Hey there.

I've recently turned my home studio to tackle voice over work. I've been experimenting with plugging straight into my FA101 sound card, or going first through my Ultragain Pro tube pre amp. (Warmth vs. noise conundrum...)I've also got about 200 VST plug ins (I'm working with Ableton) and continue to try different combinations of eq, de-essing, maximizing, compression etc. to get the best results.

Does any one have tips in this field? Is there one "uber" plug in that will take care of all my needs? Or what are the best, essential (and hopefully free!) VSTs I should be using?

Cheers!

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

What mic/treatment do you have?

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Squarehead Jam Jar Facebook Jam Jar

Forget thinking about plugins. No plugin is going to make a voiceover sound great.

Voiceover is all about:
Voice/Performance -> Dead environment -> Appropriate Mic -> Decent mic pre

In other words, it's 95% what happens before the computer.

For processing, usually compression and EQ to taste, nothing particularly special.

To do professional voice over work you need a GREAT sounding room and decent mic/pre. Don't scrimp on the room. So many VO artists I work with claim to have a set up at home and end up delivering me something unusable. It's a very fussy area!!

Thanks for the tips, fellas.

I use an AKG C900 condenser mic, and as mentioned I have a Behringer Ultragain Pro tube mic pre amp - is that good enough for a professional sound?

What does a great room sound like?

How do I know if my room sounds good enough?

Cheers!

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

A good sounding room for voice overs = a dead room. Dead from all points of the spectrum. Too much high end absorption = too much boom/boxyness so you want plenty Bass trapping too.

A good fix is surrounding the 'performer' with duvets. This can control room reflections pretty well in most cases.

Basically... You don't want to hear the room. Just the source.

You've already said the Behringer pre you have is noisy. For voice over work, this is a big problem as the voice is the main attraction here. Once you start to apply compression, you'll be bringing the noise floor up even more.

You basically want the quietest, most transparent pre you have.

I go with my RE 20 going into a DAV BG1u. Sometimes I'll go for an LDC, probably my Brauner Phantom (it has a very deep quality to it)

A bit of compression and EQ if needed and you're away. Plugins are certainly not the fix.

Try the duvets around the performer and select the best pre you have.

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http://www.loverslanestudios.co.uk

Cheers matey.

Can you tell me which is the most "cost effective" pre that gives pro results? And how much is that... (Pro equipment often has shocking price tags!)

Nice one.

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

As mentioned above - the DAV stuff is amazing at it's price point. Couple that with a decent mic (get the best you can) and you're on your way. Rooms are the most important though. Duvets only cut it in an emergency (like chap is on holiday and we need a single word overdub).

You can have rooms that work well by accident. But on the whole - I just cannot use bedroom recorded voiceover...... some clients may be okay with it - but I think you'll find the higher end the client, the less likely they'll accept it.

The previous DAV BG1 is a very quiet pre and has very clean gain. You really need to make sure your room is sorted, if you have ever been into a real VO booth you will know the very dead sound you need.

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Squarehead Jam Jar Facebook Jam Jar

Thanks again, fellas.

The DAV pre retails for 490 quid! Is that the least I could spend to get a "pro" sound? Are there "optimum" settings for minimum noise I could try setting my Ultragain Pro to before I abandon it as a useful recording tool...?

I do have a spare duvet, and coincidentally a hook in the ceiling above where I record. Handy.

While I've got you, one more Q.... I've been using a coat hanger with a pair of tights over it as a pop shield. Seems to do the job. Is there a significant advantage to a purpose made one?

Cheers!

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

While i'm not in the VO game, and have never been in a VO studio, i think its down to the confidence the client will have that you can do the job to a high enough standard.

And i think how your work space looks will count just as much as how your work sounds.

If i were to visit a VO studio with the intention of hiring it/you to do some work i can imaging my initial reaction on seeing a studio with duvets and homemade pop shields, against one with 'proper' acoustic treatment.

and im talking from a perspective of being a recording musician/engineer for a fair few years.

How about someone who knows nothing about the recording process?

having said that if clients wont ever see your work space then it might not be as important.

I dunno, maybe its just me, but seeing a well kitted out studio always makes me think someone takes their work seriously.

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Ready Eddie?
Bingo Gringo!

Thanks mate,

It does seem that 99% of VO work is now done remotely - so if I can get a pro sound using coat hangers and duvets then I'm happy to save that money! (Until the big bucks for doing a KFC ad comes in, of course.)

My Edirol FA101 external sound card is relatively "high end" and has two XLR imputs with there own gain pots. It certainly gives a very "clean" signal, but am I losing out on warmth, or detail, or accuracy across the frequency spectrum? Short of splashing out another 500 quid on a pre, will the Edirol do a better job than cheaper pre amps? Is it worth spending less than 500 quid on a pre, actually, when I have the Edirol? (The nice thing about the Ultragain is I can record with a little lift around 5Khz which makes the vox much crisper. When I use the Edirol, I do this later with an EQ plug.)

Cheers!

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

Result!

I hung up a duvet as advised, and the noise from the pre amp is massively reduced! In fact the noise was seemingly not from the pre at all, but was the ambient noise being picked up, like the fans on my laptops.

I'm using a gate for the dead spaces between words so they're silent, and the tiny amount of residual noise over the vocal is barely noticeable. I hope... It's not noise that can be eq-ed out, as it's in the same range as the vocal, right?

Thanks again,

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

For voice work I'd typically go for a 2:1 expansion, with about 6dB reduction in the gaps. Gating can be too obvious and distracting.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote jimshady:

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My Edirol FA101 external sound card is relatively "high end"

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No it's not. It will have input stages costing about £3 each. It's semi-pro gear. High end interfaces or preamps can be anything from £500 to £4K plus, and will give significantly better results than a semi-pro audio interface.

However, you are not in the high end VO game, you are in the budget home studio VO "how do I maximise the results with what I have" game, which is fine.

Before investing money, start working with what you have and making efforts to give a dead space, and see how it goes. Whatever results you get, buying a £2K preamp will not necessarily alone suddenly give you a night and day difference - it's really a whole combination of everything as mentioned above. But do it in pieces, and upgrade where you feel the money is best spent.

Quote jimshady:

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Thanks mate,

It does seem that 99% of VO work is now done remotely

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Definitely NOT true !!!

Do what you can - but be prepared to get rejections from high end clients. Ubisoft for example - won't let you do it at home. Desmond's post above is spot on.

..and I was going to add:

If you're having to gate to remove noise then you're in the wrong environment. The only noises I want to remove for VO are the rustle of clothing and the shuffling of feet!

Get the speaker well away from fans, or any other constant noise source.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote jimshady:

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Thanks again, fellas.
The DAV pre retails for 490 quid! Is that the least I could spend to get a "pro" sound? Are there "optimum" settings for minimum noise I could try setting my Ultragain Pro to before I abandon it as a useful recording tool...?

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In reading about VO artists I saw one familiar and busy voice had a home set up and his interface was a Konnekt 24D.
I don't have wide experience of pre-amps but the ones on my Konnekt 24D seem pretty clean to me. And there are cheaper versions of the Konnekt.

As always, top tips fellas. SOS forum never ceases to deliver.

Is there a mic pre closer to the 200-300 buck range that sounds "pro"?

Cheers!

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

Quote jimshady:

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Is there a mic pre closer to the 200-300 buck range that sounds "pro"

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That price range is purely semi-pro territory I'm afraid. But what you have will probably do you for now, and nothing you could buy new in that price range is going to be that much of an improvement on what you already have imo.

Quote jimshady:

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As always, top tips fellas. SOS forum never ceases to deliver.

Is there a mic pre closer to the 200-300 buck range that sounds "pro"?

Cheers!

jim

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If you're not afraid of DIY you can go for one of these:

Peter C's Green Mic Pre.

It's a pre-amp design based on the Amek Mozart console. I haven't had the time to build mine but I've heard a comparison and it sounds great; much better than a run-of-the-mill sound interface anyway.

That said, I think the voice-over talent, room, acoustics and mic all contribute to the overall end result more than the pre amp.

Cheers,
Frank

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Imagination is more important than knowledge - A. Einstein

Quote jimshady:

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Is there a mic pre closer to the 200-300 buck range that sounds "pro"?

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A 20 quid mic and preamp from Maplin will sound "pro" given the right voice and a good room. The preamp really isn't that important in the whole scheme of things.

If you already have the talent and the recording space then try looking at

http://www.canford.co.uk/Browse/42814

Doing voice-overs at home is nothing new. Some friends of mine bought a house from a radio DJ in the early 80's and found that one of the rooms had been fitted out as a voiceover booth with decent soundproofing.

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Hi Jim!

Since you’re keen on getting a quality mic preamp for VO work, why not have a look at the CEntrance MicPort Pro?

You can get it in the UK for around £135, and it seems to be used by lots of VO artists on the move, as well as “the BBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, Warner Brothers, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and professional musicians and voiceover artists worldwide.”

I’ve reviewed their DACport recently for SOS and was well impressed

www.centrance.com/products/mp/


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Thanks fellas.

The Mic Port Pro does look rather interesting - and I can buy it from a german online store for 157 Euros, which is a splendid price if it delivers. It looks like you plug it straight into your PC - would I not need to bother with plugging it into my FA101 sound card then? Doesn't that make it a pre AND a sound card? That's fairly impressive for a bit of kit the size of a cigar. (Actually it's also cheaper than a really posh cigar!)

I've also realized that I do have 2 other options for mic pre's I've yet to experiment with in my studio. First is my Roland VM-3100 digital mixing desk that has two XLR ins, and the other is my dbx 266XL, also armed with XLR in's. Do you guys know if either of these has a mic pre better than in the FA101 or the Ultragain Pro? Or are they also just 3 euros worth of bargain basement components thrown in for fun?

I'll start experimenting with those now - but if anyone wants to get back to me with more expert advice on the matter I'd be very happy not to bugger around doing pointless sound checks for a couple of hours!

Cheers,

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

The XLR input on the DBX is line level, not mic level.

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

I did some research and came across the PRESONUS TUBEPRE, available for 98 Euros and well received by reviewers. Does anyone know how it compares to the MicPort Pro?

Cheers!

jim

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Too orangey for crows - it's just for me and my dog.

Wanted to let the followers of this post know about the new voiceover series in Sound on Sound: Part 1 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun11/articles/voiceover-01.htm and Part 2 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul11/articles/voiceover-02.htm Feedback are welcome!

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Voiceover performer