Weekly VO Workflow – Refining The Studio Space

The start of the year is a fine time for assessments. Maybe it’s finally getting time to recycle that box of old connectors for computers that haven’t been made in a decade or so. Perhaps it’s admitting the you should have bought an XLR cable that was a few feet longer so that it could be routed out of the way. It could be that the microphone you “had to have” a few years ago just isn’t getting used. Before we end up in the momentum of this year, perhaps it’s worth pausing to look for those things that have become clutter and distraction.

Whether it’s replacing something or removing something, those acts let us hone our work area. Thinking about how many hours we spend in our recording spaces, small improvements can pay significant benefits. In the pace of our workday, it’s easy to put up with that interface that needs to be tweaked “just so” to prevent it from glitching, or remembering to grab the keyboard from our desk as we jump into the booth.

Our workspace is our instrument in voiceover. How we move between our desk and our booth, the way we find our headphones or grab the right cord, these simple movements have the potential to support what we do behind the microphone, or bog down our movements and mire us in things “fidgety.”

This could be a perfect time to take a moment to observe your workflow. Simple things like setting up a template for your auditions (or updating last year’s with a current date) mean engaging in fewer needless set up steps every time you want to get something out the door. You might consider saving non-critical passwords for annoying sites and tools that make you log in each time, as well as creating a place that your cables hang or having an extra cord set up so your phone can be charged while you are in the booth.

These all seem like paltry steps, but they stack up in a cascade of cruft that steals our attention and energy. Finding those issues now, and finally solving them, will pay dividends all year long.

Posted 1/20/26

Have you tested your studio’s audio quality to make sure it meets professional standards? For a free review of your vocal recordings, please use the upload tool on my Audio Review page.

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