building that kind of network and that kind of following is that they don't realize it maybe necessarily, but they are feeding me my content ideas. And George, I know you could do the same thing. All you have to do is spend 5 minutes in a Facebook group and see there's a dozen people a day complaining about tech this, tech that, this problem that problem, whatever. Every one of those is a potential piece of content that you could create, whether it's a video, an audio piece of content, a Facebook post, a blog article, whatever. It's all content that is right there being handed to you specifically addressing the things that your audience is struggling with. And so that's one of the things that I do is just I survey my network a lot. What are you struggling with? Or if you could have one podcast interview that you would absolutely love to hear that would change your business, who would the guest be or what would the topic be? And I throw out surveys like that and that helps me to come up with ideas. And then when all else fails, I go sit in the backyard by the fire and enjoy the peace and quiet and hope that if I can clear my head enough and quiet myself enough, a brilliant idea will strike.,Speaker A: They do eventually though, don't they? That's the thing. It's true. I know there's some science behind this, but it actually is those moments when your brain's not actively thinking about the next email or the next social post that the ideas actually come.,Speaker B: Long walk always have a way to.,: Write things down or do a voice memo in the shower. In fact, I have an Amazon Echo Dot.,Speaker A: There's no camera in there that hangs.,: On the wall right over the doorway. And if I'm like in the shower, I can say hey yo Jimbo, remind me to do this while I'm in the middle of the shower because I.,Speaker B: Don'T want to miss. That so true.,Speaker A: Yep, yep, that's right. Well, I think it was AP will probably correct me on this, but I think it was either Start Me Up or Brown Sugar that Keith Richards wrote literally in his sleep. Keith Richards sleeps with a cassette deck next to his bed. And in the middle of the night, if he has an idea, he wakes up and he sings it into his tape recorder. But whichever song it was, it was one of their massive hits anyway, he woke up the next morning and he didn't remember waking up during the night, but he looked at this cassette deck and the cassette had been obviously played. It was halfway through the cassette and he played it back and it was Start Me Up, Brown Sugar. Whichever one it was, it was there. And so he literally wrote it in his sleep.,Speaker C: Yeah, I do remember the stories. I think it was a reel to reel and the tape running out woke him up.,Speaker A: Was it something like that?,Speaker C: Spooled off? Yeah. And he's sort of like, what the hell was that running for? I don't remember starting played it back.,Speaker A: And there was the song Crazy.,Speaker C: Just crazy.,Speaker A: Our brain is an amazing thing.,Speaker B: It's one of the reasons why I have so many issues with sleep, because, honestly, that is one of the few times in the day where my brain is completely quiet when I'm in bed at night. And so a lot of my best ideas hit about three or 330 in the morning, and I can't be upset about it because they're my best ideas, but at the same time, it's like.,: I wish this would come during the day.,Speaker A: Well, I've had a similar thing because AP and I have just started doing demos together and writing scripts for those falls to me. And, yeah, I'm sort of finding that I'll sort of jump into bed and I'll start dozing off to sleep, and then I'm awake and dashing out of the room with my iPhone and dictating a script idea that's just comes into my head, into the phone. So, yeah, I think we're all the same.,: Absolutely.,Speaker B: Yes.,Speaker A: Well, mate, this has been a whole lot of fun. Thank you so much for your time.,Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. It's been fun. Thank you.,Speaker A: If people want to find out more about you, and you've got some amazing courses and bits and pieces up for offer, and obviously the podcast as well, what's the best place for people to go? To find out more about the Mark Scott Experience, shall we call it?,Speaker B: Funnily enough, that was actually the name of an old radio show. Now it is Vopreneur.com. That old Mark Scott experience facebook page might still exist somewhere. I'm not sure if that ever came offline, but, yeah, the website is Vopepreneur.com.,Speaker A: As soon as we're done here, I'm going to Google that.,Speaker B: Shit.,Speaker A: I was going to say something and now it's gone out of my head.,Speaker C: It'll come to you at three in the morning?,Speaker A: Yeah, it'll come to me in the morning. I'll give you a call, let you know.,Speaker B: All right.,Speaker A: Best of luck with the Red Sox. I hope they get better for you, mate.,Speaker B: Well, I mean, there's nowhere to go when you're at the bottom but up, right?,Speaker C: This is true.,Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,Speaker C: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Robbo Got your own audio issues? Just askrovo.com with tech support from George the tech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our websiteproaudiosuite.com.     

It started with just a select few, then it grew in popularity to become a trend, and these days, guys like our very own George "the Tech" Whittam are installing home studios at a rate of knots while others create their own acoustically treated paradise in the basement. So what's next? What does the future hold, and can we ever recoup the costs by charging our clients to use them?? A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson In this episode of the Pro Audio Suite, the team delves into the upcoming Nexus from Source Elements, a plugin that effectively routes audio, virtual audio interfaces in and out of Pro Tools. The team also discusses novel features such as the Dim operation and incorporates talkback functionalities. The emerging future of voice-over artists working directly from one room, rather than traditional booths was examined, suggesting industry shifts. There is discussion on the need for talent to show their value in order to increase pricing, given the significant investments made in equipment and learning audio engineering. Other elements discussed included the limitations of the iPad in a pro audio production workflow, the strategic placement of preamps, and the anticipation of the passport and Nexus release. The episode rounds off with a nod towards their future plans to incorporate higher levels of control. #ProAudioSuite #SourceElementsNexus #VoiceoverTech   Timestamps [00:00:00] Intro - Meet the Pro Audio Suite Hosts [00:00:52] Discussing Nexus: The Innovation in Audio Routing [00:08:38] Efficiency of Nexus on Channels [00:09:13] The Future of Voice Over Workstations [00:12:05] Charging Reality in Voiceover Industry [00:15:19] Value of Remote Studios and its Impact on Pricing [00:22:18] Investment Expectations in Preamps, compressors and Microphones [00:28:04] Nexus Router's Flexibility in Sound Production [00:32:40] The Role of iPads in Pro Audio Production [00:37:16] The Controversy of the Preamp's Location [00:42:02] A Light-hearted Detour from Nexus Talks [00:42:20] Anticipating the Launch of Passport & Nexus [00:44:40] Pro Audio Suite's Collaboration with Tribut & Austrian audio, and a Mention of George Wittam's Tech Support Services.   Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready? Be history. Speaker B: Get started. Speaker C: Welcome. Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite. These guys are professional. Speaker C: They're motivated with tech. To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo, Austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George the tech. Wittam and robbo and AP's. International demo. To find out more about us, check thepro audiosuite.com line up. Speaker B: Learner. Here we go. Speaker C: Welcome to another Pro audio suite. Don't forget, if you do want to buy a Tribooth, the code is tripap 200 to get $200 off your purchase. If you'd like to leave a comment, by the way, on your favorite platform, please do so. It's good for our analytics, and we might drive a bit more traffic, which is always handy. Now, something that may be out as we speak or maybe about to be released, is the new Nexus from Source Elements. You've definitely had a look at it, George. I think you've had a look at it, Robert. And Robert knows all about it because it's his baby. Speaker A: How much do you know, Robert? : Let's be honest, I'm clueless. Yeah. Speaker C: No, that's me. That's my Robert. : I know it all, but really, don't I'm just like yeah. Speaker A: Can I just say, before you dive into it, it's a very sexy beast. Seriously, it's very clever. Speaker C: You've had a look around the whole thing, haven't you? Speaker A: I have. I've sort of had a play with it. But, I mean, Robert's going to explain it the best, so we should leave it to him to run through the list of features. : I like hearing what kind of mess other people make out of it. Speaker A: Well, you know, what inspires me the most, and I think is going to be the most useful for our listeners, I think, is simple things like the Dim operation, the fact that it actually just drops your mic level. : Drops the levels. Yep. Speaker A: And all that sort of stuff. : A lot simpler than a Dugan mixer. Speaker A: The gateway from a studio point of view, from me looking at that gateway, everything's all in the box. I've got video, I've got everything there. But, I mean, you should explain it all. : Yeah. So basically, Nexus started out, oh, God, how many years ago? 2007? I don't know. But I was like, wouldn't it be nice if you could route audio, virtual audio interfaces in and out of Pro Tools? And it was like, we made that, and it was kind of a hit. And what it was primarily used for was to interface the client side of a remote voiceover session, or just a remote client side. So think of it as Source Connect was the remote connection for voice talent into an engineer setup, who then also has remote clients. And Nexus was used to empower things like zoom and hangouts. But we all know that all of those have their various issues for instance, one of them is if you're broadcasting and you've got talkback going over zoom, there's very different goals of the talkback versus the broadcast that you want to have your clients listen to, so the talkback can have echo cancellation on it. And actually that helps because many times your clients don't have headphones, but your broadcast, you don't want it to be impeded by the echo cancellation and things like this. So what Nexus is, is it still represents to me that sort of client side connection. But now we're completing more of it. Instead of saying, oh, just like throw Nexus at Zoom, or throw Nexus at whatever it is that your clients are using Microsoft teams, here's a gateway for it that does what you need as a professional audio and video person for collaborating with your clients. Instead of trying to pound Zoom into a hole. Speaker B: Here's how it was described ten years ago, you sent an email out sourcenexis is an audio application router. Record remote voiceover from Source Connect directly into Final Cut or Media Composer playback itunes to Pro Tools, even patch Pro Tools to and from Nuendo all at the same time. Route any audio application in and out of Pro Tools, even if that application does not have any plugin support. Speaker A: There you go. Speaker B: That was December 2013. : So that's like a very broad, broad strike explanation. Sort of like it's round and so it rolls, but this is a wheel for a car. So yeah, the rolling part of it is well, it pretty much is a router that was put in the Daw so that you could route external interfaces in and out and do things like that. And the primary thing that it got used a lot for was those client side connections. Speaker C: So how would it work for someone like me? What benefit would I get out of Nexus? Speaker B: So the talent side, what do they say? : I think the same thing. So just like you've got Source Connect and you're running with studios and engineers and it has that rock solid queued up connection that's going to pick up every bit. Even if the internet does its thing, as you know, voice talent are being forced to take up much more and more of the burden and you have the situation where, hey, can I get playback? So one of the things that Nexus has is it's now a suite, by the way. It's not just the plugin. So there's the original Nexus IO, which is sort of like just the raw plugin. You have to know what you want to do with it. You have to build your own template for it. Nexus Review is a Nexus plugin that now has several ins and outs going into it and out of it. So it brings your talk back over to the gateway, which is our web meeting room. It gets the gateway back into your connection so that you hear it in your headphones and it plays your playback to the connection and everybody. And it does all that without you having to even think about what the word Mix Minus is or if it even exists. Because it's done all in one plugin. So what used to need two, three Nexus plugins and a talkback plugin is now Nexus Review. Okay, straight, just drop that plugin on your master fader, your setup is complete. Speaker C: So when you do playback, it actually mutes everything else. So you don't get obviously well, it. : Doesn'T in this iteration, but there's going to be all kinds of stuff that starts to happen within the suite, within its sort of capabilities. And I think that right now, the first thing you would say is it just makes playback easy. Your question specifically, Andrew, which is like, why would a voice talent want this? It makes playback easy because really, in that sense, you're just like the engineer at that point. You're recording stuff and you're playing it back. That's kind of like what? So this just makes that setup way less daunting because all you really have to do is and also we're going to probably come out with that as a standalone app as well. So if you're using something like Twisted Wave, you can just route Twisted Wave into the Nexus review app and same thing, you don't have to be on a daw. It doesn't have to be a plugin, but it does your Mix Minus and your talkback Twisted Wave. Actually, here's a question about twisted wave. Do you have the option to monitor live through it? Speaker B: It does have a monitor mode that you can turn on, of course with a little bit of latency, but it does have that capability, right? : So you might want to do that. And funny enough, if it does create a latency with yourself, there's a handy mute button so you can mute it and you don't have to listen to it, but at least your clients can hear you monitoring through Twisted Wave. So there's little individual situations that might come. Speaker B: What would be the benefit though? Like if you don't have to monitor yourself in Twisted Wave, what would be the benefit of turning that on? : Well, the reason why is that you're either going to direct your microphone live into Nexus Review, but then if you want playback, you're going to route your Daw into Nexus Review. And if you call Twisted Wave a Daw, then you want to route Twisted Wave into it. Speaker B: Okay, so you set the output in your Twisted Wave output setting to the Nexus review plugin input. : Yes. Not the input of well, in this case it would be the input of the application, not the gotcha gotcha, because in the Daw sense, the input is taken care of. It's like whatever channel you throw it on, the input is implicit. Speaker B: Right. : And then that same ability for all you video editors out there and things like that, the review set up and integrating my talkback with a talkback button if I want all of that is just like done, whatever, I have to set up a template in Pro Tools or I have to have a mixer. All the different things that people do. Speaker B: To be able to passport vo. Speaker C: Yes. Nicely sliding there. Speaker B: Right. So just to get a little bit deeper. So I'm in Twisted Wave. I'm the actor. I've recorded myself. I hit stop, I hit play to hear playback. I want to hear the playback and I want it to also send to Nexus. If I set the output of Twisted Wave to Nexus, will I myself on the local side hear the playback also or will it be shunting the audio. : To you would hear the playback and so there is a fader for you. Speaker B: Oh, Nexus handles that for you. : Nexus has a fader with the mute on it that you could mute that if you want. Speaker B: Nice. So that solves that problem. Beautiful. Right. Speaker C: The question I've got though is it seems that we as voice over people are going to end up sitting in one room with microphones and screens and computers in there with us. So the booth is pretty well fast becoming redundant. : Well, it might be that radio style booth. Speaker A: Yeah. Do you just have it in your booth? That's right, that would be my yes. Speaker C: What I mean but it's become like a radio. Speaker A: I think that's going to happen anyway. I kind of think that for me, this thing's sort of ahead of the game because I can see that coming, I really can. The more and more I even had two sessions in the last couple of weeks canceled because the creative guys just jumped online with the voice and did it themselves. They didn't need an engineer. : We do see a lot of that. It's like the phone patch may have gone away, but the direct to client session and where it comes up and it's really funny because clients don't really save time when they do this. They think they do, but they don't. So they say, hey, let's not book a studio to record the talent. Let's pay the talent the same amount of money and make them record it and complain at them if it didn't work out the way we wanted, by the way. So now we have the talent recording everything and inevitably, no one keeps good notes. And even if someone does keep good notes, you don't know how well the talent is cutting up the files. And it's very easy if you've ever been in a session sometimes to get your take numbering off from what you're writing down and what's actually happening in a computer, especially if you as the talent, you're busy trying to do other things, like read the script and not look at the computer screen. On what file number Twisted Wave is on. And so inevitably, someone has to put humpty Dumpty back together again after the talent has recorded everything. And that's going to take just as much time as just recording the session with an engineer online who can cut everything up and do it for you. And that way the talent only reads what they need to. They're not reading a bunch of speculative takes because no one knows if A is going to edit back to take 65 or whatever. You can just hear it. You got it. Great. And it fits because we timed it out. Speaker A: You just touched exactly on the problem that came from one of these sessions the other day. And this was a well known agency, a global agency, that they did one of these sessions where they just recorded it with whoever it was locally and they were on the phone, but the creative rings me and goes, yeah, kind of. I'm really happy with this. But we did some takes. I asked the talent to do this, but of course, with no labels, no notes, no nothing, I've got to go through every single take and go to him. Is it this one? No, that's not it. What about this? No, that's not it. No, it's more like this. Oh, hang on. Okay, well, is it this one? No, it's not that. It's like if I was doing the session in Pro Tools, it would be labeled. I'd have a page full of notes as well. This edits to this, blah, blah, blah, and it's done. But it took, like half an hour to find one take for this guy. Speaker B: The pennywise found it is pennywise pound foolish. : But the other problem is that what happens is that they're all working off of flat bids, right? 1 hour for the talent. They know what their residuals are. They bid these things out. And it's really hard to get these agencies to necessarily do just, hey, we want to be creative and throw paint on the wall and pay by the hour to throw paint on the wall. Instead, they do I don't know if you've seen that. It's that thing where the guy says, like, hi, we'd like to do an advert and we want to research sound effects and do all this stuff and try two different music takes and this and that. So 1 hour. And the person in the studio is like, I think it's going to take longer than that. And then the person at the agency is like, no, we know our stuff. We know exactly what we want. We're not indecisive at all. We only need 1 hour. And then you're like, okay, now you're stuck making a commercial in 1 hour that you know is going to take longer. So even though the agency basically saddles the talent with recording the takes, they never actually face the consequences of their actions because the bid happens. Then they audition, and it's like they've already at that point with the bid, taking out the voice record. We'll just give you takes. Speaker C: Yeah. You get what you pay for. And if you don't pay him, you. Speaker B: Don'T get much, and you're going to pay later. Speaker A: It's pay now, pay later. Sooner or later, you're going to pay for it. : I really think this was that moment when the voiceover industry, they all decided that they were going to try to eat each other's lunch. And at some point, it became like, my booth doesn't cost a thing. My setup and knowledge of my booth and what to do through blood and sweat and tears, paying me figured out and literal money that is free too. Speaker B: Right? : And all that stuff never should have been free. It should have been, okay, I'm whatever. $400 an hour, and, oh, you want to use my studio even if it's $50 an hour? Speaker B: Yeah, there should be a rate attached. I totally agree. As voice actors who wanted to be providing a service and I can name names, but I don't need to who are very early on in the home studio timeline. Right. Like literally FedExing Dat tapes. Right. They wanted to be a service provider. They wanted to be ahead of the curve and create a business niche for themselves. In the meantime, they were creating a problem for the fact that home studios would eventually become the norm, and nobody was getting compensated for operating a studio and engineering a session. : It's like when you have something unique, you charge more for it. So if you're a voice talent and because you're available at home, you are available, like, instantaneously, you don't need to have a limo drive you around La. That's a perk. And it might be a perk for you, but it's also a perk for your clients. But it became part of the add in, like, a long time ago. This was in the early 2000s. This was in the days of ISDN that this happened. Speaker B: It was literally when I got into the business. Yeah. I was just being told, people need this help. And I didn't know anything about the business model. I didn't know Jack squad about who got paid what, how, what you didn't get paid for. I just was there to solve problems. So I had no idea that this was going on till much later. : Yeah, but here we are. Talent put a lot of time, effort, money, emotion into building their setup and learning this basically some aspect of the craft of audio engineering, essentially. Maybe not the whole thing, but there's. Speaker B: Like I mean, tell me this. Would there be a value I know this is off topic, but would there be a value when a talent or an agent invoices that even if the bottom line is identical, that you literally add in a line that's engineering services, so it literally shows up and they see, oh, we're paying for this. Would there be some efficacy to this? It's kind of like restaurants starting to charge a service fee or a kitchen love fee or whatever. There's been a lot of blowback to this because some people really just raise your prices and other people are like, I like the transparency. So it's kind of confusing. : I think that if you want to, you effectively want to raise your price. And the only way you're going to be able to raise your price is by showing your value. And so in that sense, you almost need to because to the point that it happens on the flip side. So not just our like there's three layers to it. It used to be that the talent went to the studio and so there's two studios and there was a lot of meat on the bone for a whole industry. Right? There was an engineer in a studio in La. There was an engineer in a studio in New York. There was a voice talent in La. Yeah, there was five creatives over in New York. It was all happening real time. And At T was like just digging into the pie, too. And now it's like the first thing that happens is voice talent or the auditions come in and they know must have ISDN or source connect, essentially, and read between the lines. And what's happening over on the bid side is there's no money for a remote studio. Only talent with home studio need apply. And George, how many times have you seen talent that have done the Voice Tracks West? Or I know a place that knows what pay out of pocket. Speaker B: I tell people do it all the time. : Voice tracks west is I'm like, if. Speaker B: You don't do these sessions that often, spending $10,000 on a soundproof booth is a massive waste of money. : Yeah. And Voice Tracks has got a tight operation. It's not like decked out in oak panels, like all the big working facility. Boom. It's like, here's a room, here's a setup. You need an engineer to set you up. We don't have staff to sit there and babysit you the whole time, but what are you going to do? That's all you need. I don't know what they charge, but I have a feeling it's pretty affordable enough. Speaker B: They do what we call talent friendly rates, right? : And it's a great idea. So you get those auditions that are basically like, bring your own studio iOS. And then the next level is like, you know what, we're not even going to hire an engineer to record it like we just talked about, right? Speaker B: It's a weird position. I've always felt weird being in the position of enabling, essentially because I'm enabling the talent buyers to charge low rates for engineering or not budget for it. And I'm enabling the talent to meet that need. At the same time, there's the plus. : That you have your talent that can go live where they want to. And there's many talent that would if charging for their studio would be a deterrent to them having the lifestyle that they want. They want all their sessions to be in house. The reason to give it away is not just because they're trying to get an edge over some other talent, but also because they're trying to direct their life the way they want it to be. And being called into a freaking city every other day for an hour session and you got to drive 2 hours is crazy. And so it makes sense. Speaker B: And let's face it, as a voice actor, you can't live the lifestyle that you would like to live and be in. Those days are mostly gone. That you can live that lifestyle and have a nice home and have all this space and blah, blah, blah and live in the city, like live in Los Angeles or Lake. Like that's unbelievably expensive. : Right. And you don't have to anymore. Speaker C: Anyways, getting back to the rate thing, though, there is a way of doing it because on my invoices I show, studio and edit and then whatever the fee is and it's usually zero zero, but you can actually put in there. Voiceover blah, blah, blah. That rate goes in studio, edit X dollars and then you can give them a discount, which actually is equivalent to the studio rate. That way the client sees that there is a fee involved in that, but you've just done them a favor and not charged them for it. Speaker B: I think that's very smart. I will invoice people for a $0 item just so they know they're getting it. The problem with like a flat rate. : Or just write the real price down and say the discount that you're getting. Speaker B: Yeah. I'll say this is $100 thing, I'm throwing it in at $0. But you need to know that it has a value attached. Speaker A: Yeah, everything we do has a value attached because it's our time. Speaker B: Right? Yeah. But it needs to be literally spelled out for them on black and black and white, I think. Speaker A: Agreed. Speaker C: But the stupid thing is I was talking to in fact, Robbo and I were talking yesterday about equipment and stuff in the studio and believe that's the stupid thing. Well, it's the stupid thing in my case because it's ridiculous. I mean, I don't need any of this stuff, really. But I was sitting here the other day, like, adding up how much the dollar value of the stuff I've got in here in preamps compressors and microphones is just completely insane. : It's ridiculous. It is, yes. Speaker C: It's fun though. : Okay. It is. People putting wings on their back of their Honda Civic. Speaker C: Yeah, thanks. : I hate to say it, but it's like we are kind of doing some. Speaker B: Of that even does that you can buy a Civic with three exhaust type tips coming on the back. Speaker C: Exactly. Yeah. Get yourself the type r boom. Look out. : Yeah, but sometimes we're just like, OOH, that thing's going to make us faster and improve my zero to 60 time that neve preamp or whatever, and I think that we get caught up. I mean, God knows I've spent a lot of money on audio gear. Speaker C: Oh, you have? You're worse than me, actually. : I need, like, the nose spray that breaks the addiction, whatever. Speaker B: But Robert's business model is a different one. His service is his studio and his skill with his know. So I feel like a service provider that's providing that type of a studio service. There's an expectation of a certain investment in that equipment and keeping it up. Speaker A: To date and keeping it serviced and. Speaker C: Keeping it's funny, though, because I did send a file off to one of the audio production guys in one of the radio networks here because he was looking at buying Austrian audio microphones for their studios, which he did. Speaker A: Salesmen. Speaker C: But he said, oh, can you send me something? You got a sample of the eight one eight? And I went, yeah, sure. So I sent him just a cold read, eight one eight through the neve. He just come back going I said, what do you think? He goes, oh, my God, I'm buying one. Speaker A: Nice. : It's so funny. The subtle stuff is really there, but it's great when either someone is completely doing the same drugs that you're doing or actually is truly hearing the same thing that you're hearing. There is this like, wow, that really is better. And at the same time, someone walks in who doesn't understand much about audio and goes like, what's the difference? Speaker B: You really get me. You really see me. Speaker C: It was really funny. It's like a guy that both Robbo and I know is also an audio guy. This is years and years and years ago. He got a voice track sent. It was a cold read from a studio in Melbourne. And he called me up and he said, do you know what microphones or what microphone they use down at this studio? And I said, no, I don't, actually. He said, man, you got to find out. It sounds unbelievable. So I went down there and I was in there doing a job, and before I got in there, I said, what mics are you using, by the way? He goes, oh, what was the session? I told him, it's like, oh, yeah, we've just bought a new U 47, the Telefunkin U 47. When they first reissued the thing, I'm like, okay, so I think they were selling for close to 20,000 Australian dollars at the time. So 15 14,000 us. I'm guessing. Sounded very nice. Speaker A: You would want to I didn't know. Speaker B: They reissued that mic. Speaker C: Yeah, the telephone U 47. Speaker B: Yeah. I never knew there was a reissue of that mic. : Yeah, that thing's been, like, homages to. Speaker B: No, I know, but I mean, it's literally in Neumann. Like, they did just the U 67. : Like, five years ago. It's telefunken, but telefunken is not the Telefunkin that Telefunken was, right? Speaker C: Correct. Yeah. : Telefunkin is like some company in Connecticut. Telefunk is really a European funky funkin. Speaker C: It was kind of weird though, because a lot of the Neumans that were re badged for America, so like Frank Sinatra's U 47 was actually badged, I think, as a Telefunken. : Right. So they were really U 47s. They were really Neumanns. Right. And then they were rebadged as Telefunken. And then the same thing happens with the AKG C Twelve because Telefunken was an importing company. They would commission things to be made or they would just say, hey, I'll buy a bunch of those. Speaker C: And there were tons of companies doing that, particularly in America, where they rebadged microphones under different brands that were made primarily by AKG or Neumann. : It's kind of like rebadging Chinese stuff in a way, happens. It's like happening again. You see the same product and it's like, oh, they just put a different name on it and called it their amplifier. Speaker C: So you're going to white label Nexus and set it off under different brands. : There's all kinds of discussions and things that pop up and then sometimes just like fizzle out. But one thing for sure, I think, is that at least on some version of the Gateway, one of the talked about features is to customize it so you can make it like Andrew's Shopahor. Speaker A: Well, one thing I wanted to touch on and something that's not in the demo though, but something you were showing me after we finished recording a couple of weeks ago is the router. Can you tell us about that? Because that's a game changer, right? : It's not going to release on the first. It might actually I don't know, but right now it's a little bit behind. It would be one of those things that certainly would take. It would be one of the things that takes longer to get out, but it's pretty much done. And it's just a desktop router. So you can set up a lot of this stuff or the rest of the stuff that you want to customize on your desktop routing, for example, if you wanted just to have something that routed. One of the things that happens with Pro Tools in particular is once you close your session, you lose all your routing. So if you're not putting all your work into one session or working on one thing and you have to open up different files while you have a group of people online and connected, when you close Pro Tools, you lose communication and possibly even different parts of those connections, depending on what platforms are on. They might lose their connections too, because some of those connections go through you. So router gives you the opportunity to be able to set up sort of like a desktop route. Similar in a way, George, to what a lot of people that you have do with the Apollo Mixer. Speaker B: Yeah, I was going. To mention that. Right, exactly. But being on a not you're now hardware agnostic, you can be on anything. Speaker A: Because the killer for that, for me, is that is exactly what you're saying, is that whole thing of, like, you're halfway through a session and the creative goes, hey, last time we did this, we did blah, blah. Can you go to the old Pro Tools session? And you got to do that whole embarrassing listen, yeah, I can do that, but you're going to lose me for a second here, guys. Okay, I'll be back in a minute. And you hear the way you go. : That whole thing changed the way I work. I have Pro Tool sessions with hundreds and possibly, I don't know, thousands of spots. Whole years of campaigns, just boom, one after the you do them all on one timeline thing of like, oh yeah, one big ass timeline. Really? Speaker B: They're not just clips in the clip viewer? : No, it's basically what ProTools lacks is any sort of like have you ever worked in Media Composer? Speaker B: A little bit. : Okay, so Media Composer, you can have sessions well, you have a bin. Yeah. Pro Tools user have been wanting folders within their bin for the last 20 years, and they still have yet to get them. Different issue, but even more so, the edit and the mixer in Pro Tools are joined at the hip. But there's many aspects of your mixer that are not part of your edit. They're just part of your studio. Speaker B: Sort of like there's a utility mixer. : This is a utility, this is your external. What used to be in a lot of early setups were like people that would have like a Mackie mixer off to the side and then they'd add Pro Tools. And what was going in and out of the Mackie mixer was like microphones and headphone feeds and connection to the tape dock probably back. Um, and so the mixer still had routing capability and some of that's daunting. And really what you need is just like a couple straight ahead patches and maybe a volume control. And that's really what Nexus router lets you do. It has an advanced mode where you can just sort of draw whatever you want from A to B and then that way you can even have different setups that you can load and save and close and open up a different setup, or you can make one massive. Speaker B: Setup forward to it. Because I'm looking forward to being more hardware agnostic and less attached to something like the Apollo in general and kind of endorsing that kind of mentality of being a little bit less attached to that system. So this will be something that'll be nice to set up for more people who do want that extra level of sophistication absolutely. : Yeah, it'll make it like if they have little special things that they need to do, even something like a talkback mic when they're outside or playback from some other device if they want to plug their phone in or have some other app. Speaker B: Let me ask you this. This is definitely going down a rabit hole in terms of features, but can you imagine that ever being on a touch screen interface like an iPad or having a controller? : I could definitely imagine. We've already got other levels of control that we're planning on, which are, I think, pretty exciting. Speaker B: You guys were talking earlier about things are moving towards the actor having to have really a full production suite in their booth, right? Speaker C: Yeah. Speaker B: It sucks, though. I mean, people don't want the day. : That someone asks an actor to not only record for them, but can you please play back picture while you record? When that happens, then it's like you're really throwing a lot at Cipriano. Speaker B: I mean, he does stuff when he. : Has to, but some people can do that. It wouldn't be that hard. Speaker B: He paid me to set up Pro Tools to do it. : Right. Speaker B: Yeah. So it would be lovely for someone who really still wants to have a feeling of I have a mic, I have a headphone, I have my script. But not having to have keyboard, monitor, mouse, that whole rig in there too and just have somewhat innocuous iPad or even if you're reading off the iPad, you can just do the four finger swipe and switch over to the mix. : The hardest thing becomes, I still think the iPad is a tough environment. There's been a lot of actors have been like, can I just do this all on the iPad? Speaker B: Yeah. No, there's a bit of a stay in your lane. The iPad has a lane to stay in. To me, it still has no place in a Pro audio production workflow except as a controller or a script reader. : Yeah, it works well as a controller. Speaker B: I've got my V controller controller and a script reader. That's what it's for. To me. It's not a pro audio. Despite the power of the thing, the hardware, the fact that it's got Thunderbolt now in the Pro model, iPad Pro, it's still just not the tool for the job. So use it what it's for, and that's what it's good for. So I would endorse having that in there just to control the Nexus monitoring and the other stuff. : Do a lot of talent. Really avoid and not want some really. Speaker B: Do avoid it as long as they can. They really despise doing that. Speaker C: I'm one. Speaker B: Yeah. It's because of the distraction. Because this is the right brain, left brain, actor, engineer, conundrum. You can't do both at the same time. I don't care who the hell you are, you can't do them both equally well. One is always suffering at the hands of the other. So the actor that really but what. : Does an actor need in the booth? Truly? They need to be able to record takes, and they need to be able to play back. Speaker B: Mean, some people like, I'll call you out, Bo Weaver, I've known you so long. He hits record, he walks into the booth. He records all of his sessions. He walks out of the booth and he sits down and he edits all the sessions. Like done. That's his workflow. Now. How often is he directed? Very rarely. Record and send. But yeah, that's what he likes. He likes to have the two separate church and state. Speaker C: Well, I'm exactly the same. I have the same workflow as Bo because a lot of my stuff is not directed. So I do exactly the same thing. I go in there, record, come back and come out of here and edit and send. : Yeah, but how many times you go back and forth? Speaker C: I save each file separately. So if I'm doing like 430 2nd spots for somebody, then I'll record a couple of takes or two or three takes. : How do you know you're in time? Are you timing yourself? Speaker C: I do a timer first. I will sit there and I'll time one with the stopwatch first read. So I know ballpark where I'm at. By the time you deep breath, you lose a couple of seconds. So if I'm doing like one, that's got to be 27 seconds and I come in at 27, then I know I've got 2 seconds up my sleeve so I can take more time with it. Once you've been doing this for that's the thing. : You guys have like atomic clocks built in. I can't tell you how many times I've had a talent and I'm like, can you take half a second off that? And they take half a second off that. Speaker B: It's like, wow, bo had an iPad one for years. He may still have it just to run the timer period. He's like, It's a great timer. It doesn't make a click. : I have an iPad one that I use for my eight faders approach. Yeah. So there's some minimal amount of control that's necessary. They at least need a door handle, probably. Do they want a mic mute? Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure they would. Most people would like to have that, I would think. Yeah, it's pretty embarrassing when you got. Speaker C: A horrible client down the line and mic mute's. Very handy. Speaker B: Horrible client or bad cheese. Speaker C: Yeah. : How do you find the foot switches. Speaker C: For I reckon a foot switch would be great. Speaker A: You need one of those AP. You need a foot switch. Speaker C: Yes, I need a foot switch. Foot switch is great. I love it. Trouble is, I probably tread on it by accident. Speaker B: Well, the Whirlwind PPD or whatever, they have a foot switch on off switch. : The ones that don't break phantom power so that they don't pop, they just sort of short out. Speaker C: And it's also like I wouldn't want I mean, the idea is fantastic. I think it's fun, but I hate too much stuff between the microphone and the preamp. Speaker B: Yeah. Speaker C: Well, there's that one more thing that can go wobbly on you. Speaker B: Not to go completely off base here again, but I was talking earlier about what I saw podcast movement, and I saw the boss answer to the RODECaster pro because Roland's had and Roland too. Boss is like their musician wing of Roland or like the guitar pedal. : I don't know about that. Speaker B: Right. : So they had boss is the guitar wing and Roland and Roland is the keyboard wing, but they've crossed areas. Like mainly Roland has made guitar synths and the other view is that Roland is the high end and then Boss is the middle. Speaker B: Right? So I'm looking at their things and going, okay, here's another RODECaster. What's on the back? A foot pedals plug. I was like, Whoa, that's cool. What can you do with that? He's like, whatever you want. For the gamers, you can do anything you want. I was like, Well, I can see that being cool because the mixer is outside on your desk and you run a foot pedal in your booth and now you have a way to cut your mic, or it could be a way to hit record and then punch a marker when you click it again. There's a lot you could do with. : That, so whatever you want. The foot pedal can send like USB. Speaker B: Messages, as far as I can tell. I don't know how flexible it is, but it's pretty flexible. There's also air tools or AirTurn I think that's called AirTurn. And now other companies are getting into it where you can get Bluetooth pedals that go in your booth to control certain functions. So there's more you can do with foot pedals, which is kind of neat, but if I'm not wearing headphones and I don't know, my mic is truly off, I would never trust anything wireless. : So what about the preamp? I mean, the preamp should be in the booth or not, because even if you wanted to be really theoretical about it, your best signal would be by running the shortest mic line and getting it up to the preamp right line. Speaker B: If you're running, then sending it 20 foot runs, that's different, it's negligible. : But having the preamp in the booth to be able to set it is a different thing, right? Isn't that necessary? Speaker B: Yes and no. I mean, some people do. I'd say most people that have a booth that don't have the equipment in the booth don't have the preamp in the booth, but it's less convenient. : And so they're just recording conservatively and going like, I'll just hit minus twelve, I got plenty of bits, I put. Speaker B: Plenty of Avalon 737s in booth. And I just told people, like, this thing's a radiator, so it's going to get nice and toasty in here. If you really need to have this in here, I get it, but be my last choice. What, to put in the booth? Speaker C: Well, that's what I'm thinking. The more gear I was going to say about that exactly that most people's home studio booths are quite small, and you start piling gear in there, it's going to be like a furnace. Speaker B: Yeah. Gets hot in there quick. So the less the better. Even modern computer monitors are pretty low power, but they still make heat. They still radiate heat. Everything makes heat. So the less in there, the better. Yeah. It's going to be interesting when the passport Vo comes out, how people choose to use it. Whether they're going to have it in booth or outside of the booth, you can go either place. And the thing you're going to miss out on it not being in booth is that mic switch. Mic mute. That's why I think the majority are going to use it in the booth. So what we'll be testing I think so, too, how far we can run it on USB to the computer. So we'll be doing some testing around that whole workflow as well. Speaker C: Yeah, I can see the value in having the Passport Vo in the booth for sure. Maybe you're doing a zoom session or whatever. You can use that second interface to run either your phone or iPad or whatever, that you can run the zoom session. Speaker B: That's where I could see it being really useful, having the iPad in the booth for phone patch, zoom, blah, blah, blah, communications. Speaker C: Absolutely. Speaker B: And having that run into it and just that would be a really easy way to facilitate those sessions. Boy. : Well, in a way, you can have it. Sorry, you can cut all that out. Speaker B: We're really off topic now. Speaker C: This was about Nexus and I don't know where the hell we've gone. Speaker A: Oh, man, we've gone all over the place, let me tell you. This is tangent. Speaker C: I'm just waiting to see the Mad. Speaker A: Hatter pop out from behind the door somewhere. Editing nightmare. That is the Pro audio suite. Speaker B: Yeah. Wrap this one up. : I'll bring it together. What comes out first, the passport or Nexus? Speaker B: Nexus. Speaker C: Nexus. Speaker A: Nexus. : Probably. Speaker A: Right? Speaker B: Well, we'll see, because these are both but we don't know. Neither of them want to divulge a release date until it's certain because people don't. We've all learned that produced product to under Promise Over Deliver is really the best policy. : You can't give a product a C section. Speaker B: Right. Speaker A: What we can promise about the passport, though, is that when it does come out, it's going to be killer. Speaker B: It's going to be killer. We're going to make sure of it, because by the time anybody receives one in the mailbox, we have already hammered on it and proven without a shadow of a doubt that it will do what we said it's going to do. When you get one, it's going to be fully tested and vetted before that. : Yeah, I'm excited because I think you see all these USB interfaces coming out constantly and no one has one that does these. Speaker B: They're all playing out of a different playbook. Like, I got into a whole conversation on Facebook about this one person's. POV is clearly the future is firmware, software, everything. And I said, I don't think it's that clear. I said, Because we're developing the exact opposite. And his response was, I think that's not a good idea. And my response was, I think it's a very good idea because look at all the products that have come and gone and what products you can still plug into your Mac or your PC that still work 15 years later. And the Micport Pro First Gen is one of those products. You just plug it in and it works. So that's the philosophy. We're just carrying that forward. Speaker A: My old trusty two rack sitting here right next to me. How old is that now? Jesus. Speaker C: 15 years. Speaker A: Have to be something like that. Still keeps going. : A two, not even an three two rack. Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. : I have some ones in my garage. Speaker A: No, I don't need the double o one. Speaker C: What are they doing in the garage? Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Why are you using them, Robert? Speaker B: Unlike you, he's using his ramps to hold up his Porsche 920. Speaker C: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Robo Got your own audio issues? Just askrobo.com tech support from George, the tech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, end, suggest a topic, or just say good day. Drop us a note at our website proaudiosuite.com

The Mackie DLZ Creator is out, and after taking some cues from Rode, they have a pretty good piece of kit on their hands. George had a chance to catch up with its creator at "Podfest 23", so took the opportunity to record a chat about some of the more interesting features and some of the ideas that sparked its creation. See it here: https://mackie.com/intl/products/livestreaming-podcasting/dlz/dlz_creator.html A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson    Summary In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, the team invites listeners to take advantage of a $200 off tribooth offer and encourages likes and ratings. Key part of the episode is George Wittam's experience at Podcast Movement in Denver, where he met Matthew Heron, the product manager and designer of the Mackie DLZ, a digital podcast mixer. Heron discusses the user-friendly and versatile features of the mixer, including three distinct user modes (beginner, intermediate, professional), auto mix functionality, full dynamic processing, and more. Despite its similarities with the RODECaster model, the Mackie DLZ showcases its unique design ideology. This episode also ponders on what additions Rode might introduce in their firmware updates. The mixer's integrability into an AV media production suite and its future updatable platform are other highlighted features. The team ends the podcast with anticipation of discovering the significance behind the three letters in 'DLZ'. #ProAudioSuite #PodcastTech #RoadcasterInsights    Timestamps [00:00:00] Pro Audio Suite: Introductions and Special Offer Code   [00:01:08] Exclusive Interview: Matthew Heron and Mackie's DLZ at the Denver Podcast Movement     [00:02:58] Exploring the Multifunctional DLZ Digital Podcast Mixer         [00:05:21] The DLZ Advantage: Auto Mix Features and User Guidance   [00:08:52] DLZ's Promote Channel View and Dynamic Processing Capabilities     [00:11:17] Comparing the DLZ with the RODECaster Model        [00:12:22] The RODECaster Pro Two: Master Fader and Dedicated Automix     [00:19:49] DLZ in Home Studio: Setting up a Monitor Mix     [00:23:22] Exploring the DLZ's Specifications and Inclusions       [00:25:15] The DLZ as a Future Updateable Device    [00:26:36] Final Words and Outro: Stay Ahead of the Game     [00:26:52] Closing Thanks and Provide Tech Support Invitation    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history.,Speaker B: Get started.,Speaker C: Welcome.,Speaker B: Hi.,: Hi.,Speaker B: Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite. These guys are professional and motivated with tech.,Speaker C: To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo Austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George the tech. Wittam and robbo and AP's. International demo. To find out more about us, check thepro audiosuite.com line up.,: Learner.,Speaker B: Here we go.,Speaker C: Welcome to another Pro audio suite. Don't forget, if you want to get yourself a tribooth, use the code tripap 200 and you'll get $200 off your tribooth.,Speaker A: And don't forget, also yes, we need some likes and ratings and comments.,Speaker C: Yes, tell us how much you love us.,Speaker B: Give us where's the best place to do that?,Speaker A: Well, I'll tell you what, look in the show notes and I'll stick a link there. That's the best way.,Speaker B: Okay, got it.,Speaker C: Or just give us a comment on your favorite platform. Wherever you listen.,Speaker B: Exactly.,Speaker C: That'd be very handy. Now, George, a couple of weeks ago you were in Denver, colorado, I should say Nanu. Nanu. But that's boulder, very cryptic. Human this morning. And you were at the podcast movement.,Speaker B: Yes, I was.,Speaker C: And you bumped into someone over there. But before we get to the interview you did with the product manager of the new Mackie DLZ creator, you had a bit of a look at that and we're looking at it now. It looks very Roadcaster to me.,Speaker B: Yeah, well, everything that's followed since the roadcaster has looked very RODECaster because they literally invented a category.,Speaker A: Talk about setting a design standard. Good on your road there, you yeah.,Speaker B: Yeah, they're the big dogs still. I mean, for sure. I was at Podcast Movement in Denver, and I was there partially supported and sponsored by BSW, the dealer, Pro Audio dealer here in the US. And they brought along a rep from Road to be with the booth. So I was hanging out with Road and BSW, and of course, there were other vendors there as well, including Mackie. So I had a moment to sit down or stand and take a little interview in with Matthew Heron. He's actually the product manager. And what's really cool is he's not just a sales guy, he is the designer of the DLZ.,Speaker A: Oh, wow.,Speaker B: So you'll hear him explain when and why the thing came to be, and he gets into a bit of detail. He talks very fast because there's a lot to cover in the short amount of time. But, yeah, it's a very impressive piece of kit, as we like to say.,Speaker A: Well, let's have a listen.,: Hey, everybody. It's George, the tech at Podcast Movement. And I've made my way finally over to Mackie and we're getting an interview here with Matthew before it gets too noisy in here and he's going to show us his baby. What do we got?,: Matthew well, we're here today. We've got the brand new DLZ creator. We launched this back in May and we've been working on this thing for about two and a half years. So that's what I kind of a lot of people learned how to make sourdough over COVID and I decided to design a mixer. We're here with it and we're really excited about this. I think there's definitely some highlights. Obviously this is a digital podcast mixer. You can use it for live sound, but it's really designed for podcast use, case streamers folks that are creating content, right? Mackie's been behind the content creator since 1989 only it used to be grunge, long hair and flannel. But today it's podcasters, it's unboxing toys, right? It's things like that. That's what people want to do. And so what we're trying to do is democratize audio, make it easier no matter what your experience level. So how we've done that is we've put three distinct user modes in one product and what this effectively does is allows you to work however comfortable you are. If you're brand new, you've never done anything. We have an easy mode that hides almost every parameter from you and allows you to just kind of have a preset based workflow because it's very easy to load which microphone you're using right now. We also have an enhanced mode. This is very similar to other products you'll see in market. There's a lot of competitors out there, but it's going to be the feature set that a lot of folks are comfortable with. If you're coming from a RODECaster, for example, in pants, mode is going to be very comfortable for you. And then finally we have a Pro mode and what that does is that kind of goes back into Mackie's. Our back end Master Fader is a really good example of a pro product that we put out for many years. But we wanted to have all the features that you imagine. So just to jump into easy mode fairly quickly, I'll just kind of show you the channel view. We made it as easy as we possibly can. You're loading a preset for the channel. We've got our Em 99 B microphones. So you can just pick the microphone you're using and load it right up. We also have the SM Seven B and many other a little bit more generic microphone as well. Right? Plenty of choices, right? The easy customer could then label the channel. Right, we want to change the color. Let's make it blue. Let's go ahead and put a little person in there, right? We can do that. That changes the color. Yeah, there's a Scribble strip as well, so we can label it as well. So we can call this one Joe, for example. This is Joe's Mic. I'm doing it upside down so I'm a little slower than I'd normally be, but it's Joe's Mic and it's a digital product and I'll be quite honest I've worked on analog consoles, and I love board tape. It's kind of a fun, tactile thing. But I'll be honest, if you have a digital console, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to label it digitally, right. Put in the name, color, icon, that sort of thing. And that's really been true for Mackie since the DL products.,: Tell us about Auto Mix, because that is something that really stands out.,: Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So if you are brand new, right, we can help you set up the channel very easily. But we also have auto mix. What this really does is allows you to do it's kind of based on Dugan style gain sharing, right? So each microphone, if there's no signal present, it doesn't get any gain. But if there is signal present, it gets all the gain. And what this does is this helps it helps reduce feedback from other microphones because they're not live. It helps reduce noise because those other microphones aren't live at that point in time.,Speaker A: Right.,: So really, it just helps clean up the whole system. Another huge benefit is when people talk over one another. Now, you could ride the faders, and that's something that you can do, and a lot of people do do. But if you don't want to do that, this is a really great feature. You can just have everybody set to medium and you're all sharing gain. So if you talk over one another, it'll reduce the overall volume and you can hear everybody as opposed to everyone talking over one another.,: For me, that's important because I host a show and I'm the sound engineer. So riding the faders and being engaged in a conversation, you can't really do it well. The Auto Mix clears up cross talk between channels. We use condensers, so it really cleans up a mix. When you have Auto Mix set up.,: Yeah, it's really helpful. And we've actually gone one step further, and we actually added in these priorities. And what that does is it allows you to set priority. So you're talking about being the host. As the host, you could set your priority to high. And what that will do is that will allow you to be the loudest no matter what. So if you're running a political podcast and, you know, the people might talk over one another or they might get a little argumentative, you can always set yourself to just one level higher. And what that will do is that way you can come in and go, hey, guys, we got to take a commercial break, or what have you. You can kind of help control the conversation a little bit more easily, a.,: Little bit like ducking.,: Sort of similar to that framework. Yeah. But when you combine it with the Auto Mix yeah. It becomes very powerful. Like I said, that's our easy mode. And one step further on, the easy mode, which is kind of cool, is we have this setup assistant. This will literally walk the customer through everything you need to do to get the mixer set up. Tells you to push up the channel faders. We know that if you've been in the audio industry for a long time, you have to push up the channel faders to get audio to pass through the mixer. That's not in apparently obvious to a brand new user. Why do I have to push those up? Well, you need to and so we tell the user to do that. We have them plug in their headphones. We then pipe audio to the headphones and allow you to turn up each headphone to whatever level feels most comfortable. And I'll be honest, I got my start in tech support. So we built tech support in headphone help, right?,: We were saying before, the reason this product is so good is because you came from support. You understand we're all the issues are and you designed it right in, right.,: So we put in a lot of places where people do have pain points. We hope to eliminate those pain points. Same thing with the microphones. We help you set up the microphones, tell you where to plug in the microphones. We go ahead and say, hey, here's your microphone. One, you can kind of select the microphone by picture also, so if you know what your microphone looks like, you can kind of get going. Also, we have automatic gain setting. So for each one of the microphones you don't need to know how to set gain. You can press listen and set for me. And depending on how far you are from the microphone, how strong your voice is, how much gain your microphone really needs, we will go ahead and automatically set that on the back end. The mixer is smart enough to do that for you. Also, again, microphone help. Aren't you not hearing anything? Try some of these suggestions.,: That's great. They're going to learn a lot. I bet if they want to, they'll learn a lot about engineering from going through all that.,: Absolutely.,: Going to be familiar with all the functions and the inputs and they'll learn terminology and stuff.,: Yeah, awesome. Yeah. And then like I said, in Promote, we'll jump straight to promote. And obviously in Promote, I'm going to go ahead and turn off set up assistant right now. But in promote it's in the no holds barred, right? So we go into a channel view. You have full dynamic processing. You have access to 48 volts fan power, independent delay and reverb sends pan control. Also, we hide pan from our beginning users because they're only going to hurt themselves with it. And again, full EQ, full gate, full compressor, DeEsser, all the stuff that you would expect in a full dynamic digital mixer like this without any limitations. Now, the other really cool thing about it, we took a lot of time to figure this out, but all of this is nondestructive. So what's really cool is a pro. If you have this product, if you have multiple users that have different experience levels, everyone can benefit from the same product. A pro can jump in, set up all the channels, get it all absolutely dialed in with all of the processing, switch it over into easy mode, hand it off to their brand new user, and that brand new user will get access to all that cool processing, but it's been hidden from them so they don't get lost. And it's completely nondestructive.,: I can tell somebody to get this.,: Yes.,: I can set up all that stuff in pro mode. It's locked away in easy mode and they can't mess anything up.,: Exactly. And it hides it all from them. And the cool thing is, too, is you can load them a preset specifically for their voice and name it, and then they can just load that preset. So it's really, really flexible in those situations. And like I said, whether you're growing with a mixer, you're brand new and you want to grow to become a pro, or if you have a situation where this is going to be put in a studio and the studio is going to be used by both pros and people that have no idea, it's really a lot more flexible. And what it does is it helps avoid what I call smear. And so a lot of times you see consoles in this category, and what they'll do is they'll be kind of easy, sort of easy to use, but they're not quite easy enough for someone who has no idea what they're doing. And then a pro will get in there and they'll say, well, yeah, I have those controls, but they're kind of clunky or they're difficult to use. And so what we really try to do is make it happy for both users. And what that means is actually separating out those user modes into two distinct interfaces.,: Yeah, it's a beautiful product. I'm looking forward to banging on it a little bit and giving you some tests and trying it out in the real world. And congratulations on the launch. It's a beautiful product. Thanks so much. We'll talk again another time when we have less background noise. Maybe we can do sort of a from home zoom session together and really talk a little deeper about product design. I think that'd be a lot of fun.,: I think that'd be great.,Speaker B: All right.,: I really enjoy it.,: Thank you.,Speaker A: So, without knowing too much about this thing, George, as we mentioned before the interview there, it is very much a roadcaster I won't say ripoff, but very much based on the RODECaster model. Right?,Speaker B: Yeah. He was very clear that this was something that he had seen, they had seen, the whole industry saw. And so it was time that Mackie throw their hat in the ring and he spent the majority of the pandemic developing it. So when it came out it came out recently, I think it came out after the RODECaster Pro Two because it did just release like in the last couple of weeks. And so it feels even more like the RODECaster Pro Two, as you could imagine. But they still threw at it some of the Mackie kind of design ideology, which is, I mean, obviously the road is designed to be easy, but these guys took it to another level of being easy, I think. Well, the first thing that really wanted to be friendly yeah, well, the first.,Speaker A: Thing that strikes me and the first thing I said to you when we were talking about this before the show is it's got a master fader, which is interesting in and of itself.,Speaker B: I know it does.,Speaker A: Yeah.,Speaker B: Right. So whereas Rhode chose to condense the thing down a little bit smaller and lose things like a master fader, mackie, I think, wouldn't dare lose that fader. And I should have asked him about it, but I didn't think to. But he didn't dare lose it because it's an audio mixer in the world of Mackie, like, you always have a master fader.,Speaker A: Yeah, well, if you don't have one, you're going to create one anyway. You're going to dedicate one to being a master fader. It's somewhere along the way, surely.,Speaker B: Probably, yeah. That is one of the things that Rhode clearly chose to leave out because they felt like it's not needed for what people are using it for. But Mackie chose to leave in but what Mackie did, which she explained really know in the audio, was that it really is a tool that will suit total newbies and beginners to professionals. And the way they do it is by having three different types of user experiences beginner or easy, sort of a medium or moderate. And then the full on Pro. We didn't look at the moderate version. He kind of gave me a good overview of the beginner version and the pro version. But the beginner version, it literally has a wizard and it walks you through very much a step by step process of how to get your show set up on the mixer, even to the point of setting levels for you and all that stuff.,Speaker A: So these are just different softwares in the same box? Or are these completely different products, though, like the beginner, the intermediate and the professional?,Speaker B: In the world of firmware, it's all software, right? Basically whatever you want to show on that screen is what the experience is going to be. Right. So they have the easy mode and then I think when you first power the unit on default, it's going to start in easy mode. So it has a very simplified interface. It doesn't get into notch filters and thresholds. It's very simplified. It has a ton of presets for different microphones. It will set the gain for each of your microphone sources by listening to the source and then setting the gain for you. And then it gets you started very easily. And then it also has a dedicated automix, which he talked about. It's the Dugan Automix, which is very much a trademark kind of patented system. But they're not using in the branding and in the design. They're not infringing theoretically on any patents because it's their own algorithm that they're doing. But they've created an automix method where you can prioritize on three different levels, each of it the inputs. Right. So if you want to be priority, you make yourself high. You can make your guests medium priority and you could make like an audience mic or, I don't know, a sound effects channel or some other things be low. So it will keep things from stepping on each other and it'll keep your mix cleaner. And that is a function that the RODECaster Pro Two does not have, is the auto mix. So it doesn't mean they couldn't add it later because it is firmware.,Speaker A: They will now.,Speaker C: Absolutely.,Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I think what's going to be really interesting is watching what Rode adds to the RODECaster Pro Two's firmware to be on more of a parody with what the Mackie is doing, it's inevitable. Right. So it's going to be a very interesting thing to watch happen. But it was cool to talk to the real guy, the guy who worked on the design and maybe one day we'll get him on the show. He said I talked to him after, he said he would love to come on another interview and get more into the geeky nuts and bolts of the design.,Speaker C: Yeah, interesting.,Speaker A: Absolutely.,Speaker C: Because I'm kind of curious as to where they've come at this from, whether they came at it like road have where they've just gone, okay, straight into podcasting or has Mackie come going, okay, we can tap into podcasting, but we're also looking know the normal kind of audio studio kind of thing as yeah, yeah.,Speaker B: Well, Mackie, clearly they want to be in podcasting without abandoning. So yeah, it definitely has a feeling of you could pull this out and do a live show with it and you'd have mostly what you need to do that. It doesn't have nearly the number of outputs like a live mixer does. It doesn't have all the auctions.,Speaker A: So can I use those faders to control my door?,Speaker B: I don't know. I didn't get into that level. I literally had an eight minute presentation.,Speaker A: Yeah, right.,Speaker B: So I didn't have the time to dig deep into it. There was so much to see at the show for me that I would have sat there and played with it for an hour. I just had too much networking to do. I didn't want to squander that time, but I would have gotten more into it. But yeah, I hope to eventually get my hands on one and put it into its paces. And if I had had one for the studio I did most recently, I probably would have used it because the auto mix I think is a useful tool. Then again, I think automix is extremely important for live streaming, live mix, but not at all important for a podcast because in a podcast you want to capture everything flat and raw and then do all of that in post.,Speaker A: Unless you're not going to mix it in post. Then that auto mix thing would actually be completely would be very powerful, wouldn't it? If you were the type of person who just wanted to do a two track edit and didn't want to worry about having to balance a mix and all that sort of stuff.,Speaker B: That would be that's what we do. Yeah. On VOBs, that's what we do. We do a live to drive so it mixes baked and if I blow the mix, then it's know it sucks. In fact, we did an appearance, I did VOBs from the trade show Floor. So I was on the panel when we had on Elaine Clark and then we interviewed Ryan from Road on the show. And in post, Dan had kind of a mess on his hands because the noise floor was so high. It was so annoying for me that I was riding the Gain. I was riding the level going to Dan. So what he hears in the mix is kind of a mess because the room tone is changing constantly as I'm turning the mics up and down. Right. So he very cleverly took some room tone and laid that over the entire mix okay. To clean it up because he said it was really distracting. He said, did you use a gate? I said, no, that's called human gate. Just riding my Gain because it got ungodly noisy in that space. And it was one of the most reverberant, horribly echoey convention experiences I've ever had. It was absolutely terrible.,Speaker C: I always find that really quite bizarre that you're actually selling basically audio stuff in this case and you're in an environment that just doesn't showcase it very well at all.,Speaker A: What are you going to do?,Speaker B: It just shows how much of a lack of understanding of what is needed for a good experience by the attendants or the customers from the owners of that building. And the owners of that building are Marriott, you may have heard of them.,Speaker C: Yeah.,Speaker A: Can I take you back a step? You said if you had have known about this you would have put this in a build that you did recently with the auto mix thing. Would you use that if you were setting this up for someone in a home studio? Would you use that to manage their feed from the client studio to sort of keep a decent mix in their headphones, to keep them down lower if that's what they wanted or up higher.,Speaker B: Or whatever you could yeah. It never would have occurred me to use it in that way. But you certainly could set up a monitor mix for your headphones using the auto mix so that you don't get blown out of your cans. Your voice is kind of over top of whatever's coming back at you.,: A lot of singers like to sing into a compressor, and sometimes you don't necessarily track it with that, you just have it there. It's kind of like singing into some reverb. It's the same thing as that guy that likes to sit there with the volume knob, David. He could just buy a compressor and maybe not get culpal tunnel syndrome.,Speaker B: One of these days. I'll set that up for him. He still has that Affliction muscle memory thing going.,Speaker A: Yeah.,Speaker B: But yeah, it's definitely a matter of changing the way you hear everything in the headphones and controlling the experience for the performer. And that would be a clever way to do it, actually. Yeah.,: Mackie's late to the game, but coming out with something pretty good.,Speaker B: Yeah. Waited and watched what Road did and then just like, all start. Let's start from scratch. Seeing the success of this thing and go all the way through the end and see what we build. And that's what they did. It's like an $800 retail unit, so it's a little bit more expensive. It's sort of like the RODECaster pro. Two baquito mach plus.,Speaker A: Let's see what the first thing Robert notices is when he looks at the picture. Let's see, what the first thing jumping.,Speaker C: Online to have a look at it.,Speaker A: See if he picks up one. I pick what's it called? The DLC creator. Tell me what the first thing is that pops in your head when you just look at it. There's something on there that made me go, Is that a blah?,Speaker C: And I'm only saying Z because I know it's American.,: It's the Deals.,Speaker A: Deals creator.,: So basically, Robo thought, is this an eight fader unit for my pro tool system with a touchscreen?,Speaker A: No, there's something on there that's not on the RODECaster.,: A master fader.,Speaker A: There you go. First cap off the rank.,: Just like me.,Speaker A: Rip off the master fader.,: But they did pretty much rip them off. Pretty much.,Speaker A: That's the second part of the conversation.,: Buttons on the bottom, buttons on the top, side by side. Colorful buttons on the right. OOH, you get two more faders. You get a master fader, you get some knobs that you don't have. Are those knobs digital encoder knobs.,Speaker B: Right. So, like, we're on the roadcaster. The knobs have really a one trick.,: And how much is a RODECaster, too?,Speaker B: Like 699. And here, I can buy this one for 679-0679.,: They're discounted it's retail 800.,Speaker B: So it's a very tough customer in terms of competition. It's physically bigger. It's not going to fit on. Everybody's workstation, that's for sure. But that touch screen is extremely compelling. It's the size of like an iPad mini.,Speaker A: Wow.,Speaker B: Very large, easy to use, and very good looking screen. The knobs on the side of the screen that are assignable make the knobs infinitely more flexible.,Speaker C: Out of interest, what preamps are they using there? Is it their onyx? Are they onyx?,: They're vlzs for the DLZ?,Speaker B: Yo, yo, yo. That's a darn good question. I don't recall him saying that they are onyx. I don't know, and I don't think that's probably even possible.,: Maybe they're the exerges or what the hell does Behringer call their onyxes? We took a few letters and rearranged them preamps.,Speaker B: I think it's kind of Mackie's turn to rip off or knock off another brand after being knocked off by Barranger for the last ten years.,Speaker A: Yeah, it says four onyx 80 microphone preamps. Yeah. Onyx 80s onyx eighty s. Okay.,: Does that mean 80 decibel? You'll use disabilities?,Speaker B: Close to it. I think, yeah, I think he said it's around 74, 75 DB of gain. Wow.,: For all your SM, seven b's.,Speaker B: It's another product out there in the midst and time will tell to see how it holds.,: Do you get the backpack with it? Does it come with the slick carrying case?,Speaker B: You doubt it?,: It looks like it does. I mean, maybe you have to pay extra for that, but it looks like it's got a nice little bag to it.,Speaker B: Yeah, it'd be a nice idea if it did. I'm sure they'll sell it to you, but yeah, I think that really stood out from the interview from Matthew was that he came from years in customer service. And I think when you have a product that was designed from somebody that comes from customer service, they understand what all the questions are going to be because they know the client, they know the user differently than somebody that just designs a product to meet a price point and have a certain fill a skew. We really got to make an X, right?,: I must ask, what is the ethernet for?,Speaker B: It is a future updatable platform feature device. I was told inside scoop of what it will do. I don't think I can tell you, but right now it's just firmware updates like the RODECaster Pro two. It's the ethernet only for software.,: Might it do anything that I'm thinking about?,Speaker B: If you can think of three letters that indicate sending information into another space or time, then yes. That's what you're thinking of? Yes. Anyway, yeah, it's a future I think they're going to release by the time you guys hear this. Maybe they've already released a firmware update for the ethernet port, but I know it's coming. And it will be infinitely more like integratable into a current three letters.,: Beginning with an A?,Speaker B: No, but it'll integrate into an AV media production suite or facility. More slickly seamlessly.,Speaker C: I'm still trying to think what the three letters are.,Speaker A: Well, I don't think we can say that, can we?,: Three?,Speaker C: Yeah, I'm wondering what they are.,Speaker B: Three letters.,Speaker C: Three letters.,Speaker B: Three letters.,Speaker C: This is like a cryptic quizzing on the weekend.,Speaker B: I know letters.,: I'm going to have to think about that one.,Speaker B: I'll tell you offline.,Speaker C: All right, let's finish this show because it's killing me already. Let's go. All right, we're out. See it. What are the three letters?,: Yeah, just end the show so we can find out and that's our out.,Speaker B: That's a good one.,Speaker C: I've had enough of this show. I just want to know what the three letters are.,: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,Speaker C: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribute and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Robo Got your own audio issues? Just askrobo.com tech support from George, the tech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our website theproudiosuite.com.         

Perhaps it's a quirk in your 416 that sits perfectly with your voice. Is it an anomaly in your room that adds that special something to your voice, or is it where you position the mic that just has you humming?  A signature sound isn't essential, but most engineers have one (achieved through compression and eq admittedly). There's no reason your home studio can't have one too. "As long as it sounds good, it is good" as the saying goes... A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson #rode #rodemicrophones    Summary In this episode of Pro Audio Suite, industry professionals George Wittam, Robert Marshall, Andrew Peters, and Darren Robbo Robertson, discuss crucial aspects of audio engineering. The show offers valuable insights into microphone usage, including a unique story about an unusual microphone that became a signature sound for its user despite initial concerns over its broken state. The hosts stress the personal nature of microphone choice while exploring factors that affect sound quality, from room attributes to mic placement. They specifically mention the unique attributes of the U 87 cardioid and 818 microphones. They also promote a deal on Tribooth using the code PAP 200 and recommend their audio services. Geological technical support and ongoing discussions are available through a dedicated Facebook group. For more information about Pro Audio Suite's hosts and their services, listeners can visit theproaudiosuite.com. #ProAudioTips #UniqueMicrophoneSounds #TechTalkWithProAudioSuite    Timestamps [00:00:00] Intro: Meet the Pro Audio Suite Team [00:00:30] Special Offer: Discounted Tribooth & Personalized Demo  [00:01:11] Segment: George Talks About Unique Mic Problems  [00:02:50] Tips: Importance of Room & Mic Placement [00:09:48] Mic Review: The Magic of U 87 Cardioid   [00:14:50] Comparison: Eight One Eight vs Neumann TLM 170 R [00:19:22] Closing: Thanks and Invitation to Join our Community    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready?,Speaker B: Be history.,Speaker C: Get started.,: Welcome.,Speaker C: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite.,: These guys are professional and motivated with tech. To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo Austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George the tech. Wittam and robbo and AP's. International demo. To find out more about us, check thepro audiosuite.com.,Speaker C: Learn up. Learner. Here we go.,Speaker A: Here you go. Ready?,: Welcome to another Pro audio suite. We're your guests, Robo, Andrew and George. And I'm Robert. And you can get a good deal on a tribooth with PAP 200. And you should have Andrew and Robbo do your demo, by the way, and let's get on with it.,: Okay. It's actually trip 200, but yeah, nice work there, Robert. You missed your calling there.,Speaker B: I tell you what, jesus, you were.,: Looking so good there for a minute and you just fell at the bloody.,Speaker B: I think your job's safe, AP.,: Yeah, you call this a job? Really high binded. Now, George, you were telling us about an experience, once again at one voice with somebody who had a microphone that people were complaining about being broken, but it's kind of become his sound. What was the story?,Speaker A: Yeah, he told me that and again, I haven't heard this mic yet, so I would like to hear it at some point. I told him, hey, give me the audio and I should give him credit. I think maybe I shouldn't. Yeah, no, I should give him credit. It was Chad Fisher and he's worked with me in the past. I think he just finished building a studio, too, that looked pretty impressive. But he said that he's got a 416 or 41 six. That is sounding odd. According to folks that he has sent the audio to that know the mic. He has said that they were concerned that maybe something is up with that mic. And I said, did you buy it used? Was it damaged? Was it counterfeit? All those things could be true. He said, no, I bought it from one of the big companies. The big companies. And I said fascinating. Well, you could certainly reach out to them and ask them to give you another one and exchange it. Or you could look at this as a unique experience and realize that this is the mic that you're booking on and that people like the sound and you may not want to muck with it. So I said, literally, just engrave your initials in that thing. And this is your mic. It's your unique sound. And if you want to get another one because you want to have a proper one or whatever, a regular one, go for it. But this is a unique mic for you. Don't mess with it. Does anybody else have a mic with a quirk or character that they choose to keep using that you know?,: Yeah, well, I was going to say I won't mention the name because I don't want us to get sued or anything. But we've talked about this off air quite a lot. But a very famous American record producer has an AKG C Twelve an original C Twelve which was sent to AKG for testing when they were building the capsule which has now become the Austrian Audio Capsule, the CKR Twelve. Anyway, this famous record producer's C Twelve, which he absolutely loved, he loved used it on everything, was actually broken, but he had no idea that it was broken. He just loved the sound of this broken microphone.,Speaker B: That's the beauty of audio, though, isn't it, is that beauty is in the ear of the beholder. And if he loved the sound that that mic made, it doesn't make him any less or anything else. Just a sound he liked. And that was his sound. So good on him.,: I reckon if it sounds good, it is good, right?,: It is, exactly. Because nothing sounds the same and it's funny. People go, oh well, I've got a U 67 and blah, blah, blah. It's like does it sound like any other U 67? Probably not. I doubt it very much.,Speaker B: I don't know whether George has any experience with this, but I've had sessions with people who've said, pick your amazing multi thousand dollar mic, it could be any of them. They go, I've got a such and such, and you hear them in the room that they're in or where they've got it placed or whatever, and it sounds like shit. Well, I'd rather, to be quite honest have you got a four one six.,: That we can just thing is the room yeah, exactly. That's classic.,: Yeah, the room is key, but also it's like what complements your voice?,Speaker B: What defines your sound.,: And if you're.,: Working it's true, a mic is a very personal choice.,Speaker A: The room is key, but the mic placement is key. And it depends a lot on the kind of mic. I do find that the shotgun mic, 40 116 especially, is tricky to get the placement really awesome and the mic will change its sound quite a lot based on placement. Whereas a large diaphragm condenser cardioid mic will not change nearly as drastically based on the placement. It will certainly increase proximity effect if you get too close, but you can move quite a bit, side to side, up and down without a huge change.,: In the sound, without falling in different places of the pickup pattern. Absolutely. I mean, that's one of the things about a 41 six is you have to stay consistently in front of it because it drops I mean, that's the whole point is it drops off significantly as you get to the side. But the problem is that that's not linear, it's colored, it's different when you get it doesn't drop off evenly.,Speaker A: Yeah. And it has this weird pickup nodes on the sides of the mic. If you look at the pickup pattern.,: Or in the back, if you look.,Speaker A: At the pickup pattern, polar pattern, I should say diagram, you'll see it looks almost like a sword because it's long in the top, short has a tail on the bottom and these little things that stick out on the side. So it's definitely an OD pickup pattern.,: Out of interest. So if you're setting up a 41 six, if you imagine the talent standing in front of the microphone, where do you actually place the mic and what area of the person do you point the mic at?,: The nose, just above the plosive line.,Speaker A: I mean, the tip of the mic is right above the plosive line, but where is it aiming?,: Yeah, at the mouth, basically. But just keep the diaphragm away from the gush of air from the plosives.,: Because I've been to so many different studios where the 41 six is pretty well everywhere anyway in this business and there is no consistency with the way the engineers set up the mic.,Speaker B: Well, see, every engineer's got his own sound, too. Every engineer's got his own preference for where the MIC's aiming and all that sort of stuff.,: It kind of depends on where you are. If you're in a horrible sounding booth, then just get into it and try to nullify the booth compared to the ratio of your voice. And then you can just EQ out the proximity effect because the 40 116, being a shotgun, has quite a big proximity effect to it.,Speaker A: It's still a different it's still not quite the big proximity effect, though you're going to get from a large diaphragm cardioid because you can get so much closer to the capsule.,: Well, because the capsule is way up the microphone in the 416 yeah.,Speaker A: It's not near the tip. It's up halfway up the tube of the mic.,: Right. If you were able to virtually get your mouth there, then the proximity effect would probably be insane.,Speaker A: Oh, for sure. Well, if you use a Harvard cardioid or cardioid version of that mic, which would be the I guess they didn't make one, but the newer series, the MKH no, the is it called the MKH 80 series 80208 030-804-0805.,: It's probably like MKH 20. Maybe one of those might be similar to the yeah.,Speaker A: Or Neumann 184 or any one of those pencil mics. The proximity effect is massive, but you just have to be really careful not to pop the mic because the capsule is right there, really easy to pop.,: There is no filter. There's nothing there at all.,: Sounds a bit like you and I, Robert. No filter.,: Tourette's. Tourette's, Mike.,: Yeah, but it's funny, the 41 six, I've had them directly in front of me pointing, as you said, above the sort of forehead kind of thing, pointing to the mouth. I've had them pointing to the chest, I've had them coming in from the side, all sorts of different pointing to the chest.,: Chest, yeah.,Speaker B: Wow.,: I've seen people who do the side thing and the sort of nose thing. If you want to thin it out, you just kind of get it away from the mouth and a little bit more on the head and they'll get a little bit brighter for you. But I've not seen the chest.,: Yeah, that was years ago. I remember someone pointing and they had it set up in front of me and it was like basically probably about almost a foot away from my head and pointing down past my face.,: Excuse me, pointing at your chest?,: Yeah, my laundry is done. Yeah, pointing at my chest must have been so woofy. It was certainly bassy, that's for sure.,: I mean, that's the problem that you have when you have, like, a lavalier mic that's too far under the chin and you lose all the top, all the high end. You have to kind of clip a lavalier mic a little bit lower down, so you get some because if not, the chin creates an acoustic shadow of the s's. And the other detail.,Speaker A: I was in a booth today, one of my clients whose studio designed, and he has a 41 six and a U 87. And he says sometimes I'll go to the U 87 because I just kind of get mic fatigue working on a 41 six all the time because of its tiny sweet spot and all this stuff. And I said, hey, by the way, he's like, but sometimes I use that mic and I hear a little bit too much reflection off the console below and display next to the mic, et cetera, et cetera. And I said, well, do you know about the secret microphone that's inside of U 87? He's like and I said, Flick the little switch on the front to figure eight. And he tried it and he was.,: Like, Whoa, drop everything from the holy cow, that's crazy.,Speaker A: I said, now stand on the side and talk into it. And it was like he was blown away. I said, yeah, this is an entirely different mic and a different sound from the U 87 cardioid or the 41 six. Really, it's a third mic you already had, you just didn't know and try it out and experiment.,: It's a much softer sound with a bigger proximity.,Speaker A: It's more ribbon like, dare I say.,: I mean, the ribbon mics really cancel out the side because the problem with what do you call it, the figure eight on the U 87 is it's two capsules and they are a little bit apart, right? So they don't cancel out at all frequencies. But you get a ribbon mic, that thing is infinitely thin and it really does just vanish to the side.,Speaker A: But I'll tell you, you don't need it to fully vanish to be an advantage. If you have anything reflective below or to the side, it will pretty well kill that. It's great. It just focuses the sound. I was like, Check this out. And he was like, Whoa, that's really cool.,: You've seen those diagrams where they go through the polar patterns and you can see them continuous because people think of polar patterns as being discreet. But really polar patterns are a continuum from omni to cardioid. And then it goes to figure eight. And in there like your hypercardioid is kind of between a figure eight and a cardioid, for example, I think. And that's why the hypercardioid's got the node in the back. And so it's not like a good tube mic. If you've played with a good tube mic, the polar pattern is a continuous knob.,Speaker A: That's right, yeah.,: And some of the better pencil mics are offered in what they call the wide cardioid.,Speaker A: Oh, yeah.,: And those are very natural sounding. They kind of have the naturalness of more close to the naturalness of an omni with still some focus, some proximity effect. A little bit. Yeah. You can't avoid it, but yeah, it's like polar patterns are not one, two, three, there's an infinite number between the.,: Omni and but the thing I actually talk about polar patterns and stuff like that. If you have the OC eight, one eight and you get the dongle that patches into the back, even better. Yeah.,: You can play with the polar patterns on a frequency basis with that polar pattern.,: Well, you're talking about pretty cool. The other part when you've used the two XLRs but this is if you.,: Use the two capsules.,: Yeah, but if you use the dongle, the bluetooth dongle and use the app on your phone, it's not just like clicking from one pattern to another, you're just sliding from one pattern to another.,: Right.,: So you can do a mix of so I'm talking about yeah, which is.,: What I'm talking about. But even better, you can record both of them and then in your daw after the fact, you can play with the polar pattern after you record yeah.,: But that's if you're using the two USBs not USBs, yes, the two XLRs.,: And then you have to use the plugin afterwards.,: But the plugin different plugin. If you get the bluetooth dongle that goes in the back of the mic, then you get a plugin that goes on your phone and it just gives you the polar pattern.,: That's what it is.,: The idea is that if the MIC's up on a boom pole, instead of bringing the thing backwards and forwards, you can do it from your phone.,: So the advantage of that multi frequency polar pattern designer is you could have a booth with a problematic low end, and especially in a corner. Maybe it's the only corner that you can put the mic where you have enough space, but you can treat the low frequency with, say, a figure eight. Get the mic so it rejects the weird bounce back to the side. And then in the upper frequencies, you can open them up to a cardioid or a wide cardioid where it sounds more natural, gives you a little bit more space to move about without having such a critical sweet spot on the microphone. And you can kind of have the benefits of a figure eight where you need it, have the benefits of a cardioid and a wide cardioid where you need them, and really play around with the polar pattern to fit your exact need, instead of just having one polar pattern across the whole spectrum. And then you have to deal with the nonlinearities where you don't want them to be.,: It'd be good if you could actually use that thing post or pre print, so you could actually set and forget if you got a trouble. Oh, you can do it. I've never tried it.,: Well, you can just record both capsules and then you can put the plugin on there and design it away. So if you're always recording both, in fact, you could even do it where you could automate the plugin. So on certain words, if you go really low, you could even change the where were we parameters if you were really going crazy. But yeah, you can definitely put that plugin on a post process. But to do that and make use of it, you have to record both capsules separately.,: Correct.,: You have to use the two XLRs. But that's the whole point of that Mike, is that it is literally that flexible.,: Yeah. I still like the app, though, that I find really handy. Instead of clicking from one pattern to another, you can actually just slide across an infinite amount of mixtures of everything.,: Like the old classic tube mics.,: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.,: You say it's a great mic when you look at the price point.,Speaker B: Well, absolutely. And also we're talking about your distinctive sound. That polar pattern thing sort of gives you the chance to make as well, doesn't it?,Speaker A: Really?,: That's right, indeed.,Speaker A: If you use the Polar designer Bluetooth tool, then it's locked into that fifth setting. It has a magic fifth setting that becomes your pattern.,: You can set it yeah, it's in.,Speaker A: The firmware, which is great.,: Does it do it by the frequencies, too, or is it just by the so you have to use the plugin to get the frequency per frequency. That'd be amazing if you could bake it in there. And then you just have your own microphone, your sound, but still like what I was going to say, the price point of the eight one eight. And you look at it compared to like a U 87.,Speaker A: Actually, a better mic to compare it to is actually the Neumann TLM 170 R. And I mentioned that one because that one's come up a little bit more often. One of my clients bought one a while ago and she hasn't used it yet. And she said, I bought it because Disney uses it and she does a lot of Disney. So I said I was wondering why. So I looked at the frequency response of the 170 R and I saw it was definitely a lot more of a flat response. It's much flatter. And so they want that really just uncolored sound. But that's a multi pattern with more choices. The U 87 just has the classic figure eight omni and card. This one's got more inter, it's got hyper cardioid and a few other things. And it's not a bargain mic.,: 123456 no use. That thing is $2,000. It's more money used than the eight one eight.,Speaker A: It's still quite spendy on the Neumann in the Neumann lineup. And the only thing that competes from Neumann on price would be the 107, I think is what it's called TLM 107.,: But that's a single pattern.,Speaker A: I think that's the multi pattern one. They have a TLM series or is it a 104?,: The 107 is around at least used. It's around 1300 or $1,200.,Speaker A: That's a multi pattern, though, right? I don't see yeah, that's the multi pattern. It's got a funky little digital control joystick on it. It's really OD on the back of the mic.,: Is that how it does its it's.,Speaker A: Actually a multifunction joystick and that controls the pad high pass and polar pattern by flicking the stick around. And I'd say in terms of quality, it's somewhere in the 103 to 100 and it actually might be more like the 102 in terms of what capsule it uses and stuff. So, yeah, that's the only thing that's in any way similar to the 12345 pattern.,: It's about the same price point as an eight one eight, but a little more.,Speaker A: It's a bit more.,: Yeah, it's $200 more or so.,: Yeah.,Speaker A: So bang for the buck. That eight one eight is still it's outstanding. Outstanding.,: Yeah. It really is a killer mic.,Speaker B: I'm just looking at the Ma one. I don't know if you guys have ever seen that. It looks like a butt plug.,: Have you been using those again?,: Yeah, sorry. We can stop him talking out of his eyes.,: Sorry.,Speaker B: It was the first thing that came into my mind.,: There's the out.,: Yeah.,Speaker C: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Robo Got your own audio issues? Just ask robo.com with tech support from.,Speaker C: George, the tech Wittam.,: Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say G'day. Drop us a note at our website, theproudiosuite.com.     

Waves have just announced some big changes to its licencing structure. What does it mean for you and how does it compare to other software that might be in your studio? https://www.waves.com/support/using-waves-plugins-on-multiple-computers PLUS, Robbo reviews the SSL bundle. Try it free for a month and see for yourself... https://www.solidstatelogic.com/products/ssl-complete-bundle-subscription A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson #rode #rodemicrophones        Summary In this episode of the Pro Audio Suite, hosts George Wittam, Robert Marshall, Darren Robbo Robertson, and Andrew Peters discuss the latest events and updates in professional audio technology. A significant highlight of the episode is Source Elements' win at the One Voice Service Provider award for the second time. This is followed by discussions on software licensing structures, especially about plugins by Waves and Twisted Wave. George Wittam offers insights into ethical business strategies and effective marketing. Further, Robbo shares his intriguing experience with the SSL bundle and emphasizes its unique features. Finally, the episode reflects on the importance of imperfections in audio production for an authentic sound output. The Pro Audio Suite also acknowledges its sponsors, Tri-Booth and Austrian audio, and tech support from George Wittam. Enjoy and engage in further discussions on their Facebook group. Don't forget to subscribe! #ProAudioSuite #TechPodcast #OneVoiceAward    Timestamps [00:00:00]  Intro: Meet the Talent & Special Offers                    [00:01:01]  One Voice Service Provider Award: Personal Insight                    [00:03:04]  Waves Announcement: New Subscription System [00:05:25]  Twisted Wave's Policy: More Freedom for Users [00:11:02]  Excellent Marketing?: A Case Study on George  [00:13:22]  Robbo's Experience: Navigating the SSL Bundle [00:20:11]  SSL Plugins' Uniqueness: The Beauty of Imperfection  [00:22:29]  Ends Credits: Thanks & Reminders    Transcript Speaker A: Y'all ready be history.,Speaker B: Get started., Speaker C: Welcome., Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio Suite.,: These guys are professional and motivated. To the Vo stars George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Tri-Booth Austrian audio making passion heard. Source elements. George, the tech. Wittam and Robbo and AP's International demo. To find out more about us, check the pro audiosuite.com. Speaker B: Line Up Ladies. Here we go., Speaker C: And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite. Don't forget, if you do want to buy a Triboof, use the code trip a P 200 to get $200 off your Triboof. Also Rombo and AP's international demos. We are offering a 30% discount. Just go to thepro audiosuite.com, and have a look at the link, which is up in the top, which says Robo and AP's International Demos. Click on that and drop us a line if you're interested. Also, while we're recording, you, George, are in Dallas at One Voice, and somebody won an award that you saw. Who would that have been?,: Well, not only did I see I was another candidate for the award. Another nominee., Speaker A: Oh, were you really? We're surrounded by brilliance.,: I'm sorry, man., Speaker C: And the nominations are there's two One.,: Voice nominees right here in the room. One of them won. Yeah. So there was a category called they did it Last Year as well, called Service Provider. And they make it very clear it's voted on by the public. And nominations are, I think, nominated also by the public, or at least the judges. So, yeah, I got nominated and my friend Uncle Roy did, and a whole bunch of other people that I know were nominated and Source Elements. So last year Source Elements took it, and this year they did, too, because they do good service.,Speaker C: There you go.,: They do good service and they do it all around the world.,: Thank you.,: Which is a lot of people.,Speaker C: Indeed. Yes, indeed. Indeed. Well, congratulations, Robert.,: In a way, I'd like to fuse the discomfort of me or Uncle Roy winning it's because we're buddies.,: You guys would have to sit at the same table.,: It's awkward. We're buddies and we do the same business. It just feels weird. It just feels weird. So anyway, congrats Source Elements, and maybe we'll see you next year.,Speaker B: Cool.,: Well, awesome.,Speaker C: I think the key actually, George the key is just don't turn up and you'll win an award.,: Yeah, well, it didn't work last year.,: Let me see. Do I have it here?,: The best speech, actually, was a woman who said, I thank myself.,Speaker A: Oh, really?,: Because it was a self submitted it was a self book on the gig. It was not through an agent. So she said, I thank myself.,Speaker A: There you go.,Speaker C: Well, that was a good nice.,Speaker B: Absolutely.,Speaker A: Yeah.,Speaker C: Now, we should be thanking Waves, actually, because Waves have just announced that you can use their plugins if you pay your subscription, I guess it is, on.,: Two computers without having to beg them for it because you could do it before by begging them and they would let you use it on two computers. But now it's official.,: Yeah, they would always let you do it on two computers if you maintained your whoop. Actually, that was one of the benefits of maintaining the whoop. But it is interesting. In the email, it very explicitly says this is for the same operator.,Speaker C: Here comes your takeaway.,: They're using the same exact business model as Adobe does, where the activation is good on two machines. If you log into a third machine on Adobe, it will tell you you're on a third machine and you must disable another machine and or it disables all of them and then you just start reactivating again. I can't remember which one it is.,Speaker A: But it tells you. Yeah, it tells me anyway.,: Yeah.,Speaker C: Which is really handy because as I've said many times before, I don't know anybody that actually works on one computer. We all have at least two devices that we work on. So it makes perfect sense to be able to do that. And it's funny because I don't know whether Twisted Wave you can use at one license on two computers. I'm pretty sure. Steinberg you can't.,: So, Twisted Wave, before the new subscription plan, it was unlimited. And I know that because I've used it on unlimited computers, technically. I mean, every computer I've ever owned has had a license.,: Just drop your license.,: I don't remember or recall reading any stipulation on the site about numbers of computers per user. So they may still be holding on to that same policy. I don't know. I would have to look that up.,Speaker C: Yeah, because it is very handy.,: I mean, it's interesting because it is like a potential leak of licenses for them. But at the same time, to police it, you have to make that into the licensing structure. Especially for Twisted Wave. They are doing their own. We're basically licensing through Ilock so we don't have to build it and we just live within the structure that they provide.,Speaker C: Which leads me to the next bit, because when you jumped online, George, we were having quite a deep discussion about the pros and cons of the eye lock.,: I was literally saying I was looking forward to the day where I could open my house, start my car, like you name it, with my eye lock.,: Well, once you're in an ecosystem, you want everything to be in that ecosystem.,: Whatever that yeah, my keychain would be so simplified.,Speaker C: It would be just one it would.,: Be nice if it was also a pass key as well. So it had the password manager for all of your stuff.,Speaker A: That would be nice.,: Yeah, it's really interesting. If I lock was supposed to get into that and then you could have a hardware dongle for your pass parents. My parents would actually relate to that. That's funny.,: Yeah. It's so much easier than saying, okay, use this authenticator app on your phone that you installed just to use this one thing and open that app up and then authenticate off of that. It's a lot for the user.,: The two factor authentication sometimes is annoying, and I'm trying to get all my two factor over to Google Off, but I have some that's through my text, some that's through the email, some that's through Google Off.,: I mean, it's difficult for us. I mean, imagine what it's like for know the know the regular user. Or Andrew.,: Or Andrew.,: It's very challenging. Well, I just checked on Twisted Wave FAQ. Can I install Twisted Wave on more than one Mac? Yes. According to Twistwave's license, you're allowed to install Twist Wave Mac on as many computers as you want, as long as you are the main user. It says the main user of the license. So that would mean to me that you could have an assistant or an editor or an engineer working with you sharing that license. That's what I interpret that as to say.,Speaker A: But anyway, okay, so Voodoo Sound bought Twisted Wave, and Mrs. Voodoo Sound was using Twisted Wave upstairs in the voice booth for her own voiceover company. Even though you could technically say that Voodoo Sound is at this premises, is that this is where it gets interesting, doesn't it? And you can get yourself in trouble.,: It's two simultaneous uses for it's, like being, very strictly speaking, even though it's one household, it is two uses on two jobs. And I think the intention is that you as a person cannot be duplicated, and so you should be using your license once, regardless of where you are. Here's the way Waves phrase it. Starting November 1, we will add a second license to all active creative Access subscriptions, allowing subscribers to use their plugins on separate computers without having to move licenses between devices. The second license is for use by the owner of the main product license only.,: Yeah, I think that's what Thomas's and.,: They do state it. And it's an honor system is what it is.,: He's just not getting as quite as a fine tooth. He didn't have an attorney rewrite it for him. It's just him trying and I'll speak for Thomas when I say this, so you have to verify with him is really he's going again by a bit of an honor system, which he's known for that anyway, like for many, many years. He didn't enforce really anything with the license.,: Did he do anything else or did he only do Twisted Wave?,: I only know him as doing Twisted Wave, period. And then he branched out to the iOS version and then the online version, and then the Windows version.,: His whole living. He feeds all twelve of his kids through Twisted Wave?,Speaker A: Yes.,: Well, he's got four platforms he's supporting now. So it's a lot to support and keep running and debugging.,: I mean, it's impressive because he had a pretty permissive licensing thing and he's a one man show. It's amazing actually, assuming he does not have some other second gig and that this isn't just like a side hustle, it's actually impressive.,: My understanding is he doesn't have a side hustle.,Speaker C: No, it's definitely not taking up enough.,: Time that he just can't do other things. Maybe he got the Mac version to a point where it was running so well that he thought, well, it's time, let's get the Windows version built. So the Windows version is fully released and it supports stacks just like the Mac version. You got to bring BYO plugins because there's not a single free plugin on a Windows machine. So you start right out of the gate by having to get plugins. Right? That's a big difference right there. But I have a few plugins of my own that I prefer to use that are totally free for those who really need to set it all up. And one of them is because of Robo himself, said have you ever used Melda Productions plugins? And I was like, Nope. And I have installed and used them and for the free bundle that they have is pretty darn feature rich.,Speaker A: There's some kick ass stuff in there, isn't there?,: Pretty darn good. Yeah, exactly. So I have used the melba. EQ. I haven't used much else from them, but it did a fine job for some folks. But I've really been enjoying being able to support that cross platform at last without having to run an actual Windows PC to make a stack. As long as I build that stack using VST plugins on my Mac, it will load those plugins and everything on the PC, which is nice.,Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool.,: Yeah.,Speaker C: Back to Thomas though. If you meet the guy, which I'm sure one day he will jump on a silver bird and head to North America at some point depending how much money he makes out of Twisted Wave. But you can tell like you meet the guy, you know, when you meet someone, you know they're just a really honest character and incredibly intelligent, obviously. And that's thomas. That's the guy.,: If he starts showing up at conferences and sponsoring, we'll know.,Speaker C: Exactly.,: As far as I can tell, he has spent absolutely $0 on marketing.,Speaker A: But it's a good product and good products market themselves sometimes, don't they? Let's be honest.,: That's what I'm saying. Can you please tell that to our department of marketing?,: Well, I mean, honestly, I never had a marketing budget until the last year or so. And now that George the tech is a team of people, marketing is becoming much more of a real thing. Like I really need to get the marketing machine running. So when you start hearing George LATEC on different places and different platforms and you start getting tired of hearing that name then it means I'm doing the right thing. So that means my marketing is working.,Speaker C: There was a thing that we used to talk about in radio and when you're at the point of hearing a song, if you work in a radio station that is driving you insane because you're just overloading on that song, you usually find that it's just starting to get some traction with the listener.,: The regular listener. Yeah, the listener in the real world.,: So as soon as we're sick of George, that's when George really hit it. That's when George changes his name to Uncle George.,Speaker C: No.,: Can't be.,Speaker A: Uncle George.,: My dad's Uncle George, Uncle George.,Speaker C: But the whole uncle thing. Yeah. All I can think of when you say uncle anyone is some old bloke in a pair of shorts that are too tight with one knacker hanging out the side. That's what it sounds.,: You got to work on that for your Uncle Roy.,: I'm just not letting my daughter call.,Speaker A: Yeah.,Speaker C: Now speaking plugins robbo, you've been mucking around with the SSL bundle?,Speaker A: Yeah, I downloaded it because I'd had the Slate Digital bundle and I sort of got to the point where there was only a couple of things that I really sort of liked and continued using being a couple of compressors, the gray compressor, fresh air, which is free anyway, and a couple of other things. So I actually let that go. And talking of budgets, I sort of realized, hey, I've got X amount of dollars a month free. What other bundles are out there to sort of rent and have a play with? And so I downloaded the SSL one which I've been playing with for a couple of months now. And can I just say, there's not a dog in there. It's so good. There's so much stuff that's sort of really nice to play with. I mean, compressors and EQS go without saying. There's some other stuff like they've they've done some instrument specific stuff. They've done, like a drum strip and a guitar strip. The vocal strip I kind of like, I guess. I mean, it's not a dog, but I don't really use it a lot. The drum strip I use all the time. The guitar strip, I don't really do a lot with guitars, so I don't have much to do with that. But the other stuff that's really good is they call it the flex verb, which is their reverb and the X delay, which is also really cool. So, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff in there that's really worth playing around with. And I guess when the time comes and I sort of get sick of it, what will I keep? I would definitely keep the reverb. The DSR is very nice. Their limiter, which they call X limit, has been the final plugin on my mastering chain now since I downloaded it because it's particularly sweet is it like a brick wall? Yeah, it's a brick wall.,: Brick wall limiter?,Speaker A: Brick wall limiter, yes. And it's just seamless, though. You get it set up right, you just don't hear it working at all. And it gives everything that sort of nice punch, obviously, that you look for from a limiter I'm really enjoying based.,: On some other model or something from their own.,Speaker A: There's a whole bunch of models of stuff. There's two bus compressors, a couple of channel strips, bus Compressor Six, I think they call it, and the Bus Compressor.,Speaker B: Two.,Speaker A: Channel Strip Two. But look, they've got a 30 day free trial, so you can have your first month on them. So definitely worth downloading and having a play with.,: You have to give them the credit card.,Speaker A: Give them the credit card. So you got to put a date in your diary if you want to cancel it. I think I'll probably have it for another couple of months. Well, until something else pops up, probably, I'll just hang on to it because, as I say, I do set aside some money to play around with new plugins each month, and that's what I've landed on at the moment. So until something else crops up that I want to try, that's where it will stay.,Speaker C: It's funny with the SSL plugins, though, because when I bought the SSL Two, it came with these plugins. I thought it was in perpetuity, but of course it was not. So there was a whole bunch of stuff like a channel strip and a flex verb and vocal strip xCOMP, there was an EQ, XEQ, X phase, et cetera, and X valve comp.,Speaker A: Sounds like you've got the same bundle.,Speaker C: Yeah, but the thing is, I can't use any of them.,: Why not?,Speaker A: You can't physically use them or they won't work on your machine.,Speaker C: I don't think I can use them because I think from memory, it was like it was just a trial.,Speaker A: Yeah, well, you would have got the 30 day free trial of this.,Speaker C: Possibly, yeah. In fact, I just clicked on it, it says all visible licenses expired.,Speaker A: There you go. Yeah.,: I've been also using the Plugin Alliance stuff, and the main reason why I got Plugin Alliance was because having a HDX card and Waves stopped doing HDX plugins, which are the DSP chip on the Pro Tools cards. So the only ones that you could really get the low latency on was Plugin Alliance. And I have to say, they have a lot of really good stuff, especially their channel strip emulations of various consoles. They have like an API and a Neve and an SSL, and like every generation of SSL and every generation of or a few generations of Neves and the Focus, right, and the AMIC 90, 98, they have a pretty broad range of plugins and they're all easily the same similar quality as the Wave stuff. I have to say, some people I think actually think better, but it's really hard to know when, like, oh, this emulation is better than that emulation. And you're sitting there going like, I've never touched the real thing.,Speaker C: Yes, exactly.,: I have no idea. Really? They sound good.,Speaker C: Well, that's true, though, because everyone that's got these buying plugins guarantee that 95%, if not more, have never actually used the real thing.,Speaker A: Oh, sure, yeah, totally.,Speaker C: So it's like you could basically sell them anything.,: You just use the same EQ algorithm in all of them. Yeah, exactly.,Speaker A: But you would have had to work in a lot of rooms for anyone to have done that. Or be a Chris Lord Algie or someone like that who mixes in different rooms. The average schlopp like you and me, who works in a studio for a few years and then moves to a different job. You certainly wouldn't have played with all of them.,Speaker C: And then half the gear that you were probably using, that was actually the original piece of equipment that they were emulating was probably broken anyway or just getting tired.,Speaker A: Well, that was part of the charm, though.,: That's my good friend Jim Reeves, who mixed a lot of stuff I mean, like, free ride and all kinds of stuff back in the day. And he was joking, but I don't think so much. He was basically saying, like, all these kids, they love the sound of analog. They're in love with the sound of a tape deck that hasn't been aligned in three weeks and its heads are worn out. That's what they think of analog, because that's what we were working on in the studios. There were cranking sessions out left and right. The decks were not necessarily aligned every single time. There was a lot of yeah.,: What people miss is the imperfections of analog. Yeah. They don't miss improperly recorded audio. They just miss the imperfections and the distortion. I mean, the thing that makes a neve preamp sound like a neve or whatever is not that's right. It's accurate. It's that it's not accurate.,: You can say the same thing for a 416.,Speaker C: Yeah, sorry.,: 41 six. That's the distortion that makes it that edge.,: It's the color, it's the EQ curve, it's the way it sounds compressed. All those things is what makes the mic work.,Speaker C: It's funny. I'm sure that we've all been down this track before, but when it's your turn to clean the heads on the reel to reel and you realize that no one has cleaned them for so long, you got the cotton bud, and it's like it's black. You go like what?,: You go through, like, ten swabs. You're like, really?,Speaker A: What do you mean, your turn? It was my job every friggin morning.,: That's exactly what Jim was saying.,Speaker C: Yeah, well, I tell you what. In the studios, the on air studios, no one did it.,Speaker A: I can imagine. Too busy smoking a joint to clean the heads.,Speaker C: Yeah, that's right.,: Blowing the smoke right onto the head.,Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.,Speaker C: And through the mic capsules and everything.,Speaker A: Sitting there smoking a siggy while you got the razor blade and the splicing block out. Yeah, totally.,Speaker C: Exactly. But that's true, though. It's the imperfection that everyone tries to emulate. But the thing is, the imperfection was different on every single unit.,: Well, that's where it's funny, because literally one of the patented things, or whatever that plugin alliance has is this thing called I can't remember it, but basically, when you throw down the plugins, if you throw down 20 SSL plugins on your daw, all 20 will be different.,Speaker C: Oh, really?,: Because no channel in real life, no channel on that board is identical.,Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.,: You all knew that there's like some channels that had the red tape on it and some had the they have the same thing where they vary the performance of the plugins themselves so that you get that same chaotic variation across your daw.,Speaker C: Yeah, because I mean, if you're looking at a huge console, there's all sorts of things coming to play. One of the main things probably is heat.,: Well, like, the channel is closer to the power supply on. Correct. Like, I have a four channel mic preamp and the channel closest to the power supply is a little bit noisier than the other two.,Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Well, there you go. Plugins.,Speaker A: Hey, plug in, baby.,: Yeah, plugins.,: Plug me in, baby.,Speaker B: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,: The Pro audio suite with thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Robo Got your own audio issues? Just askrobo.com tech support from George thetech Wittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say g'day. Drop us a note at our website.,Speaker B: The Pro audio suite.com.     

Anne & Gillian continue their discussion on Boss Equipment Necessities, providing even more valuable insights on what essential audio equipment you need in your booth. They discuss the importance of selecting studio headphones that offer both comfort and accuracy. They also delve into the convenience and limitations of USB microphones, as well as providing a comparison of costs and quality of audio interfaces. Additionally, they share tips on where to get tech support and test gear in person. You definitely don't want to miss this conversation...   It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.   Anne: Hey everyone, welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I'm excited to bring back to the show today creative freelancer, audio engineer, musician Gillian Pelkonen for another episode in our BOSS audio series.    Gillian: Hello (laughs).    Anne: Hey, Gillian.    Gillian: How's it going?    Anne: It's going great. So we've had some really intense conversations about our home studios. First of all, talking about where to locate your home studio in your home, where good place is, a little bit about sound absorption. Then we had a really cool, interesting episode, I think, on all the equipment that people don't think about that's required to run our voiceover business. Now we're gonna talk about all the obvious ones that I think people always, they love to talk about these, and --   Gillian: This is the exciting stuff.    Anne: I think the other stuff is exciting. I think actually people don't get excited enough about the other kind of technologies. So --   Gillian: I mean, (laughs), we know you're gonna marry the internet.    Anne: Yes.    Gillian: I have a spiritual connection to unboxing Apple products.    Anne: Yes, there you go.    Gillian: But the air quotes exciting stuff that everyone loves to harp on. Yes.    Anne: I dare say that I have a spiritual connection to my headphones, (laughs) to my headphones, and, and I know that people are always asking me, what are your headphones that you wear? Because I love wearing colorful headphones because it's part of my brand. And I actually have like all different colors of headphones right here with me.    Gillian: Wow.    Anne: I've got a lovely deeper blue here.    Gillian: You guys, if you're not watching, go to YouTube right now and you gotta see this.    Anne: Then we've got the royal blue here, which I love, and then of course I've got black. I actually have an alternate pair of the red ones and okay. So I think, can we talk about headphones (laughs)?    Gilliann: Yeah. I mean, let's start.   Anne: I've already started.    Gillian: So we talked computer, you have your computer, you have your internet connection, you have your isolated space, and it's soundproofed to whatever fits your budget and what you need right now to be isolated.    Anne: And your internet connection and website.    Gillian: Oh yes.    Anne: Right?    Gillian: Yes. Oh, and website. Yes.    Anne: And website.    Gillian: That is definitely important. Headphones. So important because you can't, you can't be playing out loud while you're recording (laughs).    Anne: Now here's the thing, there's reasons why we wear headphones. Okay? So what are the primary reasons you wear headphones, Gillian?    Gillian: Well, just in my everyday life, there's the convenience of being able to listen to whatever I want and to be able to hear that. But for recording, when you're recording voice, if you are playing out loud what you are recording, you will get feedback. And I don't think you will on the scale of a small computer, but there are a few studios that I've worked in, and when I was very new and prone to making mistakes -- obviously continue to make mistakes and learn from them — but when we had big speakers and we were recording in the same room, you definitely get a nice ear cleaning with that high pitch feedback. Because having an open source, you're DAW, armed and ready to record, and that -- it just creates a loop of sound, if you think about it, what's going into the mic, coming outta the speaker, into the mic, outta the speaker, and that just ruins it.    Anne: So well, okay. So there's a big debate in the voiceover world about, do you need headphones while recording? Because there's a lot of people that say you do not. It helps you to sound more natural. Okay? And of course you don't wanna have your speakers on either or your monitors.    Gillian: Oh yeah. That's what I'm thinking of. But this is interesting.    Anne: Yeah. So do you have your headphones on while you're recording? Because a lot of times, it's distracting listening to yourself, what you sound like in your headphones. So for me, okay — some people adopt the whole, I'm not gonna wear my headphones at all because it makes me sound more natural. I'm not listening to what I sound like in my ears. Some people do one ear on, one ear off to help that as well while they're recording. And some people wear them. Now I, years ago, started wearing them because I had a lot of sound outside of my studio. And I needed to be able to put my headphones on to hear if it was going to come through in the recording. And some things like my naked ears couldn't hear like the vibration of the truck that was a mile away coming down the road, and somehow vibrationally it came up through my studio. And the jackhammer that was maybe not right outside my door, but down the road because they were constructing new homes.    So for a long time I got used to wearing my headphones just to make sure I could step in the studio to make sure that I couldn't hear those sounds coming through my microphone. And then I just continued to wear them. Now I've done both, take them off when I'm recording or keep them on. A lot of times, if you think of it this way, (laughs), and this is not a popular opinion, I will have my headphones on while I'm recording because I feel that whatever you hear in your headphones is just you amplified. And if you are an accomplished actor that can act like you, without paying attention to what you sound like in your headphones, you can wear headphones.    And for me it's something that, it's kind of on a day-to-day basis. I'll probably wear my headphones more often than not, just because I've been doing this for a very long time, and all I do every day when I coach is tell people not to listen to what they sound like and to just be themselves. And so I wear my headphones. Plus I do a ton of editing, I do a ton of coaching, and so I need to, and I don't have monitors, number one for the very technical reason is honestly I just don't have space. I don't have space to put a nice pair of monitors on my desk. So I wear my headphones when I edit.    And so headphones to me have to be comfortable. And they have to be studio headphones of course. And that should be a given. Anybody, any BOSSes out there that are just starting in the industry, make sure they're studio headphones, and they're not any other type of headphones that's gonna add more base or more treble or that adds prettiness to it. You just need studio headphones so you can hear the raw output.    Gillian: Yeah, it's definitely an interesting conversation. I think my advice is gonna be the same as always. My advice is just try 'em all and see what works. I personally, when I am singing, I do one ear on, one ear off, mostly for pitch, because how you sound in your head, it's all relative and different. I think that there are some things to be concerned about. Obviously if there is extraneous noise coming on your recording, you wanna be aware of that. But if you're connecting to a client, really if there's an engineer on the session, they should catch that. Like, that's my job when I'm working with talent. Another issue, sometimes I hear the movement of headphones, but I've never really asked talents what they're doing. And maybe it's putting them on and off, but there are a lot of moments functionally during a session when a director is gonna wanna get your attention. And so if you're just rocking without headphones, that's something to just consider.    Anne: Yeah. You'll have to hear them. And you just said something, I don't mean to interrupt, but you just said something that made me think the physical sound of your headphones. Believe it or not, if like -- these headphones, the exterior is, there's some plastic components here. As they get older, believe it or not, if I move my head, because we're very physical as voice actors behind on the mic, as I move my head, they make noise. And that noise comes in through my recording. And I, I remember for the longest time there was this tiny little click, and I was like, I don't have a mouth click. Where's that coming from? It was coming from my headphones. And so for me, I found a way to, I actually had bought a new pair of headphones so that they didn't -- they weren't really squeaking, but they were making plasticy noises. And I know that's not a technical term, but it's a noise where like if I do this (clacking nails on headphones) --   Gillian: Yeah.   Anne: — you can hear that. It wouldn't be that loud, but it would be something similar to that. And so --   Gillian: Interesting.    Anne: Yeah. For those of you guys listening to that, I was simply just squeezing the headphone earpiece with the headpiece together --   Gillian: To get that plasticy --   Anne: To get that plasticy sound.   Gillian: — noise sound. Well, there's another thing that I've noticed with headphones that's important to note -- just this is more function than which headphones to get. But, and it could be 'cause people are taking them off. But a lot of times I'll be working with the talent's audio from a session we just did, and through their recording I can hear everyone else talking. And this doesn't really happen during the recording, but I can hear myself slating things not recorded. So I don't know, if you're taking your headphones off and you're putting them down, you gotta think about, okay, if someone starts talking or if there's other noises, those are gonna get directly into the mic. Or if your headphones are too loud, there's gonna be too much bleed. So just things to think about when we're talking about headphones.    Anne: Two good points. I wanna actually go back on that, right? If you put your headphones down and obviously you're not hearing (laughs) other things, right, other noises can come through them. And also you mentioned bleed. Bleed is important because right now I'm really, really close to my microphone. And depending on the volume that you have your headphones turned up to, and I'm a little older so I might need a little higher volume. And so sometimes you have to be careful that the sound coming through your headphones doesn't bleed back through your mic. And for that reason I have closed headphones. And that's why I recommend closed headphones for most voice actors, if that's the case. If you're gonna be sitting out just doing editing all the time, I don't think they need to be closed backed. If you're just gonna use 'emfor editing.    Gillian: If you're watching us, I have open back headphones. But I just got these recently, these are like the Sennheisers, I think the HD 600s. That's what I thought. And I have these mostly for mixing and I I listen through them 'cause they're really comfortable. But my closed headphones, I also have AudioTechnicas. They were my first headphones, like pro headphones; they're amazing. The pair that I had was under a $100. I've had 'em for years. They're amazing. So whoever is saying that you need really expensive headphones for amazing sound, you don't. There's lower models that are great and then you can upgrade. There's a whole range of AudioTechnicas that get more precise or, or just have different features that you can invest in if you wanna spend more. But there should be no barrier to getting, I think they're $70 or something like that, which --   Anne: Well, I'll have to tell you about mine that have the color. because people are always asking me. And I do have, I do have a studio gear page off of AnneGanguzza.com and as well as the VO BOSS page studio gear that I recommend. And by the way, I don't put anything on this page that I don't use or have not owned. And I will say that I love AudioTechnica headphones as well. And of course before this turns into an AudioTechnica podcast -- which it's amazing, there's lots of great headphones out there. The one thing that I love about AudioTechnicas is for me they're super comfortable. I literally wear my headphones when I'm on coaching days and I'm coaching eight hours at a shot. I have them on my head eight hours. Because again, like I said, I don't have monitors in my room and plus my husband works upstairs, and so I wanna be able to keep things at a minimum. And so they have to be super comfortable. I have to be able to hear the talent, right, to be able to direct them.    So for me, they are amazing. They're a little more than $100 because of the color, the special additions they are the MX 50s and in whatever color -- I don't believe they make the red anymore, but if you're lucky you can find them somewhere, somewhere out there. There'll be an extra pair that somebody has that's still new in the package. I've bought three pairs of red 'cause red is discontinued. My royal blue has been discontinued. Every year they come out with a new color. And so every year I find it necessary to buy another color just because I'm on the camera a lot and I love -- and they make me happy. Right? If you're gonna have on your head for a long time, they should make you happy.   Gillian: And comfortable, most important.   Anne: Yeah, and they should be comfortable.   Gillian: -- don't need a headache.    Anne: — be accurate as well. Right? So for that reason, the AudioTechnics are my faves, and I do own a pair of Paradynamics. I've owned the Sony, oh gosh, I think it was the 7507s, I believe. And the one thing that I didn't love about the Sonys, although I love the sound, was the actual cable that connects was a twisted cable. And what happened is they never traveled well. They became entangled within themselves. And if you've ever had a coiled wire get tangled in itself, and you try to pull it apart, it's horrible. It just gets twisted onto itself. And so I love the AudioTechnicas 'cause they always have the straight cable that you can use and it doesn't get twisty. And that may seem like a very silly reason to love the AudioTechnicas, but that's one of many reasons why I love that. But it's a viable reason because the twisty turn coiled cables, they're not fun to get them untangled when they get tangled, especially when you travel with them and you're trying to wrap them around --   Gillian: No.   Anne: — the headphones.   Gillian: Definitely not. And something to think about when we're talking, all of these things are essentials. And I'll just tell a brief, brief story, but the other day I was doing a session with a voice talent, and we were having all of these issues. I still don't know -- I was on the session, but I wasn't the head engineer of it. So I don't know exactly what happened. But we think that between when we were testing with the talent to when we pulled the client in, their headphones broke because they magically could not hear us.    Anne: Oh wow.    Gillian: And you need to have an extra pair because you can't be on a session without having an extra pair of headphones. It's super — and I'm sure we'll say, and I know, Anne, you've said before in the past, you need backups of your backups. But definitely even if you have your splurge pair and you have a less expensive pair just to use in case of an emergency, there could be a chance that you're on a session, and in the middle it breaks, and you can't continue the session without the pair of headphones. So just don't forget about having some, a little insurance on your sound.    Anne: Yeah. And you know that, it's interesting that you mentioned that, and I talk about headphones so much because when I'm connecting with students through ipDTL -- and this would be just like me, I would be the studio and they would be connecting through Source Connect or ipDTL — you have to have headphones to avoid that feedback. when you're connecting via those methods. And simply earbuds are not the best because sometimes they don't fit your ear properly. There's bleedthrough and honestly closed back headphones are probably the best for any kind of studio session you're going to have.    And I just say yes, I totally agree with you, Gillian, about the backup. Because I have had people who like all of a sudden they're like, oh, I can't hear you. And I'll be like, do you have another pair of headphones? And at that point if you even have a backup like set of EarPods works but in a pinch. But really have an extra set of headphones in case that happens. Because the last thing you want is for you to lose connectivity with your client to be able to hear what they're saying and to do your job. I mean it is part of your job. So have a backup, and honestly most headphones are not expensive. I, I'm going to tell you the AudioTechnicnas, even these, the new versions that they come out with are about 160 some-odd-dollars. The navy blue ones I just bought were like $169. So they're not tremendously expensive at all. And I know you can get some fabulous head phones for less than $100 for $99. I think that's what my Sonys were that I bought. So well worth the investment.    So in terms of headphones, make sure that they're studio headphones. Make sure -- I like to say close back if you're gonna be using them for any kind of recording at all 'cause you don't want the bleedthrough. If you're gonna sit there and edit all day, yeah, maybe open back or others will work fine for you. Make sure they're comfortable for your head. And especially if you wear glasses 'cause you don't want them to push in on the glasses and then have the glasses give you a headache. That's the last thing.    Gillian: Yeah.    Anne: All right.    Gillian: Okay. Should we lightning round a little bit the rest of some of the other things that we might need?    Anne: Yes.    Gillian: Because I know, I know what I'm thinking.    Anne: Microphone.    Gillian: Microphone. Yes. And we'll do a whole episode on microphones about the different types and and what kind you might need. I personally always say large diaphragm condensers for voice actors. There are amazing -- you know, everyone knows the TLM 103 that's upwards of $1000. There's also amazing mics that if you're a beginner, and you're not ready to invest that much money, that will not sound exactly the same but will be a large diaphragm condenser mic and will do the job, will make you sound great.    Anne: Absolutely. I used an NT1, a Rode NT1 for at least six years of my career full-time before I bought a 416. Actually I bought the TLM 103 and then I bought a 416 as well. So now I have both of those in my studio. But guess what? Also sitting on my desk here, I have a USB AudioTechnica AT 2020, and that works for some of my other connections. Believe it or not, that works for my Clubhouse connections because my Club Deck software doesn't like my audio interface so I have to use a USB mic and it makes me sound a whole lot better. And so those USB mics, they come in handy for lots of applications. Maybe not for your professional recording but for other applications that help enhance the sound of your voice.    Gillian: Yeah. And here's the -- I'm not going to say that people shouldn't use USB mics. I mean the audio engineer and me, always, I love an interface and a mic just because. It's so funny, I wrote a whole blog post on this so if you're interested you can go read my blog about the core differences between like the functionality of what a USB mic or like a USB and interface does, and the pros and cons of both, 'cause there's pros and cons of both. When you have the interface, there's more things to know, there's more things that can go wrong. There's just —   Anne: One more thing in the chain    Gillian: — sensitivity. Yeah, exactly. But if you are interested and you want a USB mic, there's definitely options that will make you sound as good as you need to sound to start out. And I don't wanna get on here and say that you can't book a job or get started in voiceover using a USB mic, because there's so many uses for it. And once you upgrade, if you choose to upgrade to an interfacing mic, then you have that other option to use for things like, like --   Anne: Any mic.   Gillian: Yeah.    Anne: That's what I love about. I think really if you've got, I say for any voice talent in a pinch if you have to, you can use a USB, if you've got a good recording environment, in a pinch, but it's not recommended. I would say even if you're traveling, I've tried it all. I do have, I've got a great Tula mic, which is a USB mic and it's amazing. So if I have a good space, you know, my little Tula can hook up USB, and I can get a decent audition. I wouldn't necessarily use it for any type of work that you wanna send to your client, broadcast type work, but in a pinch, like absolutely.    But for every day kind of voiceover I recommend condenser with an audio interface. And again, you don't have to have the $1000 mic. There's lots of great mics and there's so many discussion rooms and forums on what mic should I get? But I also have recommendations that I think work. It really depends on your voice and your comfort level, and work with a vendor that you can send it back if you don't love it.    Gillian: So important that you can either -- I mean I know in big cities -- I'm not entirely sure ‘cause I haven't done this in a while, but I know I'm in Guitar Center, I went there all the time growing up to play the instruments, and I know that they have a mic room where you can try stuff. I know that -- I'm pretty sure it'd B and H in New York City, you can try mics there, but I love Sweetwater. You can chat with agents there, you can talk to them. I'm pretty sure they have a great return policy because if you get the mic and you're investing all this money and you don't love it for your voice, even though everyone on the forums is saying it's top VO mic, don't keep it. Find something that makes you sound great because no one in the end is gonna know what mic you're using. They're just gonna know how you sound.    Anne: Well, exactly. And I also think though it's worth mentioning that if you get a mic and you want an assessment of what you sound like, Gillian, my goodness, like what you do all the time, the sound assessments, right?    Gillian: Yes.    Anne: Gillian can absolutely give you an assessment of how your voice sounds with that particular mic in your environment. I think there's a lot of things at play here. It's your environment and also the mic, and there will be a difference. So for me, I can say, you know what, I like the way this mic makes me sound, but I haven't recorded a file with it and sent it to somebody. Because again, sometimes if you're just starting, it's very difficult. You don't necessarily have an ear yet. Sending it to someone like Gillian is very important, who is, you know, this is what Gillian does; she's an audio engineer. She listens to sounds all the time and every day so she can make an accurate assessment and also tell you if this suits your voice or this doesn't suit your voice.    And I really believe that you also have to be happy with it. And don't forget, there's some people who mistakenly think that, well, I can use this mic and then I can process my voice to make it sound even better. And in reality as a voice actor, that's not what we wanna do. I mean, we simply wanna be able to give the cleanest recording that we can, and maybe our mic should, like what sorts of things should mics do for our voice? You know what I mean? They shouldn't change our voice, but they should enhance our voice.    Gillian: Yeah, they should -- I think I said this in the first episode we did together, but microphones are microscopes picking up your voice. And so every mic has a different capsule in it. It has a different way of processing, whether you're using dynamic mic or ribbon mic, all the different types of mics, they all react differently to sound. And so some people love singing on ribbon mics because it's quieter, it's more sensitive. I have a super cardioid condenser microphone that I, I love using on my voice and I tried the U87, all these other things. So it's really about, and this is a difficult answer because it's like you need to find what works for you because the mic that makes Anne sound great might not make me sound great. And all the processing in the world — obviously you can EQ it and change it a little bit, but really it's like finding a pair of jeans. Like you gotta find one that fits you and makes you look and feel your best. Maybe not look but jean analogy sound like you.    Anne: Yeah.    Gillian: You know?    Anne: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I don't think that there's any mic that will make you sound better than you. I mean your whole goal is really to make you sound the best that you can sound. And there's lots of mics -- and again, you could have a really like inexpensive mic in a great environment and sound amazing. You can also have a very expensive mic in a poor environment and sound horrible. I remember back in the day before I really had secured my environment sounding as best as it could, I purchased a shotgun mic, and it wasn't a 416, but I purchased one of the knockoffs and I actually hated it. I hated the way it made my voice sound. But I found that once I got the 416 and I had my environment, I love the way it sounds now.    And it's really interesting because before I was like, well I held off getting a -- it's why I got the TLM 103. And for me now I realize for my voice, the TLM 103 is a little bit of a brighter sound. And the 416 will pick up a little more of the bass sound, and that's typically true for most voices. But again, until you try it, you're not gonna really know, and it really has to be up to you. And again I think sending sound audio files to engineers who have the ear, who this is what they do, like Gillian, is really worth an investment to get the overall assessment on yes, this mic is good for you. Or also it will help you to determine if maybe (laughs) like how many times, I think we talked about this, Gillian, somebody might have had the installation of their mic backwards, and they were speaking into the back of the mic versus the front of the mic.    Gillian: Yeah.    Anne: A lot of times people don't sidedress their mic, right? They're speaking right into it. So there's a lot of plosive. So there's a lot of things that, Gillian, you can help talent to assess with their sound. And most people think it might be a mic problem, it may not be a mic problem.    Gillian: Yeah. Sometimes it's really simple stuff. Your room sounds really loud because your gain is up too high and you're not close enough to the mic. So it's picking up everything. Or it's on omni when it should be on cardioid, or you're facing the wrong way. There's so many things that someone listening could hear if you have a trained ear. Before we go, I know we have to go very soon, but don't forget your pop filter for your plosives.    Anne: Ah yes.    Gillian: So important.    Anne: Oh my gosh.    Gillian: I know you have like the pop filter shield sort of thing. That's what it looks like. Looks like you have, if you're using an interfacing mic, you need an XLR cable to connect the two. So important 'cause how are you gonna get from mic to interface from point to the other? So you get your mic, you get your interface, you don't have an XLR cable, you can't work. A mic stand. So important. What are you gonna do do without a mic stand? (laughs) You can't hold it.    Anne: Well, exactly. You really can't. And I think that again, more equipment besides your mic stand, I actually prefer --and this is just me, I always tell my students for me and my studio, I like the boom arms that can be mounted on the wall. Because a mic stand to me, I can't tell you how many times I've heard talent like trip over the tripod-like feet.    Gillian: Oh my gosh. Lemme show you my cute little stand.    Anne: With their mic. Yeah.    Gillian: I have this like, everyone watching, this like cute little baby stand that I just put on my desk. I think that those are really smart, the ones that clip right on. This little guy just sits on my desk and I can take 'em wherever.    Anne: Okay. Well, that's if you're sitting at a desk. But if you're standing and you have one of those tripod-like standing mic stands…    Gillian: They're hard to maneuver. Yeah.    Anne: They're hard. They're hard to fit in a lot of studios. I used to trip over mine all the time, so I basically have boom arms that I mount on the wall in my studio. They save a lot of space at my feet when you don't have a ton of space. And also, like you said, you can't hold it. And then we do need to mention the most important thing from the mic, right, that goes into your audio interface, your audio interfaces, and then everybody has questions. What's the best audio interface? Now I have been through the gamut of audio interfaces, but the main job of your audio interface is to translate the analog signal that comes from your microphone into a digital signal before it goes into the computer. Correct, Gillian?    Gillian: That's what it does. And typically it does both. It does the analog to digital conversion and then most audio interfaces have a headphone jack. So really we monitor off our computers, but you can monitor off of there where it goes digital right back to analog for you to listen to.    Anne: Oh right. Absolutely. I wasn't even thinking of that. You're right, because that's where my headphones are plugged in all the time. I started, gosh, I started with the Personas. And I'm trying to remember, I think I probably at one time had a Scarlet Focusrite, which I don't love those interfaces -- and I know we had a conversation in one of our podcasts about interfaces. I then, when I bought my studio here, I have a Mackey because I was intending to be able to do talk back to people in this booth to rent this booth. And ended up having a technical issue with that, which I sent it, it got fixed, it was under warranty that is now my backup interface.    And then I purchased an Apollo. And my Apollo, I have a mostly love relationship with my Apollo because of the plug-ins that work with it, which I absolutely love. But however, when we talked in our last episode about computer and keeping your computer up to date, well the (laughs) latest version of Mac OS is not up to date with the latest version of the Apollo. So you just have to make sure that you are aware of what's happening. The one that I recommend in terms of like a really great price, and I think works for the majority of people is the Steinberg UR22. And that is like about a hundred and — I wanna say $170. And I had one that I used for years, and it was just a workhorse and I love it. And that does all of the conversion, versus Gillian, if I'm correct, in saying with a USB mic, the conversion happens at the base of the microphone, right? So converting analog to digital. So there's a chip there that's doing that conversion.    Gillian: The biggest difference between the two is that when you use an interface, the mic just gets to be a mic, but within the USB mic it's all happening. And usually you'll see a little headphone jack too. It does A to D and then D back to A conversion.    Anne: Yeah.    Gillian: You pay less and you get everything is gonna be slightly lower quality because you're paying for --   Anne: You gotta fit into a tiny, little --   Gillian: — a microphone — all of the conversion, all of those things in one small device versus, you know, separating them out. So that's kind of where don't use USB mic comes from just because you can get higher quality with the separate.   Anne: You have so many more choices. Right? Because you can have a Focusrite or a Steinberg or an Apollo.   Gillian: You get to mix and match.   Anne: And you can have whatever microphone you want (laughs) connecting up to it.    Gillian: The other thing that I love about that is that there's room to upgrade. So let's say you wanna splurge on a really expensive mic and you're, just, you know, oh, I wanna start with this interface. Or vice versa. You wanna splurge on an Apollo for $1000, but you wanna use a $200 microphone and then say I'm gonna wait a couple years and then upgrade. Personally I've used Apollos, I've used UAD. I kind of struggle with the software issue even though I've used the plugins. They're awesome. I like Focusrite stuff. I like the Scarlets. I think it's great. I think voice actors really only need one input, possibly two. If you wanna have two mics set up just to switch between, you know, a shotgun and a large diaphragm condenser, if you want 'em at the same time. I like Apogee as well. The Apogee Solo and the Duet, those are great too. Those work really well. So those are my faves.    Anne: I'll just disagree with you on the Scarlet only because I've just had a lot of voice talent that have had bad luck, and I think mostly it's -- and I myself have thrown away two of them. And I think mostly a few years back, I think they used a bad chip set. I'm not sure what it was. Or they created these bundles where you got headphones, microphone, and interface all in the same package. And I think they used lower quality parts. And what would happen is voice actors would find, all of a sudden they'd get some sort of a noise or hissing, and nobody knew what it was, and it ended up being the interface. So for me that just kind of, I tossed that one to the side and said, I'm not gonna recommend that one anymore. But Scarlet, typically Focusrite had an impeccable reputation there for a while until I ran into bad luck with it past few years.    I think if you buy a bundled package, (laughs) meaning from a manufacturer or something, especially at Costco, as much as I love Costco, right, there are packages made, packages that are made for Costco. Sometimes they use cheaper parts in those, and sometimes you'll find that the quality won't last as long. Sometimes though you'll buy stuff at Costco, not necessary technical equipment, but you'll find things at Costco that's better (laughs) than you would find at other stores. But that's just my personal experience.    Gillian: I see. I've never had any bad experiences with Focusrite. I've used the larger hardware as well, the professional studio models of stuff. And those sound amazing. I think I've had a lot of friends and myself who've used the Scarlet interfaces and haven't had issues. So, that's my experience. And it's so funny, I've been wondering why people don't recommend bundles because I wouldn't buy audio gear from Costco (laughs). But there's a few places, like Sweetwater is my favorite place to buy gear.   Anne: Yeah, but they'll bundle individual pieces together. Now, I'm talking about manufacturers that create whole bundled sets of things together.    Gillian: Well, Sweetwater is awesome. And B and H, they also have some great bundles. And with Sweetwater specifically, if there's a bundle you like, but there's a piece of gear you don't like, you can reach out to them personally and swap it around and get a discount from sort of buying in bulk. And they have some pre-made stuff so that if someone was trying to set up their home studio, didn't know where to start, it gives you a little place to get started.    Anne: And one thing I will say before we go, one thing that I love about Sweetwater is you get tech support. Oh my God, that is like unheard of these days. Like if you don't know, if you're having a problem installing the interface, you can call them up and get help. And that to me is invaluable.    Gillian: They're amazing,    Anne: They're wonderful to work with. So.   Gillian: Yeah. Very knowledgeable. I love Sweetwater. It's my favorite place to put my money. I have a few friends that work there as well, and all of their employees are highly trained and they know --   Anne: Very educated --   Gillian: — about the gear. It's like a prerequisite to work there.    Anne: Wow. We could go on forever, but, uh…   Gillian: We could.    Anne: Good stuff, Gillian, thank you so much.    Gillian: Thank you. And for anybody who is interested to get your audio assessed by me, I know we did a few episodes about it, but if you missed them, you can just head to my website, GillwiththeG.com. It'll, I'll be linked down here and I have some audio assessments. I have a little free course on, on setting up your home studio and a few blog posts or a bunch of blog posts just talking about different audio things if you're interested in learning more.    Anne: Awesome guys.    Gillian: So hungry for knowledge, (laughs).   Anne: And Gillian is a BOSS. Otherwise, she wouldn't be on the BOSS — she wouldn't be, she wouldn't be on the BOSS podcast. Anyways guys, here's a chance to use your voice to make an immediate difference in our world and give back to the communities that give to you. Visit 100Voiceswhocare.org to commit. You guys -- oh, and a big shout-out, before I forget, to ipDTL, who is our sponsor. You too can connect and network like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Bye.   Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

What's next in VO Tech? Robert Marshall geeks out with The Guys. Making VO Recording Easier, More Convenient And ready for next 10 years, Robert Marshall, of Source Elements,Co-Host of the Pro Audio Suite joins us to talk about the new PASport Pro from Centrance and other great VO Tech stuff. Lets look at this amazing new piece of gear. Robert Marshall is the innovations co-founder of Source elements, holds degrees in electrical engineering and music composition. Using his skills as a musician, engineer, and producer, he is the visionary behind the idea of leveraging Internet connectivity to make post-production faster and more productive. Learn all about the new technology and catch the Replay all week on Facebook, Our website VOBS.TV or listen to the podcast. We love our fans and donors for your continued support. VOBS can't be here without YOU and our other great supporters: Voiceoveressentials.com,  VOHeroes.com  Sourceelements.com,  VoiceOverXtra.com,  VOICEACTORWEBSITES.com  And World-Voices.org

Este es un episodio clave para todos los que nos hemos tenido que adaptar a las nuevas reglas del juego dentro de la industria de la locución y aprender a usar entre muchas otras cosas, Source-Connect. Nuestro invitado es Javier da Rosa, un experto de esta plataforma que sirve para conectarnos alrededor del mundo con estudios profesionales que se encuentran en otras ciudades o países.Javier ha estudiado ingeniería electrónica y luego fue eligiendo caminos muy variados que lo llevaron hasta Source-Connect y actualmente es quien ayuda a resolver los trabajos a las personalidades más importantes de la industria de la locución a nivel internacional, así como quien guía a los que aún no saben tanto sobre la industria. Lo hace con mucha empatía y considerando la carga emocional que lleva para nosotros los artistas de la voz, hacer nuestro trabajo de manera profesional pero ahora con un componente técnico nuevo.Hoy en día la mayoría de las solicitudes de casting para los proyectos de locución comercial y especialmente los más importantes y mejor pagados, vienen con un requisito muy claro, debes tener Source-Connect para realizar una sesión dirigida. Aquí Javier nos ha explicado todo sobre cómo usar la plataforma, cómo resolver ciertas cuestiones técnicas específicas, qué significa tener el puerto abierto y las pequeñas cosas a las que realmente debemos prestar atención para que todo sea más sencillo.Conoce más sobre Source Connect en https://www.source-elements.com**Visita www.nickymondellini.com/podcast y descarga gratis el ebook “Aprende a manejar los NOs de la industria”, y suscríbete para recibir el boletín mensual de La Pizarra con noticias de los nuevos episodios y varios recursos para el mejor desarrollo de tu carrera artística. *Squadcast es la mejor plataforma para grabar tu podcast o reuniones virtuales con hasta nueve invitados con una calidad de sonido profesional. Puedes descargar tus archivos de audio ya masterizados con sonido Dolby. Elige tu nivel de membresía luego de probarlo gratis por siete días en: https://squadcast.fm/?ref=lapizarra   *Canva Pro tiene miles de plantillas e imágenes para dar vida a tus creaciones, ahora puedes usar el calendario para planear los posteos que quieras para el mes completo, además de todas las herramientas para crear cualquier tipo de proyecto. Pruébalo gratis por 30 días en: https://partner.com/canva/lapizarra  ¡No olvides suscribirte a La Pizarra para tener acceso a todos los episodios, descárgalos y compártelos en redes sociales, tus comentarios son bien recibidos!** Visita https://www.nickymondellini.com para conocer el trabajo de la actriz, conductora y locutora Nicky Mondellini.Nicky Mondellini es una artista de talla internacional con más de treinta años de carrera artística, su voz es escuchada en comerciales de televisión, radio y plataformas digitales a nivel mundial. Es la conductora y productora de La Pizarra con Nicky Mondellini desde el 2020.Su trabajo como actriz incluye más de doce telenovelas, varias obras de teatro clásico español y contemporáneo, cortometrajes y largometrajes, y la conducción de programas matutinos en México y Estados Unidos, además de comerciales de imagen y videos publicitarios y corporativos.Sigue a Nicky en:Instagram @nickymondellini Twitter @nicky3ch_nicky  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nickymondellinivoiceover         LinkedIn https://linkedin.com/nickymondellinivoiceover

In this episode, Anne and Gillian stress the importance of having a high-quality home studio for voice actors. The hosts discuss the technical aspects of setting up a studio, such as having a good computer, fast internet, and a reliable microphone. They also emphasize the need for soundproofing, with Anne sharing her DIY approach to creating acoustic panels for her studio. Additionally, the hosts talk about the importance of isolation and how it can be achieved through building panels or using reflection filters. Overall, the episode provides valuable insights for anyone looking to set up a professional-grade voiceover studio.   Transcript   It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.   Anne: Hey everyone, welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I'm excited to welcome back to the show audio engineer, musician and creative freelancer Gillian Pelkonen for another episode in our BOSS audio series. Hey Gillian.    Gillian: Hello Anne. How's it going today?    Anne: I'm doing good. Gillian, I love talking all things audio with you, especially because for a voice actor, our home studios are so very important. And I work mostly out of my home studio, and I know that you kind of do both. You work out of professional studios and your home studio. So I thought we should discuss the important aspects of what voice actors really need and how they can fine-tune their home studio to sound their best, 'cause that's an important component of today's voice actor. We need to have great sound.    Gillian: Yeah, I definitely agree. And I'm home. This is like my working station, but when I'm really working I'm always just bopping around to different studios. So I understand why your booth is so important. It's like your second home or --   Anne: Yeah. (laughs).   Gillian: You know, you spend all your time in there.   Anne: We spend — oh yeah, we spend a lot of time in our booth. So first of all we have to be confident that it sounds amazing, that we can deliver amazing sound to our clients. And then also it's gotta be someplace where it's comforting for us because we do spend an awful lot of time in here.    Gillian: I definitely agree with my personal setup that I have here. I have like all my little mementos that I wanna see, and I have my mic of course for just meetings and talking. But really professional studios are so different than a home studio, because for me I'm always going different places. There's a ton of different gear, a ton of different stuff that we swap in and out for different uses, different clients, but really you guys are just focusing on your voice.    Anne: Yeah.    Gillian: A lot of the work that I do is just to get creative sounds, different sounds, but with voice acting you want it to be consistent and you wanna show up in the booth to do, I guess, revisions for something that you did six months ago and you need to be the same Anne that you were, which is so crazy to me.    Anne: Yeah. And even longer than that, actually I had a client just the other day that I had to provide pickups on something that I had done close to five years ago. And interestingly enough, I've actually transitioned from one studio to the next. So having I think the good bass sound, right, that you can get out of your studio area and also your mics make a big difference too in terms of the sound. And so I had to make sure that I could match it because I literally moved from my studio in Irvine, which was a different setup, a studio that my father built, to a custom studio that Tim Tippetts built here right before the pandemic. Oh, and in between I had a temporary studio, I forgot to mention that set up at an apartment that we were staying at until our new house was built and ready. So that was a different studio.    So all through those three different studios, thankfully I had the same mic, so I at least knew that I could get the same sound as long as I had a decent environment to record that in. And then also I will give props to myself because I had the audio files from five years ago. So I'm a big proponent of backing up your stuff and keeping an archive of it so you can listen and see what your performance was like, see what you sounded like and then be able to match it.    Gillian: Yeah, that's crazy. And so incredible that you have those files and I think that's one of the most important things for me personally too, just to keep everything backed up and know what's going on. But enlighten me, because I really don't know, like did you spend a lot of time working in studios before the pandemic? Like what was your experience like?    Anne: Oh, good question. So I started, gosh, I started back in the early 2000s doing voiceover, and that was when a home studio was like just a thought. It was not a requirement, it was just a thought. And you used to go to local studios to record things, and you would get your jobs based upon auditioning with either studios, or you could audition and then you would select a studio and you would rent space there, or you might be on a roster for a studio. So it's very interesting because as technology evolved and online became a thing and online casting became a thing, then all of a sudden home studios became a thing. Actually back in the day with Don LaFontaine, right, having to travel LA traffic all the time, he became, I think one of the first proponents of doing things remotely in a studio using ISDN technology.    So that I think really spurred everybody else on to start to get home studios because there's so many variables when you record in a studio. But the good thing about recording in a studio is that you go there and everything is beautiful, everything is sound -- everything is, well maybe not sound proof, but everything is optimized for recording so you didn't have to worry about it. And so for me, all of a sudden having to create a home studio or a space for me to record and sound good -- I'm not an audio engineer by trade, I didn't really study it in school. So for me that was a big hurdle in the beginning of my voiceover career. And I know it still is for voice talent that are coming up through the ranks, because that's not necessarily what we studied. We didn't study audio engineering. And of course it's a whole field.    So (laughs), it's not an easy field. And to set up a space in your home so that it can sound as good as a professional studio is really tough. So in the beginning when I went to studios to record and do my jobs, it was great, except for there was always the stress. Can I book the time in the studio? And if I had the time booked for me in the studio, that was great. All I had to do was make sure I got there on time. And then that became a stressful thing for me because of possible traffic. And back in the day, I didn't live in the LA area, but I did live in the New York area. And so traffic anywhere, just the stress of getting to the studio on time, 'cause that's the last thing. You know, that was the one piece of advice that everybody gave to starting voice talent was that don't be late, don't be late to your studio time. You wanna make sure that you show up and you're professional.    But you certainly didn't have to stress about anything other than just performing in front of the mic. And I think that was a big plus for going into studios. And people still go into studios today. And I know I love it when, even if I'm remotely connecting to a studio, I have the engineer taking care of all the sounds and levels and the files, and there's just so much to think about when you are at your home studio. And I'm rambling on here, but it's also a thing that when we are in our home studios, we have to think about things like, okay, well, it's our time to open those files, save the files, upload the files, send the files to our client, edit those files. And so that's something that when you don't go to a studio is now the responsibility of the voice actor.    Gillian: Well, that's crazy (laughs). I mean obviously a lot of these things I know to some extent and it seems like there's so many pros and cons for both. I mean, just hearing you talk about it, obviously we know showing up to record and not having to record yourself, it takes a burden off of it.    Anne: Yeah.    Gillian: Because I record myself. I mean, I'm not a voice actor by any means, not at all. But I've been working on my music for my whole life, and I think when I was like 12 or 13 I got a little ProTools CD and like a tiny interface and that was what started it and the convenience of being at home. But really it is such a treat to go into a studio.   Anne: It's a luxury. I think I consider it a luxury.    Gillian: But also hearing you talk about it, I feel performance-wise, it's gotta be easier to deliver when you're not stressed about getting there on time, you're not stressed about, you know, needing to be in front of other people. I know for myself, I love recording myself, especially when I'm doing singing or vocals because it's super vulnerable and sometimes I don't wanna have to do that in front of somebody else, especially someone I don't know, a stranger. Like, it's a little bit more difficult. But it is interesting because I work at a lot of music studios, so we don't do a ton of voiceover, but whenever we do, we always apologize to the voice talent, 'cause we have this entire gigantic beautiful studio, and we're like, okay, we're gonna give you one mic, we're gonna stick you in the corner 'cause it has the best isolation and close the door, and that's where you're gonna get to go.    'Cause it really is true. You need a good mic, you need a good setup. But voice actors don't need that whole setup. And so I guess the question or conversation is gonna be about how do you take the pros of a pro studio and incorporate them into your home studio setup and make it so that you don't wish you were at the studio. You have everything you need right there.    Anne: Yeah, yeah. It's a journey, for sure, for a voice actor, because again, I don't have the audio engineering education that you do. I know how to perform behind the mic. And so I just remember for me setting up my initial home studios --and I didn't have an ear either for it. I think when you first begin, you just don't have an ear for what good sound sounds like, and I would record and I didn't think anything of it and sent my file off to someone and they're like, mm, yeah, no Anne, that's not gonna do, that's not acceptable. And I was mortified and then it was like, wow. So what do I have to do to make my studio produce sound that is viable for my client?    Gillian: Yes, definitely an interesting conversation and thought just because it's true, like voice actors, they do have to fill the role of the audio engineer. I do believe that. But I also don't think that all voice actors need to be audio engineers.    Anne: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I agree.    Gillian: You need to know how to record yourself. You need to know how to see if you're clipping, if you're too quiet to hear, a little bit of distortion or hear if your voice just isn't sounding right. And obviously, you know, with auditions you have to edit, you have to make it sound comparable to the other auditions and maybe a final product. But really I feel like if you tell someone who's not an audio engineer, or if you told me five years ago before I was really an audio engineer, you have to do this, it's so overwhelming. So I feel like talking about what people actually need to know, versus what you hire a professional for, or what you just kind of say, okay, this is a setting within my DAW that does not pertain to me. I don't need to be using this to get proper file delivery -- I feel like that's really important for people to just, I think make peace with. Because if you spent all your time trying to learn how to be an audio engineer, you would have no time to be a voice talent or to be doing what you actually wanna be doing.    Anne: So true, so true. So then I think maybe starting from square one, if BOSSes out there are just getting started, and I know I work with people who are just getting started in the industry, and they'll connect to me for their sessions in an office with a headset, and there will be no studio whatsoever, and they will be okay, I'm building my studio. So for me, I will always say to them, well, I certainly have a ton of people that I can recommend to you that can help you build that studio.    But there are certain principles that I know, like I can now hear if they have good sound or not. And I think the first thing to consider is, in your home, like where is a quiet area? And I know that's such a lofty question to ask, but in reality what I've learned is that if you can go somewhere inside your home that's maybe on an inside wall, maybe something that's not necessarily externally connected or near windows or near doorways or near sounds that can turn on — I mean I thought I was really great in the beginning going into my office closet, but unfortunately I found that it was very close to where I would hear water when the toilet flushed upstairs. So it was like one of those things I kept hearing noises. And so I think the first thing is to find that spot in your home that is quiet and also yet convenient to a place where you can put a microphone and also your computer, 'cause you do need your interface, your computer and your microphone.    So where can you put that and set that down so that you can record in a space and also have the functionality of being able to record into your computer, and then obviously hit the start record, stop, record, and all that stuff. And also wear a pair of headphones in the beginning so that you can kind of find out what your sound is like. All those things that people don't think about, they're like, well, I'm gonna put my studio here in my closet, but then all of a sudden their desk is like at the other side of the room, and they don't have a long enough cable.    It could be that simple, right? (laughs) They don't have a long enough cable for their headphones, and then they're like, well what do I do? Or they don't have a long enough cable for their interface is sitting on desk completely across the room, and then well do they bring the interface into the room? So it becomes all these different questions. But I think understanding that your spot in your home I think needs to be in a quiet area first. Maybe not near a window or not near anything that's within a wall that could be making noise like a heater or air conditioning or a generator, that kind of thing. What are your thoughts on that, Gillian?    Gillian: It's so funny 'cause the like doing vocals in a closet or whatever, it's a cliche because it works. Having the padding of the clothing and typically that ends up being a quiet spot in your house, but it's not sustainable to work in your closet forever. And all those things that you mentioned are totally important. You have to have a computer, all of those things. And don't take me for an example if anyone's watching the video; I'm in my office. I don't do recording in here, but I'm like by a window by a ton of noise. It's terrible. But I think finding the right spot to get set up in is totally important.    But the most important thing I think, and you can let me know what you think, but for the most part for doing voiceover work, obviously you need a microphone, but your computer, your internet connection, those are like hugely important things because how fast your computer is, how good it is at processing audio speeds, how well it connects to your interface — like all of those super technical things within — I know I have like a brand new MacBook — those are gonna really matter for how your audio sounds when you deliver it to clients. And you can have the nicest setup in the world, but if you don't have internet, or I know a lot of people also do like ethernet connections, you're not gonna make it to the job. Obviously if you're just auditioning and sending it later, that's a different scenario. But I mean, how important is it to you to obviously be able to connect to clients? That's like the number one.    Anne: Well, I think that's probably one of the most overlooked aspects of being a successful voice actor is your internet. And especially now with needing to have high capacity audio recording features like Source Connect or ipDTL or whatever connection you might be using to get to a studio — that's if you're connecting to a studio -- you need to have a reliable internet connection. And I remember I very much was adamant when I came to my new place here, because it was being built, I specified that there were three specific ethernet jacks placed on the wall, on each wall. So literally I made sure that I had ethernet hardwired, connected before I moved in because I knew it was gonna be easiest to do it then.    Because the people who move into homes, and they don't have ethernet connections, then they usually have to hire an electrician or somebody that can find out that they can run the wire through the wall to get to their modem or their router, or they have to move the router into their office and then other things become a problem. So ethernet and your hardwire connections are so important. And I don't see the technologies advancing anytime soon. Like wireless technology is great and convenient, but it's still not as great as a straight wired connection. I mean you cannot beat an ethernet connection or a fiber connection to your router that gets your data there fast.    Gillian: I think it's just sturdiness. It's true, wifi goes out or it's finicky sometimes. So those are are really important things. And obviously having the foresight to know that you need to have ethernet and all those things installed is really important. But for the people that didn't think about this, are already living somewhere, don't know what to do, find a spot where you feel comfortable, find a spot that's kind of away from extraneous noise. And I personally don't think, if you're just starting out in voiceover, you need to splurge on a booth or anything right away. I think there's a ton of DIY options that we can talk about, but I think that's also a lot of pressure, or at least from what I'm hearing. I'm also like half in the voiceover world, half out of it. So there's a lot of questions that I'm probably gonna have for you about like why people say certain things. And I know kind of random but kind of on the conversation is a lot of audio people that I know are very adamant about not updating your computer or having really, really old hardware. I understand the processes --   Anne: To support the equipment, right?   Gillian: -- behind it. Yeah. But I personally don't live that way. I update my computer. I have new stuff and there are times, like when I, I updated to a newer version of ProTools or a new version of Mac, like the Mac OS that was not supportive of ProTools, and I had a couple weeks where it was having a little bit of bugs, which is frustrating. But definitely for security of myself and all of the other things going on in my life, I don't think that you need to be using a 2010 computer.    Anne: Well, I agree. Normally I would agree with you 'cause I worked in technology for like 20 years. I would always say --   Gillian: No, no, tell me.    Anne: Update. Update.    Gillian: I'm not saying that right. This is just the way that I work. (laughs)    Anne: Update, and I love being updated to the latest and the greatest 'cause I figure it's getting rid of a lot of bugs. However, sometimes when Apple doesn't update, because I work with Apples, it's not conducive to working with my hardware for my studio. So my Apollo, which is my interface, and I have backup interfaces, but right now the latest release of Mac OS is not compatible with it. And I can't afford to struggle for two weeks. I need to have something that allows me to connect and record. And so I will wait on the update until I find out -- I usually check all the -- there's a lot of great groups out there on the internet that talk about should you update your hardware for this new release? Is it compatible with the latest release for the Apollo? And I think it's wise to keep your eyes on that.    I don't think you should be 10 releases behind for sure. But (laughs), I do think that before you upgrade, to just take a look and ask around to see if things are compatible. That's important, especially if you're required to record every day in your studio, and you don't wanna have to go to your backup recording. And that's the other thing too is that I'm very much into having a backup recording setup, because I've had things happen to me enough times. But people just starting off getting into voice acting, they probably don't even have their first setup (laughs) set up, let alone a backup set of equipment.    Gillian: So let me just talk to you on that for a second. I personally don't have any Apollo, Apollo or UAD stuff for that reason because I'm so nervous to be stuck without it. And I totally agree with you, because when I updated my computer without realizing that ProTools -- I mean I'm fortunate enough that I have five or six other places that I can go use ProTools. It wasn't like -- and it was working. It just, there were certain plug-ins that weren't working. But that's not the end of the world.    Anne: Right.    Gillian: But the lesson that I learned from that was, oh my gosh, never update without checking because it's true all the programs that you're using -- and I think within Apple they will say what is compatible and what's not compatible with these new releases, and that is totally smart person way to do it. And you get burned to realize that you can't do it, which is what happened to me and I'm sure has happened to you.    Anne: You only have to get burned once. Right?    Gillian: You get burned once and then you're like, this sucks. I'm so dumb, I have my features and now I can't do my job.    Anne: Yeah.    Gillian: Which is sucky.    Anne: Exactly.    Gillian: So learn from our mistakes, don't make your own. But there are some people, and I've met them, people that I work with too -- I mean one of these studios, we had a 10 years old ProTools rig, and when you get into the large professional studios, they are upwards of like $10-, $20-, $30,000 for new ProTools rig like expensive.    Anne: Oh yeah. And I'm sure that's why they don't upgrade to the latest and greatest all the time.    Gillian: Well, the old system was super sturdy, was working really well. And then we upgraded and there were some glitches and bugs and things that come with updating. I don't know why. I just heard people that I work with grumbling like, ah, you know, the old system was so great, now we have the new system and it keeps crashing. And so the, there is this conversation about not upgrading for like 10 years. I don't know if you've heard that within audio engineers.    Anne: That's a long time. Yeah.    Gillian: So if anyone is giving you that advice, I'm just gonna give you the counter-advice so that you can take both of them and make an educated choice about what you wanna be doing. You don't need to be doing what I'm doing and have the newest stuff. If you have an Apollo, you definitely can't always have the most updated, because it's a little bit behind and everything that's not within Apple will always be a little bit behind. But just make your own choices, people. (laughs) Listen to us, gather the info and make a good choice.    Anne: Yeah. Make an educated choice. And I, and I agree like there's always that fine line of when do you update your technology, like when does that happen? And I'm very used to just from my previous jobs -- I mean I was always living on the edge. I was always trying the new stuff. And so I'm very bold when it comes to trying new stuff. But I'm also smart enough, I've been burned enough times to know that I need backups of everything and then backups of the backups. And so I'm actually really thankful for that experience. And BOSSes out there, I say backups of backups, backups of your files, backups of your equipment, backups of your internet connection, because the one time will come when you really need it, and you won't have that backup. And that only has to happen once. I'm so old, it's happened to me multiple times.    So I feel good that I've learned from it. And so while I feel as though I'm really close to the edge on everything I possibly can be, I'm also smart about when to get on that edge with equipment and stuff that I need on a day-to-day basis. So yeah, absolutely. So when you're looking for that space in your home, that quiet space, that space that's comfortable for you and also hopefully quiet for you, right, for that home studio, then you start preparing it, right, acoustically. So Gillian, what can people do to prepare their home studios acoustically? What sorts of things can they do to have sound absorption? Like if they're in a closet, obviously they can have their clothing which is a great absorber of sound. What other things can they use?    Gillian: There are a ton of things that you can use. I know there's a few DIY boots in the sense that they're not thousands and thousands of dollars. They're like some PVC pipe and some packing blankets that will kind of isolate you, which is great.    Anne: Sure.    Gillian: I think the issue with the way that homes are built versus how sound works is you get the windows, you get all the boxy walls, and you have all these parallel surfaces, and you talk, and all the sound just bounces from side to side to side. So the whole point of having treatment on the walls and treatment around you is to stop all of that reverberation --   Anne: Reflection.    Gillian: Yeah. And the reflections. And just capture it. And really a lot of studios will be built with like diagonal walls and all of these things to just go against it. I have never built a studio, so I can't say that I've done it, but I've been in a lot of places where I'm like, that wall's really weird. Why is it like that?    Anne: Yeah.    Gillian: And of course it's not for aesthetic, it's for sound. So just making, making sure that you are blocking yourself from any windows are really reflective, just any sort of padding on the walls would be really -- I mean I see yours, all of your stuff in the background. For anyone who's watching, Anne has all those nice little --   Anne: Panels.    Gillian: Yeah. The sound panels that just absorb everything. And there's also these things that we use in studios that I haven't seen any voice actors use, so I'm gonna have to ask you about it. They're like reflection filters. Have you ever heard of them?    Anne: Does that go on a mic?    Gillian: It goes on a mic stand.    Anne: Yes, I have. I have.   Gillian: Have you seen I them?    Anne: Yeah, I have seen them and I have not had good success with them, and I actually hate them. I hate them with a passion.    Gillian: Okay, tell me about it because I'm just curious.    Anne: I think that they can work nicely in a studio that already has some acoustic absorption built into it. And then if it's in a large area, if it's in a large space and you need a little bit more, I think that they can work nicely. However, what most voice actors try to do is use it for their studio and then it just becomes the only thing that is used, and it becomes very close to the mic. And first of all, they're really bulky on the stands. I had something called a reflection filter and I paid a good amount of money for it. And like 300 some odd dollars and that was 10 years ago.    Gillian: Wow.    Anne: And it was very bulky. It weighted my microphone stand in a way that kept falling over. And then also it did not create the kind of sound absorption that I liked because it wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough. And then it became inhibitive in a way because I felt like I had something like right here in front of my face. It was very close, and I feel like it just didn't do a good enough job 'cause I think your absorption material needs to be thick.    Gillian: Yeah.    Anne: And so when they make the reflection filters, it's either thick or even if it's not thick, then it's not enough absorption, I don't believe. One thing that I learned through the years of going through, I'm gonna say, three or four different versions of a home studio is -- and by the way, the window, believe it or not, my studio right now is built in an office. It's a room within a room and right in in front of me.    Gillian: Great.    Anne: A room in a room is great.    Gillian: Yeah.    Anne: Right in front of me is a wall that had a side window on it. And we actually, before we built the studio, we frosted the window so it wouldn't look silly because we had a studio in front of it, and people would just look at a piece of plywood or (laughs), you know, so it wasn't attractive. So we frosted the window and then we actually put Rockwool insulation and then a drywall on the out. So we created a whole encasement for the window.    Gillian: Wow.    Anne: So that that blocked any potential sound that could potentially get in. And then we put the studio right up against it. And so that's how we blocked our window. So we made sure there was absolutely no way that sound could get in from the outside on these walls. So it's a room within a room. And so my acoustic panels are four inches thick. And they have Rockwool insulation and that's something you can get at Home Depot. It's awesome. It's really cost effective. It's not expensive. And these were all DIY panels that were made. And I'm gonna give a big shout out to Tim Tippetts. He's got a great YouTube video on how to make them. They're all four inches thick and they sit just slightly off the wall.    Gillian: Yeah.    Anne: So that way you have a little bit of spacing in between the panels and the wall for the sound to kind of just -- if it bounces on that wall, it'll come back in through the panel, which is four inches thick. So that you get I think the highest amount of sound absorption that you can using the panels. And if they aren't using the panels and they're using blankets, again, those blankets are giving you a certain level of absorption. Not quite as much I think as the four inch thick panels with Rockwool in there, but again, it's your choice. And I hang them everywhere. I have a ton of them in here. I also have clouds that are up above me with the same kind of thing. And then outside of my studio, because I want the outside of my studio to be quiet as well, I also have panels hung out there as well.    Gillian: See, that is just like an impressive setup, and thank you, Tim Tippetts. I know he was the previous BOSS audio guest, and that's awesome that he did all of those things for your studio. And that's just what I would say the difference between a Pro VO setup and a beginner VO setup. You gotta start somewhere, and I think that isolation is really important. And obviously, any advice we give, and this will be what I keep saying on the series, is just take what we say and apply it to your situation. Because unless we're working one-on-one, like either Anne or I working with you, there's no way to know exactly what your situation is.    But when you're starting out, I think that — I mean even if a few people built those things that Tim has a video on it and built those panels and just had them in your home office, behind you, around you, it'll help. You don't need to start with a room within a room, even though that's an amazing setup and it sounds great. And all studios are built with rooms within rooms and floating floors so that there's no sound coming from the outside world. But yeah, I think we got a really good foundation of home studio verse pro studio, how to get your space set up. And I think on the next episode, we should really dive in for the BOSSes on like what you need for a beginner home studio setup. What do you think?    Anne: Absolutely. So guys, when you are thinking about getting into voice acting, you must also think about where in your home is a good place for that studio, because you can have an amazing voice, but if you can't deliver the audio, a good quality audio to your client, you're not gonna be a very successful voice actor. So absolutely very important. But one thing I will say to give you all hope, in case you're overwhelmed at this point, is that once you get a home studio setup, like I have a home studio setup, you're pretty much good to go. I mean, your stress is over. You don't have to worry about it much after that, outside of your equipment failing, but your space, if your space is set up, it's set up, right?    Gillian: The investment is forever.    Anne: Right? Yeah. Foregoing any kind of natural disaster, right, or emergency, it stands and it will absorb your sound appropriately, and you won't have to worry about it again. So that's what I love (laughs).    Gillian: Yeah. And I love, Anne, all you shared with me because obviously I work in all these big studios, but I can't say that I've been given a tour of anyone's booth yet (laughs). So you know, hearing how you set it up and all of those things, I think it'd be great for BOSSes to know, and you taught me a little bit today too.    Anne: Awesome. Well, Gillian, thank you so much. I'm looking forward to our next episode. BOSSes, simple mission, big impact, 100 voices, one hour, $10,000 four times a year. BOSSes, visit 100Voiceswhocare.org to join in. All right. Also, a big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and network like BOSSes, like Gillian and I; find out more at ipdtl.com. Thanks so much, guys. We'll see you next week. Bye.    Gillian: Bye.   Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

OK, it's here... Go get it! Conceived during the recording of an episode of the Pro Audio Suite, inspired by your feedback, and argued about, sweated over, and tinkered with by 4 VO industry vets and one Studio gear creator, the PASport VO is now a reality! And you can order yours NOW! We have a limited run of 100 that we can sell, and if you order yours in the first 14 days, you'll be in the running to win a bunch of the good stuff! The first 20 orders receive a FREE travel case, while ALL orders between now and April 25 will also go into the draw to win one of These three great prizes... 1/2 an hour with George to tweak or perfect your setup, presets custom-made for you and your setup, and access to 3 of his exclusive webinars.. 1/2 with Robert to set up your Source Connect, get help on your workflow of any other tech issues you might want to talk about. A brand new Voice Over Demo, Written, Recorded, and produced with Robbo and AP... And remember, the sooner you buy your PASport VO the more entries you get! So go grab yours NOW https://centrance.com/store/PASportVO-p543860783 or on the Pro Audio Suite website theproaudiosuite.com/ A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson #rode #rodemicrophones      

The voice over industry is always changing. Pivoting for success is about preparing for that change and learning how to adapt. Anne & Lau are very experienced with pivoting professionally. How else could they keep their businesses thriving for 15 years? Pivoting is not just about immediately making changes to your process, but exploring your options. It's about taking a step back, looking at what you are doing and asking yourself “Is this working? Is this the right thing?” There's an incredible amount of pressure to stay ahead of the curve and keep up with the latest trends & tech. If you're not learning new things, you're falling behind. Don't sweat it, Bosses. Anne & Lau are here to help you embrace these shifts + take advantage of bigger & better opportunities...   Transcript   It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.   Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS Podcast and the BOSS Superpower series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, along here with my very special guest co-host, Lau Lapides. Hey Lau, how are you today?    Lau: I'm, I'm doing great.    Anne: Awesome. So Lau, last night -- (laughs) -- Late at night, I had the television on, and there was an episode of Friends that came on. It's one of my favorite episodes because I don't know if you watch Friends. Oh, okay.    Lau: Back in the day, are you kidding me? We were all Friends.   Anne: So, do you remember the episode where they're trying to get the mattress up the staircase, and they're having a hard time making the turn? And Ross, Ross kept saying, pivot (laughs). Pivot. Pivot. And it totally made me think of my business, and I thought we could talk about pivoting. So question BOSSes, how good are you at pivoting and making quick changes, doing things in the moment, evolving along and changing direction? Good question. And I think we are at a point in our industry where things are changing, Lau, more than ever before.    I mean, I think things are always changing. We always have to be on the lookout for trends. But I do feel as though we are at a pivotal point, (laughs), no pun intended, a critical point too in the industry where things just may change. And if we wanna survive, Lau, as a business — and I sat back and really thought about this the other day, we have to be able to evolve and change along with that if we want to survive. And I thought, alright, let's ask myself the toughest question. What would happen? ‘'Cause this has been on the forums for good long time now — the threat of synthetic voices, right? Well, what would happen to your business? Right? Ask yourself the question, BOSSes, what would happen if you did not have voiceover anymore? How would you be able to maintain a business or stay in business? How would you pivot?    Lau: That's an excellent question. It's sort of a human question too. We never wanna think about this, but what happens if our career goes down? What happens if our house is gone? What happens if we can't walk anymore? I mean, these are things we don't wanna think about but that do happen in life to people every moment of the day. And it's not unrealistic to say, let me think of three possible scenarios that I could do if my business starts to crash and burn. Or if the pipeline for my business that I so rely upon, those 2, 3, 4 clients are gone? I actually saw one business, Anne, where there was four biggies in the pipeline for a talent, and they all went down. This was at the beginning of a earlier recession, and he had to close his business. He had to close, not because he didn't have the business, because he didn't know how to pivot.    Anne: Well, you bring up such a good point. And you know, the pandemic was a big jolt to everyone's minds in saying, oh gosh, all of a sudden things have changed. Right? And this became like, well, we better make sure our studios are up to snuff and because we're gonna now be working from our home studios. And it became a thing that if you were a talent and you didn't have the proper requirements for your studio, if it didn't sound good, if you didn't have Source Connect or ipDTL or another way to connect to your client, your business might be suffering. And so those that were able to pivot and quickly recognize this and implement that, if they didn't have it implemented already, we're able to pivot. That was, I think, one of the first jolts to, I think a lot of us in the industry, that, oops, something changed and we need to be able to pivot with it in order to be successful or remain successful.    Lau: Now, did you have one, at least one big pivot and during covid that you can recall and say, wow, that was a big shift? I changed, whatever that was? Do you have one in mind that you did during that Covid period right at the beginning?    Anne: That's a good question. Well, first of all, I know that right before lockdown, I was super excited because I was able to complete this studio before that happened. And so when that happened, the great thing was, is that I was prepared. And I know that I already had been active with my ipDTL, so I was thankful for that, right, and Source Connect. And so I technically knew how to use them, I had used them. I was able to then make sure that I had those advertised on my page to make sure I could handle new work coming in, or if people had questions, because it was becoming a requirement now in casting specs.    And so for me, it was literally making a pivot. I also had a lot of people reaching out for coaching, right? So I needed to make sure that I was able to handle the influx, which to me was a wonderful thing, right? I didn't have to necessarily worry so much about not working or losing business because more and more was coming in. So for me, it was an adjustment in terms of my scheduling and how I could fit everything in and do that. But what about you, Lau? Because you had a physical studio. Talk about that.    Lau: Yeah, I did. And I did what every other voiceover talent. I was building my own voiceover studio from home. But the big pivot for me that I didn't even recognize I was doing, besides going online with the business, which was huge — that to me was huge, like, being able to go into the global zone and reach clients that way was terrifying, but incredibly exciting. The other big pivot for me was becoming an agent. So I never, ever dreamed or thought of that or envisioned that as part of my business at all. And then all of a sudden, I was on lockdown with everyone else, and I said, I,  I --   Anne: Yeah, maybe we'll do that.    Lau: And yeah. And my husband said, do you know anything about that? Do you know how to do that? I said, uh, no. I've had agents as a talent, but I've, I've never worked in an agency. I've never worked in an office. I'll figure it out.(laughs)    Anne: I love that. I'll figure it out.    Lau: So it's that sense of — the way I was trained. Yeah. The way I was trained, my mentors were like, listen, in business, Lau, in business, you have to set up your service. And then you have to figure out how to do it. Because believe it or not, (laughs), right? Miss control factor here, you are not gonna know how to do most things before you sell it. And that to me was outta my mind with that. Like, I had to know exactly how to do everything before I could put it on the market. And I learned that's actually not the way business really runs. Like you're upgrading your product, you're offering new services, and you're kind of piloting it and pulling it to figure out what it is through your client base. And I figured out how to do that. But the big pivot for me was going online.    Anne: That's amazing. So you created another segment of your business, or you grew another segment of your business. And I'm gonna say for me, during the pandemic, it was growing my business for coaching and demo production and producing demos online. Now, I am gonna say, for me, I am so grateful that I came from a background of technology because I was very used to having new things thrown at me and then being able to learn them and adjust and pivot. And I cannot tell you how much that experience helped me through the pandemic and pretty much anything else that as the industry grows here, being able to adjust it.    You know, in the beginning, the fact that I understood technology or I could work with technology helped me when home studios weren't a thing, and then they were a thing. So I understood that it was something I needed to do. Being online, that has always been an inherent part of my experience, and I'm very grateful for that. It's how I brought VO Peeps into light. When I decided to quit my job and then just do full-time VO, I had to really start implementing things quickly so that I could bring in some revenue. And because I had experience in technology, I thought I would say, well, I thought, well, I can create a networking group that's global and that's online. And thus began VO Peeps.    As, you know, things started to evolve. I started to offer classes using streaming technologies and then hybrid classes so that people didn't have to be physically near me to take a class or in person. They could do it online, in Zoom. And so I was able to evolve with that. And so I'm very, very fortunate and I cannot stress enough for those of you out there that maybe are afraid of technology or afraid of your computer or learning new things, I think it's fundamental, number one, to be able to take advantage of the technologies, to help you pivot (laughs) and help you grow. And I think that that's number one, that I feel so lucky that I'm — was able to pivot with the help of technology, and the fact that I knew it — and if I didn't know it, I would learn it. Right Lau, just like you, if you don't know, you're going to have to learn in order to kind of stay afloat and survive.    Lau: I think also along with that, there's this sense of who I thought I'd be or where I thought I'd be by a certain age or a stage of life. And I know a lot of people go through this like, oh, I think I'd be this, or I'd be married by this day, whatever. Believe it or not, I always thought from a young age, I would be like, a talent, full-time, professional talent, because that's what I was trained to do for the first half of my life. And then that was a massive pivot. And very difficult too, because anyone who's a talent who pivots in another direction, whether they become a producer or a director or they own an agency or whatever, there's that loss. There's a little bit of mourning in that. There's that loss of understanding that, sure, I can do a gig or whatever, but my real focus for my business is in this direction.    So that was a massive pivot for me when I opened my studio to really say, I can still do a gig if I wanna do a gig, but it's no longer my focus, it's not my focus point. My focus point is this. And to be able to concentrate and discipline myself to, to pivot in that direction is tough. It's wonderful that we're capable of doing that. But every, like, I'd say, every year, maybe once a year or so, like I just wanna cry my eyes out because I think, oh, what could have happened if I used this in my performance track? You know what I mean?   Anne: First of all, I love that you mentioned that. I wanna say that I've always been of the philosophy that I love performing, right? I love being a voice actor, and nothing beats it. Right? But I give so much credit to my ability and what I've learned over the years to build a business in regard to keeping me safe and able to pivot, right? So again, if I ask the really hard question, okay, synthetic voices are getting good, right? There will be a market for them. There will be people who will pay for them. It will be okay at some point it'll probably evolve because I've gotten used to talking to Alexa. I always use Alexa as my example, but what am I going to do when parts of my business are taken away, right, by the technology? What can I do?    And so asking the really tough question, if there was no voiceover, if the synthetic voice got so good that maybe the market just collapsed, and that could happen, what would I do? And I am thankful, so very thankful that I have the business skills, right? I've built a business and I've maintained that business for 15, longer than 15 years. And so what can I bring with those skills, right, to maybe not perform and do voiceover? What else could I do?    And so I really started to think about, okay, there's lots of kind of things on the side. I have the VO Peeps group. I call it the tendrils of my business, like it's got arms. But really I could do something more with that. Or with the podcast, maybe I could be a podcast host or I could help other people develop their podcast. There's so many things that I am grateful for, again, because I have built my business up. But I think, BOSSes out there, you've got to really, really sit down and think, what will happen if this industry changes in a way that it's not what I intended right now? And am I preparing myself? Am I training myself to be able to evolve and pivot with it?    But I think the whole business skills thing, if you guys are bored, (laughs) BOSSes out there, if you're bored, like, what should I train on next? Right? What should I do? Yes, of course, performance. But don't forget, gosh, about business, marketing -- those things, those skills will be invaluable for you as a business in order to survive whatever pivot you decide or whatever pivot you do.    Lau: Yeah. I couldn't agree more with that. I think you gotta be in the business of being in business. My dad always said, I'm in the business of staying in business, right? So I'm not gonna do something completely unrelated, because it's not within my skillset. Like I'm not gonna go all of a sudden be a nurse. I'm probably not gonna be a firefighter. Could I actually have the skills to apply? Yeah. I really could, 'cause I feel like I've been taking care of people for a lot of years, but I'm not gonna do that. That's out of my realm, but within my realm — you're building hardcore skills, these BOSSes that are listening now. You're really, you may not know it, but you're building skills so that if one area of your business goes down, you don't wanna become obsolete.    It reminds me of the services that were doing, you know, VHS movies, you know what I mean? And you'd go in and you'd rent a movie and take — you and I remember those days, you'd take that movie, you'd rewind it and bring it back. Well, they went out of business, they became obsolete and went out of business when then we went to DVDs, and now we're streaming, and now we're this. So I always wondered, why didn't they go into that area of innovation? Why did they just close down? Why didn't they pivot and shift? Why didn't they go into DVDs? Why didn't they --   Anne: Great example, Netflix.   Lau: I don't know why.   Anne: Right? Netflix, it was videos, right? It was videos that you rented and they mailed them to you. Right? Do you remember that? I feel old now. They mailed them to you for $.99 when you joined, right? And you could just keep getting videos and look at their pivot. Wow. I mean, that's an amazing pivot. Now they're one of the largest online streaming services, and I'm gonna say Microsoft, IBM. Look at these big companies that have been around for a very long time, right, and how they have pivoted and evolved. Look at, I think I was mentioning this to you before, but I had just seen something with Gary Vaynerchuk, who I absolutely love. He just was talking about the tractor. So farmers, when the tractor was invented, they were like, oh, it's gonna take away my job, it's gonna take away my job. And they would scream, and guess what? We evolved, right? So now tractors are being used to help farmers do their job. And so then we can, as humans, do more wonderful things.    So I always think — when people have a thought that, oh my God, this is gonna take my job away. My business is gonna fall out from under me -- I think we need to really think about tractors or that concept that like, okay, how can we use whatever it is that's disrupting our business? And I'm gonna use technology as an example, right, synthetic voices. How can we use that to enhance our business or expand our business? How can we use it to help us do our jobs better? And I'm telling you, BOSSes out there, if you use Positron mm, okay, you cannot be hypocritical, right? Positron uses AI to help you do your job better, right?    And yes, there's a lot of discussion about rights and and licensing and yes, that needs to be addressed. Right? Which is what I've always been talking about. If you're on the ground floor with this stuff, you have a voice to be able to make sure that that will happen. Okay? So I think really, it's going to expand us as human beings. Right? And it's not gonna take over ,because human beings invented it. Right? And I like to believe that not everybody in the world is evil, and that we will ultimately use the technology to help us to build better things and to be greater human beings. Because nothing will take away the fact that we are humans, and we humans like to engage with each other. Yeah, yeah.    Lau: And we also like to innovate. And I think once you sit back and you stop innovating, then you're stopping the whole nature of what business is. I mean, building a business needs to be built from the ground up. Even if someone is handing you a business or selling you a business, you still have to put your stamp on that. And you have to figure out from an integral source about like, how do we do things? Like the best people who run businesses know how to do a lot of the jobs. It doesn't mean they're going to, but they're gonna delegate them. But it, they know how to do a lot of what their business runs on.   Anne: They're educated. Right? Educate yourself.    Lau: They're educated. So yeah, so the peeps listening now have to think, okay, what are three things right now that are related, directly related to my business that are my skillset that I'm learning and I'm doing that I could literally offer -- I could extend my business if this area goes down, if this area? Like I'm a really great writer. Okay. If you're a great writer, you should be able to write copy, you should be able to write particular scripts in certain genres that you love or that you're really good at. You should be able to sell those potentially.    Anne: But what if AI takes that away from you, Lau, then what? Then where's your pivot? There you go. Mm.    Lau: Well, there it is. You have to continue to -- it's like a tree. I always feel like, I know you feel this way too, Anne, in my business, my life isn't long enough to do everything I wanna do. Like I'm an idea a minute. I, I'm like an advertising agency idea minute kind of person. I'm like, oh my God, yes, I could create a library of this, and then I could do this and then I could offer this. Do I do it all? No, because you can't do it all. You have to make selections and prioritize along the way. But if three things went down, I'd take three other things and build them up. Because I feel like we are expansive. We're expansive of possibilities. There's so much realm we can do.   Anne: Yes, always think of the abundance, right, rather than what's being taken away. People who are stomping their foot and saying no, no to this technology, no to this evolution of what's happening in the industry. I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna stop AI. I'm just not as a single human being. I can have a voice and determine how I use it. Right? And how it will affect me and how it will affect my business. And for me, I am steadfastly committed to not having my business be in any sort of detriment because of it. I will use what I use to enhance my business, and that's it.    But I think we have to always be of the mindset that we need to educate ourselves in order to really think about how are we going to pivot and educate yourself continually think about what it is that you bring to the table that can be another avenue for you or another tendril of your business to start developing now. And it doesn't have to be all voiceover related, although I like to be in parallel. I mean, like you said, you're a good writer. You could write. I mean I organized events. I can organize events. We do a podcast together. How much fun to help other people do podcasts together? There's just a lot of things that I think that can happen if you really just put your mind to it.    Lau: I would love to see people really challenge themselves to take the time — if they're taking a lot of time -- they're fighting the good fight, they're fighting the battles, or they're upset or they're engaging in conversation, they're trying to work out the problems of having these innovations taking over their work, I get that. And to some degree it's necessary to do that, to process through what you're going through. But I'd also like to see people take the time that they're taking to do that to also innovate new ideas and really start to execute and implement those new ideas to see if they can be a viable source of joy and income for them. Because I guarantee you so many people are taking so much time to get angry or gossip or downtalk this or that. Number one, as you said, it's inevitable. We're not gonna stop it. Nor would we wanna stop it --   Anne: So much energy.   Lau: — necessarily, but the — yes. So much energy is going in the wrong direction.    Anne: Fighting (laughs) and trying to stop. And I think honestly -- like, I love that you said the word innovate. And I think that there are too few people that think about themselves as being innovative. Right? And we are, I mean, gosh, we are probably some of the most innovative, creative -- if you're a creative, you're innovative. That's the way I feel. Or you can be innovative if you're creative. Right? And that's where I think we need to stretch ourselves to grow ourselves as BOSSes. Think beyond the booth, think beyond the booth. How can you build your business? How can you grow your business? Doesn't necessarily have to always be within the confines of the booth. And innovate, I love that word. I think that should be like your challenge word for the rest of the year. Innovate. How can I innovate? Yeah.    Lau: How can I innovate? And there's a beautiful little piece of artwork that's in my office that I bought in my travels, and it says create the things you wish existed. And I love that. That's like one of the mottos or affirmations that I have found in my travels that really, every time I look at it, it inspires me to say, okay, I'm not gonna sit and dish(?) day and night about what I don't like and what's going wrong and why did I lose this, and how come I'm not making money at that? I'm gonna say, woo, hold on. Whoa Nellie, let's go to here and say I'm gonna do this. How can I make this work? How can I make this happen?    And that opens up the portal to a whole world inevitably that that door closes, that door opens, it opens up that whole world that if I didn't ask that question, if I didn't go down that path, none of that would've happened. If I stayed in this sort of negative vibe zone of just being really irritated that it didn't go the way I wanted it to go or I feel like something's been taken from me, or I've been violated in some way — I'm gonna empower myself to say, but wait a second, I've got all of these powerhouse sources within me that I can now grow that can take the place of that. That's how entrepreneurs really think in order to survive. Because not everything thrives and not everything lasts forever. And how they do the comeback. People like Cher and Madonna, how do they do the comeback every time?    Anne: Can I just say this? I know Madonna gets a lot of criticism. But look at a woman who knows how to pivot(laughs). She has lasted in the industry, right, for, 40 years. Right?    Lau: Right. And then great actors like Tom Hanks or whatever, how did they, how did they pivot when they physically change? They emotionally changed. How did they shift?    Anne: Meryl Streep, I'm just saying.   Lau: They're not gonna get the same roles.    Anne: Every new role, pivoting, evolving, still remaining relevant. I mean it's inspirational really.    Lau: Yeah.    Anne: So, yeah. Yeah.    Lau: It's totally inspirational because I could sit there and I could say, I'm really upset though, Anne. I'm very sad and angry that I don't look 25 anymore. I'm gonna try like heck to look 25, and I can do that. But wouldn't it be better to say, but wait a second, I'm 40 or I'm 60, and I'm gonna bring out the intense beauty and wisdom I have now that I didn't absolutely have when I was 25.   Anne: Sarah Jessica Parker. Right? I'm going gray. I'm just --   Lau: That's what it is.    Anne: Right. Like just to continue to evolve and continue to innovate, be relevant. And really, I think BOSSes, it's something to just sit back and think when you're on vacation next time maybe, and you've got some downtime, and really think about how you may pivot as times change. And sometimes you just don't know what's gonna happen. But I like to present myself, well, if this happens, I will do this. Or maybe I'll start pursuing educating myself here, because I see things happening this way. And I think it's hard to be a visionary, but I always try to be. I do know that after working 20 some odd years in technologies, that I cannot stop it.    And I say it's over and over again. You might think I'm a broken record, but I cannot alone stop technology from happening ever. And it just became a thing. And I think once you realize and you kind of accept that, it helps you to pivot, it helps you to to be innovative. It helps you to think about how can I utilize what I've got in front of me, not just technology, but utilize what I have, who I am and what I have in front of me to grow and to become better and to maintain a successful business.   Lau: And be okay with change. Be okay with things not being the way you know them to be. That's tough. I always found that difficult ‘cause I loved things that were familiar to me and things I knew. Just be okay with the shift and change of the pivot. It's like you're going to something new. It's not going to be replicating what you did before. And if you're okay with that --   Anne: Roll with the bumps.    Lau: — you're a little bit bravery, you're more courageous. Roll with the bumps, 'cause innovation is not always success. Innovation is trying, you know what I mean? It's taking chances. It's taking calculated risks. It does not say that you're going to be successful because you're pivoting. It means you have the opportunity to be successful.    Anne: If you are riding bucking bronco -- I always say this 'cause I rode horses as a young girl, right? And as a young girl, this was the sitting trot. Okay? And any of you horse lovers out there that rode, being able to sit a trot and be able to let go of your hips and roll — because a horse's movements are not always perfectly smooth. It's hard to anticipate sometimes. Or if a horse spooks, you have to literally be able to roll, roll with the changes so that you don't get thrown off that horse. Right? So, I don't know, maybe --   Lau: Is that where we get roll with the punches?   Anne: — the punches aren't as hard. Right? Is if you resist against those punches, right, it's gonna hurt a whole lot more. Wow. Good stuff.    Lau: Right.    Anne: Oh my God.    Lau: Right, right. I love it. It's so true.    Anne: Now we know you can do it. So I'm going to give a great big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can network and connect like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. And also, I want you to imagine the world full of passionate, empowered, diverse individuals like we all are. As BOSSes giving collectively and intentionally to create the world that you want to see, a lot of what we just discussed today. You can make a difference. Visit 100voiceswhocare.org to find out more. You guys, have an amazing week. We love you. We'll see you next week. Bye.   Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Welcome to Voice Acting with Veronica Barrera! On this week's episode, we have voice actor Andy Chadwick and former Operations at Charles Schwab. She has done Narration, Audiobooks, Explainer Videos, Corporate elearning, and audio tours to name a few. Andy was recently interviewd by Source Connect and it SC certified. Join me on this two part adventure. Listen as you do chores, commute to work, or any other way. https://www.andreachadwickvo.com/ Facebook Podcast group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/631972061329300  Instagram Podcast: @voiceactingwithvb  If you want a The Voice Straw check out these affiliate links. Thanks! https://voicestraw.com/?ref=ctQaTgfR https://voicestraw.com/discount/VERONICABARRERA?ref=ctQaTgfR

Welcome to Voice Acting with Veronica Barrera! On this week's episode, we have voice actor Andy Chadwick and former Operations at Charles Schwab. She has done Narration, Audiobooks, Explainer Videos, Corporate elearning, and audio tours to name a few. Andy was recently interviewd by Source Connect and it SC certified. Join me on this two part adventure. Listen as you do chores, commute to work, or any other way.  https://www.andreachadwickvo.com/ Facebook Podcast group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/631972061329300  Instagram Podcast: @voiceactingwithvb  If you want a The Voice Straw check out these affiliate links. Thanks! https://voicestraw.com/?ref=ctQaTgfR https://voicestraw.com/discount/VERONICABARRERA?ref=ctQaTgfR

Whilst it's true you can't use source connect on your 4 or 5G device, it seems you CAN still use a hotspot to use the same networks for your source connect session. When we spoke with Richie from Studious the other week about APs new studio computer, he mentioned that he had figured out a way to make it work. Once we had talked Robert down from a jealousy frenzy, we decided to record an episode and get Richie to lay out his workaround.  Is he on a winner according to one of Source Elements' founders and chief techs? Well, you'll have to listen to find out!! A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code PAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson

Jody "Covid" Hamilton and Sean "Legs" Barton did one of the weirdest shows ever via Source Connect, since Zoom and Whereby suck. Enjoy? Talk at you next week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For so many voice actors, the idea of a directed voice over session causes stress and anxiety. It doesn't need to be that way. When you change your approach to these Source Connect sessions (or Zoom, ipDTL, Skype etc...) it'll change the way you feel about them.   In this episode I offer up a few tips to help you relax more and stress less when it comes to heading into the booth to record with clients on the line. -- Welcome to the Summer Series. For June / July / August 2022 I'll be offering up simple, quick hit episodes of the podcast designed to give you one good piece of advice and get you back to doing whatever you're doing to enjoy summer. The Everyday VOpreneur interview series will return in September. Marc Scott on Instagram - @marcscott RESOURCES * One Piece of Advice Free eBook https://marcscottcoaching.com/onepieceofadviceebook/ * Get an instant $25 credit when you sign up for VoiceZam Visit https://voicezam.com/marcscott * Need a little marketing help? Download a FREE eBook - 5 Steps to Marketing Like a VOpreneur Download now at https://marcscottcoaching.com/5marketingstepsebook * For voice over services: Visit https://marcscottvoiceover.com * Want VOpreneur Swag? Visit https://teespring.com/stores/vopreneur * Join the VOpreneur Facebook Group Visit https://facebook.com/groups/vopreneur   EVERYDAY VOPRENEURS IN THIS EPISODE * Thanks to "Uncle Roy" for production assistance! Visit http://antlandproductions.com * Thanks to Christy Harst for VO contributions! Visit https://christyharst.com * Thanks to Krysta Wallrauch for VO contributions! Visit http://krystawallrauch.com   If you need guidance with your voice over business or learning how to more effectively market, I can help. Book a 15 minute free consultation with me to discuss your specific needs. Book Your Consult

Source-Nexus Pro is an audio application router for AAX, VST and Audio Units hosts: Record remote voiceover from Source-Connect directly in Final Cut or Media Composer, playback iTunes to Pro Tools, patch Pro Tools to and from Nuendo, Logic, Reaper and more. All at the same time! The possibilities are endless as it opens an entirely new world for application integration with Pro audio users and their studio environment. You can now "patch-in" any software such as phone applications, metering, encoders, decoders, external processors, other audio workstations, video editors, and even a web page! A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a favour and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand new booth when you use the code PAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson

In this Episode We got Voice Artist Micheal Robbins with us ! He's the one who played 'DAS', THE PRISONER 'Swati's Father' in our Audio Drama ' Prisoner's Daughter' . ----- ABOUT MICHAEL ROBBINS : Michael is a full-time non-union voice artist with a clear and engaging male voice that will bring your audio to life! He looks forward to working with you, and offers the following services: 24-hour turn around (Please email for more details) Professional state of the art studio recording -Source Connect sessions available – Skype / Zoom/ Webex sessions ------------------- Connect with Micheal Robbins : https://voiceoverbyrobbins.com/. -------------------------------. Connect with us https://creativeaudios.in/ . creativeaudios.in Podcast weaves stories in such a unique way that you get immersed in the world of the characters. We have a wide range of content that includes World's Popular Fiction Stories, Audio Dramas, Bedtime stories, Stories from Amazon Bestseller Book Interview with Global Actors, Filmmakers, artists and More!! . Our content is so engaging that you will not be able to resist the temptation to listen. We want to make sure that everyone has access to our content and hence we provide it for free. You can listen to our stories on our website or on any of your favorite podcast applications. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to creativeaudios.in Podcast now! -------------------------------------- We're '@podcastaudios' on all social Platforms . Visit Instagram : https://instagram.com/podcastaudios?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= . --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/creativecellsaudios.in/support

Sarah Marince's dynamic voice can be heard all over the world. Whether she's hosting on-camera events for globally recognized brands, recording voiceover work for international clients, or climbing up the Billboard charts with a country single, her versatile talent, passion, and professionalism put her in a class of her own. A career in the entertainment world was Sarah's single focus from a very young age. One of her family's favorite memories is Sarah… at age 3… with a headset and a microphone belting out country songs in the garage. That microphone stayed firmly in her hand throughout her teen years as she evolved into a hometown celebrity… regularly singing the National Anthem for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pirates and Penguins…and later branching out across the country to perform for the LA Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York teams the Mets and Knicks. Sarah was also a constant presence on Pittsburgh television and radio as the commercial host, jingle singer and voice actor for Eat n Park restaurant…a multi-state restaurant chain. During Sarah's senior year of high school, the allure of country music beckoned and she found herself traveling between Nashville and Pittsburgh…recording her first professional album. She quickly found success in the music city opening for Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Sarah Evans, Martina McBride and other established artists…as well as charting her own hit single, “In The Meantime” on Billboard. With an inborn drive to expand all areas of her career, Sarah packed her bags and moved to Orlando when the Walt Disney World Entertainment group came calling. Her captivating voice can be heard in Disney Parks around the world, whether it is in song or voiceover. Sarah's uniquely engaging voice can also be heard on spots for CocaCola, Cracker Barrel, Birchbox, Chick-Fil-A, Kwikset Locks and many other corporate clients. Sarah specializes in Commercial, eLearning, Explainer and Corporate Narration genres as well as Telephony and jingle singing…all done from her state of the art home studio equipped with Source Connect. One of her current fun projects is hosting a biweekly webcast with Blare Media called “Crew Talk” which consists of Sarah…in her friendly, conversational style… interviewing a panel of experts in the entertainment field…following up with a question and answer session. Sarah also continues to hone her skills in front of the camera with hosting appearances for ESPN, WalMart, Royal Caribbean and the Marriott Corporation. As a passionate voice over professional, Sarah was thrilled to be nominated for the 2019 One Voice Award in the “Best International Voiceover Performance” category for her spot for CES (Consumer Electronics Show) entitled “What If.” Acknowledging Sarah's authentic professionalism in the Voice Actor community, international voiceover management, ACM, signed her to their talent roster in April 2020. Sarah's voice embodies so many attributes of her personality…her genuineness, her approachable demeanor, her determination to find the positives in her life, but most importantly, her voice projects the fun she has everyday creating her career. Sarah faces everyday with open arms…ready to embrace the challenges and grow out of her comfort zone both personally and professionally. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/grayson-mask/support

Pip Atherstone-Reid is the owner of WIndmill Audio in Melbourne. He posed a few Source Connect questions to Andrew, who in turn decided to turn it into a show. If you've got some of your own, let us know... A big shout out to our sponsors Tri Booth. As a part of their generous support of our show, they're offering $200 off a brand new booth when you use the code PAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/   We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn hopefully help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it's an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here..   https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite   If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”

Robert Marshall is Sound Designer | Mixer | audio engineerwho has mainly worked in audio post for advertising.His work includes clients such as Microsoft, Kelloggs, Nintendo,as well as Super Bowl spots for Budweiser.For 20 years he has worked for various post houses in Chicagountil he started SUM1 Audio Post.In 2005, he was one of the original founders of Source Elements,who makes Source-Connect, which continues to refine remote post-production workflows. source-elements.comsupport@source-elements.com

In this episode we explore how to deepening our relationship with our Higher Self and Soul Family which is something I've witnessed shift profoundly in my own reality and something that continues to evolve and transform as I set forth an intention and do the inner work which arises along the way. We are all so deeply interconnected and our journeys are so beautiful interwoven.  In this episode we explore - Letting go of the past - Connecting with your Higher Self - Being Open to Soul Family in all Forms - Healing the Mother Wound + Ancestral Trauma - Trusting and Creating as Source Connect with Emily:   Website | https://www.iamemilyharris.com/   Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/emilyghoshharris/   YouTube | https://bit.ly/2DwFnJJ Subscribe to the Soul Collective Podcast:    iTunes | https://apple.co/3h2EPJ2   Spotify | https://spoti.fi/3h16UR5  iHeart Radio | https://ihr.fm/3lWnw0b   Stitcher | https://bit.ly/2FbYclC   Player FM | https://bit.ly/3jOGqE6