VO Studio Mindset: Simple is not Simplistic

Last week I was considering how our studios might begin to look as technology moves forward, envisioning the simplest possible setup with neatly intuitive controls. Creating a simple studio setup from the start can prevent wasted movements or the need to remember arcane steps just to achieve basic tasks.

That can be hard to achieve since our studios often come together through corrections and adaptations. We get a new interface and realize that the cables now attach in a different spot, or our new microphone sounds just a bit better when it’s not scrunched into the corner, so things get moved around to enable better positioning. As we combine more of those in-the-moment fixes over time, it adds more potential for things to go wrong.

Sometimes it’s helpful to strip stuff down, discard what’s not used, and build things back up using only those things which are necessary. It may make for a long “project weekend” but will pay exponential dividends in the long run. Making our tasks as simple as possible supports the creative process. Even though we are asked to wrangle more of the tasks in our home setups, the core function of any voice actor is to be brilliant behind the mic. This is why I’ll always return to the idea of simplicity in the studio.

It’s important to distinguish between something which is simple and one that simplistic. Simplistic solutions do not go deep enough to be helpful in the long run. They are literally the “quick fix” that falls apart under continued use. A good, simple tool remains powerful and adaptable over time. It directly achieves what we need to accomplish.

For example, when you are in the studio and want to hear more of yourself in your headphones, a slider that says “More Me” doesn’t need much explanation. Under the hood, that tool could be either increasing your volume, decreasing the volume of everything else, or a combination of the two. That’s what a useful tool should be figuring out for us. That’s what I’m hoping to see more of as we move forward.

I’m hoping to see more innovations like a simple app that sends audio playback to a remote director with one easy button or switch. We’ve already seen interfaces wrangling the mechanics of setting conservative input levels and smart dialog tools which notice and address background noise issues. These are all things appearing with more regularity these days and being continually refined, and should allow us to focus more clearly on our creative task at the microphone.

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