Voice actors might find it helpful to take an idea from working session musicians: our sound should "fit" within the parameters of a project. What happens if our "sound" starts to call attention only to itself?
Nothing in the voiceover business remains static. As AI advances, and large language model tools such as Chat GPT impact so many industries, we cannot help but feel that influence as well. In the the VO industry, each of us regularly faces the challenge of learning anew. How do we approach the need to continually be learning?
How robust is your studio? Resilience of our software tools matters. What happens if key plug-ins suddenly go away? How do you keep working?
The end of March was a wild week for Waves. The audio plug-in company had announced a drastic change in how their effects were to be distributed - changing to a blanket subscription model for all users. Then within days, Waves abruptly walked that decision back and reinstituted "perpetual" licenses for their products. That's a win for voice actors and small home studios that might only need one or two key tools for their workflow. Here's how it played out...
When power outages hit your VO studio, how quickly can you switch to a backup system? An Uninterruptible Power Supply might be the key. What system to you have in place to keep from simply disappearing mid-session?
Is your home voiceover setup robust enough to stand up to adverse conditions? Recent storms provided a strong stress test for my studio. It did not pass with flying colors. What matters when you want to be up and running? Here are a few things I found to be lacking...
Loopback routing in the home voiceover studio can be mysterious and confusing. How do we send audio back out of our computer to someone connected in a session? Since we often have to achieve this inside of our computer, rather than with physical cables, it's helpful to understand how we route our audio in the "virtual" realm.
It’s easy to overlook how we connect devices in our studios. Cable and cord routing is important. In other words, "how are you wired?"
Though I generally prefer headphones, freestanding studio monitors can be useful in the home voiceover studio. Here's what to consider...
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