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A voice actor's work is never done, at least it can seem that way. When you travel or go on vacation, it never fails, you have a really important job come up. In this video, Anne talks about some of the best practices for your travel rig and setup!
Have Microphone, Will Travel...
Today. I want to talk to you about remote recording.
Yes, it's true. I do get out of my home studio and when I do, I have a particular travel setup that I take with me all the time. Over the years. I've learned a few things about what works and most definitely what didn't work.
The first thing I guess I wish I had known for all these years was to get a mic that can sound great in a less than desirable space. And usually when we go away and we're staying in hotels or wherever we are, sometimes we have to even record in our car, the environment is less than desirable. So you want to make sure you have a microphone that's going to hopefully help you accommodate that
I tried many really cute, wonderful, amazing small microphones. By the time I got to using them in the poor acoustic environments, they didn't really help my sound at all. So a couple of years ago, actually, I want to say it was three or four years ago, I finally decided to get a Sennheiser 416, and I absolutely loved it because it can really help you in terms of getting a great sound in a less than desirable space. Mostly because it's picking up everything right in front of the microphone.
So that was the first thing I wish I had known the other is that you have to kind of get yourself in an environment where you're not going to have a lot of open spaces, a lot of surfaces that your voice is going to bounce around in. If you Google, you know, hotel recording, travel recording, you'll find a lot of great examples of different pillow forts you can set up. And I think that really becomes the best thing that you can do when you are in a remote space is to set up something similar to a pillow fort.
You need to pad your microphone environment behind the microphone, to the sides of the microphone and above the microphone so that you can get the least amount of echo and noise from the room. So the best thing is to take those extra pillows that they store in the closets in the hotel, and just build a pillow fort, a little kind of square pillow Fort over your microphone.
A lot of times, it's really convenient to take that extra ironing board that they have in the hotel room and put it on top of the desk. Once you do that, you can grab that extra comforter that's in the closet and put that over the ironing board. So it's like a little tent and then go ahead and have your computer and your microphone set up with the pillow for that is around your microphone to the left, to the right, and behind. Then make sure you got something above. And then make sure you get some light in there as well, so that you can see your script. I actually have a really cool remote recording device that holds my microphone and my phone so that I can see my script easily.
Actually, a couple of years ago, I moved from one home to another, but in between, I had a couple of months in a rental unit and I invested in a wonderful, wonderful, portable recording booth called the tri booth. There's a series of PVC pipes with a series of audio blankets around them. And basically, it is assembled, you know, A, B, C, D boom, you're up and running. And if you are in a hotel for an extended period of time, and you can find, you know, a nice corner of the room that maybe is maybe away from the windows or away from the door, and of course not, when you know, the maids are cleaning and vacuuming the room, that is also excellent.
It can really create an amazing space for you to create almost exact replicas of your home studio at home, because not only do you get a great booth that travels on a very convenient suitcase, which you can then check onboard. Amazing. You also get a set of filters that you can apply that can get your sound to be almost the same as your studio at home. So I happily recommend that as a portable solution for when you're traveling the tri-booth, tribooth.com.
So to wrap this up, make sure guys that you have a microphone that can accommodate a less than desirable recording environment. And when you are in that environment, make sure that you protect your microphones from behind it to the left, to the right above it. Use the pillow Fort or make an investment in the tri booth. You won't regret it. I promise you, and you can have amazing recordings coming from your remote vacation site.
I'll see you again next week.
Thanks for reading!
Keep on rocking your business like a #VOBOSS
About Anne:
Anne Ganguzza is a professional voice actor and award-winning director and producer who works with students to develop their voiceover and business skills - including voice over Coaching and Genre-based Demo Production. She specializes in conversational Commercial & Narration styles, including Corporate, eLearning, Technology, and On-Hold Messaging. Located in Orange County, California, Anne offers private coaching and mentoring services to students via ipDTL and Zoom.
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