Dan Friedman

It is as simple as this… if you want to work in voiceover, you need a home studio. I know it seems hard to believe, but it is true; the days of being chauffeured around from studio to studio where you talk for a few minutes and line your pockets with cash are long gone… and have been for years. More recently, the need for racks filled with expensive magic audio boxes has also become unnecessary. Today, with nothing more than a USB microphone and an iPad, you can be recording high quality audio in no time. Well… sort of.

In this final installment, of the three part series(part 1) (part 2), I’ll discuss a third type of voiceover recording setup. In this setup… the sky is the limit! Keep in mind, that in any recording setup, there are at least two common denominators that will remain constant. They are, and always will be, the two most important factors in your sound and your success… you and the space in which you record. The cheapest setup can sound great (or at the very least… useable) with an amazing talent, performing in a great sounding space. A great performance on expensive equipment can be useless in a noisy or terrible sounding space.

With that in mind, let’s checkout setup number three.

Voiceover Recording Setup 3

While setup 1 and setup 2 are portable, portability was never the goal. Consistency from one session to the next is a critical element to success in voiceover. Therefore, remaining in one space is preferred. Recording setup 3 is stationary, and there are other big changes that will have you prepared for anything. One of the biggest changes is incorporating a mixer into the setup, which will allow you to include phone patch and (when you are ready and if the technology is available where you are geographically) an ISDN codec.

I could very easily have added them to the other two setups but with setup 3, the other big change is the necessity for studio monitors (speakers). Nobody should be listening critically to audio on headphones alone. Headphones, by design, do not give you a true picture of how we hear sound in the real world. We hear with both of our ears in combination, not with the left and right sides in isolation. Studio monitors are a personal preference. Whichever monitors you choose, you should give yourself some time to get familiar with their characteristics. More importantly, they should be comfortable for you to listen on over long periods of time.

Most components listed in setup 2 will remain the same for this setup. Instead of a laptop, a desktop computer will serve as the focal point for this studio. This will likely increase your storage capacity and speed. It will also give you more visual real estate due to a bigger computer monitor (the screen) and you can get even more real estate by adding an additional monitor.

With this setup, the sky is the limit when it comes to options, components and prices. Upgrades are possible in all areas of your audio chain. While the $300 microphone may still be perfect for you, it may be worthwhile to explore more expensive options. The same is true for your preamp, interface, cables and… well… everything. The price ranges I’ve listed below, now reflect the cost of higher priced equipment that can be found in many home voiceover studios.

Overall estimated cost:

High quality desktop computer w/OS and basic software – $1500 – $3000
DAW – $0 – $1800 (Audacity and “lite” DAW software = $0, full versions = $1800)
Separate Preamp – $500 – $2500
USB/Firewire Preamp or standalone AD/DA Converter – $150 – $2500
Mixer – $100 – $1000
Standard (XLR) LDC microphone – $300 – $1200
ISDN Codec or Source Connect Pro Software – $1000 – $3000
Phone patch – $175 – $500
Headphones – $100
Studio Monitors – $300 – $1600
Cables/adaptors – $50 – $200
Heavy duty microphone stand w/boom – $150

Setup 3 cost = aprox. $4325 – $17,550

Your home studio. For just over $1000, which was discussed in part one of this series, all the way up to over $17,000 (and beyond) you can be recording, editing and producing voiceovers. Note that these costs don’t take into consideration acoustic treatment or sound proofing (the prices for Whisper Rooms, for example, begin at just over $3000). Furthermore, if you’re interested in doing full production and mixing, you’ll need music, sound effects and audio processing plugins to go along with your DAW software.

Some of the items listed can be combined and many of the items are transferable from setup to setup, allowing your studio to build upon itself and grow with your career. Also, it is more likely that setup 1 could be the last setup you buy rather than your first. The portable studio is far more useful to voice talent who’ve been working at this awhile and are in higher demand.

So, now that you’ve gotten your studio budget figured out… start working on your budget for coaching, marketing materials, website, travel to industry events and your very own… chauffeured limousine. 😉

It is as simple as this… if you want to work in voiceover, you need a home studio. I know it seems hard to believe, but it is true; the days of being chauffeured around from studio to studio where you talk for a few minutes and line your pockets with cash are long gone… and have been for years. More recently, the need for racks filled with expensive magic audio boxes has also become unnecessary. Today, with nothing more than a USB microphone and an iPad, you can be recording high quality audio in no time.

Well… sort of.

In this installment, of what will be a three part series, I’ll discuss the second of three types of voiceover recording setups. Each setup will cover reasonable price ranges that will, at a minimum, be capable of providing an acceptable level of quality as well as varying degrees of flexibility. A professional working voice talent could easily own all three of these setups at different points in their career, or even use any one of the three interchangeably with the other two. With proper planning, the smallest, most portable and least expensive setup can easily grow with and become an integral part of the most comprehensive and expensive setup.

While these setups are different, there are at least two common denominators that will remain constant. They are, and always will be, the two most important factors in your sound and your success… you and the space in which you record. The cheapest setup can sound great (or at the very least… useable) with an amazing talent, performing in a great sounding space. A great performance on expensive equipment can be useless in a noisy or terrible sounding space. Keep that in mind as we explore the following VO setup.

Voiceover Recording Setup 2

For recording setup two, rather than going with a tablet (which was discussed in The Anatomy of Three Voiceover Home Studios Part 1), choose a high quality laptop computer.

Personally, I believe that this setup is the one everyone needs at a minimum. The tablet based recording studio is very limited when it comes to choices and flexibility. Going with a laptop, rather than a tablet, opens up a world of possibilities. With a laptop computer you’ll get far better: storage capacity, ease of use, compatibility with hardware interfaces, including both USB and firewire, and access to most all of the DAW options (depending on which OS you choose). The flexibility alone is well worth the additional cost. The computer is the foundation of your studio. So, no matter what level you are at, spending the most money here is always well worth the added investment.

When using a full featured computer, the world of available interfaces increases dramatically. You can use USB interfaces or upgrade to the faster firewire or thunderbolt options. Most interfaces in this category offer preamps and phantom power, and many have multiple preamps. For this studio setup, I’ll assume that you’ll still want to keep it portable. Therefore most of your options will fall between $150 and $750.

Having at least two inputs on your preamp/interface allows you to add another key component to your studio… the phone patch. The phone patch allows you to pipe in a client/director to your headphones and receive direction live during a session. Most phone patch devices are designed to work with land lines but the JK Audio Daptor 2 works with cell phones. This is a bit more practical since many people are abandoning their land lines.

While recording, even on a powerful laptop, it is good practice to close other applications on your computer and use only those that are most critical to getting the job done such as your DAW, interface control panel, etc. Its not recommended that you surf the internet, talk on Skype and manipulate Excel spreadsheets while simultaneously recording audio (like you would want to work on a spreadsheet… HA!). Attempting to multitask in this way is not only difficult for you, but can make it possible for erroneous sounds, possible anomalies and errors to sneak into your recordings. For this reason, it is still very useful to add a tablet into your studio setup.

With a tablet, there are many useful apps that you can easily incorporate into your workflow including apps for reading and editing scripts (no more paper), timers/stopwatches and communications apps such as Skype. Perform these peripheral tasks on your tablet while recording and editing on your laptop.

Besides being far more flexible and overall easier to use, there is also at least one area for cost saving that is available by choosing a laptop. While a comprehensive and full featured DAW is recommended, Audacity software is FREE and available for both Mac and PC. Compared to most DAW’s, Audacity is a bit “clunky” in its operation. But, it is capable of doing most recording, editing and even processing tasks that are important to a voice talent. Another consideration is that many hardware interfaces come packaged with DAW “lite” versions. Not only are they capable of performing critical recording and editing tasks, they are also a great introduction to the full versions of the software.

Itemized estimated costs:

High quality laptop w/OS and basic software – $1200
DAW – $0 – $500 (Audacity and “lite” DAW software = $0, full versions = $500)
USB/Firewire PreAmp-AD/DA Converter – $150 – $750
Standard LDC microphone – $300
Phone patch – $175
Headphones – $100
Cables/adaptors – $50
Heavy duty microphone stand w/boom – $150

Setup 2 cost = aprox. $2125 – $3225

Add a tablet for an additional $550 (If you started with setup one and are adding components… you’ll already have a tablet).

In the final installment of this three part series, the sky is the limit! I hope you’ll check it out.