Post and Broadcast – Page 14 – CHISTO Premium Vinyl Record Cleaners

World News

Lawo Tech Connects Turkuvaz Media Center

Posted on December 4, 2020 by ProSoundNetwork Editorial Staff

Turkuvaz Media Group has tapped Lawo as its premiere technology supplier for a newly updated media center facility in Istanbul.

Rastatt, Germany (December 4, 2020)—Turkuvaz Media Group, a major Turkish media company with TV, radio, newspaper and magazine assets, has tapped Lawo as its premiere technology supplier for a newly updated media center facility in Istanbul.

The Turkuvaz Media Center is Turkey’s biggest media campus, comprising a plaza, a TV block and a printing block. The company operates nine TV channels and four radio channels, with 12 12-meter-tall (approx. 40 ft.) studios measuring from 200 m² (2,153 Sq. ft.) to 1500 m² (16,146 sq. ft.), and five 6-meter-tall (19.7 ft.) studios between 100 m² (1,076 sq. ft.) to 350 m² (3,767 sq. ft.) in the TV complex. The TV buildings also contain 10 studio control rooms, six producing in 4K and four in HD.

Two-Level OB Truck Rolls with RTS

The newly modernized studio control rooms are customized for their individual tasks: news, 4k-video post-production, HD sports programming, and a shared HD SCR, integrated by an IP infrastructure built upon Lawo systems. This renovation allows for flexible IP workflows, including remote production capabilities for future-proof operation utilizing the highest quality standards. System integration services were supplied by Lawo’s partner in Turkey, Radikal Elektronik Ltd. Sti.

Turkuvaz’ IP infrastructure includes several networked Lawo mc² mixing consoles and crystal radio consoles linked with a central routing system, as well as a V__matrix video processing system equipped with Lawo C100 software-defined processing blades. In addition to renovating the broadcast studios, a new OB van equipped with Lawo IP networking was rolled out in November 2020, with the overall project completed in December.

Lawo equipment installed during the upgrade includes eight new 48-position mc²56 mixing consoles fitted with the unique Dual-Fader option to provide 80 total faders, giving Turkuvaz operators direct surface access to large numbers of audio channels. Audio connectivity comes by way of Dallis stageboxes; a central routing matrix with 8,192 x 8,192 mono crosspoints was built using a Nova73 HD Router. In addition to an mc²36 console providing “all-in-one” functionality, the audio setup includes six radio studios with Lawo crystal mixing consoles and companion Compact Engines.

The networking fabric of the new Turkuvaz facilities connects the Dallis units to the Nova73 central router via MADI, with RAVENNA linking router and console cores. AES67/ST2110 networking with video devices between console cores and router are also implemented.

Lawo • www.lawo.com

World News

Two-Level OB Truck Rolls with RTS

Posted on December 4, 2020 by ProSoundNetwork Editorial Staff

M&J doubles down on going up, creating the first vertically expanding broadcast truck.

Burnsville, MN (December 4, 2020)—Washingtonville, NY-based facilities and integration company M&J Systems Technologies is meeting the challenges of COVID-19 with the first vertically expanding broadcast truck, which is equipped with an RTS ODIN OMNEO digital intercom matrix.

The 40-foot-long, 640-square-foot trailer provides remote workstations on two floors, with space for a show producer, director, replay associate director, graphics coordinator, show associate director and an EIC/audio operator. A two-person announcer booth is also included. All positions are a minimum of six feet apart and include Plexiglas partitions. Fully equipped, the vehicle weighs less than 20,000 lbs.

‘Speed of Sound’ Explores Pop Production

Onsite staff and/or worldwide remotes are able to provide real-time communications through any of the onboard RTS KP series keypanels or two-wire partyline channels, and ODIN’s native RVON (RTS Voice Over Network) channels can provide low-latency links to any of the other thousands of RTS trunked intercom systems used by the majority of sports and news broadcasters.

M&J Systems Technologies • www.mjsystemtech.com

RTS • www.rtsintercoms.com

World News

‘Speed of Sound’ Explores Pop Production

Posted on December 3, 2020 by Jim Beaugez

‘Speed of Sound’ Podcast We’ve all heard about record producers who realized a song could be a hit, but had to take the track apart to rebuild it into a pop smash. It turns out the same thing can happen when record producers create a podcast about pop smashes, too.

Record producer Steve Greenberg (Jonas Brothers, Joss Stone) hosts the *Speed of Sound* podcast.

In the case of the Speed of Sound podcast, the iHeartRadio podcast that explores what makes a song a hit, it took some on-the-job trial and error by the production team to get their episodes just right. “What we found early on is we’d write the script, and then say, ‘Oh, let’s interview this person we talk about a lot,’” explains host Steve Greenberg. “Then we’d interview them [and] that would cause a whole rewriting of the script.”

While interviewing subjects for the recent episode “Rapper’s Delight: Inside the Song That Ignited Hip Hop,” for example, Greenberg had prepared a script based on commonly held beliefs about how the seminal rap group Sugarhill Gang came together. Instead of label founder Sylvia Robinson’s son discovering Big Bank Hank rapping in a pizza parlor, though, Greenberg discovered that Hank auditioned for Robinson in the back of a car while on break from his job making pizzas, still wearing an apron stained with sauce. It made for a better story, but it meant a script rewrite.

Debunking myths and telling the stranger-than-fiction stories behind how some of pop’s biggest songs, bands and musical genres soared to the top of the charts are why Speed of Sound is one of the most buzzed-about podcasts of 2020. Greenberg’s experiences as a record executive and producer who helped discover the Jonas Brothers, Joss Stone and Hanson thicken the plots as he puts the hits in historical context, both musically and culturally.

How Four Podcasts Get It Done with Tight Workflows

Inside Recording Robert Plant’s ‘Digging Deep’ Podcast

‘Working Class Audio’ Podcast Tackles Realities of Recording Life

During one memorable moment from the four-episode series on disco, Greenberg explains why four KC and the Sunshine Band songs are essentially the same while the podcast’s audio engineer Taylor Chicoine matches the beats and puts them together. In another episode, Chicoine lines up “The Monster Mash,” “The Mashed Potato” and “Please Mr. Postman” to illustrate their similarities.

“We really hoped to be able to integrate music in a significant way in the podcast,” says Greenberg. “Even though podcasts can’t play complete songs, we wanted to give people enough of a taste of a song that they understood what it is we were talking about.”

After Greenberg finishes the script, he and executive producer Lauren Bright Pacheco handle the pre-production, record the voiceover through a Shure SM7B into a Zoom H5 recorder, and talk through how they want to lay out each episode. Greenberg’s deep pop-culture knowledge comes in handy, as he often adds direction for Chicoine while recording.

“I can hear Steve talking about what clips he might want and where, or ideas he has for sounds,” says Chicoine. “Then, Lauren will translate that into some sort of transcript-paper cut for me to be able to read through, and make sure we have all the links and all the clips in order.”

Post-production work with audio sources runs the gamut in the COVID-19 era, but Chicoine takes a Zen-like approach when he has to use audio that doesn’t quite measure up. He treats the audio just enough to bring up annunciations and reduce phone noise when people record on smartphones, but he also plays into that weakness.

“If it’s phone audio, just own it,” Chicoine says. “Don’t try and make it sound not like phone audio, because then it’s just going to sound weird and no one’s going to know why. It’s a balance of making it understandable and clear, while also playing into the style of it and making that intentional, so that it feels right to the listener. It should flow, even if it is a difference in quality.”

World News

How Four Podcasts Get It Done with Tight Workflows

Posted on November 25, 2020 by Jim Beaugez

A podcast is only as strong as the structure that enables writers, producers and audio engineers to communicate effectively and efficiently. No matter how straightforward or complex the production, establishing a sound workflow is crucial to pulling off a pro podcast.

We’ve pulled together behind-the-scenes stories of how four hit podcasts dealt with workflow disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic, manage dozens of audio sources and more. Read on for insights that can help you nail down your podcast workflow for good.

The Dave Ramsey Show

Each hour of The Dave Ramsey Show becomes an individual podcast episode that uploaded to YouTube and audio streaming platforms.

The podcast team at Ramsey Solutions, home of the widely syndicated radio program The Dave Ramsey Show, had a problem—or what the company’s can-do namesake would call an opportunity. After experiencing rapid growth over six years with its lineup of eight recurring programs and a serialized podcast, the production team was strong but siloed.

“We’re trying to standardize our audio,” says senior producer Eric Cieslewicz, including “creating a better template in Pro Tools [so] everything would funnel through the right plug-ins. We’ve learned a lot from needing to work across different shows where it’s not just one producer with their chosen software. We need producers to share the work [and] cover for each other.”

[Find out more in The Dave Ramsey Show Rethinks Its Podcast Workflow]

All American: Tiger Woods

Don’t underestimate the value of a solid workflow in the formula for what makes a compelling podcast. “At Stitcher, we have a pretty great system in terms of giving our shows the proper treatment they need from an engineering perspective,” says Jordan Bell, who created All American: Tiger Woods and serves as the podcast’s writer, co-host and producer.

Working with co-host Albert Chen, audio engineer Casey Holford and the engineering team, Bell says the podcast’s switch from a typical production arrangement of writing, face-to-face meetings and table reads to a virtual process due to COVID-19 was seamless.

[Find out more in Inside the Workflow of Stitcher’s ‘All American: Tiger Woods’ Podcast]

Inside Recording Robert Plant’s ‘Digging Deep’ Podcast

Podcast Audio Compression—How and Why with ‘Eric Krasno Plus One’

Mogul: Mixtape

The production team behind Gimlet’s Mogul podcast faced a significant hurdle when it decamped to work at home in March. Instead of compromising the podcast’s meticulously sculpted sound design, they reinvented the entire show from scratch. Each episode of the bite-size Mogul: Mixtape podcast is produced in concert among the production team members, with real-time collaboration through a Google Hangout.

“Process is key,” says lead producer Matthew Nelson. “Whether we’re working on a six-part documentary or a one-off interview with Ludacris, everything is agonized over. Everything is very carefully edited [and] constructed. It was very important for us to set ourselves up in a way that could facilitate this collaborative editing process that every show does at Gimlet.”

[Find out more in Hit ‘Mogul’ Podcast Goes with the Workflow]

Story Pirates

There are complex podcast productions, and then there’s Story Pirates. For technical director Sam Bair, editing the acclaimed Gimlet podcast isn’t about simply picking the best content and shaping a narrative—it’s about finding the best takes from a half-dozen actors reading their lines from a script, and then filling the audio spectrum with sounds that advance the story and appeal to kids.

“It really is a true post-production compilation of recordings,” says Bair, whose role includes sound design, producing, and recording and mix engineer. “We’re recording all the takes and pulling specific lines from different takes. We’re also taking whole sections from different takes.”

[Find out more in Flexible Engineering Helps ‘Story Pirates’ Sail to 20M Downloads]

World News

Bosveld Stereo Installs South Africa’s First Calrec Type R

Posted on November 21, 2020 by ProSoundNetwork Editorial Staff

Community radio station Bosveld Stereo is the first station in South Africa to deploy Calrec’s IP-based Type R for Radio.

South Africa (November 20, 2020)—Community radio station Bosveld Stereo, which broadcasts in Afrikaans across South Africa’s North West Province, is the first station in the country to deploy Calrec’s IP-based Type R for Radio.

The installation was overseen by Calrec’s recently appointed South African partner, Wild and Marr. The company used Type R’s modular approach to create the system for Bosveld Stereo’s needs: A Type R for Radio core plus two hardware fader panels and one large soft panel. The system can be accessed remotely, which is crucial in today’s Covid-19 environment. The audio is transported to the transmitter via Dante.

MTVG Debuts Calrec-Equipped 47 FLEX Truck

Graat Pelser, chairperson at Bosveld Stereo, says, “Our existing studio mixers were reaching end-of-life and we wanted to take the opportunity to upgrade and move into an IP future. Type R was the answer. We have found it very easy to adapt to and the configurability is a great help. We use it on a daily basis and we know that it’s easily expandable if required. We are grateful to Wild and Marr for their help through this process.”

Launched in 2008, Bosveld Stereo is a community-oriented radio station that uses local talent to entertain its listeners. Everyone who currently works at Bosveld Stereo lives within the broadcasting footprint of the station. They also take an active part in one or more of the community projects in which Bosveld Stereo is involved.

Anton van Wyk, Wild and Marr’s technical director, says, “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, myself and broadcast systems engineer Dwaine Schreuder pre-commissioned Bosveld Stereo’s Type-R system off-site in a safe environment with all precautions taken. By the time the unit was installed at Bosveld Stereo it was literally just plug and play. We believe that Type R for Radio has a very bright future across the African continent.”

Calrec • www.calrec.com

World News

Black News Channel HQ Goes Clear-Com

Posted on November 19, 2020 by ProSoundNetwork Editorial Staff

BNC’s Tallahassee, FL broadcast center is equipped with Clear-Com throughout — Black News Channel’s Tallahassee, FL broadcast center is equipped with Clear-Com throughout. Jeanine Zolczynski

Tallahassee, FL (November 19, 2020) — Black News Channel (BNC) launched in February, but nearly as soon as its brand-new headquarters facility went online, it had to shift to a remote production workflow due to COVID restrictions. The flexible, IP-based comms system from Clear-Com, which had been installed in the facility by BeckTV, was able to handle the production switch.

Kenneth Thomas, director of OTT/IT Operations for BNC said, “The comms system was a priority from the facility’s inception, and I knew it would include Clear-Com.” BNC equipped its facility with Clear-Com’s Eclipse HX Digital Matrix with V-Series intercom panels throughout. Dante and MADI interface cards offered a variety of I/O to other audio, video, and routing equipment, and E-IPA IP interface cards enabled AES-67 for FreeSpeak II wireless. The E-IPA cards allow for flexibility by providing IVC IP connections for the Agent-IC Mobile Intercom App and LQ Series Interfaces hosting SIP telephony and remote site connection capabilities.

Clear-Com Rolls Out Headset Sanitization Kits

In the Fall of 2019 and Winter of 2020, Black News Channel staff spent time with Clear-Com’s Applications Engineer, Jonathan Sorensen, to familiarize themselves with the system and to finalize custom integrations for their workflows. When it became time to rethink aspects of the system to accommodate remote workflows, BNC relied on prior training to make the changes.

“I can’t say enough about how Clear-Com was there when we needed them, whether it was Saturday night or first thing on Tuesday morning,” said William Bennett, sr. network engineer for BNC. The Agent-IC Mobile App was used in the transition to much of BNC’s staff relocating into their homes. Agent-IC can integrate with traditional intercom systems, like the Eclipse HX digital matrix in BNC’s headquarters. The app can operate anywhere in the world over 3G, 4G, LTE and WiFi networks, allowing remote team members to connect with the core intercom system.

“The flexibility of the IP-based system, and the amazing support from Jonathan and the team at Clear-Com, allowed us to seamlessly transition to remote production without a hiccup,” concludes BNC’s director of Network Operations, Jefferson Walker.

Clear-Com • www.clearcom.com

Black News Channel • https://blacknewschannel.com

World News

Flexible Engineering Helps ‘Story Pirates’ Sail to 20M Downloads

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Jim Beaugez

New York, NY (November 19, 2020)—There are complex podcast productions, and then there’s Story Pirates. For technical director Sam Bair, editing the acclaimed Gimlet podcast isn’t about simply picking the best content and shaping a narrative—it’s about finding the best takes from a half-dozen actors reading their lines from a script, and then filling the audio spectrum with sounds that advance the story and appeal to kids.

Story Pirates is known for having guest actors, including David Schwimmer (center, left) and SNL's Bowen Yang (center, right). — *Story Pirates* is known for its guest stars, including David Schwimmer (center, left) and *SNL*‘s Bowen Yang (center, right).

The Story Pirates podcast—named the 2020 Best Kids and Family Podcast by iHeartRadio and with more than 20 million downloads to its credit—is brought to life by a collective of comedians, musicians, writers and teachers who interpret original stories written by kids into sketches with original songs in each episode. Two cast members, Lee Overtree and Peter McNerney, pull double duty as executive producer and co-producer, respectively.

“Peter is the main producer during recordings of stories,” Bair explains. “He and I work together to pick the best takes of each scene and then fine tune the pacing. Then, over the course of mixing and sound designing, we are still, by the millisecond, really pacing it out to get what we think is the best comedic effect.”

Under conventional circumstances, Bair records the cast live in a studio, with the actors standing in a circle “cartoon-style” around a Neumann U67 with Warm Audio WA87 and WA14 microphones in front of each actor. Since COVID-19 hit, however, they have recorded the podcast over Zoom with live reads as before, and each cast member records locally through a WA87 or WA14 into a Zoom H6 recorder.

For the show’s frequent guest actors—they’ve had 40 since the pandemic hit—Bair gets in touch in advance of the recording session to help them prepare. Some have nice home studios, while others have a simple USB microphone.

Inside Recording Robert Plant’s ‘Digging Deep’ Podcast

How Sound Effects Make REI’s ‘Camp Monsters’ Podcast Spooky

Podcast Audio Compression—How and Why with ‘Eric Krasno Plus One’

“I have a little document for all the actors, [saying], ‘Hey, here is the recommended mic setup for you. Here’s the recommended room setup for you,’” Bair says. “A lot of these actors have no technical experience whatsoever, so we have them send some sample recordings. I critique that and we work together over email to get the best possible quality out of their home systems.”

Despite their efforts to get clean audio, occasionally an anomaly or two will sneak through the iron-clad system Bair and McNerney have established. In a recent episode, the actor playing the lead character, who had 80 percent of the dialogue in the story, “sounded like she was in a tin can” with a distracting buzz through the entire recording, Bair says. “We were kind of up against the wall. What we’ve found works really fast, considering the circumstances, is [to give the actor] an assembled take of the entire story with sound design and everything in it. They put that into, say, GarageBand and give us two or three takes, and we’ll massage those new takes in.”

Story Pirates also employs a live band with guitar, bass, drums and keys to perform a new original song for each episode, which Bair tracks in the 800-square-foot live room at his Chelsea (NYC) studio, The Relic Room. Bair builds out the fictional world of each episode with audio from sound libraries as well as a live piano underscore.

“When we’re tracking in the studio with the cast, there’s a live piano player,” he says. “Now that we’re not in the studio, I send [the pianist] an assembled version of each section of the episode and he’ll underscore the whole thing. It really helps with the actors at home [because] that piano underscore helps mask various room tone differences.”

World News

Inside Recording Robert Plant’s ‘Digging Deep’ Podcast

Posted on November 12, 2020 by Jim Beaugez

Episodes of the Digging Deep with Robert Plant podcast have been recorded in a variety of settings, including at Rough Trade record store in London. — Episodes of the ‘*Digging Deep with Robert Plant’* podcast, co-hosted by Matt Everitt (right) have been recorded in a variety of settings, including at Rough Trade record store in London.

United Kingdom (November 12, 2020)—Where does a rock legend record his podcast? Anywhere he wants to. That’s certainly been the case with Digging Deep with Robert Plant, where the famed Led Zeppelin frontman and solo artist discusses his work across his long and storied career. Every podcast recording session is held in a different location with distinctive acoustics, such as Plant’s favorite pub, one of his homes or in front of an audience of 200 people at a London record store.

Faced with recording in such diverse environments, Matt Everitt, the producer and co-host of Digging Deep, sticks to hard-and-fast rules for microphone placement when tracking the music legend’s stories about songs he recorded with Led Zeppelin and his many post-Zep projects.

“When it comes to singing, obviously he’s got incredible microphone technique, but [for the podcast] we spend quite a bit of time beforehand making sure that wherever we’re going to be sitting, there’s a good kind of catchment area,” says Everitt. “You’ve got to keep an eye on the mic positioning—never handheld, always boom, always between the nose and the chin point.”

While the recording sites might occasionally pose a challenge, the reward, says Everitt, is that they foster engaging discussion. “We’re going to make sure the production standards are good, but it’s also about creating a space where Robert can really relax,” he says. “Part of the production is making it feel natural—not feel like you’re sitting in a chair under a spotlight being interrogated, because he’s not interested in that and neither are we. [We try] to make it a place where you feel like you are eavesdropping.”

Reverse Engineering: ‘Song Exploder’ Podcast Puts the Pieces Back Together

Building the Epic Audio Narrative of ‘Wind of Change’

How To Choose Your Next Studio Microphone – The Complete Guide

Achieving uniformity in such a range of spaces can be difficult, so Everitt records Plant with a Beyerdynamic M201 microphone that has a hypercardioid pattern. “They’re pretty directional, which means that sometimes people are a bit scared of using them because the catchment is quite narrow, but they sound so warm.”

Another mainstay of Everitt’s on-location setup is to use extra-thick cables: “The thicker the cable, the more reliable it is, the better it sounds—simple as that,” he says. He tracks to a Zoom H6 portable recorder for its ability to maintain separation between channels.

Robert Plant (center) and producer/co-host Matt Everitt (in blazer at left) with Rough Trade staff after the podcast recording session. Naz Stone

During post production, Everitt and the audio team work up a fairly completed product for Plant to review, even if it’s only a first cut. Everitt compiles the audio so the mastering and EQ pros can clean it up and take out any clicks and hisses, and then he assembles a “version one” edit, occasionally moving pieces around to maintain story pacing. Plant then listens and gives his input on what does and doesn’t work.

“He’s more knowledgeable than anyone about how he wants the show to sound,” Everitt says. “A lot of that’s worked out pre-interview. We don’t talk too much about what’s going to be in it because it takes away the spontaneity, but we’ll know why this song is really interesting.

“I think one of the reasons it works is that there’s a real honesty,” he adds. “He takes his music very seriously, but I don’t think he always takes the world around showbiz particularly seriously, so he’s happy to puncture some of the myths around the kind of ‘rock god’ world.”

While Robert Plant favors an old-school Shure SM58 mic in concert, he's been behind a Beyerdynamic M201 for his podcast. — While Robert Plant favors an old-school Shure SM58 mic in concert, he’s been using a Beyerdynamic M201 for his podcast.

While many podcasts are leaning into the limitations of COVID culture and adapting to audio recorded over a videoconferencing platform or iPhone, Everitt is playing a longer game with Digging Deep and creating a podcast that isn’t tied to a particular moment in time.

“It’s great doing podcasts over Zoom, it’s fantastic, but we’ve spent a lot of time and effort investing in microphones and audio equipment to get people sounding great because the ears deserve a really well-produced show,” he says.

“They’re all good, all those approaches. Sometimes you need to listen to Fugazi, sometimes you need to listen to Steely Dan. Whether it’s a garage band or a beautifully produced L.A. session thing, both are good depending on what you want. That’s the power of the format, isn’t it? The power of podcasting.”

World News

Sumo Digital Proves Game for PMC

Posted on November 12, 2020 by ProSoundNetwork Editorial Staff

Sumo Digital went big on PMC monitors in its new game audio development facility.

Sheffield, U.K. (November 11, 2020)—Game developer Sumo Digital has expanded the audio facilities at its premises in Sheffield, England, with the addition of three 5.1 surround sound edit suites, a Dolby Atmos mix room and a Foley/ADR space.

The three 5.1 edit rooms feature PMC Twotwo.6 monitors for LCR channels, Twotwo.5 surround monitors and a Sub2 for the LFE channel. The new mix room, which is built to Dolby’s Atmos standard, has PMC IB1S monitors for the LCR channels, Wafer2 monitors for the surrounds, Wafer 1 for the height channels and two Sub2s for LFE.

Sumo Digital’s audio director Pat Phelan says, “We like the fact that the PMC’s remove any mystique from the sound that you are hearing, the sound feels surgically exposed. In a dynamic game environment where you have little control over what a player will do, being able to monitor and mix with confidence is a massive boost.”

Dean St. Outfits for Dolby Atmos Music

Part of Sumo Group plc, Sumo Digital is a game developer with eight U.K. studios in Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle, Leamington Spa, Warrington, The Chinese Room in Brighton, Red Kite Games in Leeds, and Lab42 in Leamington Spa. It also has facilities in Pune, India.

Sumo Digital has audio studios at four of its U.K. sites, but with an ever-increasing workload, the directors felt it was time to invest in additional facilities in Sheffield. Acousticians White Mark Ltd were given the task of designing the new studios, while the build and fit-out was handled by Nottingham-based principal contractor Confetti Media Group under the direction of Joe Duckhouse and Greg Marshall.

“By using a mixture of PMC IB1S and wafer monitors in this room, White Mark was able to come up with a very sleek design that maximized all available space,” says Duckhouse.

Sumo Group’s portfolio of games includes titles for major publishers Microsoft, Sega and Sony. Since its formation 17 years ago, it has worked on major franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, LittleBigPlanet, Forza, Hitman and Dr Who.

PMC • www.pmc-speakers.com

World News

How to Choose a Voiceover Microphone

Posted on November 11, 2020 by Frank Verderosa

Neumann TLM 102 voiceover microphone — The Neumann TLM 102 is a popular voiceover microphone. Georg Neumann GmbH

What do you do if you’re a working voice actor in a big city, and all of the studios you visit to do your work are temporarily closed? While some actors already had solid home setups at the start of 2020’s lockdown, most had cheap USB mics which had previously been just for auditions. Bad-sounding audio has never served anyone well, even at the audition level, but it was forgivable since on the day of the job, the actor would be in the studio in front of a professional voiceover microphone. With that scenario off the table, however, VO artists were suddenly scrambling to get “broadcast quality” from home. The question on everyone’s mind was “How do I create a home studio that’s solid but won’t leave me with a pile of expensive gear I may not need again when studios reopen?”

The truth is, a dependable voiceover microphone is a great thing to have around, regardless of whether there’s a worldwide pandemic on or not. There are wonderful mics at every price-point that will serve you well into the future. Not only can you affordably provide broadcast quality from home, but you will also forever have better-sounding auditions. Quality is now more important than ever, since it has to be assumed that what is heard in the audition is what should be expected for the actual session. Quality matters.

How To Choose Your Next Studio Microphone – The Complete Guide

There are a couple of voiceover microphones you see in every professional VO booth. They are the well-known, large diaphragm condenser microphones that cost a few thousand dollars, or the shotgun mic you see in film sets and ADR studios that happen to sound excellent for voiceover work, running around a thousand dollars. That’s great for the big studios, but for the working actor or VO artist, that kind of money for a mic might be a stretch—especially when you factor in treating a space to record in (which in many ways is more important than the mic itself), plus a decent interface and other peripherals.

So how do you sound big on a budget? If you want to stay with the brand you know from the studios you’ve worked in—and if your budget allows—you might consider the Neumann TLM 103, which retails for around $1,300. You can save even more by looking at the very popular Neumann TLM 102, which sells for $699. Both of these mics skip the selectable polar patterns of the larger U 87 (which you don’t need as a voice actor anyway), as well as the roll-off switch. Neither of those things are critical for recording voiceovers at home, and help lower the cost of the mic.

Røde NT1A voiceover microphone — Røde NT1A Røde

Low-cost large diaphragm condenser microphones are nothing new, but their quality and competitiveness has grown steadily over the years. Røde has been a hero for voice actors recording from home. Both the NT1 (which retails for $269) and the NT1A (which sells for $229) come with a shock mount and a pop-filter attached. The NT1 typically comes with a metal mesh pop-shield, but lately has been popping up with the more traditional round, nylon pop-filter. These both give an impressively warm and rich tone for the cost. Critics will point out that there is a harshness on the high frequencies, but as an NT1A owner, I have not found that to be the case for my voice. Both mics can deliver a wonderful proximity-effect bass boost when needed. In fact, in a recent national radio spot, knowing that the actor was using an NT1A, I directed her for one particular line to lean-in and talk directly into a corner of the mic to take advantage of that sound. These microphones were so popular at the start of the 2020 lockdown that for a time, they were hard to find!

TZ Audio Stellar X2 voiceover microphone — TZ Audio Stellar X2 TZ Audio

Having heard a demonstration in a YouTube video, I was very curious about the Stellar X2 mic from TZ Audio. This led me to reach out to the company via its website, and they assured me that they had plenty of inventory and were open for business. The Stellar X2 costs $199.99, and includes a sturdy carrying case, shock mount, wind screen (not a pop-filter) and a pouch. I am truly impressed with the sound coming from the actors that have it. It is comparable to the Rode NT1 in terms of smoothness. It is less bright, but still shimmers—and has a little less proximity effect than the Rode NT1 or NT1A. It is a solid little mic with a big sound!

Synco Mic D2 Shotgun microphone — Synco Mic D2 Synco

The Synco Mic D2 is an impressive shotgun-style mic, weighing in at $249. This has been a hero for actors that do more than just voice recording at home. Given that it’s designed for distance and focus, it’s perfect for self-taping for on-camera and keeping the mic out of the frame. Because of its hyper-cardioid directional condenser design, it does a great job at rejecting background noise and reflections. For many actors converting small city closets into voiceover booths, this can really help minimize reflections that cause comb filtering. Obviously, there is more to that issue than just the microphone, but the shotgun mic helps tremendously. As a point of reference, during lockdown, I recorded several national TV spots with well-known actors who sat in their cars in my driveway while the clients listened in via Source Connect and/or Zoom. With some careful placement in the vehicle, we got booth-quality sound while working in everything from Toyotas to Teslas—all thanks to the nature of a shotgun mic!

As previously mentioned, the right voiceover microphone is only one part of the equation. Your voice and recording space play a major role in the overall sound coming from your home to the world, but the mics mentioned are proven winners when used properly. With a price range from $199.99 up to $1,399; there is something for everyone, and you will sound excellent.

Frank Verderosa • www.frankverderosa.com

Frank Verderosa is a 30-year veteran of the New York audio industry, fighting the good fight for film studios, ad agencies and production companies, but secretly loves mixing music most of all. These days, he plies his trade at Digital Arts in NYC, and is also a noted podcast engineer.

Login

Register