VO Studio Mindset: Consistency Isn’t Sexy – Tuesday Voiceover Tech Tip

The last few weeks have again brought new and dazzling hardware and software into the world. I’ve been playing with some new bits and trying to find where the marketing “enthusiasm” might have possibly outdistanced what the gear can actually deliver. It’s fun putting new toys to the test in a real world home voiceover studio.

But before anything gets to be part of my core setup, it has to behave consistently. The latest flashy gear loses its shine in a big hurry if it needs constant tweaking to deliver predictable results. 

Reducing the variables in your home voiceover studio

There are only two variables on my input chain. First, I have the choice of my large diaphragm condenser microphone or my shotgun microphone. Second, I can engage the sonic option on my SSL2 Plus interface. Everything else is designed to be consistent – microphone placement in the booth, my starting position on the microphone, the way the mics are connected to the interface, the way the interface is connected to the computer, and the software used to record the performance.  

That means each time I step behind the microphone, there are a minimum number of items to check if things go wrong. It’s why I tend to trust good quality hardware. If nothing else, hardware generally fails predictably, and swapping bad bits for good remains a straightforward task. 

Consistency breeds quality

This approach should result in a more uniform quality of recordings. And as simple as this sounds, consistency pays exponential benefits when you are delivering client work. It lets you engage automation to handle the mastering of your audiobook projects, for example. You no longer have to reinvent the process for each section you’ve recorded. 

Occasionally, some things will behave badly and fall outside of the norm. However, rather than having to address those issues on everything we record, it becomes a single challenge to solve. We can engage key useful tools to fix things, rather than have to make constant adjustments. 

Home studio secret: small tweaks matter

When working with other voice actors to dial in their recordings, I know it sometimes seems like we’re making minor changes. I often suggest measuring mic position in the room, or establishing a solid “X” mark to position the actor. Though those things might seem obvious, few actually do that. While consistency isn’t sexy, it is what we need. It lets us set up EQ to correct for the room, or engage a batch process that gets the computer to do the repetitive work for us. 

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