VO Studio Tip: It’s Gonna Be A List

Through a quirk of the calendar, my last email message of 2024 landed on the final day of December. That felt as good a time as any to shuffle through some scribbled notes and try to make some sense of the last 12 months. Of course, time continues to unfold. Thank you for hanging in there and sharing your feedback, thoughts, successes. Those things are what makes this journey so special. As we turn the corner into 2025, it’s helpful to pause and reflect a bit about what the previous year brought us.

Books

I went through fewer books this year than last, diving into two large novels which reduced the overall count. In non-fiction, Adam Grant’s “Think Again” and “Hidden Potential” reset some thoughts and inspired some new ideas. I’d encountered him as a podcast guest on Tim Harford’s “Cautionary Tales” where he used the story of the Mann Gulch fire of 1949 to talk about flexibility in thinking. (That caught my attention as Norman Maclean had written about this in a posthumously released book that I’d read). Grant’s insights nicely complemented Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revenge of the Tipping Point” and David McRaney’s “How Minds Change”.

Music

It feels like I’ve been digging into back catalogs more than following newer artists. Granted, my tastes have generally tended more towards niches than mainstream, but between Andrew Hickey’s “A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs” podcast and songs that have basslines worth learning, I’ve come to the realization that there are tons of tunes that I just never dug that deeply into. It’s also renewed my appreciation for any full album that can hold my attention. But overall, I found myself listening to more varied music again this past year.

Studio Gear That Impressed

Even though Focusrite did a stellar overhaul of their Scarlett 2i2 Gen4, and Solid State Logic finally revamped the SSL2/2+ MkII to give it status lights under the phantom power, it was the Roswell Pro Audio Mini K87 which impressed me the most this year. Owner Matt McGlynn probably thinks about microphones more than most folks (having founded RecordingHacks.com and Microphone-Parts.com), but the results are hard to dispute. Roswell mics have always been on my list, but the K87 seems to be one that delivers what voice actors and narrators need. Nicely balanced tone, great detail, and low sibilance response make this mic sound exceptional. I have yet to hear the Mini K87 on someone it did not complement.

Connection Solutions

Although I’m going to miss the references to “opponent” in the Source-Connect message box, the folks at Source-Elements have pulled together an impressive full rebuild of their industry standard connection software. Working with the beta version was a revelation, with a refined interface and seamless I/O routing (though I did get really good at mapping client ports…). I’m looking forward to the arrival of the full public version of Source-Connect 4.0.

Recording Software for your VO Studio

So little of the software we use is actually designed for our needs in voiceover and narration. That’s one of the reasons that Thomas Thirez’s Twisted Wave is such a gem. Though I work with other voice actors to refine workflows using all the major recording software options, there’s a clear difference between multitrack DAWs that make you strip away most of the functionality and a tool that provides everything you are likely to need. Since we are such a niche in the recording world, it’s helpful to support those who provide us (on both MacOS and Windows!) with solid tools.

Plug-ins and Key Voiceover Studio Tools

This has been more of a multi-year development, but when Waves Clarity Vx rolled out a while back, it marked the beginning of very sophisticated noise removal tools. While none of it works in real time (which means you still need to create an isolated recording space if you plan on doing remote recording sessions from your studio), these neural-network-based tools work ridiculously well to fix noise issues. Tools like DX:Revive and full restoration suites like Acon Digital’s Acoustica (or their smaller plug-in packages) show that this is an area continuing to expand.

Churn of Gear

This past year, I finally dug through the closet and identified recording hardware that just wasn’t being used. Creating a gear museum was never in the plans, so stray interfaces that solved theoretical problems, and “mics I liked” but didn’t get used, went up for offer and found new homes. Contemplating those items that hadn’t been utilized in the past year (“Alas poor TechZone…”), it just felt better to move them along and leave space for the future. I’ve never had a strong “one-in-one-out” rule for new hardware, but that’s never a bad north star.

Being Back In-Person

We’re all wired a bit differently, and the forced isolation that arrived with the pandemic impacted some of us more than others. It feels like those events reshaped our culture in ways we are still beginning to understand. However it also provided clarity of how beneficial it can be to spend time in the same physical space with creative, supportive, and enthusiastic people. Much of what we do in VO and narration finds us by ourselves. This year, these chosen interactions with new friends, stalwart supporters, and inspiring mentors felt much more invigorating. I feel spectacularly blessed with the friends and family I’ve found.

Thanks again for reading. May 2025 bring you great things.

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