Questions for voice actors with a home studio

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Permalink Reply by Maria DeSapio on June 4, 2008 at 8:56am

Thanks Lani. When do you think recording at home became the standard practice?

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Permalink Reply by David Davies on June 5, 2008 at 1:42pm

It certainly beats running to the agency for auditions---Im sure that there are many reasons to make personal visits to your agent though. Let the knowledgable speak on this issue---

David Davies...

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Permalink Reply by Maria DeSapio on June 5, 2008 at 3:41pm

I had a totally different impression of the industry just three years ago when I first began to pursue this field. I'm not sure if that's because my limited scope of knowledge or because the industry has been changing rapidly.

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Permalink Reply by rowell gormon on June 5, 2008 at 11:48pm

maria

a lot has changed...and some of it just won't stay still, even for a few days.

i've read/heard from several sources that many big city agents aren't having their talent come in and record very often. part of it is cost savings, part of it is a time issue. everyone expects everything faster, cheaper (and, yeah...snicker...better).

and you're probably going to get a lot of your work without an agent being directly involved, if your career has the same path many of us have been down.

even if you don't have the resources to build a booth you should at least have a place at home for last minute/quick turnaround auditions and/or jobs...as well as a good place to practice.
use your basic setup for auditions and practice (audacity is an amazing program & will give you more than you'll need for simple voicetracks/editing), and utilize your nearby pro studio for jobs that require more. you can build up your home studio as you gain more work and income.

before you invest heavily in top-dollar mics, though, be aware that a higher-quality instrument may also bring out the flaws in your recording area. for years i used the workhorse RE-20, because that was what we had in radio. it was designed to be worked close, with a very narrow pickup pattern. when i finally started experimenting with higher-end microphones, they reproduced all the flaws of my space as well as the desired improvements in recording my voice(s).

just my 1-cent's worth (adjusted for inflation).

rg
www.voices2go.com

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Permalink Reply by Roxanne Hernandez on June 18, 2008 at 9:09pm

Hey, Maria.
I've had my studio for about 3 or 4 years. It came about when my kids were born (twins) and I figured I was about to retire. I had one client that I'd been working with for years on site, and when the babies were born I figured the gig was up. The client let me bring the kids with me for the first year or so, but it was totally awkward! I knew there was a way to do it from home, but we hadn't figured out how to make it work. The work was ridiculously simple: go to the clients office and record voice messages straight into their phone system (pbx). I tried to do it from home on a regular phone and the quality was terrible. I tried using a $5 Radio Shak mic with the windows media player.... I tried everything. FINALLY, the wonderful engineer who designed the company's system got together with me and together we figured out that I could create .wav files and just upload those.

That was the beginning of my home studio. I shelled out about $1000 and got it all set up. You don't even have to spend that much. I record in my closet and no one is the wiser. The quality is great and I have dozens of clients that I serve every day.

Having your studio will open so many doors for you. Check out Harlan Hogan's Guide to Home Recording and you'll be on your way.

break a leg.
roxanne

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